NAS Daily 24 MAY 22

airtrainer 24 May 22, 06:36

News

Incidents/Accidents

Two Rafale fighters collide mid-air during air show in France
Two Rafale fighters collided mid-air during an air display at the Cognac air show in the southwest of France.
The two aircraft belonged to the Vautour Bravo tactical display team of the 30th Fighter Wing. The wing had just won the Silver Tiger award for the best display at the NATO Tiger Meet 2022 in Araxos, Greece. “Rogue Spartan,” the leader, also won the Best Tiger Aircraft award for its livery.
"During their tactical presentation, two Rafales from the 30th Fighter Wing touched each other in-flight," said Colonel Nicolas Lyautey, commander of the 709 Cognac-Châteaubernard airbase where the air show was taking place. "One of them lost a piece of its tail fin, which damaged the roof of a house during its fall."
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Abramovich’s 787 Dreamliner targeted by US sanctions
The United States Department of Commerce added the private Boeing 787 Dreamliner of Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, former owner of the Chelsea football club, to the list of aircraft in likely violation of the US Export Administration Regulations (EAR).
It means the Dreamliner is restricted from receiving refueling, aircraft spare parts, maintenance, or repair services unless given permission by the US government. It was last seen flying from Moscow-Vnukovo International Airport (VKO) to Dubai World Central International Airport (DWC) on March 4, 2022, according to flightradar24 data.
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Commercial

Bombardier launches new business jet, promising more range and speed
Bombardier is developing a new business jet, which it says will be “the world’s fastest and longest-range purpose-built business jet”
The Canadian manufacturer said the Global 8000 will have a range of 8,000 nautical miles (14,800 kilometers) and a top speed of Mach 0.94. The jet is currently in development and due to enter into service in 2025, Bombardier said on May 23, 2022, during the EBACE business aviation conference.
“Today, Bombardier solidifies once more its position as the leader in business aviation with the newest member of the industry-leading Global family,” said Eric Martel, Bombardier’s President and CEO in a statement. “The Global 8000 aircraft leverages the outstanding attributes of the Global 7500 aircraft, providing our customers with a flagship aircraft of a new era.”
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Dassault delays entry into service of Falcon 6X business jet to mid-2023
Dassault Aviation is delaying the entry into service of the Falcon 6X business jet to the middle of 2023 due to supply chain disruption.
Flight Global cited chief executive Eric Trappier as saying that the COVID-19 pandemic was still affecting the supply chain, across various industries, while the war in Ukraine had led to rising energy prices and raw material shortages.
“I’d like to stress that the Covid epidemic is still active – fortunately not at the crisis levels we knew before, but strong enough to disrupt business,” Trappier was quoted as saying at the EBACE 2022 business aviation conference in Geneva.
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Airlines

Firefly to reinstate flights to Singapore from Subang
Firefly, the low-cost arm of Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), is set to resume its service from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang (SZB) to Seletar Airport (XSP), the commercial airport serving the north-east region of Singapore, after more than two years of suspension due to the pandemic and border closure, effective June 13, 2022.
The twice-daily return flights are set to be operated by ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft with a capacity of 72 seats and will progressively increase their services by the end of the year.
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Indian start-up Akasa Air shows off first Boeing 737 MAX ahead of summer launch
Indian start-up carrier Akasa Air has unveiled pictures of its first Boeing 737 MAX ahead of its summer 2022 launch
Akasa, which has ordered 72 of the MAX, showed off pictures of the jet in its distinctive orange and purple livery via social media. The aircraft, registration VT-YAA, can be seen standing in a hangar.
The ultra-low-cost carrier, backed by Indian billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, hopes to launch operations in July. It has been given the QP designator for its flights. However, it does not yet have its air operator certificate (AOC).
In an interview with CNBC-TV18 on May 5, managing director and CEO Vinay Dube said Akasa needed the first aircraft to be delivered before it could get the AOC. The delivery is scheduled for mid-June.
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Airports

Singapore Changi Airport to reopen Terminal 2 in phases starting May 29, 2022
Singapore’s Changi Airport Group announced that Terminal 2 will reopen in phases starting May 29, 2022 in order to meet the “expected increase” in passenger traffic that the airport projects in the months ahead.
Terminal 2 has been closed since May 2020 due to upgrade works that were meant to last 18 months. However, the pandemic extended the closure by a further 6 months.
The airport group said that Terminal 2 will host mainly peak-hour arrival flights of airlines currently operating in Terminal 3.
“CAG is encouraged to see the strong pickup in travel demand and has worked closely with our partners to bring forward the progressive reopening of T2 ahead of the June travel peak to meet this demand,” CAG’s executive vice president of airport management Tan Lye Teck said.
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Military

U.S. Air Force postpones first flight of B-21 Raider stealth bomber to 2023
The maiden flight of the first Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider long-range strike bomber (LRSB) will not occur earlier than 2023.
No reason was given for the delay, first revealed by a U.S. Air Force spokesperson to Air Force Magazine. The upcoming strategic bomber was previously expected to take to the skies in late 2021, before being postponed to 2022.
“The B-21 program continues to ensure the first flight test aircraft is a high-quality build and production-representative, in order to drive an efficient flight test campaign and rapidly field this critical combat capability,” the spokesperson told Air Force Magazine.
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Aviation Quote

The thing is, helicopters are different from planes. An airplane by it's nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or by a deliberately incompetent pilot, it will fly. A helicopter does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls working in opposition to each other, and if there is any disturbance in this delicate balance the helicopter stops flying; immediately and disastrously. There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter.
This is why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why in generality, airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant extroverts and helicopter pilots are brooding introspective anticipators of trouble. They know if something bad has not happened it is about to.

- Harry Reasoner, 1971.