Lighting experts and photographers refer to the term temperature to describe light because it offers a convenient way to precisely define the light's color. Paradoxically, high temperature lighting is described as "cool" and lower temperature lighting is "warm," so when you sit down with a designer to talk color, agree on use of the terms. The standard lighting spectrum is graduated in degrees Kelvin, a temperature scale used in science.
Bombardier Aerospace has signed a contract with Petroleum Air Services (PAS) of Cairo, Egypt, for the sale of an additional Bombardier Q300 turboprop airliner, which will bring its Q300 fleet to five aircraft. The list price value for the aircraft on firm order is approximately $17.4 million.
THE U.S. AIR FORCE Fairchild C-123K Provider was a tactical airlift workhorse during the Vietnam War. With two Pratt & Whitney R2800 18-cylinder radial engines, two General Electric J-85 wing-mounted jet engines, a cargo capacity of 2,420 cubic feet and an impressive short-field capability, the C-123K was well suited for both the tactical airlift mission and the combat environment.
On occasion, customers specing a cabin for lighting may run into the term "fiber optics" and file it away in memory as a lighting technology. It's not light, but it is a very powerful and flexible optical technology for conducting light. The borescope your engine shop uses to peer into the jet's innards is a fiber-optic viewer.
The FAA said it received reports that all four of the cockpit flight panel display units on Gulfstream GIV and GV aircraft "simultaneously went blank during flight." A Gulfstream spokesman told The Weekly of Business Aviation that there have been "a couple of instances" like that involving the Honeywell PlaneView Primus Epic avionics systems in the aircraft. He emphasized that even under those circumstances, backup systems in the cockpit give pilots enough information to fly the aircraft safely. See the airworthiness directive below.
Faced with removing tires from service as a result of weather checking, cracking and dry rot? You can't stop tires from wearing, but premature tire degradation can be caused by ultraviolet and ozone exposure. SunBlock for Tires, available from Pro Tech Products, is specially formulated to block harmful sun and ozone damage. UV rays penetrate tires, attacking rubber ingredients that provide flexibility and resilience. SunBlock for Tires prevents environmental damage such as peeling, cracking or weathering away, even after years of exposure.
The FAA is investigating an ATC system shutdown in the New York en route center that caused more than 700 airline flight delays on March 7. The center's main, or HOST, system was off line for about an hour, and controllers switched to the backup. Preliminary inquiries reveal that data from a flight plan were continuously looping, overloading and shutting down the HOST system.
The first gasoline-powered vehicle appeared in 1865, and by the late 1880s car manufacturers were selling their noisy, smoke-spewing and pricey contraptions throughout Western Europe. Charles Stewart Rolls, the well-heeled son of a British lord, became one of his country's first "automobilists," and in 1902, at the age of 25, established a business selling, servicing and repairing automobiles. He also made a name for himself as a driver on Europe's racing circuit and held a number of world speed records, all of which was good publicity for his operation back home.
Adam Aircraft signed a letter of intent to form a strategic partnership with Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd. ST Aerospace will provide engineering, logistics, maintenance, repair and overhaul support for both Adam's A500 twin-piston and A700 twin jet. The agreement also includes options for ST Aerospace to invest up to $50 million in the startup aircraft maker, which is headquartered at Centennial Airport (APA) in Englewood, Colo. The option is exercisable within seven years.
B&CA: What is NATCA's position on the Next Generation Air Transportation System? Do you think it's a sound concept, and if not, why not? Church: We are not involved in either the JPDO or NGATS. The FAA has eliminated collaboration of any kind with controllers. They sent all of our technical experts home to their control facilities, including the one who was our JPDO liaison. This is the FAA's choice for us not to be involved in the JPDO. B&CA: What is your position on automation in general?
Imagine having an entire fleet of airplanes, ranging from a Cessna 206 to an Otter on floats to a Beech 99, available for you to fly on any given day. Now imagine that flying takes place in the spectacular backcountry of Idaho and Montana. Oh, and one more thing, imagine being paid very well to do it.
And . . . how many? . . . to go. Just before this story went to press, pilots at Flight Options, Raytheon's fractional operator subsidiary, voted to organize under the aegis of Teamsters Local 1108. The National Mediation Board (NMB) announced the result of the pilot poll on March 2, and the Teamsters' Washington, D.C., headquarters promptly posted news of the victory.
According to statistics provided to the National Aircraft Resale Association (NARA) by AMSTAT, the New Jersey-based aircraft market research firm, retail sales of previously owned jets and turboprops rose 11 and 14 percent, respectively, in 2005. More robust sales, coupled with declining inventories of used jets and turboprops, have led to rising prices for most previously owned turbine-powered business aircraft.
WHAT DOES PETE TOWNSEND think about the age 60 rule? (He just turned 61.) If your response was "Who?" you are not of "my generation," but if you adjusted your reading glasses for a moment and then exclaimed "The Who!" read on, old friend.
Dassault Falcon's Jack Young has been honored with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Hope Award, which is presented in recognition of outstanding corporate leadership in the community. Young is the senior vice president of finance and administration for Dassault Falcon Jet and president of Dassault Aircraft Services.
Fluorescent lights work by heating a source of electrons that zoom through the tube and collide with atoms of mercury vapor. Quantum physics describes what happens next: The collision causes some electrons in the mercury atoms to jump to higher orbits, as if one of the moons of Jupiter were suddenly catapulted outward but still circling the planet. Now the atoms are unstable, and the electrons jump back down, in the process emitting photons of ultraviolet light. The UV light rays hit a whitish chemical phosphor that coats the inside of the tube, and the phosphor glows.
Yesterday's "navigation fixes" gave way to today's "waypoints," all of which helped define our "course." In the ATC system of the future -- NGATS -- we will be filing for "trajectories."
This simple test will help determine whether you are a serious tool collector: Do you ever set aside "alone time" when your favorite tool catalog comes in the mail? Do you buy a tool just because it looks cool, or to be the first one in the hangar to possess it? When the tool truck visits your hangar, does the driver know you by your first name?
The fully integrated Pro Line 21 avionics suite aboard the CJ1+ and CJ2+ has features and functionality on a level with far more expensive aircraft. Indeed, the Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 systems aboard the CE 525 family of aircraft offer the most features of any of the current production Citations, including Citations X and Sovereign.
Since a caveman fashioned the first hide-cutting instrument from obsidian or, maybe wooly mammoth molars, man has been fascinated with tools. Some of the world's greatest mechanical innovations were driven by our desire to get things done faster, more efficiently and with less muscle. By virtue of their occupation and usually by their predisposition, technicians of all types have a special relationship with and feeling for tools, since it is through them that they put food on their tables and achieve professional excellence.
