Originally Posted by
BetterBob
That's a pretty slick hoist.
I believe the forwarded email said it was Honeywell equip.
Honeywell, the manufacturer of the Auxiliary Power Units (APU) that played such a crtitical role in the emergency landing on the Hudson by Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger III, who maneuvered the plane to glide approximately 3,000 feet without power and splash down slowly in the river.
The generators that routinely provide electricity for the plane weren't available because they are driven by the aircraft's engines – which weren't putting out power after apparently having ingested several geese. But the plane's Auxiliary Power Unit – made by Honeywell International – was operating during the descent and gave the pilot full use of the jet's flight-control system, according to a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board and other people familiar with the details.
Pretty amazing stuff.
There have been at least two other aircraft saved from total disaster by Honeywell APU's. In 1988 Aloha Airline flight 243 (B737) lost the top half of the fuselage skin in a due to structural failure of the aircraft skin. The engines ingested enough debris to disable one entirely and the other partially. The pilot started the APU for hydraulic power for the flight controls so that he could get maximum power from the one damaged engine. They barely made it to the airport.
In 1989 a KLM B747 flew through a volcanic cloud over Alaska's Mt. Redoubt, that was obscured by normal cloud cover. All four engines shut down after ingesting the very abrasive ash. The plane descended from 35,000 feet to below 13,000 feet before the APU was able to restart the engines. It took about 8 tries to restart and the aircraft made it safely to Anchorage.