Flight Safety Information December 29, 2014 - No. 261 In This Issue Official: Missing jet likely at 'bottom of the sea' Another Malaysia-linked plane disappearance spooks air travellers Singapore activates air force, navy for search for missing jet Taiwan Pilots Couldn't See Runway 21 Seconds Before Crash Analyst: 'Indonesia has a poor air safety record' AI exec's daughter violated safety norms (India) Missing plane: How airlines use tracking technology PRISM TO HELP PREPARE FOR E-IOSA From Hybrid Cars To Hybrid Airplanes? ERAU NextGen 101 Seminar - Washington, D.C. Upcoming Events Official: Missing jet likely at 'bottom of the sea' Southeast Asia was mourning its third airline catastrophe of the year Sunday after an AirAsia jet with 162 people aboard vanished in violent weather and was believed to be at the bottom of an Indonesian sea. The fate of Flight 8501 remained a mystery almost a full day after it vanished. But at news conference today, Indonesian National Search and Rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said, "Based on the coordinates that we know, the evaluation would be that any estimated crash position is in the sea, and that the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea." The Airbus A320 was bound for Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia, when it lost contact with air-traffic control Sunday at about 7:24a.m. Singapore time (6:24p.m. ET on Saturday), the airline said. "We have no idea at the moment what went wrong," said Tony Fernandes, CEO of the regional, low-cost carrier. "Let's not speculate at the moment." The search resumed after dawn Monday - early Sunday evening ET. First Admiral Sigit Setiayana, the Naval Aviation Center commander at the Surabaya air force base, said that 12 navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships were talking part in the search, along with ships and planes from Singapore and Malaysia. The Australian Air Force also sent a search plane. Jakarta's Air Force base commander Rear Marshal Dwi Putranto said he was informed Monday that the Australian Orion plane had spotted suspicious objects in the sea near Nangka island, 700 miles from where the plane lost contact. "However, we cannot be sure whether it is part of the missing AirAsia plane," Putranto said, "We are now moving in that direction, which is in cloudy conditions." USA TODAY AirAsia Flight 8501: What we know Air Force spokesman Rear Marshal Hadi Tjahnanto told MetroTV that an Indonesian helicopter in the eastern part of Belitung island spotted two oily spots on the sea about 105 nautical miles east of Tanjung Pandan - much closer to the point of last contact. He said samples of the oil would be collected and analyzed to see if they are connected to the missing plane. The tragedy marks the third commercial air disaster involving airlines in the region this year. Mystery still shrouds Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared March 8 without a trace en route to Beijing with 239 people aboard. On July 17, another Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down over rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine while on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 people on board. Miami aviation lawyer Steve Marks said it's "inexcusable" that airlines, after the Flight 370 horror, don't use satellites to track every aircraft throughout every flight. "The technology exists and has existed for years and for whatever reason, it has not been implemented," Marks said. Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia's acting director general of transportation, said that minutes before the AirAsia flight disappeared from radar, the pilot asked air traffic control for permission to avoid a cloud bank by turning left and going higher, to 34,000 feet. Flight 8501 gave no distress signal, he said. AccuWeather meteorologist Tyler Roys told USA TODAY the area along the flight path was blasted by a string of severe thunderstorms when the jet disappeared. "It's hard to say if 34,000 feet would have been enough," Roys said. "We know the thunderstorms were very tall, very high up. They could have encountered severe turbulence, strong wind shear, lightning and even icing at that altitude." Christopher Herbster, associate professor of applied meteorology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., said vertical wind in a thunderstorm is profoundly turbulent and can reach hurricane force. Turbulence "can affect one side of an aircraft disproportionately more than the other side, and create that oscillating back-and-forth motion of the wings" that can terrify passengers, he said. But even if the flight was affected by storms, the pilots should have been able to communicate the emergency, Herbster told USA TODAY. "Something must have happened abruptly," Herbster said. "You would expect that unless something catastrophic occurred, they would have at least had time to declare an emergency." AirAsia said in a statement that the jet has seven crewmembers and 155 passengers, including 16 children and one infant. Among the passengers are 149 Indonesians and three South Koreans, one Malaysian, a Briton and his 2-year-old Singaporean daughter. Murjatmodjo said the jet is believed to have gone missing somewhere over the Java Sea between Tanjung Pandan on Belitung Island and Pontianak, on Indonesia's part of Borneo island. Contact was lost about 42 minutes after takeoff from Surabaya airport, authorities said. USA TODAY Theories - what might have happened to AirAsia plane? Financial services company Allianz said its subsidiary Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty UK is the lead insurance firm for the missing aircraft. In a statement, the German-based firm said it is too early to comment on the incident itself, but expressed its support for those affected by it. AirAsia, which has dominated cheap travel in the region for years, has never lost an aircraft. AirAsia Malaysia owns 49% of the Indonesian subsidiary. Flight 8501 was operated by AirAsia Indonesia. a subsidiary that is 49% owned by AirAsia Malaysia.AirAsia officials changed the airline's Facebook and Twitter account logos from red to gray after the plane disappeared. The plane's captain, identified in flight documents as Capt. Iriyanto, had a total of 20,000 flying hours, including 6,100 in the Airbus. The first officer had a total of 2,275 flying hours, said AirAsia, based in Sepang, Malaysia, near Kuala Lumpur. Finding the jet or its wreckage quickly has become more of an issue since the disappearance of Flight 370. Voice and data recorders, known as black boxes, will describe precisely what the pilots were saying and how the jet was behaving. The black boxes have locator beacons that signal if an aircraft sinks in water, but the batteries are only required to last 30 days. That deadline has long since passed for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Now the clock is running for AirAsia Flight 8501. "You really need to focus your efforts very quickly on the right search area to identify floating debris because it disappears over a period of weeks," Marks said. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/12/29/missing-airasia-jet/20988607/ Back to Top Another Malaysia-linked plane disappearance spooks air travellers Agency: We assume jet at 'bottom of sea' * Series of plane accidents seen hitting tourism, airlines * Malaysia seeks to distance itself from latest incident * Missing AirAsia flight presumed to have crashed at sea * Cheap flights could limit impact on company KUALA LUMPUR/SINGAPORE, Dec 29 (Reuters) - What appears to be a third air disaster involving a Malaysian carrier in less than a year has further dented confidence in the country's aviation industry and spooked air travellers across the region. A plane belonging to Indonesia AirAsia, 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia, vanished on Sunday on a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. There were 162 people on board Flight QZ8501, which is presumed to have crashed at sea. Malaysia's only other airline, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) , was involved in twin air disasters this year with flight MH370 disappearing over the southern Indian Ocean in March and MH17 being shot down over Ukraine a few months later. Many travellers have been apprehensive about using Malaysia Airlines over fears that the company was "cursed", and now people are expressing concerns about AirAsia. "This is a bit unsettling, because of how many times it's happened to us. It looks like a Malaysia problem now," said Daniel Lim, a 26-year-old financial executive who flew on two domestic Malaysian AirAsia flights in the past week. "With MAS, I thought it was the exception, but this is the third incident and I'm a bit worried about flying on any Malaysian airline now." Hong Leong Investment Bank said in a research note that following the MH370 and MH17 incidents, the case of AirAsia QZ8501 is likely to have a deep impact on demand for air travel in the region. Malaysia Airlines has already been severely affected. Last month the company posted its worst quarterly loss since late 2011, as passenger numbers and average fare yields fell sharply. The airline's passenger numbers dropped 14 percent year-on-year in the July-Sept period. The company will be delisted from the stock market on Dec. 31 as part of a 6 billion-ringgit ($1.8 billion) government-led restructuring to revive its fortunes. Shares in AirAsia were down over 8.5 percent at the end of trade on Monday. CHEAP FLIGHTS A MAJOR FACTOR Malaysia, Southeast Asia's third-largest economy, is known internationally as a culinary haven with pristine beaches hours from the capital Kuala Lumpur. This year's earlier air disasters had only a short-term impact on Malaysia's tourism industry, which accounts for 13 percent of gross domestic product, although the AirAsia case could further deter travellers from using domestic airlines. Several travel agents in Kuala Lumpur said they had received calls from passengers reluctant to fly with Malaysia Airlines or AirAsia after what happened over the weekend. But others said AirAsia, which has changed the landscape of Southeast Asia's travel industry with its competitive fares, should overcome any setback. "Flying with AirAsia has always been a cost issue; they've marketed themselves as the economic option," said Derek Kok, a 22-year-old law graduate in Kuala Lumpur. "At the end of the day it boils down to the economic issue. It's the cheapest option and that will continue." Wary of the potential impact, Malaysia has tried to distance itself from the AirAsia incident. "We must focus on the fact that this aircraft is registered in Indonesia, the state of occurrence is in Indonesia, the state of registry is in Indonesia - it is an Indonesian aircraft," transport minister Liow Tiong Lai told reporters on Monday. When asked to respond to people's fears about flying on Malaysian carriers, he said: "Don't be prejudiced," and added he was confident of the airworthiness of Malaysian jets. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/29/indonesia-airplane-malaysia-idUSL6N0UD08T20141229 Back to Top Singapore activates air force, navy for search for missing jet SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore said on Sunday it has activated its air force and navy to help in the search and rescue operation for the AirAsia jet that went missing on a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore. "Two C130s are already on stand-by for this purpose. We remain ready to provide any assistance to support the search and rescue effort," the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said in a statement. A waiting area, and facilities and support have been set up for relatives at Changi Airport Terminal 2, it said. http://news.yahoo.com/singapore-activates-air-force-navy-search-missing-jet-043050170--finance.html Back to Top Taiwan Pilots Couldn't See Runway 21 Seconds Before Crash Rescue workers and firefighters search through the wreckage where Transasia Airways... Read More Pilots of a fatal July 23 TransAsia Airways Corp. (6702) flight couldn't find the runway seconds before their aircraft crashed on Taiwan's outlying Penghu islands, killing 48 people, according to an accident report published today. "Have you seen the runway?" the captain of flight GE222 asked his first officer in Mandarin as their aircraft approached Magong Airport. "No," the first officer responded clearly after nine seconds. The cockpit voice recording ended 12 seconds later, a transcript of the tape shows. Ten people survived when the domestic flight from Taiwan's southern Kaohsiung Airport hit houses in Penghu's Xixi Village near the runway. The report is a factual account and doesn't draw any conclusion or lay blame for the crash, Aviation Safety Council spokeswoman Sherry Liu said in an interview. A draft assessment is expected to be completed in June with the final report to be published in October, the council said in a press statement today. The two pilots of the ATR 72-500 twin-engine turbo-propeller aircraft knew that weather conditions fell below minimum requirements required to land at Magong when they took off from Kaohsiung at 5:45 p.m. on July 23, the council said. The same pilots had flown from Magong to Kaohsiung earlier in the day, it said. The domestic flight usually takes 35 minutes, according to schedules posted on the Kaohsiung airport Website. Typhoon Matmo passed Taiwan earlier that day and had reached coastal China by early afternoon. Thunderstorms About 26 minutes after takeoff, flight GE222 was put in a holding pattern for 34 minutes during which time air traffic control reported wind conditions that would provide a headwind for aircraft landing at south- facing Runway 20, according to today's statement. Aircraft usually takeoff and land into a headwind because it provides more lift at slower speeds. At 6:21 p.m., while GE222 was flying circles in the skies between Penghu and mainland Taiwan, aircraft were advised that thunderstorms around Magong would likely continue for another hour. The thunderstorm warning was repeated 20 minutes later. While wind conditions pointed to Runway 20, the pilots twice requested permission to land at the opposing north-facing Runway 02, which would give them a tailwind. Runway 02 has an advanced Instrument Landing System, or ILS, which assists pilots to fly the correct direction, altitude and glide slope. Their requests weren't approved by Taiwan's military, which also operates at the airport. Runway 02 At 7:03 p.m., one hour and 48 minutes after takeoff and with the pilots established on their final approach path, GE222 was given permission to land at Runway 20 which has more basic navigation systems than Runway 02. That clearance was given six minutes after a similar aircraft operated by UNI Air landed successfully on the same Runway 20, the report shows. The UNI Air flight had also requested Runway 02 and didn't get approval. At 7:05 and 54 seconds, two minutes after getting landing clearance, GE222 passed below 200 feet and reached a critical moment called Missed Approach Point, at which pilots are required to discontinue the landing and execute a go around if they can't see a prescribed visual reference, usually the runway. Unseen Runway Four seconds later Captain Lee Yi-lian, with almost 23,000 hours of flight time, asked his fateful question. In the seconds it took for the aircraft to climb, bank sharply to the left and then point nose down, first officer Chiang Kuan-hsing replied in the negative. "No," Captain Lee echoed. "No, sir," his first officer repeated. Four seconds later flight GE222, with 58 people on board, had descended to 72 feet, barely above the height of nearby trees. "Go around," they both called, boosting the engines' throttle just seconds before the cockpit voice recorder captured an unidentified sound. Flight data shows an engine had slowed and the pitot tube, which sits on the outside of the plane and is used to measure airspeed, had been broken. "Go around, go around," the first officer radioed to the Magong control tower in English. "Roger," came the reply. Less than a second later, a final unidentified sound was heard before the voice recorder fell silent at 7:06 p.m. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-26/taiwan-pilots-couldn-t-see-runway-21-seconds-before- crash.html Back to Top Analyst: 'Indonesia has a poor air safety record' AirAsia had a flawless safety record before its Flight 8501 went missing. But aviation expert Chris Yates tells DW the same cannot be said about many other Indonesian carriers that are plagued by safety issues. Two Indonesian air hostess stand next to a Boeing 737-900 plane of the new Indonesian airline Batik Air, a subsidiary of Lion Air is parked at the Soekarno-Hatta airport during the launching ceremony in Tangerang in the outskirt of Jakarta on April 25, 2013 AirAsia's Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control on early Sunday, December 28, just after the pilots requested a change in course to avoid bad weather. On board the Airbus A320-200, traveling from Indonesia's Surabaya to Singapore, were 162 people - 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans and one each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain, plus a French pilot. Regarded as one of the pioneers of discount air travel in Asia, the Indonesian airline had had no fatal accident since it started flying in 2002. But the same doesn't apply to many other Indonesia-based airlines. The Aviation Safety Network, an independent initiative which covers accidents and safety issues with regard to airliners, military transport planes and corporate jets, lists more than 50 safety incidents over the past ten years involving carriers in Indonesia, some of which ended fatally. With the exception of Garuda Airlines, Mandala Airlines (not currently operating), Airfast and Ekspres Transportasi Antarbenua (operating as PremiAir) and Air Asia, all other Indonesian passenger airlines are currently banned from flying in the European Union because of safety concerns. The US State Department encourages US citizens traveling to and from Indonesia "to fly directly to their destinations on international carriers from countries whose civil aviation authorities meet international aviation safety standards for the oversight of their air carrier operations under the FAA's International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program." UK-based independent aviation expert Chris Yates says in a DW interview that Indonesian airlines have had nine safety incidents in 2014 alone. He adds that although the disappearance of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 is probably linked to bad weather conditions, the incident will certainly put the country's air safety issues back in the spotlight. DW: What can you tell us about AirAsia's safety record? Chris Yates: Since its inception in 2001, AirAsia has had a clean bill of health. The airline has had what some would say a meteoric rise to dominance within the markets it serves and entirely without incident until yesterday. Previously, the airline operated a mixed fleet, including the Boeing 737, but nowadays operates only the Airbus A320 series aircraft. It does so because of the economic benefits standardization on a type brings with it. Indonesia's vice-president Jusuf Kalla (L) monitors progress in the search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 during a visit to the National Search and Rescue Agency in Jakarta December 28, 2014 in this picture supplied by Antara Foto Yates: ' There have been nine incidents this year alone, though fortunately with no casualties' Would you agree with those who argue that the recent disappearance of the AirAsia jet is only the latest in a series of air incidents for Indonesia? It's true to say that Indonesia has a very poor safety record. There have been nine incidents this year alone, though fortunately with no casualties. Perhaps the most serious incident of recent times occured in 2007, when an AdamAir Boeing 737 crashed 85 kilometers (53.1 miles) West off Pambauang, claiming the lives of everyone aboard. Some 102 passengers and crew lost their lives. With the birth of Indonesian AirAsia, it had been hoped that the country had turned a corner in terms of its air safety record, but the recent loss of this Airbus A320 has brought the old questions flooding back. Do you see any link between the recent AirAsia jet disappearance and the Indonesia's air safety record? DW RECOMMENDS Search for AirAsia QZ8501 - live updates Search efforts involving several nations are continuing for a second day this Monday. Fears are mounting that the Singapore-bound AirAsia may be lying on the seabed. Read the latest here. (29.12.2014) Malaysians still love national airline despite tragedies Malaysia Airlines set for major overhaul At the moment there is nothing to suggest that these factors are connected in any way. From the abundance of information already in the public domain, it would seem that the loss of the AirAsia airliner may well be down to the weather. The region within which it was flying is equatorial and therefore subject to dramatic weather conditions. At the time of this incident, cumulus mimbus cloud was measured up to 50,000 feet altitude within which storm formations were throwing out severe gales and torrential rain. The pilot had requested a deviation from his planned track and a climb to higher altitude, although permission was not given due to conflicting traffic. He was presumably attempting to discover smoother air in which to continue the flight to Singapore. It is my view that weather conditions alone brought this aircraft out of the sky. Why do Indonesian airlines have such problems with safety? Issues with safety have many causes including poor maintenance, pilot training, mechanical, and air traffic control among other things. It is human nature to demand answers when a tragedy occurs, but they can only be given once an investigation has taken place. In the case of Flight QZ8501 we need to find the wreckage, recover the twin black box recorders and throughly analyze them, before we can get to a definitive answer. At the moment we simply cannot rule anything out, but in the end the answer may well lay with the weather. Do Indonesian airlines face restrictions because of air safety incidents? Indonesian carriers have faced international restrictions in the past. A no-fly ban was placed on Indonesia by the European Union in 2007 but this was subsequently lifted in 2010 for several airliners since an audit of safety records found significant improvement. What more can the aviation industry do to improve safety? An AirAsia Airbus A320 passenger jet lands at Sukarno-Hatta airport in Tangerang on the outskirts of Jakarta in this January 30, 2013 file picture (Photo: REUTERS/Enny Nuraheni/Files) Yates: 'It is my view that weather conditions alone brought this aircraft out of the sky' The loss of Malaysia Airlines MH370 earlier this year threw up a whole bunch of questions related to tracking of aircraft and finally exposed the ACARS communications system relied upon carriers around the world as no longer being fit for purpose. The goal now is to find an alternative solution capable of sending voice and data directly to ground in the event of an airborne emergency. How can this be achieved? Numerous companies are working on this task. One such is Wisscom Aerospace Ltd, based in Oxford, England. Its SMARTTRACK & CLOUDBOX products are software solutions which may go someway to filling this void in the communications infrastructure supporting civil aviation. However, any new technology requires a hard-nosed civil aviation sector to buy in. The tragic loss of the AirAsia flight may well provide the catalyst for some soul searching amongst airline management, and products such as these will find their way into aircraft cabins before too long. Chris Yates is an independent aviation safety consultant based in the United Kingdom. http://www.dw.de/analyst-indonesia-has-a-poor-air-safety-record/a-18155440 Back to Top AI exec's daughter violated safety norms (India) In an alleged violation of aviation safety norms, daughter of a senior Air India executive travelled in the bunk meant exclusively for flight crew members, during a flight to Newark recently. Air India aircrafts are seen parked on the tarmac of the international airport in Mumbai. (Sattish Bate/HT Photo) The complaint was lodged by KVJ Rao, a union leader and former Air India cabin crew, with the secretary of civil aviation ministry, V Somasundaran. Rao alleged that the daughter of a senior Air India pilot was first allowed to sit on the jump seat - meant for non-operating staff - and then to rest in the bunk meant only for the resting of pilots. The alleged incident happened aboard a 14-hour long flight from Mumbai to Newark on December 13. "For take off, rest and landing she was illegally allowed to sit in the cabin crew horizontal rest area (bunk) by the commander. Immediately after the flight took off, the First Officer of the flight was asked to relax in the vertical seat (jump seat) and denied his horizontal rest in the bunk beds. When the second set of cockpit crew went to rest she was then moved to the cabin crew rest area," Rao said in his complaint. In his complaint, Rao also alleged that a first class passenger was forced to sit in the executive class during a flight from Frankfurt to Delhi so as to accommodate a senior bureaucrat in November. When contacted, an Air India spokesperson refused to comment on the issue, while Somasundaran said denied having any knowledge of such a complaint. http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/senior-air-india-executive-s-daughter-travels-in-pilot-bunk- violating-safety-norms/article1-1300837.aspx Back to Top Missing plane: How airlines use tracking technology As another plane has gone missing in Southeast Asia, attention is paid to the tracking systems that commercial airlines use. AirAsia Flight QZ8501, carrying 162 people, lost contact with air traffic control. Planes typically relay maintenance information in flight to their manufacturers or airlines. This data can also help track a lost plane like Air France Flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic in 2009. In the case of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the technology at issue is called ACARS, for Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System. The system sends different sorts of information between the plane and airlines and manufacturers on the ground. Depending on the sophistication of the information, the airline might receive the information itself or rely on the manufacturer to relay it for a fee. John Hansman, director of the International Center for Air Transportation at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, estimates 90% of U.S. planes have some version of the system because it saves airlines money. At first, the precise monitoring of when brakes were engaged or when planes took off or landed helped airlines track personnel costs more accurately, Hansman said. Maintenance reports can show when an engine is running hotter than usual, which signals wear, he said. "The reason why people do this is because if something breaks in flight, if maintenance gets the message they can actually be at the landing point with the replacement part and fix the airplane and turn it around quickly," Hansman said. In general, the messages can be sent cheaply over land by VHF signal, like the Apollo astronauts used, Hansman said. Or they can be sent over water by satellite, which is a more expensive service to send messages, he said. The sophistication of the service depends on what the airline would like to spend. For example, Boeing promotes a service called custom alerting and analysis, which is available for 777, 747 and 787 aircraft with high-speed Internet connections. It monitors fuel, flight controls, landing gear, hydraulic power and communications. "The major carriers collect it themselves because they have the capability of processing it and deciphering it and so forth," said David Greenberg, who worked 27 years at Delta Air Lines and is now an airline consultant as president of Compass Group. "My understanding is that Malaysia doesn't subscribe to the Boeing program and that they collect the data for their own use." While Malaysia Airlines and its manufacturers aren't saying what sort of service was used on Flight 370, the Airbus A330 in the Air France crash had sophisticated messaging that reported problems with airspeed and altitude that helped track down the missing plane. "In Air France, that's how they knew where to look," Hansman said. This missing AirAsia aircraft is an Airbus A320-200. Relatives of missing passengers cry at the crisis centerRelatives of missing passengers cry at the crisis center as they await the official news of all 162 people on board the AirAsia flight after it lost contact with air traffic control at 07:24 a.m. local time Sunday morning. (Photo: Robertus Pudyanto, Getty Images) http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/12/28/missing-planes-tracking-systems/20961135/ Back to Top Back to Top From Hybrid Cars To Hybrid Airplanes? 'Green' Aircraft Successfully Tested In The UK Planes go hybrid-electric After hybrid cars, has the time come for hybrid aircrafts? It's still to early to tell, but researchers of Cambridge University, working in association with Boeing BA +0.3%, have just announced a first important step in this direction. On Tuesday, in Sywell Aerodrome, near Northampton, they ran a series of test flights using an aircraft powered by a parallel hybrid-electric propulsion system. The aircraft, a modified, commercially-available, lightweight single-seater, uses a combination of a 4- stroke piston engine and an electric motor, which could also turn into a power generator. The hybrid power system is based on a Honda engine; the batteries, a set of 16 large lithium-polymer cells, are located in special compartments built into the wings. The petrol engine and the electric motor combined fuel the plane during take-off and climb, when maximum power is required. Then, once cruising height is reached, the electric motor can be switched into generator mode to recharge the batteries while in flight, or used in motor assist mode to minimise consumption. Nothing new, to be sure: this same principle is at work in hybrid cars. What has been holding back its implementation in aircrafts until now, is battery technology. "Until recently, they have been too heavy and didn't have enough energy capacity. But with the advent of improved lithium-polymer batteries, similar to what you'd find in a laptop computer, hybrid aircraft - albeit at a small scale - are now starting to become viable," Dr Paul Robertson of Cambridge's Department of Engineering, said in a statement. The demonstrator aircraft uses up to 30% less fuel than a comparable plane with a petrol-only engine and, in Northampton, after making a series of test hops along the runway, flew for several minutes at a height of over 1,500 feet. But don't dream of boarding a "greener" commercial jetliner anytime soon; as researchers made clear, there's still a lot of work to do before this becomes possible - and much more battery capacity is needed. For now, if all the engines and all the fuel in a standard airliner were to be replaced by batteries, it would have a total flying time of around ten minutes. "We're looking decades away before an electric airliner will be a viable possibility," Robertson said. As things stand, the demonstrator will be used by reseachers used mainly as a test-bed, to gather data and experiment with different configurations. In the future, perhaps, hybrid technology could be initially applied to small, personal aircrafts, a means of transportation that could become increasingly common, as roads become too congested and commuters try to find easier ways to reach their destinations. More research will be needed, however, to address the complex issue of aviation emissions, which right now ammount to roughly 2% of man-made carbon emissions. The situation is getting worse, and the faster a solution is provided, the better. According to ICAO's (International Civil Aviation Organization) estimates, by 2020, global international aviation emissions are projected to be around 70% higher than in 2005. By 2050 they could triple, if unchecked. http://www.forbes.com/sites/federicoguerrini/2014/12/26/hybrid-electric-airplane-successfully-tested-in- the-uk/ Back to Top ERAU NextGen 101 Seminar - Washington, D.C. "The Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide Office of Professional Education is pleased to announce a two-day seminar entitled NextGen 101. The course is designed to identify the key concepts, attributes, and challenges of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). Government and industry employees with an interest in NextGen, aviation stakeholders and members of the military transitioning to a career in civilian education should attend. The course will take place in Washington D.C. on April 21-22, 2015. Course fee is $750 per person or $675 per person with five or more people registering from the same group. For more information and to register, please visit us online at http://proed.erau.edu/programs/specialized- industry-training/nextgen-101-seminar/index.html" Back to Top Upcoming Events: IS-BAO Workshop Information and Registration 13 - 14 Jan. 2015 Baltimore, MD USA https://www.regonline.com/CalendarNET/EventCalendar.aspx?EventID=1592658&view=Month A3IR CON 2015 January 16-17, 2015 Phoenix, AZ http://commons.erau.edu/aircon/2015/ Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) NTSB Training Center, Ashburn, VA March 10-11, 2015 www.acsf.aero/symposium ERAU NextGen 101 Seminar April 21-22, 2015. Washington D.C. http://proed.erau.edu/programs/specialized-industry-training/nextgen-101-seminar/index.html FAA Helicopter Safety Effort three-day safety forum April 21-23, 2015 Hurst, Texas eugene.trainor@faa.gov www.faahelisafety.org Curt Lewis