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Pratt & Whitney opens first manufacturing facility in Singapore
Pratt & Whitney (P&W) has officially opened its first manufacturing facility in Singapore, through its subsidiary P&W NGPF Manufacturing Co. Singapore. The 180,000 sq. ft. facility, located at Seletar Aerospace Park, will produce fan blades and other key components for Pratt & Whitney’s new PurePower Geared Turbofan (GTF) engine family. P&W said it is its second production facility in existence to manufacture hybrid metallic blades, “which are made with extremely lightweight materials that provide superior aerodynamic efficiency levels compared with any other fan in service, including composite blades of the same size class,” it said.
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Winter Storm Targets US East Coast, 1,400 Flights Cancelled
A winter storm bore down on the US East Coast on Monday, causing flights to be cancelled after the Presidents Day holiday weekend. By mid-afternoon on Monday, almost 1,400 US flights were cancelled, mostly at Washington, North Carolina and New York-area airports. Many airlines waived change fees as more flights were scrapped.
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American Airlines debuts L.A.-Tokyo Haneda service
American Airlines' first flight connecting Los Angeles and Tokyo's Haneda International Airport took off last Thursday. American will service the daily route using a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.
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Ethiopian Airlines opens upgraded aviation academy
Ethiopian Airlines Group has invested $100 million in expanding and upgrading its aviation academy at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport. The Ethiopia flag carrier said this project is in line with its Vision 2025 strategic road map and is the largest aviation academy in Africa. It will be able to take 4,000 students a year at the end of 2025. As an Authorized Training Organization, the Ethiopian Aviation Academy offers Boeing 777, 787, 737, 767/757 and Bombardier Q400 full flight simulators. The carrier is also considering extending its training center to add an Airbus A350 simulator.
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Malaysia Airlines To Delay Airbus A380 Sale
Malaysia Airlines has delayed plans to sell some of its Airbus A380s and will now keep all six of them at least until 2018 after retiring its fleet of Boeing 777s. The Kuala Lumpur-based carrier has tried unsuccessfully to sell the planes for the last year to cut costs as part of a restructuring plan which also saw it withdraw from several long-haul European routes.
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Bob Fornaro’s plan for Spirit Airlines
“Reputation does matter.” New Spirit Airlines president and CEO Bob Fornaro repeated that line, or a variation of it, a number of times during a recent conference call with analysts. Ben Baldanza, the pioneering CEO of the Florida-based ultra-low cost carrier (ULCC) whom Fornaro replaced in January, reveled in Spirit’s reputation as a “cheap” airline. Under Baldanza’s watch, puppet newscasters mockingly chronicled complaints about Spirit in irreverent online videos produced by the airline. Baldanza believed those complaining about Spirit mostly just didn’t get the ULCC’s business model, not understanding that Spirit was the “fast food” alternative to mainline US airlines (a McDonald’s in the sky). In contrast, Fornaro believes Spirit’s biggest problem is its reputation. He wants to “provide low fares with a good reputation.” Fornaro mentioned on-time performance most prominently. He also brought up aircraft cleanliness multiple times unprompted. Getting passengers to their destinations on time and keeping aircraft clean are “basics” that Spirit must get right, he said.
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United says it will build its own tail stands for 737-900 fleet
Concerned about tail-tip incidents with its Boeing 737-900 fleet, United Airlines soon will deploy tail stands to airports across its network, the airline said.
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Virgin Atlantic flight returns to Heathrow following laser incident
A Virgin Atlantic flight, en route from London Heathrow to New York JFK on Feb. 14, was forced to return to Heathrow after a “laser beam incident,” according to the airline. Virgin Atlantic said on its website that flight VS025 “returned to Heathrow as a precautionary measure due to a laser beam incident. Following this incident, the first officer reported feeling unwell. The decision was taken by both pilots to return to Heathrow rather than continue the transatlantic crossing.”
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Body Of Suspected Stowaway Found On Cargo Plane
Zimbabwean civil aviation authorities found the body of a suspected stowaway on a US registered cargo plane carrying cash for the South African Reserve Bank. The MD11 cargo plane, owned by Florida-based Western Global Airlines, had stopped to refuel at Harare's domestic airport on Sunday when the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) discovered the body and impounded the plane.
LinkAirports
FedEx opens new facility in Copenhagen Airport
FedEx Express recently opened its new gateway facility at Copenhagen Airport. The new facility will serve as a gateway for inbound and outbound shipments for Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. It marks the ninth new FedEx Express facility in the Nordic region in the last five years.
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Passenger traffic climbs at Pittsburgh International Airport
Regional travelers and the airline industry will see a new brand representing Pittsburgh International Airport in the coming months. The Allegheny County Airport Authority on Friday approved an agreement for $125,000 with MarketSpace Communications for advertising and a $750,000 agreement for advertising buys of which MarketSpace gets 10 percent. It also approved a $250,000 contract with Fuseideas for a new website and other digital services.
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San Juan traffic rebounds amid renovations
Traffic at San Juan Luis Munoz Marin International airport continues to surge amid a multi-year renovation effort that was intended to help the airport recover from sagging passenger numbers. In 2015, the airport processed 8.9 million passengers, up 14% from 7.8 million passengers in 2013, says Agustín Arellano, chief executive of Aerostar Airport Holdings, the company that operates the airport.
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Military
US Foreign Military Funding talks key to Israeli tanker plan
Decisions about whether Israel will select Boeing’s KC-46A tanker and ask for additional Lockheed Martin F-35s will depend on the result of current negotiations about the size of the US Foreign Military Funding (FMF) package that the nation will receive over the next 10 years. Within the next few months, the allies are expected to agree the draft of a memorandum of understanding covering US funding to Israel’s military. Sources indicate that the Obama administration is likely to increase the FMF package by up to $1 billion for the decade to be covered in the new accord, which would set its contribution at about $4.1 billion a year.
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Aviation Quote
For all professional pilots there exists a kind of guild, without charter and without by-laws. it demands no requirements for inclusion save an understanding of the wind, the compass, the rudder, and fair fellowship.
— Beryl Markham, 'West With the Night,' 1942.
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Trivia
General Trivia
1. What airplane produced by a well-known aircraft manufacturer was rejected by the U.S. Army in 1973 because it could be brought down by bow and arrow?
2. What is the largest, post-World War II, piston-powered, twin-engine airplane designed from scratch and produced exclusively as a general aviation airplane?
3. Why should every dedicated pilot fly at least once to KFFA?
4. Several types of liaison airplanes served the U.S. military during World War II. Best known of these were the first five, the L-1, L-2, L-3, L-4, and L-5. Can you identify these utilitarian “L-birds?”
5. Almost everyone has heard of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, but what is the Lightning II?
6. U.S. military flight-crew positions often have nicknames. What are the official positions of a boomer, a GAFO (pronounced GAY-fo), a raven, a GIB (pronounced gib), and a whizzo?
7. The Pratt & Whitney J58 (JT11D) engines that powered the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird use JP-7 fuel so inert that it could not be ignited with spark or ignition plugs. How was this exotic fuel ignited during engine start?
8. On November 13, 1942, and after having survived in a life raft in the western Pacific for 23 days, Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, Col. Hans Adamson, and Pvt. John Bartek were found by the pilot of a Vought-Sikorsky Kingfisher, a U.S. Navy seaplane. What was so unusual about the subsequent rescue?
7. The Pratt & Whitney J58 (JT11D) engines that powered the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird use JP-7 fuel so inert that it could not be ignited with spark or ignition plugs. How was this exotic fuel ignited during engine start?
