Messier Bugatti has developed new-generation carbon brakes, which halve the cost per landing penalty compared with traditional steel and carbon products. The aim is to bring the advantages of using carbon brakes to high-rotation short-haul airliners such as the Airbus A320/321 family.
The new-generation Sepcarb III brakes have all the advantages of carbon brakes over steel, such as low weight and improved stopping power, while reducing the cost per landing (CPL) differential with steel by 50%. The CPL gap is further offset by a near-400kg weight saving per aircraft.
Until now, the higher cost of refurbishing carbon brakes compared with steel has prevented their wider use, especially by airlines flying high-rotation routes.
Research showed that the commonest cause of brake attrition on high-rotation routes is taxi snubbing. Sepcarb III brakes, highly resistant to taxi snubs and offer a 75% gain in endurance over first-generation carbon brakes.
TRANSPORT SYSTEMS
Achievement: Introduction of FANS-1 package
At the start of 1994, Honeywell was given the official go-ahead from Boeing for development of the FANS-1 (Future Air Navigation System) package. Only ten months after this formal launch, Qantas Airways was able to begin flight testing of the new FANS software aboard a Boeing 747-400 being flown from Sydney. The tests were the first steps towards the standard use of satellite-based navigation in the South Pacific. Certification of the system for the 747-400 is due for mid-1995. Honeywell FANS implementation can bring annual cost savings, estimated at up to $500,000 per aircraft.
AEROSPACE
Achievement: Ultrasonic fuel-gauge system approved for the Boeing 777
Smiths Industries' Ultrasonic Fuel Quantity System for the Boeing 777 is the first application of such technology to a production aircraft. The system has several piezo-electric sensors located on the lower surfaces of the aircraft's fuel tanks. Fuel-height measurements from all of the sensors are fed to a processor unit, which calculates the fuel volume and mass for each tank. The light weight system offers high reliability, and lower maintenance costs.
COMMERCIAL AVIONICS SYSTEMS
Achievement: Forward-looking Wind-shear Weather Radar System
In 1994, AlliedSignal saw its Forward-looking Wind-shear Weather Radar (FLWR) system become the first to go into service with a major carrier. The system helps to solve the potentially lethal hazard of microburst windshear, which has caused 27 airline accidents over the past 20 years.
The system, which is now in service with Continental Airlines, alerts flight crews to windshear at up to 9km (5nm), allowing time to take avoiding action.
This advance in flight safety stems from an eight-year co-operative effort between AlliedSignal, NASA, the US Federal Aviation Administration and Continental Airlines. A fundamental breakthrough was work by NASA on a hazard index, which relates the strength of windshear to the performance capability of the aircraft. Simulator experience showed that pilots required as little as 10s warning of wind-shear to avoid the hazard, setting AlliedSignal a goal to achieve with its systems work.
The system includes, a radar to sense the movement of moisture toward and away from the aircraft. This information runs through sophisticated digital processors, which enable the radar to detect dry and wet microbursts and filter out background clutter. Storms and windshear are shown up on a cockpit monitor and audible warnings activate as the hazard approaches, giving at least the minimum 10s escape time.
With the system now certificated and in service with Continental, 15 other airlines also plan to install the radar.
Achievement: Development of the 777 big twin jet.
First flight of the Boeing 777 during 1994 in itself marked a major achievement as development work on the high-tech twinjet came towards completion. The programme also laid down a new approach for future aircraft development at Boeing. From the start of the programme, Boeing worked together as a team with its airline customers, engine manufacturers and worldwide supplier base to develop the aircraft. The programme also set new standards on quality - examples include a halving of error and reworking rates and a variation of less than 6mm on the first aircraft's 64m wing.
Achievement: Pioneering development of Head-Up Guidance System
Flight Dynamics' Head-Up Guidance System (HGS) has become the world's first system ever approved for manually flown operations in Category IIIa conditions. The system displays normal instrument flight information in the pilot's forward field-of-view as well as projecting the aircraft's flight path. During 1994, Flight Dynamics certificated the HGS for the de Havilland Dash 8 for landings in visibility as low as 700ft (210m). The system was also certificated on the Boeing 737 for Cat IIIa operations, and work is now being carried out for further airliners and corporate jets. Over 500 systems are now installed or on order, including those purchased to equip the entire Southwest Airlines 737 fleet.
Achievement: Electronic system designed to reduce aircraft noise
Cambridge Concept has developed a prototype noise-reduction system aimed at reducing external noise from aircraft, through the use of sophisticated sensor and audio technology.
The system uses phase-cancellation techniques to reduce an aircraft's noise "footprint". At the heart of the system is Cambridge Concept's patented high-efficiency, high-output audio sensor.
The sensors monitor the level and frequency spectrum of noise generated by each engine. A control unit uses this data to generate an anti-phase cancellation signal, which is sent to a digital loudspeaker at the rear of the engine.
The company points out that its sensor technology is more adaptable to the constraints of an airframe than are contemporary systems, which use low-efficiency ferro-magnetic sensors.
A computer model of the device has been developed, based on measurements from the prototype, and the company plans to produce a full-size version of the transducer this year using data from airframe manufacturers and measurements taken from a client's aircraft.
Achievement: Development of its Environmental Management System
Qantas Airways has taken a lead in implementing an environmental-management system and aims to be the first airline in the world to win accreditation under a new series of standards being developed for such schemes by the International Standards Organisation. As part of this process, the airline has managed to eliminate toxic chemicals from aircraft-maintenance areas, through the adoption of a non-toxic paint stripping chemical and a range of terpene-based products for cleaning hydraulic filters. Qantas has also seconded engineers to tackle the problem of improving waste handling and disposal.
CHEMICAL SYSTEMS
Achievement: Use of redundant rocket-motor propellant in civil mining
United Technologies Chemical Systems division employed unique methods to demilitarise 120 large solid-rocket motors, and then configured 400,000kg of propellant into two mining products which outperformed blasting agents commonly used in the USA. The eight-month project was completed in May 1994, using an environmentally sound, zero-discharge process. The propellant products from the project are now being used by several US quarries.
COMMERCIAL AVIONICS
Achievement: Mode-S terminal area surveillance
In 1994, Collins Commercial Avionics led a team to develop a low-cost solution for the US Federal Aviation Administration's Airport Surface Traffic Automation (ASTA) programme.
Together with the FAA, Cardion and computer giant Unisys, Collins successfully developed a Terminal Area Communications and Surveillance system based on Enhanced Mode-S. The partners went on to demonstrate the system by tracking two FAA experimental aircraft at the administration's technical centre in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The result of the co-operation was to create a fully integrated system from the air traffic controller to the cockpit. The ground equipment combined the airport's existing Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) with Unisys' data-processing system and Cardion's prototype non-rotating Co-operative Area Precision Tracking System (CAPTS). Collins equipped the aircraft with a modified Mode-S transponder and differential global-positioning-system (DGPS) receiver with moving-map display. It also provided a DGPS ground station.
The rotating Mode-S SSR was used for communications with targets more than 15km (10 miles) from the airport, and the Cardion CAPTS systems covered a range up to 30km. Transition between the two systems was seamless, and surveillance error was never greater than 5m.
Achievement: APALS autonomous landing systems trials
Flight tests towards the end of 1994 helped Lockheed Martin demonstrate the capabilities of its novel Autonomous Precision Approach & Landing System (APALS) which is operated independently of any ground-based navigation aids. Borrowing military technology, APALS basically uses the aircraft's weather radar to capture images of the outside scene, and matches these against an onboard database of stored reference scenes. This is used to update inertial-navigation information. The trials in September showed a positional error range of less than 2m.
FLIGHT CENTER
Achievement: Advanced qualification programme for pilots
United Airlines became the first carrier to win US Federal Aviation Administration for an Advanced Qualification Programme (AQP), a new pilot-training philosophy designed to tackle human-factors problems on the flight deck. Instead of concentrating on focusing on individual pilot performance and technical skills, the aim is to shift the emphasis on to practical flying and crew teamwork. In 1990, the FAA ruled that any airline that voluntarily decided to set up an AQP would be allowed to develop their own training programme, provided they fulfilled laid-down guidelines. United took up the challenge and is now the first to have an AQP approved by the FAA.
Organisation: Federal Aviation Administration
Few individuals in aviation can claim to have had such a direct personal influence on the direction of the world industry as this year's winner of the Aerospace Personality of the Year Award. Over the past 17 years, as head of the regulation and certification office at the US Federal Aviation Administration, Tony Broderick has stamped his mark on world air safety.
Not all of the FAA's decisions have been universally popular, but Broderick has earned broad industry respect for bringing a firm, objective approach to decision-making, often in the face of strong public pressure for quick solutions. Such stability has helped to provide an anchor for the FAA and for the world airline industry during a time of rapid change.
Broderick has not shied away from taking tough and occasionally controversial decisions in the interests of raising safety standards in the USA and beyond.
In 1994, he took the lead in exposing safety shortfalls among carriers from less-developed nations, and nine airlines were banned from flying into US airspace as a result. The action helped to provoke the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to act and saw the European Joint Aviation Authorities quickly lend its support to the initiative.
Typically, the FAA ban was backed up by strong positive advice on how under-resourced nations might work to improve their oversight of airline safety, with Broderick championing the formation of "regional civil-aviation authorities".
Following the collapse of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe, the FAA has also faced pressure to put new-aircraft certification agreements in place. The work has often been slow and painstaking, but at last appears to be paying off as progress begins to be made and the first certifications are put in place.
Broderick has also overseen efforts at harmonisation between the USA and European authorities. The joint certification of the Airbus A330 provided a milestone, and has been followed by the pioneering work on certificating the Boeing 777. Certification of the aircraft with clearance for extended range twin-engine operations in place from the start was an achievement in itself.
Within the USA, the FAA has continued to set the agenda in improving airline systems and safety standards: for example, implementing rule changes to bring commuter airlines under the same regulations as those for network carriers.
Achievement: Pioneering the use of franchise partners
British Airways has gone further than most in building global alliances throughout Europe and the world. During 1994, the airline took another step forward by signing up a network of six "franchise" partners to feed traffic into its UK hubs.
The partner carriers use their own regional aircraft, but in the BA livery and offering the service levels expected of the BA brand.
Use of these partners has allowed BA to extend the reach of its network at cost levels it could not match with its own fleet. Today, the six franchisees carry nearly 3 million passengers over 125 different routes, and have added 54 new regional airports to the BA network. Including feed revenue and franchise fees, BA now has a business worth some £45 million a year.
The franchise partners have also benefited from the strength of the BA brand, with most reporting massive traffic growth as a result.
CityFlyer Express and GB Airways now feed into London Gatwick, while BA subsidiary Brymon feeds into London Heathrow. UK regional airports are served by: Maersk Air at Birmingham; Manx Air at Manchester; and Loganair at Glasgow.
Together, these franchise carriers operate a fleet of 60 regional jet and turboprop aircraft
Achievement: Developing European code-shares
With a growing European network and a highly valuable position as the second largest operator out of London's congested Heathrow Airport, British Midland has positioned itself as one of Europe's strongest regional carriers. To strengthen its position further, the airline has established a series of code-share partnerships designed to help carriers improve their access to the UK and Europe. Air Canada, Austrian Airlines and Alitalia were among those added to the list in 1994, alongside United Airlines and American Airlines. The strategy has helped British Midland increase its offline revenues by around 25% in 1994, and expects similar growth in 1995.
Achievement: Successful restructuring
Two years ago, when a new management team took control of Turbomeccanica, the Romanian Engine Company was close to collapse. Besides world recession and the fall-out from the collapse of communism in the Eastern Bloc, the management had to overcome an organisational culture, which had ignored issues such as marketing or rationalisation. In 1993, the new team set about an aggressive campaign to tap into new overhaul and repair markets, while other parts of the company were either spun-off or diversified. By 1994, Turbomeccanica had built up a base of 68 foreign customers accounting for 75% of sales. Sales have grown and the company expects another 40% growth in 1995.
Achievement: F-16 lean manufacturing initiative
Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth fighter plant successfully implemented its three-year plan to improve production quality and efficiency while lowering the unit manufacturing costs for the F-16.
The success of this initiative has been demonstrated by continued sales of the F-16 into international markets, the key business opportunity which led Lockheed to acquire the operation from General Dynamics in 1993. Lockheed Martin has also been able to offer to sell additional F-16s to the US Air Force at a fixed price of $20 million per aircraft.
The initiative delivered record performances in nine factory business systems, showing improved quality levels, as well as yielding a 50% increase in sales per employee and a two-month cut in aircraft-production cycles.
The company achieved this primarily by outsourcing many of its factory operations, balancing delivery schedules to stabilise work volumes and requiring suppliers to implement Statistical Process Control quality techniques to cut costs.
DEFENCE SYSTEMS
Achievement: Rapid integration of TIALD pod on Sepecat Jaguars
In early 1994, the UK Ministry of Defence decided that the most cost-effective solution for enhancing the RAF's precision-bombing capability in the short term was to integrate GEC-Marconi's TIALD laser designator onto the RAF's Sepecat Jaguars.
GEC-Marconi, as manufacturer of the TIALD pod and supplier of all the major avionics equipment required for the modification, worked closely with the UK's Defence Research Agency and elements of the RAF Logistics Command in a unique teaming relationship to address and solve integration problems.
Achievement: Development of miniature voice and data recorder
Smiths Industries undertook rapid development of a modular, solid-state flight-data recorder, which meets worldwide operational and survivability requirements. The system was originally developed for the Mitsubishi/ Sikorsky SH-60J, but has since been integrated onto other aircraft including: Royal Australian Air Force General Dynamics F-111s; US Army Bell OH-58D and Sikorsky MH-60K helicopters; US Coast Guard Sikorsky HH-60s; and US Navy Sikorsky SH-60Bs. Each of these demonstration programmes represented the rapid integration of a recording capability, which did not previously exist.
COMMERCIAL AVIONICS
Achievement: TCAS II certification on Russian airframe
To continuing flying into US airspace, Aeroflot-Russian International Airlines (ARIA) needed to fit out its fleet with a traffic-alert collision-avoidance system (TCAS II).
Collins Commercial Avionics worked to solve the problem by modifying its TCAS II system to interface with avionics equipment aboard the airline's Russian-built aircraft. A new line-replaceable unit was designed to interface with the Russian radio-altimeter system.
By the start of 1994 a system was installed, flight tested and certificated aboard an Ilyushin Il-86, marking a milestone in efforts towards a Russia-USA certification bilateral. The Il-96-300 and Il-62 now also configured to receive certification.
The programme involved Collins, ARIA and the Ilyushin design bureau working alongside the US and Russian regulatory authorities. Subsequent installation of the systems was carried out entirely at ARIA's base in Moscow.
Corporation, Australia
Achievement: Construction of new runway at Sydney airport.
The construction of a new parallel runway at Sydney Airport has gained recognition in Australia as a "model project", completed well ahead of schedule and A$50 million ($35 million) under budget. It has also won international attention for some pioneering construction techniques. The project required reclamation of 160Ha (395 acres) of land from Botany Bay and construction of a 7km (3.8 mile) earth-reinforced sea wall, which was built at a record speed of 28m a day. The project was completed in October 1994, six months ahead of schedule.
Achievement: Design of the Contran system to prevent VHF communications disruptions
Voice communications between pilots and air traffic control (ATC) on VHF radio frequencies are notoriously prone to interference. Nigel Corrigan, formerly an engineer with the UK Civil Aviation Authority, outlined a technical way of preventing the disruptions as long ago as 1981, but his proposals were not taken up until US and European standards were issued a decade later. Corrigan's company, Lansec, has now developed the Contran system to solve the problem, with both airbourne and ground-based units available. Penny & Giles are building units under licence and the first Contran systems are shortly to enter service with airport users.
HELICOPTER SYSTEMS
Achievement: MD Explorer
At the end of 1994, the MD Explorer became the first new-generation twin-turbine passenger and utility rotorcraft to be certificated by the US Federal Aviation Administration in more than a decade. McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems (MDHS) also delivered the first two MD Explorers to customers in 1994, less than two years after the programme's first flight.
The programme has incorporated a series of new technologies and manufacturing techniques which MDHS believes are destined to become industry standard on future rotorcraft.
The MD Explorer has become the first commercial helicopter to be designed exclusively using a computer-aided design system, and the first to go into production making major use of composite materials. That includes an all-composite bearingless main rotor, flexbeam and blade system.
MDHS has also applied its proprietary NOTAR (no tail-rotor) system for anti-torque and directional control, first launched on the MD 520N and under development for the MD 630N. Besides enhancing safety, the NOTAR system helps to qualify the aircraft as one of the quietest production helicopters flying.
In the cockpit, traditional cockpit instruments have been replaced with a liquid-crystal integrated instrument display system presenting information in both linear and digital formats.
MDHS adds that the nine-place MD Explorer is also designed to give operating costs which are "considerably lower" than for existing medium-twin helicopters.
Achievement: Tiger combat helicopter development
Eurocopter launched the Tiger combat-helicopter programme in 1989. Five years later, the first four prototypes are flying on schedule and within the budget earmarked by the French and German Governments. Equally important, the aircraft is achieving performance levels well in excess of the original specifications. From the start, the aim of the Franco-German company was to create an advanced product with room for future upgrades, and one which could form the basis of a future European standard. Anti-tank and escort/protection versions of the Tiger make it one of the most modern combat helicopters in the world, tackling key issues such as low-observability, agility and crew-workload.
Achievement: K-MAX "ariel truck"
The decision to launch the K-MAX K-1200 "ariel truck" marked a significant departure for Kaman, representing the company's first commercial-helicopter programme in over 40 years. Company founder Charles Kaman pushed for the project as part of a far-sighted diversification effort and led the design team himself. The aim was to create a workhorse for heavy-lift operations such as logging or construction. The K-MAX, which entered service in 1994, can repeatedly lift 2,270kg at 8,000ft (2,440m), as well as offering low maintenance and high reliability. The helicopter also incorporates advanced technology borrowed from Kaman's pioneering military-helicopter work.
INTERTECHNIQUE
Achievement: Ice-detection system using ultrasonic measurements
Intertechnique has developed a highly efficient ice-detection system based on ultrasonics, designed to warn pilots of dangerous aircraft icing conditions.
The company developed the system, having found that acoustic impedance, which can be defined for a given material, is an ideal characteristic for determining the degree of ice contamination on an aircraft's critical surfaces.
The system can provide information about the presence and nature of a contaminant across up to eight measurement points located on a critical surface.
When ice is detected, the measured thickness is displayed on a cockpit display and an alert signal is activated. The system can detect 0.2mm of surface contamination and also measures surface temperature. A simple indicator states whether the conditions are clean, fluid, slush or ice.
Extensive tests in both artificial and natural winter conditions have proved the efficiency of the ultrasonic technology used for this patented Intertechnique application. Recent in-flight tests with the system have also proved successful.
Transport Systems
Achievement: Demonstration of global-positioning-system (GPS) approaches
Honeywell has taken a leading role in demonstrating the benefits of global-positioning-system (GPS) technology for general aviation. GPS is expected to enable many regions of the world to upgrade the accuracy of aircraft-navigation systems and improve safety. Honeywell has flown over 100 GPS approaches on behalf of the US Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA has been using an aircraft owned and equipped by Honeywell in numerous demonstrations showing how differential GPS, when coupled with an aircraft's flight-management and flight-guidance systems, can be used to fly accurate instrument approaches to almost any airport runway in the world.
Achievement: Skymap GPS navigator with moving map display
Skyforce was the first to launch a moving-map display based on global-positioning-system (GPS) navigation into the general-aviation market. Since the launch of Skmap, the product has been enhanced progressively through two major software revisions.
The latest improvements include enhanced cartography, multi-lingual operating system and rapid route planning through the use of a mouse.
Skyforce is planning further enhancements, including the use of grid references based on UK Ordinance Survey maps.
Israel Aircraft Industries
Achievement: Introduction of Western maintenance methods to CIS operators
Bedek Aviation introduced carriers of Russia and the CIS to Western maintenance methods, and implemented a long-term strategy of encouraging them to develop their own maintenance skills.
The Israeli Company achieved this by offering training programmes to the CIS operators and establishing on-site technical teams to provide local line-maintenance services.
Bedek's Total Maintenance Support Package proved invaluable to those carriers which opted to modernise their fleets using Western aircraft types, as many lacked purchasing- and logistic-support capabilities, infrastructure and tooling, and training.
Bedek has now established operational bases at four centres within the CIS. Transaero Airlines, Russia's fast-expanding independent carrier, has its fleet of two Boeing 757-200s and four 737-200s maintained at Moscow. In the regions, another 757-200 is maintained for Baikal Airlines and two McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s operated for Kransnoyarsk Avia. Finally, two Boeing 727-200s operated by Azarbaijan Airlines are being maintained at Baku.
Bedek will continue to offer heavy-maintenance support at its base in Israel, while operators gradually take over responsibility for their own line maintenance.
SERVICES
Achievement: Rapid delivery of Boeing 727-200 cargo conversions
Pemco managed to complete full passenger-to-freighter conversions on 13 Boeing 727-200s during a period of just seven months, redelivering all of them between August and December 1994. Faced with exceptionally high demand for conversion kits and spare parts to allow the work to be performed, the company put in place a "priority-parts management system". This system allowed the manufacture of parts and construction of kits on a "just-in-time" basis for installation on the aircraft.
Achievement: New tool-control system to increase efficiency and improve safety
Stahlwille developed a tool-control system offering improved safety and increased efficiency, eliminating the need for "shadow boards" or heavy cabinets to manage workshop tools. The company's hybrid, lightweight kit contains an inert plastic laminated foam, resistant to chemical attack, in which is formed a precise digitised three-dimensional cut-out perfectly matching the tool.
Achievement: Scramjet engine for hypersonic missiles
The French research programme into hypersonic rocket propulsion passed a major milestone on 9 November, 1994, with the first two static runs of a scramjet (supersonic-combustion ramjet) at the new Aerospatiale/Clereg test centre at Subdray.
The prototype scramjet was fired for 3s and 6s under conditions representative of the flight of a hypersonic missile or aircraft at Mach 6 (7,500km/h).
The test firings, although short, were a major breakthrough for the programme, given the complex aerodynamic and thermal problems posed by a scramjet's combustion chamber. Air-intake pressure to the chamber was above 30bar (435lb/in2), and temperatures climbed to 1,427¡C.
To understand the dynamics involved, it was essential to carry out a test on an actual motor, says Aerospatiale, explaining the importance of firing the prototype, called the "Chamois".
Once the technology is fully understood, the scramjet will have key applications in space and missiles sectors. For space applications, the scramjet gives a specific impulse ten times greater than that of a conventional rocket motor, making it an ideal method for tackling the challenge of producing horizontal take-off and landing, single-stage-to-orbit boosters.
The ability to fly at very high altitudes and Mach numbers should also prove a major asset for future long-range missiles on which Aerospatiale is now working
DYNAMICS
Achievement: ASRAAM missile programme
The advanced short-range air-to-air missile (ASRAAM) programme was first proposed in the late 1970s under the auspices of NATO. From the start it was beset by political and organisational programmes, with Canada, Germany and Norway, eventually withdrawing from the UK led programme. British Aerospace nevertheless put a new team in place and fought to keep the project afloat. The UK did finally confirm a requirement for the ASRAAM for the Royal Air Force, but opened the programme to competition. In 1992, the BAe-led team at last secured the £570 million contract. Three years after the devlopment programme began, every milestone has been met on course for an in-service date of 1998.
CORPORATION
Achievement: Lockheed L-1011 TriStar air-launcher development
On 23 June 1994, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, operated by Orbital Sciences (OSC) and modified by Marshall Aerospace in the UK, air-launched the Pegasus XL satellite vehicle. This represented the first time that a commercial aircraft had been used as part of a launch system to deliver spacecraft into low-Earth orbit. By starting its flight above the most of the Earth's atmosphere, the Pegasus XL can carry satellites weighing up to 500kg - twice the payload of a ground-launched vehicle and at lower cost. Modification and certification for the L-1011 to carry the 23,600kg Pegasus took 18 months.
Source: Flight International
