Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

Ford, Terry

doi: 10.1108/eb036454pmid: N/A

PREDOMINANT areas of concern to the Licensing Authority with relation to the above conference were defined as the maintenance requirements and procedures relating to Transport and Aerial Work Category aircraft, with particular reference to large transport types and helicopters. All UK transport operators must hold an air operators certificate and it is the responsibility of the Airworthiness Division of the CAA to set the maintenance requirements and standards and the subsequent monitoring. The importance of control procedures cannot be over‐emphasised and it is considered by the CAA that work planning play a major role in maintenance and is a key activity for a successful and safe maintenance operation. The legal liability problem is making itself felt in all aspects of aircraft maintenance work as well as design engineering and makes vital the meeting of all legal requirements including appropriate history records.

Pressdee, AW

doi: 10.1108/eb036455pmid: N/A

The evolution of civil aircraft technology has been characterised by a drive towards three goals: the improvement of safety, the increase of operational reliability and the reduction in the actual cost of flying from A to B. This evolution has now been oversha‐dowed by another evolution, more widespread in its application, that of micro‐circuit technology. Avionics has at last come of age with the introduction of micro‐compters into all aspects of the control of aircraft where they provide consistent high‐speed decision‐making with the facility for self‐monitoring. In addition, the overall systems employing the micro‐computers represents a saving in weight, yet bring with them greatly enhanced flexibility of operation. The aircraft due to enter service in the next few years are likely to provide supreme examples of this burgeoning of avionics in providing extensive improvements in passenger comfort and safety together with optimisation of the economics of flying.

Brain, Norman

doi: 10.1108/eb036456pmid: N/A

THE routes to producing accurate composite tooling capable of working at elevated temperatures are described in this article by Norman Brain, Ciba‐Geigy Plastics.

doi: 10.1108/eb036457pmid: N/A

FLIGHT Systems (Farnborough) Department of the Royal Aircraft Establishment has won a Queen's Award for Technology jointly with GEC Avionics Ltd in recognition of their success in developing a system which allows aircraft to be flown at high speed and low level at night and in poor visibility using daylight flying techniques. It has been shown that this system will increase the operational effectiveness of ground attack aircraft by 40%.

doi: 10.1108/eb036458pmid: N/A

BEARINGS on the flight controls of the Westland Lynx which gained the World Helicopter Air Speed Record for Great Britain are retained with a Loctite retaining adhesive. This application, now common on all new Westland helicopters, removed the risk of the controls binding, simplified assembly, and reduced fitting time from 10 —15 minutes to around 2 minutes for each of approximately 200 bearings per aircraft.

doi: 10.1108/eb036459pmid: N/A

CINCINNATI Milacron has installed a 5‐axis CNC flexible machining cell at Rolls‐Royce Plc, Coventry to machine completely a range of complex light alloy castings for Rolls‐Royce jet engines. The installation has showed considerable improvements in productivity over previous methods:

doi: 10.1108/eb036460pmid: N/A

After years of research, an important development in powder metallurgy is about to enter commercial production with the commissioning by Inco Alloys International of its $4 million plant in Pittsboro, North Carolina, to produce aluminium and other light metal alloys by mechanical alloying.

Hammond, Keith

doi: 10.1108/eb036461pmid: N/A

From the poems of Caedmon to Blake's poetical sketches, through to Byron, Shelley, De Quincey and Keats, poetry is poetry is poetry.

Mayday,

doi: 10.1108/eb036462pmid: N/A

A technical presentation by the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators held recently at British Airways featured papers on a number of subjects connected with emergency evacuation and a demonstration making use of a Boeing 757 cabin training mock‐up. Given on behalf of E J Trimble of the AIB, ‘Aircraft passenger survival in fire gave a detailed examination of the circumstances surrounding the fatalities in the Manchester 737 accident in 1985. Some 83% of those who died perished as a result of having been incapacitated by the effects of toxic gas/smoke inhalation, thereby eliminating any chance of their escaping from the aircraft. One passenger was dragged out of the starboard overwing exit at about 5.5 minutes after the aircraft stopped, having some injuries, but being released from hospital after a week. Another passenger was released after 33 minutes but he later died from his injuries.

doi: 10.1108/eb036463pmid: N/A

OF six CNC machine tools linked through RS 232 interfaces into a direct numerical control (DNC) and automatic off‐line programming system at Tufflay Precision Engineering's Woking factory, three are Hitachi Seiki machines — two multi‐purpose vertical machining centres and a CNC lathe — supplied by Tarex Berger & Associates Ltd, Egham.