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Single stage to orbit (SSTO) is the way to go for cheaper space travel but so far it has defeated the available technology. Basically the reason for needing multiple stages is that carrying all the mass of a rocket into orbit makes the process inefficient and costly. With multiple stages mass can be dropped as the fuel in it is used. The problem with multiple stages is that re-using stages is difficult because they obviously have to be retrieved in one piece and without salt water damage if they are to be reused and there is obvious waste if they are expended. Despite the existance of some wayout plans for vastly more efficient techniques such as Space Towers which will lower an elevator down from orbit and Launch Fountains which would use a stream of projectiles to suspend structures in space, the near term technique of choice seems to be the use of air breathing engines for the initial boost to something like mach 5 after which an efficient rocket provides the remaining boost into orbit.
The suggestion that the SSTO is a step closer comes with claims by Reaction Engines Limited a British company to have under development a new form of hybrid engine which does not have the drawbacks of earlier planned hybrid strategies. They predict economically viable SSTO could be with us by 2012 Read more…

Those with a long term interest in Australian aviation cannot help but bemoan the way government has constantly failed to support the Australian aircraft Industry. While Brazil for example and Israel and Sweden have all demonstrated that small nations can nonetheless build world class capability, Australia has constantly failed to support aviation. A recent publication by one of Australia’s best qualified observers spells this out with well argued and detailed information.

AFTER more than five decades sifting through the history of Australia’s aircraft manufacturing industry, Keith Meggs says the thing that always surprises him is the ineptness of government decisions. Read more…

AUSTRALIAN troops in Afghanistan have gained a major new platform to assist in the fight against Taliban insurgents with the RAAF acquiring Israeli-made Heron unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Heron Manufactured by Israel Aerospace industries is a 26 M span 1500 kg pilotless vehicle capable of remain aloft for over a day and can deliver high quality real time images in the visual infra red and microwave spectrums.
Powered by a piston engine and cruising at 100 kts it is GPS guided and can take off and land autonomously. There is the option for it to be either pre programmed or remote controlled or a combination of both. Read more…

There has been a deafening silence in the general press about the AF 447 tragedy of recent times. What with drones running round in various places bombing baddies with the occasional bit of collateral damage generally agreed to be regrettable by the responsible (what a way to use the word) parties and regular suicide bombings not to mention ferries turning over and NSW Cabinet Ministers being laid low by spurned lovers it does not take long for even such a monumental tragedy to fade into the background but those of us who fly are worried and will not rest until some sense can be made of it.
At present the official position is that we do not know the cause but suspect a perfect storm of events starting with a sensor failure led to a loss of control. The more time passes the more this seems pretty thin. If this could be the case then thousands are daily in danger. I expect that behind the scenes this is being taken very seriously and I also suspect that given the propensity for litigation currently prevailing loose lips sink financial ships is guiding the dissemination of information i.e. what you don’t know wont hurt you (or more accurately in some cases wont hurt the company).
It seems we have reached the point predicted frequently by experts where systems too complicated to be completely analyzed have been created and are in daily world wide service.
In the design philosophy of the Airbus et al a very serious effort has been made to build in protection by redundancy but as reports come in more and more evidence of startling failures emerges of the type which warrant drastic action.
I have collected reports of a total of 52 incidents in which malfunctions of automated flight systems with computers at their core have created situations where there was a serious risk of the loss of an aircraft and all aboard. As my research has not been exhaustive likely ther are many more. Two of these situations did lead to the loss of aircraft. In one case, the crash of a B2, the crew were able to eject but the bomber worth about $250 mil was lost while in the other case – AF 447, the aircraft and all on board were lost.
Why are we continuing to fly them? In the case of the Air force and B2s the failure was diagnosed and corrected but in the case of the AF447 it is clear that in actual fact the risks are regarded as acceptable in the face of the cost of the only rational action which is to stop using these aircraft till we understand what is going on. Or am I just just being alarmist?
Read more…

At every level there is doubt about the efficacy and indeed the common sense of the security regulations and responses we now have to deal with since 911 and Osama unless he is in his grave must be laughing his head off at the enormous cost he has been able to get us to inflict on ourselves as a society.
As I suspect everyone has ruminated at some time or another as they have had some innocent object confiscated by some officious goon or gooness (in my case a small shifting spanner about 2 inches long) always with the excuse “I am just following rules” it is obvious that much silliness goes on in the name of security.
The absurdly extreme measures which exist serve, as is so often correctly stated, only to inconvenience the law abiding in society without doing more than give minor pause to the destructive amongst us.
So far there has not been much of a bite back from the public because they can usually be scared into submission by saying “terrorism” but sooner or later simple economics may lead to a search for a better paradigm.
In what may perhaps be the beginnings of a movement in the direction of sanity a recent speech by an American professor of Biology has suggested that a different take might be very rewarding.
The basic concept is that organisms constantly face security threats and they respond in an adaptable and flexible local level and so are able to respond very quickly and appropriately.
The top down – it has been ruled that nail clippers are not allowed onto aircraft (whereas plastic coat hangers which when broken make much better weapons than nail clippers are) approach is so predictable that it is easily circumvented. Whereas an appropriately empowered and savvy local defence security apparatus might be much more effective Read more…

Did he jump or was he pushed? Personally I have been looking for the rolling heads in the Dreamliner program for some time as I have formed the opinion, surely widespread that there is more management than technical problems at Boeing and a scapegoat would be found somewhere. All the usual flatterning things are being said about Scott E Carson who has been in charge of the Boeing commercial plane programs since 2006. It does look as if enough is enough for him either in terms of butting his head against a brick wall or simply pushing a pile of unpleasant material up hill with a pointy stick but what ever is the real reason Carson is leaving early. Read more…

There was another of the three great suspect statements but I forget it.
Boeing Co. announced yesterday that the 787 Dreamliner would make its first test flight by year-end — two years behind its original schedule — and the first aircraft would be delivered by the end of 2010, ending months of speculation.
But a string of delays have already strained Boeing’s credibility with airline customers and the new schedule renews pressure on the company to get its new marquee commercial airliner airborne in short order — even as news of problems with Boeing’s global manufacturing system have leaked out in recent weeks.
“We understand the need to make the best and safest aircraft possible,” said All Nippon Airways Co., which is slated to receive the first Dreamliners. “However, as launch customer and future operator of the 787, the length of this further delay is a source of great dismay.” The Japanese carrier has a total of 55 of the aircraft on order. Read more…

It is not long in the past that using a mobile phone at work was regarded as uncouth to say the least and many offices had rules against this practice. Inflight use was frowned on and in Australia at least there was a time when it was illegal. Now the utility and ubiquity of the mobile phone is being recognised.
En-route documents now list the phone numbers of ATC and weather information and their usefulness in operations when communication difficulties exist is recognised. Pilots are becoming used to the fact that the mobile phone is there as a back up (I had cause to use one when rain caused a total com failure while I was on a charter flight). Many pilots are finding that using their mobiles to phone the AWIS is better than plugging away trying to get the info from Flight Service (not due to them being uncooperative but rather understaffed due cost cutting).
The latest example of this was in the US in California where Air traffic controllers had to resort to mobile phones to relay messages to planes under their guidance during a communications failure at a major control centre. Read more…

WW 1 and to a lesser extent WW2 caught the US and Europe unprepared for conflict and with an industrial base of modest proportions. Despite many warning signs political decisions were it seems based on what government officials hope to be the case rather than what experts were warning to be the case. As the sage said those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. There are some commentators who see a similar situation developing again. World War I caught the U.S. military unprepared, and although Congress was quick to order a massive buildup of guns, tanks and planes, with “virtually no defense industrial base … the war was over before U.S. industry could deliver any of them.” Today’s Pentagon budget cuts risk a return to the same situation. Read more…

ATC is complex and resistant to computerization as many failed attempts to introduce advance automation into ATC has shown. Despite this the need to remove human error and to optimize trajectories which will over time lead to massive fuel and cost savings as well as efficiencies and time savings for the consumer has meant that the goal has been doggedly pursued. Numerous trials of various systems have taken place and are still talking place. Modern FMS and autothrottle and autopilot systems now permit such precise management of cruising speed that the time is now deemed by many to have come for the NextGen ATC which will provide these efficiencies.
In an announcement on 21st of August the FAA and Embry Riddle said that the dimension of time would be introduced into a demonstration of flight management. Read more…