Boeing Commercial Airplane Services has completed US Federal Aviation Administration certification of a flightdeck modernisation programme for Japan Airlines' (JAL) Boeing 747 Classic fleets.
The first equipped aircraft, a JAL-owned 747-300 used for the flight-test programme, will be delivered this month, says Boeing. It will supply modification kits to JAL for retrofit of the remaining 33 aircraft.
The core of the upgrade is a CMC Electronics CMA-900 flight management system (FMS) which provides compliance with future required navigation performance statutes and the introduction of FANS-1 equivalent datalink functions. The upgrade also includes CMC's CMA-2102 high-gain satellite communications antenna already supplied to JAL's 767 and 777 fleets.
JAL originally placed firm orders for 18 upgrades and 16 options, but appears to be going ahead to modernise all 34 aircraft, making it the largest single 747 Classic upgrade programme. The JAL configuration is a multi-sensor system based on a fully integrated triple CMA-900 global positioning system/FMS, plus triple inertial reference systems and new distance-measuring equipment.
Source: Flight International
