Flight Safety Information July 1, 2015 - No. 128 In This Issue Indonesia plane crash: children, paying passengers among 141 dead on 'old' air force carrier TransAsia plane crash: crew 'shut off working engine' Lufthansa Offers Compensation to Families of Germanwings Crash Victims Not flying high: CAA grounds Air Indus over safety concerns Smoke fills plane cockpit at Bush airport FAA says a teen, not young child, cranked up helicopter at Mankato air show United Airlines flight UA914 lands at London Heathrow after issuing emergency alert Sweden's top military commander: Russian fighter pilots shot flares at our jets Sea-Tac passengers held aboard jet while sick woman checked PROS 2015 TRAINING A third runway at London Heathrow airport will never fly F-35 Loses Dogfight to Fighter Jet From the 1980s Airbus Wins $18 Billion China Deal, Plans Jet-Completion Site Boeing 747 Jumbo Sales Get Tougher as U.S. Ends Ex-Im Funds This boomerang-like aircraft could be the first to fly on Mars TEEX - Infrastructure And Safety Summits...McAllen, Texas...July 20 - 24, 2015 Embry-Riddle Research Survey Request Upcoming Events JOBS AVAILABLE (New Positions) Indonesia plane crash: children, paying passengers among 141 dead on 'old' air force carrier Air force transport carrying military personnel and their families plowed into a residential neighborhood, killing dozens. As the death toll continues to rise from Tuesday's crash of an army transport plane in Indonesia, reaching 141 as of Wednesday morning, the country's politicians and military leaders are facing uncomfortable questions as to why anyone was allowed on the 50- year-old aircraft, let alone children and paying passengers. "It was an old aircraft, already 50 years, but it was about to undergo a retrofit," Vice President Jusuf Kalla said shortly after the crash, according to the Jakarta Post. The American-manufactured C-130 Hercules cargo plane crashed just two minutes after takeoff on Tuesday morning, killing everyone on board and several dozen people on the ground. Witnesses reported seeing flames and smoke streaming from the aircraft in the moments before it smashed into a residential block shops and homes in the city of Medan, the Associated Press reported. The pilot, identified by the Jakarta Post as Capt. Sandhy Permana Alumni, radioed the control tower seconds before the crash saying that he needed to return to the airport because of engine trouble, according to the AP. Officials say the death toll is likely to rise in a military plane crash in northern Indonesia. (Reuters) As details of the deadly crash have emerged, the death toll has risen exponentially, raising questions about the Indonesian air force's reliability. At first, the air force reported only that the plane had 12 crew members when it crashed. But Indonesian officials repeatedly raised the numbers of passengers, from five to 20 to 37 to its current tally of at least 141, fueling concerns about lax controls and raising the possibility that paying passengers were improperly allowed aboard the aging plane. Air force spokesperson Dwi Bandarmanto admitted on Wednesday that there had been 122 passengers in addition to the 12 crew. "We had the list of the manifest and it was changing a lot," he told the Guardian. "There was some children who were not named on the manifest, maybe five to eight children." Bandarmanto said the majority of those on board belonged to military families, but he also confirmed that the government is investigating whether the crew broke regulations by allowing others to purchase spots aboard the plane. Hitching rides on military planes is common in the archipelago of over 17,000 islands, although the air force has recently promised to crack down on the practice, according to the Guardian. Military family members, however, are allowed to board air force flights for free with special permission. Seventeen-year-old Reni Sihotang and his older brother Ruly were among the military family members feared dead in the crash. They were allowed to fly for free since their eldest brother, Andi Paulus Sihotang, is a first lieutenant. "It is not the first time we joined a Hercules flight," said their father, Sahala Sihotang, according to the Jakarta Post. He added that his eldest son now blames himself for the death of his siblings. The death toll is fast approaching the grim tally of 162 set in December when an AirAsia flight crashed on its way from Indonesia to Singapore. Security forces and rescue teams examine the wreckage of an Indonesian military C-130 Hercules transport plane after it crashed into a residential area in the North Sumatra city of Medan, Indonesia, June 30, 2015. At least 30 people were killed when the military transport plane crashed into a residential area two minutes after take-off in northern Indonesia on Tuesday, putting a fresh spotlight on the country's woeful air safety record. REUTERS/Roni Bintang TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY Indonesia's aging military fleet has proved particularly dangerous. Ten air force or police planes have crashed in the past decade, according to the Aviation Safety Network. Several previous crashes have involved the same type of plane that went down on Tuesday. In 2009, another American-made Hercules carrier careened into a clutch of houses before crashing in a rice field, killing 95 passengers and two people on the ground. In 2001, another Hercules overshot its runway, colliding an airport perimeter fence and bursting into flames. The Hercules that crashed on Tuesday was made in the United States in 1964, the Jakarta Post reported. At the time, Indonesia was a close American ally in the fight against communism. Following a failed leftist coup attempt in 1965, the Indonesian military carried out a bloody purge of suspected communists, with the death roll reaching an estimated 500,000. Indonesia first received Hercules airplanes from the U.S. government in 1958 in exchange for CIA pilot Allan Pope, who had been arrested for helping rebels, the Jakarta Post reported. As anger rose over the age of the plane involved in Tuesday's crash, Indonesian leaders argued that the tragedy demonstrated a need to modernize the country's air force. "The accident serves as a red light for the military, which urgently needs to upgrade its equipment," said the Indonesian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mahfudz Siddiq on Tuesday. Indonesian president Joko Widodo demanded an inspection of the country's remaining C- 130s, telling reporters on Wednesday that the crash gave the country the "momentum" needed to update its military. "I have also instructed the Minister of Defense and Commander in Chief to undertake a fundamental overhaul of the management of military defense equipment," Widodo said, according to the Guardian. "The most important procurement should be directed to the independence of the defense industry so that we can fully control the readiness of defense equipment. "The evacuation of victims from the Hercules plane must be prioritised. Then there must be an evaluation of the age of planes and defense systems," he tweeted. "Hopefully, we can stay away from disasters." Parliament member Supiadin Aries Saputra, whose NasDem Party is aligned with Widodo's, called on the government to stop buying used military equipment from other countries in order to prevent more deadly accidents, according to the Jakarta Post. The cause of Tuesday's crash is still unclear, however. "There are many possible causes," said military expert Susaningtyas Nefo Handayani Kertopati, according to the Post. "Apart from the age of the airplane, human error could have caused the incident. It is possible that the pilot could not control either the field or the aircraft." President Widodo is scheduled to visit the crash site on Wednesday. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/07/01/indonesia-plane- crash-children-paying-passengers-among-141-dead-on-old-air-force-carrier/ Back to Top TransAsia plane crash: crew 'shut off working engine' - reports Investigation report into Taipei crash that killed 43 people in February will say sole functioning engine was switched off, source tells Reuters Dashcam footage captures TransAsia Airways flight crashing into the Keelung river. The crew of a TransAsia Airways ATR plane that crashed in Taipei in February, killing 43 people on board, had shut off the working engine after the other lost power, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. The latest investigation report into the Taipei crash, to be released on Thursday, will say data readings showed the almost-new turboprop ATR 72-600 stalled and crashed shortly after the sole functioning engine was switched off, said the source. The findings of the report, by the Aviation Safety Council, will also focus on flight operations, air traffic control, weather, the air worthiness of the plane and other factors, added the source, who could not be identified because the report has not yet been made public. TransAsia declined to comment on the latest findings. The council report, which neither assigns responsibility nor suggests recommendations for improvement, paints a more detailed picture of the evidence than a preliminary report released days after the crash. In the preliminary report released in February, the council said one of the plane's two engines failed, but the pilot - for reasons unknown - shut the other functional engine, causing the plane to stall and crash. The plane, which should have been able to continue to fly on one engine, was carrying 58 passengers and crew when it lurched nose-up between buildings, clipped an overpass and a taxi with one of its wings and then crashed upside down into a shallow river in Taipei. Fifteen people survived. Rescue personnel search for passengers from the wreckage of a TransAsia ATR 72-600 turboprop plane that crash-landed into the Keelung river outside Taiwan's capital Taipei. Facebook Twitter Pinterest While the reason for second engine being shut down remains unclear, other sources familiar with the investigation told Reuters human error was probably behind it. "The pilots made a mistake here. What makes this even more unbelievable, and unfortunate, was that the mistakes took place even though there were three pilots in the cockpit," said one of the sources, who declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the topic. "That is why the focus of the investigation has been narrowed to the pilots and pilot training at TransAsia," the source added. Since the crash, Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) has put all 55 of TransAsia's ATR pilots through oral proficiency tests on how to handle an aircraft during engine failure. All but one of the pilots passed the tests, although some needed more than one attempt. The lone failure was demoted in rank to vice-captain from captain. "It was difficult to believe the captain turned off the wrong engine, but it happened anyway. That's why tests were demanded of TransAsia's ATR pilots," said another source, who also requested anonymity. A third source said TransAsia, in addition to cancelling some flights, had made a number of reforms since the crash to boost safety measures. These included inviting Jon Beatty, chief executive of the US-based non-profit Flight Safety Foundation, to bring his team to Taiwan shortly after the crash. TransAsia also set up an internal flight safety panel, which included Beatty, to report to its board, the source said. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/01/transasia-plane-crash-crew-shut-off- working-engine-reports Back to Top Lufthansa Offers Compensation to Families of Germanwings Crash Victims PARIS - More than three months after a Germanwings airliner crashed into a French mountainside, killing everyone aboard, the airline's parent company, Lufthansa, made its first proposal to pay for emotional damages on Tuesday, offering the German victims' families $28,000 each. Lawyers for the relatives immediately dismissed the figure as inadequate. The offer came on the same day that a task force led by the German government presented its initial recommendations for improving the monitoring of pilots' mental health, as well as systems and procedures governing access to the cockpit. French investigators say that the 27-year-old co-pilot of the Germanwings flight, Andreas Lubitz, deliberately crashed the plane, an Airbus A320, after locking the captain out of the cockpit. Mr. Lubitz and the 149 others on the flight, from Barcelona, Spain, to Düsseldorf, Germany, were killed. Prosecutors in France and Germany have said Mr. Lubitz had a history of severe depression and in the weeks leading up to the crash had sought out numerous doctors for treatment of anxiety, sleeplessness and a perceived problem with his vision. In a telephone briefing with reporters on Tuesday, officials from Lufthansa and Germanwings outlined the details of the compensation proposal sent to the families of the 72 victims from Germany, where, under current law, relatives of accident victims may claim only limited economic damages and are not entitled to compensation for emotional pain and suffering. The Germanwings offer includes 25,000 euros, or $28,000, in compensation per victim for pain and suffering in the minutes before the crash, on top of payments of €50,000 per family that were made in the initial weeks after the March 24 crash to cover funeral and other immediate expenses. The airline also said it would pay a further €10,000 in emotional damages to each victim's immediate family members, limited to parents, children, and spouses or partners that lived together. Siblings, grandparents and grandchildren will not be compensated unless they are able to demonstrate specific hardship. Lufthansa said compensation offers to the victims of other nationalities would be made in the coming weeks. The victims came from more than 17 countries. Elmar M. Giemulla, a lawyer in Berlin who represents relatives of roughly 30 of the German crash victims, described the airline's compensation offer as "completely inadequate" and said he would advise his clients to reject it. "It is kind of an offense, in my view," Mr. Giemulla said by phone. "We are talking here about emotions and the destruction of lives." "Lufthansa has a moral responsibility beyond what the law says," Mr. Giemulla added. "Mr. Lubitz was their employee. It was the airline that chose him to fly that plane, not the passengers." Lufthansa and Germanwings stressed that the compensation payments represented only a portion of the total amount that the group had set aside to provide longer-term support to the victims' next of kin. The airlines have also established a €7.8 million trust to help cover education-related costs for children and young adults who lost one or both parents in the crash. A separate fund, worth up to €6 million, would also be established to help finance aid projects proposed by the victims' relatives over a period of three years. James Healy-Pratt, a partner and head of the aviation department at Stewarts Law in London, described the airline's proposal as "disappointing" and said he expected that many families would be driven to seek damages in courts outside Germany, possibly including the United States, where payouts can reach into the millions of dollars. "No amount of compensation will ever bring back loved ones, but meaningful, equal and fair compensation does matter to many families," said Mr. Healy-Pratt, whose firm represents several German and Spanish families of the Germanwings victims. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/01/world/europe/lufthansa-offers-compensation-to- families-of-germanwings-crash-victims.html?_r=0 Back to Top Not flying high: CAA grounds Air Indus over safety concerns KARACHI: Air Indus, the troubled private airline, has been forced to ground its fleet and stop sale of tickets after repeatedly failing to meet safety guidelines and other regulatory requirements, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said on Tuesday. The airline's operation has been suspended from July 1 till the time it addresses the regulator's concern related to its safety track record, it said. "Despite repeated safety directives and warnings, the operator did not make any improvement and ignored the safety instructions," it said in a brief statement. "In order to ensure safety of passengers, the CAA has suspended Air Indus's operations," it added. This is not the first time CAA has shut down an airline on grounds of safety issues. But in all previous cases, the real cause for the drastic step was financial unviability of the carrier and reluctance of sponsors to pump in money. Air Indus is in fact the third airline to have been grounded by CAA in the past eight years. Previously, the CAA has grounded Aero Asia and Bhoja Air. Tuesday's decision comes as the government is trying to reinvigorate the aviation sector through a new policy, which offers tax cut on investment. Air Indus, a venture of Karakoram Motors, entered the domestic airspace in 2013 with promise to offer passengers another option to choose from just a handful of carriers. The airline has a fleet of only two operational Boeing 737-300 jets with the CAA having pressed it multiple times to induct more aircraft if it wants to expand operation. Pakistan's aviation industry has seen many prospectors trying their luck with airline business. Most of the airlines have gone bankrupt, often to the embarrassment of highflying investors. In recent years, Rayyan Air, Vision Air and Fly Pakistan Air also applied for commercial air transport licences besides Air Indus, but these airlines are yet to take off. Pakistan had adopted an 'open skies' policy in the 1990s, allowing competition on the domestic routes and giving broader access to foreign airlines. More than 20 licences were issued to airliners but none except for Shaheen Air survived. Bhoja Air resurfaced under a new management a few years back but it has also been permanently grounded after a devastating air crash. Despite a turbulent history, industry people say the sheer size of the country's population is enough of a reason for investors to jump into the capital-intensive airline business. This assertion seems to be reflecting in numbers as well. According to CAA, Air Indus carried 301,070 passengers or 8.6% of domestic passengers in the year which ended June 2014 - this was done by a new airline within a few months. Air Indus was in talks to lease three Airbus 320s to bolster its operation, a company official had told The Express Tribune in May. http://tribune.com.pk/story/912500/not-flying-high-caa-grounds-air-indus-over-safety- concerns/ Back to Top Smoke fills plane cockpit at Bush airport Smoke filled the cockpit of a cargo plane Wednesday morning at Bush Intercontinental Airport. The incident happened about 6:20 a.m. on board a FedEx cargo plane, according to the Houston Airport System. Airport officials said no injuries were reported and the plane landed safely. No flames were sparked. Investigators are trying to determine what caused the mishap. http://www.chron.com/houston/article/Smoke-fills-plane-cockpit-at-Bush-airport- 6360101.php Back to Top FAA says a teen, not young child, cranked up helicopter at Mankato air show A witness saw a young child removed; officials haven't rule out there being multiple people in the chopper at the time. Federal aviation investigators said they have determined that it was a 17-year-old - and not a much younger child - who started a helicopter while the aircraft was on display over the weekend during an air show near Mankato, a U.S. agency spokeswoman said Tuesday. The additional information from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) raises the possibility that more than one person was in the helicopter at the time. On Saturday, the rotor blades of the Mayo Clinic medical emergency helicopter unexpectedly began whirring at the Minnesota Air Spectacular at the Mankato Regional Airport. The sudden blast of wind knocked over a large sun shield on the tarmac, and two people were hit and slightly injured. A worker at the show video-recorded a portion of the brief time when the helicopter was roaring and said he saw a Mayo aviation employee remove a crying boy from the aircraft. Agro Gushwa, 15, estimated that the boy was 6 years old. On behalf of the FAA, spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said its agency has "confirmation the 17-year-old was the person at the controls, and ... nobody else was in the cockpit." Cory did not specify the teen's gender. Neither Cory nor Mayo Clinic Medical Transport spokesman Glenn Lyden has ruled out the possibility that more than one person was in the helicopter. Along with the cockpit, the aircraft has space in back that can be configured for up to nine people. Cory said the FAA is investigating the incident and its probe could last for weeks. http://www.startribune.com/faa-says-a-teen-not-young-child-cranked-up-helicopter-at- mankato-air-show/311061991/ Back to Top United Airlines flight UA914 lands at London Heathrow after issuing emergency alert and diverting en route from Paris to Washington United Airlines: It is not yet clear what the cause of the emergency is (Source: Getty) United Airlines flight UA914 was forced to make an unscheduled landing at London Heathrow this afternoon, having been diverted from its original journey after issuing an emergency alert. The flight, which was bound from Paris Charles de Galle to Washington Dulles International airport, issued a 7700 squawk around 1pm. There were more than 200 passengers and 10 crew on board. It is not yet clear what the cause of the emergency was, although reports are suggesting there was a problem with the air conditioning vents. #flightradar24 #ua914 UA914 from #CDG to #IAD being diverted. pic.twitter.com/SYGOzuzeKD - Miguel Da Silva (@serhumanomiguel) July 1, 2015 UPDATE EMERGENCY United #UA914 will land at London Heathrow. Live: http://t.co/EIw0tWr1qt pic.twitter.com/T02ZtdgIZB - AirLive.net (@airlivenet) July 1, 2015 #UnitedAirlines #UA914 #Emergency #squawk7700 Possibly returning to Paris. Fuel dump may be required pic.twitter.com/kntAqzX7fY - Oisín (@ush_1982) July 1, 2015 Well, when your airline is still flying the #Boeing 767, you can expect some maintenance issues... #UA914 #travel #United - Matt Soleyn (@MattSoleyn) July 1, 2015 It is thought the Boeing 767-322 plane may have had to dump some of its fuel before landing owing to the quick curtailment of what would have been a long-haul flight shortly after take-off. It set off from Paris at 12.24pm local time, and was due to land in Washington after 3pm. United's press team did not respond to calls at the time of publication. However a Heathrow spokeswoman confirmed the plane had landed safely at 1:35pm. http://www.cityam.com/219217/united-flight-ua914-diverted-london-heathrow-after- issuing-emergency-alert Back to Top Sweden's top military commander: Russian fighter pilots shot flares at our jets Sweden is boosting its military after Russia's ominous warning STOCKHOLM (AP) - Sweden's top military commander says Russian fighter pilots are behaving in an increasingly aggressive manner in northern Europe, flying dangerously close to Swedish Air Force jets and in some cases even releasing flares at them. Supreme Commander Sverker Goransson told a seminar on the Swedish island of Gotland on Monday that the Russians are breaking the normal rules of conduct for when military aircraft meet in the air. He said examples include Russian planes breaking formation, flying at unsafe distances and using "countermeasures" that "nearly bounce off the metal" of the Swedish aircraft. The Swedish military on Tuesday confirmed he was talking about decoy flares designed to divert incoming missiles. Goransson said he believes their behavior is "sanctioned at the highest level. Otherwise they wouldn't act this way." http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-fighter-pilots-shot-flares-at-swedish-jets-2015- 6#ixzz3eduKsoEw Back to Top Sea-Tac passengers held aboard jet while sick woman checked Image from passenger video shows the inside of the plane during the hour-long quarantine on the Sea-Tac tarmac. SEATAC, Wash. (AP) - A Seattle-Tacoma International Airport spokesman says passengers aboard a United Airlines flight from Chicago were held on the plane for more than an hour after landing Monday night while a doctor assessed a sick passenger's ailment. Airport spokesman Perry Cooper says the passengers were released after an airport- based doctor with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided the passenger had food poisoning. Cooper says the passenger had vomited twice during Flight 1454. United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said he had no information on what caused the food poisoning for the female passenger. He says there were 162 passengers aboard the flight. Cooper says the CDC doctor was concerned about the symptoms and the decision was made to hold the passengers on board the plane in case the ailment turned out to be something more serious. He says the plane landed about 7 p.m. PDT and passengers were allowed to leave at about 8:25 p.m. http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Sea-Tac-passengers-held-aboard-jet-while-sick- woman-checked-310926091.html Back to Top Back to Top A third runway at London Heathrow airport will never fly By: Philip Stephens You need not be a cynic to suspect policy-based evidence-making Undated handout photo issued by Heathrow Airport of an artist's impresson of option 3 for the third runway North at Heathrow as Heathrow chiefs today put forward three options at the west London airport, saying that any of the proposals will be good, and essential, for Britain. Britain's Airports Commission has done what was expected of it. It has called for a third runway at Heathrow. You do not have to be a cynic to suspect policy-based evidence- making. Unkind souls might call the report an establishment stitch-up. Never mind. Its conclusions are destined for the long grass. The pity is that money, time and energy will be wasted on a debate that can have only one outcome. Forget the commission's expensively deceptive cost-benefit analyses. The runway will never be built. Heathrow is in the wrong place - on the wrong side of the capital, more precisely. Its flight paths run directly above some of the city's most densely populated neighbourhoods. Some 750,000 people - a full 28 per cent of those across the entire EU whose lives are blighted by aircraft noise - are unlucky enough to live near London's largest airport. Britain's Supreme Court has ruled that air pollution levels around Heathrow - most dangerously, nitrogen dioxide - already breach the legal limits. To add another 250,000 flights a year to the present 470,000, with the concomitant increase in road traffic, is simply unimaginable. For all the £20m spent on the report, it is still not certain that London actually needs a new runway. The city already has seven spread over six sites, as good as any serious competitor in Europe, and much of the capacity remains unused. Air traffic projections are notoriously unreliable. Only a fool would gamble tens of billions of pounds on a flimsy prediction that London may be short of capacity by 2030. The case made by Heathrow management that London's reputation as a centre for global business depends on the airport upgrading its "hub" status by handling more transit passengers is flimsy at best. The proportion of business passengers has been falling - from 38 per cent at the turn of the century to 30 per cent last year. More than two-thirds of those who pass through the airport are tourists. To slot in more flights for business leaders to the booming cities of China, Heathrow has merely to cede to Gatwick or Stansted a few bucket-and-spade routes to Mediterranean resorts. The importance of transit customers is overstated. The growth in air travel has been in point-to-point flights by smaller, fuel-efficient aircraft. And, unlike Frankfurt or Amsterdam, London is the final destination for the vast majority of air travellers. Heathrow counts 36 per cent of its passengers as in transit but across the capital's airports the figure falls to below 15 per cent. As it happens, Heathrow is a terrible advertisement for Britain. Beyond the superficial glitter of Terminal 5, much of the site comprises a series of down-at-heel sheds bursting at the seams with lucrative (for the airport operator) shopping concessions. Those unfortunate enough to arrive at, say, Terminal 3 can only shake their head in wonderment that one of the world's pre-eminent cities can be content with such squalor. Delays and disruption are endemic. Of the dozen flights I took in and out of Heathrow in the past two months, I counted only two that left or arrived in time. Airports Commission recommends third runway A new runway at Heathrow is the best way to boost Britain's economy and secure the UK's future in global aviation, according to the independent Airports Commission. That is the long-awaited judgment from the panel led by Sir Howard Davies The cost to the public purse is prohibitive. The commission guesses at a price tag of £18bn or so for the runway, with another £5bn-£6bn for the necessary improvements to surface transport to cope with the extra passengers. Transport for London has suggested the latter figure could end up as high as £20bn. That may be an overestimate. But, whichever way you look at it, British taxpayers would have to pay a massive subsidy to the shareholders of Heathrow. So why has Heathrow fought so hard for a new runway? Easy. It wants to stifle competition. The airport is a cash cow, but slightly less so since the Competition Commission forced it to divest ownership of Gatwick. London's second airport has been transformed by the break-up, but a third runway, the Airports Commission acknowledges, would divert back to Heathrow traffic from London's other airports. The owners would regain a near monopoly. What London needs are better surface connections between the other airports and faster rail and road routes into the capital. Heathrow will soon benefit from Crossrail. Rather than spend billions diverting the M4 and M25 motorways around Heathrow the government should be investing in surface connections to Gatwick and Stansted. If, as is possible, capacity does come under strain, it would be much cheaper and faster to add a second runway at Gatwick. Politics will combine with logic to doom a third runway. David Cameron, the prime minister, does not have the majority to take the legislation through parliament. The heavyweights in the Conservative party opposed to expansion are led by Boris Johnson, the London mayor, and his would-be successor, Zac Goldsmith. They are backed by several members of the cabinet and by many local Tory MPs. So this is one of those moments in politics when a prime minister can marry principle with pragmatism. "No ifs, no buts, no third runway", the prime minister promised a few years back. He was right. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/3fae602e-1fd7-11e5-ab0f- 6bb9974f25d0.html#axzz3edovTxup Back to Top F-35 Loses Dogfight to Fighter Jet From the 1980s A new report alleges that an F-35A was defeated by the very aircraft it is meant to replace. The United States Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps are planning to acquire a total of 2,457 F-35 fighter jets with operation and maintenance costs estimated as high as $1,016 billion over the next four decades, according to the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense. The 5th generation stealthy multirole aircraft is primarily designed for ground attack, aerial reconnaissance, and air defense missions rather than air combat. Yet, the plane obviously should still have the capacity to successfully defend itself against enemy air superiority fighters (In fact, some countries interested in procuring the F-35 want to deploy it first and foremost in an air-superiority role). However, according to a report obtained by War is Boring, defending itself against legacy 4th generation air-superiority fighters is perhaps too tall of an order for the F-35. A five- page report by a test pilot of an aerial combat exercise over the Pacific Ocean near Edwards Air Force Base in California in January 2015 notes that the F-35 could not beat the F-16 in a close-range dogfight (aka "visual range air-to-air engagement tests"). "The F-35 was at a distinct energy disadvantage," the pilot emphasized in the report noting that the only way to successfully engage the F-16 was by executing a specific maneuver: Once established at high AoA, a prolonged full rudder input generated a fast enough yaw rate to create excessive heading crossing angles with opportunities to point for missile shots. Yet, the disadvantage of this rudder reversal maneuver is that it usually only works once: The technique required a commitment to lose energy and was a temporary opportunity prior to needing to regain energy ... and ultimately end up defensive again. As one analyst over at Foxtrot Alpha succinctly summarizes: "In dogfighting, energy is everything, and if your enemy has more kinetic and potential energy for maneuvers than you do, then you're toast." Attempting to attack the F-16 with the F-35's 25mm cannon also failed. The pilot notes: "Instead of catching the bandit off-guard by rapidly pull aft to achieve lead, the nose rate was slow, allowing him to easily time his jink prior to a gun solution." Nevertheless, when the F-16 took over the role of the attacker the F-35 failed to evade the older fighter jet due to a "lack of nose rate." Additionally, it turned out that the pilot's helmet was just too big to be of any use in a dogfight. According to the report: "The helmet was too large for the space inside the canopy to adequately see behind the aircraft." The specific planes used in the exercises were an older F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with the designation AF-02 and a two-seat F-16D Block 40. While the F-35 did not carry any weapons in its bomb bay, the F-16 carried two fuel tanks under its wings (see: "Oops, US Close-Air Support Bomb Doesn't Fit on the F-35"). Tyler Rogoway over at FoxTrot Alpha elaborates that "the aircraft flown in the test, an F- 35A, is the most maneuverable F-35 variant of the lot, being capable of pulling 9g, while the carrier capable F-35C is capable of pulling 7.5g and the short takeoff and vertical landing variant, the F-35B, is only capable of pulling 7g." Aviation Week reported on the same or similar air-to-air combat maneuvers involving a F-16D Block 40 and an F-35 with an AF-02 designation. The article quotes the F-35 program director Col. Rod Cregier, who explained the simulated dogfights in more neutral terms noting that the simulation was primarily designed to see "how it [F- 35]would look like against an F-16 in the airspace. It was an early look at any control laws that may need to be tweaked to enable it to fly better in future. You can definitely tweak it-that's the option." http://thediplomat.com/2015/07/f-35-loses-dogfight-to-fighter-jet-from-the-1980s/ Back to Top Airbus Wins $18 Billion China Deal, Plans Jet-Completion Site Employees pass beneath a banner showing Airbus A330 passenger jets in flight in the Airbus Group NV factory in Toulouse, France, on Friday, July 18, 2014. Photographer: Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg Airbus Group SE won an order from China for as many as 75 A330 jets worth $18 billion at list prices as it finalizes an agreement to open a facility in the Asian nation for fitting out and painting the wide-body model. The deal, for 45 planes plus an outline agreement on options for 30 more, will help Airbus maintain monthly output levels as it transitions to a revamped A330 with new engines, avoiding deeper production cuts than planned. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced the transaction during a visit to Paris Tuesday, with French Prime Minister Manuel Valls saying that an accord on the A330 completion center will be announced in coming days. A statement from Toulouse, France-based Airbus didn't provide a breakdown of which A330 variants are included in the order. China has always been the biggest market for Airbus's popular twinjet. Its airlines had been expected to place fresh orders after Airbus said last year it would develop a new regional variant tweaked to better serve the Chinese market. The A330 family seats between 250 and 440 passengers and is Airbus's most successful twin-aisle plane to date, with more than 1,000 units delivered so far. Chinese officials said last week in Beijing that Li will visit Toulouse on July 2. The completion center, if announced, would be for A330s going to Chinese customers. Airbus and China already jointly own a final assembly line in Tianjin that has been producing A320 single-aisle planes for local operators since 2008. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-30/airbus-wins-18-billion-china-deal- for-75-a330-wide-body-planes Back to Top Boeing 747 Jumbo Sales Get Tougher as U.S. Ends Ex-Im Funds Airlines in nations as far-flung as Azerbaijan and Nigeria are about to find it harder to pay for 747 jumbo jets, complicating Boeing Co.'s efforts to line up buyers for a plane that's already falling out of favor. After months of struggle in Congress, the charter for the U.S. Export-Import Bank is set to expire after Tuesday, eliminating a longtime source of financing for aircraft orders from Boeing's overseas customers. That leaves the planemaker facing a tougher time sealing deals for its 747-8, whose emerging-market purchases are crucial amid shrinking demand for four-engine jets. Boeing's choices: Do nothing and risk losing orders in credit-constrained countries like Russia. Or, provide funding and tie up capital that could be plowed into development programs and share buybacks. "I'm not sure what's the bigger concern for Boeing," said Chris Denicolo, an analyst with Standard & Poor's Financial Services. "The general market for the 747, or if they do sell, they'd have to take on more of the financing." Nine jumbos with a list value of $3.3 billion, representing more than a quarter of Boeing's 32-plane backlog of 747s, are bound for markets like Russia, Azerbaijan and Nigeria, where buyers rely on Ex-Im support, according to data compiled by George Ferguson, a senior analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. Two Years Boeing is also working to firm up a commitment by Russia's Volga-Dnepr Group for 20 additional 747-8 freighters valued at $7.4 billion. If Boeing succeeds in landing that sale, the Chicago-based planemaker would lock up enough orders to keep its jumbo-jet assembly line busy for almost two years. Without Ex-Im backing, Boeing will be at a disadvantage as it competes with Europe's Airbus Group SE, whose customers can tap three government export credit agencies, said Tim Neale, a Boeing spokesman. He declined to comment on the 747's prospects. While Boeing is prepared to provide some short-term financing, "there are real limits to how much of that we can do," Neale said. "Capital tied up in customer financing is capital that's not available for product development." Ferguson said a "white-hot" market for commercial financing will help jet buyers line up loans, and the Boeing Capital Corp. unit "could always pick up some of the challenge." Regarding the 747, he said: "If Boeing thinks it strategic, they could step in to support the airplane." 'Crony Capitalism' Jumbo-jet financing is a subset of Boeing's larger challenge after Congress decided not to renew the Ex-Im Bank charter. While Boeing and other defenders say the bank boosts exports and jobs, foes say Ex-Im is "crony capitalism," with the government picking winners and losers in U.S. business. The lapse in the charter may be temporary. Ex-Im backers plan to meet with President Barack Obama on July 8 to discuss how to revive the bank, according to Democratic Senators Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Maria Cantwell of Washington, the home of Boeing's commercial hub. "Our hope and expectation is that this will be one of the first things considered" when Congress returns from its Independence Day recess, Aric Newhouse, senior vice president for policy and government relations at the National Association of Manufacturers, said during a conference call Tuesday. Boeing Capital has stepped up 747-related financing as dwindling orders forced the planemaker to slow the production tempo four times in the past two years. The new rate, effective in February, will be 12 a year, down from 16. Operating leases for the jets have more than doubled since the end of 2013 to $580 million at the end of March, according to company filings. Ex-Im is expected to help finance 13 percent of Boeing's 2015 deliveries of all types of jets, down from 30 percent in 2012 when European banks were still recovering from a global slowdown, said Philip Baggaley, an S&P managing director. This year's Ex-Im commitments are mostly lined up, Baggaley said. The threat to Boeing lies in financing aircraft like the 747, out of favor with other lenders as airlines opt for more-efficient twin-engine models; the next aerospace-industry slump, or a jarring event like a Greek exit from the euro zone that disrupts capital markets, Baggaley said. In the worst-case scenario, Boeing could face a credit downgrade -- its current S&P rating is A -- that increases borrowing costs. "One of the risks is that the portfolio ends up with the weaker airlines, weaker collateral in some cases," Baggaley said. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-30/boeing-747-jumbo-flies-into- sales-headwind-as-ex-im-funding-ends Back to Top This boomerang-like aircraft could be the first to fly on Mars With its various rover missions, NASA has been actively exploring the red surface of Mars since the '90s - but now the space agency wants to investigate the Martian skies. NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center is testing out a prototype of a flying wing aircraft called Prandtl-m, which could be the first man-made vehicle to fly on Mars. And it looks a lot like a large titanium boomerang. The Prandtl-m will be made of fiberglass or carbon fiber and has a wingspan of 24 inches when deployed - yet its prototype is lightweight at just under a pound. Since Mars has significantly less gravity than Earth, that means the Martian version of the aircraft could weigh up to 2.6 pounds and still fly efficiently. The Martian atmosphere is also much thinner than here on Earth, so NASA will be conducting some high-altitude tests on the Prandtl-m to see if it's fit to fly above our planetary neighbor. Later this year, a balloon will take the aircraft up to an altitude of 100,000 feet, where the air is much thinner, to simulate what it would be like to fly in Martian airspace. Future tests will take the Prandtl-m even higher to 450,000 feet. If these flights prove successful, the idea is to pack a folded-up Prandtl-m inside the spacecraft that will carry the next rover to the Red Planet in the early 2020s. Once the rover mission reaches Mars, the Prandtl-m will deploy over the planet, glide through its atmosphere for 20 miles, and then land. NASA hopes to use this flight time to scope out possible landing sites for a future human mission to Mars. Unlike a boomerang, the Prandtl-m won't be coming back. http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/30/8869091/nasa-prandtl-m-aircraft-fiberglass- prototype Back to Top Infrastructure And Safety Summits McAllen, Texas July 20 - 24, 2015 Summits offer you a variety of training opportunities across multiple disciplines. To save you time and money, we offer nearly 400 hours of training during approximately 20 classes, all offered at one location. We understand today's economic challenges and know that continuing education is essential for field experts, managers, supervisors, and technicians. We continuously work to ensure our training and curriculum are current and relevant to meet your training needs. We are able to provide these training summits across the state at a reduced cost per class through general revenue received through the state of Texas. McAllen Infrastructure and Safety Summit Brochure Register at TEEX.org/itsi Back to Top Colleagues: As part of a study conducted for the FAA, the Department of Doctoral Studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is requesting assistance from aviation safety professionals engaged in safety management systems (SMS). If you are actively engaged, we are requesting your completion of a survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H5K39KZ , expected to take approximately 10- 15 minutes. It will be of great assistance in helping us refine a technique for effectively evaluating SMS. All responses will remain anonymous. Thank you for your help! Alan J. Stolzer, Ph.D. Dept. Chair, Department of Doctoral Studies Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University College of Aviation | Room 137 600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd. Daytona Beach, FL 32114 Back to Top Upcoming Events: Fundamentals of IS-BAO July 7, 2015 Alexandria, VA USA https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1659131 IS-BAO Auditing July 8, 2015 Alexandria, VA USA https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1659136 EAA AirVenture Schedule July 19-26, 2015 Oshkosh, WI http://www.eaa.org/en/airventure/eaa-airventure-schedule-of-events Infrastructure and Safety Summit Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service July 20-24, 2015 McAllen, Texas http://TEEX.org/itsi Fundamentals of IS-BAO July 21, 2015 Orlando, FL USA https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1659145 IS-BAO Auditing July 22, 2015 Orlando, FL USA https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1659149 Fundamentals of IS-BAO August 19, 2015 Madrid, Spain https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1659089 IS-BAO Auditing August 20, 2015 Madrid, Spain https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1659096 Safety Management Systems Training & Workshop Course offered by ATC Vantage Inc. Tampa, FL August 6-7, 2015 www.atcvantage.com/training Aircraft Fire Hazards, Protection & Investigation Course 9-11 Sept. 2015 Hotel Ibis Nanterre La Defense (near Paris) France http://blazetech.com/resources/pro_services/FireCourse-France_2015.pdf Regulatory Affairs Training Course September 15 & 16 Fort Worth, TX http://jdasolutions.aero/services/regulatory-affairs.php Suspected Unapproved Parts (SUPS) Training Course September 15 & 16 Fort Worth, TX http://jdasolutions.aero/ Back to Top JOBS AVAILABLE: Internal Evaluations Program Auditor Allegiant Airlines http://www.allegiantair.com/careers Air Safety Investigator Textron Systems http://www.textron.com/careers/ Curt Lewis