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Aviation History
1994
1994 - 0870.PDF
INDUSTRY Messier-BFGoodrich claims a major advance with its wheel brake New A330 brake 'capable of 2,500 cycles' Messier-BFGoodrich has developed a wheel brake for the Airbus A330, made from carbon-carbon composite ma terial which, according to the manufacturer, is capable of 2,500 cycles on short- and medium-range flights. The US-French joint ven ture says that this is about double the operating life of conventional brakes and will allow airlines to perform brake overhauls once every 12-15 months, as opposed to the current six to eight Vertical landing with advanced fly-by-wire The UK Defence Research Agency has achieved the world's first landing from a hover, using an advanced fly- by-wire control system on Vec- tored-Thrust Aircraft Advanced Flight Control Harrier. Test pilot Fit Lt Dan Griffith first landed the aircraft using two inceptors (pilots' controls). The right-hand inceptor was used to control motion in the vertical plane and the left-hand inceptor for forward speed. A second landing was per formed using only the right- hand inceptor and a thumb- operated switch to control for ward speed. The Ministry of Defence- sponsored research programme is defining the handling and control requirements for future months. A similar brake has been developed for the Airbus A340, providing a capacity of roughly 1,500 cycles. French equipment manu facturer Messier-Bugatti joined BFGoodrich in Feb ruary to create two equally owned marketing companies (Messier-BFGoodrich in France and BFGoodrich- Messier in the USA). The companies have worked together to provide brakes for the Airbus A320 since 1987. Short Take-Off-Vertical Land ing (STOVL) aircraft. The aim is to design the aircraft with a very low pilot workload. The success has led to the inclusion of the technology in the UK controls-technology programme which is being of fered as part of a US/UK Mem orandum of Understanding (MoU) on the STOVL Strike Fighter Programme. It is hoped that the MoU will be signed by mid-1994. Delta specifies its widebody satcom The Honeywell/Racal six-chan nel satellite-communications system (satcom) has been se lected by Delta Air Lines for retrofit to its international widebody fleet. Certification of the system is scheduled to take place in May, using a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, followed by installa tion on up to 57 aircraft, in cluding MD-lls, Boeing 767s, Airbus A310s and Lockheed L-1011 TriStars. The Honeywell/Racal satcom was the first multi-channel sys tem to be entered into revenue service. The system has been certificated on ten aircraft types and has so far been installed by 13 airlines. Park Air wins South American contracts Contracts valued at $3.2 mil lion have been awarded to Park Air Electronics, to supply Air Traffic Control ground-to-air communications systems to the Directorates of Civil Aviation in Chile and Colombia. Equipment from the UK company's series 5000 range is being installed at nine sites in Chile. Installation at 19 sites in Colombia will begin in April. Each site will be equipped with VHF transmitters, receivers and transceivers, which will pro vide a consistent radio-commu nications capability for use by civil air traffic. Remote monitoring and con trol of the equipment will be performed by using Park Air's Multi-Access Remote Control system. This equipment oper ates by scanning the status of information stored in the built- in test module of each trans mitter, and relaying the data to a central site. According to John Gut- teridge, managing director of Park Air parent company Westinghouse Electronic Sys tem (WESCO) — which is the European arm of the US-based Westinghouse Group — the focus for 1994 is a marketing initiative in Europe. He says: "We will maintain our success rate in the Far East and South America. In the longer term, we are looking at Russia and China, jointly with Westing house Group. "Now that we are American- owned we are going to focus on certain niche markets within the USA and increase our global market share sub stantially over three years." Following an order for the company from the UK Civil Aviation Authority in May 1993, the system is in service in the Channel Islands. A recent order from Switzer land is in production. Lufthansa is first with Skyphone in Europe German flag-carrier Lufthansa has become the first European airline to order Skyphone on board telephones. The units will be installed on 52 me dium- and long-haul aircraft. Hardware will be supplied by Dassault, Rockwell-Collins, Claircom Communications and Matsushita. The Skyphone con sortium, made up of British Telecom, Norwegian Telecom and Singapore Telecom, will manage call routing. British Telecom's general manager for aeronautical and maritime services, David Stone, says: "The Lufthansa contract is a major breakthrough for the European market. It puts im mediate pressure on other car riers to keep pace with these crucial enhancements to pas senger service." NEWS IN BRIEF HARRIS DEAL Harris has won a contract, potentially worth more than $100 million, for communi cations services at Washing ton DC area airports over the next 15 years. Harris ATC Systems division, lo cated in Melbourne, Florida, leads a team to design and build an airport-communica tions system for Washington National and Dulles Interna tional airports. The system includes telephone, video and data services. ADA SALES US Ada defence-software language specialist Tartan has won its first two Euro pean military contracts for its family of Ada cross- compilers, designed for the Texas Instruments' digital signal processor. French missile manufacturer Matra has ordered a cross-com piler, plus support tools, as has UK-based defence con tractor Barr and Stroud. 24 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 30 March - 5 April, 1994
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