Flight Safety Information July 15, 2013 - No. 145 In This Issue Crashed SF jet flying too slow, NTSB reveals Asiana Crash Puts Focus On Training, Automation Boeing's latest 787 fire poses major test of jet's carbon skin Delta Airlines jet skids off runway at Jacksonville naval port in Florida Report finds serious safety, management problems with Australia's air traffic control system Outbound China Airlines aircraft damaged by aerobridge at NAIA 2013 Aviation Human Factors and SMS Seminar - Dallas, July 23-24, 2013 Think ARGUS PROS The World's Fastest Business Jet? GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Crashed SF jet flying too slow, NTSB reveals An Air Canada jet passes the wreckage of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 as it lands at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday, July 7, 2013, in San Francisco, California. Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed as it was landing at the airport on Saturday killing two passengers and injuring hundreds. By JASON DEAREN and JOAN LOWY - The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Pilots of Asiana Flight 214 were flying too slowly as they approached the airport, triggering a warning that the jet could stall, and they tried to abort the landing but crashed just a second later, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday. The airline said the pilot at the controls had little experience flying that type of plane. While investigators began piecing together what led to the crash, San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault disclosed that he was looking into the possibility that one of the two teen passengers who died Saturday survived the crash but was run over by a rescue vehicle. Foucrault said one of the bodies was found on the tarmac near where the plane's tail broke off. The other was found on the left side of the plane about 30 feet from where the jet came to rest. Remarkably, 305 of 307 passengers survived the crash and more than a third didn't require hospitalization. Only a small number were critically injured. Investigators are trying to determine whether pilot error, mechanical problems or something else was to blame for the crash. At a news conference, NTSB chief Deborah Hersman disclosed that the Boeing 777 was traveling at speeds well less than the target landing speed of 137 knots per hour, or 157 mph. "We're not talking about a few knots," she said. Hersman described the frantic final seconds of the flight. Seven seconds before the crash, pilots recognized the need to increase speed, she said, basing her comments on an evaluation of the cockpit voice and flight data recorders. Three seconds later, the aircraft's stick shaker - safety equipment that warns pilots of an impending stall - went off. The normal response is to boost speed, and Hersman said the throttles were fired and the engines appeared to respond normally. At 1.5 seconds before impact, there was a call from the crew to abort the landing. The details confirmed what survivors and other witnesses reported: an aircraft that seemed to be flying too slowly just before its tail clipped a seawall at the start of the runway and the nose slammed down. Pilots normally try to land at the target speed, in this case 137 knots, plus an additional 5 knots, said Bob Coffman, an American Airlines captain who has flown 777s. He said the briefing raises an important question: "Why was the plane going so slow?" Normal procedures The engines were on idle and the pilots were flying under visual flight rules, Hersman said. Under visual flight procedures in the Boeing 777, the autopilot typically would have been turned off while the automatic throttle, which regulates speed, would been on until the plane had descended to 500 feet, Coffman said. At that point, pilots normally would check airspeed before switching off the autothrottle to continue a "hand fly" approach, he said. There was no indication in the discussions between the pilots and tower that there were problems with the jet. The airline said Monday in Seoul that the pilot at the controls had little experience flying that type of plane and was landing one for the first time at that airport. Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said that Lee Gang-guk was trying to get used to the 777 on Saturday. She said the pilot had nearly 10,000 hours flying other planes but only 43 hours on the 777. Among the questions investigators are trying to answer was what, if any, role was played by the deactivation of a ground-based landing guidance system because of airport construction. Conditions Saturday were nearly perfect, with a sunny sky and light wind. The flight originated in Shanghai, China, then stopped in Seoul before making the nearly 11-hour trip to San Francisco. The South Korea-based airline said four South Korean pilots were on board, three of whom were described as "skilled." Among the travelers were citizens of China, South Korean, the United States, Canada, India, Japan, Vietnam and France. There were at least 70 Chinese students and teachers heading to summer camps, according to Chinese authorities. Fei Xiong, a Chinese passenger, was traveling to California so she could take her 8-year-old son to Disneyland. The pair was sitting in the back half of the plane. Xiong said her son sensed something was wrong. "My son told me: 'The plane will fall down, it's too close to the sea,' " she said. "I told him: 'Baby, it's OK, we'll be fine.' " When the plane hit the ground, oxygen masks dropped, said Xu Da, a product manager at an Internet company in Hangzhou, China, who was sitting with his wife and teen son near the back. He said he could see sparking, perhaps from exposed wires. He turned and could see the tail where the galley was torn away, leaving a hole through which they could see the runway. Once on the tarmac, they watched the plane catch fire, and firefighters hose it down. "I just feel lucky," said Xu, whose family suffered some cuts and neck and back pain. Eager to escape In the chaotic moments after the landing, when baggage was tumbling from the overhead bins and people all around her were screaming, Wen Zhang grabbed her 4-year-old son, who hit the seat in front of him and broke his leg. Spotting a hole at the back of the jumbo jet where the bathroom had been, she carried her boy to safety. "I had no time to be scared," she said. Authorities closed the airport and rescuers rushed in. A United Airlines pilot radioed the tower, saying: "We see people ... that need immediate attention. They are alive and walking around." "Think you said people are just walking outside the airplane right now?" the controller replied. "Yes," answered the pilot. "Some people, it looks like, are struggling." At the crash scene, police officers tossed knives to crew members in the burning wreckage so they could cut away passenger seat belts. Passengers jumped down emergency slides, escaping the smoke. Some passengers who escaped doused themselves with water from the bay. By the time the flames were out, much of the top of the fuselage had burned away. The tail section was gone, with pieces of it scattered across the runway. http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2013/07/14/3101200/crashed-sf-jet-flying-too-slow.html#storylink=cpy Back to Top Asiana Crash Puts Focus On Training, Automation Airspeed eroded, despite six eyes on the Asiana 777 flight deck Complications and distractions aside, over-reliance on automation systems appears to have trumped basic flying skills and crew resource management in the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 at San Francisco International Airport on July 6. The accident will put additional pressure on an industry already grappling with implementing training and human-factors lessons learned from recent high-profile pilot-error-related accidents such as the 2009 Colgan Air Q400 loss-of-control crash in Buffalo, N.Y., and the Air France A330 accident off the coast of Brazil. In response to the Colgan accident , the FAA will soon publish a final rule requiring first-officer hires to have at least 1,500 hr. of flight time and an air transport pilot certificate and type rating, a six-fold increase compared to the 250 hr. and commercial pilot certificate minimums today. Meanwhile, avionics manufacturers are making headway on research to simplify the complex and often confusing human-machine interfaces that hinder rather than help pilots. Rockwell Collins is working on a project to reduce the number of federated automatic flight control (auto-flight) modes added to the flight deck. By aligning auto-flight modes with pilot "goals"-arriving at a certain point at a certain time with a given amount of fuel-researchers were able to design a prototype mode manager that effectively gives pilots seven auto-flight mode choices rather than as many as 38. Adding to the confusion are multiple modes for autothrottle systems that link to complex auto-flight and autopilot systems. Autothrottles provide automatic speed or vertical speed control, including stall prevention in some modes, allowing pilots to focus on other tasks. According to Boeing documentation, the 777's autopilot has five operating modes. Mode confusion could have played a role in the Asiana crash -the pilot-in-command of the highly automated 777-200ER expected that the Boeing 's autothrottle system would hold the aircraft's approach speed to a preset value of 137 kt. as the aircraft, high on the initial approach, descended to capture a visual or electronic glideslope. The system did not maintain the speed, leaving the engines at flight idle through the final portions of the approach and placing the aircraft very near an aerodynamic stall less than 200 ft. above San Francisco Bay in a high-drag state with landing gear and flaps deployed to 30 deg. before pilots detected the error. The crew attempted a full-thrust go-around, but the call came too late, as the twinjet's main landing gear and tail clipped a seawall ahead of Runway 28L 1.5 sec. later. The impact removed the landing gear and the empennage, leaving everything forward of the aft pressure bulkhead to skid and spin uncontrolled on its belly down the runway. Despite the violent conclusion, the airframe and cabin largely held together, allowing 123 of the 307 passengers and crew on board to walk away unassisted (see article below). While the NTSB 's final analysis will likely take a year or more to complete, preliminary information from the cockpit voice and flight data recorders and pilot interviews indicate that distractions and automation surprises appeared to cause the pilots to lose altitude and airspeed awareness. "I don't know how the whole crew could take their eyes off the speed," a 777 fleet captain for a major carrier tells Aviation Week. "One of the basic tenets of a stabilized approach is speed." Internationally accepted guidelines call for airspeed and thrust to be stable and the aircraft on the proper glide path by 1,000 ft. above ground level for an instrument approach and 500 ft. for a visual approach. The 777 captain's airline recommends that pilots have the landing gear down by 2,000 ft. altitude and final flaps no lower than 1,500 ft. If the approach becomes unstable at any time below the entry altitude, pilots are advised to perform a go-around. Complicating the arrival for the Asiana crew was an air traffic control request to maintain 180 kt. until 5 nm from the airport during the final leg of the visual approach, requiring pilots to bleed off 20 kt. airspeed before lowering the flaps to 30 deg. The tower later cleared Flight 214 to land when it was 1.5 nm from the runway. Some carriers allow for pilots to land with 25 deg. flaps, which can be deployed at 185 kt. or below. The left-seat pilot, the "pilot-flying," was not officially the pilot-in-command as he was roughly midway through the airline's initial operating experience phase for 777 checkout. The instructor pilot in the right seat was pilot-in-command, on his first flight as an instructor pilot. He had never been paired with the left-seat pilot, who himself had never flown a 777 into San Francisco. At press time , it was not clear what roles the two front-seat pilots and a relief first officer in the jump seat had set in terms of crew resource management. Though GPS-based vertical guidance was likely available to replace Runway 28L's inoperative instrument landing system glideslope, the Asiana crew may have elected to fly a visual approach using the four-light precision approach path indicator (PAPI) located near the touchdown point on the runway . When centered in the PAPI's 2.85-deg. glideslope, pilots will see two white and two red lights. All red indicates a position significantly below the glideslope, while all white lights indicates one well above the reference glideslope. The instructor pilot told investigators that at 500 ft. altitude, he realized the aircraft was below the PAPI's visual glideslope and told the left seat pilot to "pull back" on the control yoke. "He had set the speed at 137 kt. and assumed the autothrottles were maintaining the speed," the NTSB says. Depending on the auto-flight mode selected, autothrottles, if armed and turned on, should automatically control engine thrust to maintain a preset speed, in this case 137 kt., the reference landing speed for the 777-200ER that day. There are caveats, however. In the takeoff/go-around or flight-level change (FLCH) auto-flight modes, the autothrottle will not automatically activate to maintain the selected speed. FLCH is pitch mode used to climb or descend at a constant airspeed using the elevator for pitch control . There are also "mode surprises," certain conditions in which modes will transition without the pilot's knowledge, potentially putting the automation into a mode like FLCH without the pilot's knowledge. By late last week, the NTSB had not said whether the pilots had purposefully or mistakenly entered a mode that inhibited the autothrottles, or if the autothrottle system failed. During interviews, the instructor pilot told officials the aircraft was "slightly high" when it descended through 4,000 ft. on the approach and he set the auto-flight system 's vertical speed mode for a 1,500 ft./min. descent rate. NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said July 10 that during the final 2.5 min. of flight, the flight data recorder shows transition to "multiple autopilot modes and multiple autothrottle modes." "We need to understand what those modes were, if they were commanded by pilots, commanded inadvertently, and if the pilots understood what the mode was doing," she says. http://www.aviationweek.com Back to Top Boeing's latest 787 fire poses major test of jet's carbon skin (Reuters) - Boeing faces a public and revealing test of the carbon-composite technology used in the 787 Dreamliner following a fire that broke out aboard one of its planes at London's Heathrow airport. British investigators say that the Ethiopian Airline's (EAD.PA) lithium-ion batteries likely did not cause Friday's fire, allaying fears about a return of the problem that grounded the Dreamliner for more than three months earlier this year, when one battery caught fire and another overheated. Wall Street, and passengers, so far appear little concerned: the stock is expected to stabilize on Monday after slipping 4.7 percent on Friday from a near all-time high. Airlines are keeping their 787s in the air and passengers are not canceling trips in Japan, the 787's biggest market. But the visible scorching on the top rear of the fuselage of the 250-seat plane puts a major innovation of the 787 - its lightweight, carbon-plastic composite construction - under a spotlight with a fresh set of questions around the plane that Boeing and investors had hoped were behind it. The key question for both: can the burned plane be fixed easily and at a reasonable cost? While composites have been used in aerospace for decades, the 787 is the first commercial jetliner built mainly from carbon-plastic materials, whose weight savings, combined with new engines, are supposed to slash fuel costs 20 percent and operating costs by 10 percent compared with traditional aluminum alloy. In designing the Dreamliner, Boeing engineers also added a weight-saving electrical system that was sorely tested when its lithium-ion batteries overheated on two 787s in January. The system also suffered a fire in 2010 during the plane's test phase, and could come under scrutiny again if the Ethiopian Airlines blaze is traced to an electrical fault. The two systems are supposed to put Boeing at least a decade ahead of its rivals in the way aircraft is designed, built and operated. Boeing wants the 787 to become its most profitable passenger plane - and a fountain of innovation to feed designs of other future planes. Now they are both being tested again at a time when the company is designing new planes and building up its factory production to fill a record book of orders. Boeing declined to comment other than to say it is cooperating with the investigation of the fire. CARBON TEST Such extensive composite repairs have not previously been performed on an operating commercial plane. So the Ethiopian Airline fire is the first chance airlines, financiers and competitors will have to see a real example of how and at what cost the repair can be done. "Everyone in the industry is going to follow this closely," said Hans Weber, president of TECOP International and an aviation consultant who has worked on composite testing technology. "It's the ultimate test." Carbon-composite technology and repair have been in use much longer than lithium-ion batteries. Boeing and others have had carbon fiber in military planes, such as the B2 Stealth Bomber, for more than 25 years. The 787's composite skin can be patched by grinding out the damaged section, applying fresh layers of fiber and resin and then curing with heat under vacuum pressure, according to a Boeing engineer with knowledge of the process. The work can be done on site, and repair stations have been learning to make repairs to service the plane around the world. But the true cost and complexity of repair remains a key question for industry, airlines and competitors. In developing its rival A350 plane, Airbus(EAD.PA) used composite panels that are bolted to a framework, much like aluminum planes are made, a technology it saw as less risky to build and service. Boeing chose to build one-piece, barrel-shaped fuselage sections that are bolted together to form a fuselage that it says is more aerodynamic and cheaper to maintain. Boeing could make a new piece of fuselage and attach it if the damaged area was not too large, said the Boeing engineer. In a worst case, the entire rear section of the fuselage could be replaced, Weber said, an expensive fix that might cost more than the plane is worth. PASSENGERS UNFAZED The Ethiopian Airlines fire was noticed eight hours after the plane had been parked at a remote stand, the airline said, adding it was not a safety issue because the plane was not in flight and no passengers were aboard. Fires break out on parked planes about 60 times a year, and most are from "human error" such as leaving a circuit on or cigarette butt, Weber said. A fire on a different type of plane might have gone unreported. Britain's Air Accident Investigations Branch termed the 787 fire a "serious incident" and said the initial investigation was likely to take several days. Passengers appear to be sticking with the Dreamliner for now. Over the weekend, major travel agents in Japan, where most 787s are operating, said they had not seen reduction in bookings for 787 flights, and the plane remains in flight on the 13 airlines that currently operate it. "We've received no such inquiries," said an official at JTB's Yurakucho branch in Tokyo. The company typically sells package tours, "and if there's a trouble, we change aircraft or routes for our customers." In the near term, many stock analysts say they expect the stock to rise following the Friday decline. "I think investors will largely look past the incident, absent more info that suggests ongoing problem," said Carter Copeland, an analyst at Barclays in New York. Boeing's stock has climbed more than 40 percent this year as investors focused on the company's record pace of jet production, which is generating cash. Some are more cautious. Jeff Straebler, managing director and investment analyst at John Hancock Financial Services, said: "Until there is more information available on the cause, I don't think any judgments should be made." Back to Top Delta Airlines jet skids off runway at Jacksonville naval port in Florida A chartered Delta Airlines jet skidded off the runway during stormy weather at Jacksonville Naval Air Station, a military spokeswoman said. No one was injured, public information officer Miriam Gallet said, in The Associated Press. The plane was carrying 167 passengers who were traveling from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Boeing 737 slid into mud and skidded off the runway, AP said. The Florida Times-Union reported the passengers were diverted to Jacksonville International Airport, and then they flew on to their final destination, in Norfolk, Va. Ms. Gallet said investigators are conducting a review of the incident. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/15/plane-skids-runway-jacksonville-naval-port- florida/#ixzz2Z7RecvjH Back to Top Report finds serious safety, management problems with Australia's air traffic control system An internal report into Australia's air traffic control system has found serious deficiencies with the operation, safety and management of the country's skies. Documents released under Freedom of Information laws show Australia's monopoly air traffic control provider, Airservices Australia, has overseen a system where problems go unsolved amid an organisational culture which employees say is "dysfunctional". The report, written by Australia's air safety regulator the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and obtained by the ABC, lays out hundreds of incidents, ranging from training shortcomings to mismanagement of staff. Frustrated by an ever-growing number of serious incidents where the root cause was never properly identified, CASA considered withdrawing Airservices' approval to operate the network. CASA however pulled Airservices' ongoing approval to operate the air traffic control system, and imposed a rolling three-year licence, which comes with regular audits and more oversight. The air safety regulator also wants the current regulations strengthened, giving it the ability to issue fines or take other enforcement actions to force Airservices to improve its operations. Pilots and controllers alarmed Air traffic controllers have expressed concern about the report, with one telling the ABC that he "couldn't believe that Airservices had failed to comply with so many things". The ABC has spoken to several current and former controllers, all of whom wished to remain anonymous due to fears of retribution and being blacklisted by the monopoly air traffic provider, which is the only real employer of air traffic controllers. One controller called the company he works for "dysfunctional", saying he was worried about an entrenched culture of mismanagement and bureaucracy. "If you've got a monopoly and you're making money, and if no-one really cares what you're doing, then why would you improve?" he said. Australian and International Pilots Association vice president Captain Richard Woodward said the report was concerning. "I think the system has shown some fairly severe cracks, and the report identifies that," he said. "It was a concerning report because it's not nice to see the Australian system has that many faults. "When you read it closely you clearly find there's been a bunch of management issues that have brought this about, and also a lack of trained controllers." Air traffic controllers are paid well - senior, experienced employees can receive about $200,000 per year. But many controllers are frustrated at the inadequate levels of training provided for new staff. "Airspace closes if Airservices can't find enough staff," one of the controllers said. "Management tries to get around it by moving shifts forward and leaving airspace vacant and uncontrolled." The ABC has been told controllers have to ask for annual leave up to four years in advance. One controller said he had worked more than a month of extra shifts over a year, backfilling for other controllers who were sick or were not qualified to operate certain parts of Australian airspace. He said Airservices relied on people to agree to extra shifts, rather than finding and training new people. "All of us have huge amounts of leave, we're all carrying leave credits," he said. "Airservices is pretty dysfunctional. They're not planning for what's going to happen, but why would they when they're making the money?" More planes in the air, ever-increasing workload There are more planes in Australia's skies than ever before. The mining boom has seen a huge increase in air traffic in areas that have not traditionally experienced large numbers of flights. Perth has seen a 57 per cent jump, Brisbane a 34 per cent increase, and overall traffic is expected to grow around 3 to 4 per cent per year. But the number of air traffic controllers has remained the same, all while the Airservices bureaucracy has ballooned. The report found that over the last decade Airservices increased its employee numbers by about one third. Air traffic controllers have told the ABC the growth has been mostly in the area of middle-management. Overworked and stressed conditions have led to a growing number of mistakes. The 2012 Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) audit detailed 10 "serious incidents" involving air transport in so-called separation events. Separation refers to the minimum distance between planes required to remove the risk of a collision. Four of the ten incidents involved air traffic services. "Near misses are unacceptable in a modern air traffic environment so those items should definitely be fixed and that's directly related to the quality and standard and training and availability of the air traffic system," Mr Woodward said. "Controllers are working very hard, long hours, long shift hours. It would be good to see them recruit a new breed of controllers and fill all those gaps that they've clearly got." Despite repeated requests, the union which represents air traffic controllers, CivilAir, declined an interview with the ABC, but did provide a letter. http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/report-finds-serious-safety-management-231736596.html Back to Top Outbound China Airlines aircraft damaged by aerobridge at NAIA 'Miss me'? an over-eager aerobridge seems to be telling this China Airlines plane as an aerobridge operator's miscalculation dented the Boeing 737-800 plane's door when it parked, forcing the cancellation of the turn-around flight to Taipei and stranding over 100 passengers. Sources estimate repair cost to run from $1 million to $3 million. MANILA, Philippines - A China Airlines aircraft bound for Taipei was damaged Monday after it was hit by an aerobridge tube in an apparent case of "over-steering" at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1, stranding 114 passengers. China Airlines flight CI 701 arrived around 9:30 am Monday and was parked at Bay 2, but was accidentally dented by the aerobridge tube where passengers pass to board and get off a plane. Airline sources identified the aerobridge operator as Carmelo Adaptante. He reportedly hit the lower portion of the Boeing 737-800 plane's door as he "over-steered," creating a small damage to the plane. Sources said the China Airlines flight CI 702, a turnaround flight, was cancelled for safety reasons due to what they called a "minor" incident. China Airlines officials said 40 out of the 114 passengers were booked on an Eva Air flight bound for Taipei, while the remaining passengers were transferred to other flight of China Airlines. Airport sources estimated the plane damage to range from $1 million if the dent is "minimal," but said the repair cost could run up to $ 3 million if it bore serious damage. http://www.interaksyon.com/article/66414/outbound-china-airlines-aircraft-damaged-by-aerobridge-at-naia Back to Top 2013 Aviation Human Factors and SMS Seminar - Dallas, July 23-24, 2013 Just under a month until the 2013 Aviation Human Factors and SMS Seminar in Dallas, July 23-24 at the Frontiers of Flight Museum, from 8-5 each day. The seminar fee is $100. Please RSVP if you plan to attend. We have a great speaker lineup, entertaining venue and a chance to share best practices with your fellow professionals. FMI: http://www.signalcharlie.net/Seminar+2013 Registration: http://www.signalcharlie.net/Seminar+Registration+2013 Kent B. Lewis (850) 449-4841 www.signalcharlie.net Back to Top Back to Top The World's Fastest Business Jet? Despite enormous odds, a small aircraft startup hopes to sell the world's fastest business plane, one styled after a military fighter jet. Saker Aircraft is pitching its two-seat S-1 as the only airplane able to fly business executives and playboys at just under the speed of sound. The plane will have a maximum speed of Mach 0.99 but will cruise at 0.95, or about 720 miles per hour, a good deal faster than most commercial flights. Why not Mach 1? Federal authorities prohibit supersonic flight over the U.S., because sonic booms are annoying. The $5 million jet is supposed to appeal to executives who want to zip from Los Angeles to Chicago, or New York to Florida, in about two hours. "That's what we're selling: the fastest aircraft available," says Saker CEO Sean Gillette, a 25-year-old ex-Air Force pilot from Santa Monica, Calif., who says he has spent about $100,000 of his own savings to design the S-1. The jet's development is estimated to cost roughly $350 million, with a delivery target date set for sometime in 2019. The plane's speed could prove critical for passengers in another important way: There's no toilet on board. Nor is there a desk, table, or sofa-common amenities on business aircraft, many of which hit speeds only marginally slower than the S-1. (Cessna Aircraft's (TXT) Citation X cruises at Mach 0.93 and carries nine passengers, although at $23 million, it's about 4.5 times the price of the Stryker.) The S-1s lack of comforts for a gazillionaire could hinder sales, although Gillette says the airplane represents a new niche in aviation- quick flights under 1,600 nautical miles. "We know our jet is not going to be for everybody," he said. External fuel pods will increase the plane's range to about 2,200 miles, just under the distance for a transcontinental flight. The S-1, which will also come with an ejection seat option, is counting on the fact that half of all business jet trips are made with one or two passengers, even with planes that can carry 10 or more people. "It's like one person riding a bus," says John Narraway, Saker's marketing director. Charlie Johnson, the former president and chief operating officer of Cessna, and a former U.S. fighter pilot, has been working with Saker as an advisor. Johnson is also the former president of Aviation Technology Group, which designed a similar aircraft called the Javelin in the early 2000s and collected 120 preorders before financing dried up; the company dissolved in 2008. He predicts that the S-1 will field at least enough orders for the company to produce 50 planes each year for a decade - provided it can find the money to proceed. Gillette says he and Johnson are talking with an investment bank, name undisclosed. Still, if you have gobs of spare cash and want to fly fast, why not just buy an old fighter jet? That's what the Google (GOOG) founders,Larry Page and Sergey Brin did in 2008, getting a Dornier Alpha Jet from Europe. Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Paul Allen acquired a Russian MiG 29 two years ago. Oracle (ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison, an avid fan of airplanes and boats, has also purchased fighter jets, according to the New York Times. Fighter jets are relatively cheap, too: A 1980s era L-39 Albatros jet from the former Czechoslovakia can be had for under $200,000, while aged Russian MiGs are sold online for as little as $79,000, less than a high-end Audi. But Johnson says a speed demon with a fat bank account cannot buy current military hardware to fly fast, and he contends that an old fighter jet is far from safe. "The old airplanes require a lot of care and feeding. Nothing in the world is nicer than something that's brand-new and high-performance," he says. "When you talk to these guys who want to buy [a fighter], the wives are the ones who roll their eyes." http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-15/the-worlds-fastest-business-jet Back to Top GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY My name is Joseph Arnold. I am graduate student with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I am in the process of working on my Capstone project. My project is to assess the accident rates of Regional Carriers and determine the underlying cause(s). I intend on comparing Regional carriers to Major Airlines as a comparative study. I have developed a survey for this purpose. I seek to survey active FAR Part 121 pilots of Regional Carriers and Major Airlines. You were refered to me as a person whom I could contact to distribute my survey to participants. The link is below: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FSKVR8R I would appreciate your assistance greatly. Respectfully, Joseph Arnold Curt Lewis