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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 0010.PDF
AIR TRANSPUT Executive Airlines to fit GPS to ATRs PUERTO RICO-based Amer ican Eagle carrier Executive Airlines is equipping its ten ATR 42s and 72s with global-position ing systems (GPS) to allow cost- saving direct routing. Executive has selected Universal Avionics' UNS-1M GPS-based navigation-management system for its aircraft. The airline's decision follows a six-month proof-of-concept pro gramme which demonstrated reductions in flight times, with GPS allowing the carrier to fly more direct routes. GPS also proved more depend able than Caribbean ground-based navigation aids, which suffer out ages in the hurricane season, says vice-president, flight operations, Jose Machado. The UNS-1M has been inter faced with the ATR 42/72's elec tronic flight-instrument system, providing the crew with a moving- map display of the route. The unit is also interfaced with the aircraft's autopilot and generates pseudo- instrument-landing-system signals enabling the crew to fly coupled non-precision GPS approaches, Universal says. • NEWS IN BRIEF • 747 ASSESSMENT China Airlines (CAL) may have to scrap a Boeing 747- 200, which crashed while attempting a three-engine take-off from Manila Airport. The 13-year old aircraft, worth an estimated $40 mil lion, is in a borderline condi tion. Repair work would require a complete replace ment of its lower section 41 and, possibly, lower section 42. Its No 3 Pratt &Whitney JT9D-7Q engine suffered major damage, with fan blades sheared off at the root and fan and cone casing wrecked. The No 2 engine incurred minor foreign- object damage and foam ingestion, and an outboard had been damaged earlier. Airlines win battle to delay noise controls KEVIN O'TOOLE/LONDON THE AIRLINE industry has won a reprieve from the threat of a stringent new set of noise and emission controls, which risked wiping billions of dollars off the value of the world fleet. The immediate threat receded as the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP), the environmental arm of the International Civil Aviation Or ganisation (ICAO), emerged from ten days of discussions on 15 December with a recommendation to retain existing noise standards. A definitive decision on changes to existing standards on nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions will also now be postponed until a meeting of the ICAO Council in mid-1996. The CAEP recommendations received a broad welcome from Existing standards will be kept the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which has been lobbying hard against any hurried decisions on costly new environmental rules. It had calculated that adoption of the most stringent proposals being put in front of CAEP, which would essentially have amounted to a Chapter 4 noise regulation, could have cost the airline indus try as much as $50 billion (Flight International, 30June, 1995). IATA argues that current tech nology could only offer "minimal environmental benefit at dispro portionate cost". It adds that the scientific case for the benefits of NOx reduction, in particular, has yet to be proved. "IATA's policy is that there is no justification on environmental, technical or economic grounds, to increase stringency at this time," says IATA director-general Pierre Jeanniot, adding that "...much more work needs to be done". The Association admits, how ever, that pressure for tighter noise and emission controls will remain on the agenda, with the threat of regional legislation with in Europe or the USA a potential ly more damaging possibility. • Bus company aims to start air service BUS COMPANY Greyhound Lines of Canada is in "advanced discussions" with a Canadian operator interested in providing low-cost air services under the banner Greyhound Air. Calgary-based Greyhound says that the planned air service "...would be operated by a Canadian-controlled company un related to Greyhound and experi enced in providing air services in Canada". Greyhound would not own, lease or operate the aircraft, instead it would provide market ing, scheduling and ticketing and compensate the operator for pro viding the air service. The Canadian bus operator says that it plans to provide ser vices linking Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton, with Winnipeg as the hub, at air fares "comparable to Greyhound's bus fares". • Pilot performance records may be disclosed in USA THE WORK records of com mercial pilots would be open to inspection under pro posed US legislation designed to keep sub-standard pilots out of the cockpit. The new rules would permit the transfer of relevant pilot employment and training records between airlines. When a transfer of information is requested and complied with, both the current or past employer and the prospective employer would be immune from lawsuits related to the information exchange. At the moment, the US Fed eral Aviation Administration re quires airlines to determine whether an applicant has a pilot licence, and to verify an appli cant's employment for the five previous years. The applicant's driving record is also checked for evidence of alcohol- or drug- related suspensions. Airlines are not required to confirm flying experience or past performance. The FAA urges full disclosure of pilot records, but it says a number of valid concerns need to be aired before action is taken regarding transfer of pilot records. The US National Transpor tation Safety Board has called for a national database for flightdeck crews. It says that the FAA should require all US scheduled airlines and flight-training operations to maintain and provide the FAA with pilot performance and train ing records. Airlines would check the database to weed out bad pilots. The aviation agency says that US carriers should bear the data base responsibility instead. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 3 - 9 January 1996
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