Safety &Technology Trends

Major Contract for ADS-B Weather Systems All Weather, a manufacturer of automated weather information systems and meteorological sensors, has been selected by ITT to supply 62 Automated Weather Observing Systems (AWOS) as part of ITT's ADS-B contract with the FAA. AWI's contract with ITT is valued at $45.5...

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Major Contract for ADS-B Weather Systems

All Weather, a manufacturer of automated weather information systems and meteorological sensors, has been selected by ITT to supply 62 Automated Weather Observing Systems (AWOS) as part of ITT's ADS-B contract with the FAA. AWI's contract with ITT is valued at $45.5 million. AWI will provide turnkey installation of 37 FAA Certified AWOS systems to be located on oil drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and an additional 25 AWOS systems to be located at various sites in Alaska. AWI's effort includes site surveys, engineering, production, and installation over the next three years, and maintenance of the systems for 15 years.

Euro Flights Surge to All-time High

EUROCONTROL recently released an analysis of traffic and delays in Europe in 2007, and 2008 predictions, which shows that in 2007, the number of flights in Europe surged to 10 million, an all-time high and an increase of 5.3 percent on 2006. Average daily traffic in Europe in 2007 was 27,676 flights a day compared to 26,286 in 2006. Traffic growth was strongest in Eastern Europe, with several states seeing growth near 20 percent. Growth in Finland and Sweden and in Azores and Canary Islands was lower than the European average. Growth was driven mainly by low cost carriers, which saw an increase of 25 percent on the year as a whole. But in 2007, on average 11 percent of flights were delayed, up from just under 10 percent of flights which were delayed in 2006. The number of flights in 2008 is predicted to grow by 4.2 percent, but air traffic flow management delays for summer 2008 will exceed three minutes per flight, up from 2.6 minutes in summer 2007. Traffic growth is expected to be strongest in countries along the Adriatic Coast and in Poland and the three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). For the first time 20 percent of all flights are expected to be from low-cost carriers.

China Signs on for NextGen

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Air Traffic Management Bureau (ATMB) of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China, allowing the U.S. and the People's Republic of China to begin collaboration in earnest toward the harmonization of future air traffic management systems. The signing of the pact formalized the already strong air traffic cooperative relationship, and officially established a NextGen Air Traffic Management Steering Group. The Group, co-chaired by JPDO Chief Architect Jay Merkle and ATMB Deputy Director General Lu XiaoPing, provides a forum for the FAA Air Traffic Organization, ATMB, JPDO, and other key partners to achieve mutual understanding of each other's complete air traffic system requirements, needs and plans. As one of the first efforts under this agreement, a FAA/JPDO team will travel to Chengdu, China, during the week of April 14 to conduct a workshop with key ATMB representatives.

USAF funds research into oil repellent surfaces

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research is funding investigations into super oil repellent surfaces because of their potential utility in cleaning up jet fuel spills and protecting aircraft or rocket parts from fuel absorption. Drs. Gareth H. McKinley and Robert E. Cohen, professors of engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are exploring man-made and natural surfaces that keep gasoline and oil from soaking in and spreading out over a surface. The challenge is the low value of the surface tension of many oils, which makes them spread over surfaces very easily. Surface tension is a measure of the attraction between molecules of the same composition. The researchers' goal is to design new solid surfaces with very low interfacial energies that can repel oily liquids. The scientists' work may lead to protective coatings for airplane parts, which are vulnerable to fuel leaks. The researchers may also create fuel-line gaskets with the new technology because gaskets typically swell substantially when they absorb gasoline.

Satellite Precision Landing System

Honeywell recently demonstrated its satellite-based precision landing system to senior representatives from airlines and ANSPS (air navigation service providers) at Germany's Bremen Airport.A B-737-800 operated by the German airline TUIfly used a prototype Honeywell GBAS (ground-based augmentation system) for the demonstration flight that was organized by Airservices Australia and Honeywell, with the assistance of Germany's ANSP (air navigation service provider) DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung and Boeing.DFS operates the Bremen system, and will be Honeywell's SLS-4000 GBAS launch customer following its FAA certification, which is expected later this year. Airservices also operates a GBAS prototype at Sydney, and is working with Honeywell to develop the system. Honeywell says the GPS-signal augmentation provided by GBAS can improve the accuracy of the onboard navigation systems enough to allow precision landings even in very poor visibility.

Boeing to Provide AHM System to Qantas

Boeing says Qantas Airways' fleet of 747-400 airplanes will be monitored by Boeing's Airplane Health Management (AHM), a software system that helps airlines improve the management of unscheduled maintenance events. In addition, Qantas will use Airplane Health Management for future 787 Dreamliner deliveries. Qantas has 65 Boeing 787s on order. Qantas' 30 747-400s will use Airplane Health Management to gather and evaluate critical in-flight data on the real-time flying condition of its airplanes, information that can be used across the enterprise to identify and address overall efficiency. Airplane Health Management gives airlines significant insight as to the condition of airplanes in the sky, providing in-flight access to fuel-burn information so airlines can identify and correct problems that might be wasting fuel, as well as data that allow preparation for the airline to minimize or eliminate delays through advance preparation for maintenance procedures. In some cases, Airplane Health Management allows engineers on the ground to monitor the health of an aircraft while it is in the air, which allows airlines to take action before a fault occurs, leading to a more reliable, cost-effective operation. For example, a fault identified by AHM and relayed to ground controllers provides airlines the visibility to turn a potentially costly on-ground maintenance delay into an easily addressable repair that minimizes or eliminates scheduling problems for passengers.

Improved ATC Services in South Atlantic

Airlines in South Atlantic airspace under Brazilian Air Traffic Control will by mid-year benefit from the introduction of real time airspace surveillance and data link communications between pilots and air traffic controllers Brazil's Departamento de Controle do Espaco A�reo (DECEA) is responsible for providing air traffic services for over 13 million square kilometers in the South Atlantic region, an area referred to as the Atlantico Flight Information Region (FIR). Air traffic services in this region are delivered by the Atlantico Area Control Center that is operated by the Third Integrated Center for Air Defense and Air Traffic Control (CINDACTA III), one of the four main air traffic control centers administrated by DECEA. The Atlantico Area Control Center services will now be enhanced by the implementation of advanced and proven applications that will allow aircraft to periodically report their real-time position information and allow pilots and controllers to exchange data link messages over SITA's satellite data link service. These applications are referred to as Automatic Dependant Surveillance-Contract (ADS-C) and Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) respectively and collectively as FANS 1/A.

Lockheed Martin UK Supports Swanwick Air Traffic Centre

NATS, the UK's air traffic control authority, recently awarded a five-year, GBP80 million contract to Lockheed Martin UK to continue to support the London Area Control (LAC) operation at the Swanwick Air Traffic Control Centre. The agreement enables Lockheed Martin to provide continued enhancements, maintenance and support of the system it developed with NATS to modernize the management of air traffic over England and Wales. The contract builds on a 30-year relationship between Lockheed Martin and NATS that currently helps move more than 240 million passengers a year safely and swiftly through UK skies. Designed to run one of the busiest and most complex airspaces in the world, the LAC operation at Swanwick currently handles up to 8,000 aircraft movements each day. The operational system continuously feeds more than 100 controllers with flight plan, situational and support information, while simultaneously providing the controllers with the tools they need to maintain the flow of traffic in this airspace.

Fake Diamonds Help Jet Engines Take The Heat

Ohio State University engineers are developing a technology to coat jet engine turbine blades with zirconium dioxide -- commonly called zirconia, the stuff of synthetic diamonds -- to combat high-temperature corrosion. The zirconia chemically converts sand and other corrosive particles that build up on the blade into a new, protective outer coating. In effect, the surface of the engine blade constantly renews itself. Ultimately, the technology could enable manufacturers to use new kinds of heat-resistant materials in engine blades, so that engines will be able to run hotter and more efficiently. Jet engines operate at thousands of degrees Fahrenheit, and blades in the most advanced engines are coated with a thin layer of temperature-resistant, thermally-insulating ceramic to protect the metal blades. The coating -- referred to as a thermal-barrier coating -- is designed like an accordion to expand and contract with the metal. The problem: When sand hits the hot engine blade it melts -- and becomes glass. The hot glass chews into the ceramic coating. But the real damage happens after the engine cools, and the glass solidifies into an inflexible glaze on top of the ceramic. When the engine heats up again and the metal blades expand, the ceramic coating can't expand, because the glaze has locked it in place. The ceramic breaks off, shortening the life of the engine blades. The key is that the coating contains aluminum and titanium atoms hidden inside zirconia crystals. When the glass consumes the zirconia, it also consumes the aluminum and titanium. Once the glass accumulates enough of these elements, it changes from a molten material into a stable crystal, and it stops eating the ceramic.