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Aviation History
1994
1994 - 2507.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT NEWS IN BRIEF • SOUTHWEST BOEING ORDER Southwest Airlines has ordered five more Boeing 737-300s to add to a further 20 already due for delivery in 1995. In addition, the airline also plans to lease two -300s, bringing to 27 the total number of 737s to be added to the fleet in 1995. P&W restarts PW4084 tests PRATT & WHITNEY hopes to restart cyclic-endurance testing of the PW4084 turbofan for the Boeing 777 by 25 October, following a stoppage caused by the failure of two variable-vane arms on a ground-test engine. The stainless-steel variable- vane arms are being strengthened and protected with a different corrosion-prevention treatment to increase fatigue resistance. The company says that the changes will prevent a repeat of the fail ure, which was traced to a one-off combination of the high vibration of the testing and the fact that continuous running never allowed the casing to cool. This caused the unison ring to expand and lose any damping which would occur normally. • USAir reduces fleet as talks with pilots collapse KEVIN O'TOOLE/LONDON PILOTS HAVE broken off crucial cost-cutting talks with USAir management, raising fur ther doubts over the airline's abili ty to turn round mounting losses. The collapse came as USAir revealed plans to cut its aircraft numbers by around 10%, includ ing the loss of its small transat lantic fleet. USAir has been in talks with its unions since March in an attempt to push through S500 million in wage concessions by the end of the year, but has so far failed to reach any agreements. Although discussions continue with machinist and cabin-crew unions, the walk-out by pilots, still smarting from the rejection of a plan to swap concessions for a 25% stake in the airline, has heightened doubts over the air line's ability to meet the target. Financial analysts warn that time is running out as USAir approaches the low season, with low-cost competitors still eating into its traditional high-cost Boeing 161s will be phased out of the fleet heartland on the US east coast. The talks collapsed as USAir revealed plans to dispose of 44 air craft from its 440-strong fleet over the next year. Most of the types being offered are ageing Boeings, including die remaining eight leased 727s, ten 737-200s and 14 extended-range versions of the 737. Another 12 Boeing 767-200s, seven of which are leased, will also be phased out progressively once buyers have been found. The first to go will be on domestic routes, to be replaced by seven smaller 757s, which USAir says are now the only aircraft it still has on order. The next batch of 767s to be sold would be the aircraft now wet-leased to its alliance partner British Airways and being flown from London Gatwick. BA has expressed interest in taking on the route, but with its own aircraft. The last to go will be those used on transatlantic routes to Paris Orly and Frankfurt. USAir says that the fleet reduc tion will "create a surplus" of 525 pilots, although 225 are expected to retire. The rest will be absorbed by putting junior pilots on paid leave and asking senior captains to down grade to smaller aircraft. • Boeing issues 737 stabiliser alert BOEING HAS issued an alert service bulletin (ASB) to 737-300/400/500 operators con cerning an electric trim-actua tor-system failure affecting the horizontal stabiliser. The airframe manufacturer is investigating possible links between the fault and the 1993 accident involving a Royal Thai Air Force 737-300 which pitched violendy up and down several times on the approach to Muang Khon Kaen, before crashing (Flight Inter- tiational, 12-18 October). Boeing says that the ASB is unrelated to the investigation of September's USAir accident or any 737 crash in which a dramatic roll rate was a factor. The first reported trim-system anomaly was in 1993. In August 1994 there was another incident and this was replicated in tests. Three more incidents have prompted the ASB. Boeing says that compliance should be undertaken "...as soon as parts and manpower are available". The ASB recommends replac ing the electric stabiliser-trim actuator following incidents in which the stabiliser-trim wheel continued to rotate after trim- switch release. The ASB says: "When the flaps were down, as many as 40 turns of the stabiliser trim wheel were seen." The problem has been traced to a "locked condition of a clutch disc in the stabiliser-trim electric actua tor", caused by one particular disc sticking in die clutch mechanism. In normal operation, when the trim switches are operated, the actuator turns and either a nose-up or a nose-down clutch engages, moving the stabiliser. On trim-switch release, the clutch is disengaged and the stabiliser stops while the actuator decelerates (or coasts). If the disc is locked, however, the stabiliser will continue to move while the actuator coasts. "The stabiliser can move in the direction it was last commanded or it can reverse and move in the opposite direction [depending] on which clutch disc is locked," says the ASB. The replacement actua tor has a new-design clutch disc which, it claims, cannot jam. Some 1,580 737s are affected. • Air Mandalay grows fleet MYANMAR'S new joint-ven ture airline with Singapore, Air Mandalay, plans to double its fleet, with the purchase of two more ATR 72-210s, and to extend scheduled services to Thailand. The airline is run jointly by Air Mandalay Holdings of Singapore with a 60% stake, and the coun try's national carrier Myanmar Airways, with 40%. Scheduled domestic flights were launched on 18 October between Myan- mar's capital Yangon and the tourist destinations of Mandalay, Heho and Pagan. Air Mandalay in early October took delivery of the first of two ATR 72s turboprops ordered in February for $3 5 million. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 19 - 25 October 1994
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