AircraftNews.Com

Some years ago (maybe 30) I read in Flight that the time was coming when a latest generation Combat aircraft was going to take the entire GDP of a small nation. At the time I took it seriously and though it a bit of an exaggeration but as time has worn on it seems they were joking at the time using delightful British irony but that they had unwittingly hit the nail on the head. That day is here with the F22 that the US wont sell to any one because it cost them so dear and mega Airliners taking many Billions to create and 100s of millions to buy.
As the financial crisis looms and doomsayers prattle away I wonder whether now is the time for a paradigm shift. Skip the A380 and A350 and B787 etc and go for a highly standardized no frills blended body well and truly subsonic alternatively powered (fuel cells and props?) solutions that will halve the cost per kg per kilometer (Note I use metric as I am talking of the future)
Anyone with the courage to do it should (?!) clean up.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The only inkling passengers had that something was wrong on the Continental Airlines flight over the Atlantic Ocean was when an announcement came over the loudspeaker asking if there was a doctor on board.

Otherwise, flight attendants continued to serve snacks. Passengers read magazines and watched movies. And the flight kept on its schedule.

But in the cockpit, the 60-year-old captain had died of a suspected heart attack and two co-pilots took over the controls. The 247 passengers aboard did not learn what had happened until the flight from Brussels landed safely Thursday and was met by fire trucks, emergency vehicles and dozens of reporters.

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The prospect of a worldwide carbon tax for airline passengers is gathering pace after the Australian government demanded the inclusion of the aviation industry in the global climate change treaty.

The Australian administration has proposed that airlines are set a carbon dioxide reduction target as part of the treaty that will emerge from the Copenhagen summit this year. The latest plan would see responsibility for any aviation deal handed over to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is overseeing the treaty talks.
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Guest Post by Bill Reichert of Garage Technology Ventures www.garage.com
Very few people have the opportunity to experience life on a nuclear aircraft carrier up close and personal. Recently, I had the extraordinary experience of spending a day and a night at sea in the Pacific on board the USS Nimitz. I was part of a Navy outreach program to give ordinary landlubbers like me a perspective on the mission and operations of a naval strike group.

I was excited. Who would turn down a chance to get on top of a nuclear power plant driving 100,000 tons of steel through the ocean, with 5,000 men and women handling scores of aircraft, carrying thousands of pounds of bombs and missiles, burning thousands of gallons of jet fuel a day, with margins measured in inches, and tolerances of seconds? What could possibly go wrong? Read more…

Queensland researchers have developed a system allowing them to use mobile phone technology to fly pilotless planes.

In April, researchers from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) completed a successful flight of a small pilotless plane over Kingaroy in Queensland’s South Burnett region.
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An Airbus-commissioned report warns of danger to global employment if air transport’s long-term growth is limited
A single percentage point fall in air traffic growth over the next 20 years could eliminate 6 million jobs worldwide, according to a new report “Aviation: the real world wide web”. The report sets out to counterbalance the long-running debate about the impact of aviation on the environment. It was compiled by analysts Oxford Economics, and commissioned by Airbus, with the support of British Airways and EasyJet.
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Here in Oz we have recently introduced compulsory drug testing for people involved in aviation.
At first sight this might seem like a good thing and a sort of Motherhood matter. Who could object to it?
On second thought I am not so sure.
Firstly what is the rationale for it? Do we really think people are flying and working in aviation under the influence? Where is the evidence?
If there are individuals so irresponsible and I do fear there are would anyone so irresponsible be liable to change their behaviour in the face of possibly being confronted with a blow in the bag or lick the stick man?

I rather suspect not.
How much does all this cost and where is the cost benefit analysis?
Having observed Aviation for quite a long time I have a very uneasy feeling that the reality here is that this is a feel good exercise for box tickers which will as is becoming usual lead to much of the effort and a large slab of the cost being handed on to the aviation community so bureaucrats can be seen to be doing good stuff.
Aviation is, perhaps inevitably, highly regulated but recently I have noticed increasing mountains of paper all in the name of compliance and safety with entities such as the SMS (Safety Management system) becoming required and yet in practice becoming more like a distracting burden. There is only so much time people can give to such things before they actually subtract from the time and attention available to Aviate safely.
Maybe there should be a requirement for a regulation to be removed before another can be applied?
I would be very intersted in the views of others on this.

The two people killed when their training aircraft crashed with a glider in mid-air were an air cadet and RAF reservist, the Ministry of Defence has said.

The two-seater RAF Tutor single-engined plane is believed to have taken off from RAF Benson in Oxfordshire on an air experience flight for the Combined Cadet Force cadet.

The pilot of the glider managed to parachute from his stricken aircraft and he landed safely in fields at Sutton Courtenay, near Abingdon. Read more…

The last Vulcan is flying again! This legendary aircraft saved by Mail on Sunday readers will make its comeback today at the RAF Cosford air show in Shropshire.

The world’s last flying Vulcan will take to the skies today for its first public display since a Mail on Sunday campaign helped save it from being grounded for ever.
The Cold War icon, once Britain’s most potent nuclear deterrent, has successfully carried out flight tests and can now make its star appearance at the Cosford air show.
The flight will be a major triumph for the Vulcan To The Sky Trust, which launched an 11th-hour appeal for funds in March to ensure that the iconic aircraft was not mothballed. Read more…

The Captain and crew of a Jetstar A330 sucessfully managed an in flight cockpit fire and emergency descent during a flight across the Pacific bound from Japan to the Queensland Gold coast.
Ray Banfield has described the 20 terrifying minutes when a cockpit fire threatened the lives of 199 passengers and crew on a Jetstar flight from Japan.
At 39,000 feet there was a loud bang and a brilliant white flash of flame from the base of his co-pilot’s windscreen.
“Never in all my years of flying commercial aircraft had I seen anything like it,” he told passengers upon landing safely at Guam.
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