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Aerion AS2 In-Flight, Courtesy Aerion Corporation
The 2015 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition, a supersonic business jet, and new turboprop engines. Also, AC-130 Ghostrider, used Boeing 777 prices, the TSA, and ATC operating systems, AusDesk and Across the Pond segments, and lots of listener feedback.
News
Flexjet Order For 20 Supersonic Jets Boosts Aerion
Membership and charter services company Flexjet has placed a firm order for 20 Aerion AS2 supersonic jets, valued at $2.4 billion. Flexjet plans to use the jets for overseas flights and flights to China. The Aerion AS2 business jet is to have a top speed of Mach 1.5, carry eight to twelve passengers, with a range of 4,750 nautical miles at supersonic speed. See also the Flexjet press release: Flexjet to Purchase 20 Aerion Supersonic Business Jets.
Airbus Seeking Manufacturing Site for Supersonic Jet
Airbus Group is collaborating with Aerion on the three-engine jet. First flight is expected in 2021, with entry into service in 2023. Reportedly, Airbus and Aerion are looking for a US manufacturing site.
GE Aviation launches new turboprop engine
Textron Aviation and GE announced that Textron Aviation will power its single engine turboprop (SETP) with an all-new 1,300 shaft horsepower turboprop engine from GE Aviation. Textron’s SETP is expected to have a range of more than 1,500 nautical miles and speeds higher than 280 knots. GE expects to conduct the detailed design review (DDR) for the new turboprop in 2017, with the first full engine test in 2018.
GE Aviation’s Advanced Turboprop Engine
P&WC Launches Most Powerful PT6 Turboprop
Pratt & Whitney Canada announced a Dash A version of the 867-shp PT6-140 turboprop engine used in the Cessna Caravan. It features 15% more power and 5% better specific fuel consumption than comparable engines in its class.
Textron Aviation Unveils Hemisphere Jet
The Cessna Citation Hemisphere will feature a 102-inch diameter cabin, a range as far as 4,500 nm, with a maximum cruise speed of at least Mach 0.9. First flight of the $35 million jet is expected in 2019.
NBAA Charity Event Raises $505,000 to Support Life-Saving Flights for Corporate Angel Network
The annual NBAA/CAN Soiree charity benefit raised funds to help support CAN’s life-saving flights for cancer patients.
NBAA’s Single-Pilot Team Creates Loss-of-Control Safety Video
With loss of control in flight (LOCI) accidents resulting in more fatalities in business and commercial operations than any other category of accident over the last decade, reducing LOCI is a priority of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and aviation professional organizations across the globe. The NBAA Safety Committee Single Pilot Safety Working Group produced this video and story of “John,” a single owner-pilot who finds himself in a loss of control situation. The 10-minute video stars Airplane Geeks co-host Rob Mark.
Best and Worst Airlines: Find Out Which Carrier to Fly
Consumer reports conducted a survey of more than 20,000 passengers who took a domestic nonstop flight. The fliers rated the airline on comfort, carry-on space, ease of check-in, in-flight entertainment, and fees.
Brand New AC-130 Ghostrider A Total Loss After Going Inverted While Out Of Control
An Air Force Special Operations Command AC-130J Ghostrider Gunship was flown inverted at 15,000 feet in a test flight, but exceeded its operating g limits and design load and will have to be scrapped.
Why A Boeing 777 Only Costs $10 Million
A new 777-200ER has a list price of $277 million. If you assume a 30% discount, $194 million is a likely purchase price. Delta says it was offered used 777’s from Boeing for $10 million, a lot less than the book value and professional appraisal cited by others.
City,TSA spar over screening services
The Transportation Security Administration will not be providing screening services at the Greater Lake Klamath Regional Airport in Oregon. The TSA says the airport passenger load is too variable and infrequent to warrant the expense. The alternative system would have passengers from Klamath Falls screened at destination Portland.
Flight chaos as airport admits its air traffic control PCs still run Windows 3.1
Orly airport in France has been experiencing groundings and flight delays due to the air traffic control system breaking down. The French air traffic controller union said the problem was that the air-traffic software runs on Windows 3.1.
Man busted for shining laser pointer at aircraft
A 40 year-old man was arrested in California after shining a green laser at a Southwest Airlines plane preparing to land at Sacramento airport. A California Highway Patrol plane sent to find him was hit by the same laser, which made it easy to track down his location.
Aircraft carrier crew creates Star Wars spoof
The crew of the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower won the internet Friday with a mock trailer Sea Wars: The Force Awakens.
The Airplane of the Week
Thanksgiving Turkeys and Fullbacks, from David.
The Australia News Desk
Big news this week as the RAAF lands one of their C17s on the Wilkins ice runway.
Our Prime Minister needs a bigger executive jet to take his entourage with him on longer summit missions.
Mining magnate Clive Palmer is trying to offload his lovely Citation X as well as his MD80s that have been sitting around for awhile.
TigerAir’s first 737 has been seen in the wild.
On the Mark
Rob’s Aviation Minute has evolved into On The Mark, a video report on AviationPros.com. The inaugural episode Who Was Really in Command of Malaysian Flight 17? covers the ins and outs of regulation 91.3 which gives pilots complete control over aircraft en route. But what happens when regulation 91.3 runs up against route efficiency and corporate profits? And how do Malaysian flight 17 and Metrojet flight 9268 fit into the discussion?
Across the Pond
Photo Copyright XTPMedia
With support being shown for France last week, Pieter brings us some French news along with the sounds of the French Navy Display Team made up of two Super Etendards and a Dassault Rafale-M.
Photo Copyright XTPMedia
Mentioned
Jetblue Teams Up With Rob Gronkowski for Most Bro-tastic Airline Commercial Ever
Sukhoi Superjet 100 Orders, deliveries and operators
DCS: NEVADA Test and Training Range Map – Teaser and M-2000C for DCS WORLD Teaser flight sim videos.
PilotEdge professional air traffic control for flight simulators.
Emirates: #HelloJetman
Armed with unguarded ambition and the vision to push boundaries beyond the unthinkable, Jetman Dubai and Emirates A380 take to the skies of Dubai for an exceptional formation flight.
Is China a real threat to Boeing and Airbus?
The Last Adventure in Aviation – A 28 minute audio program about from BBC Radio about the world of ferry pilots in Britain.
“I Sit Around” – Airline Pilot Parody
Lionheart over Tennessee:
Courtesy Chris Davis, EAA 190, Moontown, 3M5
Credit
Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at brotherloverocks.com.
Nice to see new turboprop engines coming out. Supersonic flight is not fuel efficient though. I hate to see that someone is planning on putting out a new supersonic plane. Mach .7 at 32,000 feet is the ideal operating point from a fuel efficiency and environmental point of view. If people operating at that point, with turboprop engines and propellers, that would be the best thing to do. Too bad the aviation industry has their priorities in the wrong place.
I enjoyed this podcast, and the previous one about sim flying. However, I was surprised that no one (including folks who responded to the last pod cast) mentioned an exciting new way to do flight sims…virtual reality.
I own an Oculus Rift DK2 dev kit, and over the last few months I’ve been using it to play FSX via some very nice software called FlyInside. With this, you don’t need to have multiple montiors…or buttons to press to look out the window instead of the instruments. Instead, you are actually IN a fully 3D cockpit! You want to look out the window….you just look out the window. You want to look down at your instruments…well, you just look down.
I demoed it to a friend who flies CRJ’s for a living, and he was pretty impressed with it. It was funny watching him look around in the cockpit of the virtual CRJ, stabbing his finger into empty air as he pointed out various buttons on the overhead panel that weren’t exactly like his airplane.
There are some disadvantages currently. The field of view isn’t huge (it’s kinda like wearing a helmet), and the resolution is low enough that gauges can be hard to read (though you can always lean forward to get a closer look). However, with the consumer version of the headset coming out early next year, some of these problems should be solved, and it’ll continue to get better.
Here’s a video (not mine) of the software being demoed! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5s51Jc5noU