Often the “stupid simple stuff” ends up killing people in aviation. Forgetting to disengage a gust lock, turn on the probe heat, or properly set the flaps or trim prior to takeoff have all resulted in fatal accidents. Checklists—one of the most basic tools in a pilot’s toolkit—are designed to overcome limitations of pilot memory and ensure that action items are completed in sequence without omission. In each of these accidents, checklists were either disregarded or involved a more complex error caused by a human factors issue.
Normal checklists enhance flight safety and enable the pilot(s) to confirm safety critical systems and controls are correctly and consistently configured for a phase of flight. Asaf Degani, a former researcher at NASA Ames Research Center, co-authored a study on the “Human Factors of Flight Deck Checklists” and identified the primary purpose of the normal checklist: “The major function of the checklist is to ensure that the crew will properly configure the plane for flight and maintain this level of quality throughout the flight and in every flight.”
Economists who consider cryptocurrency without merit have likely never tried to book a last-minute charter flight after banking hours or paid the high credit card fees levied on a trip costing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Because although the charter industry is built partly on the promise of being ready when you are, that pledge is conditional: airplanes don’t move until operators get paid, and cryptocurrency advocates say it can sometimes be the best solution for making quick, low-fee bookings. Moreover, notwithstanding this year’s collapse in cryptocurrency values, customer demand for digital currency payment options continues.
Between now and 2030, Bombardier estimates that China will need 2,300 business jets, or roughly 20 percent of the current U.S. market. Boeing estimates that Chinese airlines will need an additional 5,000 aircraft during the same period.
Those are ambitious projections that assume much. Right now, movement of private aircraft throughout most of China remains tightly controlled and bureaucratically cumbersome. Throughout all of China in 2010 there were just 1,010 general aviation aircraft, an estimated 215 of them turbine powered. Chinese airlines currently operate approximately 800 aircraft, 49 percent of which are Boeing models.
Airbus has accelerated work on the development of a hydrogen-powered fuel cell engine as part of its studies into a zero-emission aircraft scheduled for service entry by 2035, company executives revealed in Toulouse at Airbus’s Sustainability Summit on Wednesday.
As part of its wider preparations for hydrogen-powered air transport, the European airframer announced a partnership with space group Ariane to build a liquid hydrogen refueling system at its Toulouse, France, headquarters by 2025. During the summit, it also reported that it is working with green hydrogen specialist HyPort to have a hydrogen production, storage, and distribution facility in operation at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in 2023.
Xwing, a California-based company developing autonomous flight technology, has been contracted by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to participate in the agency’s Crosscutting Operations Strategy and Technical Assessment (COSTA) air traffic management research project, the company announced yesterday.
As part of this project, Xwing will work together with the FAA and NASA, as well as partners at Alaska’s Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration, to study how remotely piloted aircraft can be safely integrated with the National Airspace System while flying in complex environments with flight restrictions, such as fire traffic areas where other aircraft are actively working to suppress wildfires.
The FAA wants everyone to remember that when it comes to marijuana, the law in the air is different than the law on the ground.
It matters not that the U.S. House of Representatives voted earlier this year to decriminalize marijuana, that President Biden is pardoning convictions for federal simple pot possession, or that recreational marijuana use is legal in 10 states and the District of Columbia, decriminalized in 13 others, and up for decriminalization consideration in 14 more. Medical marijuana is legal in 33 states. When it comes to cannabis aboard an aircraft, the official mantra is “just say no,” even if there is a popular new pot strain called “Jet Fuel.”
A group of leading aerospace companies has joined forces to develop hybrid-electric and water-enhanced turbofan engine technology for future airliner propulsion systems. In a November 29 announcement, MTU Aero Engines, Pratt & Whitney, Collins Aerospace, Airbus, and GKN Aerospace said that work backed by the European Union’s Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking aims to increase fuel efficiency and reduce carbon dioxide emissions from short- and medium-range aircraft by up to 25 percent.
The Sustainable Water-Injecting Turbofan Comprising Hybrid-Electrics (SWITCH) project will seek to combine the MTU-led Water-Enhanced Turbofan (WET) and hybrid-electric propulsion with the existing architecture of Pratt & Whitney’s Geared Turbofan (GTF). The planned powertrain will be able to run on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and will also be developed to be ready use hydrogen fuel in the future.
AINalerts News Tips/Feedback: News tips may be sent anonymously, but feedback must include name and contact info (we will withhold name on request). We reserve the right to edit correspondence for length, clarity and grammar. Send feedback or news tips to AINalerts editor Chad Trautvetter.
AINalerts is a publication of AIN Media Group, 214 Franklin Avenue, Midland Park, New Jersey. Copyright 2022. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is strictly prohibited.
