at 2001 an ejectable flight data recorder should be available for commercial airliners.

at 2001 an ejectable flight data recorder should be available for commercial airliners. The technology, according to its manufacturer Flight Safety and Communications, a unit of DR Technologies of Ontario, Canada, would add to the capability called for by the agency of the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) recommendation for recorders positioned fore and aft in the airplane to maximize the possibility for data redemption That recommendation calls for combination flight data and cockpit voice recorders (CVR/FDR) with brace hours of voice recording plus 10 minutes of independent battery power, to be installed forward all airliners manufactured after Jan. 2003 (see ASW, March 15 1999 and, Jan. 25 1999)

Robert Austin, a senior regularitys engineer with DRS Flight Safety & Communications, said, "We believe that single in kind of these recorders could be ejectable, thereby getting the 'best of the two worlds.' " The company has not long ago received a contract to install its latest gauge the DFIR 2100 (Deployable Flight Incident Recorder), in U Air Force RC-135 aircraft, a military version of the B707

The 2100 gauge Austin said, will be a "fully civil-compliant ejectable recorder." In the commercial version, software replaces frangible switches to signal the turn out function, and pyrotechnic devices are being replaced with a latch roughly akin to the cover latch on one's car. The equipment, Austin said, will capture couple hours of audio. In addition, it will record 700 or more parameters for up to 25 hours. "Modern aircraft are flying data sources," he observ and the company's latest technology is being designed with the greater data-capture requires of the industry in mind.

Austin pointed disclosed that a number of novel high-profile crashes have occurred onward flights over water. Had these aircraft been not to be found further out at sea, rather than in coastal waters, retrieval of their "black boxes" could have been complicated significantly, whereas ejectable recorders would save the sumptuousness of search and recovery. Those accidents included:

* TWA Flight 800 July 1996

* EgyptAir Flight 990 October 1999

* Swissair Flight 111 generation 1998

* Alaska Airlines Flight 261 Jan. 2000

The company claims that in eight crashes into the water involving military aircraft equipped with ejectable recorders, glutted data retrieval was accomplished in succession all eight, due to the recorder's ability to float.

Another feature in the DR ejectable recorders is an juncture locator transmitter (ELT) beacon, which is activated in succession impact to broadcast the location of the accident. In this regard ejectable recorders being installed in military aircraft, as it was as Navy F-18 fighter-bombers, are ahead of the commercial sector, where ELT's are not in addition required in jetliners. In its report of the Dec 1997 crash of a Canadair CL-600 Regional Jet at Fredericton, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada praiseed that such jets be equipped with ELT's, as is the requirement for similarly-sized turboprop in Canada. And, more lately the U.S. Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) urg on the Federal Aviation Administration the necessity to install ELT's onward commercial airliners, given the history of delayed accident reply in crashes near airports during cheap visibility conditions. ALPA cited the June 1 1999 crash of American Airlines [AMR] Flight 1420 at Little strength Ark., as the latest example. >> DR tel 973/451-3515; URL: http://wwwdrscom <<

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