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Aviation History
1995
1995 - 0697.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT Sempati takes first Fokker 70 SEMPATI AIR HAS BECOME the first airline to receive the Fokker 70. The privately owned Indonesian airline has received two of the ten Fokker 70s it has on order and holds an option on a further five aircraft. Fokker has already delivered a Fokker 70 to Ford Motors in the USA for use as a corporate jet. Wake analysis shows little hope of growing capacity LASER-BASED ANALYSIS of aircraft wake-vortices at London Heathrow Airport sug gests that there is little hope of increasing runway capacity by reducing separations. Researchers believe that real time provision of vortex informa tion to controllers could sometimes assist with tactical air- traffic control (ATC), but few, if any, strategic gains are realisable. Some standard longitudinal sepa rations may even be slightly increased because of the work. The research, commissioned from the UK Defence Research Agency (DRA) by the Civil Aviation Authority, supports earlier evidence that the Boeing 757 pro duces markedly stronger vortices than similar-weight older types — a tangential core velocity of 35m/s (68kt) was recorded at least once. The DRA team used a lOmicron wavelength, infra-red, carbon- dioxide laser radar (lidar) of 4W power to measure vortex speeds and patterns at five different sites around Heathrow on 20 days — giving some 2,000 read-outs. Many of the data produced con firms historical thinking, but they also highlight the occasional phe nomenon of vortices which rapidly and inexplicably collapse after about 60s. They also show up inad equacies in current mathematical models of vortices, which must be addressed if ATC procedures are to be changed. They confirm as well the impor tance of crosswinds and turbulence in clearing vortices. Further DRA work is likely, during which the CAA hopes that it will acquire aircraft- weight and flap/ slat-configura tion data from airlines, together with meteorological data from the UK Met Office, to correlate with the vortex observations. The researchers and the CAA believe that it is almost certainly practicable to provide controllers with real-time vortex information, but Heathrow ATC manager Richard Taylor says: "Any benefits would be tactical in that they could only be applied in the par ticular weather conditions at a given time. With our weather, we could not see a tactical advantage in terms of reductions in delays being turned into a strategic capacity advantage." • IAE offers V2500 as alternative on 11-86 TXTERXATIOXAL AERO -L Engines (IAE) is working with Uyushin to offer 11-86 operators its V2500 turbofan as an alterna tive to the CFM International (CFMI) CFM56 for re-engineing the aircraft. IAE says that an installation study will be complet ed by mid-year, around the time that CFMI is to decide whether to proceed with the CFM56 re- engineing programme. IAE's director for new applica tions, Ray Siwinski, says that installation of the 133kN (30,0001b) V2500-I5, a variant of the -A5 engine used on the Airbus A320/A321, would be similar to that for the Pratt & Whitney PW2037 being certificated on the 11-96. P&W is an IAE partner company. The V2 500-15 is also being considered for a stretched 11-76 freighter. The General Electric/Snecma CFMI joint venture has been working with Ilyushin for two years on re-engineing the 11-86 with 150LX CFM56-5C2s, the engines used on the Airbus A340. GE says that Ilyushin has accepted CFMI's conditions to proceed with the programme and now CFMI is reviewing conditions put forward by the Russian design bureau. A decision on whether to go ahead will be taken in June, the US engine maker says. IAE's Siwinski says that Uyushin's intention is to offer 11-86 operators an engine choice. About 100 aircraft are considered to be re-engineing candidates. Replacing the Il-86's Kuznetsov XK-86s would increase range, improve reliability and reduce noise. Five Russian airlines have declared their intent to re- engine a total of 25 aircraft (Flight International, 22-28 February, PI 1). Separately, Rolls-Royce sources are pouring cold water on a claim by Ilyushin general designer Genrikh Xovozhilov that "...the Englishmen are chasing us", with a proposal to replace Pratt & Whitney on the I1-96M/T. Xovozhilov is using the threat of switching to R-R as part of his campaign to secure US Export- Import Bank finance for Aeroflot Russian International Airlines' purchase of P&W-powered II- 96s. R-R says officially that "...our door is always open". • NOx emissions up, says DLR AIRCRAFT ARE emitting more nitrous oxide into the atmosphere than expected, al though the resulting atmospheric damage remains insignificant, says the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR). In an interim report on its research into harmful substances in aviation, the DLR says that jet aircraft worldwide emit 2.8 mil lion tonnes of nitrous oxide a year, exceeding all predictions and con tributing to the greenhouse effect. Project chief Ulrich Schumann stresses that the calculated contri bution of aircraft exhaust gases to the greenhouse effect remains so low — at 0.1 °C — as to be unprov able through measurement. DLR scientists add that satel lite data show that condensation trails, which encourage the forma tion of cirrus clouds, have been responsible for a 0.4% increase in cloud cover over Central Europe. The researchers say that further development of cleaner engines should allow total annual XOx emissions to be kept constant, even though air traffic growth will double annual fuel consumption, which today stands at 180 million tonnes, in the next few years. • Lufthansa says that its 1994 fuel- efficiency figures are its best ever. It used 5.51itres (1.45gal) of kerosene per 100 passenger kilometres in 1994 — less than most cars, claims the airline. Lufthansa's fuel con- sumptionhas fallen by 5.7% since 1991, to 3 million tonnes. Fuel con sumption per passenger has halved since 1970, it says, and predicts that it will halve again in the next ten to 15 years. • 12 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 22 - 28 March 1995
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