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Aviation History
2000
2000-1 - 1662.PDF
AIR TBANBPCJnf MARKETPLACE ++ Japan Air Lines (JAL) has exer cised options on two Bombardier CRJ200S for domestic subsidiary J-AIr, which will now receive four of the 50-seat regional jets. Deliv eries begin later this year and will continue to mid-2002. JAL has options on three more CRJ200s. ++ Japan's Nagasaki Airways has ordered a second Bombardier Dash 8 Q200. The first of the 39-seat regional turboprops will be delivered in the first quarter of 2001 and the second in the fourth quarter. ++ Alitalia has conclud ed the sale and leaseback of 15 of its older Boeing MD-80s in a deal worth an estimated L400 billion ($177 million). Ten of the aircraft have been sold to Aergo Capital. and five to TARA Aerospace - a company recently set up by former GPA executive Tony Ryan. The airline is meanwhile offering the six remaining ATR 42s operated by Alitalia Express for sale as it rationalises its fleet. ++ Greek regional Axon Airlines has placed orders for four Embraer ERJ-145s. Three aircraft will be delivered early next year, with the fourth aircraft due in late 2001. ++ El Al has sold one of its 747-200 Convertibles to South African carrier Hydro Air for $13.5 million. ++ America West has extended its leases with Bouillon Aviation Services on four Boeing 737300s for up to five years. ++ Korean Air has con cluded a $114 million deal with CIT Aerospace regarding the lease of three 737800s for delivery next year. ++ LanChile has received the first of 25 Airbus A320s on order. Four A320s will be delivered this year to replace Boeing 737s. FAA pursues next phase of flight evaluation for ADS-B CHRIS KJELGAARD/LOUISVILLE THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration and US cargo carriers will launch their third operational evaluation (OpEval 3) of automatic dependent surveil lance-broadcast (ADS-B) next May, following encouraging con troller and pilot feedback from the OpEval 2 trials, in Louisville, Kentucky, late last month. To be hosted by Federal Express in Memphis, Tennessee, OpEval 3 will give die FAA its first opportu nity to trial die integrated network of technologies involved in its Safe Flight 21 initiative. Safe Flight 21 is testing emerging technologies designed to improve flight safety while increasing capacity. ADS-B, which forms die backbone of the programme, provides the cockpit crew widi the same information as die controller so that traffic can be managed more efficiendy. OpEval 3 could also see adop tion of the definitive datalink stan dard for ADS-B. Safe Flight 21 programme head Jim McDaniels says tiTat the team is "nominally" planning to decide "in mid-2001" which of three standards-Mode S, Universal Access Transceiver and VDL Mode 4 - to adopt. US industry sources believe tiiat Mode S is the favoured candidate. The European VDL Mode 4 was not evaluated in the trials, while ADS-B pioneer United Parcel Service has certificated initial ADS-B functionality for its Boeing 727s using Mode S datalinking. Safe Flight 21 team member Paul Fontaine says diat, where OpEval 2 focused on four new ADS-B applications - approach spacing, departure spacing and clearance, runway occupation alerting and airport surface situa tional awareness - OpEval 3 will involve airport situational aware ness and runway incursion alerting. OpEval 3 will also trial uplinking to flightdecks of traffic information services-broadcast (TIS-B) posi tion data concerning aircraft and airport vehicles not equipped widi ADS-B. The TIS-B data will be generated by passive/active Mode S interrogation of targets by air port-sited multilateration units and by high-update rate ASDE-X radars developed for die FAAk air port surface awareness effort. OpEval 3 will also see airport surface moving maps upgraded to include an alerting function, equipping "large numbers" of ground vehicles and, for con trollers, new colour displays widi target data tags. • Airbus prepares A340-600 test aircraft for 2001 maiden flight Airbus has completed basic assembly of the A340-600 devel opment aircraft, and the first flight is now scheduled for the "Spring", some three to four months later than was originally planned. The 3 80-seat aircraft is undergoing functional testing, and the installation of its four Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engines. Although Airbus declines to comment on the delay, the A340-500/600 programme has been subj ect to weight increases '^^^.ll!llll|| : iHRRPHHR^V Hi M ••'•••''£$/ < - ii Jhafr r"*~"^^BB and problems with the supply of wings from BAE Systems. It is not clear if the delay will affect deliveries to launch customer Virgin Atlantic, which are due to begin in Spring 2002. • Large jets at far greater risk during non-precision approaches LARGE JET aircraft are at a far higher risk of an accident dian turboprops when carrying out non-precision approaches (NPAs) to airports, says a Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) Approach and Landing Accident Reduction (ALAR) working group study. Otherwise, jets have a better repu tation for safety than turboprops. There have been 20 NPA accidents involving large jets in die last 10 years, which killed 917 peo ple, but only two accidents to tur boprops on similar approaches. Fatal NPA accidents in the period include the Gulf Air Airbus A320 crash in Bahrain in August, and die Korean Air Boeing 747-300 crash at Guam in August 1997. Speaking at die Flight Safety Foundation's International Air Safety Seminar in New Orleans last mondi, ALAR study group member Dr Ratan Khatwa said diat large jets are more vulnerable. The pilots of large jets rarely carry out NPAs, and the airlines do not set aside pilot training time for diem. In die case of die Bahrain acci dent, the pilot could have chosen an instrument landing system (ILS) precision approach but instead used the VOR/ DME approach for die reciprocal runway. At Guam, the ILS glideslope was unserviceable so die pilots had to calculate dieir own glideslope using DME. • 10 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 7 - 13 November 2000
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