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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 0067.PDF
DAVID LEARMOUNT/LONDON AIRBUS INDUSTRIE has blasted its way: into a market effectively monopolised by the USA by using radical technological innovation in the flightdeck, flight control systems, materials and manufacturing techniques. The A3 80 launch brings another step-change in the application of high tech nology. It has to, or perhaps face continued Boeing dominance. In the early 1970s, Boeing, Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas already offered the mar ketplace high-quality products. What is more, they had earned brand loyalty and provided a visible customer support system. To breach the Americans' solid market defences, Airbus need ed products with the penetrating characteristics of an armour-piercing shell. But the first product was not armour- piercing. The A3 00 series went for a chink in the armour - the Americans did not offer a widebody twinjet. But by 1978 Boeing had launched the 767, which entered service in 1982 to close the gap. Airbus' next target was more difficult: the narrow chink between the incredibly popular, growing 737 family and the well-established 757. The A320 had to be able to offer something different, and it did. With digital, fly-by-wire (FBW) and flight envelope protection, it gave customers the aircraft control systems of the future, and made extensive use of carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) in the aircraft's pri mary and secondary structures. At entry into service in 1988, the A320, with its revolutionary sidestick for pilot manual con trol, made few concessions to tradition in the aircraft's direct control interface, as die 777 did with its full-size control column and artificial feel system, despite die fact that Boeing's new machine was also FBW. Sidesticks are retained on the A3 80, but this aircraft will be die first Airbus to dispose of die mechanical pitch- trim wheel. CROSS CREW QUALIFICATION The company now faces the task of maintaining an A3 80 flightdeek that allows cross-crew qual ification across die full Airbus FBW range of types, while taking advantage of die latest man- machine interface possibilities and fully inte grated avionics and flight management systems (FMS). But there is no need to compromise, says A3 80 chief engineer Robert Lafontan. The same visual information will be tliere in much the same basic format, except that the units themselves will be liquid crystal display (LCD) flat panels instead of cathode ray tubes (CRT) - A340 to A380pilot rating will take eight days but the displays will be interactive and more intuitive. Lafontan predicts that an A3 30 or A3 40 pilot will need an 8 to 10-day "differences" course to convert to the A3 80. The new interface system is designed to make the entry of- and access to - data far less cum bersome. Out will go the old centre-pedestal control and display units (CDU) - the tradi tional interface with the FMS which is the bane of pilots' lives during their early conversion to glass cockpits - and in will come a keyboard/ pointing-device system on a pull-out platform direcdy in front of each pilot. So the new FMS interface will be the key board and a point/click system, the precise hardware for which is still under definition. The cursor/pointer could be controlled by a ball or a touch-pad, but touch-screen interaction has been rejected, says Lafontan. The keyboard offers much quicker data entry - whether fre quencies, waypoints, letters or figures - than the old one-hand CDU. Because it will be possible to command more modes/functions on-screen, there will be fewer push-button controls in the flightdeck, just as the A3 20 appeared widi far fewer control panel switches/buttons than its rival. As in the other FBW Airbuses, the basic dis plays will consist - for each pilot - of flight and navigation displays, and the two electronic cen- FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 2 - 8 January 2001 65
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