Archive for the ‘Aviation’ Category
It’s been awhile since I posted an aviation story. I love this stuff…….Congratulations to David Sprott!!
A 75-year-old Mobile man has received the Federal Aviation Administration’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for his more than 50 years of flying without a safety blemish on his record, the FAA announced.
David N. Sprott, who flew for 20 years as a Marine Corps pilot and another 32 years as a commercial pilot before retiring in 2006, was presented the honor last month at a meeting of the P.L. Wilson Detachment of the Marine Corps League, of which he is a member.
A letter from an FAA official accompanying the award, noted, “The example you have set has inspired those who work in the aviation industry to set admirable goals for themselves and for our industry.”
More here
“Some passengers vomited after disembarking.”
I wouldn’t have waited. A big pop, oxygen masks deployed… the barf bag couldn’t have gotten up to face no where near in time.
Hole in Qantas jet forces emergency landing
(CNN) — A Qantas flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne made an emergency landing in the Philippines on Friday after a hole appeared in the fuselage and the cabin lost pressure suddenly.
“There was an almighty crack,” one passenger said. “We dropped a bit in the air, but other than that it was fine.” [...]
Images of the Boeing 747-400 after it landed showed a large hole where the leading edge of the wing attaches to the fuselage. [...]
Qantas said the hole, which was between 2.5 to three meters in diameter, was being inspected by engineers.
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 Qantas pilot Captain John Francis Bartels looks at the damaged fuselage in Manila, Philippines. |
Turtle Airships company will change the world aviation industry with 200 mph solar powered airships. Constructed with rigid shelled hulls of aluminum and carbon fiber, the airships look like giant turtles. These “turtle” airships are not blimps or zeppelins. The airships are being designed in Spain and the U.S.
Construction has started on a first prototype and the first flight and testing is scheduled to be done in Singapore this year. Turtle Airships will make a demonstration around-the-world flight of the new solar powered airship in 2009.
More at Yahoo News
Very cool………
The parking lot at the Aviation and Military Museum of Louisiana on Kansas Lane was full Thursday afternoon as people came to see three Vietnam-era helicopters land on the museum’s lawn as part of a flying tribute to veterans.
Families and men in hats and black vests with military patches on them lined up along the edge of the parking lot to watch.
A small girl wearing pigtails stood with her younger brother and sister in the back of a 2½-ton military truck on display at the museum to see the helicopters land.
More here
The helicopters, from Wings and Rotors Air Museum in Murrieta, Calif., were flown as escorts for 300,000 motorcycle riders who traveled from California to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington for an annual Memorial Day Rolling Thunder’s “Ride to the Wall.”
The helicopters were on their way back to California when they stopped in Monroe
A New York City man is suing JetBlue Airways Corp. for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California.
Gokhan Mutlu, of Manhattan’s Inwood section, says in court papers the pilot told him to “go ‘hang out’ in the bathroom” about 90 minutes into the San Diego to New York flight because the flight attendant complained that the “jump seat” she was assigned was uncomfortable, the lawsuit said.
Mutlu was traveling on a “buddy pass,” a standby travel voucher that JetBlue employees give to friends, from New York to San Diego on February 16, and returned to New York on February 23, the lawsuit said.
Initially, Mutlu was told a flight attendant had taken the last seat on the plane, but then he was advised she would sit in the employee “jump seat,” meaning he could have the last seat, the lawsuit said.
The pilot told him 11/2 hours into the five-hour flight that he would have to relinquish the seat to the flight attendant, court papers say. But the pilot said that Mutlu could not sit in the jump seat because only JetBlue employees were permitted to sit there, the lawsuit said.
When Mutlu expressed reluctance to go sit in the bathroom, the pilot, who was not named in the lawsuit, told him that “he was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command that (Mutlu) should be grateful for being on board,” the lawsuit said.
More at CNN
Man is that gonna cause a mess. I don’t think I want to fly anytime soon, seeing that the FAA, under Bush’s watch, has decided the industry will……regulate itself? More incompetence and truly stupid actions, or inactions. As someone somewhere wrote….we have to jump through security hoops, be inspected down to our shoes to get on the planes…but the planes themselves aren’t inspection. Another cozy relationship between government and big business. What a sham. Another example of how we’re being kept safe in the homeland. This is going to put a financial hurt on American airlines. Guess in the long run it doesn’t pay to cozy up to the FAA, eh boys?
From the Star-Telegram:
“I have never in my life seen regulation more out of control than it is right now,” said Darryl Jenkins, a longtime industry analyst and consultant. “The price to the industry and to the traveling public is going to be enormous.”
U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, criticized the FAA for being too close to the airlines it regulates in recent years.
“FAA needs to rethink its relationship with the airlines and the other aviation entities which it regulates,” he said during last week’s hearing. “FAA needs to clean house, from the top down, and take corrective action.”
He added that “I believe it is no mere coincidence that this audit began just after news of our investigation became public, and just prior to us holding this hearing.”
Maybe they meant it SHOULD BE FREE to fly about the country in their death traps. You may not live to cash in on those rapid rewards……..
Discount air carrier Southwest Airlines flew thousands of passengers on aircraft that federal inspectors said were “unsafe” as recently as last March, according to detailed congressional documents obtained by CNN.
Congressional documents show Southwest Airlines flew thousands of passengers on aircraft deemed “unsafe” by federal inspectors.
Documents submitted by FAA inspectors to congressional investigators allege the airline flew at least 117 of its planes in violation of mandatory safety checks. In some cases, the documents say, the planes flew for 30 months after government inspection deadlines had passed and should have been grounded until the inspections could be completed.
The planes were “not airworthy,” according to congressional air safety investigators.
Calling it “one of the worst safety violations” he has ever seen, Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minnesota, is expected to call a hearing as soon as possible to ask why the airline put its passengers in danger.
Southwest Airlines, which carried more passengers in the United States than any other airline last year, declined comment.
“We are not doing interviews. We are only preparing for the hearings at this time,” said Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Brandy King.
The documents obtained by CNN also allege that some management officials at the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency responsible for commercial air safety, knew the planes were flying “unsafely” and did nothing about it.
(emphasis mine)
More at CNN.com
What’s wrong with this picture?
A small propeller airplane stenciled with the words “Iraqi Air Force” caused some commotion when it landed on a road near the rural Highlands County community of Sebring.
The Federal Aviation Administration says the Cessna C-172 had mechanical problems before landing on a rural road north of Lake Okeechobee yesterday evening.
Local sheriff’s deputies surrounded the aircraft and stopped journalists from photographing it. The plane’s markings were covered.
Turns out there was no need to panic - it was only a training aircraft built for the Iraqi military being taken from the Tampa area to Miami for shipment.
Air Force officials say the four’seater was part of a contract awarded to Cessna Aircraft Company for 18 aircraft for Iraq.
The aircraft are shipped from Miami to Iraq aboard Air Force transport planes.
The FAA is investigating.
Source
Anyone who has read this blog long enough knows I have a thang for aviation. It’s nice to read a nice story…..especially if it involves airplanes. 
 Kody and Tyler Plarske knew that whatever their grandmother Barb Sauve had planned for their Saturday morning, it would be an adventure. But even they were surprised when she pulled into the Experimental Aircraft Aviation Building parking lot and told them that they were going to be a part of the Young Eagles flying program.
She must have conspired with the weather gods. Beyond the Ormand Barstow Hangar, at the Midland airport named for his kid brother, Jack, the blue Midwestern sky that has lured many of America’s elite pilot and astronaut corps beckoned again Saturday morning, ready to welcome a future Wright, Lindbergh, Earhart, Glenn or Armstrong.
Shortly after 9 a.m., they began to arrive. Accompanied, like the Plarskes, by parents or grandparents (most of whom would only get to stand and watch the fun) the youngsters ages 8-18 would take off as civilians and return, 15 minutes later, as Young Eagles.
The Young Eagles program, held monthly at Midland’s Jack Barstow Airport, is part of the national effort run by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), which is headquartered in Oshkosh, WI.
“Originally, EAA was designed to support home builders, people who build and fly their own airplanes. Today it surrounds many different avenues of aviation, including general aviation and antique aircraft,” said David Schmelzer, Young Eagles progam coordinator at Barstow.
“To interest young people in aviation, the EAA came up with the Young Eagles program. The program is designed to give a young person between the ages of 8 and 18 an airplane ride in a small general aviation airplane,” Schmelzer said. “A lot of times that sparks an interest. They might go on and work for the airlines. Some of them have joined the flying branches of the military.”
More at OurMidland.com
You can read more about the Young Eagles program here.
Yikes……
From the Toledo Blade:
A replica of the Wright brothers‘ plane crashed Friday during a demonstration to mark the 102nd anniversary of the flight the aviation pioneers said displayed the first practical flying machine.
There were no injuries, but the replica of the 1905 Wright Brothers Flyer III was damaged.
The crash occurred about 30 seconds into the flight in front of hundreds of spectators at Huffman Prairie, where Wilber and Orville Wright developed and tested their airplanes. The airfield is now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Pilot Mark Dusenberry said the plane’s motor and frame were functioning properly when he took off. But he said the aircraft began oscillating - going up and down in roller-coaster fashion - and as it turned one of the wingtips hit the ground, bringing the aircraft down.
I live nowhere near this place, but if I did, I’d be there with the kids in the cockpits on “open cockpit days.” Sounds like a really cool place.
As history books document the first flights at Kitty Hawk, N.C., by two brothers from Ohio, the Marine Corps honors 1st Lt. Alfred A. Cunningham, as the father of Marine Corps aviation. Cunningham’s first flight occurred on May 22, 1912, and since then countless combat flights have taken place enabling an advance in mission accomplishment. In the 1940s, four Marine aircraft wings were established to support the Corps- aviation operations.
The 95-year-old history is preserved in a small building aboard the air station, surrounded by aircraft. The Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, the only museum in the world dedicated primarily to Marine Corps aviation, was first established at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, Calif., in 1989.
A stock of more than 40 vintage aircraft, including participants in World War II, the Cuban Missile Crisis and Operation Desert Storm, help tell the story the aviation history.
The museum became a certified Marine Corps museum in 1993.
Read more »
I wish I could see this………
In the formative years of aviation, when the whir of a tiny engine overhead still drew gasps of wonder, the “America” was a gravity defying behemoth. It weighed 1 3/4 tons, had a 72-foot wingspan, and took off and landed on water. Its top cruising speed: A mere 65 miles an hour.
The twin-engine flying boat was created by the Wright brothers’ bitter rival, Glenn H. Curtiss, with one mission in mind: to vanquish the Atlantic. It was edging toward attempting the first transoceanic crossing in 1914 when war intervened.
“Getting the America off the water with enough fuel aboard was proving to be problematical _ that’s what they were struggling with when World War I broke out and put the kibosh to the whole thing,” said Trafford Doherty, director of the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport in western New York.
Thousands of onlookers will get a taste of that bygone era Saturday when a near-replica of the experimental biplane roars once more across Keuka Lake next to this hill-framed village where Curtiss progressed from bicycle shop owner to motorcycle speed demon to aviation icon.
More at the Post Star
By JACQUES BILLEAUD
PHOENIX - Two news helicopters covering a police chase on live television collided and crashed to the ground Friday, killing all four people on board in a plunge that viewers saw as a jumble of spinning, broken images.
 Both helicopters went down in a park in central Phoenix and caught fire. No one on the ground was hurt.
TV viewers did not actually witness the accident because cameras aboard both aircraft were pointed at the ground. But they saw images from one of the helicopters break up and begin to spin before the station abruptly switched to the studio.
Television station KNXV reported that it owned one of the choppers. The other was from KTVK. A pilot and photographer aboard each chopper were killed.
KNXV reporter Craig Smith, who was among the dead, was reporting live as police chased a man driving a construction truck who had fled a traffic stop and was driving erratically, hitting several cars and driving on the sidewalk at times.
Police had blown the truck’s tires, and the man eventually parked it, then carjacked another vehicle nearby.
As police closed in, Smith said, “Oh geez!”
After the picture broke up, the station switched to the studio and then briefly showed regular programming, a soap opera, before announcing that the helicopter had crashed.
read more HERE
From the Guardian:
A record’setting daredevil who was the first to complete a solo balloon trip around the globe was among those inducted Saturday into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
Steve Fossett, 63, of Beaver Creek, Colo., accepted the medallion signifying his induction and told the crowd of about 1,000 at the Dayton Convention Center that he will continue flying.
“I’m hoping you didn’t give me this award because you think my career is complete, because I’m not done,” Fossett said.
Fossett said he plans to go to Argentina in November in an effort to break a glider record.
In 2002, Fossett became the first person to fly around the world alone in a balloon. Three years later, he became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling. He and a co-pilot also claim to have set a world glider altitude record of 50,671 feet during a flight in August over the Andes Mountains.
“You may ask, what’s the secret of flying solo? The secret is a great support team,” said Fossett, thanking the ground team.
Sally Ride, 56, a California native, was to be inducted later Saturday. She became the first U.S. woman in space when she flew aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. Ride returned to space aboard the Challenger in 1984 and served on the board that investigated the 1986 Challenger accident.
Walter Boyne, historian, author and former director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space Museum, was the first inductee enshrined at the ceremony.
Boyne, 77, joined the Air Force in 1951, flew bombers and was a nuclear test pilot. He retired after serving in Vietnam and in 1974 joined the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., as an assistant curator, eventually becoming director. Since then he has written more than 500 articles, 28 nonfiction books and four novels, all aviation-related.
Also among the inductees is 97-year-old Evelyn Bryan Johnson, who took up flying in 1944 while running her husband’s laundry business during his World War II military service.
Johnson, of Morristown, Tenn., began giving flying lessons in 1947. Known as Mama Bird to her students, she is recognized for logging more flight hours - 60,000-plus - training more pilots, and giving more Federal Aviation Administration exams than any other living pilot.
The other inductee is Frederick Smith, a former Marine pilot and founder of air freight giant FedEx. Smith, 62, of Memphis, Tenn., flew crop dusters at age 15 and during the Vietnam War flew more than 200 missions with the Marines. In 1971, he founded Federal Express, which today is a $32 billion, 250,000-employee business with service in more than 220 countries.
The hall was founded in 1962 in Dayton, the hometown of the Wright brothers, and later established by Congress. Wilbur and Orville Wright were the first to be enshrined.
ENCINITAS, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, OceanWorks Development has sent a Notice of Claim to federal, state and local agencies and elected officials to gain exclusive rights to virtually the entire Southern California Bight for the purpose of developing, building and operating an international airport.
This unprecedented claim was submitted to the Department of the Interior, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Federal Aviation Administration, among more than a dozen other agencies. The Claim begins the process to lay the legal foundation for the project. Currently, OceanWorks plans to situate the airfield some 10 miles off the San Diego coastline.
OceanWorks CEO Adam Englund said, “The Claim will provide our investors with assurance of OceanWorks’ exclusive rights to this development within the claimed area. It is the first step to making our vision a reality.”
OceanWorks’ Claim to the 40,000 sq. mile area was prompted last fall, after the San Diego Airport Authority failed to find a suitable site within or near San Diego County for an urgently needed new airport. An initiative put forth by the Authority seeking public support for locating the airport at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar was opposed by the military and environmentalists and overwhelmingly defeated by the voters.
Said Englund: “The offshore option is the best and apparently the only viable one for San Diego. We aim to make it the most secure, self’sustaining, economically vibrant, and greenest airport ever built.”
More at Yahoo
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