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Aviation History
1989
1989 - 0335.PDF
theory fades almost, but not absolutely, certain that it had no fault in reality. It is understood that investigators are now paying particularly close attention to the cockpit voice recording, to examine the procedures followed by the crew. Johnson indicates that the lack of information on the crash is contributing to Boeing's image problem. He says that the public finds it hard to appreciate that all the information must be available before any conclusion can be reached. He says the uncer tainty is part of the problem over public perception of Boeing quality. No informa tion is now expected from the UK Air Accident Investigation Board for at least two more weeks. we need to create a way that the wiring gets checked as we install the bottles, and we have just put that procedure in place. The other thing is that we have made all the connectors to the bottles different, so that we cannot physically put the wrong connector on the wrong bottle. "With the engine fire suppression systems, when we checked them in the factory we were checking both engines at the same time, but we are not checking each engine sepa rately," Johnson adds. X % ^A F-16s make like MiGs US A ir Force-General Dynamics F-l 6s assigned to aggressor squadrons are being painted to resemble Soviet A ir Force MiG'-29Fulcrums. This particular F-l6C will be delivered to the 64th Tactical Fighter Training Aggressor Squadron at Nellis AFB, Nevada. Other aggressor units to trade-in their Northrop F-Ss for F-16s are based at Bentwaters in England, Kadena in Japan, and Tyndall in Florida. PW4000 wins extended-range approval The Pratt & Whitney PW4000 turbofan has been approved by France's civil aviation authority to power Airbus A310-300s on extended-range twin-jet opera tions. It is the first engine with full-authority digital electronic control to be approved for extended-range operations. The approval allows PW4000-powered Airbuses to operate extended routes over water under a 90-minute diver sion limit, says P&W, enabling the aircraft to fly transatlantic routes more directly. Pratt & Whitney nearly tripled its orders for commercial aircraft engines during 1988, receiving orders and options for more than 1,300 turbofans, including PW4000s, PW2000s, and JT8D-200s, compared with 470 in 1987. P&W commercial engine business director, Selwyn Berson, says the company's 1988 engine orders and options are potentially worth about $5 billion. He claims the PW4000 captured nearly half the engine market for widebody aircraft last year. Shuttle mission may be scrubbed by Tim Furniss US Space Shuttle mission STS29, originally scheduled for launch on February 23, will be delayed until at least mid- March. The-, high-pressure oxidiser turbopumps on all three of Orbiter Discovery's main engines must be replaced as a precautionary measure, says NASA. The move follows discovery of stress corrosion cracks in a turbopump bearing race in an engine which flew on the STS 27 mission last December. The STS 29 mission could be scrubbed if there are further delays, to protect the Magellan Venus radar mapper deploy ment mission, STS 30, set for April 28. Although the Magellan launch window extends into late May, mission scientists require a prompt launch. To meet the STS 30 deadline, Orbiter Atlantis will have to be rolled to. Pad 39B between March 14 and 23. Discovery was to be rolled out to the pad on February 3, and mated with its TDRS-C/IUS payload on February 4. Replacement of the three turbopumps, which was sched uled to begin on February 5, will take at least two weeks. When Shuttle main engine number three was inspected after the STS 27 mission, NASA discovered that moisture which had formed in the race portion of the turbopump bearing assembly had not been removed, causing microscopic stress corrosion cracks. The high-pressure oxidiser turbopump, which has a nomi nal speed of about 27,000 r.p.m. consists of a main pump, which provides liquid oxygen to the main injector, and a boost pump, which supplies liquid oxygen to the preburners. The main pump holds a double set of liquid-oxygen-cooled ball bearings in the motor assembly. The moisture was discovered in the' bearing assembly at the turbine end of the shaft. Engineers originally ^thought the moisture had formed during acceptance testing, but it has now been found to have.formed during assembly of the engine at Rocketdyne. 1 Moisture formation is gnot unusual and is normally removed by a heating and drying process. This process is under review. Discovery's engines "may turn out to be guilty only by association", says NASA. The components are critical items, however, and NASA's main concern is to "address the flight safety issue first", before assess ing the impact on its 1989 launch schedule. The delay to STS 29 will disrupt plans to launch seven Shuttle missions in 1989, jeopardising deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, scheduled for December. Hubble requires two tracking and data relay system satellites in good working order before it can be deployed. TDRS 1 is nearing the end of its life, and TDRS 2 was launched by STS 26 only last September The third TDRS flies on STS 29. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 11 February 1989 5
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