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Vnukovo runway incursion kills Total oil chief and three Falcon 50 crewThe driver of a Moscow Vnukovo airport snow-clearing machine hit by a Dassault Falcon 50EX jet taxiing for take-off was drunk at the time of the accident that killed Total oil chief executive Christophe de Margerie and the aircraft’s three crew. According to Russian news agency Tass, investigators confirmed the driver was drunk and have opened a criminal case for “violation of air traffic safety rules and aircraft steering rules that entailed [the] death of two and more people through negligence”. The accident, which killed all four occupants of the Falcon jet (F-GLSA) but did not injure the snowplough driver, occurred at 19:57GMT on 20 October, as the aircraft was taxiing for take-off to Paris. The aircraft caught fire and fell on to the runway, where visibility was 350m. Vnukovo airport closed to all traffic following the incident, but reopened at 01:34.
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Airbus Offers Longer Range Version Of A321neo
Airbus has begun offering airlines a long-range version of the A321neo, aimed at replacing the Boeing 757. "The long-range version of the A321neo will be the ideal 757 replacement with true transatlantic range, 25 percent lower fuel burn and true long-range comfort," an Airbus representative told Reuters news agency. The new jet would fill a gap in the product line for a single-aisle plane that can fly farther than Boeing's 737 or the Airbus A320, a niche long seen as one that Boeing might also seek to fill.
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Airbus offers "Summit" configuration for VIP clients
Airbus Group is offering a "Summit" layout for its A330 to cater to VIP corporate and government clients. The Airbus Corporate Jet A330 can be configured to offer a bedroom, en-suite bathroom, conference area, office space and dining room. The layout would also include airline-style seating in the rear of the plane.
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Vision Systems shows off dimmable airplane windows
Vision Systems (Booth 1551) is showcasing its expanded range of electronically dimmable windows here at NBAA 2014. The French company’s Nuance Multizone range of windows promises improved comfort for passengers because it allows the dimming of light to be adjusted for each window. Using suspended particle device (SPD) technology, windows can be dimmed progressively in less than five seconds to reduce light, glare and heat. The windows can be dimmed gradually from either the top or the bottom, with various zones being adjusted without separation marks appearing in the window. The effect is something like that achieved with a Venetian blind, and the dimming process is controlled from a button next to the window or via a control panel or personal electronic device.
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World Airliner Directory: Airbus v Boeing is a war on two fronts
The campaign for market share between Airbus and Boeing is being fought on two fronts. In single-aisles, both airframers have adopted similar gameplans by re-engining existing models and – with bulging backlogs and plans to ramp up monthly production between now and the end of the decade – are in a head-to-head battle for market share. It is a race that Airbus is winning, both in terms of orders and being first to market. Its A320neo flew in September. By then, Airbus had logged 3,257 firm ¬orders, compared to 2,219 for the 737 Max. In widebodies the situation is different, with Toulouse and Seattle adopting very different product strategies: Boeing launched its 777X a year ago and is offering two variants of its revamped large twin alongside three versions of its 787 Dreamliner.
LinkAirlines
American, US Airways integrate cargo divisions
American Airlines and US Airways have completed the merger of their cargo divisions. American Airlines Cargo is the first operations division to complete integration after the carriers merged last year. "Becoming one cargo organization less than a year after we legally closed our merger is a tremendous achievement," said Robert Isom, chief operating officer for American.
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Delta CEO says results underscore strategy
Fresh from hounding JetBlue CEO Dave Barger out of a job because the carrier provided too many luxuries to its coach-fare passengers, some Wall Street analysts have turned their sights on Delta. Delta's transgression, they say, is adding too much capacity at a time when "capacity discipline," strongly encouraged by Wall Street, has been a key factor in the airline industry's transformation into a more profitable, less cyclical, investment-worthy business.
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Healthy in-flight dining options a priority for JetBlue
For two years, Nicole Huang has wanted to put instant oatmeal on JetBlue flights. Huang, manager of JetBlue’s onboard experience, believes it would sell. But she has yet to persuade her colleagues it makes sense. Some question whether flight attendants could meet customer expectations. How much water would the flight attendants pour? Would the the standard be a soupy oatmeal? Or a thick one? That’s not the only issue. JetBlue flight attendants do not use carts, so they’d have to carry near-boiling water from the galley to, say, seat 10B. JetBlue solved this problem with coffee by giving customers tight lids, but there has been no similar breakthrough for oatmeal packaging. “There are just too many concerns about oatmeal,” Huang said. “I’m working on it. We’ll find a way to make it match the JetBlue customer experience.” At JetBlue, nothing in the onboard food program is chosen haphazardly. Huang and her small team evaluate each product, whether it’s sold on its own, like oatmeal, or in a snack box. In addition to considering obvious questions, such as whether the item offers a reasonable profit margin, the team weighs less apparent ones.
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Pilots Threaten More Strikes At Lufthansa
Lufthansa's pilots' union said it could call for further strikes this week if the German airline fails to resume negotiations over retirement benefits, heaping pressure on management as the eighth walkout this year continued. Lufthansa pilots began a strike at 13:00 local time on Monday on short-haul flights and widened that to include long-haul on Tuesday. "We explicitly do not rule out further strikes this week if Lufthansa doesn't budge," Markus Wahl, a board member at the Vereinigung Cockpit union, told Reuters news agency but said he hoped the carrier would make a new offer soon.
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Lufthansa To Sell IT Business
Lufthansa is close to selling its IT infrastructure division and completing an outsourcing deal with IBM, which will result in a EUR€240 million (USD$305.57 million) pre-tax charge in 2014. The deal, which is expected to close at the end of the first quarter of next year, will yield an average of EUR€70 million in annual savings, the airline said.
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Southwest focusing on international growth, exec says
Kevin Krone, vice president and chief marketing officer for Southwest Airlines, shared the carrier's plans for growth. "We will be expanding internationally, and that is a focused area of opportunity for us," he said. Krone added that all AirTran international flights will become Southwest flights next month.
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Airports around the world offer bike paths
Airports across the globe offer bike paths for exercise and plane spotting, and some airports even allow passengers to commute to flights via bicycle. Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport offers bike parking for airport employees and passengers, although transporting luggage on a bicycle can be a challenge.
LinkMilitary
Embraer KC-390 rolls out in Brazil
The first completed prototype of the Embraer KC-390 military transport aircraft rolled out of the company’s Gavião Peixoto, Brazil, production facility on 21 October. Embraer can now begin ground testing in preparation for first flight, which the company maintains will occur before the end of the year. The example is the first of two that will be used for ground and flight testing and in the certification process.
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LHT modifies Luftwaffe A310 as zero-gravity aircraft
Lufthansa Technik is converting a former German air force Airbus A310 into a test and research aircraft for French national space centre CNES. The twinjet, which previously served as a VIP transport for the German government, will be used for parabolic flights to simulate zero-gravity conditions. It will be operated by CNES subsidiary Novespace in partnership with the European Space Agency and German aerospace research centre DLR. LHT is conducting the conversion in combination with a heavy maintenance check at its facility in Hamburg.
LinkCorporate
Beechcraft highlights King Air's long-range capability
Beechcraft has demonstrated the long-range capabilities of its King Air 350ER by making a nonstop trip between California’s Napa County airport and Honolulu International – a distance of 2,121nm (3,928km). Performed using a standard production aircraft that serves as a Special Mission demonstrator, the flight lasted 8h 52min, cruising at 28,000ft. The California to Hawaii leg is unique in that it is the longest oceanic flight possible without an available airfield on the way.
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Citation X+ marks Cessna's bid for the high-speed crown
When Flight International last flew the Citation X in 2002, Boeing was still wrestling with the Sonic Cruiser concept, an effort to field a nearly supersonic transport aircraft. In the intervening 12 years, much has happened. The Sonic Cruiser was shelved in favor of the successful 787. The Citation X, which held the record for the fastest civil aircraft from its certification in 1996 with a maximum operating speed of Mach 0.92, was displaced by the ultra-long-range, large cabin G650 with a top speed of M0.925.
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Sabreliner moves into aircraft remanufacturing
US MRO provider Sabreliner Aviation is making its foray in to aircraft remanufacturing and hopes to launch its first program next year. Speaking at NBAA yesterday, Sabreliner president Greg Fedele said: “We have everything in place to make this new venture work - the experience, skills, facility, the necessary approvals and the backing of our owner [Innovative Capital Holdings]. The business case has been made and verified. We are ready to go.” The Perryville, Missouri-based company is looking at a range of aircraft types - single-engined turboprops, light, medium and large-cabin business jets with a view to eventually offering a family of aircraft.
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Aviation Quote
We are long-term players in the industry. We're not just crazy and emotional. We try to be logical business managers.
— Frank Lorenzo
On This Date
---In 1797... The modern parachute is born as Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes the 1st human parachute descent from the air. Garnerin jumps from a hydrogen balloon at a height of 2,300 feet in Paris.
---In 1898... Augustus Herring pilots a powered biplane based on Octave Chanute’s glider design.
---In 1955…First flight of the Republic XF-105 Thunder Chief.
---In 1956…First flight of the Bell XH-40 (UH-1 prototype), better known as the “Huey.”
---In 1977…First flight of the Antonov An-72 SSSR-19774.
---In 1996…Million Air Flight 406, a Boeing 707-323C with 4 people aboard, crashes into a Dolorosa neighborhood ripping off rooftops and crashing in flames into a restaurant, killing the 4 aboard, 30 in the neighborhood and injuring 50 Ecuador.
---In 2012…Swiss carrier Hello, ceases operations and files for bankruptcy protection.
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Newleyweds
A man met a drop-dead gorgeous woman and decided he should marry her immediately.
She said, “But we don’t know anything about each other!”
He responded, “ No problem, we’ll get to know each other with time.”
They were married and they went to spend their honeymoon in a luxurious hotel.
One morning they were laying out next to the large Olympic-sized pool, when he got up, climbed to the 10 meter springboard and demonstrated every dive from the standards to the highest degree of difficulty; a perfect demonstration. He climbed out of the pool and rejoined his wife.
“Wow, that was incredible!” she exclaimed.
“I was a gold medalist in 2000 and 2004 in the high dive. I told you, we’ll get to know each other as time goes by,” he said.
She then jumps to feet, runs and dives into the pool with an impressive speed. After thirty laps at a world-record pace, she comes out of the pool and joins her husband.
“I am surprised. Where you an Olympic swimmer,” he asks?
“No,” she answered, I was an escort in Venice and did Out calls only…
Trivia
General Aircraft Trivia
1. What is or was the Lufberry circle?
2. Elvis Presley was one of the first entertainers to own a “business jet.” What type of aircraft did he own?
3. True or False. The magnetic north pole is in constant motion and currently is moving toward the southeast at 20 kilometers per year.
4. True or False. The Boeing 314 Clipper, a 1936 flying boat used by Pan American Airlines, had a 14-seat dining room, a promenade deck on which passengers could stroll during flight and a honeymoon suite in the aft fuselage.
5. A pilot is flying a typical light airplane with a normally aspirated engine at a given gross weight. Which – if any – of the following indicated airspeeds vary (varies) with density altitude?
a. Best-glide speed
b. Best-angle-of-climb speed
c. Best-rate-of-climb speed
d. Wings level, 1-G stall speed.
JLAmber wrote:2. Elvis Presley was one of the first entertainers to own a “business jet.” What type of aircraft did he own?
Lockheed Jetstar
