NewsCommercial
Boeing announces new production cut for 747-8
Boeing has decided to lower yearly output of the 747-8 by 2.4 aircraft starting in September 2015 due to a slower recovery cycle in the cargo market. Annual production will drop from 18 747-8s to 15.6 beginning next September, Boeing says. The monthly production rate falls from 1.5 aircraft to 1.3 747-8s. “We’re making this minor adjustment because the near-term recovery in the cargo market has not been as robust as expected,” Boeing says. “We continue to believe in the long-term strength of the freighter market and the 747-8 is uniquely positioned to capture this demand.” The latest production cut comes 14 months after Boeing lowered output from 21 747-8s per year to 18.
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CIT Group eyes long-range Airbus A321neo, executive says
Airbus Group NV is getting support from CIT Group Inc. (CIT), a crucial leasing customer, as the planemaker pushes a new aircraft as a replacement for Boeing Co. (BA)’s discontinued 757. CIT’s Transportation Financing unit is a likely buyer of Airbus’s proposed long-range A321neo, President Jeff Knittel said yesterday. With extra fuel tanks, the single-aisle jet would be able to operate the trans-Atlantic routes for which many airlines now use a 757.
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Dutch Reject Request For UN-Led MH17 Inquiry
The Dutch government has rejected a proposal from relatives of victims of the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 to let the United Nations take charge of its criminal investigation into the disaster. A request to appoint a special UN envoy to take over the inquiry was sent on Friday by a law firm representing 20 relatives, who have accused the Netherlands of failing to build a legal case to prosecute those responsible.
LinkAirlines
American, flight attendants reach agreement
American Airlines and its flight attendants union reached agreement on a contract after a short arbitration of two days. American said the carrier continues "to work through the process to reach joint labor contracts for all of our work groups, including our flight attendants who will realize significant wage increases when the arbitration is complete."
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Delta to roll out tiered seating in main cabin
Delta is segmenting its cabin space into Main Cabin, Basic Economy and Delta Comfort+. "We want easily recognizable branded products that reflect thoughtful and reliable amenities for each of our customer types," Delta spokesman Paul Skrbec said.
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Hawaiian Airlines flies more passengers in Nov.
Hawaiian Airlines transported 6.7% more passengers in November on a year-over-year basis. Hawaiian flew 817,583 passengers in November. Traffic rose 4.4% for the month, while capacity also increased 2.9% for the month.
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Korean Air Executive Gives Up Role
The Korean Air executive who caused a plane to return to the gate in order to expel a flight attendant has stepped down from her position as head of in-flight service. Korean Air has apologized for the incident on Friday at New York's John F Kennedy Airport in which Heather Cho, who was vice president in charge of in-flight service, took issue with a crew member for substandard service.
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LAM 190 probe details pilot's actions during fatal descent
Absence of routine alarms has led investigators to believe that an Embraer 190 captain, left alone in the cockpit, deliberately disengaged multiple systems before the aircraft crashed in Namibia. The LAM Mozambique Embraer had been cruising at 38,000ft when cockpit-voice recordings picked up the sound of the altitude pre-select being dialled to 4,288ft, then to 1,888ft and again to 592ft. Shortly afterwards the autothrottle was disengaged and one of the air conditioning packs was deactivated. Neither event generated a caution alarm, and the Namibian transport ministry says, in an interim statement on the crash, that this indicates the actions were intentional.
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Lufthansa Sees Strike Costs At EUR€200 Mln
Lufthansa estimates strikes may have cost it almost EUR€200 million (USD$247 million) this year, after a further two walkouts by pilots last week forced the cancellation of thousands of flights. The airline had put the cost of the previous eight pilot strikes this year at EUR€160 million, rising to EUR€170 million if strikes by other airport staff were included.
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Republic Airways transports fewer passengers in Nov.
Republic Airways Holdings flew more than 1.7 million passengers in November, a 1% drop from the same month in 2013. Republic Airways Holdings Inc. is the parent company of Republic Airlines, Shuttle America and Chautauqua Airlines.
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United Airlines reports traffic results
United Airlines reduced passenger-carrying capacity by 0.4% and posted a 0.3% drop in passenger traffic for November. International traffic rose 3.6% for the month, and domestic traffic fell 3.7% during the month.
LinkAirports
Dallas approves second parking lot for Love Field
A committee of the Dallas City Council approved for construction to begin in 2017 of a second parking garage for Love Field. The second garage would add 4,000 parking spaces, bringing the total parking spaces for the airport to 13,000.
LinkMilitary
Airbus lands Anglo-French A400M support deal
With a combined six of the aircraft now being flown by their air forces, the defenSe ministries of France and the UK have signed a contract covering collaborative in-service support arrangements for the Airbus A400M Atlas transport. Announced by the nations on 8 December, the development covers initial maintenance support of the Atlas airlifter, in addition to spare parts pooling and “the establishment of maintenance engineering services to the benefit of both air forces”, the nations say in a joint statement. The contract has been placed with Airbus Defence & Space via Europe’s OCCAR procurement agency.
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Automated manufacturing could drive $125 million from cost of F-35 canopies
The US Office of Naval Research (ONR) recently received a national manufacturing award for developing a method to build canopies for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II that could save the military $125 million over the life of the program. ONR spearheaded the effort to automate a thermoforming process used to create the F-35 canopy – the transparent portion of the cockpit enclosure – that will be applied to at least 2,000 of the aircraft. The new process also makes the manufacturing work safer, ONR says. Officials from ONR’s Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) program accepted the Department of Defense’s Joint Defense Manufacturing Technology Achievement Award at the Defense Manufacturing Conference in San Antonio.
LinkRegulatory
EU May Act Alone On Flight Tracking
The European Union is considering plans to impose flight-tracking unilaterally in response to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, threatening a backlash from airlines over timing and costs. The disappearance of MH70 in March sparked efforts by global regulators and the airline industry to agree on systems to track aircraft, reviving a stalled recommendation from French investigators following the crash of an Air France jet in the Atlantic in 2009. But with talks taking longer than expected, the EU Commission has been studying its own separate mandate that would compel airlines to introduce such systems, the people said.
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TSA rules on liquids unchanged for now
The Transportation Security Administration allows air travelers to carry liquids in containers of 3.4 ounces or less, and that restriction also applies to gels.
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Aviation Quote
MaCleod, since you've flown the SeaBee a lot you'll understand when I say it was the only airplane I ever owned that you could put in a dive, loose a cylinder and stall out!
— Ernest K. Gann
On This Date
---In 1909…Two men become the first Austalians to fly from Great Britain to Australia direct. Cruising along as an average speed of 83mph, it only took them 135 hours for the 11,340-mile trip. They purportedly ran out of Terra chips in the second hour.
---In 1919... Capts. Ross Smith and Keith Smith become the first Australians to fly directly between Great Britain and Australia, a distance of 11,340 mi., after flying 135 hr. 55 min. at an average speed of 83 MPH.
---In 1941…An SBD Dauntless dive bomber from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) piloted by Lieutenant Clarence E. Dickinson sinks the Japanese submarine I-70 northeast of Oahu. I-70 is the first Japanese submarine ever sunk by enemy forces.
---In 1951…First flight of the Kaman K-225, first turbine-powered helicopter.
---In 1958…National Airlines operates the very first domestic jet service in the United States, flying a Boeing 707 from Miami to New York’s Idlewild.
---In 1969… First NASA flight of a YF-12 (935). (Q)
---In 1974…Helios 1 is launched by the US and Germany, later to make the closest flyby of the Sun.
---In 1998…Two Canadian Snowbird CT-114 Tutors collide during training near Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, killing one of the pilots.
---In 2004…The US Federal Aviation Administration issues an Emergency Airworthiness Directive effectively grounding all U.S. Beechcraft T-34 Mentor aircraft. The directive is in response to fatal in-flight structural failure accidents during simulated aerial combat flights.
---Two of Canada’s Snowbirds aerobatic CT-114 Tutors collide near Mossbank, Saskatchewan during training, killing one of the pilots. In a sad coincidence, this is six years to the date of the team’s previous fatal accident
---In 2005…Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145, a DC-9 registered YU-AJH, crashes at Port Harcourt International Airport in Nigeria, killing 108 of 110 people on-board. The aircraft overshot the runway while attempting to land during a thunderstorm, and might have been struck by lightning around 125 ft up. Among the dead were 61 junior high school students.
Daily Video
Editor’s Choice
Humor
The TRUE Meaning of Aviation Terms! In alphabetical order.
AA : "Alcoholics Anonymous" (or "American Airlines" if you prefer)
ASC : "Attractive and Sexy Captain" (Actually "Automatic Systems Controller")
BOAC : "Bored Of Always Copiloting" (Actually "British Overseas Airways Corporation")
BOEING : "Beware: One Engine Is No Good" (Actually the sound of crashing)
Concorde : (French for "concord") What the British and the French could not achieve
CSA : "Captain's Sleep Assistant" the other name for "co-pilot". (Actually "Ceskoslovenské Státni Aerolinie" or Czekoslovak State Airline)
DFP : "Drunken First-class Passengers" (Actually "Displayed Flight Path")
ETOPS : "Engines Turning Or Passengers Swimming" (Actually "Extended Twin OPerationS")
FA : "Female Attraction" (Actually "Flight Attendant")
FAA : Foolish And Abominable" (Actually "Federal Aviation Administration")
FSC : "Friendly Sexy Captain" (Actually "Fuel System Controller")
IFR : "I Follow Roads" (Actually "Instruments Flight Rating")
MALEV : "Most Attendants Left Early for Vacations" (Actually "Magyar Légiközlekedési Vallalat", the Hungarian state airline)
MCDU : "Most Captains Don't Understand" (Actually "Multifunction Control Display Unit")
MIG : "Meals Insipid in the Galley" (Actually "MIkoyan Gourevitch" a russian plane manufacturer)
PFD : "Passengers Feeling Dizzy" (Actually "Primary Flight Display")
TWA : "Time Wasted at the Airport" (Actually "Trans World Airline")
Virgin : A Flight Attendant ...BEFORE she becomes a Flight Attendant
Trivia
General Trivia
1. During World War II, _____ Tuskegee Airmen were deployed overseas as fighter pilots.
a. 155
b. 355
c. 955
d. 1,555
2. Why does an airplane with a constant-speed propeller have a shorter takeoff roll than an identical airplane with a fixed-pitch propeller?
3. The Lake Sport Mermaid, an amphibious light sport airplane marketed by the Czech Aircraft Works,
a. Has tricycle landing gear legs that must be operated individually.
b. Has wing flaps that the pilot can operate individually (one side at a time).
c. Utilizes an iPad as its primary flight display.
d. Can be modified by adding an exterior seat.
4. Why are Gary Burrell and Min H. Kao so well known in general aviation circles?
5. True or False? An airport without a published instrument approach procedure may be designated as an alternate airport when filing an instrument flight plan.
6. Why is landing a landplane in water called ditching?
7. True or False? The “Five Blackbirds” were an aerobatic team consisting of African-American pilots.
8. What is missing from the following list of VFR maneuvers?
a. touch-and-go landing
b. low approach
c. missed approach
d. full-stop landing
