AVIATION NEWS
USEFUL AVIATION LINKS
Aviation Week: https://aviationweek.com
Commercial Aviation Info, Photos, and News: https://www.airliners.net/aviation-news
AVweb: https://www.avweb.com
General Aviation News: https://generalaviationnews.com
NASA AERONAUTIC RESEARCH INFORMATION
NASA Aeronautic Research: https://www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch/resources
NASA Next Gen STEM: Aeronaut-X: https://www.nasa.gov/stem/nextgenstem/aeronaut-x/index.html
NASA Aeronautics at Home: https://www.nasa.gov/aero-at-home
Aeronautics E-books: https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/aeronautics_ebooks_archive_1.html
AVIATION/AERONAUTICS NEWS
AirVenture in Oshkosh is This Week, B’gosh! See the event website: https://www.eaa.org/airventure and the Aviation Week Podcast: EAA’s Jack Pelton on AirVenture Oshkosh 2024, here: https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/bca-podcast/podcast-eaas-jack-pelton-airventure-oshkosh-2024.
Last Battle of Britain Pilot Turns 105! Group Captain John Allman Hemingway turned 105 on July 17. Born in Ireland in 1919, “Paddy” was flying Hurricane fighters for the RAF by the time he was 21, in the RAF’s 85th Squadron, then led by famed pilot Peter Townsend (not that one!). He shot down two Luftwaffe bombers, and was shot down a total of four times over the course of the War. He retired from active duty in 1969. For more about this hero, see: https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/last-known-battle-of-britain-pilot-reaches-105-years-of-age.
Solar Impulse Aircraft: Paul MacCready and the Gossamer Albatross was the subject of a recent Item of the Week; this is a (sort of) follow-up. In addition to human-powered aircraft, that Item included info on MacCready’s following projects, Solar Challenger and Pathfinder. Others have been working on solar-powered flight, including the Swiss team of Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard (Piccard co-piloted the Breitling Orbiter 3, the first balloon to circle the world non-stop; its gondola is in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum at the Udvar-Hazy Center). The Swiss team created two models of the Solar Impulse, both capable of taking off from the ground and flying 36 hours or more at a time. SI-1 flew for an entire diurnal cycle, with nine hours of nighttime flying, over a 36-hour period. SI-2 actually made a trip around the world, with the longest single flight covering Japan to Hawaii (although the batteries overheated and were damages, requiring an extensive repair); the overall trip duration was over 16 months, but it was the first-ever circumnavigation on solar power alone. For more information on Solar Impulse, see here and here.
Aviation Week: New Technologies That Could Boost Aviation’s Decarbonization Goal: SAF is one way, but will it be (soon) enough, and can it provide fuel in the quantities necessary? One option is to augment SAF reductions by propulsion technologies that are 15%+ more efficient, another is increasing the use of hydrogen as fuel. For details and discussion, see: https://aviationweek.com/special-topics/sustainability/new-technologies-could-boost-aviations-decarbonization-goal.
First Ariane 6 Mission Partially Succeeds: After a long hiatus due to COVID, Arianespace returned to the medium/heavy launch scene with its first flight of the new Ariane 6 rocket, launched from Kourou on July 9. It made orbit OK, but an APU problem prevented the test program from being fully successful. For more information, see: https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/space/first-ariane-6-mission-partially-succeeds.
FAA Approves new Las Vegas Airport Site: If you have flown into/out of Reid International (formerly McCarran), you know how congested and inconvenient an airport it can be. Las Vegas Executive Airport will be located some 30 miles from the Strip, and “will accommodate single-engine, multi-engine, and rotocraft operations” (which may help take pressure off Reid). Further, the new facility will house the Las Vegas Spaceport. Initial plans there will “include a fleet of space planes, a space pilot school, hangars, a post-high school STEM academy, hotel and restaurant, and a passenger terminal.” For more information, see: https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/faa-greenlights-new-las-vegas-area-airport.
More Boeing Woes: Boeing is insisting that its Starliner capsule, now at the ISS, is “going well,” in spite of problems with its thrusters and helium leaks. Meanwhile, the NTSB has sanctioned Boeing “for ‘blatantly’ violating investigative regulations it agreed to as a party in the probe of the door-plug blowout in Portland, Oregon.” For details on the former, see: https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/boeing-says-starliner-mission-going-well; and for the latter, see: https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/ntsb-sanctions-boeing-for-blatantly-violating-terms-of-agreement.
Yet More: Another whistleblower came forward last week “alleging that the company has been incorporating ‘scrapyard parts’ into its factory assembly lines for more than a decade.” Hoo boy. For more about it, see: https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/ex-boeing-inspector-claims-scrapyard-parts-were-used-in-assembly-lines.
And Now This: A United Airlines B757 lost a wheel on take-off from LAX on July 8. The plane continued to Denver and landed without incident (the main gear is designed to be able to land without one of its wheels). A similar incident had happened a few months ago when a UA B777 dropped a wheel at take-off from San Francisco. See: https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/united-757-drops-wheel-at-lax.
V-22 Still Under Congressional Fire: “U.S. military V-22 Osprey tiltrotors will be restricted from their full range of flight operations until at least 2025, and at least one congressman is calling for full re-grounding of the entire fleet. The head of a Pentagon program that is addressing safety concerns over the aircraft advised members of the House oversight hearing on the aircraft’s restrictions yesterday (June 12).” For more information on this issue, see: https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/v-22-under-congressional-fire-as-house-committee-holds-hearings.
Unruly Passenger Sued by FAA: A woman who went berserk on a domestic flight on July 7, 2021, has been sued by the FAA for $81,950 for violence against crew and passengers, trying to open a door in flight, and for interfering with the flight crew. She was handcuffed after she assaulted the crew members trying to restrain her. This was during the height of COVID, so the crew duct-taped her mouth shut. The flight continued to its destination, the passengers offloaded, and the woman was arrested after necessary sedation. This was one of the incidents that led the FAA to adopt a zero-tolerance policy on unruly passenger behavior, which has reduced in-flight problems significantly. For more, see: https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/81950-fine-proposed-for-in-flight-violence.
Senate Passes 5-Year FAA Reauthorization Bill last Thursday (5/9), on the eve of its expiration date. The Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act was approved 88-4. It included a one-week extension to allow the House to study and approve the bill before it goes to President Biden for signature. The $105B bill includes provisions to “set national priorities to strengthen aviation safety standards, grow air traffic controller & safety inspector workforce, and implement safety technology on runways & in cockpits.” For more information, see here and here. UPDATE: President Biden signed the H.R. 3935 FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 into law on May 16.
More FAA: Report on National Airspace System Safety: A number of close-calls between aircraft aloft and on the ground has been in the news of late. The FAA just released a major study on “the structure, culture, processes, systems, and integration of safety efforts” across the Air Traffic Organization. The review team identify a number of problems and make a series of recommendations addressing “process integrity, staffing, equipment, and technology.” Everyone involved in aerospace education, and all air travelers, should take a look at the report. You can find it at: https://www.faa.gov/NAS_safety_review_team_report.pdf.
Follow-up: The FAA just announced it was establishing a three-person expert review panel to examine fatigue among air traffic controllers. The report already released, as described immediately above, recognizes staffing issues, including fatigue, but the issue is framed in a lot of “managementese.” For a more “down to Earth” take on the issue, see: https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/faa-launches-panel-to-study-air-traffic-controller-fatigue, including the comments section.
Coming to You: Amazon via Drone: Amazon has long been interested in using flying drones to deliver orders to your doorstep, but was limited by the FAA’s constraint that such cargo drones had to be operated by a human with a line-of-sight on the drone at all times. The FAA has now relaxed that requirement, at least on a limited basis. The FAA recently approved BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line Of Sight) operation of cargo drones delivering from its facility at College Station, Texas. The use of cargo drones will “begin integrating into Amazon’s delivery network” later this year. Amazon’s goal is to shave delivery time to less than 60 minutes. For more on this development, see: https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/advanced-air-mobility/faa-approves-amazon-bvlos-flights-cargo-drones.
Airport Infrastructure Funding: The White House announced recently (2/15) that it was allocating nearly $1 billion in federal funds for airport infrastructure improvements. The funds are part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which will provide a total of $24B to modernize airports and supporting facilities around the country, including upgrading baggage handling equipment and expanding security checkpoints. The $1B allotment will directly affect 114 airports, both large and small. Dulles, O’Hare, and LAX will each get much-needed upgrades. Read more about it at: https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/nearly-1-billion-allocated-for-airport-infrastructure-funding.
More Podcasts from Aviation Week:
How Do You Move A Live Airport? Istanbul’s busy airport moved to a new site in 33 hours. Find out more about it at: https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/window-seat-podcast/podcast-how-do-you-move-live-airport!
The F-35 Has a Case of Long COVID: The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, by latest GAO estimates, will be a $2T project of the project service life of the aircraft. It’s had some teething problems, but is popular with our overseas market. Two updates are being made: “Technology Refresh 3, which adds a new integrated core processor, basically a modern supercomputer” and the Block 4 modernization. And you can't get Block 4 modernization without Technology Refresh or TR-3, TR-3.” Block 4 involves a U.S. market-only radar update. For more of the discussion in Aviation Week about the F-35, see here: https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/podcast-f-35-has-case-long-covid.
Is It Time For a U.S. Mandate on Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)? The aviation industry is trying to be “greener,” but meeting goals set for 2050 will be difficult to do with traditional or near-traditional fuels. SAF “is arguably the only lever other than aircraft replacement that can make a dent in emissions over the next 10-15 years.” See more about AW’s latest thinking on SAF here: https://aviationweek.com/special-topics/sustainability/opinion-it-time-us-saf-mandate . A lot of other items about SAF are available in the A+StW website’s News: Aviation section.
How Can We Solve Aviation’s Big Contrails Problem?
NOTE: An alert A+StW reader noticed the mistake I made in the story below. Oops! Maybe my tinfoil hat was on too tight! The corrected story follows. Thanks, WW!
The tinfoil-hat crowd has been spreading ridiculous rumors about toxic contrails for years, but contrails do have a non-trivial impact on climate. High-altitude contrails reflect some sunlight that would have warmed the ground beneath them, causing cooling, and the contrails also act to prevent the re-radiation of ground heat to Space, causing warming, and the two effects do not cancel each other out, causing net heating. For a discussion of the problem, see: https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/podcast-how-can-we-solve-aviations-big-contrails-problem.
Will Embraer Step Up to Challenge the Duopoly? https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/podcast-will-embraer-step-challenge-duopoly
V-22 Osprey – Long-term Upgrades Amid Near-term Fixes:https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/v-22-office-looks-long-term-upgrades-amid-near-term-fixes
Shielding the Skies: Missile Defense in a Changing World: https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/podcast-shielding-skies-missile-defense-changing-world
Boeing Over a Barrel: https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/podcast-boeing-over-barrel
Lifting the Veil on Area 51 Secret Flight-Test History: Peter Merlin has written a new history of flight test at Area 51, Dreamland: The Secret History of Area 51, and discusses it with AW’s editors at: https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/podcast-lifting-veil-area-51s-secret-flight-test-history.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) News
Overview of Different Types of SAF:https://simpleflying.com/sustainable-aviation-fuel-types
NEW: BP Pauses SAF Projects as it Simplifies Biofuel Growth Plans. British Petroleum will acquire full ownership of its Biofuels Joint Venture with Brazile, but scale back plans to build out new SAF and renewable diesel production projects in the U.S. and Europe. For more, see: https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/emerging-technologies/bp-pauses-saf-projects-it-simplifies-biofuel-growth-plans.
NEW: SAFs as a Lever for Clean Flight:https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/safs-lever-clean-flight
China to Boost SAF Production Through New HEFA Facility: https://aviationweek.com/special-topics/sustainability/china-boost-saf-production-through-new-hefa-facility
AW Opinion Piece:Opinion: It is Time to Move Boldly on Sustainable Aviation Fuel (1/17/2022): https://aviationweek.com/special-topics/sustainability/opinion-it-time-move-boldly-sustainable-aviation-fuel. AW advocates for a more aggressive reduction of the commercial airline carbon footprint than the present agreement for a 10% use of SAF by 2030.
AW Gallery: Aviation Sustainability Investments Taking Off: https://aviationweek.com/special-topics/sustainability/gallery-aviation-sustainability-investments-taking
Aviation’s Future Fuels:https://aviationweek.com/shownews/nbaa/podcast-aviations-future-fuels
Flight Made on 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel: The Royal Air Force conducted a ninety-minute test flight of one of their Voyager tanker aircraft flying totally on SAF recently. The Voyager is a militarized conversion of an Airbus 300. For more info, see here, and see also the other SAF links at the end of this section (website version).
Business Aviation Leaders issued a progress report on meeting 2050 Net-Zero emissions goals. Important milestones have been met, and new technologies are under development, but challenges remain. One brighter spot: Over the previous decade, business aviation sector fuel efficiency improved by 2% each year. One challenge: SAF production and demand. For more info, see: https://www.flyingmag.com/business-aviation-industry-emissions-report.
Pratt & Whitney and Embraer have signed an MOU to conduct studies of aircraft use of 100% SAF. Integrated ground and flight testing will use an Embraer E195-E2 aircraft with P&W GTF engines. For more info, see: https://www.avweb.com/ownership/fuel-news/embraer-pratt-whitney-partner-on-saf-demonstration-program.
Bell Textron 525 Helo Flies SAF:https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/bell-525-relentless-test-flights-now-running-on-sustainable-fuels
Phillips 66 SAF Plant: https://www.flyingmag.com/phillips-66-sustainable-fuel-commitment
The U.K.’s New “Net Zero” Strategy was released on October 19. It calls for a $247M investment in SAF technology in order to meet a net-zero carbon emission for commercial aviation by 2050; see here.
Plant-based Jet Fuel Could Reduce Emissions by up to 68%, using a type of mustard plant, according to research conducted at the University of Georgia. Kinda puts a new spin on the whole “Pardon me, do you have and Grey Poupon?” thing!”
President Biden’s SAF Grand Challenge: The president is calling for 3 billion gallons of cost-competitive SAF to be available to US commercial aircraft annually by 2030, and for the aviation sector to be carbon-free by 2050. This would significantly reduce both CO2 emissions (which contribute to human-caused global warming and the related environmental problems) and lead exposure. The move is backed by a variety of tax measures and other incentives, and is well-received by many of the sector’s key players. For more info on the Grand Challenge, see: https://www.flyingmag.com/story/news/biden-admin-saf-challenge-industry-reaction.
NASA is On Board with SAF: NASA Administrator Bill Nelson joined other federal government and industry leaders at a recent White House event highlighting sustainable aviation, pointing out NASA’s increasing role in helping develop the technologies needed to make aviation more sustainable in the near future. For the full statement, see: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-innovations-will-help-us-meet-sustainable-aviation-goals.
FAA and Sustainable Airports: The Federal Aviation Administration recently awarded $788M in grants to upgrade airports across the US. Their National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems looks to make airports safer, more energy efficient, and more accessible to passengers with special needs. For details, see: https://www.flyingmag.com/story/news/faa-766-million-sustainable-airport-grant.
Shell Plans Big SAF Plant: Shell will repurpose a fuel refinery in the Netherlands to create up to 0.5 million gallons of synthetic aviation fuel annually. Production is expected to begin in 2024. For more info, see: https://www.flyingmag.com/story/news/shell-saf.