FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1989
1989 - 1881.PDF
FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, England EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES 01-661 3321 EDITORIAL FAX: 01-661 3840 DISPLAY ADVERTISING 01-661 3315 DISPLAY ADV. FAX: 01-661 3305 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 01-661 6373 CLASSIFIED ADV. FAX: 01-661 4431 TELEX: 892084 REEDBP G EDITOR Allan Winn 01-661 38B3 DEPUTY EDITOR Graham Warwick 01-661 8808 ASSISTANT EDITOR Tom Hamill 01-661 3096 OPERATIONS EDITOR Mike Gaines 01-661 8809 AIR TRANSPORT EDITOR David Learmount 01-661 3845 REPORTERS Eric Beech 01-661 3837 Kieran Daly 01-661 3836 Ian Dormer 01-661 3844 Ian Goold 01-661 3834 Alan Postlethwaite 01-661 3839 PRODUCTION EDITOR Philip Jarrett 01-661 3848 SUB EDITOR Stephen Spark 01-661 3847 ART EDITOR Colin Paine 01-661 3850 LAYOUT ARTIST Stephanie Fenner 01-661 3850 PHOTOGRAPHER Janice Lowe 01-661 3835 TECHNICAL ARTISTS Paul Couper 01-661 8047 Ira Epton 01-661 8054 Tim Hall 01-661 B047 John Marsden 01-661 8054 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF J. M. flamsden 01-661 3846 WASHINGTON BUREAU Julian Moxon (202) 547 2624 FAX (202) 547 5338 LOS ANGELES BUREAU John Bailey (714) 760 6618 FAX (714) 760 6619 PARIS CORRESPONDENT Gilbert Sedbon (1) 4825 6261 ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT Arie Egozi 39671155 US WEST COAST CORRESPONDENT Norman Lynn (408) 778-0889 FAX (408) 778-9976 WEST GERMAN CORRESPONDENT Stefan Giesenheyner 061 21 526894 FAX 061 21 529779 DISPLAY ADVERTISEMENT SALES MANAGER Clive Richardson 01-661 3315 VICE-PRESIDENT US SALES John Tidy (714| 756-1057 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENT SALES DEPARTMENT 01-661 3600 USA (212) 867 2080 ADVERTISEMENT PRODUCTION Howard Mason 01-661 3267 For full advertisement sales information see inside back page. SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER A. Walden 0444 441212 SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES Oakfield House. Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DH England, BACK NUMBERS: Limited numbers of RECENT ISSUES ONLY are available at Cl.SO/copy (CASH WITH ORDER ONLY| from Flight International, Room L528, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS. NEWSTRADE SALES ENQUIRIES to Quadrant Publishing Services, 01-661 3380. PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Murray Johnstone 01-661 8636 TABCI Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation COMMENT Standards of progress The trouble with standards is that the only people who are really keen on them are those who promulgate them are those whose products already comply with them. Others may intellectually agree with them, but will resist their application to products which were not designed with them in mind. So it has been with the differing stan dards being enforced (or not) by airworthiness authorities on the two sides of the Atlantic. As ever, America and Europe have been divided by a common goal, with the inevitable squabbles which have surfaced as a result, over the certification of the Boeing 747-400 in Europe and (some say) the Airbus A320 in the USA. Now, however, agreement appears to be breaking out. The Europeans have spelled out much more clearly what they consider to be the correct way to certificate new aircraft which have been derived in some way from earlier designs. The Ameri cans have refrained from objecting to that inter pretation, and by implication have signalled their acceptance of the European view. Such a development is welcome not only for its timeliness, giving as it does a signal that the end of disagreements is in sight. The decision also advances the creation of truly international and universal standards of airworthiness. In an industry in which both the manufacturers and operators are increasingly international, such an internationalisation of standards is as necessary as it is overdue. Without consistency in stan dards there is confusion, inequality, and unjustified extra costs for manufacturer and user alike. Heartening though this latest development may be, however, it is not yet time for the stan dards equivalent of dancing in the streets in celebration. A lack of opposition between two parties is not the same as concerted, agreed action by them. The concept that new aircraft must be certificated as new aircraft, and not as A lack of opposition between two parties is not the same as concerted, agreed action by them derivatives of older aircraft and thus able to be judged by the standards applicable to those older aircraft, is a good one. The task of executing that concept will be difficult and daunting. Somebody has to make a decision that this concept will be applied to a particular aircraft, and convince that aircraft's manu- factuer that this imposition is a fair one, no matter what the extra short-term cost. That decision should be made sooner rather than later, because of the inequality of the present lack of agreement, and because of the horrendous poten tial consequences of that decision not being made. What would happen should a litigious lawyer attack the manufacturer fol lowing the crash of a derivatively- certificated airliner, on the basis that the manufacturer had knowingly not built that aircraft to the most stringent, most recent standards? Would the manufacturer be held liable? Would the airworthiness authority which had, however reluctantly, granted an airworthiness certificate based on those older standards, also be liable? Those problems, hypothetical at the moment, will remain even after the American and Euro pean authorities formally reach agreement on both the standards and their application and implementation. Their ramifications will, however, be immeasurably reduced by this action, even if solving the problem of inconsis tent standards will bring even greater short- term problems in turn. Naturally, for the Europeans who have already had to comply with the latest regu lations, harmonisation cannot come soon enough. Equally naturally, for the Americans whose aircraft development programmes have been based on a concept of FAA-approved deri vation, "soon" is far too soon for comfort. That difference must be resolved, and a timetable agreed for the implementation of universal stan dards, sooner rather than later. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 17 June 1989 3
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
