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NEWS

Spirit Airlines pilots go on strike
Spirit Airlines suspended operations through Tuesday as its pilots walked off the job at the expiration of the federally mandated 30-day cooling-off period at midnight June 11-12.
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Air China sets sights on international expansion
Air China, buoyed by a gradual rebound in international traffic owing to the economic recovery in Asia, is eyeing expansion.
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Lufthansa starts A380 service, says flights are 'fully booked'
Lufthansa operated its first scheduled A380 flight Friday from Frankfurt to Tokyo Narita with 520 passengers and 22 crew onboard.
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Boeing Proposes Asia Consortium For C-17s
With financial resources scarce, many Asian countries have been receptive to Boeing’s idea of forming a consortium for its C-17 heavy-lift transport aircraft similar to the one implemented by NATO, although it is likely to take a couple of years to work out the details, according to the company.
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Why Emirates chose ILA to reveal big A380 deal
Why did Emirates announce its massive A380 order at ILA rather than the higher-profile Farnborough air show next month? That was a question many were asking at an event that has been seen in the past as a rather parochial get-together for German industry.
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Other News

Following four years of negotiations and one month of federal mediation, Horizon Air and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Friday reached an "agreement in principle" on a new contract for the carrier's 686 pilots. The Airline Professionals Assn. Teamsters Local 1224, which represents the pilots, had called for the airline to cease seeking pay and benefit concessions from the Seattle-based regional's pilots given "strong financial improvements" and profitable operations. The union claimed the pilots had not received a wage increase since 2005.

Horizon’s pilot contract became amendable in September 2006. The two parties disclosed that in the coming weeks they will finalize the language with the intent of reaching a tentative agreement that union leaders can present to the pilots for ratification. Details of Friday's accord were not released. The carrier's flight attendants, represented by the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA, ratified a new two-year labor agreement at the start of the year

IATA said Friday that it formalized a strategic partnership with the Ukraine to cooperate in a number of areas, including safety and security. DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani and Ukraine Deputy Transport Minister and Chairman-State Aviation Administration Anatolii Kolisnyk signed a Memorandum of Intention in Kiev, where Bisignani also met with officials from Ukraine International Airlines and Aerosvit Airlines. The organization will share ideas and best practices on safety, security, technology, airport infrastructure, air navigation, ground handling and training.

"IATA's global standards and technical expertise can contribute significantly to the development of safe, efficient and environmentally responsible aviation in Ukraine," Bisignani said. He noted that Ukraine "has made progress to improve safety but many challenges remain…more needs to be done. We must accelerate the work to bring safety oversight in line with the standards of ICAO." The country has a US FAA Category 2 safety rating. He added that the nation's "airport and air traffic control rates remain high and are not cost-based. Ukraine's system is one of the most expensive in Europe and remains one of the least productive. This undermines the competitiveness of Ukraine. We need immediate reform."He said the agreement signed Friday gives "hope that the government can quickly address the challenges of safety and infrastructure."

Delta Air Lines will add first class service to all domestic flights longer than 750 mi. beginning this fall. When the upgrade is complete, 50 routes that currently feature only one class of service will be upgraded to two-cabin aircraft. The upgrade is part of the airline's ongoing three-year, $1 billion investment program, which includes the retrofit of CRJ700s.

EADS last week operated flights powered solely by algae biofuel with Diamond DA42 aircraft at the Berlin Air Show. "Our pure biofuel flight from algae is a world first and an exciting milestone in our research at EADS," CTO Jean Botti said. "This opens up the feasibility of carbon-neutral flights." Only "relatively minor" modifications and adjustments were made to the four-seat, twin-engine aircraft to allow it to operate on algae biofuel, EADS said, adding that the fuel contained eight times less hydrocarbons than kerosene derived from crude oil and can reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 40%. The algae oil for flight testing and demonstration flights was delivered by Biocombustibles del Chubut S.A. of Argentina and refined into biofuel by VTS Verfahrenstechnik Schwedt of Germany. EADS said it is working with partners to develop the necessary industrial infrastructure to further the production of biofuel. The project is led by EADS Innovation Works and carried out in partnership with IGV GmbH of Potsdam, Diamond Aircraft and Austro Engines of Austria.

US FAA's William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City reached a two-year cooperative research and development agreement with Boeing subsidiary Insitu and the New Jersey Air National Guard to study the integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system. Currently a limited number of UASs fly in the US under certificates of authorization or FAA waivers that are granted on a case-by-case basis.

Under the terms of the agreement, Insitu will provide two ScanEagle UASs as well as related support hardware and data and will train FAA pilots and support staff on the ScanEagle system. "FAA will have an opportunity to better understand UAS design, construction and functionality," Insitu VP-Commercial Business Development Paul McDuffee said. "It will also begin determining differences in how an air traffic controller manages an unmanned aircraft versus a manned aircraft by integrating the ScanEagle system with existing FAA air traffic control simulation capabilities." Flight testing will take place at the New Jersey ANG's Warren Grove Range, though no timeline was disclosed.

Lufthansa Technik AERO Alzey signed an eight-year exclusive repair and overhaul agreement with Eurowings covering "at least" 30 CF34-8C engines powering the carrier's CRJ900 fleet.

Pratt & Whitney signed a three-year contract renewal to continue to provide EcoPower engine wash services to Martinair. The agreement also makes Martinair a member of Pratt's line maintenance supplier network. Pratt said it will use the carrier's line maintenance capabilities as the preferred provider for designated services for PW4000s in Amsterdam.

Aeronautical Engineers Inc. of Miami was selected by Transmile Air Services of Malaysia to perform one 737-200SF passenger-to-freighter conversion. The aircraft was built in 1987 and is the second -200SF AEI has converted for Transmile.

Cargoitalia took delivery of its third MD-11F from Boeing under a long-term lease. The newly converted aircraft will serve Cargoitalia's Milan Malpensa-Shanghai route beginning in July.

Aeronautical Engineers announced that the prototype MD-80SF, an ex-American Airlines MD-82, arrived in Miami last month and has begun the passenger-to-freighter conversion process. AEI purchased the aircraft, MSN 49470, from GA Telesis. Modification touch labor is being performed at Commercial Jet, which is located at Miami International.

Meridian Aerospace Group arranged the sale of two ex-Midwest Airlines MD-81s to World Aviation Services, UT.

AFI KLM E&M won a five-year contract with Saga Airlines to provide maintenance for the Turkish carrier's CFM56-7B engines powering its 737 fleet. Maintenance will be provided on a turnkey basis.



AVIATION QUOTE

"Flying is a lot like playing a musical instrument; you're doing so many things and thinking of so many other things, all at the same time. It becomes a spiritual experience."

- Dusty McTavish



AEROSPACE TERM

Image Rotation

Mechanized or digital rotation of an image.



DAILY VIDEO





EDITOR’S CHOICE





HUMOR

Shipwreck

Following a moment of inattention by the Captain, a ship sank in the middle of the ocean. Two guys managed to inflate a rubber life raft and grab a box of provisions before the ship slipped gently below the surface. After floating under blazing heat for six days they ran out of food and water.

On the tenth day, bleary eyed and half dead from heat, thirst and starvation, they spotted a small object floating toward them in the water. As it drew near, they were ecstatic to find that it was an oil lamp (Oil Lamp, Brass, One. Genies for the use of). They grabbed the lamp and rubbed it. Out popped a tired old genie.

"OK, so you freed me from this stupid lamp, yadda, yadda, yadda. But hey, I've been doing this three wishes stuff for a long time now and quite frankly, I'm burned out. You guys get only ONE wish and then I'm OUTTA here. Make it a good one".

The first guy, without hesitation or thought blurted out, "Give us all the beer we can drink for the rest of our lives!!!"

"Fine," said the genie, and with a wave of his hand, the entire ocean turned into beer.

"Great move Einstein!" said the second guy, slapping the first guy in the head. "NOW we're gonna have to pee in the BOAT!"



TRIVIA

3D ID

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.


9.


10.

2. Douglas DC-10
3. IAI Kfir
6. General Dynamics F-16
7. Boeing 727-100/200
8. Dassault Falcon 20
10. Fairchild Republic A-10

halls120 wrote:2. Douglas DC-10
3. IAI Kfir
6. General Dynamics F-16
7. Boeing 727-100/200
8. Dassault Falcon 20
10. Fairchild Republic A-10

1. Beech 1900
4. Piper Cub
9. X-29

Aeronautical Engineers announced that the prototype MD-80SF, an ex-American Airlines MD-82, arrived in Miami last month and has begun the passenger-to-freighter conversion process. AEI purchased the aircraft, MSN 49470, from GA Telesis. Modification touch labor is being performed at Commercial Jet, which is located at Miami International.

"Touch labour"? What does that mean - the actual hands-on metal bashing, as distinct from the design work?

ShanwickOceanic wrote:

Aeronautical Engineers announced that the prototype MD-80SF, an ex-American Airlines MD-82, arrived in Miami last month and has begun the passenger-to-freighter conversion process. AEI purchased the aircraft, MSN 49470, from GA Telesis. Modification touch labor is being performed at Commercial Jet, which is located at Miami International.

"Touch labour"? What does that mean - the actual hands-on metal bashing, as distinct from the design work?

Yup. I need to go out there, probably next week. Take a peek, take the camera.

Click Click D'oh wrote:

halls120 wrote:2. Douglas DC-10
3. IAI Kfir
6. General Dynamics F-16
7. Boeing 727-100/200
8. Dassault Falcon 20
10. Fairchild Republic A-10

1. Beech 1900
4. Piper Cub
9. X-29

I didn't know #3 or #9, otherwise, I'm going with the above.

1. Beech 1900
2. DC-10
3. Dassault Rafale ?
4. Piper Cub ?
5.
6. F-16
7. B727-100
8. Falcon 20?
9.
10. A10 Warthog

I'll take a swing at 5 and call it an Apache.

Allstarflyer wrote:I'll take a swing at 5 and call it an Apache.

I think it's an Augusta-Westland AW109

ANSWERS

1. Beechcraft 1900C
2. McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30
3. IAI Kfir C.7
4. Aeronca Champ
5. Agusta A109
6. General Dynamics F-16A and -B
7. Boeing 727-100/-200
8. Grumman X-29
9. Fairchild/Republic A-10A Thunderbolt II