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Aviation History
1994
1994 - 2065.PDF
HEADLINES FAA defends approval of first GPS approach BY KlERAN DALY/LONDON THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration's flight-inspection division is strongly defending its first approval of a global-positioning-system (GPS) approach procedure following suggestions that it was pressured into the decision. Proponents of the microwave- landing system (MLS) say that evidence of pressure from senior FAA management is demonstrat ed by the approval of the non- precision approach procedure for runway 27 at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, despite the discovery of anomalies by the flight-inspec tion team. They note that FAA adminis trator David Hinson had publicly committed the agency to creating the procedure in time for the Experimental Aircraft Association show at Oshkosh in July and claim that comments in the inspector's report reveal his concerns about internal agency politicking over the GPS issue. In his summary, Gene Donaldson, GPS programme man ager at die FAA Oklahoma City flight-inspection centre wrote: "Operational testing of scientific theory, computer simulations and committee policy should be a criti cal part of the evolution of any new system, especially when the system involves safety of life. It is true that we as an agency don't want to drag our way through needed change, but on the other hand, neither do we want to turn something on to the public until all aspects of safety have been explored." His report noted two unusual phenomena during the Oshkosh checks using Garmin and AJliedSignal Bendix/King re ceivers: firstly a combination of excessive course-deviation-indi cator [GDI] movement" and "dis- tance-to-go [DTG] jumps" on two runs; and secondly, "sporadic radio-frequency [RF] spikes in the (,PS frequency spectrum". Addressing senior industry and regulatorv officials at a London City Airport MLS demonstration on 1 September, UK Civil Aviation Authority deputy director of navi gation, Jim Lawson, commented that the Oshkosh results "...were very strange, to say the least" and described Donaldson's written remarks as "a very revealing sum mary after that flight inspection". Privately, senior European avia tion officials say that the Oshkosh approval is clear evidence that the FAA flight-inspection division is under pressure from Washington DC to approve GPS procedures. Donaldson, however, says: "If our crew had found out that there was any interference which had safety implications then they would not have commissioned that approach." He says that die RF spikes pose no hazard, commenting: "When you have RF spikes that close to die critical RF band, then you have to investigate what die emitter is. We just want to investigate diat for future flight-inspection activities." The CDI and DTG anomalies occurred only on one day of the inspection programme using a Garmin GPS 155 TSO receiver. Donaldson says that the team later flew 45 approaches in an effort to reproduce the phenomenon, but failed to do so. He notes that it was the crew's first use of the Garmin receiver and that the approach waypoints were inserted manually rather than being loaded from a database. He says: "We are confident that that anomaly was not related to that particular approach in that particular area." Donaldson says that his sum mary remarks have been misinter preted, explaining: "We have a lot of pressure from industry here in the USA. Sometimes the FAA has been accused, rightfully, of being slow in providing the rules for implementation of things. But I felt that it was important to re- emphasise that there may be local environmental anomalies that could affect a precision or non- precision approach and that have to be identified in a dynamic mode [by flight inspection]." • Airlines stay cool towards A3XX AIRBUS CONTINUES TO promote its A3 XX concept for a very large aircraft, but the airlines are showing little short- term enthusiasm for it. Cathay Pacific chairman Peter Sutch says: "Right now, we certainly can't afford [a 500/600/700- seater]." Confirming that the concept is one which will have appeal as traffic rises, especially in the Asian market, Sutch says: "We will be happy to have it in the first half of the first decade of next century." Airbus aims for'over 40%' of jet-airliner market AIRBUS INDUSTRIE is fore casting a need for 13,400 turbofans of more than 100-seat capacity between 1992 and 2011. The consortium says that the average capacity will be 251 seats and the total value in the region of $1,000 billion. It adds that it "expects to win over 40% of this market initially" and is aiming to become "the market leader". Airbus believes that just 13 major airlines, each taking more than 200 aircraft, will account for 41% of the total. That is made up of 2 7 % for North American carri ers; 8% for Europe and 6% for Asian-Pacific airlines. Excluding the end-of-1991 backlog, the overall breakdown shows 32% of the 13,400 aircraft going to North America; 31 % to the Asia-Pacific region; and 24% to Europe. Airbus believes that, of the 8,500 passenger aircraft in service at the end of 1991, 83% will have been replaced by the end of 2011, so that 52% of the total produc tion will be for fleet renewal and 48% to cope with growth. Its traffic predictions show average worldwide annual pasen- ger growth of 5.4%, and 7.4% in the Asia-Pacific. Widebodies are forecast to account for 71% of delivered seat capacity and, excluding the end- of-1991 backlog, 39% of deliv ered capacity is predicted to be "in aircraft the size of the [Boeing] 747 and above". The European consortium says: "This fully justifies Airbus Industrie's extensive studies for a very large airliner project...which could carry up to 850 passengers in an all-economy layout." Airbus reveals that it will begin its previously announced talks with airlines "during the coming weeks". • Kaman wins K-MAX certification Kaman Aerospace received US certification for its K-MAX external-lift helicopter on 30 August and will deliver the first four production aircraft to US operators in September. The US company has also announced its first European sale: Swiss heavy- lift operator Helog has ordered a K-MAX for delivery in July 1995. Orders for ten aircraft have been announced, including one for northern European distributor Saab Helicopter, and production will be increased to one a month in mid-1995, with production totalling ten by the end of that year. Canadian and European cer tification is scheduled for 1995. • See feature, P54. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 7 - 13 September 1994
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