FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1996
1996 - 0023.PDF
JMUUZfJlY Sulzer Metco coating saves EF2000's skin ANDREW DOYLE/LONDON SULZER METCO has devel oped a rapid solution to a poten tially serious problem which has already caused delays in flight-test ing the Eurofighter EF2000. British Aerospace (Military Aircraft division) asked the UK- based Sulzer company to specify a suitable thermal-protection coating for the prototype aircraft DA2's aft V-bay tunnel skin-panels, after exhaust-plume damage from the aircraft's Turbo-Union RBI 99 engines had been discovered. "In the reheat state, the plume from one of the engines overheated part of the rear fuselage," says BAe, adding that: "It was not a danger ous situation." BAe required the coating to be applied within seven days in an effort to minimise disruption to the flight-test programme. Sulzer Metco specified a bond coat consisting of an alloy of cobalt, nickel chrome, aluminium and yttria, and a top coat of zirconium oxide and yttrium oxide. The met als come in powder form, and are applied using a plasma-spray sys tem with a robotic high-speed scanning unit. Plasma-spraying consists of heating or melting fine particles of metals, ceramics, carbides or alloys and projecting them at high veloci ty on to a prepared surface. High speed scanning is used to ensure a uniform surface, by mounting the spray gun on a robotic arm which is programmed to scan the panel area repeatedly. The damaged panels were removed from the Warton-based aircraft and the coatings applied overnight, allowing the compo nents to be re-fitted to the aircraft the next day. The aircraft has since had 15 flights with no detrimental effects to the plasma coating. The first two prototype Eurofighter EF2000s are fitted with RBI99s, which are 3.6m long. Production aircraft will be fitted with longer (4m) Eurojet EJ200 powerplants, which consequently have exhaust nozzles further away from the rear fuselage. • Airport Systems steers to Indonesian joint venture AIRPORT SYSTEMS Inter national (ASI) plans to estab lish a joint venture in Indonesia to produce navigation aids (navaids) and landing systems. The Kansas-based company has reached agreement with Indonesia's PT LEN and PT Elektrindo Nusantara to form the Asian coun try's first navaids manufacturer. ASI projects that the potential navaids market in Indonesia and the Asia/Pacific region will be worth more than $1 billion over the next ten years. The US company has already teamed with LEN and Elektrindo to offer co-production of its VHF- omni-range (VOR) and distance- measuring equipment navaids to meet an Indonesian requirement. If the joint venture receives Indonesian Government approval as expected by mid-1996, LEN and Elektrindo will market, produce, install and support ASI's full line of navaids in Indonesia and the Pacific Rim. ASI navaids include instrument- landing systems and die differential global-positioning-system ground- station now under development. • ASI has received a $900,000 con tract to supply VOR navaids to Turkey. The contract covers four fixed-site VORs, plus a mobile sys tem intended for site testing and emergency operations. They were scheduled to have been delivered by January. • Permali supplies DC-8 cabin interior PERMALI GLOUCESTER HAS supplied a fire-proof cabin interior for an African International Airways McDonnell Douglas DC-8-S4F freighter. The cabin walls are made from a woven-glass composite material, called WFT/22, which was chosen for its self-extinguishing, low-smoke, low-toxicity characteristics. WFT/22 is a phenolic-based material, which is water resistant and has a high strength-to-weight ratio. Gloucester, UK-based Permali is part of the BTR group. SIA orders ATEC test system for use on 777s and A340s JULIAN MOXON/TOULOUSE AEROSPATIALE HAS sold one of its ATEC Series 6 auto mated test systems to Singapore Airlines (SIA) for use on the carri er's Boeing 777s and Airbus A340s. The French company says that it expects the airline to order more "...once its 777 budget is in place". Delivery is set for March. Aerospatiale has sold 36 ATEC Series 6s since its launch in 1993, putting sales performance slightly ahead of the company's earlier tester, the ATEC 5000. It sold 154 of those systems in 15 years and it is still selling, says Gerard Darteyre, Aerospatiale vice-presi dent for sales and marketing. The battle for the automated- test-systems market has intensified with the arrival of new competitors such as Israeli company RADA. These are attacking the established suppliers with what Darteyre calls an "aggressive" pricing policy. Aerospatiale has been teamed with Honeywell since 1992 on joint development of the ATEC Series 6 and Honeywell's STS2000 system. Each product is operated using the Aerospatiale-developed, ARINC-standard Smart automat ed test software. This allows test programmes to be transferred bet ween suppliers' equipment, "...but it also opens the door to increasing competition", says Darteyre. Relations with Boeing are "im proving" says Darteyre, despite Aerospatiale's obvious links with the Airbus Industrie consortium. "They accept that we have a good product which should be offered to all their customers," he says. Boeing 777 customers Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways have ordered ATEC Series 6 or STS 2000 systems, while 777 launch customer United Airlines has purchased a pair of Series 6s. In 1996, says Darteyre, agree ments with Rockwell-Collins (which supplies most of the non- Honeywell 777 avionics) will mean that Aerospatiale can offer a Series 6 capable of testing every line-replaceable unit on the aircraft. G FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 3 - 9 January 1996 21
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
