us as we go forward.” The recent tests focused on getting data
to the flight deck wirelessly. “We were trying to do ‘direct to’
message uplinks to the flight crew as well as trying to do data
throughout the route profile,” says Yu.
Other tests included precision GNSS landing-system
(GLS) CAT III landings at Moses Lake, Washington, using
Honeywell’s ground-based augmentation system (GBAS)
approach service Type D protocols. “We flew 12 approaches
and every time the GLS performed an autoland landing,”
says Yu. “We do CAT I autolands today and the idea is to get
CAT III, and we will do that by modifying the airplane and
GBAS ground station with CAT III capability. Honeywell is
trying to prove with the ground station that it could do this
with software upgrades and we were trying to understand
the aircraft equipage.” Data will form part of the FAA’s stan-
dards development for integration of satellite-based landing
systems into the national airspace. GLS systems enable the
use of higher glideslopes and precision approaches to 50 ft.
altitudes in all weathers.
In conjunction with NASA, Boeing also evaluated Astar
(airborne spacing for terminal arrival routes), a software-
based system designed to give crews specific speed infor-
mation and guidance to enable better optimization of the
descent into an airport. Speed commands were calculated
using positioning data transmitted by automatic dependent
surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) in the “in” mode. On one of
five Astar test flights, the system was used to precisely posi-
tion the 787 in-trail 120 sec. behind an ADS-B broadcasting
Virgin America A320 approaching Seattle-Tacoma Interna-
tional Airport. Test engineers monitoring Astar issued verbal
speed commands for the crew to follow and achieved almost
perfect timing by the time the aircraft was vectored away
toward a landing at Boeing Field.
Together with Rockwell Collins, the program also evalu-
ated potential tools for enhancing situational awareness, in-
cluding a synthetic vision system (SVS) and a set of runway-
related features to the displays. Although SVS has found its
way into the corporate jet market, it has yet to earn its way
into commercial service. Projected as an underlay onto the
heads-up (HUD) and primary flight displays (PFD), the SVS
uses a database to generate a synthetic 3-D image of the out-
side terrain, obstacles and airport scenes. “I became a bigger
fan of SVS,” says Boeing Airplane and Product Development
Chief Pilot Mike Carriker. However, as he notes, “the thing
that’s really hard about SVS is you don’t get a lower mini-
mum, you don’t get any more passengers in or out and you
don’t have better dispatch rates.”
The pilots also evaluated an enhanced PFD which was
modified to show the same attitude-based symbology as
depicted on the HUD. “It really is about getting the right
information to the pilots and not increasing workload, but
efciency,” says Yu, who adds that increasing commonality
between the two is also being evaluated as a way of improving
crew training in the future.
In a nod to the emerging “iPad” generation of pilots, the
ecoDemonstrator flight displays were also modified to be
touch screens to allow direct interaction. Stepping beyond
the cursor-controlled display option developed for the 777
and 787, the touch screen format is also being introduced in
the corporate world. Described by Yu as a “mid-to-long-term”
application, she adds “a lot of thought has to go into these
as to whether they enhance or detract flight deck efciency.
So I think everybody in industry is trying to figure that out.”
Other elements tested included a “perspective runway”
in which an extended centerline was projected
on the HUD/PFD to provide better situational
awareness in the terminal area, and an “opti-
mum runway exiting” feature that overlaid the
predicted landing distance and runway symbols
on the HUD and navigation display to monitorstopping performance after touchdown. “It shows
runway distance remaining at the final approach
stage to help awareness of the runway you are
using up and what is remaining,” says Boeing test
pilot Kirk Vining.
Another new cockpit item was a feature en-
abling operationally approved information (OAI)
of the type normally shown on pilot’s tablets or
electronic flight bags (EFB) to be shown on the forward dis-
plays. The feature, which is being evaluated for the 777X,
connects the tablets/EFB with the displays via the ONS and
can be used to speed up the introduction of new information
tools, says Yu. “Typically when we want to make changes to
the displays it requires Part 25 certification which is expen-
sive in time and cost to airlines, but the idea is to partition it
from the airplane so you don’t have to do a full certification,”
she adds.
The 787 also demonstrated several materials, coatings
and fuel–related technologies including a lightweight, one-
piece resin-infused engine pylon aft fairing. Dubbed a step-
ping stone to resin-infused primary aircraft structures, the
fairing was developed by Boeing’s Australian and Canadian
research units and could be cut into the 787 production line.
Six durable icephobic coatings were also evaluated as part of
eforts to reduce the weight and energy use associated with
ice-protection systems. Earlier in the program, the 787 also
tested a ceramic matrix composite (CMC) nozzle on one of
the aircraft’s Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines under the FAA’s
Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions and Noise (Cleen) pro-
gram. In December, the 787 also flew with a blend of 15%
“green diesel” and 85% conventional jet fuel in one engine,
followed by flights with a 15% blend in both engines. c46 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/MARCH 30-APRIL 12, 2015 AviationWeek.com/awst
CIVIL AIRCRAFT ADVANCESAlready in business aviation, synthetic vision
has yet to make the jump to commercial, but
was well received by ecoDemonstrator pilots.BOEING