This arrived this morning:
BOEING PROPOSES NEW FLIGHT DECK EQUIPMENT
EVERETT, WA (AP) Boeing Commercial Airplane Company Vice
President of Engineering, Bill Alum, today announced the
company's development of a new, high technology transport
jet flight deck warning system designed to help pilots avoid
the sort of incident that Asiana Airlines flight 214
experienced recently while attempting to land in San
Francisco. The new device utilizes measurements of air
pressure taken at different points on the aircraft's
airframe to calculate how fast the airplane is traveling
through the air. The actual technology involved in the
inputs and how they are processed is still considered
proprietary technological information by Boeing, as well as
by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Mr. Alum said that this device, if installed in all new
aircraft, as well as being retrofitted into the existing
commercial aircraft fleet, "has the potential to save
hundreds of lives each year". It is engineered to provide
the pilots of these mammoth, high performance aircraft with
continuous, real-time updates of how fast the airplane is
moving. This will allow them to always make sure that the
aircraft's speed remains within a safe operating envelope.
"Information is power", said Mr. Alum. The full name of the
device is yet to be determined, but the current working name
is "airspeed indicator".
Reaction within the aviation industry has ranged from
skepticism to enthusiasm. Dr. Phillip Head, chairman of the
Department of Aeronautical Engineering at M.I.T. stated that
his department has been recommending something such as an
airspeed indicator for many years, but that their advocacy
for it has "fallen on deaf ears".
In Toulouse, France, AirBus Chief Engineer Pierre Le Fou
said that, due to AirBus' advanced flight guidance systems,
such a device would be an unnecessary addition to their
flight decks. "The technical advancement of our flight decks
is such that pilots have no need for this type of
information. Our guidance systems are constantly aware of
all pertinent parameters while in flight, and will
automatically keep them within the normal range. The pilots
of our aircraft have no use for such a device as an airspeed
indicator".
Skepticism not withstanding, Boeing seems to be determined
to proceed with the development of this new flight deck
technology. Mr. Alum stated that "we feel that, once pilots
reach the point that they understand the value of the
heretofore unavailable information that our proposed
airspeed indicator can give them, they will embrace this new
device and will learn to keep a close eye on it".
Mike
Borgelt Instruments - design & manufacture of quality soaring
instrumentation since 1978
www.borgeltinstruments.com
tel: 07 4635 5784 overseas: int+61-7-4635 5784
mob: 042835 5784 : int+61-42835 5784
P O Box 4607, Toowoomba East, QLD 4350, Australia
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