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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 1699.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT AVIONICS GUY NORRIS / LOS ANGELES Boeing trials pave way for GLS Evaluation culminates with landings in Brazil last month and US FAA certification looks set to follow soon FREIGHTERS NICHOLAS IONIDES / TOULOUSE Air Hong Kong looks to firm up Airbus options The BBJ flight tests included landings at Rio's Santos Dumont airport work for interfacing the GLS with the Rockwell Collins Flight Dynamics head-up guidance sys tem, now available on the 737. "GLS is now a mature capability and it dovetails nicely with RNP [required navigation performance], which is already in service," Imrich says. "We are looking at what the best options for implementation might be. Initially this will be with special GLS approaches, but we hope that it will develop into a regu lar full-scale deployment," he says. Although the FAA's long-term plan to introduce a network of GLS ground stations in the USA under the Local Area Augmentation System programme is uncertain, Imrich says "there are several options available, including pri vately deployed facilities with authorisation for special approaches." Although the FAA's LAAS plan was re-directed towards a research effort following the elimi nation of funding for the pro gramme in the 2005 budget, it is believed that studies are under way to revisit the programme. Flight tests culminated with evaluations in Brazil at the end of August to confirm GLS fidelity in equatorial areas subject to ionos pheric interference. The flights included a demonstration of the autoland capability to local carriers around Rio de Janeiro where the GLS-equipped testbed, a Boeing Business Jet, landed within lm of the runway centreline at Rio's Santos Dumont airport using sig nals from a GPS groundstation at the international airport 7nm (13km) away. IE Dn Boeing has completed flight tests of a global positioning system (GPS) landing system (GLS) on a Next Generation 737 and is holding talks with several US-based opera tors to deploy it operationally, pos sibly by the end of the year. The GLS, working through a Rockwell Collins multimode receiver, is expected to gain US Federal Aviation Administration certification in the next two months. "It will be available first on the Next Generation 737 mod els," says Boeing Commercial Airplanes research chief pilot and GLS certification programme pro ject pilot Tom Imrich, who adds the system will eventually be offered on all Boeing aircraft. The GLS is designed to work with GPS groundstations to provide pre cision landing capability. The initial certification will cover capability to Category 1, though the long-term goal is to clear it through Cat 2 to Cat 3 autoland "no later" than 2008, adds Imrich. The baseline cer tification covers test development Cargo carrier Air Hong Kong is expected to look at firming up options on four Airbus A300-600Fs after agreement was reached between Hong Kong and China on a new air services accord. Chief operating officer David Saechiu said at a ceremony in Toulouse to mark the delivery of the airline's first new-build A300-600F that the carrier is hopeful it will secure rights to serve the fast-grow ing Chinese market. He said before the new more liberal air pact was announced on 8 September that the airline was awaiting the outcome of the discussions before deciding whether to firm up its four A300- 600F options, which were taken last year when a firm order was placed for six of the type. "The four options are contingent upon traffic rights and [route] licences, primarily to China," says Saechiu. "With the options we have to make a decision within the last quarter of this year but we are asking Airbus for some flexibility to decide later," he adds. Saechiu says the current sched ule calls for the optioned aircraft, if firmed up, to be delivered in 2006 - two in January and February and the remaining two in the middle of the year. Air Hong Kong is most inter ested in serving Beijing and Shanghai, he adds. It currently serves Osaka and Tokyo in Japan, Singapore, Seoul in South Korea, Bangkok in Thailand and Taipei in Taiwan, using four wet-leased air craft, plus a Boeing 747-200F oper ated by its own crews. The 747-200F and the wet-leased aircraft - two Airbus A300B4Fs, one A300-600F and one Boeing 727- 200F - will all be phased out as the six firm-ordered A300-600FS arrive from Airbus. The first from the order was due to enter service on 12 September, while the remaining five are to be delivered one per month through early next year. Air Hong Kong is 60%-owned by Cathay Pacific Airways and 40%- owned by DHL. It previously focused on carrying general freight on long-haul services but has been revamping its operations over the past two years to focus on overnight services within Asia, mainly on behalf of DHL. In addition to China, Air Hong Kong may seek to operate at some point to Penang in Malaysia. China's expanding market The new Hong Kong-China air services arrangement opens up the market to more airlines from each side and expands capacity limits. Dragonair held most of the Chinese passenger and cargo traffic rights available to Hong Kong-based airlines under the previous arrangement, while Cathay Pacific had rights to the remaining handful, which enabled it to offer only thrice-weekly passenger services to Beijing. Under the new accord an unlimited number of airlines may operate between the two sides, while the number of routes that allow dual des ignation will be gradually increased, eventually covering all routes by late 2006. Passenger capacity is set to increase by a third, while capac ity for freighter services will double. 8 14-20 SEPTEMBER 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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