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Bombardier opens window for CS300 first flight
Bombardier has set a three-day window next week to achieve first flight of the 135-160-seat CS300, the largest and most popular version of the CSeries family. The first flight window between 26-28 February was set after Bombardier received an experimental flight permit from Transport Canada. Long-term weather forecasts predict temperatures well below freezing and a slight chance of snow in the morning on 26 February, but little chance of precipitation the following two days.
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Investigators Inspect MH17 Wreckage At Dutch Air Base
Investigators looking into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in July 2014 met for their first joint consultation this week, examining cracks and impact patterns on the jet's fuselage, Dutch officials said. The Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 298 passengers and crew onboard when it crashed with no prior warning over the front lines of Ukraine's conflict between Moscow-backed separatist and Kiev government forces. Parts of the aircraft were taken to the Netherlands late last year because heavy fighting between pro-Russian separatist rebels and Ukrainian government forces had for months prevented safe inspection of the crash site in the country's east.
LinkAirlines
American makes progress on painting aircraft with new livery
How long will it take before American Airlines paints its final aircraft in the new livery? According to an employee newsletter, every plane will have the paint job by December 2018. But your chances of flying on an aircraft with the old American polished aluminum livery will decrease markedly within two years. By June 2017, American will have repainted about 94% of the fleet.
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BA and CAA ordered to act on cabin air contamination
British Airways and the UK Civil Aviation Authority have been given 56 days (until 13 April) to reply to a Coroner’s “Report to Prevent Future Deaths”, that the December 2012 death of a BA pilot, Richard Westgate, was associated with the presence in his body of organophosphate toxins that are present in aircraft cabin air. The report makes a series of statements about the presence of toxins in cabin air and their potential effects on occupants, then demands statements from both organizations about what they intend to do to prevent further such deaths.
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Delta offers miles if bags are late for loyalty members
Delta Air Lines is offering SkyMiles members an additional perk through March 31. If Delta delivers bags 20 minutes late or more, SkyMiles members will receive 2,500 miles.
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JetBlue to launch new seasonal service from D.C.
JetBlue Airways announced that it plans to launch new non-stop seasonal service between Washington, D.C. and Nantucket, Massachusetts this summer. The carrier will operate the service three times a week, between June 19 and September 6, with additional flights added for the Fourth of July weekend.
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Lion Air Delays Leave Thousands Stranded
Lion Air issued an apology and offered compensation after a third day of delays and cancellations stranded thousands of passengers during the busy Chinese New Year holiday. Indonesia's largest budget carrier said the disruption had started when three aircraft suffered "foreign-object damage", causing a ripple of further delays in its network. "I apologize to our passengers and we are giving them compensation," co-founder Rusdi Kirana told Reuters news agency, adding that 2,000 passengers had been directly affected by the chaos.
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Lufthansa Scraps 2014 Dividend
Lufthansa said it will not pay a dividend for 2014, conserving cash for restructuring, after its net result was hit by the sale of an IT unit, an increase in pension liabilities and losses from fuel-hedging activities. Lufthansa is trying to cut costs to better compete with low-cost carriers and rivals from the Middle East. Its efforts have met fierce resistance from pilots, who went on strike 10 times last year and have already held one walkout this year. Chief Financial Officer Simone Menne said on a call with journalists that the airline, which has EUR€32 billion (USD$37 billion) worth of planes on order, was constantly reviewing investments but there were currently no order cancellations on the cards.
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Southwest, FedEx are among most-admired companies
Fortune magazine has compiled a list of the most-admired companies in the U.S. Southwest Airlines was ranked number seven, while FedEx came in at number 12.
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Bomb Threat Grounds Swiss Aircraft In Zurich
A bomb threat was made on Friday against an aircraft operated by Swiss International Air Lines at Zurich airport, a spokesman for the airport said. Swiss flight LX 146 had been due to depart for New Delhi a 12:45 pm.
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United Probes Relationship With Former PANYNJ Head
United Airlines has opened an internal investigation into its relationship with the former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, following a government investigation. Media reports have said the government is investigating whether United added direct flights from its Newark hub to an airport near a home of former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Chairman David Samson in Columbia, South Carolina to curry favor with the official.
LinkAirports
Fla. airport ranked highly in customer survey
Tampa International Airport in Florida ranked highly in a recent Airports Council International survey of passengers. The airport was ranked as the second-best airport in the U.S. for customer satisfaction, and the fifth-best in the world.
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Hawaii airport delays construction of new terminal
Big improvements are on the way for Hawaiian Airlines passengers at Honolulu International Airport but they will have to wait years for one key project that's already about one year behind schedule and construction hasn't even started. Various large projects are scheduled to last another four years at HNL, costing $800 million that's part of $2.7 billion being spent to modernize airports across the state.
LinkMilitary
Pilatus marks PC-21 production milestone
Pilatus has rolled out its 100th PC-21 turboprop trainer, with the Royal Saudi Air Force aircraft sporting special markings. The Swiss manufacturer says it has so far completed deliveries of 25 PC-21s to the United Arab Emirates, 19 to Singapore and eight to Switzerland, and also transferred an undisclosed number to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. These have ordered 24 and 55 examples, respectively.
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Aviation Quote
But to fly is just like swimming. You do not forget easily. I have been on the ground for more than ten years. If I close my eyes, however, I can again feel the stick in my right hand, the throttle in my left, the rudder bar beneath my feet. I can sense the freedom and the cleanliness and all the things which a pilot knows.
— Saburo Sakai, Tokyo, 1956. Japan's greatest living ace with 64 kills, who was banned from flying at the end of W.W. II. From the foreword to Samurai!
On This Date
---In 1909... John A. McCurdy flies the Aerial Experimental Association’s Silver Dart biplane 40 feet over the frozen Bras d’Or lake at Baddeck Bay – the first flight of a heavier-than-air machine in Canada.
---In 1914... Harry Busteed makes the first test flight of the Bristol Scout biplane at Larkhill training center in England.
---In 1921... A team of pilots completes an experimental coast-to-coast mail flight; flying by day and night, they have linked San Francisco and Long Island in a day and half’s flying time.
---In 1951…First flight of the Dassault Mystère.
---In 1966…First flight of the Dornier Do 28D Skyservant D-INTL.
---In 1987…Supernova 1987A in LMC 1st seen; 1st naked-eye supernova since 1604.
---In 1997…A small fire occurs on the Russian Space station, Mir, when a solid-fuel, oxygen-generating canister bursts into flames. There are no injuries.
---In 2008…A United States Air Force B-2 Spirit crashes at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam. It is the first operational loss of a B-2. The crew of two ejects safely, but the aircraft would be the most expensive write-off in history, as each B-2 rings up to around $1.2 billion. The cause of the crash is later determined to have been moisture in the air-data pressure sensors, producing inaccurate speed readings and then an early rotation and subsequent stall.
---In 2010…Kingfisher Airlines formally submits its application to join the oneworld alliance.
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Trivia
General Trivia
1. The solemn missing-man formation usually is flown over a funeral or memorial event in honor of the fallen. It is customary to see a wingman pull up, pull away, or simply be missing. What does it mean when the formation leader and not a wingman pulls away or is missing?
2. All U.S.-registered aircraft begin with an N and may end with a letter or a combination of two letters (such as N6796T and N707BS). What letter or letters, however, may not be used at the end of an N-number?
3. On September 2, 1944, Lieutenant JG George H.W. Bush’s Grumman Avenger was downed by anti-aircraft fire while he was attacking a radio transmitter on Chichi-Jima (near Iwo Jima), and the future president had to bail out. Why is the Avenger sometimes called a Grumman TBF and at other times a TBM?
4. How is it possible to easily determine wind direction at your altitude without using a computer, calculator, GPS, or other navigational aid?
5. What was done with toilet waste during the early days of airline travel?
6. What was the world’s first turboprop airliner?
