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Aviation History
2002
2002 - 3118.PDF
Diary Letters flight.international@rbi.co.uk 29-31 October AVSEC World 2002 Rome, Italy Tel:+1514 874 0202x3452 pinsonneal@iata.org 9-12 November 111th IATA Schedules Conference Vancouver, Canada Tel:+1514 874 0202x3657 mcewenc@iata.org 12-13 November Crisis Management 2002 Vancouver, Canada Contact: Wendy Pashley Tel:+44 20 8607 6242 pashleyw@iata.org 13-15 November Maintenance and Reliability Seminar Amsterdam, The Netherlands Tel:+31 23 554 0727 confair@sensewave.com 20 November Air Transport of Tomorrow London, UK Tel:+44 1224 263 134 c.fitzpatrick@rgu .ac.uk 20-21 November South and Central American Air Freight Conference Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Tel:+44 20 7376 4903 info@aircraft-commerce.com 8-10 December AAAE Airports Economic Forum New Orleans, USA Tel: +1 703 824 0500 will.james@airportnet.org 9-12 December NAAA Convention & Exposition Reno, USA Contact: Peggy Knizner Tel: +1 202 546 5722 piknizner@agaviation.org 11-12 December The Large Executive and VIP Jet Aircraft Conference Hamburg, Germany +44 20 7931 7072 confs@aviation-industry.com 6-9 January 2003 41st AIAA Aerospace Science Meeting and Exhibition Reno, Nevada, USA Tel:+1 703 264 7500 custserv@aiaa.org For a full list of events see www.flightinternational.com Flight International welcomes letters on any aspect of the aerospace industry. Please write to: The Editor, Flight International, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, UK. Ore-mail flight.interna- tional@rbi.co.uk The opinions on this page do not necessarily represent those of the editor. Flight International cannot publish letters without name and address and reserves the right to select or edit letters. RETIREMENT Medics say carry on to 65 A few years ago at a Joint Aviation Authorities Medical Meeting in Geneva, everyone present, including France, agreed that the retirement age of professional pilots be put up to 65. Medical papers and research supported the move. Many nations went home from the meeting and changed their laws to permit profes sional flying to the age of 65. The UK Civil Aviation Authority had already permitted such flying to 65; the USA is contemplating a change to 63 initially, and then possibly 65.1 am sure this will happen. Age 65 is now the JAA-accepted age limit. Unfortunately, the French pilots' union did not agree, and France was obliged to issue an "Orange paper" dissenting from age 65, back to age 60 for captains flying over France. The European Aviation Safety Agency however, will not permit dissent. The majority view, backed by a great deal of evidence, is that 65 is a sensible retiring age. The harmonised view for all the JAA medical opinion is age 65. Company contracts and union opinions should not detract from the modern enlightened view that it is quite safe to fly professionally to the age of 65. Those of us who are involved in this arena almost every day of our working aviation lives have no problem with taking the age limit even to 70. Dr Ian Perry Consultant in occupational & aviation medicine, London, UK Forced into leisure by age In the Netherlands, retirement is forced on you, not necessarily by medical or proficiency status, nor by the arbitrary age 60 rule, but by the greed of the members repre sented by the Dutch pilots' union the VNV, which, in wishing to maintain the early-retirement plans for themselves, force even those pilots whose careers have been in the lower-paid regional field to retire at the same age - 56. I wish the 10 pilots in the USA and the Professional Pilots Federa tion the best with their efforts to get this age 60 restriction removed. It will show the discrimination of the VNV in even clearer light. David Lucas Oegstgeest, The Netherlands Concentrate on BWB concept Boeing's struggle to develop the Sonic Cruiser is puzzling. Why isn't it pursuing aggressively the devel opment of the much more efficient blended wing body (BWB)? Sure, there are technical issues, but no real show stoppers. Even if it starts with the develop ment of a 200-250 passenger model, I believe this would be effective competition to the Airbus A380, at least from a travel cost view, which seems to be what airlines really want. This would show that Boeing is serious about staying in the air liner business and is willing to be at the true forefront of technology. This would also put Boeing in an excellent position to develop a complete family of aircraft and eventually deliver effective neutral isation of the A380, which should really be the last conventional design the world needs or sees. I consider the Sonic Cruiser to be a conventional aircraft as it offers very little compared to today's air liners. With global warming knock ing at our doors, Boeing must show bold leadership and develop a green machine that will help the world, the airline industry, and itself. Unless Boeing takes the initia tive, it may be surprised to find that Airbus's future replacement for the A300 may be a BWB. Paul Nunes Ontario, Canada TCAS conflict is the problem Reporting the mid-air collision over Germany on 1 July this year, you state "if both crews had fol lowed their RA [resolution advi sory], the accident would have been avoided" (Flight International, 3-9 September). However, the details of the report seem to indicate the same would be true if no aircraft had received and followed the traffic alert and collision avoidance sys tem (TCAS) instruction. The Russian aircraft seems to have been established in descent away from FL360, following air traffic control instruction, when the RA order to climb was issued. Training in responding to TCAS is an issue. However, the basic prob lem lies in two conflict-avoidance systems being in conflict (ATC and ACAS), and so long as these systems are not co-ordinated, similar critical situations seem likely. Jens Gjerlev Sodo, Norway Photography dangers Waiting aboard an American Airlines Boeing 777 at Dallas/Fort Worth, I decided to photograph air craft taxiing past, but a member of the cabin crew told me to stop: my camera would interfere with aircraft systems. I could only take pho tographs above 10,000ft (3,000m). This is the first time I have been told not to take photographs due to the "power" of the camera's battery. Is the 777 affected by such a minuscule amount of electricity generated by a camera battery? Graham Dinsdale Huntingdon, UK 46 22-28 OCTOBER 2002 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.fliqhtinternational.com
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