Bird strikes have become a growing problem at both the nation’s airports and over low-altitude aviation corridors. For helicopters, the problem is particularly acute, given both the lower cruising altitudes and lighter-weight construction of those aircraft.
The danger was thoroughly illustrated on Jan. 4, 2009, when a Sikorsky S-76C++ operated by PHI Helicopters collided with a red-tailed hawk at 850 feet agl seven minutes after takeoff from Amelia, Louisiana, and crashed into a swamp, killing eight of the nine aboard. The bird penetrated the windshield and, according to the subsequent NTSB accident report, the impact “near the engine control quadrant likely jarred the fire extinguisher T-handles out of their detents and moved them aft, pushing both ECL triggers out of their stops and allowing them to move aft and into or near the flight-idle position, reducing fuel to both engines.”
Yes, it has many of the accoutrements you’d expect in a new business jet. But the “new” Cessna XLS Gen2 that Textron Aviation began delivering earlier this year is basically a 50-year-old fuselage. When it comes to appearances, it is the flying equivalent of cosmetic Botox injections for your grandmother.
And like Grandma, the $15.5 million XLS Gen2 is stout, sturdy, portends little drama, and has been getting the job done for a long, long time—albeit with a sense of style usually relegated to time capsules: the smallish cabin windows, dreaded trenched center aisle, ugly pneumatic deicing boots on the elevators, cruciform tail, and stretched-wire antenna that looks as if it was stolen from the ham radio guy down the street. The design screams the 1970s—just add orange shag carpeting and you’re there.
It has been more than a month since Chicago mayor Richard Daley’s midnight raid on the city’s lakefront airport, Meigs Field, on March 31, 2003. By now, the story of the runway’s actual destruction is widely known.
Reactions have been pouring in from groups as diverse as NBAA, the Experimental Aircraft Association, and the National Air Traffic Controllers’ Association (NATCA). According to NATCA, the airport handled 2,273 IFR operations last September and an average of 1,500 IFR ops per month since. Ray Gibbons, president of the local NATCA chapter, said, “Those 1,500 operations are going to have to go somewhere else.”
United Airlines’ venture capital unit said on Tuesday it will invest as much as $37.5 million in the development of the largest clean fuel production facility, making it the first U.S. airline to commit to funding a biofuel refinery.
United Airlines Ventures’ (UAV) investment in Houston-based Next Renewable Fuels will support a so-called flagship biofuel refinery in Port Westward, Oregon, production at which Next expects to begin in 2026. Next expects the biorefinery to produce up to 50,000 barrels per day of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), renewable diesel, and other renewable fuels.
FOQA or flight operations (or operational) quality assurance is a buzzword in aviation, promising safety benefits based on analysis of flight data to identify issues and trends that are headed in the wrong direction. Many flight operations use SOPs (standard operating procedures or practices) to establish consistency in flying and consequently improved safety. But how to be sure that pilots are adhering to the SOPs? That’s the job of flight data monitoring and its analysis function FOQA.
The equipment needed to record flight data and the software for post-flight analysis is expensive and not available to many aircraft operators. Only airlines, larger fleet operators, and well-off corporate flight departments could afford to participate in a FOQA program. That is until products like CloudAhoy came along.
While most vehicle manufacturers working in the advanced air mobility (AAM) sector are focused on building eVTOL air taxis and other electric or hybrid aircraft, a few companies are pressing ahead with plans for literal flying cars—vehicles that can both fly in the air and be driven on roads.
Like other eVTOLs, some of these flying cars can take off and land vertically without the need for long runways to transition from driving to flying. However, whereas the FAA and other international regulators have a pretty good idea of how eVTOLs will be certified to fly, there is currently no clear pathway to certification ;for these elaborate cars equipped with rotors and wings.
The Air Line Pilots Association again has raised objections to what it calls airlines' improper use of U.S. work visas to recruit foreign temporary pilots and shift flying away from U.S. aviation workers. The most recent complaint stems from the removal of a clause in the Department of Transportation's approval of a joint venture agreement between Delta Air Lines and LATAM that ALPA claims ensured U.S. pilots and other workers “a fair and equitable share of growth in flying.”
In a statement released Tuesday, ALPA cited an “alarming” increase in pilot positions certified by the Department of Labor to allow employer sponsorship of H1-B and E-3 visas for “specialty occupations.” The “specialty occupation” designation denotes a minimum of a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent in the specialty as a prerequisite for employment. According to ALPA, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Administrative Appeals Office has repeatedly determined that the piloting profession does not qualify as a specialty occupation.
Electra is pioneering the development of a hybrid-electric short-takeoff-and-landing (eSTOL) aircraft that it says will deliver far lower operating economics than eVTOL aircraft. The company expects its nine-seater to operate from downtown spaces as short as about 300 feet, opening up new urban and regional air services that aren’t viable today.
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