You're returning from a reconnaissance mission in your F-16. Having encountered unexpected weather and extra maneuvering as a result of enemy targeting, you're low on fuel and still a long way from home. You've been straining your eyes looking for a KC-135 circling ahead somewhere out there with a load of gas. As the gauges dip into the danger zone, you spot it and begin closing. The beautiful fuel probe is getting closer and closer, even as the last dregs of kerosene are being sucked from your tanks. Ten feet. Five. Four. Everything's looking good. Two feet . . .
Sir Richard Branson isn't the first in aviation to take up the cause of climate change. Several coalitions, listed below, within the aviation community are seeking reasonable ways for aviation to stay climate friendly. They promote environmental awareness within the industry; educate the public and government about aviation's environmental performance; establish and promote best practices; and coordinate government/industry aviation infrastructure improvements in environmentally responsible ways. -Greener By Design www.greenerbydesign.org.uk
Those spindly threads of aircraft contrails on the environment aren't taken into consideration when assessing the environmental impact of air travel, but they are being closely studied. While they may not seem significant, contrails can persist for hours and behave in the same way as high altitude cirrus clouds, trapping warmth in the atmosphere and exacerbating global warming. Researchers at London's Imperial College are combining predictions from climate change models with air traffic simulations to predict contrail formation and identify ways of reducing it.
Data network communications between the TSA and airports could work much faster under a pilot program to test technology that uses existing facility electrical wiring as the physical path for data communications. "The TSA has not yet committed to use any power line communications providers, but is currently testing technology provided by Telkonet," said spokeswoman Amy Kudwa. The TSA is looking for a way to produce a rapidly deployed, cost-effective communications infrastructure at security locations, said Kudwa.
Blue Origin, the company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, released video and stills, as part of a recruiting pitch on its Web site, of a successful flight of a vertical launch/vertical descent test rocket at his 165,000-acre test range in Texas in front of company families and friends. The flight took place Nov. 13, 2006, but the news only recently came to light. The program, intended to take a small number of astronauts on a sub-orbital space journey, is dubbed Good Shepard. For more background on the program, visit its Web site at www.blueorigin.com.
Mike Doiron (Moncton Flight College, Dieppe, N.B., Canada)
I just finished reading "Aftermath," your January Viewpoint (page 7). I couldn't agree with you more. However, one item that is missing from the puzzle is the following insight that I've gained in over 30 years of working for the industry and the regulator. When we screw up in the cockpit or on the hangar floor, there is a cultural bias to look over our shoulder and if we didn't break anything and nobody noticed, we move on. Why? Because we know all things being equal, if we report on ourselves, we'll probably create a lot of grief. That tends to be the general scenario.
Citing the expected continued growth in corporate profits, a new report on the business jet industry published in December by analysts at financial services company JPMorgan predicts that the market for corporate jets could remain robust for up to two more years.
In its 75-year history, few innovations in business aviation have had the impact of fractional ownership, and today those programs account for as much as 20 percent of new turbine-powered aircraft deliveries. But after two decades of existence, is the fractional model becoming a victim of its own success?
Cessna is continuing its evaluation of a proof-of-concept light sport aircraft, logging some 50 flight hours on its POC aircraft to evaluate aircraft characteristics. The POC first flew Oct. 13, 2006, nine months after Cessna initiated the project. Cessna also continued to test the market, displaying the aircraft during the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo held recently in Sebring, Fla. The Wichita airplane-maker said the aircraft meets company expectations but has not announced when its evaluation would be completed.
Garmin has acquired a leading provider of ultra-low-power, low-cost wireless connectivity solutions. Dynastream Innovations Inc. is located in Cochrane, Alberta, and employs approximately 50 people including over 25 engineers and scientists. The Canadian firm is also a leader in the field of personal monitoring technology - such as foot pods and heart-rate monitors for sports and fitness products. Both the foot pod and heart-rate sensor use the ANT ultra-low-power wireless interface protocol invented by Dynastream.
I have been a reader of your fine aviation articles for many years. Please accept my complements for Richard Aarons' excellent Cause & Circumstance in the December 2006 issue ("Winter Weather," page 82). His last two paragraphs summarized it very well.
The FAA released a new ETOPS rule that effectively changes current limitations and opens up routes for twin-engine passenger airplanes by setting uniform standards for all multiengine commercial aircraft when they fly "extended operations" routes - more than three hours from an airport. Regulators said the final rule would govern the design, maintenance and operation of airplanes and engines for long-distance flights and extend some requirements that previously only applied to twin-engine airplanes to those with more than two engines.
The Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) working on America's next-generation air transportation system (NGATS) is conducting an analysis to determine what impact the NASA aeronautics directorate's shift toward fundamental research and away from demonstration projects may have on NGATS development. "This raises the question of what entity will do the developmental work that will be important to NGATS," the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a recent report.
CAE received a contract from Flight Simulation Co. to provide two Airbus A320 and two Boeing 737NG Level D flight simulators. The contract also calls for a used Dornier 328Jet simulator. CAE valued the contract at $52 million (Canadian).
Kaballit Nunaat is thawing quickly. The ice mass of the world's largest island -- a.k.a. Greenland -- is melting at a rate of 41 cubic miles per year. Using a technique that reveals regional changes in the weight of the massive ice sheet across the entire landmass, NASA scientists report that Greenland's low coastal regions lost 155 gigatons of ice per year between 2003 and 2005 from excess melting and icebergs, while the high-elevation interior gained 54 gigatons annually from excess snowfall.
EVERY YEAR IT PLAYS out the exact same way. The unflagging optimist, I plan a reasonable mid-morning getaway for the Christmas reunion, but my ETA is viewed as a quaint suggestion at best and is mostly ignored as searches are conducted for lost things; fraternal disputes erupt loudly, subside and then flare nosily again; packages get wrapped and ribboned; bags get stuffed; and the dog is shuffled off to the pet motel. And finally, finally, we leave.
Thank you for your comments and be assured, I agree with you about the hazardous attitudes. A non-punitive environment where safety issues can be discussed is always the best approach.
Boeing Business Jets and Rockwell Collins announced an EVS offering for BBJs that incorporates a Max-Viz multi-wavelength infrared sensor into the Rockwell Collins Head-up Guidance System (HGS) to present an image of the terrain and the airport environment on the HGS to enhance pilot situational awareness in low-visibility situations. EVS displayed on the HGS allows a pilot to descend below instrument approach minimums if the visual references to the intended runway are visible using the EVS.
A B-52 took off from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., using a blend of synthetic fuel and JP-8 in all eight engines on Dec. 15, 2006, on a flight test -- the first one flown using a "synfuel-blend" as the only fuel on board, U.S. Air Force officials said. In September, the Air Force successfully flew a B-52 with two-engines using the synfuel-blend. The next test phase will determine how well the synfuel-blend holds up in extremely cold weather conditions. (See related story, "Will Climate Change Challenge BizAv," on page 40.)
Yingling Aviation, the Wichita-based FBO, has introduced a joint ownership program that offers partnerships on refurbished and updated Cessna twin-turbine airplanes.
Remember the "simple" Cessna Citation 500 of 1971? Similar to the CitationJet, the Citation 500 -- the aircraft then chairman Dwayne Wallace had initially called the "Fanjet 500" -- was the basis for a whole family of derivative products that leveraged a moderate initial investment in the first aircraft. Like the CJs, each derivative product in the Citation 500 family offered more cabin space, more speed and better capabilities. And each derivative cost a small fraction of the price of developing a clean-sheet design.
The VLJ category has considerable growth potential and will likely be the most dynamic segment of the business jet market over the next 10 years, according to a Forecast International general aviation market overview published in the Jan. 15 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology.
Twinjet Aircraft of London-Luton achieved $80 million worth of business jet sales in the past 12 months, including a VIP Boeing 737-200; the company's own VIP Airbus A319 CJ, which was sold to National Air Services and re-registered in Saudi Arabia; a Challenger 604; and a Hawker 800XP. It also acquired a Challenger 604 for a customer.
-Bell 204, 205, 210, 212 and 412 helicopters - Conduct certain checks and inspections of each tail-rotor blade at specified intervals, and repair or replace, as applicable, any unairworthy tail-rotor blade. -Bombardier Challenger 600, 601 and 604 airplanes - Inspect the nose landing gear and the nose gear door to determine the part number and serial number of the selector valves. Take corrective actions if necessary.
