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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 1831.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT RE-EQUIPMENT Uzbek 11-114 deliveries start again Uzbekistan Airways has resumed taking delivery of llyushin 11-114-100s from Tashkent-based TAPO after overcoming currency and sup plier problems. The airline received the first of its planned fleet of 10 Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127A-pow- ered 11-114s in December 2002, but the rest have been held up. 'There were problems with the supply of Russian-made onboard systems," says Uzbekistan Airways commercial director Fakhridin Giyasov. This was caused by the non-convert ible Uzbekistan currency and complicated Uzbeki export- import laws. The former was largely resolved earlier this year after Uzbekistan and Russia signed an inter-state strategic partnership agreement. The airline's first 60-seater has been in service on the Tashkent-Bukhara route. The arrival of a second aircraft has enabled weekly frequencies to be increased to 26 flights and services to Karshi, Termez and Urgench to be added. Giyasov says two more 11-114-100s will arrive this year, and the rest within three years. ENVIRONMENT ANDREW DOYLE / BRUSSELS Eurocontrol looks to cut contrails with rerouting Flight planning to avoid cold, damp air is among possible techniques under study Research being carried out into air craft condensation trails (contrails) could result in air traffic manage ment (ATM) procedures to route aircraft around the pockets of cold, damp air that lead to their forma tion, says Eurocontrol. Aircraft contrails can create artificial cirrus clouds The technique is one of many options being studied by the organ isation as part of efforts to alleviate the environmental impact of civil aviation through ATM measures. Eurocontrol environment do main manager Andrew Watt says more research is needed to quantify the environmental threat posed by the artificial creation of cirrus clouds by air craft contrails, thought by some to be a greater contrib utor to global warming than avia tion carbon dioxide (C02) emissions. Watt says: "One option could be re routing to ensure aircraft do not pass through atmos pheric conditions where contrails form. If there is a problem, we have to incorporate the whole scenario into flight planning. If we can predict where such sheets of damp, cold masses of air are, it may be possible to mitigate." The Contrails project, led by the German aerospace centre's Institute of Atmospheric Physics and being carried out in partnership with Eurocontrol and the European Space Agency, aims to demonstrate reliable detection from space of contrail-induced cirrus, establish a correlation with air traffic density and estimate contrail-related global warming. It will also validate Eurocontrol's contrail prediction model and investigate the feasibil ity of a contrail prediction service and the potential role of ATM in contrail prevention. There are concerns that the avia tion industry may be forced to act if the impact of contrail-induced cirms is "judged to be unacceptably high by political and regulatory authorities", say the researchers. • Eurocontrol estimates the intro duction of reduced vertical separa tion minima has reduced annual C02 emissions by 975,000t - equiv alent to 5,600 transatlantic flights. NAVIGATION EMMA KELLY / PERTH New Zealand reduces separation requirements Airways New Zealand will introduce reduced 30nm (55km) longitudinal and 30nm latitudinal separation in the Auckland oceanic flight infor mation region (FIR) in November, becoming the first air traffic man agement (ATM) service provider to introduce the new standards. Current separation is 50nm in longitude and latitude and the reduction will increase airspace capacity across the Tasman. The service provider has been imple menting reduced standards for five years through its advanced oceanic control system (OCS), but had to wait for formal International Civil Aviation Organisation approval. The move is expected to cut bot tlenecks on trans-Tasman routes and allow faster handovers to Airservices Australia controllers, says Airways New Zealand. "By reducing our separation stan dard, we are effectively increasing our airspace capacity but, more importantly, we are also able to pro vide increased route flexibility," says Mark Goodall, Airways New Zealand's oceanic unit manager. "It saves the airlines money through better operating efficiency gained by improved access to preferred routes and flight levels." Reduced separation standards is one of a number of developments made possible with the OCS, which has been operating for five years as the sole-means oceanic ATM system for the Auckland FIR at the Oceanic Control Centre in Auckland. OCS, and its conflict probe capability, is supporting the move from permanently defined tracks to free flight operations. Earlier this year Airways New Zealand, the US Federal Aviation Administration's Oakland centre and Air New Zealand launched a trial of Dynamic Airborne Re-route Planning (DARP) on the airline's services to Los Angeles, whereby the aircraft crew requested new flightpaths en route. Using the OCS's conflict probe tool, con trollers determined whether the re route was safe and if so, sent route clearances directly to the aircraft. The trial has now ended and the service provider is writing up the procedures to allow its operational introduction early next year when the new OCS at the FAA's Oakland centre comes online, providing a seamless service between New Zealand and the USA. Airways New Zealand is part of a consortium, with Lockheed Martin and Adacel, that won a contract from the FAA to upgrade its oceanic ATM system. Training of FAA controllers by Airways New Zealand is under way. 12 28 SEPTEMBER - 4 OCTOBER 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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