FlightCom – July 2019

News

owenheckRath

OLD FAITHFUL

OUT TO

PASTURE

D

ATA gathered using the aircraft helped engineers

create Honeywell’s Enhanced Ground Proximity

Warning System (EGPWS), Traffic Alert and

Collision Avoidance System, and IntuVue RDR-4000

Weather Radar System. The company says testing of

the IntuVue RDR-4000 included “flying the Convair under and

directly into thunderstorms over the Everglades and off the coast

of Florida” while EGPWS testing involved flying “directly toward

mountainous terrain to test that the warning signals in the EGPWS

were activating when the aircraft was too close to dangerous terrain

features.”

“You have to have confidence in your aircraft to be around

mountains, thunderstorms and volcanos, because you’re flying so

close to terrain, you’ll experience a lot of turbulence. Thankfully,

the Convair is a heavy-duty aircraft and has very reliable engines,”

said Honeywell Aerospace chief test pilot Randy Moore. “I always

thought of it like a 1952 Chevy pickup. That’s what the Convair was

like.” Moore has flown the company’s 580 since 2004.

Honeywell’s Convair 580 has a long and well-documented

history. Certified on January 15, 1952, it will finally be retired to a

planned aviation museum in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.

T

HE software update is designed to address faults

with the aircraft’s Manoeuvring Characteristics

Augmentation System (MCAS) that are widely

considered to have significantly contributed to the fatal

accidents of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines

Flight 302. Boeing says it has also developed new training and

education materials that are now being reviewed by the FAA, global

regulators and airlines “to support return-to-service and longer-

term operations.”

According to Boeing, it is now addressing FAA requests for

additional information, which “include detail on how pilots interact

with the airplane controls and displays in different flight scenarios.”

From there, Boeing and the FAA will schedule the certification

test flight and Boeing will submit final certification documentation

for the new software. “We’re committed to providing the FAA and

global regulators all the information they need, and are making

clear and steady progress to getting it right,” said Boeing CEO

Dennis Muilenburg.

The Boeing 737 MAX has been grounded since March.

Honeywell Aerospace has finally

retired its Convair 580 test aircraft

after 67 years of service, 103,000

landings and 67,000 total flight

hours, according to a recent company

announcement.

In what is hoped will be the penultimate

interchange in this ongoing saga, Boeing

recently announced that it has completed

development of updated software for the 737

MAX, as well as concluding the associated

simulator testing and completing the

company’s engineering test flight.



Old Faithful Convair 580 retires.



MAX SAGA

NEARING AN END?

The MAX grounding

saga appears to be

reaching a conclusion.