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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 0078.PDF
Outboard stowage bin comparison. 747-400 15.9ft3 By clever modelling and hingeing Boeing has greatly increased bin volumes eyecatching discrepancies, especially with four engines instead of two. This upper Eicas display also presents primary "aircraft status" information, for example gear and flap positions, doors, tyres, and fuel states. The lower Eicas display presents engine data—compresssor speeds, oil pressures and temperatures—a major change in Boeing philosophy, systems "synoptics" Airbus style. For example, a simplified diagram of the electrical system can be called up at the touch of a button to show any faults. The crew can select, as they would from a manual, a "page" for each aircraft system. System fault warning follows European practice (including the word synoptics) with one important difference. To quote a senior Boeing designer: "We don't tell the pilot what to do. We tell him what he needs to know and then let him manage the aircraft." Synoptics, in Boeing's view, are a "pilot amenity"—something that it is nice to have but not essential in real emergencies. Here Boeing philosophy is 747-100/-200/-300 4.4ft3 Per40inbin. unchanged, as a senior engineer explains: "The dark and dirty night is covered by the fact that every system can stand multiple failures, which are taken care of by simple procedures. The aircraft gives warnings and cautions; the pilot goes to his quick-reference checklist and follows procedures." This architecture is not only for safety but also to facilitate despatch. The aircraft "has got to stand any failure any place and come out of there with its passengers". Systems display is a "discretionary area", says a Boeing engineer. "Ask ten pilots how much systems information they want and you'll get eleven opinions. Our approach is simpler and easier to under stand. The aircraft tells the pilot." Alarms have been reduced from a dozen in the standard 747 to four or five in the 400, all with the same sound; Eicas tells the pilot what has gone wrong. Flashing lights, annoying when an alarm is false, are reduced to one—ILS deviation. Maintenance: The 747-400, with its digi tal databus in place of miles of wiring, The big Boeing with the master bedroom 24 Pratt & Whitney Canada has displaced Garrett in the 747-400 tail APU housing provides for the maintenance engineer too. On the central console is a central maintenance computer (CMC) with keyboard and screen which are, in effect, centralised Bite (built-in test equipment). The airlines complained that 747 Bites were different. The CMC now talks to and interprets them all centrally. The CMC says what is wrong with any system in plain English—for example: "ILS No.l antenna inop". On the ground this will help mechanics to find and fix faults promptly. In the air flight crews may find the CMC instructional. It will be useable by the flight crew above 10,000ft: below that height there are too many distractions. To quote one Boeing engineer: "You must be careful not to inundate pilots with too much information. Even a professional flight engineer can sometimes only kick the black box. It isn't a world of spanners and screwdrivers any more." At least one 747-400 customer is speci fying a pilot reveille system to guard against the now widely acknowledged problem of crew sleepiness on long night flights through time-zone changes. Airline pilots no longer dismiss dozing off as a rare and unprofessional lapse, and it could become a bigger problem as aircraft are designed to fly further with fewer crew. FMC: The flight management system (FMC) is bigger and faster than the first- generation 747 system, which one customer pilot describes as "sometimes a slower-witted calculator than a human being". The Honeywell (Sperry) machine takes a maximum three seconds, compared with perhaps 20 for a similar calculation on current 747s. One major customer contribution has been throttle control by FMC, as first developed by British Airways' engineers for its 747s, rather than by separate computer. Another addition to the FMC's reper toire is an instant answer to ATC's FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 16 January 1988
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