03 SEP 2009 _______________________________________ *C-5B Galaxy jet with faulty landing gear lands safely at Westover Air Reserve Base *Bad luck Qantas jet home after scare *Jet Carrying New York Mayor Bloomberg Hit By Bird *FAA to Order New Sensors for Airbus Jets After Crash *United flight lands safely *Boeing sees potential to re-engine the 737 *EASA issues CRJ700/900 angle-of-attack transducer directive *BA intends to fit auxiliary fuel tanks to transatlantic A318s **************************************** C-5B Galaxy jet with faulty landing gear lands safely at Westover Air Reserve Base CHICOPEE - A flight crew from Westover Air Reserve Base landed safely at the base at 2:02 p.m., after discovering problems with the landing gear on the C5-B Galaxy jet they were flying. None of the seven crew members were injured. It was not immediately clear whether the jet was damaged, said Maj. Jennifer S. Christovich, chief of public affairs for the base. The problem was with the left forward portion of the landing gear. The pilot circled the base while the crew was trying to troubleshoot the problem so it could land, she said. The crew was not able to fix the gear but landed without it, she said. "There are procedures in place so they can land safely," Christovich said. The jet was being examined by Lt. Col. David M. Heroux, chief of safety at the base Wednesday afternoon. A routine safety check was done of the jet before it took off earlier in the day, Christovich said. This is the second mishap with one of the giant cargo planes from Westover this summer. On July 23, another jet on a training mission dropped two 150-pound wheels into a wooded area in Belchertown. An investigation is being conducted to see why that happened. http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/09/c5b_with_faulty_landing_gear_ l.html?category=Top%20Stories *************** Bad luck Qantas jet home after scare A QANTAS jumbo jet - the same plane involved in a frightening mid-air explosion last July - has arrived in Sydney after being forced to make an emergency landing in Perth because of a fuel leak. The Boeing 747-400 was diverted to Perth and touched down about 3.30pm yesterday after flight crew discovered the plane was leaking fuel during its flight from Singapore to Sydney, Perth Now reported. "As a precaution one of the flight's crew shut down one of the four engines," a Qantas spokesman said. "This was not a flight safety issue. Our engineers in Perth will now assess the aircraft." A Qantas spokeswoman said there "was absolutely no link" between the two incidents and there was no danger to passengers in the latest incident. The Boeing 747-400 was carrying 290 passengers. It landed in Sydney overnight. Qantas has confirmed the plane, which was today flying the QF32 service, was the same ageing aircraft involved in a mid-air explosion over the South China Sea on July 25 last year. In that mid-air incident, an oxygen tank exploded and ripped a gaping hole in the plane's fuselage. It occurred at 29,000ft on a flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne, resulting in the cabin depressurising, oxygen masks deploying and forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing in Manila. The plane, which was flying at about 29,000ft over the South China Sea and plunged to 10,000ft in an emergency descent, landed with no reports of injuries to the 346 passengers and 19 crew. (AAP) **************** Jet Carrying New York Mayor Bloomberg Hit By Bird Bloomberg, Others Were Traveling To Kennedy Funeral A plane carrying New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the funeral of Senator Ted Kennedy was struck by a bird over Long Island Saturday. The New York Post reports that the pilot of the Dassault 900EX was concerned that the bird strike might cause problems on landing, so he contacted ATC and had them make preparations for a possible emergency landing. He then informed Mayor Bloomberg, himself a pilot,of the situation. Bloomberg reportedly did not tell the other passengers. The aircraft was undamaged, and landed without incident. But the pilot and a ground crew inspected the plane and decided not to fly it back to New York. The mayor and his party made other arrangements to get home. The FAA is still verifying the bird strike. FMI: www.faa.gov aero-news.net *************** FAA to Order New Sensors for Airbus Jets After Crash Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. airlines must replace some Thales SA speed probes in Airbus SAS planes amid concern the devices may have played a role in a June Air France crash in the Atlantic Ocean. The Federal Aviation Administration is giving carriers until early January to switch to Goodrich Corp. units in A330 and A340 models under an order that takes effect Sept. 8, the agency said in a notice to be published in the Federal Register tomorrow. The FAA wants to avoid any possible airspeed-indicator malfunctions in the U.S. fleet that could burden pilots with conflicting data and pose a safety a risk. The European Aviation Safety Agency said July 31 it was issuing a similar order to carriers it regulates. "We have reviewed the numerous airspeed anomalies recently reported," FAA said in the notice. "We have determined that an unsafe condition exists." Delta Air Lines Inc.'s Northwest unit and US Airways Group Inc. are the only carriers that operate A330s, and none fly A340s, said Les Dorr, an FAA spokesman. A total of 43 U.S.- registered planes are affected, he said. US Airways already replaced the Thales tubes with Goodrich units in its nine A330-300s, and two other A330-200s delivered this year don't need replacements, said Morgan Durrant, a spokesman for the Tempe, Arizona-based airline. "We have observed no airspeed indication issues on our Airbus A330 fleet," Durrant said in an e-mail. Atlanta-based Delta has begun replacing the indicators on its 32 Northwest A330s and plans to meet the FAA's deadline for completing the work, said Ashley Black, a company spokeswoman. Chain of Events The cause of the crash of Air France Flight 447, carrying 228 people to Paris from Rio de Janeiro, hasn't been determined. The airspeed indicators, called pitot tubes, became part of the crash inquiry after the A330-200 sent automated messages that airspeed sensors were malfunctioning. The glitch in the speed probes didn't cause the accident, though their failure may have been an element in a chain of events, according to the BEA, France's aviation accident investigation office. In late July, Airbus advised carriers that fly A330 and A340 widebodies equipped with probes made by Neuilly Sur Seine, France-based Thales to use ones produced by Charlotte, North Carolina-based Goodrich instead. Each of the planes has three probes, and the notice by the FAA, European regulator and Airbus call for airlines to use Goodrich devices for at least two of the sensors. The FAA said in its notice that the order was prompted by reports of speed indicator malfunctions at high altitudes in bad weather, and that failure to correct it could hurt pilots' ability to control the plane. The agency said it was allowing four months for carriers to comply "because of a short-term problem with the availability of sufficient replacement parts." http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aiXqq88s9B_Q ************** United flight lands safely LINTHICUM, Md. (AP) -United Airlines officials say a plane has landed safely at BWI after an emergency was declared. United spokesman Mike Trevino says the pilot on Flight 306 from Los Angeles declared an emergency after receiving an indication that there was a problem with the plane's hydraulics. The Airbus 320 was carrying 130 passengers and a crew of five. It landed safely at BWI Wednesday about 5:40 p.m. There were no injuries. Trevino says the plane is off the runway and is to be towed to the gate. http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_13255413 **************** Boeing sees potential to re-engine the 737 Boeing CEO Jim McNerney believes strides achieved by engine manufacturers make a re-engined narrowbody viable in the near term. Speaking to attendees at the Morgan Stanley Global Industrials Unplugged Conference today McNerney said Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney and General Electric "have some pretty good engines there". As a result he believes "the re-engine case is stronger than I anticipated it would be, which doesn't mean that that's what we'll decide". Pratt & Whitney is currently developing the PurePower PW1000G geared turbofan engine for entry into service in 2013 on Mitsubishi's MRJ and later on the Bombardier CSeries, the closest competitor to Boeing's 737. General Electric through its CFM joint venture with Snecma is developing the Leap-X engine slated for service readiness by 2016 and has not yet been selected by an aircraft manufacturer. Rolls-Royce, while not committing to a new narrowbody engine programne yet, has explored developments that could see increases in engine core temperature that reduce time on wing between overhauls, but deliver overall operating cost savings through improved fuel efficiency. Re-engining is a widely discussed possibility for both the A320 and 737, but neither airframer has made any commitments beyond delivering incremental improvements in efficiency. Both Boeing and Airbus have maintained that engine technology has been an important driver in any decision regarding the narrowbody market, as both airframers seek to deliver gains in efficiency in the range of 15-20% for operators. McNerney says that a derivative re-engined 737 would cost in the range of 20-30% of a full development programme. As Boeing and Airbus have looked at their respective next steps towards a narrowbody replacement, the targets for entry into service have slid continually to the right. Three years ago, both airframers entertained mid-decade availability for next generation narrowbody products, however, the timeframe has moved to 2020 or beyond at the earliest, with neither side being the one to blink first. McNerney believes that his guess is "that Boeing and Airbus will jockey for position. Who goes first will depend less on sort of a cute strategy and more on who matures the technologies they need." If Boeing decides to "go with a composite fuselage based on our lead and being able to manage composites, and think we can get there first, we may decide to go first. Engine technology will probably be a push", and airframe technology could be a discriminator, explains McNerney. Referencing the two years of delays endured by Boeing on the 787 McNerney says: "We've learned the hard way on how to design and build composites." But McNerney believes Boeings compostie experience is "really going to pay off when we re-do the 777 and when we take a look at the narrowbody. It's the bleeding edge -- eventually, the innovator's advantage will come back to us. Right now it hurts like hell." Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** EASA issues CRJ700/900 angle-of-attack transducer directive EASA today issued a Transport Canada airworthiness directive (AD) for Bombardier CRJ700 and CRJ900-series regional jets equipped with certain part number Thales angle-of-attack (AOA) transducers, devices that provide information for the aircraft's stall warning, stick shaker and stick pusher functions. "The heating capability of several AOA transducer heating elements removed from in-service aircraft has been found to be below the minimum requirement," the AD states. Transport Canada had also discovered that "a large number" of the transducers repaired in an approved maintenance facility were not correctly calibrated. "Inaccurate calibration of the AOA transducer and/or degraded AOA transducer heating elements can result in early or late activation of the stall warning, stick shaker and stick pusher by the stall protection computer," the AD states. The directive calls for operators to replace inaccurately calibrated transducers and periodically check the in-rush current on the others to verify heating capability. The directive comes one day after EASA issued an AD requiring replacement of certain of Thales-made pitot tubes on Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft in wake of the Air France A330 crash on 1 June. The US FAA tomorrow will issue a similar pitot directive for US-registered aircraft. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news **************** BA intends to fit auxiliary fuel tanks to transatlantic A318s British Airways is planning to install a fuselage auxiliary tank modification on its transatlantic Airbus A318s, enabling the twin-jets to lift another 3t of fuel. The additional tanks will not feature on the aircraft when BA launches its London City-New York JFK all-business service at the end of September. But speaking to ATI during delivery of the airline's first A318 at Hamburg, BA Airbus flight training manager Capt Simon Kinsey said the airline was expecting to opt for the extra fuel capacity. "It will make no difference westbound but will give more flexibility on the return," he says. Initial flights will be fully fuelled on the Shannon-JFK sector, to simplify processes in Ireland, but BA will refine this after three months based on gathered operational data. London City Airport is prone to weather disruption and Kinsey says that BA has considered several options to balance customer and operational needs in case of diversion. The airline expects most diversions would be to London Gatwick. BA will use stands 23 and 24 at City, where it plans to undertake manoeuvring tests with two A318s. The airline expects to receive the second in mid-October, enabling it to expand the JFK link to 11 flights per week. "If we can get it a few days before launch then we could have it as a backup for the inaugural," says BA corporate programme management team member Paul Beadsmoore. "But it's a nice-to-have." Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ***************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC