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NEWS

TAM to conduct first Latin American biofuel flight this year
ALTA yesterday announced that TAM will operate Latin America's first biofuel demonstration flight in the second half of 2010 using an A320 partially powered by fuel derived from jatropha.
Link

Ryanair swings to €305.5 million fiscal-year profit
Ryanair reported net income of €305.5 million ($373.4 million) for its fiscal year ended March 31, reversed from a €169.2 million deficit in its prior fiscal year when results were affected negatively by€274.1 million in exceptional costs including a €222.5 million impairment resulting from its investment in Aer Lingus.
Link

IATA: Europe 'weakest performer' in air transport rebound
IATA said there was "significant improvement in all regions at the operating level" for the international airline industry in the first quarter and beyond, with one notable exception: Europe.
Link

Bombardier income slips to $153 million, commercial orders rise
Bombardier reported net income of $153 million in its fiscal first quarter ended April 30, down just 3.2% compared to income of $158 million in the year-ago period amid some signs of a strengthening commercial aircraft sector.
Link

Pentagon Recertifies JSF, Cost Increases
Pentagon acquisition czar Ashton Carter recertified the embattled Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter program to move forward after a major cost increase, but defense officials are now saying the total acquisition price of the multinational, triservice aircraft has increased by yet another $54.2 billion. Link

Conviasa 737 hit volcano during badly-executed approach pattern

Poor airmanship from pilots of a Conviasa Boeing 737-200, including a failure to respond to a ground-proximity warning, resulted in the jet's crashing on the slopes of an Ecuadorian volcano two years ago. Investigators found that the crew, inbound from Maiquetia in Venezuela, had been expecting a straight-in approach, from the north, to Latacunga Airport's runway 18.
Link

ANA targets first 787 commercial flight in January 2011
Boeing 787 launch customer All Nippon Airways (ANA) hopes to operate its first commercial flight with the 787-8 as early as January 2011.
Link

JetBlue to introduce buy-on-board service
JetBlue Airways is preparing to introduce a buy-on-board option later this month on all Airbus A320 flights over three hours and 45 minutes.
Link

Mexico's VivaAerobus seeks to acquire additional 737-300s
VivaAerobus is seeking to acquire two to four additional Boeing 737-300s to support further network expansion in 2011.
Link

Gulfstream adds third aircraft to G650 test fleet

Gulfstream has added a third flight test aircraft to its G650 certification fleet, a vehicle that will be used primarily to measure aerodynamic loads and test the ultra-long range twin's PlaneView avionics and ice protection systems. PlaneView is based on Honeywell' Primus Epic integrated avionics suite.
Link


Other News

EADS CEO Louis Gallois said this week that subsidiary Airbus is "for the time being" on track to deliver the A350 on time in 2013, but conceded that program development has been "tense" and "we have eaten most of the buffer we had." In an interview with Bloomberg, he pointed to Boeing's problems with the 787, noting, "Boeing is a very good company with a good technical background and when we see difficulties they have, we have to be very cautious." He said Boeing outsourced about 80% of the work on the Dreamliner whereas Airbus has "outsourced 50% of the work" on the A350, in part because of lessons learned from the 787 program. "They made technical choices which are perhaps more aggressive," he said. "It's a lesson for us and we have to be careful."

US FAA awarded Boeing a $1.7 billion research and development support contract associated with the agency's planned transition from ground-based radar to a satellite-based NextGen ATC system. The contract has a five-year base with additional options for another five years. Under terms of the deal, Boeing will "perform work that will demonstrate NextGen procedures in real time on a large scale within the current air traffic system," the company said in a statement.

Focus areas include air traffic management modeling and simulation and the full integration of ground and airborne technologies and operations across all vehicle types, including commercial and military aircraft, general aviation, unmanned aerial systems and rotorcraft. "By applying fully integrated solutions--from concept development to full-scale flight demonstrations--our team is ready to assist the government in developing and testing advanced air traffic management concepts that will improve safety, reliability and efficiency," Boeing VP-Defense & Government Services Greg Deiter said.

UPS and PosLaju, the leading Malaysian courier company, yesterday announced they have formed an alliance and jointly launched PosLaju International Premium, which they described as "a day-definite, international express delivery service with a money-back guarantee serving more than 215 countries. The new service is available at all 52 PosLaju outlets in Malaysia and will, on average, shorten the international transit time of packages and documents by half." The move is in line with UPS's continuing strategy of spreading its reach in Asia. In May it teamed with P&T Express of Vietnam to establish UPS Vietnam as a joint stock company. And in late April its new intra-Asian air hub at Shenzhen became fully operational. The Shenzhen facility totals 89,000 sq. m. and initially is processing up to 18,000 pieces per hr., up 140% compared to sorting capacity at its former intra-Asian hub in the Philippines. UPS, which invested $180 million in the facility, said it "can be easily expanded" to a capacity of 36,000 pieces pr. hr.

Iberia Chairman and CEO Antonio Vazquez reiterated the airline's intent to launch a separate carrier operating its short- and medium-haul flights with a "model that is substantially different than the existing one," and stressed that the decision is "irreversible," Agence France Presse reported. He said that continuing to operate short- and medium-haul flights in the same manner as long-haul would "mortgage the future of the company." Vazquez said he is hoping to reach an agreement with unions on the new carrier in the next several weeks.

US Airways flew 5.2 billion RPMs in May, up 1.8% year-over-year, on a 1.7% lift in capacity to 6.27 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 0.1 point to 82.9%.

WestJet operated 1.27 billion RPMs in May, up 18.9% year-over-year, on a 13.4% increase in capacity to 1.63 billion ASMs, which it attributed to its "southern markets." Load factor rose 3.6 points to 77.7%. "We saw solid demand domestically and for our newly introduced year-round service to a number of sun destinations in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean," President and CEO Gregg Saretsky said.

Alaska Airlines flew 1.66 billion RPMs in May, a 10.7% increase year-over-year. Capacity was up 4.5% to 2.04 billion ASMs while load factor rose 4.6 points to 81.4%.

Horizon Air operated 200 million RPMs in May, up 0.4% year-over-year as its capacity fell 1.5% to 273 million. Load factor grew 1.4 points to 73.1%.



AVIATION QUOTE

” We who fly do so for the love of flying. We are alive in the air with this miracle that lies in our hands and beneath our feet."

- Cecil Day Lewis



AEROSPACE TERM

Ignition delay

The time lapse occurring between the instance of an igniting action of a fuel and the onset of a specified burning reaction. Also called ignition lag.



DAILY VIDEO





EDITOR’S CHOICE





HUMOR

Airlines Running Operating Sustems

Here are some basic descriptions of what may happen if airplanes had different operating systems running them.

DOS: Everybody pushes it till it glides, then jumps on and lets it coast till it skids, then jumps off, pushes, jumps back on, etc.

DOS with QEMM: Same as DOS, but with more leg room for pushing.

Macintosh: All the flight attendants, captains and baggage handlers look the same, act the same and talk the same. Every time you ask a question, you are told you don't need to know, don't want to know and everything will be done for you without your knowing, so just shut up.

OS/2: To get on board, you have to have your ticket stamped 10 different times by standing in 10 different lines. Then you fill out a form asking how you want your seating arranged--with the look and feel of an ocean liner, a passenger train or a bus. If you get on board and off the ground, you will have a wonderful trip, except when the rudder and flaps freeze, in which case you have time to say your prayers before you crash.

Windows: Colorful airport terminal, friendly flight attendants, easy access to a plane, and an uneventful takeoff. Then, all in a sudden, boom! You blow up without any warning whatsoever.

NT: The terminal and flight attendants all look like those the Windows plane uses, but the process of checking in and going through security is a nightmare. Once aboard, those passengers with first class tickets can go anywhere they want and arrive in half the time, while the vast majority of passengers with coach tickets can't even get aboard.

Unix: Everyone brings one piece of the plane. Then they go on the runway and piece it together, all the while arguing about what kind of plane they're building.

CAIRO: The airplane is distributed among 47 different hangars in 13 airports scattered over 8 states, 4 Canadian provinces, and a remote mountain hideaway in Nicaragua. But you don't need to know where the airplane is or who it belongs to in order to fly it. Actually, you don't fly the airplane itself; you fly a simulation that behaves just like the real thing except that you don't go anywhere. But that's okay, because when the world is at your fingertips you never need to leave home.



TRIVIA

Aero Scramble

These are found in/on airplanes:

1. IEOANLR
2. PRELSIO
3. ONLOEGRN
4. RNRSTIGE
5. DRERDU
6. TEZILABSIR
7. DEMARO
8. ABUEKLHD
9. ELGLYA
10. RYATVALO

Love the picture, and great quiz that at which I might have been successful.

1. IEOANLR AILERON
2. PRELSIO SPOILER
3. ONLOEGRN LONGERON (TOOK ME FOREVER TO GET THIS ONE)
4. RNRSTIGE STRINGER (?)
5. DRERDU RUDDER
6. TEZILABSIR STABILIZER
7. DEMARO RADOME
8. ABUEKLHD BULKHEAD
9. ELGLYA GALLEY
10. RYATVALO LAVATORY

Lucas wrote:Love the picture, and great quiz that at which I might have been successful.

I'm afraid you got them all wrong. The correct answers are, without a doubt:

1. Alien, or? (can certainly be found on airplanes, usually seated next to me...)
2. Rose Lip (to be found in the F/A's beauty case)
3. Longer on (board, when you got delayed on the tarmac again)
4. Rest Grin (found on sleeping pax' faces while they dream about laying the F/A)
5. Err... Dud... (famous F/O last words)
6. Retails Biz (aka inflight sales)
7. More Ad (space being sold in- and outside of the aircraft by LCCs these days)
8. Balk hued (after the ramper has carelessly loaded that shipment of paint tins)
9. Ey, gall! (passengers' exclamation after trying the onboard coffee)
10. Royal VAT (tax on British Airways inflight sales)

That was easy...

UPDATE

Boeing not focused on underbidding Airbus for tanker contract
As Boeing prepares to bid on the potentially $50 billion contract to build 179 aerial refueling planes for the Air Force, the company is seeking not simply to underbid rival Airbus, which could be better positioned since it receives government subsidies. Airbus could have the advantage in a lower price, but Boeing says it will bid anyway and the company is said to be considering whether to replace its popular 737 model with the new plane or outfit the existing 737 with a new engine.
Link

Airbus keeping quiet on tanker bid partners
In its bid for a contract to supply 179 refueling tankers to the U.S. Air Force, Airbus has started to sign up potential partners for the project, but, amid concerns of a backlash from American politicians, the company is keeping mum on the identities of those partners. Airbus, owned by European aerospace giant EADS, is bidding independently against Boeing for the contract, but some lawmakers, including Norm Dicks, D-Wash., who is head of the defense appropriations committee, have called on U.S. companies not to partner with EADS.
Link

GE media blitz appears to have boosted F-35 backup engine program
General Electric has followed the lead of political campaign strategies by pouring millions of dollars into radio and television ads to persuade Congress to continue to fund its backup engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, despite opposition from Defense Secretary and primary engine maker Pratt & Whitney. The campaign, which has extended to social media sites including Twitter and Facebook, appears to have had some success, with the House voting on May 27 to include funds for the GE backup engine in its bill authorizing defense spending.
Link

United hopes to cut fuel burn in variable altitude test
United Airlines hopes to demonstrate a 3% reduction in fuel burn during two test flights this weekend between Chicago and Frankfurt, Germany. By allowing pilots of the Boeing 777 to vary their cruising altitude as much as 3,000 feet in search of optimal conditions, United believes it will save about 940 gallons of fuel.
Link

Boeing works to resolve strike at Long Beach plant
A federal mediator has stepped in to help Boeing resolve a dispute with United Auto Workers members at its C-17 manufacturing facility in Long Beach, California. The union, whose weeks-long strike has shuttered Southern California's only remaining airplane maker, says Boeing's proposed contract for 1,700 of the site's assembly workers is inadequate.
Link

$15M grant issued to help out-of-work NASA shuttle contractors
The Labor Department issued a $15 million grant this week to assist the estimated 3,200 contractors who will lose their jobs when NASA's space shuttle program ends this year. The funds add to a $40 million job-training program that President Barack Obama introduced in April.
Link

ANSWERS:
1. AILERON
2. SPOILER
3. LONGERON
4. STRINGER
5. RUDDER
6. STABILZER
7. RADOME
8. BULKHEAD
9. GALLEY
10. LAVATORY

Damn, I liked Zak's better

Zak wrote:

Lucas wrote:Love the picture, and great quiz that at which I might have been successful.

I'm afraid you got them all wrong. The correct answers are, without a doubt:

1. Alien, or? (can certainly be found on airplanes, usually seated next to me...)
2. Rose Lip (to be found in the F/A's beauty case)
3. Longer on (board, when you got delayed on the tarmac again)
4. Rest Grin (found on sleeping pax' faces while they dream about laying the F/A)
5. Err... Dud... (famous F/O last words)
6. Retails Biz (aka inflight sales)
7. More Ad (space being sold in- and outside of the aircraft by LCCs these days)
8. Balk hued (after the ramper has carelessly loaded that shipment of paint tins)
9. Ey, gall! (passengers' exclamation after trying the onboard coffee)
10. Royal VAT (tax on British Airways inflight sales)

That was easy...

That last one's evil!