Reducing Pressure, BBJ Style

Boeing Business Jets is now offering a modification for its BBJ and BBJ2 aircraft that reduces the cabin altitude from 8,000 to 6,500 feet. At an approximate cost of less than $100,000, the modification can be easily performed in the field by an A&P technician.

"The system installation requires a technician to replace the existing pressure relief valves, cabin altitude indicator and pressure controller boxes with new ones, all of which can be accomplished in a short period of time," says Lee Monson, BBJ president.

There are no structural modifications or changes in weight required, and the most difficult part of the job is the installation of the revised software.

On the other side, any aircraft that have been modified will be required to undergo a special inspection once the aircraft surpasses 30,000 flights.

"Since the average BBJ flies approximately 225 flights per year, an increased inspection time during the structural corrosion inspection would be negligible to the corporate aircraft operator," says Monson.

In addition, Monson says that the reduced cabin altitude is a feature that was requested only by the BBJ operators. "Airline operators said they would rather have the increased airframe service life over an improvement in cabin comfort," says Monson. "This modification is driven by our BBJ customers, and it squashes some of our competitors' comments that we are driven by our airline customer requirement."

Even with the advancements, new demand for the jet has not improved. Monson says that over the last nine months there has been a renewed interest in the aircraft, but no new deals have been closed.
To date, BBJ has delivered 72 green aircraft, of which 52 have entered into service and performed more than 38,000 flight hours.

Boeing is considering more improvements to the line, mostly in the area of avionics. "Improvements we are looking at include new display formats like we have on the 737-900 and an Electronic Flight Bag [EFB]," says Monson.

In addition, Boeing is considering an "Integrated Navigation System." The system would take all of the data outputs from various avionics vendors and place them on a standardized screen in an ILS format.

"Whatever improvements we make to the BBJ will be applied across the Boeing product line. However, I want to implement it on the BBJ first," says Mike Hewitt, BBJ chief pilot.

By Dave Benoff