News
X-51A Waverider test flight ends in failure
The US Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) third test flight of the Boeing/Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne X-51A Waverider hypersonic test vehicle on 14 August has ended in failure. Though the test article was successfully launched from a Boeing B-52 bomber near Point Mugu, California, the vehicle developed a fault after only 16s of flight-- before the X-51A separated from its rocket booster. When the X51A did separate from the booster rocket 15s later, the USAF says it could not maintain control of the vehicle due to a faulty control fin. The X-51A subsequently crashed.
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Judge Denies AMR Request To Scrap Union Pact
A US judge on Wednesday denied a request by American Airlines parent AMR to abandon collective bargaining agreements with its pilots' union.
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Embraer Sees Recovery Of US Bizjet Market
Brazilian plane maker Embraer has seen clear signs of recovery in the US executive aviation market, but global demand for business jets remains flat as uncertainty in Europe and a lingering inventory of used aircraft stifle a rebound, the head of Embraer's executive jet division said on Wednesday.
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Air Berlin To Sell Planes As Finances Deteriorate
Loss-making Air Berlin is to sell eight planes to improve its deteriorating finances and help cut debt EUR€300 million (USD$370 million) by the year-end.
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Etihad May Add More Airline Investments
Etihad Airways chief executive James Hogan said on Wednesday the airline would consider adding more strategic airline stakes.
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HK Air To Delay Delivery Of Cargo Aircraft
Hong Kong Airlines said on Wednesday it plans to delay delivery of six Boeing cargo aircraft to after 2015 from 2013-14.
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Ethiopian considering 737 Max order
Ethiopian Airlines is evaluating the Boeing 737 Max as it charts out an ambitious growth plan to triple its fleet by 2025. The carrier aims to operate 120 aircraft by 2025 under its current strategic plan, says airline chief executive Tewolde GebreMariam.
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Ethiopian to serve Washington and Guangzhou with 787
Ethiopian Airlines will operate its new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners to Washington Dulles initially and to Guangzhou from November. The Star Alliance carrier received its first 787-8 in Seattle on 14 August and flew it to Washington Dulles today. The aircraft will fly on to its base in Addis Ababa on a revenue flight on 16 August, before being operated on a rotating basis to various African destinations.
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Court upholds union challenge to Kenya Airways staff cutbacks
Kenya’s Industrial Court has temporarily blocked Kenya Airways’ (KQ) recently announced plans to cut jobs in a bid to reduce costs. KQ introduced a voluntary early retirement initiative at the beginning of August, after which it was planning to transition to mandatory redundancies if it had not received a sufficient number of volunteers.
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GOL 2Q loss widens to $353 million
Brazil’s GOL reported a second-quarter net loss of BRL$715.1 million ($353 million), widened from a BRL$358.7 million loss in the year-ago period. The airline said the results were due to “unfavorable macroeconomic scenario,” including “high fuel costs, depreciation of the Brazilian real against the US dollar, which has a direct impact on 55% of the company’s operating expenses.”
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Hawaiian Airlines' employees are like family, CEO says
Hawaiian Airlines CEO Mark Dunkerley says he knows two-thirds of his employees by sight and that familiarity has helped the carrier foster a sense of family. "I might not know their names, but I recognize them and they recognize me," he said. The carrier stresses activities that help employees build relationships with one another, he says, such as hosting a talent show or flying workers to France to celebrate the delivery of a new A330.
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UPS, TNT leaders are confident on merger despite EC's stall
Though the European Commission has put its investigation of the merger of United Parcel Service and TNT Express on hold, the companies say their merger will close by the end of 2012. The European Commission wants to collect more information.
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Delta will pay $20.5 million for Comair pilots' severance
Delta Air Lines Inc. will spend up to $20.5 million on severance packages for Comair pilots, a union official said Tuesday. That works out to about $31,000 for each of Comair’s 660 active pilots. “It’s quite a bit more than what the company was contractually required to give us,” said Alan Cook, spokesman for the local bargaining unit of the Air Line Pilots Association.
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FAA responds to concerns about NextGen vulnerabilities
Computer-security experts say the new automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast, or ADS-B, system can be tricked into seeing aircraft that are not actually there. Federal Aviation Administration officials have responded that there has never been a recording of a "ghost plane" and that there are systems in place that would automatically identify and remove the fake signal before it could baffle air traffic controllers or pilots.
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Boeing won't rush on stretched Dreamliner option
If Boeing chooses to make a stretched 787 Dreamliner, it won't be out until later this decade, engineer Mike Sinnett says. "We're not in a hurry to come up with an answer" on whether to develop the 787-10, Sinnett said.
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U.S. airlines saw 2.4% reduction in cost of fuel for June
The cost of a gallon of jet fuel in June was $2.84, down from $3.03 in May and $2.91 in June 2011, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics says.
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Washington airports authority is called "in desperate need of reform"
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood joined the governors of Virginia and Maryland and Washington's mayor in expressing concern about the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. In a letter to authority Chairman Michael Curto, they criticize the agency, saying it "conducts much of its business behind closed doors, awards many of its contracts on a sole-source basis, and is in desperate need of reform."
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Other News
AirAsia Group has promoted Logan Velaitham to CEO of AirAsia Singapore, according to a company statement. He will prepare AirAsia for further growth by working closely with the market, regulators and government agencies in Singapore, the company said.
In May, Logan was appointed as country head of the Singapore operations, where he was responsible for expanding AirAsia’s presence in the island republic and Johor.
United Airlines (UA) has unveiled its new Boeing 787 Dreamliner after being rolled out of the paint hangar at Boeing’s Everett, Wash., facility. UA is the North American launch customer for the Dreamliner and expects to take delivery of its first 787 in September. The airline has firm orders for 50 787s, for delivery by 2019.
Afriqiyah Airways (8U) has converted its order for three Airbus A320s into three A330-300s as part of the carrier’s expansion plans. The carrier signed commitments for 21 Airbus aircraft at the 2007 Paris Air Show
FAA late last month issued an "Information for Operators" (InFO) guidance “reminder” that carriers should not use any seat belt extenders other than those that are FAA-issued. “The bottom line is that passengers cannot bring their own seat belt extender on an airplane,” an FAA spokesperson told ATW. “It must be provided by the airline so we can ensure that the device has been properly maintained and inspected.” Some personal seat belt extenders “are marketed as FAA-PMA approved,’” the InFO said. “Some are categorized as specific to each airline and others are sold under the heading ‘Universal, adjustable and FAA-safe’ and are sold ‘for use on all airlines.’ While these extenders may have a label that indicates they are FAA-approved and conform to TSO-C22g, they are not inspected and maintained under each airline's FAA-accepted CAMP [continuous airworthiness maintenance program]and should not be used.”
Cebu Pacific Air (5J) secured export credit agencies-covered financing from KfW IPEX-Bank and SMBC for the acquisition of three new Airbus A320 aircraft. All aircraft will be equipped with CFM56 engines and will increase 5J’s total fleet to 41 aircraft. One aircraft was delivered Aug. 9 in Toulouse. The remaining aircraft are scheduled for delivery in October and November this year. KfW IPEX-Bank and SMBC are acting as joint Arrangers of the transaction, while KfW IPEX-Bank is also acting as Agent and Security Trustee.
Grupo Aeromexico said it has initiated discussions with Aimia Inc., related to Aimia’s intention to increase its equity participation in Grupo Aeromexico’s subsidiary and independent business unit, Premier Loyalty & Marketing, S.A.P.I. de C.V. The unit is also the owner and operator of loyalty program “Club Premier.” The parties will seek to reach an agreement by the end of the year.
Aviation Quote
The duty of the fighter pilot is to patrol his area of the sky, and shoot down any enemy fighters in that area. Anything else is rubbish.
— Baron Manfred von Richthofen, 1917. Richtofen would not let members of his Staffel strafe troops in the trenches.
On This Date
---In 1942... The 82nd Airborne (All American) paratroop division is formed.
---In 1944…The world’s first and only successful rocket-powered warplane, Germany’s Messerschmitt Me 163, is used against enemy bombers for the first time.
---In 1944…The first flight of the Junkers Ju 287 takes place in Germany. The forward-swept winged, four-engined aircraft was a testbed for jet bomber technology, built mostly of parts salvaged from other aircraft. Before the second aircraft is completed, the Junkers factory is overrun by the Red Army. The Soviets would take the prototypes back to Russia for further development and create a derivative known as the OKB-1 EF 140, but the design is abandoned soon after.
---In 1948…First flight of the Northrop Northrop XF-89 Scorpion.
--- In 1952... The prototype Bristol Type 175 Britannia (G-ALBO) makes its first flight from Filton, Bristol, England.
--- In 1960... Captain Joe Kittinger jumps from a gondola, suspended from a balloon, 102,800 feet to the ground using a parachute. He breaks the records for greatest altitude from which a parachute descent had been made and the longest delayed parachute jump.
---1965…United Airlines Flight 389, a new Boeing 727–100, crashed into Lake Michigan 30 miles east northeast of Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The crew were told to descend and maintain 6,000 feet, which was the last radio communication with the flight. The NTSB was not able to determine why the airliner continued its descent into the water.
---In 1969…A new piston-engine airspeed record is set by Darryl Greenamayer in a heavily modified F8F Bearcat: 478mph.
---In 1984…First flight of the ATR 42.
In 1987…Northwest Airlines Flight 255, an MD-82 (N312RC) crashes on takeoff from Detroit (DTW), killing all but one of the 155 people on board, as well as two people on the ground. The lone survivor is a four year old girl. The crash would be blamed on the crew’s failure to set the flaps for takeoff, and an electrical failure that prevented an alarm from sounding that would have warned the crew that the plane was not configured properly for takeoff.
---In 1995…A Concorde sets a new speed record for a round-the-world flight. It returns to JFK International Airport in New York after a journey lasting 31 hours 27 minutes, passing through Toulouse, Dubai, Bangkok, Guam, Honolulu and Acapulco.
---In 2005…West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 was a West Caribbean Airways charter flight which crashed in a mountainous region in northwest Venezuela on the morning of Tuesday, 16 August 2005, killing all 152 passengers and eight crew.
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Trivia
General Trivia
1. What country has the world’s worst weather?
2. What is the greatest speed ever attained by a human being in flight?
3. Explain how it is possible for two aircraft to maintain a constant distance and bearing from each other while both maintain the same true heading and altitude, yet are flown at different true airspeeds (in no-wind conditions)?
4. What famous pilot also was a bantamweight boxer who won a West Coast Amateur Championship and became a professional boxer?
5. What U.S. airline was first to operate an all-turbine (turbo-prop) fleet, and what U.S. airline was first to operate an all-jet fleet?
6. A pilot is speaking to an FSS specialist and is overheard saying, “I am going to praise God.” Why does this make perfect sense to the specialist?
7. Who was the first politician to use an airplane to travel between campaign stops?
3. Explain how it is possible for two aircraft to maintain a constant distance and bearing from each other while both maintain the same true heading and altitude, yet are flown at different true airspeeds (in no-wind conditions)?
1. What country has the world’s worst weather?
