Boeing’s 777 is the world’s largest two-engine passenger jet and can haul up to 451 people. At that size, it’s understandable that it needs the landing gear to match.
The Triple Seven has six wheels on each of its main landing gear. In this video, you can see ground tests as the main gear is deployed and retracted.
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For those of you about to heavy metal rock with Iron Maiden, we salute you.
The band kicks off its Book Of Souls World tour in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on Feb. 24. The band’s previous tour traveled in a 757. This tour will fly in a tricked-out 747 dubbed as Ed Force One, which is how the band has tagged its planes since its first big tour in 2008. The schedule for the tour, which ends in August, is printed below the cockpit.
Iron Maiden front man Bruce Dickinson and will be in the cockpit on many of the flights. In keeping with its “dark” themes, the 747’s flight numbers will be “666.”
The 747 will haul over 12 tons of equipment and travel more than 55,000 miles as the tour visits 35 countries and six continents.
There’s probably nothing more democratic and diverse than a packed commercial flight. In particular, there is a wide variety of fares paid by the passengers.
Take a row in a 737. Six passengers, probably six different fares. A business traveler booking at the last minute might have paid full fare while a vacation traveler might have scored the cheapest ticket available because it was booked six months in advance.
The airlines’ ticket pricing and policies have been galling and confusing since the industry was deregulated. The only thing that keeps fares reasonably reasonable is competition. A successful low-fare airline like Spirit has lived up to its “Bare Fare” motto.
Of course, some would say the no frills carriers are just a step above packing yourself in a box with an oxygen tank and a bottle of water and shipping yourself FedEx.
This New York Times article looks into how the low-fare carriers and the trend of no-frills ticketing is impacting the cost of air travel and how the legacy carriers are trying to compete without angering their elite frequent fliers.
Thanks to an agreement reached Thursday between the United States and Japan, travelers facing nonstop flights from the West Coast to Tokyo will arrive with time to do business.
The deal with Tokyo’s Haneda Airport adds five departures and five arrivals between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. plus also adds one overnight departure and arrival. Previously there had been no daytime arrivals for flights between Los Angeles and Tokyo.
Haneda Airport is located closer to Tokyo’s downtown and the additional flight times will mean more convenience in terms of business meetings. Narita International Airport is Tokyo’s hub for international flights but is located on the edge of the city.
This story is equal parts fascinating and sad.
Marilyn Hartman, aka The Serial Stowaway, was arrested Wednesday at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. She’s facing charges of felony probation violation and misdemeanor criminal trespass. Since April of 2015, she’s been arrested seven times at O’Hare and Chicago’s Midway Airport for trying to board flights without a boarding pass.
Hartman, 64, is known to have made 13 failed attempts to board flights without a ticket. What’s amazing is that at least three other times she has successfully traveled by air without a ticket.
Have you noticed lately that when you see pilots walking through an airport terminal they rarely seem to be carrying flight bags anymore? You remember, those large black suitcases usually covered in stickers which pilots would have hooked onto their rollaboards? Yes, it is true that most pilots are no longer dragging these heavy albatrosses around, but there’s a reason for this. Those suitcases have been replaced by a device that’s come to be known as an electronic flight bag (EFB).
“Electronic flight bag” is a generic term for any device containing aviation data which is designed to be used in flight. Those ubiquitous flight cases that pilots used to carry around were filled with things like charts, approach plates and aircraft operating manuals. All of that data has now been digitized and loaded onto electronic flight bags. Now, instead of lugging around thirty pounds of paper, pilots need only carry a one pound device such as an iPad or Surface tablet.
The idea of using a separate electronic computer on board an aircraft dates back to the 1980s when programmable calculators became powerful enough to do airplane performance calculations. Those calculations had been previously done through the use of finely detailed graphs and charts but the process was susceptible to human error and was horrendously slow.
Back in the 1980s as a newly minted Air Force pilot flying the KC-135 aerial tanker, I disliked the “chase-through” charts so much that it was an easy decision for me to spend a few hundred dollars on an HP programmable calculator to do the takeoff data calculations. And believe me, that was serious money to a 2nd lieutenant.
Many airlines first adopted onboard computers for calculating performance data, but as the computing and memory capabilities of portable devices increased, it became easy to see that EFBs could do much more.
Even though the reduction of 60 or 70 pounds of weight between two pilots on the aircraft nearly justifies the expense of the devices, their benefit and potential extends far beyond mere weight reduction. Being information devices, EFBs have the potential to revolutionize the access that pilots have to things like real time ground based weather data as well as safety enhancements such as position location while taxiing using the device’s GPS receiver.
An EFB can contain not only manuals for normal and non-normal operation of the aircraft, but the entire library of reference and training materials that were considered too bulky and not essential for daily carry. Communications from airline managements to their pilots have also been enhanced by the use of EFBs. Traditionally, bulletins, announcements and policy changes were distributed by paper placed in a pilot’s mailbox at their base or through a read-before-fly book in the pilot lounge. Now with electronic updating, information can be pushed to the devices at any time during a trip or on a pilot’s days off.
Obtaining real time weather information from ground based radar has never been possible while airborne, but that may be changing with the introduction of WiFi capable EFBs. The FAA still prohibits the use of any WiFi devices by pilots while flying, but should this restriction be eased, WiFi enabled EFBs will then have access to this data through the aircraft WiFi which will augment information from airborne radar displays. This will be especially helpful when trying to navigate around thunderstorms which can be opaque to aircraft radar.
There are many different devices and configurations of EFBs in use but the FAA requires that any EFB in use must be verified to have the latest version of any charts or approach plates to be used. As updates to aeronautical information occur weekly, various methods of making sure EFB apps and the information they display are current are employed. Several different devices and data configurations are also used by various airlines.
United, for instance, issues company provided iPads to its pilots which are locked so no personal apps or information can be added. Southwest reimbursed their pilots to purchase their own iPads which were then updated with the required EFB apps while still being unlocked for personal use. Delta made a decision to go with the Surface tablet from Microsoft and is currently petitioning the FAA for an exception to be made to cockpit WiFi prohibitions.
There are just as many mounting solutions with EFBs being mounted to control yokes, side panels or suction cupped to the cockpit window. Here’s a particularly humorous tutorial on how to attach the “RAM” mount used by American Airlines:
The end goal of the EFB is to allow cockpits to become completely paperless. Many airlines still use paper for weather packages, Notams, dispatch releases and minimum equipment list (MEL) documentation. The future of the EFB is envisioned as being one stop shopping for any kind of information processing to be done in the cockpit.
In the near future, pilots may see their dispatch release show up, check the weather, Notams and maintenance status of their aircraft and then add an alternate or fuel all through their WiFi connected EFB. I’m guessing, though, that we won’t be approved to watch the game up front any time soon. Maybe just the highlights.
Happy flying!
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Avgeekery is excited to welcome Rob aboard our editorial team. Looking for more stories from the cockpit? Rob publishes a blog called “This is Your Captain Speaking”. You can also check out his Facebook page here.
AA plane hits Southwest plane in taxi way , you would think they have all the room in the world !!!!! pic.twitter.com/1Iwpb27WmV
— Carlos Salinas (@detroitdreamers) February 17, 2016
De-icing aircraft is a necessary inconvenience. The process at most major airports requires planes to maneuver to reach de-icing equipment and passengers on those planes typically experience delays that foul up a lot of schedules.
Wednesday morning at Detroit Metro Airport, the inconvenience was multiplied. The wing of American Airlines flight 1231 clipped the tail section of Southwest flight 6 as the American flight was moving to get de-iced.
Jim Bishop, a passenger on the American flight, recounted the incident and sent the photo displayed above to local television station WWJ.
“We were taxiing over to get the wings de-iced and there was a plane sitting, kind of facing the opposite direction, and our wing came across the back of that plane and we were just too close to it and clipped the back,” he said. “It tore a piece of our wing off and the tail cone is cut completely off of the other plane.”
The accident occurred at about 6 a.m. and the passengers were stuck on both planes for about three hours as the situation was assessed. Representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board are headed to the airport to investigate the incident.
The volatility of the aviation business became clear Wednesday when Canada’s Bombardier announced job cuts. That news came in the same week when United States airlines American and Southwest said they would continue the trend of hiring more employees.
Bombardier said it would cut 10 percent of its workforce or about 7,000 jobs as the company undergoes major restructuring in 2016. The company posted revenues of $18.2 million for 2015, a 9.5 percent drop from 2014.
At the same time Bombardier announced a $3.8 billion deal with Air Canada to buy 45 CS300 jets, with options to purchase another 30 planes.
Mitsubishi’s regional jet received a big boost with the news that Aerolease Aviation, a Florida-based lessor has agreed to buy 10 MRJs with an option to buy 10 more. Aerolease currently has a fleet of 40 used Boeing 757s.
Aerolease becomes the first company to buy the regional jet, which is expected to make its commercial debut in 2018. The plane was slated to be ready in 2014 but a series of testing troubles has pushed back the debut.
Video Source: WCBD News 2 Charleston, SC
On April 27, 2012 the first South Carolina made Boeing 787 rolled off the line in Charleston, SC. Flash forward to February 16th, 2016, and Boeing delivered its 100th South Carolina made 787 to American Airlines (AA) in a special ceremony complete with ribbon cutting and ceremonial key handover.
The delivery marked a welcome milestone for Boeing in South Carolina, as they struggled in recent years to get 787s out the door both on time and completely assembled. In particular, issues with back-end fuselage assembly forced Boeing to fly unfinished airplanes from the new line in Charleston back to the original line in Everette, WA in order to work out the kinks. Fortunately, the roughly 7,500 workers of Boeing’s team in South Carolina came together and solved those kinks airplane by airplane.
On Tuesday, Beverly Wyse, Vice President and General Manager Boeing South Carolina, reflected on that hard work: “Reaching this milestone is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire team.”As a result of such dedication, almost no new 787s require trips to Everette for troubleshooting. Additionally, Boeing engineer Robert Hooge, on hand for the day’s events, noted that when the Charleston line first opened, 787 construction took six months; now the production rate runs four or five units per month. With such a turnaround in production and the assembly line now humming, Charleston will serve as Boeing’s designated manufacturing line for their largest Dreamliner currently on the books, the 787-10.
While a big day for Boeing and the state of South Carolina, American Airlines also had cause for celebration with 787 number 14 joining the fleet (their first Charleston made 787). 787 number 15 for the carrier gazed on (to be delivered later). American has some 20 787-8s on order along with a further 22 larger 787-9s. The carrier already uses the 787 extensively on routes from Dallas to Beijing, Shanghai, and Santiago, and it has plans to grow 787 service with new routes from LAX to Tokyo Haneda (started this month) and New Zealand (June 2016), as well as Chicago to Beijing (March 2016) among others.
With such beautiful airplanes like the one handed over on Tuesday, the partnership between Boeing, especially the new line in Charleston, and American has nowhere to go but up.
*All article photos sourced from Boeing
We uncovered this gem of a video today of two A-10s flew repeated low passes over a runway back in 2009. While the A-10 sometimes gets a bad rap for being low and slow. The low passes were impressive and showcased the raw power and roar of the A-10. That distinctive roar (along with the familiar Brrrt of the 30in Gatling gun) strikes fear into the heart of the enemy.
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If you and your friends/business associates are frequent flyers and connected on social media, no doubt you’ve had digital exchanges like this:
“Ugh. Just boarded three-hour flight … NO WI FI!!!!”
“If the wireless service on this flight was any slower, I’ll land before you see this.”
If you’re not flying first or business class, air travel can be a forgettable experience. Being able to stay connected while in the air is one of the few perks (even though you get charged for the privilege.
American Airlines has filed suit in a Texas district court claiming Gogo, its current Internet provider for in-flight Wi-Fi, doesn’t offer fast service. The airline is suing because its contract with Gogo says it can end the deal if it finds a service that is faster.
“After carefully evaluating the new technology and services in the marketplace, American has decided to exercise its rights under the Agreement and recently notified Gogo that ViaSat offers an in-flight connectivity system that materially improves on Gogo’s air-to-ground system,” the suit says.
The return to normalcy between the United States and Cuba took another step Tuesday. The U.S. and Cuba signed an agreement that will allow daily commercial flights for the first time in more than 50 years.
Up to 110 daily flights to 10 different destinations in Cuba will be permitted under the deal.
The next step will be the easing on travel restrictions by U.S. tourists. Currently the U.S. Treasury Department has 12 categories that allow U.S. citizens to legally travel to the country located less than 90 miles from Florida.
With self-driving cars becoming more of a reality, unmanned military weapons also are on the way. Unmanned drones already are carrying the fight and providing intelligence in the war on terror.
Despite criticisms, the Navy is pressing forward with plans to develop autonomous, unmanned systems both for the air and for the sea.
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter earlier this month confirmed that the research and development of “self-driving boats which can network together to do all kinds of missions, from fleet defense to close-in surveillance, without putting sailors at risk.”
Critics are warning that further R&D into unmanned weaponry could lead to “killer robots” being developed.
The 3D printing technology is reaching the airline industry. One of the revelations at this week’s Singapore Airshow 2016 is that GE Aviation has plans to use 3D printing to manufacture aircraft parts.
Mr. Gopinath Logannathan, the firm’s director of product marketing, used an example of a fuel nozzle in an aircraft engine. Manufactured conventionally, it is a complicated part with 18 components. Logannathan also said such a part made from 3D printing could last up to five times longer.
Singapore has been the center of the emerging technology of 3D printing. (This links to the full story and also features a video news report from a local television station.
Business is business, but when it involves national defense, politics and neighboring countries who don’t like each other, the business of selling military weapons can get sticky.
The United States approved the sale of eight F-16 fighters to Pakistan. Ostensibly the jets will aid Pakistan’s fight against terrorism. India, Pakistan’s neighbor, disagrees with that theory.
India’s External Affairs Ministry issued a statement that it believes Pakistan obtaining the military aircraft will give it a strategic edge in the region.
The deal is worth nearly $700 million and includes radar and electronic warfare equipment.
In the 15 years since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, the United States airline industry has been trending down. The bad news has included higher fuel prices, delays at times caused by added security along with legacy airlines consolidating and going bankrupt
Over the last decade, U.S. airlines have eliminated over 150,000. However, decreasing oil prices has led to lower fuel prices plus the consolidation of four major carriers has helped the industry turn the corner.
The airline industry has added 13,000 full-time workers, another increase from smaller growth in 2014. American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have added more than 8,000 positions during a 12-month period that ended in November.
In another indication that the airline industry is on the upswing, Easy Jet expects to continue growth that started six years ago. The budget airline believes that the Europe’s airline sector is headed for further consolidation and opportunities for growth.
“I definitely think there will be consolidation in Europe,” said Carolyn McCall, chief executive for Easy Jet. “If you actually look at the whole of Europe, we still see massive opportunities for growth.”
As evidence of the two previous stories in this roundup, a growth in incomes through Asia has spurred more air travel. That’s good news for the airline industry.
This week’s bi-annual Singapore Airshow is a major showcase and aerospace leaders from around the world are gathering to see and be seen. But there’s an undercurrent of tension and uncertainty because of the issues facing the global economy.
The aerospace industry has seen growth each of the last eight years. And while tumbling oil prices mean airline fuel prices are reduced, there are concerns the economy in China and Japan.
Sean Riddle could have saved himself a lot of time and trouble had he just read a post on Avgeekery.com.
Riddle, 28, spent several hours in a holding cell in New York City after he operated a drone near the Empire State Building. Riddle was filming footage for a video project he was putting together for connecting nonprofits.
After researching on Google (he apparently missed this site), Riddle thought his quick drone flight would be legal. He even asked a couple of nearby NYC police officers who cleared his flight plan. Unfortunately, things got complicated, Riddle was arrested, arraigned and released.
The C-133 Cargomaster was the US Air Force’s only turboprop strategic airlifter. Built by Douglas between 1956 and 1961, the plane served as the primary method to lift large and outsized cargo throughout the world during the 1960s. The Cargomaster remained the primary strategic airlifter until the arrival of the C-141 Starlifter in the mid-1960s and the C-5 Galaxy in 1970. Bonus video below!
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The aircraft in this video was originally known as AF56-1999. It retired as a MAC asset but was sold to the Cargomaster Corporation where it was registered as N199AB. According to Wikipedia, “the aircraft was never certificated by the FAA for civilian operation, and could only be flown as a government aircraft, mostly for the State of Alaska. N199AB was based at ANC and was flown as a transport until 2004, carrying cargo, such as pipeline sections. It also flew frontend loader trash trucks and heavy equipment to the Alaskan bush, i.e., Point Hope, Point Lay, Wainright, Barrow, Deadhorse, Barter Island, and Anatovich Pass in April 2006.”
The beautiful last flight video below was shot by famed videographer Gregory Sheffer who owns the production company INVERSION. The video shows the last flight of N199AB that took place on August 29, 2008. One of the crew members put together a great video and photo album showing photos of the last flight. On his site, he recalls the final flight by saying:
“C-133A N199AB arrived at Travis this morning only about 25 minutes late from filed flight plan ETA. The planned flyover before landing did not take place due to a wing overheat warning that occurred just as it arrived. Some observers noted puffs of black smoke coming from number three engine as the plane appeared over the Travis area. As much as we C 133 fans were hoping for the magic sound and sight of a low level full power flyby, prudence dictated an immediate landing. The landing was perfect, the pilots greased it in. The plane taxied through a shower from the fire trucks, then parked and was turned wide open for visitors including the cockpit area.”
The aircraft is currently stored at the Travis Heritage Center at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California.
BONUS: Here’s video of the final landing that was shot from the approach end of runway 21R at Travis Air Force Base
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Those are six words you never want to hear from an air traffic controller. Air traffic controllers and pilots have a very unique working relationship. Using the radio, controllers issue clearances and pilots repeat the clearances back. The confirmation of every clearance ensures that mistakes are at an absolute minimum. While basic, this systems keeps aviation exceedingly safe and a testament to the professionalism of both pilots and controllers.
Most mistakes occur because of a misunderstanding or a mental error on the part of a controller or pilot. In the video below by Daniel Mori, you’ll hear a pilot verbally confirm the heading that ATC assigned him. When he starts to turn the airplane in that direction, the controller raises his voice and asks, “where in God’s Name are you going?” Those words are enough for any professional pilot’s stomach to drop. After a brief exchange, the controller assigns a new heading and backs down from his aggressive tone. When the pilot offers to call him on the ground, the controller declines, most likely realizing that it could have been his mistake all along.
President’s Day provides an opportunity to review the history of how the Commander In Chief has been involved with flight.
President Roosevelt was the first to fly in a plane – a curious occurrence because it happened 40 years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight. Perhaps the urgency of POTUS traveling by air hadn’t occurred prior to January of 1943 when Roosevelt boarded a Boeing 314 flying boat, the Dixie Clipper and flew across the Atlantic to Casablanca. That meeting with Winston Churchill announced the demands for an unconditional surrender of the Axis powers.
In 1932, Roosevelt had flown to Chicago to accept the Democratic nomination for President. His trip to Casablanca was a necessity and highly secretive. Until then, air travel for a sitting president was considered too dangerous.
Ironically, a month after FDR’s trans-Atlantic flight, the Pan-Am Yankee Clipper crashed during landing in Lisbon, Portugal, killing 24. Had that happened before the trip to Casablanca, would officials have deemed it safe for FDR to fly?
A decade before her husband became the first President to fly, Eleanor Roosevelt became the first First Lady to take to the air.
Following a White House dinner with Amelia Earhart and other guests on April 20, 1933, Mrs. Roosevelt, Earhart and some of the guests went to Hoover Field, which is now where the Pentagon is located. They flew in a Curtis Condor twin-motor Eastern Air Transport plane on a trip between Washington D.C. and Baltimore.
Eleanor Roosevelt also played a major role in the advancement of the Tuskegee Airmen, the black aviators who distinguished themselves during WWII. During a visit to the Tuskegee Army Air Field the First Lady requested a flight. Chief Civilian Flight Instructor Charles Alfred Anderson obliged and the flight lasted over an hour. Photos of her visit received wide distribution and helped remove racial obstacles the Tuskegee Airmen faced in their quest to serve their country.
George H.W. Bush went on to become the nation’s 41st President. In World War II, he became one of the Navy’s youngest pilots. He flew the carrier-based TBM Avenger torpedo bomber and completed 58 combat missions. He ditched once and survived being shot down once. Bush, who had not turned 19 when he received his wings, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and three Air Medals.
Dwight Eisenhower, by the way, received his pilot’s license and completed his first solo flight in 1937 but never qualified for Army wings. He went on to command the Allied forces that defeated Germany and served two terms as President.
Another way in which the presidency and flight is connected is Air Force One. Technically, Air Force One is any aircraft with POTUS on board.
In 1944, FDR created the Presidential Pilot Office which eventually became the Presidential Airlift Group, which is part of the White House Military Office. And in 1990 President George H.W. Bush became the first Chief Executive to fly in the modified Boeing 747.
The first jet-powered Air Force One, a Boeing 707, was first used in 1962 by President Kennedy. That plane also served as the somber setting when President Johnson was sworn in after JFK’s assassination in 1963.
The F-111 Aardvark made its combat debut with the US Air Force in 1967. The jet was the world’s first variable geometry swing wing aircraft. The Aardvark – not exactly a sexy name for a multi-purpose fighter – came on line just in time to see major action in Vietnam.
The standard description of the F-111 goes something like this: The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark was a supersonic, medium-range interdictor and tactical attack aircraft that also filled the roles of strategic bomber, aerial reconnaissance, and electronic-warfare aircraft in its various versions. Developed in the 1960s by General Dynamics, it first entered service in 1967 with the United States Air Force. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) also ordered the type, and after delays caused by wing design issues, began operating 24 F-111Cs in 1973.
Over the ensuing years the RAAF modified four of the F-111Cs to RF-111C reconnaissance aircraft. in 1981 the Aussies purchased four former USAF F-111As as attrition replacements. To keep the type in service the Australian Government decided to purchase up to 18 more USAF F-111s (G models this time) in 1992. 15 F-111Gs were delivered between 1993 and 1994. The USAF actually held several F-111 airframes at the boneyard to keep the Australian jets flying. All of the total of 15 F-111Gs were retired by 2007. All 28 of the F-111Cs were all withdrawn from RAAF service by 2010.
Enjoy this video of a RAAF Aardvark doing the “dump and burn”- dumping fuel and lighting the afterburner. resulting in an impressive flaming trail in the sky!
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