Recently in Air Transport Category

1. A380 hits CRJ while taxiing at JFK

Video footage emerged showing an Air France Airbus A380 colliding with a Comair Bombardier CRJ700 during taxiing at New York JFK back in April. The A380 "clipped the tail fin" of the parked Comair jet, causing only "material damage".

2. Tu 154 struggles against in-flight oscillation

The video clips below show a TU-154 departing from an air base in Moscow before it appears to encounter problems in lateral and longitudinal control.

It eventually returns to the airfield to land.

 

 

3. Sendai airport deluged as earthquake strikes

 

 

 

4. ANA 737 rolled near inverted after rudder trim blunder

Japanese investigators have detailed the extraordinary in-flight upset involving an All Nippon Airways Boeing 737-700 which resulted in the aircraft banking to a near-inverted attitude.

Flight NH140 from Naha had been cruising at 41,000ft, en route to Tokyo on 6 September, and had been some 43km south of Hamamatsu when the incident occurred.

5. ANA unveils first 787 configuration

All Nippon Airways has unveiled the long-awaited configuration of the first 787 to enter service, outfitting its first 787s with 264 seats for regional and domestic operations, with later regionally-configured aircraft to have 222 seats as the carrier ramps up its initial pilot and cabin crew training.

The aircraft, painted in bespoke white and blue colours highlighting Boeing's Dreamliner brand and ANA's service goals - innovation, uniqueness and the inspiration of Japan - is the eighth 787 built. It is also known as ZA101 and has been registered JA801A.

6. PICTURES & VIDEO: F-35B critical tests

With the beginning of at-sea trials for the Lockheed Martin F-35B, the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant had entered the most critical phase in a year-long campaign to overcome probation and be spared cancellation.

7. An-12 rolled inverted before Congo crash

Video evidence of an aircraft crash in Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo in March identified the type as an Antonov An-12 freighter, and showed it rolling inverted moments before impact.

Images of the aircraft's last seconds show it diving steeply and rolling to starboard, crashing inverted.

8. No viable all new single aisle before 2030

Airbus believes that a viable all-new single-aisle airliner will not arrive before 2030, due to the timing of the necessary advances in powerplant technology.

John Leahy, Airbus' chief operating officer, spoke to Flightglobal on video.

9. Boeing poised for crucial phase in 747-8 test effort

Boeing underwent a crucial phase in the 747-8 flight-test effort as it prepares to start trials of the -8I passenger variant including maximum-brake-energy demonstration on the freighter version, plus an analysis of back-to-back wake vortex testing to determine whether the stretched 747 will be approved in the same separation category as the smaller 747-400. Four 747-8Fs were engaged in the flight-test programme, which began in February 2010.

 

 

10. Test pilots extract stranded Alrosa Tu-154

Pilots in Russia extracted an Alrosa Tupolev Tu-154 from a remote military airfield, six months after an in-flight power loss and emergency landing left the aircraft stranded.

The landing damaged the trijet, when it overran the 1,300m runway at Izhma in the Komi republic, and the short field meant that it could not easily be flown out again.

My colleague Stephen Trimble today blogged over on The Dew Line that Iran plans to reverse-engineer its very own Lockheed Martin RQ-170 from the example of the US stealth drone its forces apparently shot down earlier this month. As Stephen suggests, good luck to them.
Your correspondent back in October joined Boeing for a tour of European 787 suppliers, and was treated to a memorable presentation by Dassault Systemes chief executive Bernard Charles. Making the point that modern 3D digital design software has transformed our concept of reality, Charles observed that if Chinese counterfeiters were to buy a 787 and attempt to copy it, they would never succeed - but if they got ahold of the digital plans, they could do it.
That remark left one programme insider none too bemused; working from digital plans would clearly be miles better than trying to measure up all the parts with a pair of calipers, but still doesn't take into account the fact that the machine's measurements are only one aspect of its true essence, which arguably resides in its 18 million lines of computer code as much as its shape and size.
The incident brought to mind a real example of Chinese reverse engineering, which followed president Nixon's opening of the door to "Red China" back in 1972. One early goodwill gesture, Flight is told, was the sale to Beijing of three Boeing 727s. On a subsequent visit, Boeing legend Joe "father of the 747" Sutter was shown a fourth aircraft, which certainly looked like a 727.
But, on inspecting the machine, Sutter found such incongruities as a control yoke that would have taken the strength of three gorillas to move and urged the Chinese not to attempt a flight. Thankfully they heeded his advice.

Interesting thought from GKN technical director Rich Oldfield - the aerospace industry is evolving to leave no room for tier 1 suppliers, those providers of major structural components and systems to airframers like Airbus and Boeing.
What Oldfield is anticipating is an increasing reliance by the airframers on what he calls "super tier 1s", who are responsible for major design work and become so integral to any programme as to be indispensible partners for the life of the programme. Electronic systems suppliers are a good example, he notes; already, much of what they provide is a "black box" as far as the airframers are concerned.
Aerostructures are reaching a similar stage, as production processes that are developed by, and belong to, suppliers become as much a part of the finished aircraft's performance as the shape and size of the components.
Thus, reckons Oldfield, companies will either become super tier 1s, or be tier 2s providing subsystems or individual components. The tier 1 as we
And, he says, there's no reason why any particular supplier can't operate on both levels. GKN already does that, he says, noting that its $500 million of business with Airbus makes it a partner, while at $70 million it is really a tier 2 to Boeing.
That Boeing business can certainly grow, he adds, based on capabilities being developed to supply Airbus.

Further evidence of a surging civil aviation economy comes from systems supplier Goodrich. Overall, sales were up 16% at $2.03 billion and pre-tax profit gained 34.5% to $300 million, and for the full year Goodrich forecasts a 15% increase in large airliner original equipment sales, assuming Boeing 787 and 747-8 schedules are maintained.

Meanwhile, on the operating side of the equation things are less cheerful. The world's mightiest - or at least biggest - airline, United-Continental, saw rising oil prices add $1 billion to its quarterly fuel bill to slash pre-tax income by 22.5% to $660 million despite an 8.7% rise in operating revenue, to $10.2 billion. And, earlier this month, American Airlines parent AMR swung to a $162 million pre-tax loss for the third quarter, reversing a $143 million profit recorded the year-prior, as its fuel bill rose 41% year-on-year.

Are both of these trends sustainable?

Full marks to Lyon-Saint Exupery airport for deploying technology to good effect. Noting that "wait times to pass through security are often a source of stress for passengers", the airport now features signs on the public side of the concourse indicating estimated time from the end of the queue to the security gates, to help passengers better manage their time in the airport.
The system - installed at security point 15 (Terminal 1) and set to be airport-wide by year-end - uses several cameras that count the number of passengers in the queue; an algorithm calculates the estimated time to reach the departure lounges.
Why has nobody thought of this before?

When it comes to climate change, the Atlantic is looking like a very wide body of water. According to a Eurobarometer study published today in Brussels, more than two Europeans in three see climate change as a very serious problem and almost 80% consider that taking action to combat it can boost the economy and jobs.

The survey, carried out in June, also found that the European public is more concerned about climate change than it was in 2009 - and that climate change remains a greater worry than the economic situation.

Moreover, Europeans are getting more concerned: 68% of those polled considered climate change a very serious problem (up from 64% in 2009), and 89% see it as a "very serious" or "fairly serious" problem. On a scale of 1 (least) to 10 (most), the seriousness of climate change was ranked at 7.4, against 7.1 in 2009.

A US survey run in May didn't ask the same questions, but found that just 39% of Americans consider themselves to be alarmed or concerned about climate change - down from 51% in November 2008.

European politicians, it would seem, have public opinion firepower on their side in the ongoing battle with US airlines over plans to include them in the EU emissions trading scheme from January 2012.

It's fast approaching your last chance to vote for who you think has the best and brightest aviation mind in the Flightglobal Achievement Awards.

The Achievement Awards celebrate and recognise the finest individuals in the aviation and aerospace industries.

You've only got three days left until voting closes for the Flightglobal Achievement Awards so we need you to choose who you think is deserving a winner from the shortlist our panel of experts has compiled.  

There are three categories:

- Leader

- Innovator

- Aviator

And we need you to choose three outstanding people or teams that you think are deserving of the awards.

Nominees have been selected by you and shortlisted by a panel of industry experts.

The Flightglobal Achievement Awards ceremony will take place at the Al Badia Golf Club on Saturday 12th November 2011.

Voting closes 19th September 2011.

Don't lose your vote. Get voting now!

This post was written by Abbie Ridge, work experience student currently working with Flightglobal 

By Abbie Ridge

Let's hear it for the 'Beluga', the whale-shaped aircraft that today is celebrating 17 years since its first flight.

Love it or hate it, the Airbus A300-600ST certainly has character, its eye-catching design allowing it to transport key aircraft components from all over Europe to Toulouse and Hamburg for final assembly.

Built to replace  four modified 'Super Guppies', this aircraft flew from Toulouse for four hours, with Gilbert Defer and Lucien Bernard piloting and key engineers Jean-Pierre Flamant and Didier Ronceray also on-board. The A300-600ST was certified in October 1995, after 335 test hours and went into service in January 1996.