Aviation International News senior correspondent Ian Goold has been involved in aerospace since 1964 and in aviation media for more than 40 years. He enjoyed a 20-year career at Flight International magazine, where he was latterly air-transport editor before turning freelance in 1993. A winner of the European Regions Airline Association Hank McGonagle award for excellence in aerospace journalism and a Royal Aeronautical Society Aerospace Journalist of the Year global&nbsp;award, he has edited or contributed to aerospace and aviation magazines, special publications, and websites in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. Ian entered aerospace as an apprentice at the British Aircraft Corporation at Brooklands (Weybridge), where he worked on production and final assembly lines of the Vickers Super VC10, and BAC One-Eleven , and manufacture of Concorde major sub-assemblies. He subsequently graduated from the BAC Design Training School to work in the airframe structures drawing office (including design of international future projects, such as the Panavia Tornado multi-role combat aircraft) before joining Flight International in 1973. Apart from years of reading aircraft magazines and books, his first direct contact with aviation media had come during the early 1970s when he was involved at Brooklands with the Weybridge Man-powered Aircraft Group, which designed and built the tenth aircraft to fly under purely human power. As an aviation journalist, he has worked at more than&nbsp; 50 of the major biennial&nbsp;global and regional international aerospace industry shows at Le Bourget, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai (having missed attending only one "Farnborough" since 1960), plus innumerable NBAA, HAI, (U.S.) AOPA, and EBACE Conventions and ERA Assemblies. His favourite aircraft is the Hawker Hunter, of which – as a schoolboy – he heard hundreds make their first flights from Dunsfold, where also on September 24, 2013, he saw the penultimate landing of the VC10 (happily involving an example of which he had witnessed the maiden takeoff in 1970) a day before the last example made the design's final flight (unless, of course....).

Senior correspondent

Ian Goold

Boeing has selected Crane Aerospace &amp; Electronics (Hall 5, Stand A20) to supply tire- and brake-monitoring (TBMS) and AirWeighs onboard weight-and-balance systems for Model 777 aircraft. Deliveries of TBMS-equipped aircraft began last month, while AirWeighs, which is to be a standard production-line fit on 777F cargo variants, will enter service when deliveries begin in late 2008.
Using Crane’s SmartStem wireless technology, the TBMS transmits tire-pressure and brake-temperature information from each landing-gear wheel to the flight deck, via a wireless stem that replaces traditional valve stems. The same data and other stored information can be sent to an onboard control unit or a handheld reader through a tire-pressure sensor wand. 
SmartStem is designed to provide easy and accurate tire-pressure monitoring, important in ensuring optimum life from the tire carcass. For example, Goodyear has demonstrated that a 5-percent drop in tire pressure can result in a 50-percent fall in carcass life. Also, the lighter system can save weight, up to 60 pounds on a 777, according to Crane. 
The wireless technology originates in general aviation, where Crane has forged an agreement giving Cessna distribution rights to a “miniversion,” while retaining access to the commercial and military aviation markets. Crane then was able to supply Boeing with the equipment as an onboard (not handheld) system with integral wiring and a cockpit display. 
This led to an application that can be specified for the 777, including the freighter variant, which will sport the onboard AirWeighs system that also has generated interest among regional airlines, according to Crane.
Accurate weight-and-balance and center-of-gravity calculations are vital for safety, including correct fuel uplift, and for economic operation. Pointing out that there was no regulatory mandate beyond keeping paperwork for civil flights, Crane customer-satisfaction group vice president Kevin Wright said the latter was a factor in a Lockheed C-130 Hercules accident during military operations.
Developed for Navair AirWeighs is currently being developed for the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) for the C-130 Hercules, as well as commercial applications. The system uses a unique method of automatically establishing aircraft gross weight and center of gravity, said Wright. AirWeighs measures actual aircraft weight and determines c.g. by converting landing-gear strut measurement to “on-aircraft scales” that calculate the load-bearing pressure at each leg.
While current methods use historic data for, say, average passenger, baggage and aircraft weight, combined with passenger and cargo location data, Crane said such calculations are only estimates. In addition, aircraft manufacturers and airworthiness authorities should consider the practical limitations imposed by manual systems, according to Crane. 
The AirWeighs equipment provides the greatest benefit when integrated into both operations and maintenance practices. Crane said that use of the system permits less-restrictive flight envelopes, reduced turnaround times, fewer gate delays, improved fuel efficiency, enhanced utility with multiple forward-c.g. operations, reduced need for ballast and central load-control efficiencies. 
Wright said Navair had become interested because it had no system to meet the need for quick aircraft dispatch. After developing a military system, Crane plans to promote the equipment in the civil market, starting with aircraft manufacturers.

Crane to check tires, brakes and weight on Boeing 777s

Boeing has selected Crane Aerospace & Electronics (Hall 5, Stand A20) to supply tire- and brake-monitoring (TBMS) and AirWeighs onboard weight-and-balance 

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