Boeing Proposes New Flight Deck Equipment

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”.

In Seoul, Korean Pilots Association (KPA) spokesman Lee Bang-wan stated that a device such as this proposed ‘airspeed indicator’ would only serve to be a distraction in the flight deck, and that KPA pilots would probably just ignore it. Additionally, he stated that such a complex system was unneeded considering that the KPA pilots have a safety record that is “equal to that of any air carrier that is currently based in Korea”.

In Washington, D.C., R. N. Mowth, a spokesman for the U.S. Air Transport Association, stated that “oppressive federal regulation, such as any requirement to have so-called ‘airspeed indicators’ installed in transport aircraft, is just one more sign of a government run amok with too much power, and its stifling of the free enterprise system”.
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”.

When Boeing is finished developing the AIRSPEED INDICATOR, rumor has it that they are going to begin developing an instrument that tells the pilot how high he’s flying and they’re going to call it an ALTIMETER. It will also be an important instrument for the pilot to keep his eyes on, especially during an IFR or VFR approach.