INSPECTING AIRCRAFT

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30234, 12 September 1963, Page 7

INSPECTING AIRCRAFT

Electronic Aid Works Quickly An electronic high-speed inspector, capable of checking up to 1000 aircraft systems and circuits in an hour, has been developed by Hawker Siddeley Dynamics, says the weekly newsletter of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors. Named T.R.A.C.E. (tapecontrolled recording automatic check-out equipment), it can be plugged into an aircraft and left to perform a comprehensive electronic inspection with superhuman speed and accuracy. The new generation of civil airliners and military strike aircraft and their systems are so complicated that many man-hours are now needed to complete a thorough inspection of them all between flights. For airliners, aircrafi on the ground mean reduced profits, but efficient inspections are essential parts of al aircraft operations. The equipmept is self-test-ing. T.R.A.C.E. normally performs its set pattern ot aircraft system and circuit checks in response to information fed into it on an endless punched tape. Before it begins its inspection of these systems and circuits it checks all its own electronic systems and components. If these are all found to be in working order then T.R.A.C.E. will set about the job of checking the aircraft equipment. T.R.A.C.E. first selects an aircraft circuit and, in effect, asks it a question. The answer is compared with the correct answer fed in on the punched tape. If the answer is right, T.R.A.CX automatically moves on to the next circuit. If the answer is wrong then further checks are made on the circuit until the fault has been tracked down. Using the new equipment, airlines can give their aircraft the most searching inspection in a comparatively

short time on the tarmac between flights. In this way very high standards of serviceability and safety can be achieved and maintained.