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Commercial

CRJ crash probe fails to resolve fatal dive mystery
Investigators have been unable to determine precisely why a Kazakh Bombardier CRJ200 crashed while attempting a go-around at Almaty two years ago, with the loss of all 21 on board. Analysis of the aircraft’s dynamics shows that, instead of climbing away from the approach to runway 23R, it dived from a height of about 150m (500ft), striking the ground and disintegrating. “It has not been possible to clearly identify the reason for the aircraft’s transition to a dive – instead of a climb – from the available data,” says Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee.
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Airlines

American to phase out MD-80s completely by end of 2017
American Airlines plans to retire its last McDonnell Douglas MD-80s by the end of 2017. This year, the carrier is still flying 96 MD-80s, but will phase out the older aircraft in two years.
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Delta gives passengers options with its branded fares
Delta Air Lines' new branded airfares, which range from Basic Economy to high-end Delta One Fare, offer travelers more choice, Delta Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said.
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Delta system capacity increased by 6% in Feb.
Delta Air Lines Inc. said its consolidated passenger unit revenue--a key measure of performance for the airline sector--fell 1.5% in February as foreign exchange effects pressure its international performance. Still, Delta said its domestic segment and corporate revenue gains remained strong and system capacity rose by 6%.
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Emirates Says Adds EUR€6.8 Billion To EU GDP
Emirates said on Tuesday it contributes EUR€6.8 billion (USD$7.6 billion) to the European Union economy, in an apparent response to criticism from rivals that government subsidies give Gulf carriers an unfair advantage. Emirates' operations, which include 220 connections to European destinations, supported 85,100 jobs across the EU in the 2013-2014 financial year, it said in a statement, revealing the results of a study by Frontier Economics.
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JetBlue debuts a new training center at Fla. airport
JetBlue Airways unveiled a $25 million training facility at the Orlando International Airport in Florida on Monday
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Ryanair Seeks Details Of IAG's Plans For Aer Lingus
Ryanair wants details of IAG's plans for Aer Lingus, including possible remedies to competition concerns, before it decides whether to accept IAG's offer for its 30 percent stake. British Airways owner IAG's EUR€1.36 billion (USD$1.5 billion) bid already has the backing of the Aer Lingus board and Ryanair has also urged the government, which holds a 25 percent stake, to accept the offer.
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UPDATED Turkish A330 suffers nose gear collapse in Kathmandu UPDATED
A Turkish Airlines Airbus A330-300 aircraft has skidded off the runway at Kathmandu Tribhuvan International airport, causing its nose gear to collapse. The aircraft was operating flight TK726 from Istanbul to Kathmandu when the accident happened, according to social media images and reports. A search on FlightRadar24 showed that the aircraft landed in Kathmandu at 07.44 local time.
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United Airlines evaluates Boeing 777-300ER, CFO says
John Rainey, chief financial officer of United Airlines, said the Boeing 777-300ER could make sense for the carrier. "One thing that you could see is that we could consolidate all of the 747 flying in one area, and that would have a cascading effect with the 777-300ER in other markets and the 787 somewhere else," Rainey said.
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United changes policy on shipments of rechargeable batteries
Citing safety concerns, United Airlines on Monday became the second major U.S. airline to announce it will no longer accept bulk shipments of rechargeable batteries of the kind that power everything from smartphones to laptops to power tools. Delta Air Lines quiet stopped accepting bulk shipments of the rechargeable batteries, also called lithium-ion batteries, on Feb. 1. It's not uncommon for tens of thousands of the batteries to be shipped in a single cargo container aboard a passenger plane on an international flight.
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Airports

Atlanta airport plans to open hair salon/barber shop
The airport’s first barber shop/hair salon will offer styling and haircuts for men and women at a location in the atrium of the airport’s domestic terminal. “We think we’re going to do well at the airport,” said Roosevelt Gilbert, who owns the Barber Shop Atlanta. The airport has twice attempted to open a hair salon or barber shop. Years ago, a planned Jakki Colours hair salon for the atrium never came through, and a 2013 attempt to open a barber shop was aborted in favor of plans for a location to offer both barber and hair salon services.
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United to invest $120M in N.J. airport terminal
You wait on what looks like a Soviet bread line. You show your I.D. to a guard. You take off your shoes, empty your pockets, and surrender to a digital scanner. Fortunately, there’s always a bevy of gleaming cocktail bars and foodie outposts welcoming you to the other side. No? Get ready. That’s the plan for United Airlines’ Terminal C at Newark Liberty International Airport—a $120 million redesign that includes 55 dining venues with enough celebrity-chef cameos to rival the glitziest of Las Vegas casinos.
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Military

Second A400M arrives at RAF Brize Norton
A second Airbus A400M tactical transport has arrived at the Royal Air Force’s Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire, a little over three months after the service’s lead example touched down in the UK. The UK’s third of an eventual 22 A400M airframes, ZM402 was flown to its new home on 27 February from Airbus Defence & Space’s final assembly site near Seville, Spain. It joins ZM400, which arrived at RAF Brize Norton on 17 November 2014, and was formally unveiled 10 days later.
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Dutch parliament approves first F-35 production order
The Dutch parliament has approved an order for the nation’s first production batch of eight Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning IIs, to be delivered in 2019. “With this decision, we have reached the point of no return in the replacement of the [Lockheed] F-16,” said defence minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert on 26 February.
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Rolls-Royce opens first F-35 lift fan repair centre
Rolls-Royce has opened the first repair and overhaul facility for the Lockheed Martin F-35B's LiftFan system in Indiana, as it consolidates assembly of major components away from the UK. The $10 million LiftWorks repair facility in Plainfield will serve as an interim logistics hub for F-35Bs operated by the US Marine Corps and the UK. The site could eventually be augmented or replaced by the US government depot system or separate repair and overhaul facilities in the UK or Italy, should either of those governments decide to invest in that capability, says Tom Hartmann, senior vice-president of R-R.
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Rotary Wing

Bristow endorses AW609 for commercial ops
Helicopter services provider Bristow has agreed to work with AgustaWestland to optimise the AW609 for commercial operations, as it endorses the capabilities of the first civil tiltrotor aircraft to enter certification testing. AgustaWestland displayed an AW609 emblazoned with the Bristow brand in the Heli-Expo exhibit hall. In the long history of developing civil tiltrotor technology, it was the most visible sign yet that a new era of rotorcraft technology is dawning.
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MD Helicopters to redesign MD902 Explorer
MD Helicopters has announced plans to redesign the MD902 Explorer light-twin utility helicopter with new parts developed in-house as part of a campaign to boost sales by making the aircraft more affordable. The new design – provisionally named the MD969 – should be completed by the end of this year, with certification in 2017 and first deliveries in 2018, says Lynn Tilton, chief executive Patriarch Partners, a private equity firm that owns MD Helicopters.
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Robinson Helicopter sees R66 bounce-back in 2015
After a steep drop in production in 2014, Robinson Helicopter expects sales and deliveries to rebound this year and remain at least steady for the long-term. “Our sales are already well beyond what they were in 2014. We’ve already increased production on the R66 and R44,” says Kurt Robinson, president of Robinson Helicopter. The Rolls-Royce RR300-powered R66 programme suffered the most last year, with deliveries dropping to 101 from 191 last year. Overall helicopter deliveries dropped to 329 in 2014 from 523 in 2013.
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Sikorsky explores coaxial applications beyond Raider
Sikorsky’s S-97 Raider has not yet flown, but the company is considering extending the aircraft’s coaxial rotor design to other platforms. Chief executive Mick Maurer, speaking at the HAI Heli-Expo show on 3 March, says technology incorporated into the Raider, which was initially pitched as a replacement for the US Army’s Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior armed scout helicopter, could improve other platforms, although there are no firm plans to do so.
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UAV

EasyJet eyes UAVs for spare-parts resupply
UK low-cost carrier EasyJet is looking at using unmanned air vehicles to reduce the logistics burden in quickly supplying spares to grounded aircraft. While the airline currently transports spares primarily by road, a vertical take-off and landing UAV could speed up the process and help to ensure aircraft are back flying as soon as possible.
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Regulatory

FAA Wants To Speed Up Commercial Drone Approvals
The US Federal Aviation Administration is seeking ways to speed up the approval process for commercial drone operations, but its efforts have been hindered by its lack of authority to review multiple applications on a group basis, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said. Huerta told a US House aviation subcommittee that the agency could better address a backlog of 450 requests from companies seeking exemptions to use commercial drones if it could approve a class of applications that have similar circumstances.
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Corporate

Daher drops Socata brand from the TBM line
French industrial conglomerate and aerostructures company Daher has dropped the Socata branding from its TBM single-engines turboprop, ending a 26-year association between two well-known names in the business and general aviation industry. The move comes six years after Daher acquired a 70% stake in the Tarbes, southwest France-based airframer, which currently produces the high-speed TBM 900.
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Honda Aircraft installs first HondaJet simulator as certification nears
Honda Aircraft is installing the first HondaJet simulator at its headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina, ahead of the light business jet’s entry into service in the first half of this year. Developed through a partnership with FlightSafety International, the full-motion, level-D simulator will be housed at the newly constructed HondaJet Training Center and will be certificated to US and European regulatory standards. FlightSafety has also developed the training program in partnership with the American Honda Motor subsidiary.
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Aviation Quote

I have the normal desire, experienced by everybody who's ever flown an airplane with a certain amount of zoom capability, to go a little bit higher and a little bit faster.

— Gordon Cooper, Mercury 9 astronaut, in Life magazine, 1959.

On This Date

---In 1675…John Flamsteed appointed 1st Astronomer Royal of England.

--- In 1909... President William Howard Taft approves Congressional Gold Medals for the Wright brothers.

---In 1936... The last great passenger-carrying airship, a veritable behemoth in its day, takes to the air for the first time. The German dirigible LZ 129, the Hindenburg, is powered by four 1,320-hp Daimler-Benz DB 602 diesel engines. The Hindenburg makes its first Atlantic crossing in the record time of 64 hours 53 minutes on May 6.

---In 1946…American Airlines begins using the Douglas DC-4 cross country on trips that lasted 13-to-14-hours.

---In 1948... The first American civilian to fly at supersonic speeds is Herbert Henry Hoover in Bell X-1 in Muroc, California.

---In 1954…First flight of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.

---In 1957…A US Navy airship sets an airborne endurance record of 264 hours and 12 minutes, covering 9,448 miles.

---In 1959…U.S. Pioneer IV misses Moon and becomes 2nd (U.S. 1st) artificial planet.

---In 1962…Caledonian Airways Flight 153, a Douglas DC-7 (G-ARUD) crashes just after takeoff from Douala International Airport in Cameroon. An elevator trim jam causes the plane to plummet into a swamp in the jungle, killing all 111 on-board. Because of the terrain, it would take rescuers 6 hours to reach the wreck.

---In 1966…Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 402 falls shorts of the runway and strikes a seawall while trying to land at Tokyo International Airport. The pilots of the Douglas DC-8-43 (CF-CPK) are suspected to have had difficulty landing in poor visibility, causing 64 of the 72 people aboard to perish.

---In 1968…Orbiting Geophysical Observatory 5 launched.

---In 1970…Cargolux is founded.

---In 1982…NASA launches Intelsat V.

---In 1983… a Cubana de Aviación Ilyushin Il-62M strays off course and overflies important American buildings two days in a row.

---In 1990…U.S. 65th manned space mission STS 36 (Atlantis 6) returns from space.

---In 1994…Space shuttle STS-62 (Columbia 16), launches into orbit.

---In 1997…Comet Hale-Bopp directly above the Sun (1.04 AU).

---In 1997…Zeya Start-1 launched (Russia).

---In 2002…The second attempt of Ansett Australia ceases operations, and is liquidated afterward.

---In 2006…The final attempt to contact Pioneer 10 results in no response, more than three years after the last contact was made from the spacecraft. It is considered to be the first human-built object to be on a solar system-leaving trajectory.

---In 2007…US Airways and America West combine their reservations computer systems.

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