Critical evacuation test looms for A380

[Naim 6]

Interesting read. Evacuation test is due this Sunday.

 

.ny

 

+++

 

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/263847_air22.html

 

Aerospace Notebook: Critical evacuation test looms for A380

 

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

 

By JAMES WALLACE

P-I REPORTER

 

It's time for the evacuation drill of the world's biggest jetliner that the aviation industry has been talking about for more than a year.

 

Just how many people can make it out of the double-decker Airbus A380 jetliner in 90 seconds?

 

The long-awaited evacuation is supposed to take place Sunday, in a hangar at the Airbus plant in Hamburg, Germany. Watching closely will be representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration from this country. Officials from the European Aviation Safety Agency will oversee the certification test.

 

Nearly 900 passengers and crew members will board the jet, and when the word is given, they will have 90 seconds to get out of their seats, step over and around luggage, blankets and pillows scattered in the aisles, and then find their way through the darkened cabin to the nearest exit with an emergency escape slide -- and get the heck out of Dodge.

 

How many make it off in that minute and a half could determine how many passengers the A380 will be certified to carry before it enters revenue service with Singapore Airlines late this year.

 

Most of the airlines that have ordered the plane have said they will configure the cabin to carry from 480 to 500 passengers. Boeing's 747-400, by way of comparison, can seat just over 400 passengers in three classes.

 

But the A380 is a much bigger plane and was designed by Airbus to seat about 853 passengers if that is what an airline wants to haul in a single class.

 

So far, no airline that has ordered an A380 has expressed any intent to pack that many passengers into a flying sardine can, though Emirates Airlines of Dubai has said it will configure some of the 43 A380s that it has ordered in a two-class configuration for 650 passengers.

 

This is no easy test. But it is required of all new commercial jetliners before they can be certified by regulators to carry passengers for the first time. The conditions imposed for the test are daunting. The A380 has 16 exits and emergency slides. But only half can be used for the evacuation.

 

Jumping out of the dark plane in a darkened hangar is sure to test the courage of some of the 850 volunteers, who have been recruited from around the Hamburg area.

 

The upper-deck slides -- there are three on each side -- are 26 feet above the ground.

 

In addition, there are eight exits and slides on the main deck of the A380, as well as two off-wing exits.

 

The slides were developed by Goodrich.

 

In December 2005, the FAA adopted rule changes to make these kinds of evacuation tests safer for volunteers. The new rules allow for the predeployment of the emergency slides before the drill begins.

 

"The predeployment and inflation of slides allows the proper placement and opportunity for inspection of safety mats around the slide prior to the start of the demonstration," according to the FAA.

 

Another rule change allows low-level lighting in the hangar so that those observing the drill from the ground can react more quickly if there is a potential safety problem.

 

There have been serious accidents in prior evacuations.

 

In 1991, during the evacuation test for the new McDonnell Douglas MD-11, an elderly woman broke her neck and was left paralyzed when she caught her foot on a slide and flipped head first into a pile of volunteers on the bottom of the slide.

 

An FAA review of 19 full-scale evacuation demonstrations between 1972 and 1991 involving 5,797 participants found that 269, or 4.5 percent, were injured.

 

The A380 has been in flight testing for more than a year and the evacuation test was originally supposed to have taken place in 2005. But it was pushed back because of various delays in the A380 program. The first plane will be about six months late when it is delivered to Singapore Airlines late this year.

 

The plane that will be used for the evacuation is the second of two A380 test planes to be fitted with a three-class cabin and about 500 seats. The cabin configuration is needed for A380 route-proving trials that are supposed to take place this summer.

 

For the evacuation, the cabin has been modified to include an 853-seat configuration -- not including seats for about 20 crew members who must also be evacuated from the jet. Extra seats have been placed in areas where bulkheads and galleys will go later.

 

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Airbus spokeswoman Barbara Kracht in Toulouse, France, said the company wants to get at least 650 of the volunteers off the A380 within the 90 seconds.

 

"We are happy with anything above that," she told the paper.

 

But just in case of a problem, or if the number of volunteers who make it out in 90 seconds comes up well short of 650, Airbus said another group of volunteers already has been recruited to rerun the evacuation one week later.

HOW TO ATTAIN FAA CERTIFICATION

 

FAA requirements for 90-second evacuation drill

 

# Passenger load must be representative with at least 40 percent female; 35 percent over age 50; at least 15 percent must be female and over age 50. Three life-size dolls (not included in total passenger count) must be carried by passengers to simulate live infants 2 years old or younger.

 

# Crew members, mechanics and training personnel who maintain or operate the airplane in the normal course of their duties may not be used as passengers.

 

# No practice runs are allowed before the drill.

 

# Only half the emergency slides and doors can be used.

 

# Passengers must have seat belts on when the drill starts.

 

# Passengers can't know the location of the emergency exits to be used.

 

# Slides can be deployed before the drill begins, but doors inside the plane must be covered so passengers do not know which will be used in the drill.

 

# Only the plane's internal emergency lighting system can provide illumination in the cabin.

 

# Each crew member must be seated in his or her normally assigned seat.

 

# Before the start, about half the total average amount of carry-on baggage, blankets, pillows and other articles must be distributed at several locations in aisles and emergency exit access ways to create minor obstructions.

 

# Evacuation test is over when the last person on the plane, including crew members, is on the ground.

 

ONLINE: For previous coverage of the test and how it works, see: goto.seattlepi.com/210321

 

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[Seth K 3]

THIS IS BETTER THAN WRESTLING!!!!!!!!

[Naim 6]

New Super Plane One Step Closer to Take-off

Despite Broken Leg, Other Injuries, Airbus Calls Evacuation Test of Two-Decker Plane a Success

 

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK by BOB JAMIESON

 

March 26, 2006 — - Airbus successfully evacuated 853 people acting as passengers from its super-jumbo A-380, the biggest passenger plane ever built. The test was a critical milestone in the process of certifying the plane as safe to begin commercial service.

 

Airbus declared it a "great success" even though one man broke a leg and 32 others suffered minor injuries sliding down evacuation chutes.

 

The test was conducted in a darkened hangar at an Airbus test facility in Hamburg, Germany. Eighteen flight attendants from Lufthansa, an airline which has ordered the A-380, managed the evacuation.

 

The Federal Aviation Administration and safety organizations from other countries require than an aircraft manufacturer show any new plane can be evacuated in 90 seconds before it will be certified to enter service. Airbus said the complete evacuation took just 80 seconds even though half of the double-decker plane's 16 exits were blocked to simulate crash conditions.

 

The evacuation test was the first ever tried with the A-380 and involved the most passengers ever in such a test. That it was successful the first time came as a something of a surprise to airline executives and journalists who cover the industry.

 

"We were very happy with this result" said Charles Champion, chief operating officer for Airbus, in a bit of understatement.

 

Gyms? Casinos? Dining Areas?

 

While 853 people were loaded aboard the plane for the test, no airline that has ordered the A-380 plans to carry that many. Singapore Airlines, which will be the first to put the plane in regular service, will carry about 500 passengers, in a three-class (economy, business and first) configuration.

 

Just how the huge plane will be configured by its customers, however, is a secret.

 

Emirates, which will be the second carrier to fly the plane, may carry as many as 650 passengers on regional routes in the Middle East and in South Asia. Others, like Lufthansa, Air France, Virgin Atlantic and Quantas have been mum on their plans.

 

Most companies plan to carry the 555 passengers recommended by Airbus, or even fewer. At 555, that's 35 percent more than today's versions of the 747.

 

While there was much talk in the beginning about gyms and casinos, it's unlikely there will be anything more unique than a pub or sit-down dining area on board (though one airline still is talking about a waterfall). Showers remain a possibility as do open spaces for passengers on long flights.

 

It might be enough if there are wider seats, more legroom and space to walk -- the non-cattle-car plane.

 

The lure for the airlines includes operating efficiency: The A-380 is designed to be super-efficient, using 20 percent less fuel than the 747 for flying distances Boeing's flagship cannot match. That could translate into profits.

 

No U.S. carrier has ordered the aircraft. After all, they're focused on survival.

 

Huge Plane

 

Here's a helpful review: The A-380 is a full double-decker with 50 percent more floor space than the 747. Its wing span is nearly the length of a football field and it is long enough for the Wright Brothers' first flight to have taken place twice inside the plane. The smaller upper deck, alone, is 133 feet, five inches long.

 

I most recently saw the plane in operation several months ago in Singapore, on its first long haul flight test.

 

Pilots who flew it to Asia from France said it handled in the air like a dream. One told me he felt he was flying a much smaller plane. And it lands at such a low speed -- less than 150 knots -- that watching the A-380 as it approaches the runway, it seems almost frozen in the air. You only get the sense of its size after it lands and taxis past what we once considered huge planes, the 747 or Boeing 777, on the ground.

 

Inside, there is a sense of size, of course, but not of speed. It seems almost like an ocean liner. And engineers who flew on that trip to Australia and Malaysia as well as Singapore said it passed every in-flight test. They did not discuss the three cases of champagne observed on the lower deck despite being partially hidden.

 

Problems

 

There have, however, been problems, and the plane will enter service nine months later than promised after a series of creeping delays. Airline industry officials said initially the A-380 was heavier and louder than promised and would not meet standards at airports in the United States and Europe.

 

There also has been talk of problems with wing stability. But Airbus COO Champion says those problems have been overcome, while vaguely blaming the delays on "engineering capacity."

 

With fewer than 160 orders, however, there are still questions whether it will be a commercial success. Airbus spent $12 billion developing the plane and must sell more than 250 just to break even.

 

And will it revolutionize air travel as the 747 did 36 years ago? That's an open question that will be answered only when it enters service. Will airports handle it with dispatch? Will it load and unload efficiently? How long will it take to get luggage?

 

The biggest question of all may be: Will the experience on board be one of comfort, not crowding, of space on long flights? Will the travel experience be better?

 

Still, there's no denying that the plane inside and out is magnificent. Watching it land in Singapore, I simply could not take my eyes off it. I hope I find it equally magnificent after my first commercial flight.

 

Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/US/story?id=1770016&page=1

 

[Seth K 3]

This guy is more like boeing guy.