--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EE200007 Date: 09/29/97 From: JIM SANDERS Time: 03:45pm \/To: ALL (Read 0 times) Subj: News-758 Heavy coated cylinders object of $3 million search - MICHAEL SWEENEY MOBILE, Alabama - Call it a $3 million "oops." That's how much Teledyne Continental Motors (TCM) figures it will spend inspecting thousands of cylinders to find a few that were coated at the factory with too much rust preventative. The coating of manganese phosphate is designed to prevent rust from forming on the steel cylinder walls prior to installation, and for the first 25 to 50 hours of operation. The extra-coarse coating of material, however, caused aluminum piston pin plugs to wear away as they slid up and down the cylinder wall, a situation that could rapidly lead to piston failure. The potential for a catastrophic in-flight engine failure prompted the FAA to issue an AD earlier this year mandating immedi- ate inspection of new or overhauled series 470 Continental engines. The AD was based on TCM's own Critical Service Bulletin - CSB97- 10A - which urged inspection of series 470 engines as well as thou- sands of additional E-series, 360, 520 and 550 series powerplants in which new TCM cylinders might have been recently installed. Both the AD and the service bulletin called for compliance with- in the next ten hours of operation. TCM technicians discovered the problem earlier this year quite by accident. While conducting a courtesy inspection on a customer's new engine, they noted excessive piston pin plug wear in a cylinder that had only 28 hours time in service. It didn't take long to trace the excessive wear to an excess coating of manganese phosphate, which had etched the wall of the cylinder and was grinding away the piston pin plugs. It turned out to be impossible, however, to tell when the cylinder had received its too-thick coating, and how many others had been manufactured with the same problem. As as result, TCM was forced to call for an inspection of every cylinder that it had turned out since it began applying the coating last fall. That amounts to 17,000 cylinders, 9,000 of which went into 1,500 factory engines, and 8,000 of which went out the door as spares. To date, TCM has confirmed the inspection of 11,000 of the 17,000 cylinders involved, and discovered about 220 - about 2% - with the suspect coating. Fortunately, almost all of those bad cylinders were spares that had not yet been installed in an engine. According to Al Beech, TCM's director of engineering service programs, mechanics doing engine inspections in the field have found and replaced only three cylinders that were miscoated. And that's probably all that will be found, Beech said, because all of the cylinders subject to removal and inspection should have been inspected by now under terms of the AD covering series 470 engines. Instead of a teardown inspections, Beech said most owners of series 520 and 550 engines have opted for a series of oil analysis checks designed to show excessive aluminum wear. (The AD on 520 and 550 series engines allows for oil analysis as an alternative to cylinder removal and inspection because there is no chance of a piston pin disengagement in these engines, even if the piston pin plugs were to wear completely away.) (On 470 series engines, however, loss of the piston pin plugs could lead to disengagement of of the pin from the piston boss, which is why inspection is mandatory on these engines.) As this edition went to press, Beech said about 2,000 owners of 520 and 550 engines had completed the first of three scheduled oil analyses, and none was showing signs of a problem. "To my knowledge they are checking out okay," he said. With all the cylinders and engines involved still under warranty, Beech said TCM was picking up the entire cost for the inspections, oil analysis checks, and any cylinder replacements. He figures TCM's total bill will be in the neighborhood of $2.5 million to $3 million. Not surprisingly, that hit on TCM's bottom line has prompted the company to tighten its new cylinder inspection procedures. "We're still applying the manganese phosphate coating," Beech said, "but after they're coated we are now were doing a 100% check of each and every cylinder." ---------------------------- --- DB 1.39/004487 * Origin: Volunteer BBS (423) 694-0791 V34+/VFC (1:218/1001.1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EE200008 Date: 09/29/97 From: JIM SANDERS Time: 03:46pm \/To: ALL (Read 0 times) Subj: News-759 Thanks to GAP program, a reinvention of the engine is underway By DAVID SAKRISON OSHKOSH, Wisconsin - NASA's General Aviation Propulsion (GAP) program was unveiled a last year's EAA Fly-In Convention with the goal of developing a new breed of affordable, reliable powerplants that will be smoother, quieter, more fuel-efficient and easier to control than today's venerable general aviation engines. Last December, the GAP Program signed cooperative agreements with two engine manufacturers to design, develop and flight test two revolutionary new engines. Teledyne Continental Motors (TCM) is working on a two-cycle, 200-horsepower diesel engine and Williams International is working with NASA to develop a low-cost turbine engine. TCM has christened its lightweight, two-cycle, direct-injected diesel engine the "Continental Supercharged Diesel (CSD) 283." Water-cooled and fired by Jet-A, it's aimed at entry-level single- engine aircraft with up to four seats and cruising speeds up to 200 knots. A TCM spokesman said the horizontally-opposed four-cylinder engine will develop 200 brake horsepower at 2,200 rpm. One of the goals of the GAP program is cut the purchase price of internal combustion engines in half. To keep costs down, the CSD 283 will have fewer parts, lower fuel consumption at full power, and a longer TBO (time between overhauls) than the current fleet of gener- al aviation engines. Lower engine speeds, an advanced three-blade prop (under development by Global Aviation), engine balancing, and advanced chamber design will make the engine quieter and smoother than current engines. It will also feature a one-lever control sys- tem replacing throttle, mixture, and propeller pitch controls. That system is being developed by NASA and Aurora Flight Sciences. Leo Burkardt, manager of the GAP program at NASA's Lewis Re- search Center, in Cleveland, Ohio, said TCM expects to start "cut- ting hardware" for the engine in December. Prototypes should be flying by 1999; aircraft manufacturers will receive the first pro- duction engines two or three years later. Performance and price goals for the engine still look attainable, Burkardt said. The other half of the GAP program is a revolutionary, light- weight turbofan engine being developed by NASA and Williams Inter- national. NASA's primary goal for this project is to reduce the acquisition cost of a small turbine to about $20,000 - around one- 10th the price of today's small turbofans - and to reduce main- tenance costs significantly. Initial sticker price for this engine will be around $50,000 with volume bringing the cost down over time. Fewer parts than current turbines, and more interchangeable parts, will keep maintenance costs low. With 700 pounds of thrust (less than half the push of the small- est turbofan now on the market), the new engine is aimed at single- and twin-engine aircraft with up to six seats and cruising speeds up to 200 knots. A 600-horsepower turboprop version will follow release of the turbofan. Burkardt said Williams is starting to cut hardware for the engine and should have core engine components in testing by the end of this year. The GAP program is part of NASA's AGATE program (Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiment) aimed at revitalizing aviation by developing new, low-cost airplanes, engines, controls, cockpit sys- tems, and other advances in general aviation safety, efficiency, and affordability. AGATE is operated and supported by a consortium of general avi- ation manufacturers, NASA research & development teams, university R&D teams, the FAA, and the Experimental Aircraft Association. -------------------------------------------------------------- --- DB 1.39/004487 * Origin: Volunteer BBS (423) 694-0791 V34+/VFC (1:218/1001.1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EE200009 Date: 09/29/97 From: JIM SANDERS Time: 03:46pm \/To: ALL (Read 0 times) Subj: News-760 THE ULTIMATE AERIAL HOT ROD? The Leopard, a fly-your-own CEO jet, seats four in style By DAN JOHNSON CRANFIELD, United Kingdom - Some serious get up and go? Forget a Ferrari. Forget a private helicopter. Forget even the company Gulf- stream. A new candidate for maximum snob appeal might be the Leopard Jet from England. The wow factor goes right off the scale. Sleek and low, the Leopard looks more like a high-end sports car in the tradition of Lamborghini than a close resemblance to normal bizjets. If you stuck some wings on the famed Italian Countach, you'd almost have the Leopard, except for one thing: fast as she is, the Countach never even dreamed of 500 mph. Swept and tapered in high-speed jet fashion, the wings are thin and short. Landing speed looks like it would be high, but since weight is held down by the lean and small aircraft, handling can be kept tolerable for nonprofessionals, according to company represent- atives. They say approach and landing are comparable to most business jets. Pitch and roll control come via "all-moving, low-mounted tailerons." However, the Leopard's small size doesn't mean they skimped on the cabin environment. While you can't get up and walk around as in the Gulfstream, the Leopard is appointed like a $200,000 sports car would be. It looked inviting enough for two- or three-hour legs, and at these speeds, that's enough. A couple of hours in the Leopard at maximum speeds will move you a long way. London to Rome might be possible with good winds, easily Chicago to New York, or Seattle to L.A. This isn't some new, half-baked design being sprung on an unsus- pecting market. An exotic high-performance, personal jet trying to widen a niche in the go-really-fast marketplace requires years of careful preparation and building. The Leopard dates to 1988 and has "two or three years to go" yet, says designer Chris Burleigh. For example, he is full of anticipa- tion over the new Williams FJX-2 engines, and all this relates well to that company's new NASA contract offered precisely to furnish engines of this type. According to a former worker on the project, the first Leopard has performed at least 50 flights at typically 0.7 hours per flight for about 35 hours. Earlier in the flight-test program the personal jet had only attained speeds of 200 knots, but various technical considerations prevented them from reaching the top velocities just yet. Certainly you don't go out and race your new, near-supersonic jet to max speed right away. "I think they'll make the 450-knot target," expressed the worker, who nonetheless politely declined to give his name. "Look at the way this (aircraft) is made; for example, the landing gear is a real piece of work. Nothing is off-the-shelf on that gear leg," he said, pointing out the detail craftsmanship. The cabin compartment opens with a tilt-forward, piston-raised system that appeared to require a little scrambling for entry to the front seats, though probably no more effort than lowering oneself into a low-slung Lamborghini. Luggage can be placed in another locker aft of the passenger compartment. The construction has been done with an eye to eventual pressurization. Representatives at this summer's Cranfield Air Show said Leopard developer Chris Burleigh and financier Ian Chichester-Miles are aim- ing at oil-wealthy Arabs and the large American business market. "Experienced pilot CEOs of companies are capable of flying this plane," expressed an exhibitor in the booth next to the Leopard at the Cranfield Air Show. He conjectured that it would substantially reduce the cost of pilot and maintenance staffs required for a cor- porate jet to something more like common personal light twin-engine ownership. The project sounds rather fantastic if you look at Cessna's pro- duction of the venerable 172 after all these years. Such a radical departure in aircraft can't depend on experience to suggest its eventual market success. On the other hand, during the time Cessna abandoned single-engine pistons for bizjets, they fared quite well financially. So maybe Burleigh and Chichester-Miles are onto something. As overall support for the concept, NASA has let a big contract to Williams to supply a "general aviation jet engine." And many years of development and composite airframe construction techniques have been proven by a large fleet of kitbuilt aircraft. It certainly isn't unthinkable that a personal, private jet could make it in the marketplace. Many aviation businessmen and women be- lieve the industry could build better aircraft. Those '40s and '50s workhorses have served us long enough. The Leopard may simply be at the leading edge of a new wave. Leopard developer Burleigh makes some substantial claims for his sharp personal jet. For now, the Leopard uses the Williams FJX-1 turbofans, which come from that company's expertise with cruise missile engines. The final production model will feature more advanced FJX-2 units (700-pound thrust). In an aircraft of these performance characteristics - and price - you'd expect full avionics, and you'd be right. She boasts a full panel of Bendix-King avionics EFIS with conventional standby. Burleigh also indicated that provisions for full pressurization with ground cooling have been anticipated (though the present model did not display these systems). Since you have full IFR instrumentation and radios, the Leopard would be incomplete without fluid-type wing/tail/screen deicing. Indeed, it has the ice-shedding gear installed. Are you still worried about the construction materials, especially since production leader Cessna does not use them on its aircraft? Well, you needn't be concerned. Carbon/aramid/glass composite struc- tures are well proven by the growing fleet of glass homebuilts. And in fact, Cessna uses some of these exotic materials on their line of jet aircraft. How about futuristic qualities like, "advanced transonic and laminar flow wings," or "flight control by all-moving fin and tail- eron surfaces?" These are the words Burleigh and his team use to describe the Leopard, and they certainly reveal an advanced aircraft in every way. Is the Leopard simply a playboy's extravagance? Perhaps, but with features like its tilting canopy, the personal jet could do some actual work, too. For example, the canopy allows stretcher loading for ambulance flights. Burleigh's No. 2 prototype is being prepared, "for flight research and demonstration to a speed of Mach 0.76 or 435 knot (500 mph!), and 35,000- to 40,000-foot altitude envelope," he said. Preposterous? Unbelievable? Maybe, but Burleigh and Chichester- Miles are moving ahead in the way of serious entrepreneurs and this is a real plane, flying now. It isn't some hypothetical figment of an imagination. Can it find customers? Leopard is still a bit ahead of its time. Prices are as sky high as the performance, although this, by itself, suggests the developers aren't simply blue-sky dreamers. WEIGHTS & MEASURES Wingspan 25 ft Wing area 62.9 sq ft Length 25 ft Seating 4 Empty weight 2,200 lbs Gross weight 4,000 lbs Wing loading 63.6 lbs/sq ft Powerplant 2 Williams FJX-1 turbofans* Thrust 700 lbs per engine Baggage Fuselage locker aft of cabin * Production model will use FJX-2 engines PERFORMANCE Max speed 0.76-0.80 Mach (500 mph) Cruise altitude 45,000-51,000 ft Takeoff roll 2,750 ft Landing ground roll 2,450 ft RANGE Cruise Range 1,725 miles Specs and performance provided by factory. Figures are unverified except as otherwise stated in article. For further information, contact CMC Ltd. Ian Chichester-Miles or Chris Burleigh 4 The Woodford Centre Lysander Way, Old Sarum Salisbury, Wilts. SP4 6BU England; phone: 011-44-1722-328 777; fax: 011-44-1722-335 888. ------------------------------ --- DB 1.39/004487 * Origin: Volunteer BBS (423) 694-0791 V34+/VFC (1:218/1001.1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EE200010 Date: 09/29/97 From: JIM SANDERS Time: 08:50pm \/To: ALL (Read 0 times) Subj: News-761 Plane returns to airport after door flies open WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. - September 29, 1997 1:33 p.m. EDT - A Delta Air Lines jet bound for Cincinnati made a quick return to Connecticut on Monday after a cargo door flew open, an airport official said. There were no injuries among the 83 passengers and six crew mem- bers on the 727 airliner, the official said. The aft cargo door on Delta Flight 1937 opened about a half-minute after takeoff, Bradley International Airport operations specialist John Spillane told Reuters. "They circled around and landed back at the airport within a few minutes," Spillane said. "No injuries ... they landed, taxied to a gate, and disembarked everybody through a normal jet bridge." The passengers were put on different flights, Spillane said. He gave no further details. Delta Air spokesmen were not immediately available for comment. Bradley International is the main airport serving Hartford, Conn., and Springfield, Mass. ---------------------- Marathoner helps save plane crash victims COWLES, N.M. - September 29, 1997 1:09 p.m. EDT - Anybody would run for help if he or she saw a plane crash. But six miles? Two men injured in a Sunday morning plane crash in the Pecos Wilderness, 30 miles northeast of Santa Fe, were lucky. A camper who witnessed the crash happened to be a marathon runner. Scott Sterritt, 31, and Robert Coleman, 48, suffered burns to about 10 percent of their bodies and were listed in satisfactory condition at University Hospital in Albuquerque, officials said. The runner, Lynn Bjorklund, is "literally the hero," said Rick Goodman, search and rescue resource officer for the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. "They're just lucky as hell somebody came by and found them," he said. She ran six miles to the telephone and then directed rescuers to the scene, Goodman said. The injured men were taken from there by helicopter. Bjorklund, 40, returned to camping with her brother and could not be reached Monday. The twin-engine Beech Baron airplane, owned by Cutter Flying Service, was en route from Albuquerque to La Junta, Colo., when it crashed in a meadow and caught fire, authorities said. Kay Cutter, whose family owns the flying service, said this was the first crash that she could remember in her 20 years with the company. The six-passenger airplane was inspected only a week before the crash, she said. --------------------------- Iran planes hit rebel bases inside Iraq BAGHDAD, 30 Sept. 03:08 GST, Dubai time (23:08 GMT) -- Iranian warplanes struck across the border into Iraq on Monday, attacking bases of the exile opposition group Mujahideen Khalq. Iran's official news agency IRNA said the air raid was aimed at "terrorist counter-revolutionaries" and killed or wounded a number of them. "The operation was in retaliation for vicious acts which terror- ists belonging to an Iranian counter-revolution grouplet committed in the past few days on Iranian soil near the Iraqi border, killing and wounding a number of Iranian civilians in the region," an Iranian military official told the agency. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry reported the attack without mention- ing the Mujahideen. "At 7 a.m. local time... eight Iranian warplanes raided targets inside our territory in Daiyla and Kut provinces. Our alert anti- aircraft units challenged the enemy planes as soon as the raids began," a ministry spokesman said The Iraqi spokesman said Iran was fully responsible for any casualties and damage caused by the raids, but gave no details. "Our jet fighters chased the invading planes, forcing them to flee into Iran," the spokesman said, according to the official Iraqi News Agency. Iraq and Iran fought a ruinous war from 1980 to 1988 and the two states are still at loggerheads over several issues, such as prison- ers of war and more than 100 planes sent by Iraq to Iran to escape U.S. bombing during the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait. ------------------------------------------ --- DB 1.39/004487 * Origin: Volunteer BBS (423) 694-0791 V34+/VFC (1:218/1001.1)