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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Oh how far we have come....
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| Boppa Guru  Joined: 08/11/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 816 |
Bah youngsters these days lol Bendix 707 Doppler Navigation Radar and Computer for me..... |
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| Paul_L Guru Joined: 03/03/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 769 |
@Grogs -- I'm a very nervous flier when I have to sit in the back of the bus. I keep hearing machinery working and trying to diagnose the aircraft. I'm OK in the cockpit. Boeing is acronym mad. The FDR has been supplanted by the DFDAU, and the DFDR. (Those are the Digital Flight Data Acquisition Unit & Digital Flight Data Recorder with a lot of data channels. The joke was that it recorded the flight crew EKGs and whether any of the stewardesses were at that time of the month.) The GPWS now yells things like "PULL UP!" at the flight crew. The VOR/ILS integrates the Very high frequency Omnidirectional Range and the Instrument Landing System which receives the localizer and glide slope transmissions. The CADC (or possibly DCADC) is the Central Air Data Computer which can remove the errors caused by the airflow around the fuselage and provide corrected altitude and airspeed information. @Boppa -- Did you run afoul of the Bendix Doppler Navigation gadget? The biggest headache when retrofitting that into an aircraft was lining up the antenna with the fuselage direction of travel. It transmits four beams down at the ground at a shallow angle and figures out the velocity vector of the aircraft. If the antenna is not aligned precisely with the aircraft velocity vector it produces garbage. The problem is that each airframe is bent a little bit differently. It takes a really good surveyor to figure out which way it will go when you fly it. The detail level in that job was flabbergasting. Like I said, it's been downhill ever since I began playing with electrons. Paul in NY |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4126 |
With that list of fantastic tasks I hope you're not expecting sympathy!! John |
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| Frank N. Furter Guru Joined: 28/05/2012 Location: GermanyPosts: 979 |
Wow! I was yesterday in Technik Museum Speyer and was very impressed by the Boing 747 and the Spaceshuttle Buran... ...many youngsters here - my first light was at Pan Am - Honeywell PDP-8...  Frank |
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twofingers Guru Joined: 02/06/2014 Location: GermanyPosts: 1671 |
But it gets better every day!  causality ≠ correlation ≠ coincidence |
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| Paul_L Guru Joined: 03/03/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 769 |
Nope. No sympathy. Just find a way to make me younger so I can do it again. Paul in NY |
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GoodToGo! Senior Member  Joined: 23/04/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 188 |
I always wondered how Pan Am went bust....  The days of CADC's and DADC's are gone, they are now just a bunch of ADM's feeding data to whatever box needs it, usually an ADIRU. ADIRU, Air Data Inertial Reference Unit. ADM, Air Data module. Hey Paul, did you get to play around with Laser Ring Gyros in the inertial platforms or were they mechanical gyros? Cheers, GTG!  (717,727,737,787,A319,A320,A321,A330) (Also worked on Bae146,767,F27,F28,F50) ...... Don't worry mate, it'll be GoodToGo! |
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| Paul_L Guru Joined: 03/03/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 769 |
That's a nice list of little aircraft. Too bad none of them had four engines. Pan Am loaned the airfarce 72 747 aircraft for 11 weeks for the first gulf war in 1991. That's right, I said 72 aircraft for 11 weeks! It took us 11 weeks to move 226,000 troops to Saudi Arabia flying 6 hops from NJ - Rome - Turkey - Saudi Arabia - Turkey - Rome - NJ in 42 hours. The 16 C5A's were taking 8 hops, NJ - Tannariffe - Rome - Turkey - Saudi Arabia - Turkey - Rome - Tannariffe - NJ, in 66 hours. They just didn't have the range of the 747s. They were supposed to make up our losses. They forgot. We burned through 870 million dollars and folded up in December 1991. That's how we went bust. When the second gulf war came around Pan Am was no longer there and the other major airlines had swiched to little two engine aircraft which didn't have the range needed. It took them nearly 5 months to move 68,000 troops to Saudi Arabia. That's our government in action! No, laser ring gyros were not practical until about 1996, the ones I played with in the Sperry INS and the Delco INS starting in the 1960s were all mechanical. The mechanical gyros weren't a problem, the zero error in the accelerometers were. Even with the DELCO system of caroselling the entire accelerometer package at one rpm you couldn't really get rid of the zero errors. You could sit on the ramp for an hour and watch the INS report that you had moved a few miles. Do you work for an airline? Paul in NY |
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| GoodToGo! Senior Member Joined: 23/04/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 188 |
Yeah, it keeps the beer fridge stocked, and helps to pay Grogs for all of the MM products I buy from him  Started career as an apprentice avionics hack back in the long long ago with a mob called Ansett. Worked on most of their fleet, except for the 747. For many reasons, it ceased trading a day after 9/11. Joined another startup in 2001, it also went bust. Eventually worked my way into another airline, and now I try to stay out of trouble. Sometimes I succeed..... Cheers! GTG! ...... Don't worry mate, it'll be GoodToGo! |
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| Bill7300 Senior Member Joined: 05/08/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 159 |
The BAe146 has four engines, although admittedly small, so I guess you could be forgiven for having not noticed, Paul :) From memory, they were originally designed for getting in and out of small metropolitan airports, particularly The Isle of Dogs in London and for doing so relatively quietly. They had a reputation for engine problems when in service with mainstream Australian airlines, hence a joke that BAe was actually an abbreviation for "Bring Another engine". I also vividly recall being a passenger on one that lost an engine between Melbourne and Canberra. The sudden yaw and drag was very pronounced, causing alarm among most of the passengers. The pilot took us back to Melbourne, leading to a series of further delays in our getting to Canberra and our missing out on the office Christmas party! Bill |
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| Alastair Senior Member Joined: 03/04/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 161 |
I remember getting on a flight in Sydney, I think it was a 747. I did a double take when I saw that there was one more engine than usual on the wing. I asked what the .... and was told that a few aircraft had the facility to carry an engine that way to take it to a service centre or for a plane with engine trouble. Was a long time ago. Cheers, Alastair |
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| Paul_L Guru Joined: 03/03/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 769 |
@GTG -- Why do you try to stay out of trouble? It isn't worth the bother. @Bill7300 -- I've never seen any BAE aircraft up close. Back in the 1960s I did get to browse around in the innards of a Comet. That was a very small aircraft. @Alastair -- Every 747, 720 and 707 that I've ever seen has attachment points for one or two fifth pods. The US domestic airlines didn't bother, they just trucked spare engines to any station. For Pan Am it was really the only way to get a spare engine to Bangkok or Sydney. Paul in NY |
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| Cherokeecruiser Newbie  Joined: 25/02/2015 Location: AustraliaPosts: 25 |
@GTG, -small world!. Did you used to work on the Ansett F28's? Cheers |
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| GoodToGo! Senior Member Joined: 23/04/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 188 |
Tried not to... Managed to steer clear of them most of the time. No two of those mongrels were the same.... one memorable moment was replacing the VG under the cabin floor on a turnaround during summer.....while a Flighty plucked the hairs on my legs.... Ahhhh memories...... GTG! ...... Don't worry mate, it'll be GoodToGo! |
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