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General Aviation

Unresponsive TBM 900 crashes near Jamaica
An unresponsive aircraft identified as one of the first Daher-Socata TBM 900 single-engined turboprops delivered earlier this year crashed off the coast of Jamaica after flying hundreds of miles beyond its intended destination. The aircraft is listed by the US Federal Aviation Administration as owned by New 51LG LLC, a company linked to TBM Owners and Pilots association director Larry Glaser. Daher delivered the first TBM 900 to Glaser in a ceremony on 24 March.
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Commercial

CSeries flight ends 100-day grounding
Bombardier returned the CSeries aircraft to the air on 7 September after a 100-day grounding with FTV-2 taking off from the company’s facility at Mirabel airport in Québec. The flight began at 18:10 and landed before sundown about 30min later. “We are pleased to see the CSeries aircraft back in the air,” says Rob Dewar, Bombardier’ vice-president leading the CSeries program
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Bombardier to resume CSeries flights in September
Bombardier has announced that CSeries flight testing will resume in September and reaffirmed that first delivery will occur in the second half of 2015. The company’s update on 5 September narrows Bombardier’s window for lifting the three-month-old grounding of the CSeries fleet. An oil system malfunction caused an explosion in the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G engine on FTV-1 during a ground test in Mirabel, Canada, on 29 May.
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Earthquake Shakes Iceland Volcano, Still No Ash
An earthquake struck the region around Iceland's Bárðarbunga volcano on Sunday while fissures in the area continued to spew lava but none of the ash that could hamper air traffic. The earthquake occurred at 0708 GMT and reached a magnitude of 5.4, making it one of the bigger quakes in the area in central Iceland since significant tremors began on August 16, often producing thousands of quakes per day. "There was also another quake, magnitude 4.6 at 0330 (GMT) in the night," said Bergthora Thorbjarnardottir, geologist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
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Airlines

American to consolidate fleet at regional carriers
American Airlines announced plans to reassign 47 Bombardier CRJ-700s to PSA Airlines next year. "Consolidating our fleets will lower costs for American Airlines Group and simplify the regional feed for our mainline operations," said Kenji Hashimoto, senior vice president of regional carriers for American.
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Job Cuts To Boost Malaysia Airlines Prospects
The current plan to save Malaysia Airlines could succeed where past attempts have failed because the government has finally put politics aside by agreeing to sweeping job cuts, people briefed on the restructuring have said. The job cuts - if they are followed through - would mark a departure from previous attempts to restructure the loss-making airline, which has for years operated with high staff numbers amid political pressure from unions. Under the USD$1.9 billion overhaul unveiled last week, MAS said it would shed nearly a third of its 20,000 workforce after it was hit by two aircraft disasters this year. "Unfortunately, it took two crashes to make the government realize that sweeping changes were needed at MAS," one of the people told Reuters news agency. "With the job cuts, MAS finally has a plan that has a chance of succeeding."
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Ryanair Close To Boeing 737 MAX Order
Ryanair is in advanced talks to buy around 100 of a high-density version of the Boeing 737 MAX in a deal worth up to USD$10 billion. The move comes two months after Boeing said it was studying plans to offer more seating in its upcoming 737 MAX by introducing a modified version with 200 seats, 11 more than the current maximum.
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United Airlines to fly new Dreamliner to Australia
United Airlines recently received its first 787-9 Dreamliner from Boeing. At 206 feet long, the plane is 20 feet longer than its previous version. United plans to fly the Dreamliner between Los Angeles and Melbourne.
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Xtra Airways casts doubt on Air Florida revival plan
Charter operator Xtra Airways says it has no plans to begin flights under an agreement with an organisation called Air Florida, countering claims made on the organisation’s webpage. The website — http://www.airflorida.co — says a company called Air Florida Systems was incorporated this year to re-launch the Air Florida brand. The company says it expects to begin passenger operations — initially as a charter carrier — in 2015 using a number of different aircraft types, including Boeing 737-400s operated by Xtra. “We have reached an agreement in principle with Xtra Airways of Boise, ID, for the provision of multiple 737-400 aircraft (and crews) on an ACMI lease program,” says Air Florida’s website.
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Airports

Phoenix airport reports 5.7% increase in passenger traffic for July
The number of passengers traveling through Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport jumped 5.7 percent in July from a year ago, the airport's eighth consecutive monthly increase. More than 3.68 million passengers arrived and departed, up from 3.48 million in July 2013. July, the peak of the summer vacation season, is traditionally the second busiest month at the airport after March. March crowds swell due to spring break and baseball spring training.
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San Francisco airport is first in U.S. to launch Chinese-language website
San Francisco International Airport recently became the first airport in the U.S. to offer a version of its website that is completely in Chinese. "Given our status as a major international gateway, we've been wanting to add more foreign-language content for some time," said airport spokesman Doug Yakel. "When we re-launched our website last August, we included language buttons providing very basic navigation in eight other languages. Creating a purpose-built site was the next step in our evolution, and the Chinese-speaking market was the right choice for us."
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Expert talks about the future of airport design
Kiran Merchant, CEO of DY Consultants and the previous Chief of Aviation Planning for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, says the airport experience needs an end-to-end overhaul. Designers should take into account passenger comfort and work to bring a sense of local culture and history into facilities, he says, noting the airport often gives travelers their first and last impressions of a city or region.
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Military

Singapore inaugurates M-346 training unit
The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) formally inaugurated its 150 Sqn training unit at Cazaux air base in France on 3 September, some three months after completing its first 1,000 flight hours with the Alenia Aermacchi M-346. All 12 twin-seat trainers ordered from the Italian company in 2010 have now been delivered, Singapore’s ministry of defence confirmed during the inauguration event. The type has replaced its air force’s Douglas A/TA-4SU Skyhawks, several of which had been based in the south of France since 2008 under the terms of a bilateral agreement.
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Aviation Quote

Since 1978 the record pretty well shows that no start-up airline . . . has really been successful, so the odds of JetBlue having long-term success are remote. I'm not going to say it can't happen because stranger things have happened, but I personally believe P.T. Barnum was, in that respect, correct.

— Gordon Bethune, CEO Continental Airlines, regards the 70% rise in JetBlue's stock price in the days after its IPO. Continental's annual shareholder meeting, 17 April 2002.

On This Date

---In 1856... The 1st Canadians to fly are A.E. Kierzkowski and A.X. Rambau, who fly in Eugene Godard's balloon.

---In 1920…The final leg of the transcontinental air mail route is completed between New York City and San Francisco.

---In 1927…Clyde Cessna founds the Cessna Aircraft Company after leaving the biplane-manufacturing business he had formed with fellow aerospace legends Lloyd Stearman and Walter Beech.

---In 1944…The first German V-2 rockets explode in London and Antwerp.

---In 1960…President Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

---In 1967…NASA launches the lunar lander Surveyor 5. Eventually it shoots and transmits 19,049 photographs back to Earth.

---In 1968…First flight of the SEPECAT Jaguar.

---In 1989…Partnair Flight 394, a Convair 580, crashes off the coast of Denmark, killing all 50 passengers and five crewmembers. Investigators conclude that counterfeit, inferior bolts used to hold the vertical fin to the fuselage failed, causing the plane to lose control.

---In 1994…USAir Flight 427, a 737-300 flying from Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to Pittsburgh (PIT), crashes in Hopewell Township, PA, while on approach to runway 28R, killing all 127 passengers and 5 crewmembers. The crash would be blamed on a jammed rudder. It marked the second fatal US Airways crash that year.

---In 1997…The Boeing 777-300 is rolled out for the first time. It holds the title as the longest airliner ever built for four years, until the Airbus A340-600 takes flight in 2001.

---In 2004…The unmanned NASA spacecraft Genesis crashes when its parachute fails to deploy, destroying some of the solar wind samples it was carrying back to earth.

---In 2005…Two Russian IL-76s arrive at Little Rock Air Force Base to assist in providing aid for Hurricane Katrina. It marks the first time Russia had flown such a mission to North America.

Daily Video

Editor’s Choice

Humor

Three Hunter In AK

Three Hunters chartered a local bush pilot to fly them for a hunting weekend. Upon returning on Sunday afternoon the young pilot noticed additional cargo waiting for him. Camping gear, rifles, three large grinning hunters and each toting a deer from their weekend spoils.

The pilot quickly explained the small aircraft was already going to be overweight and the deer were going to have to be left behind. The hunters protested dismissing the importance of being overweight and said:
" Last year we loaded all of this stuff and the deer!"

The pilot, not to be outdone, caved to the excess load.

The poor aircraft bumped and weezed down the short grass strip and inevitably ended pranging into the bushes at the end.

Picking weeds off himself, the pilot asked the hunters:" are you sure you guys loaded all this stuff?"

"Oh yes we did, but last year we crashed over there!"

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