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Aviation History
1993
1993 - 2011.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT Australia follows USA with Sydney PRM Australia is to become the first country after the USA to use a precision run way-monitoring (PRM) radar. The Australian Civil Avia tion Authority (ACAA) has approval to acquire the sys tem for Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport. The airport's new parallel runway opens in mid-1995 and the ACAA hopes for commissioning of the system by late 1995. The project is budgeted at A$15 million ($10.5 million) and specifications, now being developed, are expected to reflect standards developed following simulation studies on PRM by the Lincoln Labo ratory in the USA. They will include a Is scan rate, as well as high-resolution displays and software compatibility with the ACAA's new air- traffic-control hardware now under acquisition. PRM is an advanced run way-approach monitoring sys tem, designed to increase all- weather utilisation of closely spaced parallel runways. It provides software and dis plays which generate auto mated alerts if an approaching aircraft "blunders" from the normal operating zone into the defined "no-transgression zone" (NTZ) between the two parallel instrument-landing- system (ILS) localiser tracks. It also generates "predictive" alerts automatically when an approaching aircraft's current flightpath is predicted to enter the NTZ within a pre set interval. Sydney runway-centreline separation will be 1,040m (3,400ft), below the US Fed eral Aviation Administration's accepted 1,310m standard minimum separation, but PRM will allow unrestricted simultaneous ILS approaches to the two runways in all weathers, as the ACAA's Di rectorate of Safety Regulation and Standards is expected to adopt the US standard. • Eurocontrol charging proposals criticised BY JULIAN MOXON IN PARIS E urocontrol has come in for renewed criticism for its proposed changes to en route air-traffic-control route-charg ing formula, with Fairchild's sales and marketing vice- president Andrew Spillane claiming that it is the "greatest threat yet to regional air trans port in Europe". Writing in the latest issue of the European Regional Airlines Association's (ERA) Regional Report, Spillane complains that the new charges are "highly discriminatory" against re gional airlines and that they are "...deliberately biased against the operators of smaller air craft, to the benefit of the larger carriers". The criticism was echoed re cently by the ERA, which con siders that the charges are "uncompetitive". The proposed new charging system would, the Association says, be "self-defeating", be cause the charges would reduce the incentive to optimise ca pacity to meet demand and would also impose heavy costs on the regional sector. If implemented, the new sys tem would amend the current arrangement, where charges are based on a national rate multi plied by a percentage of dis tance flown, multiplied by the square root of maximum take off weight. V Virgin plans for Vintage excursion irgin Airways chief Richard Vintage Airtours managing Branson is considering director Mike Kendrick says that the UK operation would be "a real Vera Lynn/White Cliffs of Dover" service, with flights to Caen, France, or the Channel Islands, to visit histor ical wartime sites. No decision has yet been starting a 1940s-style airline, using a Douglas DC-3 to fly passengers from a south-east England airport across the Eng lish Channel to Normandy, in France, or the Channel Islands. Virgin- owned Vin tage Airtours is researching the feasibility of flying the "1940s nostal gia" service, following the 1 growing com mercial suc cess of its similar Vin tage Airways tour, in opera tion between Orlando and Key West in Florida, USA. It is understood that Vintage Airtours is talking to Coventry, UK-based Air Atlantique, an experienced veteran-aircraft op erator with a fleet of nine DC-3s, about operating the new service. Branson: recalling the 1940s yet taken on which UK airport would be used. The Florida services, which started earlier this year, are all staged as if they take place on 8 May, 1945, the day that the end of the Second World War was declared in Eu rope: the Pres idential An nouncement is "relayed" on the cabin address system, victory champagne flows and the Andrews Sisters can be heard singing "Hold Tight" at take-off. Vintage Airlines reports 70% load factors and predicts a rosy future, says Kendrick. • The considerably more com plex revised system would be built around three separate na tional rates, based on time in the air, plus a fixed element which is designed to recover basic costs. Spillane says that the fixed element, regardless of aircraft size, or the length of the flight, "...will heavily penalise the op erator of regional equipment". He adds that the argument that regionals can avoid the charges by flying at off-peak times is "...fallacious...because the regional . operator cannot dictate its customers' travel requirements". Eurocontrol stresses that no decision has yet been taken on the proposals, saying: "Our member states agreed to adopt this formula as a working hy pothesis." The organisation has been invited to carry out a simula tion of the charging system, which should be completed in a few months. The earliest possible date for a firm decision is now in late December, when the commis sion of member states is next scheduled to meet. • NEWS IN BRIEF JETSTREAM 61 TESTS The British Aerospace Jet stream 61 is undergoing a series of tests in the USA, covering airfield perform ance, hot-weather systems and climb performance. The aircraft, fitted with new Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127D engines in place of the less powerful PW126As used on its predecessor, the BAe ATP, will be aimed at airlines operating in hot- and-high areas of the world. DOUGLAS MILESTONE The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 fleet passed the 20 million revenue hour mile stone this month. The first revenue hour notched up by the 360-strong fleet occurred on 5 August, 1971, when an American Airlines aircraft was flown on a round trip between Los Angeles and Chicago. The DC-10 has car ried almost 950 million pas sengers in 22 years. 10 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 18 - 24 August, 1993
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