Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Boeing 787 Dreamliner
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| Here's a photo of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flying over Washington State. The Dreamliner made its 1,000th flight yesterday, marking another milestone in the flight test program. Responding to the overwhelming preference of airlines around the world, the 787 Dreamliner is a super-efficient airplane that will carry 210 - 250 passengers on routes of 7,650 to 8,200 nautical miles (14,200 to 15,200 kilometers) http://bit.ly/f6ZxP1 |
Douglas DC-9 First Flight
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| On February 25th, 1965, the Douglas DC-9 made its first flight. Designed to be a workhorse, the DC-9 design evolved over time and as a part of three different companies (Douglas, McDonnell Douglas and Boeing). Later variants included the MD-80, MD-90 and Boeing 717. Production of the DC-9/MD-80/90/717 family came to a close after almost 2,500 units were built over 41 years. |
Monday, February 21, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Pilots Behaving Badly
Pilots Behaving Badly
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From the two Northwest pilots who overshot their destination by more than 150 miles after getting distracted by their laptops to the Air India pilots who took a cockpit brawl with the crew into the cabin for all the passengers to hear, read on for some of the most appalling incidents of pilots behaving badly.
Security screening can be frustrating, even for seasoned pilots. The arrest of AirTran captain Michael Wayne Karnath, which was put into motion by the TSA, apparently came on the heels of a "clash of personalities" (according to the airport's executive director) that the pilot had with a screener at a security checkpoint. The female screener at Newport News/Willamsburg International Airport in Virginia reportedly accused Karnath of squeezing her hand tightly and shoving it away when she tried to reposition his belongings on the screening tray. Passengers were delayed for three hours while the airline found a replacement pilot. He was later charged with assault and battery and eventually fined just $100.
2. British Airways Pilot Charged with Wealthy Wife's Murder
British Airways pilot Robert Brown was charged with murder in 2010 after the body of his estranged -- and very wealthy -- wife was found near her home in Windsor Great Park. The couple, who had two children together, were in the final throes of a divorce settlement when Joanna Brown went missing from her mansion. The pair were married for 11 years, but Joanna, the daughter of a rich property developer, was said to have been fearful of losing part of her family fortune when they began the divorce settlement three years prior to her murder. She was allegedly killed by a severe blow to the head.
3. Delta Pilot Arrested for Carrying a Concealed Weapon
Clueless -- and not so clueless -- passengers have tried to go through security with weapons on their person, but you'd expect more from a pilot. Matthew McDaniel, an off-duty Delta Air Lines pilot, was arrested in May 2010 when TSA employees noticed a loaded .38 special handgun tucked into his carryon luggage during the x-ray screening process at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. According to reports, McDaniel, who had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, said that he had borrowed his girlfriend's bag and forgotten to take the gun out of it when he cleaned it out.
More Controversy on Pilots' Habits!
• Do Sleepy Pilots Threaten Air Safety?
• Should We be Worried About Our Pilots?
• Ten pilots you DON'T want in your cockpit.
• Cockpit Chronicles: "Flying Drunk" by Joe Balzer
4. Air India Pilots get in In-Flight Brawl with Crew at 30,000 feet• Do Sleepy Pilots Threaten Air Safety?
• Should We be Worried About Our Pilots?
• Ten pilots you DON'T want in your cockpit.
• Cockpit Chronicles: "Flying Drunk" by Joe Balzer
In 2009, an Air India flight bound from the United Arab Emirates to Delhi erupted into chaos somewhere over Pakistan when an argument between two pilots and two crewmembers spilled from the cockpit into the main cabin. According to reports from the cabin crew, the pilots had sexually harassed a female flight attendant, who later filed a claim. Counter-claims by the pilots, however, said that the sexual harassment claim was a ploy to divert attention from accusations of misconduct that had been brought against a male crewmember. Things had gotten ugly in-flight and the cockpit was left unmanned while the airline employees became physically and verbally abusive with each other in full view of passengers. Police reports later confirmed that the female flight attendant had been assaulted and a case was brought against the pilots.
5. Frisky Encounter Between a Pilot and Flight Attendant Leads to Arrest
A pilot and flight attendant for Memphis-based Pinnacle Airlines, who turned a layover into a frisky foray in the woods, got more than they bargained for in 2008 when they got lost -- and then found -- in the most awkward of ways. During a layover at Harrisburg International Airport, Jeffrey Paul Bradford and Adrianna Connor apparently had dinner at a nearby diner and imbibed heartily before heading into the wild for a liaison. At some point, the pair got separated in the woods. And when a clothes-less Bradford (according to reports, he was wearing just his wristwatch and flip flops) approached a passerby to ask for shorts to wear, she called 911, and a thermal-imaging helicopter was used to search the woods. The pilot was charged with disorderly conduct and indecent exposure (among other things) and both he and Connor were suspended from duty with the airline pending an investigation.
6. Drunken United Airlines Pilot Arrested at London's Heathrow Airport
United Airlines pilot Erwin Vermont Washington was three times over the legal limit when Scotland Yard police arrested him in 2009 at London's Heathrow Airport. All passengers were onboard Washington's Chicago-bound flight and it was ready for departure when a crewmember, who had apparently smelled alcohol on the pilot's breath, reported Washington to authorities. The boozed up breathalyzer analysis showed the pilot to have 31 micrograms of alcohol per 100 milliliters of breath (the legal limit for a pilot to fly is just 9 micrograms). There were reports that Washington had locked himself in the cockpit for an hour while the police tried to persuade him to come out. He was removed from duty by the airline and confronted with the possibility of a two-year jail sentence and fine.
7. Fake Swedish Pilot Arrested at Amsterdam Airport
Fake plastic surgeons are scary enough -- but fake pilots? Sweden native Thomas Salme, who held an expired commercial pilot's license but not a license to pilot passenger flights, flew passenger jets without an official license for 13 year before getting busted. He was caught in 2009 at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport and taken into custody directly from the cockpit of a Turkish-carrier Corendon Airlines flight that was minutes from takeoff. According to reports in a German magazine, Salme had forged his own Swedish flying permit and trained on a flight simulator while working as a maintenance engineer at Scandinavian Airlines. A tipoff from someone in Sweden led to Salme's arrest.
8. Ryanair Pilot Attempts to Bite Police Officer Following Arrest
He may have been off duty at the time, but a Ryanair pilot certainly did not put his company's best colors forward when he attempted to bite a Dublin police officer after being taken into custody for throwing a traffic barrier into the street in October 2009. The pilot, Patrick Taaffe, who was allegedly drunk at the time, became verbally abusive with officers at the scene of the event. He was brought into custody, and while being searched by a police officer at the station, the newly trained pilot apparently tried to bite the officer's hand. The pilot was arrested a second time just a few weeks later after failing to pay a taxi fare and assailing the driver with verbal abuse.
9. Northwest Airlines Pilots Get Distracted by Laptops, Overshoot their Destination
Anyone who's ever gone off on a Google tangent knows how easy it is to get distracted by a computer. But you'd like to think the pilots flying your plane would have more self-control. In 2009, twoNorthwest pilots -- Captain Timothy Cheney and Co-pilot Richard Cole -- were flying 144 passenger from San Diego to Minneapolis when they overshot the airport by some 150 miles. The reason? They apparently lost track of time while checking out a new pilot scheduling program on their laptops. Operating laptops in cockpits was against Northwest's rules, as well as the policies of most airlines. The pilots missed repeated calls from Air Traffic Control over the span of more than an hour and only realized they were no longer bound for Minneapolis when a flight attendant called them from the cabin five minutes before the flight was supposed to land. The pilots turned the plane around over Wisconsin and later landed safely -- but more than an hour late -- in Minneapolis. The FAA revoked the pilots' licenses.
10. United Airlines Pilot Charged with Running Drugs
A San Francisco-based pilot with United Airlines appears to have been moonlighting as a different kind of flying man altogether. James Hathaway was arrested in August 2010 after piloting a private plane loaded with 173 pounds of marijuana to a rural runway in North Carolina. The plane landed in the middle of the night at the Shelby-Cleveland County Regional Airport, but deputies and local police were awaiting its arrival. The pilot and his two passengers were immediately surrounded and brought into custody. Hathaway's attempted delivery using the 1978 Aerostar plane was apparently worth roughly $200,000. The plane was confiscated by U.S. Customs Enforcement, and Hathaway faces drug trafficking and conspiracy charges.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Single-engine plane crashes near Levelland, Texas; 2 killed, 2 hurt - Lubbock Online http://bit.ly/dMTBjQ
Sent via the PM Network...
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
United grounds its Boeing 757 fleet
United is checking the air data computers on its 96 Boeing 757s.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The planes' modified computer system is getting maintenance checks
- Some flights will be delayed or canceled, a spokesman says
- The flight schedule should be back to normal Wednesday, he says
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(CNN) -- United Airlines has grounded 96 Boeing 757 airliners for "unscheduled maintenance," an airline spokesman said Tuesday.
The grounding meant that some of the airline's flights would be canceled or delayed Tuesday night and Wednesday, spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said.
"Specifically ... United is performing follow-up maintenance checks starting today to the air data computers on its 96 Boeing 757s," Johnson said. "All of the air data computers are fully functional. The checks are necessary as part of a modification process to the system."
Johnson, who said the checks have already begun, said the procedures takes about 60 to 90 minutes per aircraft and that the airline should be ready to return to full service within the next 12 to 24 hours.
The Federal Aviation Administration said United's action involves its compliance with an airworthiness directive issued in 2004 that required a modification to the air data computer system to ensure that flight crews would be able to stop an overspeed or stall warning that sounded in error.
"This is a voluntary action on United's part, and we will follow up as necessary," said the FAA's Laura Brown.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Nautilus includes a centrifuge and inflatable parts
Posted 02.14.2011 at 5:52 pm13 Comments
NAUTILUS-X NAUTILUS-X stands for Non-Atmospheric Universal Transport Intended for Lengthy United States eXploration. via HobbySpace
This tubular spacecraft could serve as a reusable vehicle for lunar and deep-space missions, holding a crew of six and enough supplies for a two-year expedition.
Dubbed Nautilus-X, for “Non-Atmospheric Universal Transport Intended for Lengthy United States eXploration,” this craft could be built in orbit and ready for space missions by 2020, according to a briefing by NASA’s Future In Space Operations group.
It would be assembled from expandable structures, such as the inflatable habitats proposed byBigelow Aerospace. It would also contain a ring centrifuge to provide partial gravity, and radiation-mitigation systems that could include tanks of water or liquid hydrogen slush, reports the website HobbySpace.com.
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Science, Rebecca Boyle, astronauts, bigelow aerospace, centrifuges, gravity, international space station, nasa, nautilus-x, space exploration, space stations, space travelHenderson described the system at a briefing on NASA’s Technology Applications Assessment Team, which is studying (relatively) inexpensive, quick-turnaround technologies for space exploration. Check out the PowerPoint slides here. HobbySpace has a nice roundup of the meeting, which also included a DARPA-funded geosynchronous satellite servicing project, in-situ water recovery on the Moon, a project that would demonstrate space-based solar power beams, a solar electric propulsion vehicle, and propellant depots floating in geosynchronous orbit.
Nautilus is by far the highlight, however, with pretty specific schematics and development estimates. Construction would take at least five years and require two or three rocket launches. It would cost about $3.7 billion.
The centrifuge, which could help keep crew members healthy during a long trip, includes inflatable structures and pieces that must be launched into orbit. It would be fairly simple to test on the International Space Station — it would launch to the station on board a rocket, and if it works out, it could become living quarters for the station’s crew.
ISS Centrifuge: An artist's impression of a centrifuge attached to the ISS. Mark Holderman/NASA via HobbySpace
These are dreamy ideas, to be sure, especially in light of federal funding roadblocks. But the use of existing technologies like Bigelow’s modules, as well as the adaptability of a multi-purpose crew carrier, means a system like Nautilus could play a role in NASA’s future.
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