Tapes of the conversations between New York approach controllers and pilots of the presidential VC-25 (Boeing 747-200) that performed what can best be described as an airshow routine over Lower Manhattan in New York City yesterday reveal a joviality that is in stark contrast to the outright panic that gripped the uninformed citizens just a few minutes later (as a nightmare from Sept. 2001 appeared to be playing out again...)
Rest assured, NASA is now truly ready to rocket up to the Hubble to repair and resupply the aging observatory with fresh new instruments in early May.... The agency released this video today, the music score created by "a team of NASA Headquarters employees in their spare time." Guys, do fix Hubble but don't quit your day jobs!
Publicity "stunt" is probably the best way to describe today's fly-over of New York City landmarks by a presidential Boeing 747, going under the name "Venus 1" with air traffic controllers working the area. An F-16 accompanied the aircraft, one of two used in the presidential fleet.
My nephew, who works in Manhattan, described the scene in an email to me this morning:
"..It looked like the plane was going to fly right into our building until it made a steep banked turn past the Statue of Liberty. It seems like the FAA or some agency probably should have warned people about this one considering it was so close to where 9/11 happened..."
Videos of the event are now turning up on YouTube... Turn the volume way down as there's something funky going on with the sound.
Check out on AOPA's Al Marsh's blog the story of some lucky young snowboarders in Alaska who narrowly escaped the nasty tussle with some tough terrain on 19 April.
Amateur rocketeer Steve Eves successfully launched his 1/10 scale Saturn V rocket from a rural site in Maryland on Saturday. The 36-ft-high model weighed more than 1,600lb. Two good videos below:
At Costa Rica's Hotel Costa Verde, you can feel free to move about the cabin when staying in the new Boeing 727 fuselage suite. The refurbished 1965 tri-jet, aka "Whisperjet", formerly flew for the likes of South Africa Air and Avianca Airlines of Colombia. Check out the pictures at the hotel's website and on this YouTube video.
Two pilots headed for the Sun n' Fun 2009 show in Lakeland, Florida, on Saturday put their "IFR" (I follow roads) skills to good use when they landed their SkyRanger light sport aircraft (N514GS) on an urban street in Winter Haven. The pilots were enroute from Winter Haven to Lakeland when the video-equipped aircraft's 2-cycle engine failed. The engine did come back to life several times after pilots turned the starter, but each time the powerplant appears to have shutdown on its own. Both men walked away.
The largest "model" rocket ever to fly will attempt lift off at Higgs Farm near Price, Maryland, this Saturday (25 April). Built by Steve Eves and powered by nine motors, the 1/10-scale version weighs 1,700lb, is 36-ft-tall rocket will soar to 4,200ft, according to a poster presented at a model rocketry conference in Toledo, Ohio on 3 April. 
The video below, also taken at the Toledo show, gives you a sense for just how big Mr. Eves' phallic phenomena really is. Check out associated info at Gizmodo and Rocketry Planet. Thanks to my friends at NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre for the heads-up.
A video captured by ApInsights in Scottsdale, Arizona, on 11 April reveals details about what appears to be a rising price point for Cirrus' new single-engine personal jet, the SF50 Vision.
In the video, Cirrus jet sales coordinator Gary Black says the aircraft's final price will be between $1.3 and $1.4 million "fully loaded". Previous statements by the company indicate a top price of about $1.25 million, though that's for "typically equipped" aircraft. It's not clear the difference between "typical" and "fully" loaded, if any.
Black also says deliveries could begin in two years, slightly more optimistic than the company's recent announcements that first entrants would emerge in 2012.
Lakeland, Florida is general aviation's playground this week as the 2009 Sun n 'Fun show kicks off. Here's what's on the agenda for today in terms of press conferences. You can also listen in on the goings on with Flight Line Internet Radio.
I'll update you on what actually took place at the press conferences at day's end.
Photo of the Piper Meridian was taken by Carl Miller.
Tuesday, April 21
7:30 a.m.Major SnF Announcement
Take a listen to a fascinating audio of a very calm, cool and collected low-time private pilot taking control and landing a King Air 200 (N556DW) twin-engine turboprop with the help of Fort Myers controllers and others after the pilot became incapacitated (and later was declared dead) on climb-out from Marco Island Executive Airport in Florida on 12 April. Thanks to "beechsundowner" on LiveATC.net for providing the recording, split into two parts here as YouTube can only handle a 10min maximum clip. The FAA also has posted tapes of the incident on its web site.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agency this week in Washington DC is showing off a one-of-a-kind security asset the agency designed and built to protect first responders and citizens almost anywhere in the US except Washington DC, or so it would seem.
The twin-engine Rockwell Aero Commander 680 carries a highly specialized crew and sensor suite tuned to detect trace levels of chemical and radiological agents (particularly "dirty bombs"). Officially, it's known as the airborne spectral photometric environmental collection technology (ASPECT) equipment.
ASPECT has been providing quick-response chemical detection services since 2001, and has recently been upgraded to carry gamma-ray capturing devices to ferret out radiological threats.
By flying a certain pattern over a particular site, the sensor suite captures electro-optical, infrared and gamma ray data while an operator in the back of the aircraft uses specialized algorithms to perform real-time analysis of the threat, sending actionable information to first responders through satellite links.
In what must be the ultimate "security" irony however, this national asset, designed to protect the citizenry and first responders (who paid for it with their tax dollars) cannot today be deployed in the city that probably needs it most - the destination with a terrorist bulls eye smack dab in the middle - Washington DC.
That's right, the general aviation and air taxi "no-fly" zone (in pink in the picture below)...
...put in place after the 9-11 attacks and controlled by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) prevents ASPECT's civilian operators from flying into the area, even though the aircraft belongs to the EPA, a government agency.
This week requests by the crew and the EPA for a one-day waiver to enter the no-fly zone, a permission granted to a select group of pilots after they've been fingerprinted, criminal background checked and "vetted" by the TSA, were denied by the TSA.
Light sport aircraft manufacturer Zenair appears to be baffled by this week's plea by the US NTSB to ground the company's CH 601 XL two-seater. NTSB claims the aircraft exhibits a tendency to break itself apart in flight due to an aerodynamic resonance, aka "flutter", linked to the ailerons. The NTSB says flutter appears to be a factor in six accidents that have killed 10 people in the US and the Europe since 2006.
Zenair, apparently blindsided by the NTSB barrage on Tuesday, says "each accident discussed in the NTSB memo occurred under different circumstances" and that some of the accidents are still being investigated.
"We continue to believe wing flutter will not occur if the control cables are adjusted properly," says the company. "Nonetheless, we are carefully considering the points raised in the memo, including whether the Zodiac CH-601XL is susceptible to wing flutter."
"Zenith Aircraft will communicate with the FAA about the issues raised in the NTSB memo," they continue. "We will provide more information after we thoroughly consider the issues raised in the NTSB memo and we have spoken with the FAA about those issues."
The US National Transportation Safety Board says flight control design issues with the Zenair Zodiac CH 601 XL special light sport aircraft (S-LSA) make it susceptible to flutter and that the FAA should ground the aircraft until the problem is fixed.
Aerodynamic flutter, described by the NTSB as a "phenomena where the control surfaces of the airplane can suddenly vibrate, and if unmitigated, can lead to catastrophic structural failure", is suspected in six fatal accidents of the type, four in the US and two in Europe since 2006. In all cases the two-seat aircraft broke up in flight, killing a total of 10 people.
The Netherlands in October 2008 grounded Dutch registered XLs over similar issues after a fatal accident there.
The video below shows the basic attributes of the aircraft.
Now this is a radio controlled airplane...
NASA Langley appears ready to begin offering its 5.5% scale jet-powered models as research tools to the aviation safety community.
In a request for information (RFI) released last week, the agency included its AirSTAR (Airborne sub-scale transport aircraft research) testbed, which includes the subscale aircraft, control stations and communications devices, as being a research tool the community can take access to further the state of the art in loss-of-control preventatives.
Basic facts and figures provided in the RFI are here:
| Capabilities | AirSTAR sub-scale testbed |
| Altitude | 600-2,000ft |
| Speed | 60-120kt |
| Scale | 5.50%; 50lb; 96in length; 82in wingspan |
| Typical flight test time | 20 min |
| Test location | NASA Wallops Flight Facility - Virginia |
| Control effectors | Ailerons, flaps, split-spoilers (4), split rudders (2), split elevators (4), dual engines |
| Research computing | |
| Flight control computer | Ground-based flight control via dual-processor dSpace real-time computer. Allows piloted simulation |
| Experimental | |
| Surface failures | Can fail single and multiple surfaces, fully programmable |
| Scenarios | Full and partial hydraulic failures. Impaired and inoperative engine(s). Reduced static and dynamic stability |
| Pilot-in-loop maneuvers | Includes windup turns, upset recoveries, approach to stall, stall and departure, post-stall gyration/spins |
| On-board sensors | Includes AOA and side-slip measurements, angular rates, control surface positions, engine RPM |
That's the boring part.
Here's what the aircraft looks like in flight. I found this video, obviously made by NASA, at www.RCGroups.com. It shows the first flight of the 50lb twin-jet in 2005.
Enjoy!
Published in the US Government's Patent and Trademark office's Official Gazette yesterday was an application from Gulfstream to the trademark name, Gulfstream Whisper.
What is it? According to the Gazette, it's an "aircraft featuring a design which reduces boom intensities during supersonic flight."
By formally applying for the trademark, the government says Gulfstream "has a bona fide intention to use or use through the applicant's related company or licensee the mark in commerce on or in connection with the identified goods and/or services"
Could it be that Gulfstream is inching ever closer to launching a supersonic business jet?
Patents, the latest filed in 2007, show a vehicle (above) that reduces sonic boom with an extendable nose spike.
There's still that nagging federal rule in place prohibiting supersonic flight of civilian aircraft over land, a barrier Gulfstream says must be knocked down before a manufacturer will take the leap into the market.
However the FAA and others are taking a new look at the potential for easing the restrictions by better quantifying how loud is too loud for a sonic boom,
Those who don't like the name can have their say. According to the Gazette, "Any party who believes they will be damaged by registration of the mark may oppose its registration by filing an opposition to registration or a request to extend the time to oppose within thirty (30) days from the publication date on this notice."
It's not just Sully Sullenberger of the US Airways Hudson River A320 ditching in January who gives airline pilots a good name when it comes to performing flawlessly in the face of a crisis.
Pilots on an AirTran Airways Boeing 717 departing Baltimore as "Citrus 428" enroute to Atlanta on 5 April showed Sully's "right stuff" as they dealt with a failed right engine.
I put together the video below using air traffic control recordings from LiveATC.net, pictures from AirTran's website and flight tracking data from FlightAware.com.
All's well that end's well too - AirTran reports that the aircraft landed safely at BWI and the engine, a Rolls-Royce BR715 turbofan, is being sent back to Montreal for an overhaul. No word as to exactly what type of problem occurred.
Everything you ever wanted to know about the most prolific crashes (educationally speaking) in the history of worldwide aviation are available in a new database arranged and enhanced by the US Federal Aviation Administration.
The agency today announced that it has added 10 more crashes to the list, bringing the total to 30.
Included in the new data is the Comair EMB-120 crash near Monroe, Michigan, in 1997.
The on-line format makes it easy to access informative tidbits, for instance an animation from the report shows the flight path of the twin-engine turboprop as it approached the airport that night. A still picture from the animation is pictured here...
Attributed to in-flight icing, the crash killed all 26 passengers and three crew members. Along with the deadly ATR-72 crash near Roselawn, Indiana, in 1994, the Monroe accident became a seminal event highlighting the dangers of flying in known icing conditions.
The information is very timely given the increased tempo that we'll soon see regarding the Colgan Air Q400 crash in Buffalo on 12 February. The US National Transportation Board is preparing for a public meeting on the fatal accident May 12-14 in Washington DC.
Investigators scouring the hulk that was once a Cougar Helicopters S-92 aren't sure of how 17 or the 18 on board the oil platform transport perished the morning of 12 March after the pilots reportedly attempted to ditch off the coast of Newfoundland due to mechanical problems, but what they are sure of is that indicators on the seats those passengers were belted into show an impact of 20+ Gs (20 times the force of gravity) when the helicopter hit the water in a relatively flat attitude.
The picture above, taken by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada during the airframe recovery operation, shows the extent of the damage.
Despite the destructive forces at work, one of two passengers plucked from the icy water by rescuers was alive, and in fact was recently released from the hospital.
How he lived to tell the story (at some future time) remains a mystery.
What is known, in part due to the work of John Paul Stapp, a US Air Force flight surgeon, is that humans can live through rapid decelerations of much more than 20Gs, under certain conditions.
Stapp, who died of old age in 1999, is most famous for being one of the volunteers that rode rocket sleds that accelerated to more than 600 mph in roughly 6 seconds then quickly decelerated to a stop in just over one second, exposing him to G forces in some cases greater than 40Gs in the forward direction in the name of crash and ejection seat safety research.
A video segment from the Discovery Channel shows one of his famous rides, and some of the after effects of the forces, especially to his eyes. Stapp also researched ejection seats, proving that pilots could eject from an aircraft traveling at supersonic speeds and live through the massive deceleration that would follow.
A US patent application (20090078819) submitted by Airbus on 26 March defines a clever method of installing a turbojet engine into the tail section of a supersonic aircraft, one with an engine in the tail and two underneath the wings.
Hmmmm. Where have we seen a design like that before?
Could it be that Airbus is helping out with Dassault's supersonic business jet (SSBJ) program? Dassault last year had told Flight that it would complete the first phase of a high-speed aircraft program study by mid-year, an effort shared by more than a dozen partners. Design goals at the time included a M1.8 trans-Atlantic 16-passenger aircraft that would have environmentally friendly features.
In the new patent application, Airbus reveals an integral tail-mounted turbojet engine to which the tail control surfaces directly attach, saving the structure and weight penalties the company says are usually the undoing of such small-fuselage designs.
"It is not currently possible for a large-diameter subsonic jet engine to be integrated at the rear of the fuselage of a supersonic aircraft, the fuselage diameter of which is small, especially in the aft section, since the aerodynamic drag created by the supporting structures forming the fastening system of the prior art would then be excessive," the inventor states.
Here's the graphic Airbus included with the application
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