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Boeing Told To Replace Cockpit Screens Affected By Wi-Fi
Rambo Tribble writes The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered Boeing to replace Honeywell-built cockpit screens that could be affected by wi-fi transmissions. Additionally, the FAA has expressed concerns that other frequencies, such as used by air surveillance and weather radar, could disrupt the displays. The systems involved report airspeed, altitude, heading and pitch and roll to the crew, and the agency stated that a failure could cause a crash. Meanwhile, the order is said to affect over 1,300 aircraft, and some airlines are balking, since the problem has never been seen in operation, that the order presents "a high, and unnecessary, financial burden on operators".
Sudden Outbreak of Common Sense (tm)
The FAA does this ALL the time actually. They routinely issue AD's for many maintenance and operational issues discovered on aircraft. Sometimes these AD's come with short deadlines (you will fix this before the next flight) and sometimes they give you years (like this one giving 5 years). The FAA does this all the time, so this is NOT new.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Polite language: red herring
Otherwise: I call BullShite
Am I really the only one who looked at the actual FAA Directive?
SUMMARY:
We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all The Boeing
Company Model 737-600, -700, -700C, -800, -900, and -900ER series airplanes, and
Model 777 airplanes. This AD was prompted by testing reports on certain Honeywell
phase 3 display units (DUs). These DUs exhibited susceptibility
to radio frequency emissions in WiFi
frequency bands at radiated power levels below the levels that the
displays are required to tolerate for certification of WiFi system installations.
Clarification of Cause of Unsafe Condition
The cause of the unsafe condition stated in the Discussion section of this AD is a
known susceptibility of the Phase 3 DUs to RF transmissions inside and outside of the
airplane. This susceptibility has been verified to exist in a range of RF spectrum (mobile
satellite communications, cell phones, air surveillance and
weather radar, and other systems), and is not limited to WiFi transmissions.
Request to Withdraw the NPRM
(78 FR 58487, September 24, 2013)
[Virgin Australia] VOZ stated that during testing of the WiFi inflight entertainment system on the
VOZ Model 737NG fleet, it noted that the DU blanking occurred only when the WiFi
radiated power source (set-up in the flight deck) was increased to a high level. VOZ also
stated that under normal operating conditions of the WiFi radiated power, there was no
blanking of the DU, but interference was present only at a certain frequency. [...]
Request to Disclose Underlying Data
in Support of the NPRM (78 FR 58487,September 24, 2013)
[...]
The susceptibility of phase 3 DUs to RF transmissions was initially identified
during a WiFi STC installation by an operator and a WiFi vendor and reported to the
FAA. As a result of this discovery, we performed a risk assessment for in-service
airplanes equipped with phase 3 DUs using our established COS process, which
determined that an AD action was warranted for this issue. In addition, Boeing did an
independent safety review and also determined that the DU blanking was a safety issue
using its own risk assessment process.
I only got half way through the 23 page directive.
Feel free to give it a full examination.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I have inside knowledge of this issue, and it is actually available as a public Advisory Directive http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgAD.nsf/0/c2bcf2b2a4ea336886257d64006136e5/$FILE/2014-20-06.pdf
The issue was brought to light during WiFi testing (which uses a 4W transmitter) and my inside source says they got the transmit antenna closer than specified to the display Unit, which then blanked out. Actual WiFi would never cause the issue, but due to the blanking during testing further investigation revealed that the Display Unit did not meet the HIRF (High Intensity Radiated Field) specs, which has been a requirement for cockpit displays since the '80s.
Queue the many certifications...
The word you're looking for is 'cue', meaning 'to set up, schedule', not 'queue' which is a list of items or objects to be processed in order.