NewsCommercial
Mitsubishi eyes more SpaceJet customers by year-end
Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. hopes to sign up new customers for its SpaceJet aircraft family program by the end of the year, as it pushes ahead with type certification testing for the aircraft.
“We had a surge of customer conversations post-Paris [Air Show],” Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. chief development officer Alex Bellamy said Oct. 9 at the European Regions Airline Association (ERA) general assembly. “We expect to announce more MOUs this year,” he added.
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Boeing examines GEnx-powered 767-X for cargo and passenger roles
Boeing is studying a re-engined derivative of the 767 widebody primarily for the cargo market, with service entry slated for the mid-2020s.
A passenger version, which is also part of the study, could provide Boeing with a lower-cost alternative to its proposed New Mid-market Airplane (NMA).
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PICTURE: Airbus reaches 1,000 A320neo deliveries
Airbus has passed a key milestone for the A320neo family with the 1,000th delivery.
The aircraft is an A321neo assembled at its Hamburg plant, which was delivered to IndiGo on lease from CDB Aviation Lease Finance.
LinkAirlines
American reshuffles management teams after turbulent summer
American Airlines is reorganizing its operations and customer service management teams following a tumultuous summer that led to a spike in delays and cancellations.
SVP-customer experience Kerry Philipovitch will retire at year’s end, the Dallas/Fort Worth-based carrier announced Oct. 10.
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Air Astana eyes international expansion with A321neoLRs
Air Astana is targeting international expansion when it receives all seven of its Airbus A321neoLRs, which are expected to take the Kazakhstan-based carrier to a new level, president and CEO Peter Foster told ATW.
Air Astana took delivery of its first leased A321neoLR from Air Lease Corp. Sept. 23.
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Russia’s Atran boosts China-Russia cargo traffic
Russia’s Atran Airlines, an air express subsidiary of Volga-Dnepr Group, has reported increased traffic growth from China to Russia while taking delivery of its second Boeing 737-800BCF on Oct. 10.
Fleet development and the gradual launch of new destinations allowed the carrier to achieve a more than fifteenfold China-Russia volume upsurge, an eightfold increase in domestic traffic, and more than sixfold uptick from Europe to Russia, the airline said.
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Taiwan startup Starlux unveils new A321neo cabin products
Taiwan’s Starlux Airlines has introduced its Airbus A321neo cabin products ahead of the startup carrier’s launch in January 2020.
The full-service carrier has selected BMW’s Designworks Studio for its economy- and business-class products on the Airbus narrowbody. It will have eight business-class seats in a 2-2 configuration, which can be lowered into an 82-in. lie-flat bed, with a 15.6-in. 1,080-pixel IFE system screen.
LinkAirports
China’s airports handle 12.8 million passengers Oct. 1-7
China’s week-long national day holiday, known as the Golden Week, saw 12.8 million passenger movements across China, a 5.1% year-on-year (YOY) increase. The Golden Week ran from Oct. 1-7.
Based on Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) statistics, there were 113,900 aircraft movements, up 2.6% YOY with an average passenger load factor of 84.9%.
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Older 737s banned at La Paz after landing incidents
Operations by older-variant Boeing 737s have been temporarily banned at Bolivia's capital El Alto airport near La Paz.
The ban takes effect immediately, on 10 October, and takes into account recommendations following the occurrence of "events", says the Bolivian civil aviation regulator DGAC.
LinkMilitary
Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie damaged during landing
The Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie unmanned air vehicle (UAV) was damaged during landing after completing its third flight on 9 October in Yuma, Arizona.
The issue was caused by a malfunction of the aircraft’s provisional flight test recovery system and high surface winds, says the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in a media release on 10 October.
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Sikorsky pushes deeper into autonomous flight with OPV UH-60A
Since making its first flight in May, Sikorsky’s optionally-piloted UH-60A Black Hawk has flown a combined 54.5h and tested several autonomous flight functions.
The test helicopter, which is retrofitted with a full authority fly-by-wire Optionally Piloted Vehicle (OPV) kit developed by Sikorsky, has now flown up to 150kt (278km/h), the company says.
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RAAF funds work to beef up P-8A SAR capability
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is funding a project to expand the search and rescue (SAR) capability of the Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.
The work is taking place NAS Patuxent River and has seen P-8As deploy the UNIPAC III SAR kit, according to a NAVAIR statement.
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Aviation Quote
Fighter pilot is an attitude. It is cockiness. It is aggressiveness. It is self-confidence. It is a streak of rebelliousness, and it is competitiveness. But there's something else - there's a spark. There's a desire to be good. To do well; In the eyes of your peers, and in your own mind.
I think it is love of that blue vault of sky that becomes your playground if, and only if, you are a fighter pilot. You don't understand it if you fly from A to B in straight and level, and merely climb and descend. You're moving through the basement of that bolt of blue.
A fighter pilot is a man in love with flying. A fighter pilot sees not a cloud but beauty. Not the ground but something remote from him, something that he doesn't belong to as long as he is airborne. He's a man who wants to be second-best to no one.
- Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF.
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Trivia
General Knowledge
1. When a US Army Air Corps pilot earned their wings in WW2, the center of the wings contained a shield. Some wings contained a star(Command or Senior pilot), a "G"(a Glider pilot), or an "L"(a Liason pilot). What pilot wings contained a diamond?
2. True or False, a tandem airplane has two seats, one behind the other.
3. In 1943, the RAF's 617 Squadron flew Avro Lancaster bombers exactly 60 feet over three reservoirs at night before dropping "bouncing bombs" to destroy three German dams that were protected by torpedo nets. Altimeters were not sufficiently accurate, and there were no radio altimeters at that time. How did these pilots, "The Dam Busters" level off and maintain the required sixty foot height?
4. Estimate within ten knots the highest surface winds ever recorded anywhere (and not associated with a hurricane or tornado).
5. What biplane was produced in the greatest numbers?
6. Class A airspace begins at Flight Level 180. Flight into that airspace requires that a pilot have an instrument rating, that the airplane be IFR equiped and first receive an appropriate ATC clearance. How may a VFR-only pilot fly at FL240 without meeting any of these requirements and without special permission?
