September 1st, 2010
This article recently appeared at Navy.mil and describes the efforts on board the USS Enterprise to keep the deck FOD free.
By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Jared M. King, USS Enterprise Public Affairs:
USS ENTERPRISE, At Sea (NNS) — The crew of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) is working to prevent foreign object damage to aircraft while underway, preparing for its 21st deployment.
Twice daily, all hands are invited to participate in a foreign object debris (FOD) walk-down, to clear the hangar bay and flight deck of any hazardous material. Read the rest of this entry »
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August 25th, 2010
Click to view full size
I’ve always liked infographics, they convey complex data clearly and quickly in a way that a report, or a table simply cannot manage. After watching the recent TED talk by David McCandless I decided to generate a simple infographic that included the cost of a FOD detection system alongside some other aviation costs. I’ve not included actual figures on the graphic as the costs are so variable that it would not be worthwhile.
I plan on generating a new infographic over the next few weeks that will be based on the costs detailed in the Insight report (The economic cost of FOD).
Download the infographic as a PDF.
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August 24th, 2010
I’ve been aware for sometime of a patent describing a FOD detection system written by Hilary Vieira, the patent was eventually passed to a company called Secure Runway Systems corp, who went on to become Diversified Secure Ventures Corp. They issued a press release on 22nd June outlining their wish to build a FOD detection system based on the patent.
The patent basically describes a number of monitoring devices located alongside a runway, where the monitoring device:
includes at least one of a video camera, single-frame camera, infrared camera, high definition camera, Light Detection and Ranging device.
The detection is then done by comparing a baseline image to the current image:
at least one monitoring device generates baseline image data associated with a first condition, generates other image data associated with at least a second condition and the at least one processor compares the image data associated with the conditions to determine whether foreign object debris is present in the at least one runway area Read the rest of this entry »
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August 21st, 2010
Trex Aviation Systems, the company that produce the FOD Finder system have a Facebook company page (link). It currently contains images of their FOD Finder system, images of FOD detected by their system, and some general industry news. Read the rest of this entry »
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August 21st, 2010
I have recently taken over as Manager of the FOD group on LinkedIn. The group was previously managed by Xsight (a FOD detection system supplier), the group has not been updated for quite some time so I have taken over the management in an attempt to breathe new life into the group. The group is no longer affiliated to any commercial organisation. Read the rest of this entry »
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August 15th, 2010
From the Aviation Herald
An Allegiant Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-83, registration N893GA performing flight G4-768 from Roanoke,VA to Orlando Sanford,FL (USA) with 142 passengers and 5 crew, rejected takeoff from Roanoke’s runway 24 at low speed after a lot of smoke was observed from the right hand engine. The airplane turned off the runway, the tower reported the smoke was no longer visible. Emergency services responded and followed the airplane to the apron, where passengers disembarked normally. Emergency services subsequently confirmed the right hand engine had been on fire and (now at the gate) foamed the engine. Read the rest of this entry »
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August 11th, 2010
A case has been put before the US Senate Armed Forces Committee for an $8M taxiway to be built at the Holloman Air Force Base (link to map). One of the arguments for the project is that the new taxiway would help reduce FOD damage to the F22A Raptor. The funding has been requested by Tom Udall, the senator for New Mexico. The case states:
Due to the high susceptibility of the F-22A to engine damage caused by ingesting Foreign Object Debris (FOD), F-22A operations require pavements free of FOD. If this project is not executed, all F-22A Raptor operations will remain susceptible to extremely costly FOD damage. Each engine in an F-22A costs over $6M and a single FOD incident can render an engine useless without major repairs. Given the fact that other installations operating the Raptor have already experienced severe FOD damage incidents, a project costing just under the price of one single F-22A engine pays for itself in short order. Failure to train aircrews in the world’s premier airborne weapons platform will greatly reduce the ability of the U.S. Air Force to project global airpower dominance in defense of the nation.(….source)
There is some evidence to backup the claims regarding the F22A’s susceptibility to FOD damage (and the expense):
In October, 2005 a F-22A from the 27th Fighter Squadron operating from Hill Air Force Base suffered $6.7 Million worth of damage to the right engine after sucking in 5-inch-long landing gear pin while the engines were running.(….source)
For more details and debate regarding the above incident see here.
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August 5th, 2010
See the The Federal Register for full details.
The purpose of this notice is to request manufacturers of FOD detection equipment, both domestic and foreign, to advise FAA of equipment that they manufacture that can meet the AC requirements. The detailed instructions for submitting the qualifications statement, including forms, may be found on the FAA Web site at: http:// www.faa.gov/airports/aip/procurement/federal_contract_provisions/ at the tab entitled, FOD Detection Equipment Request for Qualifications.
After review, FAA may issue a nationwide waiver to Buy American for the foreign manufacturers of FOD detection equipment. This “Nationwide Waiver” would allow the equipment to be used on airport projects without having to receive separate project waivers. Having a nationwide waiver would allow projects to start quickly without having to wait for the Buy American analysis to be completed for every project, while still assuring that the requirements of Buy American have been met.
Source (the federal register)
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July 19th, 2010
Photo: P. Radosta/austrianwings.info
Photo: P. Radosta/austrianwings.info
A Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800, registration TC-JFV performing flight TK-1887 from Istanbul Ataturk (Turkey) to Vienna (Austria), landed on Vienna’s runway 34 when the crew of the following aircraft taking off reported debris on the runway.
Runway 34 was closed, a runway inspection found several pieces of an engine cowling on the runway.
The right hand engine (CFM56) of TC-JFV was found to have lost parts of its cowling in the area of the thrust reverser.
A replacement Airbus A320-200 registration TC-JPN was dispatched to Vienna and reached Istanbul with a total delay of 6:10 hours.
Source: The Aviation Herald
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July 16th, 2010
From The Aviation Herald
A Tatarstan Air Boeing 737-300, registration VQ-BDC performing flight U9-5655 from Ufa (Russia) to Antalya (Turkey) with 148 passengers, had departed Ufa when the crew was radioed about tyre debris, that was found on the runway. The crew decided to divert to Kazan (Russia) about 250nm west of Ufa, where the airplane burned off fuel and landed safely about 2 hours after departure. One of the right hand main gear tyres was found damaged.
The flight was cancelled, the passengers were re-booked onto two other flights from Kazan.
Source (The Aviation Herald)
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