[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 120 (Thursday, June 21, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37470-37471]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-15209]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
Technical Standard Order (TSO)-C65a, Airborne Doppler Radar
Ground Speed and/or Drift Angle Measuring Equipment (for Air Carrier
Aircraft)
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of intent to cancel Technical Standard Order (TSO)-C65a,
Airborne Doppler radar ground speed and/or drift angle measuring
equipment (for air carrier aircraft).
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SUMMARY: This notice announces the FAA's intent to cancel TSO-C65a,
Airborne Doppler radar ground speed and/or drift angle measuring
equipment (for air carrier aircraft).
The effect of the cancelled TSO will result in no new TSO-C65a
design or production approvals. However, cancellation will not affect
current production of articles with an existing TSO authorization.
Articles produced under an existing TSOA can still be installed per the
existing airworthiness approvals, and all applications for new
airworthiness approvals will still be processed.
[[Page 37471]]
DATES: Comments must be received on or before July 23, 2012.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Albert Sayadian, AIR-130, Federal
Aviation Administration, 470 L'Enfant Plaza, Suite 4102, Washington, DC
20024. Telephone (202) 385-4652, fax (202) 385-4651, email to:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Comments Invited
You are invited to comment on the cancellation of the TSO-C65a by
submitting written data, views, or arguments to the above address.
Comments received may be examined, both before and after the closing
date at the above address, weekdays except federal holidays, between
8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. The Director, Aircraft Certification Service,
will consider all comments received on or before the closing date.
Background
The Doppler radar ground speed and/or drift angle measuring
equipment described by this TSO was used to provide inputs to
semiautomatic self-contained dead reckoning navigation systems which
were not continuously dependent on information derived from ground
based or external navigation aids. The system employed radar signals to
detect and measure ground speed and drift angle, using the aircraft
compass system as its directional reference. This approach is less
accurate than Inertial Navigation Systems (INS), and the use of an
external reference is required for periodic updates if acceptable
position accuracy is to be achieved on long range flights. Use of INS
and Global Positioning System (GPS) has rendered TSO-C65a Doppler
sensor equipment that provides inputs to dead reckoning navigation
systems obsolete.
On August 18, 1983, the FAA published TSO-C65a, Airborne Doppler
radar ground speed and/or drift angle measuring equipment (for air
carrier aircraft). The FAA has no record of any TSO-C65a applications
from 1990 onward. Our research indicates no new TSO-C65a applications
are in progress, and no authorized manufacturers are manufacturing,
advertising, or selling TSO-C65a compliant equipment. Given the
obsolescence of the equipment, and the lack of industry interest in new
TSO-C65a product designs, we propose cancelling TSO-C65a.
Issued in Washington, DC, on June 18, 2012.
Susan J.M. Cabler,
Assistant Manager, Aircraft Engineering Division, Aircraft
Certification Service.
[FR Doc. 2012-15209 Filed 6-20-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P