AircraftNews.Com

Radical Sky Tain

Stage lengths of between 185km (100nm) and 1,850km create a competitive problem for conventional air transport. For a typical 1-2h flight, would-be airline customers must pass through a non-flying gauntlet, from commuting to and from remote airports to facing clogged lines for security, check-in and baggage claim. It is often easier and cheaper to drive.

This basic conundrum has produced a series of radical solutions by aviation entrepreneurs, ranging from exotic business models, such as air taxis, to exotic aircraft designs, such as vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) airliners. For various reasons, including lack of infrastructure and technical complexity, none is yet to topple the imperfect primacy of the fixed-wing turboprop or jet.

Now Abe Karem, a widely respected aerodynamicist and innovator, has entered the mix. As founder of Karem Aircraft, he has quietly launched a new programme called the TR53 AeroTrain, a 120-seat, optimum speed tiltrotor (OSTR) dedicated to solving the 185-1,850km air transport problem. Read more…

Path of AF 447

It is possible that the fury of an equatorial storm brought down Air France flight 447.

The plane’s flight path seems to have taken it through what meteorologists call the inter-tropical convergence zone.

This is where two air masses meet, sending huge storm clouds more than 40,000ft (12,000m) into the sky.

Eight years ago, former British Airways captain Roger Guiver was confronted with an enormous storm during a flight from Cape Town to London Heathrow.

“You take weather like that extremely seriously,” he says. “You don’t go anywhere near it.” Read more…

Small Fragments of aircraft wreckage have been sighted along the flight path of the Lost Air France Airbus A330. In addition Airline crew on an opposite direction flight reported flaming debris sighted in the area of the last report. This last report incuded indictaions of depressurisation in addition to mutiple electrical anomalies. Loss of cabin pressure is a particularly ominous sign.

From ABC

Air France A 330

The Horrifying loss of an Airbus raises many questions but one thing it does underline is the wisdom of the constant real-time information sharing which is now possible and which is being incorporated in the next Gen Airliners such as the A330 and A380.

Unfortunately the last data transmission from the stricken A330 suggests an in flight break up possibly after a lightning strike. For all their sophistication one thing often missed by the general public when they are shuddering at the thought of a flight in a little GA aircraft is that the big ones are like a blob of Jell-O compared to the little one. Anyone with reasonable skill should survive a C172 or  Cherokee 140 being turned on its back but if a 747 were to be turned totally upside down it would be a very risky business to recover it successfully from such an upset.

Let us hope for a speedy closure for all those involved

Air France-KLM Group, whose Rio de Janeiro-Paris flight disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean today, hasn’t suffered a fatal accident since the Concorde disaster almost nine years ago.

The twin-engine Airbus SAS A330 model involved has never had a fatal crash in a commercial flight.

Air France flight 447 with 228 people on board went missing after taking off from Brazil bound for Charles de Gaulle airport, according to a statement from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who said he was “deeply concerned.” Air France said the plane had encountered an area of strong turbulence during the flight and an automatic message was received indicating a breakdown in the electrical circuitry. Read more…

Tenerife collision

MUMBAI: Two aircraft carrying nearly 250 passengers between them were speeding down separate runways of the Mumbai airport on Sunday morning before aborting their take-offs, seconds before reaching the intersection point of the runways.

The planes were seconds away from a collision which would have been catastrophic. Read more…

IL18 Hotel

It was always going to happen. An Airliner becomes a Hotel. For a Euro 450,000 investment entrepreneur Ben Thijssen has installed a Bar, Jakuzi and Sauna in a Illushin type 18 Airline which saw service on routes to Havana during the time of the East German Federal Republic. He plans to be acccepting Guests this Northern Summer. This amazing project has been set up near the Airport of Teuge bei Apeldoorn in Holland.
The cockpit is in original condition says Thijssen.  DDR-Chief Erich Honecker often flew in this machine. The cokpit has a seat for the members of the Ustashi who always were required to fly with him.
Thijssen is sure the Honiger Hotel will get good bookings.
From the German World Online www.welt.de/reise

Morphing concept

The Australian Deparment of Defence is hiring specialists to investigate multifunctional aircraft structure.

Multifunctional aircraft structures include products such as conformal antennas, frequency selective surfaces, morphing structures and structural batteries. They may be manufactured from conventional aircraft materials, such as fibre composites, and emerging materials, such as meta- and nano-materials.

The successful candidatres would work at the defence Laboratories in Fishermans bend Victoria. It is interting to note that Defence is hiring premabably to keep an eye on the ball.

From the DSTO web site