Iceland's Hekla volcano 'ready to erupt' One of Iceland's most feared volcanoes looks ready to erupt, with measurements indicating magma movement, Icelandic experts said Wednesday, raising fears of a new ash cloud halting flights over Europe. The Hekla volcano is close to the ash-spewing Eyjafjoell, which last year caused the world's biggest airspace shut down since World War II, affecting more than 100,000 flights and eight million passengers. Link
Azeri cargo plane crashes in Afghanistan An Azeri cargo plane chartered by foreign troops in Afghanistan crashed north of Kabul early on Wednesday, killing all nine crew members on board, officials said. "On July 6, at 00.10 Kabul time, an Il-76 cargo plane belonging to Silk Way Airlines and heading from Baku to Bagram, crashed 25 km from Kabul," Azeri state air company AZAL said in a statement. "According to preliminary information, the crash may have been the result of a collision with an unknown object." Link
London Heathrow charges investigated by CAA after bmi complaint UK Civil Aviation Authority said Wednesday it has launched a formal investigation into passenger and landing charges that took effect at London Heathrow April 1. The inquiry was prompted by a complaint from British Midland International of discriminatory pricing against domestic and short-haul carriers. Link Discussion
Delta sees delay in modifying 767 cabins Delta Air Lines is slightly behind schedule on delivering its newly modified Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, but it says that the first aircraft in this, “the mother of all modifications,” underwent flight tests last week. The airline needs to do some more work on plumbing and laying up laminates, but it expects the first delivery of the new cabin by Aug. 1. Link
SIA Cargo pilots go to court over pay The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Cargo pilots’ union will have its dispute with the airline over wages heard on 8 July in Singapore’s Industrial Arbitration Court. The dispute also involves parent company SIA whose pilots will be represented in court in August. Link
Tiger Airways Australia head will resign; grounding likely extended Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority is seeking a court order extending the grounding of Tiger Airways Australia until Aug. 1. Meanwhile, TT announced that Crawford Rix would step down from his post as the airline's managing director by the end of the month. Tony Davis, the CEO of TT's Singapore based-parent, Tiger Airways Holdings, will personally take charge of the Australian unit. Link
Study: Long commutes could fatigue airline pilots One in five airline pilots lives at least 750 miles from work, according to a study by scientific advisers to the government, raising concerns that long commutes to airports could lead to fatigue in the cockpit. The calculations were based on home addresses of more than 25,000 pilots. Six percent of pilots listed a primary residence at least 1,500 miles from the airline base where they begin flights, according to a National Research Council report released Wednesday. Link
$7.8b Expansion For Dubai International In a bid to make Dubai International the primary hub for the Middle East, the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai has endorsed an AED28.8 billion ($7.8 billion) project to boost capacity at the airport. Link
Aircraft punch holes in clouds, research says Aircraft penetrating a super-cooled cloud can produce ice crystals, and their wake turbulence can punch holes or establish canals inside cloud formations, a study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has found. As a result, airports may be getting a bit more precipitation as snow or rain. Link
US House Appropriations cuts NASA budget The House Appropriations Committee, which dictates how the government spends money, has released a draft of the commerce, justice and science appropriations bill cutting NASA's FY 2012 budget by $1.6 billion. The proposed budget includes overall cuts from FY 2011 in NASA science ($431m cut), exploration ($152m cut) and operations ($1.4b cut). Link
Other News
Alliance Airlines acquired two 100-seat Fokker 100s and two 70-seat Fokker 70LRs. The Australian-based charter airline has an agreement with an unnamed “major customer” to operate F70LRs domestically, it said. It plans to use the aircraft “for a range of … tasks on the Eastern seaboard.” Following the delivery of the four aircraft, its fleet will comprise 18 100-seat Fokker F100s, two 75-seat Fokker F70LR jets and five 50-seat Fokker F50s.
Korean Air ordered one Boeing 737-900 Full Flight Trainer from Mechtronix Systems, to be delivered at the end of 2011.
SR Technics signed a five-year contract with Swiss International Air Lines to extend its cooperation for comprehensive aircraft maintenance and component services, covering heavy maintenance, A and C checks. The agreement also incorporates full integrated component services for the carrier’s Airbus fleet and includes a hangar space sublease in Zurich.
Jet Midwest said it opened the “largest commercial aircraft paint facility in North America” at the former American Airlines maintenance facility in Kansas City. The facility is 1.2 million sq. ft. and has “already secured a number of paint contracts with airlines from the US and around the world,” Jet Midwest noted.
Air One Maintenance & Engineering received heavy maintenance contracts for two MD80s from Air Capital Group, a C check for a Boeing 737-500 from Mid Air and a heavy C check for a727 freighter from the Mexican Air Force.
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
July 7th
• In 1914... American physics professor, Robert H. Goddard receives a patent for his two-stage solid fuel rocket.
• In 1929... Transcontinental Air Transport Inc. inaugurates a 48-hour combined rail and air passenger service from coast to coast in the U.S. Colonel Charles Lindbergh flies the first plane over the air route.
• In 1962... Colonel Georgi Mossolov sets a new world absolute speed record for airplanes, flying the Mikoyan Ye-166 at 1,665.89 mph.
• In 1981... The first solar-powered aircraft flight across the English Channel is made by the MacCready Solar Challenger. The 180 mile flight takes over 5 hours and is powered by at least 16,128 solar cells on the upper surfaces of the wing and tailplane.
DAILY VIDEO
EDITOR’S CHOICE
HUMOR
An American In France
An American man is having his coffee, croissants, bread, butter and jam at the breakfast table when a Frenchman sits down next to him.
The American ignores the Frenchman who, nevertheless, starts a conversation. "You American folk eat the whole bread?" asks the Frenchman with a large piece of chewing gum in his mouth.
"Of course!"
The Frenchman blows a bubble with his chewing gum, then remarks, "We don't. In France, we only eat what's inside. We collect the crusts in containers, recycle them, then transform them into croutons, and sell them to the United States."
The Frenchman has a smirk on is face. All the while, the American listens in silence.
"Do ya eat jelly with the bread?" asks the Frenchman.
"Of course!"
The Frenchman cracks his gum between his teeth and chuckles, "We don't. In France, we eat fresh fruit for breakfast and put all peel, seeds and leftovers in containers, recycle them, then transform them into jam, and sell it to the U.S."
"And, what do you Frenchmen do with condoms once you've used them?" asks the American.
"We throw them away, of course," replies the Frenchman, with a dumbfounded look.
The American explains, "WE don't. In the U.S., we put them in a container, recycle them, then melt them down into chewing gum and sell it to France.
TRIVIA
Airport Diagrams
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Ideology: The mistaken belief that your beliefs are neither beliefs nor mistaken.
Well done Sherlock. Was it the Tulsa Technology Centre at the bottom of the diagram that gave that one away?
I think 3 is BIL. No idea on the rest.
But it isn't TUL.
It is RVS - RICHARD LLOYD JONES JR AIRPORT in Tulsa.
Our trivia creator slipped in a tricky one.....
Yes - I saw the Tulsa Tech Center and almost posted with TUL myself. The I figured that it just might have been done to fool us..... so I cheated and went to Bing.
1. Pope AFB, Fayetteville, NC 2. Richard Lloyd Jones Jr (RVS), TULSA, OK 3. Billings Logan International (BIL),BILLINGS, MT 4. Central Wisconsin (CWA), MOSINEE, WI 5. Washington Dulles International (IAD), VA
Ideology: The mistaken belief that your beliefs are neither beliefs nor mistaken.
