Hundreds of applications for aircraft operations and repair stations are held up, stymied by the FAA's inefficient certification processes, a government watchdog finds. FAA is juggling 1,029 such applications, Jeffrey Guzzetti of the Transportation Department's Inspector General's office, recently told Congress. The situation is so bad, one applicant has been in limbo since August 2006. And it is about to get worse, as requests from NextGen technologies and unmanned aircraft flow into the system.
In another potential blow to the Airbus A380 program, Air France has indicated it may not take all of the aircraft on firm order. According to Air France-KLM CEO Alexandre de Juniac, the airline may swap part of its remaining order for other aircraft types. Air France has ordered 12 A380s and received nine. The airline expects to receive another A380 in 2014, but has already postponed delivery of two more until 2016 and now may not take them.
Brazilian airline GOL plans a campaign of 200 biofuel flights when the country hosts the soccer World Cup in 2014. News of the plans emerged as the airline made the first commercial biofuel flight in Brazil, from Sao Paulo to Brasilia, with a 25% blend of hydrotreated renewable jet fuel supplied by UOP company Honeywell.
Airbus and Boeing have argued that air transport growth is linked to the development of global GDP. But that is not always the case: U.S. air travel has been more or less stagnant in spite of economic growth, but Russian air transport is growing fast in the midst of a recession.
Your editorial “To End Washington Gridlock, Fix Process” (AW&ST Oct. 14/21, p. 90) struck a chord. Perhaps you are right about a basic fault in the U.S. electoral system that affects the way people are elected to Congress and that has ultimately seriously impacted the budgeting process, especially as it applies to the defense industry.
Capt. (ret.) Wolfgang Wachholz (Tobermory, Ontario )
In “The Great Stagnation” (AW&ST Oct. 14/21, p. 20), Kevin Michaels writes about why global air travel will not rise as quickly as forecast. But he failed to mention a very important reason why air travel may stagnate—the appalling lack of customer service. The treatment travelers receive at the hands of the airlines, security agents, customs and immigration officials, not to mention the many surcharges—coupled with the affront of cramped seating and an indifferent cabin crew—are huge causal factors.
The price of EU carbon dioxide allowances (EUA) under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) was volatile in October, as market participants positioned ahead of imminent sales by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and speculated on the prospects for progress on market intervention by the regulator. The price of EUAs for delivery in December seesawed wildly through the month, ahead of upcoming sales by the EIB and possible political progress on the European Commission's plan to backload up to 900 million EUAs from auctions over the next few years.
NASA's Kepler extrasolar-planet finder has discovered its first Earth-size planet orbiting a distant star, but while its composition is rocky like Earth's, its 8.5-hr. orbit means the planet is far too warm to lie in the habitable “Goldilocks zone.” Designated Kepler-78b, the new planet is “a blazing inferno and not suitable for life as we know it, according to the Ames Research Center, which manages Kepler.
Hans-Juergen Loss has been named executive director of the Operation Div. of Ameco Beijing. He was vice president-technical operation and vice president-quality management for Lufthansa German Airlines.
As I read about the A-10 in “From the Ground Up” (AW&ST Oct. 7, p. 54) from the comfy remoteness of a peaceful Central Europe, it seems evident that the top brass of the U.S. Air Force and the Obama administration are following in the footsteps of their predecessors who—driven by budgetary protectionism, envy and similar nefarious reasons—managed to kill the SR-71 Blackbird, an irreplaceable strategic reconnaissance asset.
Jeremy Mammen has been named director of aviation safety in the Flight Department of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla. He was manager of flight safety at Aerosim Flight Academy in Sanford, Fla.
Since creating, testing, certifying, producing and promoting an all-new aircraft is such an expensive proposition—I've heard figures ranging from $100 million to 10 times that, depending upon the design's complexity and performance—reworking an existing model is a much-practiced tactic among planemakers. And a new wave of redos is upon us. Indeed, Second Chancers helped anchor the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Annual Convention, held in Las Vegas Oct. 22-24.
Reader Hank Caruso's letter “The A-10, And Its Community Too” (AW&ST Oct. 28, p. 10), was right on the money. And his description that the community “relish[s] improvising Plans B and C when Plan A goes awry” sounds exactly right, except that it applies more closely to Marine Corps aviation than the Air Force. The only justification for Marine Corps' aviation is to take care of the grunt on the ground. The A-10, flown by a Marine pilot, is the perfect combination, and an economical one, once the F-35B is dropped from the Corps' future plans.
David Hoyt has been promoted to senior vice president-strategic accounts executive from vice president-business development for Dynamic Aviation, Bridgewater, Va. Honors And Elections
The most conspicuous exhibits at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) show in Washington in late October were a pervasive sense of unreality and a newfound Army paranoia that rivals that of the Marine Corps.
Business jet billings are surging on the strength of large-cabin business jet deliveries, but ongoing woes at the light end of the market continue to temper overall business jet shipments. Industry billings for the first nine months have reached $15.4 billion, nearly one-quarter more than the $12.4 billion in billings reported a year ago, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. This is despite a 2.1% decline in business jet shipments from a year ago.
Airbus is now offering sharklet retrofits for in-service Airbus A320s and A319s after having formally launched the initiative with JetBlue Airways. The sharklets have so far only been available for newly delivered aircraft and as a retrofit for aircraft manufactured with structurally reinforced wings. The devices are helping to deliver a fuel-burn improvement of up to 4%, or 100 nm more range, according to Airbus.
At first glance, Hong Kong's strength as an airfreight hub for China is remarkable. To go through the city, most of its traffic, goods from mainland China, must clear customs twice. Yet Hong Kong International Airport not only overcomes that disadvantage; it is now also the world's largest freight airport, handling 3.98 million metric tons in 2011, just ahead of Memphis (Tenn.) International Airport's 3.92 million tons. And that was before capacity at Hong Kong grew by half this year, with the opening of a third giant terminal for Cathay Pacific Airways.
