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Aviation History
1998
1998 - 1430.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT Airline group slams EU satellite plans THE ASSOCIATION of European Airlines (AEA) has reacted angrily to European Union (EU) plans to push ahead with the European Geostationary Navi gation Overlay System (EGNOS) despite vocal airline opposition on the grounds of the probable high user costs. In an angry letter dated 22 May, AEA president and Lufthansa chairman Jurgen Weber questions why the European Union contin ues to pursue the EGNOS with "such vigour" and why it is now involving Eurocontrol and the European Space Agency in an operational project. The AEA argues for the pro posed Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS-2) "and/or" an autonomous landing system based on the draft standards laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation and dubbed the Ground-Based Augmentation System (GBAS). The European Programme for the Implementation of GBAS (EPIG) has already identified potential airports and airlines for trials. The EPIG team hopes to enable differential global position ing system Category 1 approaches by 2000 and is optimistic Cat 3 could be achieved by 2003-5, whereas the EGNOS could only ever provide Cat 1. AEA assistant technical affairs manager Vincent de Vroey, says that Airbus Industrie has also talked to Asian carriers keen for Cat 1 GBAS. Airports identified by the team for the EPIG development phase include Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam, Chicago ()'Hare and Atlanta. G FAA decides to extend wiring checks to non-Boeing types RAMON LOPEZ/WASHINGTON DC THE USA's MAJOR airlines have agreed to check fuel tank wiring in a controlled sample of Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas aircraft to determine whether they need mandatory inspections like those recently ordered for older Boeing airliners. The high-time passenger aircraft which the US Federal Aviation Administration wants inspected are the Lockheed TriStar and the McDonnell Douglas DCS, D( ;-9. DC-10 and KC-10 tanker version, as well as the Boeing MD-80/90 andMD-11. The aircraft safety survey request was sent to the US Air Transport Association (ATA), the trade organ isation representing the nation's major airlines. The ATA says that member carriers have agreed to comply with the request from the IS aviation agency, but details of how the sampling will be carried out is to be worked out with the FAA and manufacturers. No sched ule disruptions are anticipated. Last month, die FAA grounded \intage Boeing 737s and ordered inspections for younger aircraft after mechanics found evidence of exposed wiring in fuel tanks caused by chafingof protective Teflon wrap ping. An airworthiness directive (AD) covering inspection of fuel tank wiring insulation in certain Boeing 747s and 767s was also issued. The latest FAA request asks ATA members to conduct inspections similar to those which have already been made mandatory for the Boeing 7-series models and demands a report by 21 August. Should the initial survey reveal problems, the FAA would then issue an emergency AD ordering widespread inspections and repairs. The FAA request results from the crash of a Trans World Airlines 747-100 on 17July, 1996. A centre fuel tank explosion is suspected. • Boeing warns of further delays to 717 BOEING HAS confirmed that first flight of the 717-200, to be rolled out at Long Beach on 10 June, will now take place in early September, some three months later than originally scheduled. The flight test delays are also expected to have knock-on effects to the planned delivery of the first aircraft to launch customer Air- Iran, which was slated for June 1999. "We are working to have the aircraft completed and certificated as early as possible next summer," says Boeing, "... but it could be as late as September", it admits. The delays have been caused by problems with the BMW Rolls- Royce BR715 powerplant which suffered third stage compressor cracking in altitude chamber tests Boeing 7/7: waiting in the wings earlier this year. Although a fix has been found, (Flight International, 21 May-2 June), the changes require that several major tests need repeating. BMW R-R claims, however, that all flight-critical engine testing will have been completed by the end of June, and that the engine remains on target for certification to go ahead in September. "Boeing just wants to make sure that it is fully happy with the state of affairs. It's their decision," says the engine manufacturer. Before the delay, the three air craft in the 717 test fleet were expected to complete the pro gramme with the aim of achieving simultaneous US and European certification in June 1999. 7J Mongolia and Laos crashes add to East Asian losses tally EAST ASIA, WHICH HAS suffered a run of fatal air crash es during the last 18 months, has seen two more, with transport acci dents in Mongolia and Laos leav ing another 50 dead. MIAT-Mongolian Airlines has suffered its second loss of a I Iarbin Y-12 turboprop in less than 12 months. The 19-seat twin turbo prop crashed near the top of a 2,000m (6,500ft) high mountain on 26 May. The aircraft appears to have been overloaded, with a total of 28 passengers and crew report edly killed in the accident, includ ing children. This latest crash follows the loss of a MLYT-operated Chinese-built Yun-12 in June 1997, killingseven passengers. In Laos on 25 May, an air force Yakovlev Yak-40 crashed, killing 2 3 people, including a senior Vietnamese army officer and deputy defence minister. The air craft, carrying the military delega tion from Vientiane to Xiang Khoang, crashed in jungle during a heavy rain storm. Meanwhile a Cambodian inves tigation into the 3 September 1997 crash ofa Vietnam AirlinesTupolev Iii-134 at Fhnom Penh has report edly attributed the accident to pilot error. The captain is said to have ignored air traffic control instruc tions to change runways and the advice of fellow crew to abort the landing because of poor visibility and bad weather. It then clipped a tree on approach and stalled on a late go-around, killing all but two of the 66 people aboard. J 12 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL June 3 - 9 1998
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