Aircraft CRT Projector Retrofits

In the late 1970s and early 1980s,
CRT-based projectors began to appear
on newer wide-body aircraft, such as
the Boeing 767. These used LaserDiscs
or videocassettes for playback. Some
airlines upgraded the old film IFE systems to the CRT-based systems in
the late 1980s and early 1990s on
some of their older wide-bodies. In
1985, Avicom introduced the first
audio player system, based on the
Philips Tape Cassette technology. Around the same time, CRT-based
displays began to appear over the
aisles of narrow-body and wide-body
aircraft.

Air India ordered ten A380s

In 2008 Apart from Air India, Kingfisher also
likely to buy 5 Airbus A380 planes.
Air India may place an order for ten
A380s and an agreement to that
effect, between Air India and Airbus, is
likely to happen in 2008. According to a report, the order could
be around $3 billion, based on the list
price of the aircraft. Though Air India
has not yet confirmed this, reports say
that Airbus has already made its
presentation to Air India and also to the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Air India
is expected to deploy A380 aircraft on
the long-haul, high-density routes
such as direct flights to New York and
San Francisco and other US
destinations.

Magnetic Compass

Magnetic Compass

The simplest of aeronautic navigation instruments that is most often used for basic orientiation is the magnetic compass.

Operation

The principle of the compass’s magnetised needle aligning itself to the field lines of the earth magnetic field allows the pilot to determine the heading of the aircraft in relation to magnetic north. The readings will usually show N, S, E and W with the intervals between marked for each 30º. Further sub-divisions between the 30º marks are shown for every 5º

There are a number of magnetic compass designs used in aircrafts. One that is present in most aircraft is the floating magnet type. Here the magnetic needle is integrated into a floating disk that carries the markings of the compass rose on its circumference. A lubber line indicates the current magnetic heading of the aircraft. Note, that when the lubber line indicates North the part of the disk that points North is actually on the opposite side of the disk. Consequently, the markings appear backwards – East is on the West side and vice versa. This could be confusing at first.