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Sounds like the Dreamliner is the only plane designed to avoid this problem. Oddly the article hardly mentions Airbus, so it isn't clear to what degree their p
by 762236 6y ago
Sounds like the Dreamliner is the only plane designed to avoid this problem. Oddly the article hardly mentions Airbus, so it isn't clear to what degree their planes suffer this problem. And I wonder why European regulators aren't addressing this issue (which seems implied by the article).
- jeffrey_t_b 6y agoI wouldn't say "designed to avoid this problem", because I'm pretty sure that cabin air quality didn't play much of a role in the engineering trades regarding ECS architecture. The 787 was intended as a more electric aircraft, from the very start, even called the "7E7" during development. An electrical ECS requires special cabin air compressors with big motor drives and power electronics, but there was significant savings for the engines by removing bleed air. It makes sense as a system: Electrical main engine start, generator-optimized engines/APU, electrical cabin air compressors. But the trade criteria were the typical ones: weight, installation volume, total lifecycle cost, etc. The choice of a lower cabin altitude _was_ a big deal though, and if I had to guess, is the main source of a more pleasant experience. The main ECS vendors (Honeywell, Hamilton Sundstrand, and Liebherr) all have cabin air quality products, which have mostly gone without interest by the aircraft manufactures and the airlines.
- octoberfranklin 6y ago> ECS Please to expand the acronyms?
- jeffrey_t_b 6y agoSorry, thought that was in the story: Environmental Control System, which is the aircraft subsystem responsible for pressurizing and cooling/heating the cabin.
- matt123456789 6y agoWhat drives the vendors to create those products if nobody is buying them?
- jeffrey_t_b 6y agoWell, maybe I should have said "made proposals, research projects, and demos". It takes a lot of time and money to bring an actual product to market through flight qualification, and nobody will take that on until there is sufficient interest.
- mannykannot 6y agoHere's a fairly detailed article on the issue: https://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_4_07/article_02_1.html https://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_... The main points are increased efficiency and decreased maintenance costs.
- wyxuan 6y agohttp://viewfromthewing.com/is-airbus-doing-enough-to-stop-the-fumes-that-are-making-people-sick/ http://viewfromthewing.com/is-airbus-doing-enough-to-stop-th... Apparently to a similar degree. It seems that the European airlines are doing a good job (DHL, Lufthansa) as mentioned in the article about mandating this stuff.
- steffan 6y agoThe article states (and I have heard this independently) that the Boeing 787 is the only aircraft which does not use engine bleed air to provide air to the pressurization and air conditioning system.
- ImprovedSilence 6y agoThere are several examples of Airbus bleed events in the article if you read the whole thing.