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Aviation History
1993
1993 - 0692.PDF
HEADLINES FAA set for 1995 GNSS decision The US Federal Aviation Administration has tar geted 1995 as the "key date" to decide if satellite-based systems will be feasible for use in Cate gory 2/3 landings. "By then, we will have much better answers on Cat I and, in late 1995, the use of satellites for Cat 2/3," revealed FAA deputy director for research and development, Dick Arnold, speaking at the Flight Interna tional conference in Geneva on 25-26 March on the future of precision landing systems. The FAA's tentative plan for the introduction of future ap proach systems is flexible, says Arnold, with ambitious targets for the use of GNSS, which, he emphasises, should not be re- Arnold plans ambitious targets European governments sup plied less than 1% of aeronauti cal-sector turnover in Europe in indirect research-and-devel- opment support. European Commission and US trade officials are due to meet in early April in Brussels, to review the GATT agreement, which limits direct launch aid on new aircraft to 33% and holds indirect support at not more than 4% of individual company turnover. • Roy McNulty, president of the UK's Shorts, speaking to the committee, said that the UK Government would have to raise spending, from £26 mil lion, to £100 million within five years, with industry con tributing an equal amount to halt a decline in capability. • garded as "set in con crete". Arnold adds that "...technology is moving so rapidly...that, in a year, we may change our programme". Talking about possible FAA adoption of the USA's global positioning system (GPS), Arnold presents 1995 as the tar get for operational flying, using GPS as an approach system to a "special" Cat I standard. General operations to Cat I, using supple mented GPS (GPS with a back-up aid), could begin in 1998. The readiness of GPS as a "sole means" of precision navigation to Cat 1 approach criteria could happen, the FAA believes, at any time be tween 1998 and 2005. Arnold defines "sole means" as being when "...you can shut every thing else in the aeroplane down". GPS Cat I accuracy has already been demonstrated, says the FAA. Arnold adds: "This [pro gramme] is an expectation and a hope — let's not set that in concrete. It accepts our as sumption that GPS will be Cat 1-capable." The study of the feasibility of GPS for Cat 2/3 Improved Russian ATC Thomson-CSF, Westing-house and Buran, the Ital ian-Russian joint-venture company 49% owned by Alenia, have won a major con tract to modernise Russia's air- traffic-control systems over the next 15 years. The three concerns have formed a new company called Raduga (meaning Rainbow in Russian) to carry out the pro gramme. The contract, signed with the Russian transport minister and other senior Government offi cials on 26 March, gets under way this year with the building of a control centre for the Moscow region. Eventually, 50% of production will be un dertaken in Russia. • Possible FAA transition timetable from ILS to GNSS Action ILS withdrawl Minimum ILS installations ILS withdrawl begins MLS Cat ll/lll installation Test & evaluation Contract award Production Systems delivered (total 255) US Department of Defense systems delivered Timescaie After 1995 1998-2005 1992-1996 1997 1997/2000+ 1998 (25) 1999 (100) 2000 (130) 1998 (24) 1999 (24) 2000 (23) GPS evaluation Cat 1 for "special" uses Cat 1 assisted by other systems Cat "sole means" Cat 2/3 feasibility study begins MLS=MLS Category ll/lll approach conditions 1995 1998 1998-2005 1995 Source: ISA approaches will begin in 1995, he says, as part of a $17 million a year programme for "pure satellite research". Given this "possible transi tion scenario", the FAA would make only "minimal MLS [mi crowave landing system] instal lations after 1995" because a cost-benefit analysis would not justify them. "There is strong user resistance to MLS in the USA," Arnold declares, "and I need to get that across." The FAA, in the meantime, would ensure that no airport would offer approach capabili ties which are below those of its existing systems. • Russia to scrap 2,000 aircraft The Russian air force ex pects to scrap 2,000 air craft this year, according to commander-in-chief Col Gen Piotr Deinekin. Only new-generation aircraft will be left in the active inven tory once the cuts are enacted. Deinekin, in an interview with the newspaper Komso- molskaya Pravada, says that all Mikoyan MiG-21s, Sukhoi Su- 7s, Su-17s and Aero L-29s have been phased out of service. In the near future, all Mikoyan Mig-23s, Mig-27s and Sukhoi Su-17Ms will be retired, as well as 1960-vintage Tu- polev bombers — the Tu-16, the Tu-22, the Tu-95M and the Tu-95K. Mikoyan MiG-29s and Sukhoi Su-27s, Su-25s and Su- 24s will form the tactical- aviation inventory. Long-range strategic aviation will have only the Tupolev Tu-22M, the Tu- 95MS, Tu-160 bombers and the Ilyushin 11-78 tankers. Several hundred Ilyushin I1-. 76s and 26 Antonov An-124s will comprise the Military Transport Aviation. The An tonov An-12 has been phased out of service. Deinekin says that "...the new Antonov An- 70T will soon be available". The air force has no money for the acquisition of new air craft, and 1993 deliveries of the Mig-29s and the Su-27s have been suspended, says Deinekin. The air force accounts for just 12-15% of the overall defence acquisition budget. • GD fails again with Atlas launch General Dynamics' commer cial-launcher business re ceived a new setback on 25 March when an Atlas 1 failed to place a communications sat ellite into the correct orbit after launch from Cape Canaveral. The long-awaited $138m launch of the Atlas, after a failure in August 1992, was scheduled to place the US Navy's first Ultra High Fre quency Follow On satellite, the UHF 1, into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). The Hughes HS 601 satellite fell short of the intended orbit because of the low performance of the three Rocketdyne MA5 booster engines of the Atlas first stage. The US Navy and Hughes are investigating the possibility of using the space craft's attitude control and sta- tionkeeping thrusters to nudge the spacecraft into GTO from where an apogee kick motor on UHF 1 would fire to circularise the orbit at geostationary. Three of the last eight Atlas launches have failed to com plete their mission. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 31 March - 6 April, 1993 5
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