You are at netAirspace : Forum : Air and Space Forums : netAirspace Daily News

Season's Greetings From The NAS Staff



NEWS

Airlines Calculate Boeing 787 Delay Damage
With airlines bracing for yet another slip in Boeing’s 787 delivery schedule, some of the program’s key customers are considering how much longer they can reshuffle their current fleets and what the damage will be to their long-term plans.
Link

787-10 back on the table as answer to A330-300
Even as Boeing continues to struggle with the 787-8 program, future planning calls for resurrecting plans for the 787-10 that have been on indefinite hold while working through technical issues and delays of the current model.
Link
Discussion

Boeing will build 8.3 777s per month starting first quarter 2013

Boeing said Monday it will boost the 777 production rate to 8.3 per month in the first quarter of 2013, the second 777 production increase the manufacturer has announced this year.
Link
Discussion

EVA, China Eastern cargo merger gets greenlight
Taiwan’s EVA Airways has agreed to buy 16 per cent of China Eastern Airlines’ cargo division for 328 million yuan (US$49 million). China Eastern is restructuring its freight operations after its takeover of Shanghai Air in January 2010.
Link

Nigerian gunmen raid cargo at Lagos Airport
Gunmen raided the cargo area of Lagos Airport in Nigeria last week. Machines to be used in the country’s forthcoming elections next year were being unloaded from a Saudia Cargo freighter on Monday night when the gunmen struck. Threatening to shoot any of the ground handlers that resisted, they loaded the machinery into jeeps and escaped.
Link

Chinese airlines earn $132 million in November
China's airlines reported collective net income of CNY880 million ($132.4 million) for the month of November, a big reversal from a net loss of CNY1 million in the year-ago period, on a 23% increase in total operating revenue to CNY24.4 billion. Operating expenses rose 18.1% to CNY23.17 billion.
Link

Analysts divided on China airline stock prospects
A heavy sell-off in Chinese airline stocks in December has taken the sheen off the carriers’ otherwise solid performance in 2010, with analysts divided over their prospects next year. Analysts at BofA Merrill Lynch say the sharp sell-down, which came in the wake of a slowdown in traffic growth in November and a warning on 2011 outlook from International Air Transport Association, presents “an excellent entry point to play China’s booming aviation market.”
Link

Severe winter weather stifles European air traffic
Persisting freezing temperatures and heavy snow disrupted air traffic in large parts of Europe for a third consecutive day Monday. Europe’s three largest airports—London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt—remained significantly affected while smaller counterparts such as London Gatwick, Berlin Schoenefeld and Brussels have also been hit.
Link
Discussion

Safi Airways to suspend operations from Frankfurt
Kabul-based Safi Airways will suspend operations from Frankfurt to the Afghan capital from January 10 as a result of the recently announced European Union ban preventing the entry of Afghan-registered aircraft into EU airspace. "It is totally outside the control of the airline, which is fully International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) compliant and widely regarded as the best airline in Afghanistan," Safi said in a statement.
Link

Munich Airport's €650 million Terminal 2 expansion approved
Lufthansa's board and the Munich Airport board gave the green light to expand MUC's Terminal 2 at MUC. The new terminal satellite is expected to increase the airport's annual capacity by 11 million passengers. The investment will be €650 million ($856.8 million) and will be shared 60%-40% between FMG and LH.
Link



Other News

KLM will launch a thrice-weekly 777-200ER Amsterdam-Xiamen service March 27, becoming the first airline to offer direct flights between XMN and Europe.

Continental Airlines will launch 737-800 service to Hilo, Hawaii from Los Angeles (daily) and San Francisco (weekly) June 9.

ANA will add a second Saturday flight to daily Tokyo Narita-New York JFK service aboard a 777-300ER Jan. 22-March 26, in response to “strong passenger demand for more weekend flights to New York.”

Frontier Airlines will operate seasonal daily Denver-Steamboat Springs service aboard an Embraer 190 through April 10.




AVIATION QUOTE

You've got to expect things are going to go wrong. And we always need to prepare ourselves for handling the unexpected.
— Neil Armstrong, 2005 movie Magnificent Desolation: Walking On The Moon.




ON THIS DATE

December 14-23, 1986

Dick Rutan, Jeana Yeager, and Voyager make first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world.

Rutan, Yeager, and Voyager took off from Edwards Air Force Base, California, at 8:01 a.m. on December 14, 1986. The plane needed almost the entire 15,000 feet of runway, which was already one of the world's longest airstrips, to become airborne; the aircraft did not lift off until it was approximately 14,200 feet down the runway, and then it did so only after sustaining a bit of damage. Due to the large amount of fuel contained in Voyager's wing tanks, the aircraft's wings bobbed up and down while accelerating down the runway, and in the process, about a foot of each wing tip chipped off. Concerned about the condition of their craft, Rutan and Yeager circled the airfield and checked their plane's handling conditions. Fortunately, the plane seemed sound enough to continue the journey.

Rutan and Yeager completed their journey when they touched down at Edwards Air Force Base at 8:06 a.m. on December 23, 1986. The entire 24,986-mile trip had taken 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds, or a little more than 216 hours. During their trip, they had averaged around 116 miles per hour, and when they landed, they only had a few gallons of fuel left.


December 21, 1988

A bomb explodes on board Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270.




DAILY VIDEO





EDITOR’S CHOICE





HUMOR

Taking A Ride With Mr. Sleepyhead

Working as an air traffic controller for sixteen years, I have had my share of unique situations develop and this is one of my more memorable and fortunately it turned out good. I was working a high altitude sector at Memphis Air Route Traffic Control center and had a single F-16 check in at flight level 390 (39,000ft) heading west. After an uneventful trip through my sector, I tried to switch him over to the next sector but got no response. After a couple more tries I called the sector to see if he had shown up (both ours and their UHF radios leave a lot to be desired), which he hadn't. So after a couple of calls on UHF emergency frequency with no response I figured he would show up when he wanted lower, which would be soon. After a few minutes a voice came over the radio, "center Slam11" ( The callsign has been changed to protect the sleepy).

Tower: "Slam11, Memphis center, go ahead."
Aircraft: "center Slam11 is a two seat F-16, the pilot is unconscious and I am the flight surgeon."
center: "Slam11, understand the pilot is unconscious and you are not a pilot?"
Aircraft: "I am a pilot but not in this airplane!"
I asked him if he could make a 180 degree turn so I could keep him on my scope and also maintain radio coverage. He said he could an began a very slow right turn.
After turning about 30 degrees right, his turn stopped and I tried calling him but got no response. Just before he was about to get to the edge of my scope he called.
Aircraft: "center Slam11, I got the pilot's mask back on and he seems to be coming around."
center: "OK, I need you to continue the right turn around before I lose you."
After a short pause he came back.
Aircraft: "center Slam11."
center: "Slam11, go ahead."
Aircraft: "Slam11 request a snap (vector) direct McConnell."
center: "Is the pilot conscious?"
Aircraft: "This is the pilot."




TRIVIA

General Trivia

1. How was milkweed used to save pilots and crewmembers during World War II?
2. While in the traffic pattern, you overhear a pilot "requesting the option." The controller tells this pilot that he is "cleared for the option." This means that the pilot may execute his choice of five maneuvers. What are they?
3. What was so unusual about the first fighter aircraft used by the Israeli Air Force?
4. To what does the north pole of a magnetic compass point?
A. The north magnetic pole
B. The south magnetic pole
C. The geographic South Pole
D. None of the above
5. The world's first man-carrying airplane powered by jet propulsion flew in
A. October 1910.
B. November 1920.
C. December 1930.
D. January 1940.

ANSWERS:
1. More than 11 million pounds of hollow, air-filled milkweed floss was used to provide buoyancy and replace kapok in life jackets and life belts.

2. He may execute a touch-and-go landing, a missed approach, a low approach, a stop-and-go landing, or a full-stop landing.

3. In 1948 and 1949, the Israeli Air Force had 125 Avia S199 Mezeks, Czechoslovakian derivations of the Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt Me 109. It must have seemed strange to see the Star of David emblazoned on a German fighter.

4. (d) Compass poles do not point to anything. The magnetized needle aligns with the local line of magnetic flux. If a compass actually pointed to a magnetic pole, isogonal lines on charts would conform to a regular geometric pattern instead of wandering the way they do.

5. (a) Romanian Henri Coanda's turbopropulseur had a four-cylinder, 1,000-rpm engine that drove a geared centrifugal air compressor at 4,000 rpm. Compressor and engine exhaust entered chambers where fuel was added and burned. The result was 450 pounds of thrust, more power than would have been available from the 50-horsepower engine and a propeller.