Flight Safety Information September 25, 2015 - No. 191 In This Issue MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT MH370: AIRLINE PILOT SPOTS NEW 'DEBRIS With a tarantula roaming about, Delta calls off flight ICAO delays aircraft tracking requirements by two years EU May Sue Germany for Inadequate Air Safety Scheme After Germanwings Crash Germanwings Crash: Victims' Families Reject Measly Compensation Offer C-17 simulator trains pilots for emergencies Bang, flames, lights went out': Cathay Pacific jet diverted to Bali with one engine out Dallas man indicted in laser shining at aircraft Airbus urges take-off of wireless standards in aviation FAA Regulating Private Space Companies PROS 2015 TRAINING Subspace Glider Takes First Test Flight From Redmond How China is playing Boeing against Airbus to build its own airplane industry MRO market faces headwinds despite robust aircraft refurb work China to deploy aircraft in upcoming Antarctica expedition The Chinese Birdman Who Got U.S. Aircraft Giant Boeing Flying NASA scientists use jet to measure air quality data from California wildfires China's Copycat Jet Raises Questions About F-35 Orange County's first school aviation program, at Canyon High Embry-Riddle's aerospace engineering program Nos. 1, 3 in nation ERAU Certificate of Management in Aviation Safety iSMS - Safety Management System Training Upcoming Events JOBS AVAILABLE (New Positions) MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT MH370: AIRLINE PILOT SPOTS NEW 'DEBRIS,' SEARCHERS GO OVER SAME SITES AGAIN Little more than a week after an airline pilot said he spotted a large chunk of debris that could be from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 - debris floating in the Indian Ocean not far from Reunion Island where the only confirmed piece of the missing plane has actually been found - the official, Australian-led search team is resuming its search for more traces of the vanished Boeing 777-200. But instead of searching around the Reunion Island region, according to a report on the Australian News.com.au site, the search vessels Furgo Discovery and Furgo Equator will return to the original "Seventh Arc" area about 2,300 miles from Reunion in the Indian Ocean, a region searched for nearly a year without any trace of Flight MH370 turning up. The two ships will take a closer look at 30 spots in and well beneath the ocean there, spots that they had earlier ruled out as containing any possible wreckage from the disappeared Malaysia Airlines plane. According to the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau, this time around, the boats will be equipped with "higher frequency sonar." Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished on March 8, 2014, during an overnight flight that was supposed to take its 239 passengers and crew from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, China. But the flight cut off all communication with the ground, took a sharp westerly turn and flew for, investigators believe, about seven hours until it ended up, apparently, in the waters of the Indian Ocean. On July 29, a resident of French-controlled Reunion Island found a chunk of airplane wing known as a "flaperon" washed up on a beach there. About six weeks later, French experts confirmed that the flaperon was indeed a piece of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane - the first physical evidence that the plane even existed. Then on September 15, the pilot of an Air France flight cruising at about 10,000 feet in an area northwest of Reunion Island reported a large "white object" in the water there. Authorities diverted a nearby merchant ship to check it out, and also ordered a fly-over by a search aircraft, but the object could not be spotted a second time. But the renewed search efforts will not focus on that area, but rather on the re-inspection of areas the previously proved fruitless. "The search for MH370 is being conducted thoroughly and to a very high standard and it is important that contacts are comprehensively investigated and considered," said a statement by the ATSB, the agency in charge of the "official" Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 search effort. http://www.inquisitr.com/2445119/malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370-search-debris/ Back to Top With a tarantula roaming about, Delta calls off flight How would you like to spot one of these crawling around during your flight? Delta put passengers on another plane after finding a tarantula in the cargo hold of an aircraft before takeoff. Baggage handlers spotted a tarantula in the cargo hold of a Delta flight The crew decide to have the passengers board a different aircraft (CNN)There are a multitude of reasons your flight might be canceled or delayed -- but a spider? It can happen. Passengers who were scheduled to board a Delta flight from Baltimore to Atlanta thankfully avoided a potential in-flight run-in with a tarantula on Wednesday night. Delta Flight 1525 was scheduled to depart Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport at 7 p.m., but before passengers boarded, an employee spotted the spider in the cargo hold. Baggage handlers were unloading the MD-88 aircraft before turning the aircraft for departure to Atlanta when it was spotted. "There was a cargo shipment of insects that was breached," Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant told CNN. The crew was notified, who subsequently made the decision to continue on another aircraft. The pilot told passengers in the terminal that, while unlikely, there could be "something else" missing, CNN affiliate WBAL reported. "We have to make the safe decision on that -- being bitten by a tarantula is not a good thing," the pilot said. Delta says the spider was never in the cabin or seen by passengers or flight crew. The aircraft in question remained out of service Thursday as it was cleaned and searched. Passengers departed at 10 p.m. on a different aircraft. The venom of tarantulas found in the United States is not considered dangerous or deadly, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, but it might cause allergic reactions. The pain of the bite is comparable to a bee sting, the library website says. http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/24/travel/tarantula-delta-flight/index.html Back to Top ICAO delays aircraft tracking requirements by two years ICAO may postpone regulations requiring all large passenger aircraft to report their position throughout the flight The United Nations body overseeing civil aviation may postpone by two years the requirements for commercial passenger planes to report their position in flight, Reuters has suggested. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), started working on proposals mandating airlines to install technology for automated tracking after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in March last year. The organisation originally proposed November 2016 as a deadline for all large passenger planes to be fitted with systems enabling them to report their position every 15 minutes. Alternatively, some long-haul aircraft without tracking equipment on board would have been allowed to report their position over radio. However, an ICAO's advisory committee has now recommended delaying the regulation until November 2018 to allow airlines more time to install the technology. At the same time, the committee has proposed scrapping the condition for some aircraft to use radio instead, which means that all aircraft would have to be equipped with the automated tracking systems. Based on consultations with airlines operating in remote areas, the group, called the Normal Aircraft Tracking Implementation Initiative (NATII), said manual reports could distract pilots, cause safety problems and might not be accurate. ICAO did not comment directly on the advisory group's recommendations, but said its governing council would make a final decision on timing in November. "We will continue to work with all concerned to see that flight tracking becomes a commonplace capability sooner than later," a spokeswoman told Reuters. According to an ICAO source quoted by Reuters, several nations have expressed concerns that the 2016 deadline was too soon because of the planning and training that would be needed. The European Union is pursuing more stringent plans, calling for a three-minute instead of a 15-minute interval for position reporting to be put in place. Calls for airlines to constantly track the position of their aircraft first emerged in 2009, after an Air France jet vanished in the South Atlantic. Although the plane was fitted with systems reporting its position every 10 minutes, the investigators had to scour 17,000-square-km of ocean to locate the plane. It took two years to find the wreckage and retrieve the black boxes. More Sharing ServicesShare| Share on facebookShare on tumblrShare on twitterShare on email http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2015/sep/aircraft-tracking-icao-delay.cfm Back to Top EU May Sue Germany for Inadequate Air Safety Scheme After Germanwings Crash The European Commission (EC) is about file a lawsuit against Germany, which has a different system of extending pilots' licenses than the rest of the EU, for allegedly breaching joint air safety system, an unnamed source told Reuters. The lawsuit comes on the heels on the infamous Germanwings plane crash of 2015, where co-pilot pilot Andreas Lubitz locked himself up inside the cockpit, preventing anyone to enter and crashed the aircraft that was flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf into the French Alps, killing over 150 passengers on board. After the crash it turned out that Lubitz had skipped several training sessions before flights because of long-lasting depression, but he was given out a new pilot's license by German authorities anyway. The air company representatives excused themselves afterwards by claiming that Lubitz had passed all medical tests needed for controlling the airliner. European experts, who were investigating the case, called on the authorities to improve the pilots' testing scheme and check them more properly. http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150924/1027451462.html#ixzz3mkQJJykO Back to Top Germanwings Crash: Victims' Families Reject Measly Compensation Offer A number of families of the Germanwings plane crash victims have reportedly rejected the carrier's 25,000-euro compensation offer as far too low. Families of those killed in the Germanwings plane crash during a flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf in March 2015 have rejected the airline's initial compensation offer of 25,000 euros (27,000 dollars) as far too low, media reports said. In a letter to Lufthansa, Germanwings' parent company, the families' lawyer Elmar Giemulla said that their 25,000-euro compensation offer for each victim covered by German law and payments of 10,000 euros each to victims' immediate relatives "must be significantly raised." He reportedly asked Lufthansa for a "lower six-figure sum" in each category, saying that the airline should broaden the definition of "immediate relative." The 25,000-euro compensation payment for pain and suffering is on top of 50,000 euros that have already been paid as immediate financial assistance to the victims' relatives. Unlike in the United States, in Germany, the law does not typically stipulate a separate award for pain and suffering. In June, Germanwings said that the proposed payment for emotional distress is due to be made to parents, widowed spouses, partners and children of the victims; the payout does not require proof of damages incurred to be presented. According to prosecutors, co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed the Germanwings' Airbus A320 plane into a French mountain on March 24, killing all 150 people on board. http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150719/1024796429.html#ixzz3mkR0Y6S7 Back to Top C-17 simulator trains pilots for emergencies Col. Richard Robichaud, operations group commander of the 167th Airlift Wing, talks Thursday about a new simulator that will train pilots to fly C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane during a ceremony at the base near Martinsburg, W.Va. MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - It was so real, you could spot your own house. A new simulator that will train pilots to fly the 167th Airlift Wing's eight C-17 Globemaster III cargo planes was officially dedicated Thursday. After the ceremony, visitors were allowed into the simulator to sit or stand behind the pilots. The runway appeared as it would in a real plane. Visitors felt the sensation of liftoff as the big jet took off and flew over familiar Martinsburg landmarks before returning to land on the runway. The only sensation missing was the squeal of tires when it touched down. The simulator is an exact replica of a C-17 cockpit, with two pilot seats, joysticks to control the aircraft, and many lights, switches and gauges on the instrument panel and ceiling. It creates "motion with visual effects," said John Zazworsky, a retired Air Force pilot who flew C-17s and now manages the building. The simulator gives pilots training they could never have in a real C-17, including any emergency that can happen during an actual flight, said Maj. Jeff Muster, a C-17 pilot and liaison officer between the airlift wing and contractors. Emergencies thrown at simulator pilots are too dangerous to try in real flight, such as fires, bird strikes, equipment and hydraulic malfunctions, dangerous weather and other situations. "There are only so many malfunctions you can simulate in flight," Zazworsky said. "It's too risky." A big plus for the airlift wing is the money the simulator saves. "It costs $15,000 an hour to fly a C-17," said Col. Richard Robichaud, operations group commander at the base. "The simulator costs $800 to $1,500 an hour." New pilots perform about 90 percent of their flight training in the simulator. "We really teach them how to fly," said R. Scott Langman, senior program manager for L-3 Link Simulation & Training. "They often come out drenched in sweat." All C-17 pilots take a simulator refresher course every three months. Four civilian flight instructors and five maintenance technicians keep the systems running. The pilot simulator, a two-story white hulk resting on hydraulic supports, was accepted by the U.S. Air Force in May. It was built on the same spot in a renovated building that housed a simulator used to train pilots how to fly giant C-5 Galaxy cargo jets. C-17s replaced C-5s earlier this year at the base. L-3 Link Simulation & Training provides C-17 simulators at 14 air bases in the United States and one in Australia. Robichaud said C-17s have been making regular overseas military missions in recent months. "We've been to Columbia, Chile and the Mideast on long-range support missions, and medical evacuation of American troops back to Walter Reed (Medical Center)," he said. The 167th Airlift Wing has a payroll of more than 1,000 people, including those on active duty, Air Guard Reserves and civil-service employees. http://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/tri_state/west_virginia/c--simulator-trains-pilots-for- emergencies/article_f2e6d29a-9b2c-5b15-b7ec-f5e89fbdf7f5.html Back to Top 'Bang, flames, lights went out': Cathay Pacific jet diverted to Bali with one engine out Engineers check a Cathay Pacific plane A Cathay Pacific flight en route from Australia to Hong Kong was diverted to Bali after one of the plane's engines reportedly caught fire and cut out. Witnesses described a loud bang, flames outside and power shutdown on board. The Cathay Pacific flight CX170 was cruising at 36,000 feet when a "No.2 engine defect" was reported. "There were flames and sparks flying out of the motor," passenger Joel Sirna told 6PR presenter Gary Adshead, as cited by the West Australian. The CX170 departed from Perth, Australia, just before midnight local time and was scheduled to land in Hong Kong at 7:40am on Friday. "Mid-flight, we heard a loud bang and the plane started to shake, all the lights went out and I looked to the window and have just seen some flames and some sparks - the wing and the motor was on fire," Sirna said. The pilot announced that one of the engines had stopped working and then all the power in the cabin went off, Sirna told reporters. "There were a few people that were pretty shaken. The girl next to me started freaking out and crying, so I just tried to calm everyone down. That's what we had to do," he said. The captain made a decision to divert the plane to the nearest airport "for safety reasons." The plane, an Airbus A330, landed safely in Denpasar, Bali. https://www.rt.com/news/316456-cathay-pacific-emergency-landing/ *************** Date: 25-SEP-2015 Time: ca 03:00 LT Type: Airbus A330-343X Owner/operator: Cathay Pacific Airways Registration: B-LAG C/n / msn: 895 Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 256 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Unknown Location: Near Bali - Indonesia Phase: En route Nature: International Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: PER Destination airport: HKG Narrative: Cathay Pacific Airways Flight CX170 from Perht, Australia, to Hong Kong, diverted to Bali-Denpasar, Indonesia due to shutdown of no.2 engine. Flames and a loud "bang" were reported to be witnessed by passenger on board. The airplane, an Airbus A330-343X, departed Perth at 16:13 UTC (00:13 LT, Sep 25). The aircraft was over sea, south of Bali, when an descent was initiated at 19:02 UTC (03:02 LT, Sep 25). The aircraft landed safely on runway 09 at Denpasar-Ngurah Rai Bali International Airport, Indonesia at 19:35 UTC (03:35 LT, Sep 25). http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=179861 Back to Top Dallas man indicted in laser shining at aircraft DALLAS (AP) - A 37-year-old Dallas man has been indicted on a federal count of aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft in the laser shining on a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter. A U.S. attorney's statement says FBI agents arrested Orlando Jose Chapa on Wednesday and made his initial federal court appearance in Dallas on Thursday. According to the indictment filed on Sept. 16, Chapa knowingly aimed the beam laser pointer at a DPS helicopter on May 30, 2015. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined up to $250,000. Federal records list no attorney for Chapa, whose personal telephone number is not listed. http://www.theeagle.com/news/texas/dallas-man-indicted-in-laser-shining-at-aircraft/article_dddf6d52- a9fa-521e-9be5-1f06622fb0d2.html Back to Top Airbus urges take-off of wireless standards in aviation French company Airbus has called for the aviation industry to come together to find common standards for wireless technology adoption on airplanes. The aircraft manufacturer wants the technology to be used to help pilots fly the machines better by boosting onboard wireless signals, which could lead to safety-related applications. According to the Wall Street Journal, aviation experts said that if successful, the Wireless Avionics Intra- Communications initiative could lead to wireless signals being used as backups for engine controls. Other applications would be monitoring the condition of landing-gear systems, detecting dangerous icing on airplane surfaces, alerting about defective airspeed sensors, and warning pilots in case of excessive vibration or structural stress. Those supporting Airbus' vision believe these wireless deployments on aircrafts need to be separated from passengers' on-board infotainment services. The initiative was presented to the industry in a letter to the US Advisory Committee RTCA in early September by senior Airbus flight-systems manager, Jean-Paul Platzer. In a statement, Boeing has shown support for industry wide standards on wireless communication. Last week, ViaSat inked an agreement with Boeing to work towards offering wi-fi connectivity in its aircraft from launch. http://www.cbronline.com/news/telecoms/connectivity/airbus-urges-take-off-of-wireless-standards-in- aviation-4679177 Back to Top FAA Regulating Private Space Companies Government Accountability Office concerned with regulations FAA Regulating Private Space Companies For decades, NASA was in charge of all travel to and from space. The Federal Aviation Administration is now taking over, as private companies plan to launch their own rockets. The Government Accountability Office said the FAA faces multiple challenges as they try to enter a new endeavor. The Rio Grande Valley will become a part of aerospace history when SpaceX launched from Boca Chica next year. "The private sector commercial space industry is at the beginning of a very exciting time," said Gerald Dillingham from the Government Accountability Office. "There are going to be many more launches." Approximately 50 private launches are set to take place this year, and 30 are scheduled for 2016. "We see private entrepreneurs doing things like cargo flights to the International Space Station," Dillingham said. "We see them preparing to deliver cargo and astronauts to the space station." Dillingham said companies are also gearing up for space tourism. This will allow anyone to pay their way to visit space. "We see them launching small satellites as well, so it is quickly becoming a major area of innovation and entrepreneurship," he said. Some of the small satellites will blast off from the Valley. Dillingham said the FAA does not oversee the safety of astronauts or other people who travel to space. There is currently a moratorium that is keeping the FAA from setting rules. "Developing regulations for space, like developing regulations for almost anything, is going to be long and difficult and take several years to accomplish," Dillingham said. Dillingham said private space companies are working with the FAA to develop professional standards. The moratorium is scheduled to expire next week. Commercial space launch companies told the GOA that they would be fine with the FAA extending the moratorium. The companies said this would allow the industry more time to develop. http://www.krgv.com/news/local-news/FAA-Regulating-Private-Space-Companies/35476022 Back to Top Back to Top Subspace Glider Takes First Test Flight From Redmond The Perlan II glider was built in Redmond. Its designers hope it will be able to fly to the edge of space. An experimental glider plane that was designed and constructed in Central Oregon made its first test flight Wednesday at the Redmond Airport. The Perlan II glider has no engine, but its designers hope it will someday fly to 90,000 feet. That's essentially the edge of space. The glider enters airspace by being towed behind another plane. When it's released, the glider flies by catching "stratospheric mountain waves" - air waves that extend into the stratosphere. Wednesday morning was the aircraft's first flight. "It was definitely exciting," said Mark Mahnke, who runs Redmond company RDD: Research, Design, Develop, which built the Perlan II. "This particular type of aircraft has not flown before," Mahnke said. "To see that hit the air for the first time and to perform so stable-y is a tribute to the design and the construction." During several more test flights in the next year, pilots will attempt to take the glider higher and higher. The Perlan II has a wingspan of 87 feet. It follows the Perlan I, which was a regular glider retrofitted for higher altitudes. The Perlan I set an altitude record for flying at 50,972 feet. If the Perln II gets above 51,000 feet, it will set a new record. Stephan Fymat, who sits on the board of directors on the Perlan Project, said the project chose Redmond carefully for the experimental glider. "Redmond has a mini-industry here of experimental aircraft design and construction. That's what drew us to this area," Fymat said. "In terms of where is the talent, where is the expertise, Redmond is one of those places." The project is funded by Airbus Group, a European aviation company that specializes in aviation innovation. Fymat would not share details on exactly how much the Perlan II cost. "Millions," he said. http://www.opb.org/news/article/experimental-glider-flies-for-first-time-in-redmond/ Back to Top How China is playing Boeing against Airbus to build its own airplane industry For the first time ever, Boeing is locating an aircraft production facility abroad - in China - as part of a bundled deal to sell 300 new planes to Chinese airlines and leasing companies. Companies moving production to China is an old story, of course, but Boeing isn't just new to the Chinese market - this is the first time it's ever built a factory abroad. That makes it a huge deal in the deeply politicized aviation industry, and many smell a link to the demise of the Export-Import Bank, since Boeing was the biggest beneficiary of its largesse. But this is also a story about Chinese public policy, and it highlights at least one respect in which the country's state-dominated economic growth model (whatever its other flaws) works better than freer markets - the country can coherently pursue multi-pronged efforts to develop new domestic industries by leveraging the scale of its domestic consumer market. The Chinese want to develop a domestic airplane manufacturing industry. But building large airplanes is difficult. So they've been playing Boeing and its major competitor off each other to get both companies to help teach a Chinese company how to do it. Lenin famously said that "the capitalists will sell us the rope we use to hang them," and while neither company really wants to help create a new rival, neither is willing to cede control over the Chinese market to the other. Boeing scored a huge sale to the Chinese government In total, the planes Boeing has agreed to sell are worth about $38 billion - an enormous sum of money. That's spread across three separate airlines and an aircraft leasing company, but all three airlines are state-owned enterprises, and the leasing company is a subsidiary of a bank that's also state-owned. The deal, in other words, is entirely controlled by the Chinese government, which, of course, wants a good deal on quality airplanes but also has a larger set of policy objectives. Boeing is opening a Chinese factory to catch up to Airbus In the United States, privately owned airlines choose to buy large aircraft from either Boeing or Airbus, Boeing's European rival, based on a relatively narrow set of business considerations. But while the Chinese government isn't indifferent to the quality of a plane purchasing deal qua deal, it also looks at other political factors. In recent years the bulk of Chinese aircraft purchases have come from Airbus. Not coincidentally, Airbus has a production facility in Tianjin and is opening a second Chinese factory. Boeing is now opening its own Chinese factory in part to play catch-up - and the announcement is deliberately paired with the announcement of the new sales. The message from the Chinese government to both companies is clear: Your ability to make sales in China is going to be based in part on your willingness to locate factories in China. China is trying to learn how to make airplanes Labor unions representing Boeing's workforce are, naturally, concerned about the impact of the new facility on jobs for their members. But China's leaders are really after something much bigger than a factory full of jobs. They are trying to develop a domestic aviation industry. And to do that, they need workers and managers who know how to build airplanes. That's why the Chinese government's state-owned aerospace company has launched a subsidiary called the Commercial Aviation Company of China (Comec) with a mandate to build first the C919, a narrow- body aircraft intended to compete with Boeing's 737 and Airbus's 320, and then with a longer-term ambition to build wide-body airplanes. The plant Boeing is going to build in China will be used to put the finishing touches on 737s and will handle the delivery and servicing of the aircraft. It's also going to be a joint venture between Boeing and Comec. In other words, Boeing is going to be training Comec personnel in the skills they need to complete the C919 - an airplane that is designed to put Boeing out of business. China is playing Airbus and Boeing off each other How could Boeing be so careless about its own long-term business interests? Well, in part it's because Boeing's executives need to care about the company's short-term revenue and profits, and the quarterly earnings reports don't care about Comec's long-term vision. But in part it's because Boeing believes that Comec is going to master this craft one way or the other. After all, remember that Airbus plant in Tianjin? It's also a joint venture with Comec. So from Boeing's perspective the die has already been cast, and it would be foolish to let Airbus gobble up the entire Chinese market for itself. Meanwhile, Airbus is probably telling itself that helping the Chinese learn how to do final assembly for the A320 probably isn't that big of a deal because there are a lot of other steps in the aircraft value chain and a lot of bigger, more complicated planes out there. But that's why getting Boeing into the China game is important. Boeing's new Chinese plant is going to be doing basically the same things as Airbus's existing one. So if Airbus wants to regain the upper hand in competition for sales to the giant Chinese market, it will likely have to step up its future Chinese production. Loss of Export-Import Bank subsidies plays an indirect role Lurking in the background of this story is the Export-Import Bank, a longstanding scheme to provide discounted loans to American manufacturers that vanished early this summer after sustained attacks from Tea Party Republicans. As the American economy has shifted away from manufacturing over the decades, airplanes have become a very large share of American manufacturing exports, and Boeing became the single biggest recipient of Export-Import Bank loans. On an elite level, the main source of lobbying against the bank was Delta, an airline that didn't like the idea of the US government subsidizing airline purchases for its foreign competitors.* The bank's disappearance will somewhat disadvantage Boeing in competition with Airbus for future contracts, because Europe retains its export financing subsidies. It also moderately reduces financial incentives for Boeing to keep its production in the United States. But the main relevance is political. The aerospace industry is highly politicized, due to both the heavy government role in regulating the airline industry and the linkages between commercial aircraft production and military aircraft production. Boeing's main competitor, Airbus, is partly owned by European governments, and its Chinese frenemy Comec is owned by the Chinese government. Government ownership isn't really done in America, but the Export-Import Bank - along with defense contracts - was one of the US government's main tools for supporting and influencing Boeing. With it gone, Boeing is more cut loose and more inclined to cut deals that advance China's long-term industrial aspirations rather than America's. http://www.vox.com/2015/9/24/9389767/boeing-china-deal Back to Top MRO market faces headwinds despite robust aircraft refurb work It seems that not a week goes by without an airline revealing newly refurbished interiors on some subfleet. But while aircraft modifications continue apace, requirements for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities over the near term are actually plateauing or declining. This is largely due to lower demand as the result of a new generation of more reliable aircraft coming on line with longer gaps between maintenance cycles, says Lufthansa Technik, one of the world's largest MRO providers, with over 26,000 staff in thirty locations globally. Technik is not alone its its assessment. The Cavok consultancy warned this spring that the presence of more planes with advanced technology means decreased demand for MRO, as reported by Consultancy.uk. Cavok advised MRO suppliers that they "will need aggressive and innovative plans for growth" if they want to remain competitive in the market in the next couple of years. Moreover, evidence suggests that airlines have become "better at managing their maintenance costs", suggested JP Morgan yesterday in a new deep dive report about the aftermarket. Among other factors, JP Morgan cited airlines' use of health monitoring technologies (e.g., sensors) and predictive maintenance software; and better operating practices (e.g., de-rating engine power, better cleaning of engines). Industry should expect further improvement in this regard in the coming years as airlines use broadband connectivity to bolster maintenance proficiencies. Aircraft refurbishment work - while robust - is quite simply not enough to pull MRO out of the doldrums in the near-term. Indeed, as a result of the fall in demand, some MRO operators are reducing or shuttering facilities. Qantas, for example, closed its Boeing 747 heavy maintenance base in Avalon near Melbourne in early 2014 as its fleet has fallen to nearly single digits from a peak of 36 747s in 2004. Many of the arguments around maintenance bases and their growth opportunities involve the balance between cost, safety, and offshoring of work, something with which Lufthansa Technik is intimately familiar. Runway Girl Network queried Lufthansa Technik CEO Johannes Bussmann on whether, in his opinion, European MRO locations could compete on cost, with particular reference to the costs in the US given Airbus' new final assembly line in Mobile, Alabama. "Europeans can, yes. We have a lot of neighbour countries that have skilled workers, good education systems and reasonable cost positions. And that's actually where our base maintenance stations are: on the outskirts of Europe, because there are opportunities there," Bussmann said. "We just opened in Puerto Rico," Bussmann noted of Lufthansa Technik's US operations. "We've done now the first check there already, and we're quite happy, even though the country is in a difficult situation. We hope that we can contribute to development in their industry." But have countries like France, Germany and the UK essentially priced themselves out of the market with higher labour costs? "I think that really depends on the technology required. For base maintenance and testing, that's already been distributed for ten years now. There are a couple of small outlets that still do it: holding a strategic capability there in order to do special things at short notice and so on, but the big programs are outside," Bussmann said of the largest European markets. The real issue - as Apple CEO Steve Jobs outlined to President Barack Obama in 2012 - is one of skills and technology. "Apple's executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that 'Made in the U.S. A.' is no longer a viable option for most Apple products," summed up The New York Times in its coverage of the meeting. Bussmann makes a similar point about the skills, investment and facilities in locations that many in western Europe or the US might object to as offshoring: "If you look at high technology, investment in testers and skilled workers is extremely high. And there the labour costs are not that different, but the skill of the people, the throughput that you can run, that is what drives the economics." One of the issues in the Qantas case was the perception (stoked by some with skin in that particular game) that maintenance was being outsourced to certain countries without Australia's long history of commercial aviation. RGN asked Bussmann whether Lufthansa Technik was seeing any carriers wishing to restrict the geographies in which their aircraft were maintained, for public relations or any other purposes. "On a case-by-case basis you have that, really seldom," he replied. "Maybe sometimes they've had a bad experience, not so much with countries but with individual companies - they say 'we've had a bad experience there, I don't want my aircraft going there'." According to Bussmann, there are few qualms about conducting maintenance in countries like Russia and China either. "It's actually the opposite way around: we have China and we have Russia and we have Turkey, which have identified the aviation industry as a core strategic industry for their economy, and until they're building aircraft locally they want to in-source MRO within the country. That's especially strong in those three countries." Specific to the aircraft interiors refurbishment business, there are plenty of examples of robust activity for this type of specialized work at the world's favored MRO facilities (Technik among them). But even strong demand isn't necessarily enough to insulate interiors suppliers from other near-term pressures. Take B/E Aerospace, for example, which is among the major suppliers feeding the need for premium and economy class seating, lavs and other cabin fittings in the refurbishment market. The company recently announced it will take a $30 million charge associated with cost-cutting measures, including facilities closures, product rationalization, workforce reductions and program discontinuance, following last year's KLX Aerospace spinoff. "The plan that management outlined in late 2015/early 2016 has come under consistent pressure, despite optimistic commentary on the January earnings call: first, management lowered 2015 sales guidance on the April call and then [B/E Aerospace] offered 2016 sales guidance for only 1-2% on the July call. While [this] charge may be a natural outgrowth of focusing on margins, we wonder whether anything has changed over the past two months to prompt this action," said JP Morgan. B/E Aerospace management still sees sales acceleration in 2017 in line with faster widebody delivery growth and supplier furnished equipment sales, it noted. More broadly, it's clear that despite the torrent of press releases from airlines about aircraft cabin refurbs, the near-term outlook for MRO as a whole isn't quite as rosy as it might seem. Given the forecast, it would seem that understanding the careful mix of locations, efficiency and skillsets will be a smart move for MRO operators and their clients, if they are to remain competitive. http://www.runwaygirlnetwork.com/2015/09/23/mro-market-faces-headwinds-despite-robust-aircraft- refurb-work/ Back to Top China to deploy aircraft in upcoming Antarctica expedition China will first deploy a fixed-wing aircraft in its latest scientific expedition to Antarctica, which is to set off next month, said the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration on Friday. The Basler BT-67, named "Snow Eagle 601", will operate supply runs and other logistics missions for expedition teams within a radius of 1,300 km around China's Zhongshan Station in Antarctica, said Qin Weijia, deputy head of the administration. The aircraft will also serve as a transport between Zhongshan and Kunlun stations and nearby stations of other countries, Qin said. The aircraft, manufactured in the United States, can fly at a speed of 380 km per hour with a maximum payload of 5,900 kg. It will be equipped with research equipment including an ice radar system, airborne gravimeter, airborne magnetometer and onboard laser radar system. Since China lacks aircraft operation experience in Antarctica, the plane will be operated by Kenn Borek Air, an Canadian airline. In its maiden journey, Snow Eagle 601 will take off from Canada, fly over South America and land at the Rothera Research Station of the United Kingdom as the first stop. Then it will fly to the Zhongshan Station via a short stop at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station of the United States. Afterwards it will make a flight to the Kunlun Station, at about 4,000 meters above the sea level near Dome A. A Chinese expedition team will arrive at the Kunlun Station before the plane to build a runaway for it. It will not spend the winter in Antarctica but return to Canada. http://www.shanghaidaily.com/national/China-to-deploy-aircraft-in-upcoming-Antarctica- expedition/shdaily.shtml Back to Top The Chinese Birdman Who Got U.S. Aircraft Giant Boeing Flying It isn't well known outside aviation circles that the first engineer at U.S. aircraft maker Boeing almost a century ago was a man from China, Wong Tsu - and his story is one that doesn't sound possible in the current era of distrust between the two nations. A U.S. politician highlighted the historic Sino-U.S. links in aviation in a toast to Chinese President Xi Jinping during the first leg of his American tour, where Boeing is high on the agenda and tension over technology is a primary issue. In his remarks on Tuesday night, Gary Locke, the Chinese-American former Washington governor and U.S. ambassador to China, recalled the engineer's story and asked Mr. Xi to remember that there are "many engineers and machinists working at Boeing who are Chinese." The Chinese president on Wednesday toured Boeing manufacturing facilities outside of Seattle, where he sat in the cockpit of a plane and witnessed some of the biggest deals expected from his U.S. visit. Boeing announced that it finalized agreements for Chinese customers to buy 300 of its planes that together list for $38 billion. Boeing also said that in China it intends to build a production facility outside the U.S. for the first time, a plant that will handle plane completion work like painting, along with a rival manufacturer, state-run Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, or Comac. The news comes weeks after Boeing reiterated its confidence in the potential size of China's aviation market that it said will demand around 6,330 planes in the next two decades. The early aviator, Beijing-born Mr. Wong, was hired in mid-1916 by the aircraft maker's founder Bill Boeing to work in Seattle. Mr. Wong had studied "the new science of aviation" at the first school to teach it, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and learned to fly in Buffalo, according to a Boeing-produced history. (Over the years, Boeing has also spelled his name Wong Zhu and Wong Tsoo.) A company spokeswoman said Mr. Wong's story and continued links between Boeing and China show that "this heritage of mutual benefit and joint contribution continues today." Mr. Wong's hiring by Boeing produced almost immediate results. He used wind tunnel data from MIT and research findings by the French engineer Gustav Eiffel to spearhead an effort that by November 1916 got flying the Model C seaplane, Boeing's first military aircraft. The plane was ultimately Boeing's first commercially successful aircraft, which the biography credits "largely to the creative talents of its first engineer." Mr. Wong was described in a newspaper at the time, according to the biography, as a man "who in addition to cherishing the ambition to become a proficient birdman, is a mechanical engineer and draughtsman." Mr. Wong maintained a long relationship with Boeing but had returned to China after less than a year in Seattle to build an airplane business at home. Starting in the eastern city Fuzhou, where decades later Mr. Xi would become the top politician, Mr. Wong started the country's first airplane factory and successfully launched several plane models, including a troop mover made from bamboo during the wartime years. But after the civil war that in 1949 brought the Communist Party to power in China, Mr. Wong emigrated to Taiwan. There he taught aeronautical engineering at National Cheng-Kung University. He died in 1965. Chinese media typically describe relations between China and Boeing as having begun in 1972, the year President Richard Nixon flew into the country aboard a Boeing built Air Force One. It's not known whether China's president knows Mr. Wong's story. During his keynote speech just before Mr. Locke's toast, the Chinese president said Chinese workers have a history of working shoulder to shoulder with Americans, such as building the Transcontinental Railroad 150 years ago and as allies in World War II. http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/09/24/the-chinese-birdman-who-got-u-s-aircraft-giant-boeing- flying/ Back to Top NASA scientists use jet to measure air quality data from California wildfires The Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX) project: Pilots of H211, LLC, a NASA partner, review their preflight checklists before taking off to collect air samples from plumes of smoke from recent California wildfires. On Aug. 19, 2015, a team of scientists from NASA's Ames Research Center organized the flight of an Alpha Jet to collect environmental data from two recent wildfires in California's Southern Sierra Nevada mountain range. As part of the ongoing Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX) project, pilots of H211, LLC, a NASA partner, flew through plumes of smoke from the "Cabin Fire" and "Rough Fire" in Sequoia National Forest, California, measuring ozone and greenhouse gases from the fires to understand their effects on air quality. "It gives us a more complete picture of wildfires," said Warren Gore, chief of the Atmospheric Science Branch at Ames, based in Moffett Field, California. "It gives information on what is burned and what pollution is produced. Ozone can cause respiratory distress when people breathe it in, whether they have respiratory problems or not. It could affect their health, and it could have a long term effect." The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL Fire) believes lightning ignited the "Cabin Fire," which has consumed approximately 7,000 acres in the Golden Trout Wilderness, north of Glendora, since July 19. The "Rough Fire," which started on July 31, also a result of lightning, has burned more than 100,000 acres in Kings Canyon, near Hume Lake. Twentyfive hundred people from the Hume Lake Christian Camp and surrounding area were evacuated. "Smoke from wildfires can be lifted high into the atmosphere and transported long distances. It affects not only local air quality but can also have regional and even global impacts", said Laura Iraci, AJAX Principal Investigator and research scientist at Ames. "For example, the smoke from these fires is impacting large areas of California and Nevada." Airborne over the blaze: The Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX) plane overflies the "Rough Fire," which started due to a lightning strike on July 31. The fire burned more than 100,000 acres in Kings Canyon, near Hume Lake, leading to ... more "We've seen more methane for every molecule of carbon dioxide emitted from these particular fires than we've seen with previous fires," said Emma Yates, a research scientist at NASA Ames. "We don't know what's causing this. Interactions between urban pollution and forest fires is a big challenge, the difficulty being how to identify how much each source contributes to measured concentrations within a mixed wildfire urban plume. Some researchers speculate that could be playing a role." This flight was the 167th AJAX mission in the past five years, using onboard equipment to make measurements of the atmosphere. Results gathered from the 2013 Rim Fire in Stanislaus National Forest are being prepared for publication. Similarly data from this year's fires will be analyzed and shared with the science community and other stakeholders, like the California Air Resources Board and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. Information provided by AJAX can supplement the decision process of these regulatory agencies. NASA enables studies that unravel the complexities of our planet from the highest reaches of Earth's atmosphere to its core. NASA's expertise in space and scientific exploration contributes to essential services provided to the American people by other federal agencies, such as weather forecasting and natural resource management. Scientists worldwide use NASA data to tackle some of the biggest questions about how our planet is changing. Earth science research at Ames features basic and applied research in atmospheric and biospheric sciences, and conducts airborne science campaigns. http://phys.org/news/2015-09-nasa-scientists-jet-air-quality.html Back to Top China's Copycat Jet Raises Questions About F-35 Did the Chinese theft of data on the US fighter jet and other weapons shrink the Pentagon's technical superiority? New technical specs about China's new J-31 fighter, a plane designed to rival the American-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, popped up on a Chinese blog last week. So who has the advantage - the U.S. or China? Marcus Weisgerber is the global business reporter for Defense One, where he writes about the intersection of business and national security. He has been covering defense and national security issues for nearly a decade, previously as Pentagon correspondent for Defense News and chief editor of ... Full Bio China's twin-engine design bears a striking resemblance to the single-jet F-35. Still, the Joint Strike Fighter is expected to fly slightly farther and carry a heavier load of weapons, according to the data, which was first reported by Jane's. Military experts say that while the J-31 looks like, and may even fly like, the F-35, it's what's under the hood and embedded in the skin that really matters. The U.S. has the better computer software, unique sensors and other hardware, stealth coating, and engines technology-all critical attributes that make fifth- generation aircraft different than the military jets of last century. Exactly how long that advantage lasts is up for debate; senior Pentagon officials and experts believe American technology superiority is shrinking. That means the U.S. military's weapons will not overmatch adversaries for as long as they have in past decades. "It's basically, are they producing weapon systems that have fifth-generation characteristics that potentially nullify some of our planned advantages in the future battlespace," said Peter Singer, a strategist and senior fellow at New America. "[W]e were depending more so on the [American weapons] having that generation-ahead edge, and if we don't have that generation-ahead edge, that is incredibly scary for us in various scenarios," Singer said. U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work and acquisition chief Frank Kendall have spent much of the past two years warning that the U.S. military's technology advantage is eroding. "What it does is reduce the cost and lead time of our adversaries to doing their own designs, so it gives away a substantial advantage," Kendall said of cyber espionage at a 2013 Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing. Since then, Work and Kendall have been leading projects to find technologies that will give the American military an advantage on the battlefield of the future. China is suspected of stealing F-35 design data in 2009. U.S. officials have said classified information was not stolen in that breach, but in 2011 it emerged that China was building a multirole, stealth fighter of its own that could strike targets in the air and on the ground, like the F-35. The J-31 flew for the first time in 2012. The Pentagon huddled with defense companies in 2007 to urge firms to better protect their networks. Companies are attempting to beef up their cybersecurity, but there is a gap in the security talent, said Justin Harvey, chief security officer for Fidelis Cybersecurity, a firm that works with the U.S. government and private industry. "They're buying these tools, but they're not investing a ton in the people," he said. Whenever a company is attacked, they typically call Fidelis or similar cybersecurity firms to consult because they don't have employees with the training or experience to assess the breach. "I think 90 percent of U.S. companies are not equipped to deal with cyber espionage," Harvey said. The defense industrial base and financial services industry are the best-protected, he said. Cyber espionage allows rival companies to get access to the information gleaned during testing "for the cost of breaching your network," Singer said. Cyber theft allows China to save tens of billions of dollars in research-and-development, the experimentation and testing a new weapon goes through before it reaches the battlefield, experts say. While the Chinese jet fighters might still be inferior to the American planes, not having to do early research and development allows them to focus on upgrades and improvements. This means the 10- to 20-year advantage an aircraft like the F-35 was supposed have on the battlefield might not be there, Singer said. Those Chinese plans could then compete against U.S.-made aircraft 20 years from now when the U.S. government allows more and more allies to buy the F-35. "Those future competitions will be incredibly difficult because we'll have paid the R&D for our competitors," Singer said. Increased research-and-development costs, ever common in Pentagon acquisition projects, often lead to a decrease in the total number of items purchased. Most recently, this was the case with the F-35's older brother, the F-22 Raptor. The Air Force had wanted more than 700 planes, a number cut first to 381 and ultimately to 187. "The expense of our fifth-generation [fighter aircraft] means we have not been able to buy as many as we want," Singer said. But the F-35, unlike previous aircraft, has been designed to receive upgrades over the years, which will ultimately improve its capabilities, allowing it defeat new threats. F-35 development will end in October 2017. After that the program will move into a "follow-on development" phase, said F-35 project spokesman Joe DellaVedova. "One of the F-35's great strengths is that it's a growth platform, so its software, its processors, its radar, its capability; there's a lot of room for growth." The jet fighters will get software and hardware upgrades every two years on an alternating basis. The F-35 itself and its ground equipment undergo multiple tests each year to make sure the systems can withstand cyber attack, DellaVedova said. "We take the cyber threat very seriously," he said. While the Chinese planes might still have inferior systems, stealing intellectual property and subsequent R&D savings also allows Beijing to make drastic changes in prototypes. For the J-20, a Chinese stealth fighter being built to rival the F-22, there have been numerous prototypes in which the plane's design has become stealthier, Singer said. "Their designs, their capabilities are shifting from prototype to prototype in a way that has not happening with the current way that we are building our fifth-gen systems," he said. http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2015/09/more-questions-f-35-after-new-specs-chinas- copycat/121859/ Back to Top Orange County's first school aviation program, at Canyon High in Anaheim, takes flight Cooper Hernandez works to fly a Cessna 172 on Sept. 3 near Long Beach Airport in a simulator at Canyon High School in Anaheim Hills. Cooper is enrolled in the Aviation 2 class at the school. As Canyon Aviation grows, it will become a four-year program. Here is the proposed schedule: * Ninth grade: Pre-aviation * 10th grade: Aviation I * 11th grade: Aviation II * Summer or 12th grade: Internship * Optional: Aviation Science * Pilot Licensing 101: The basics Here are a few of the types of licenses pilots can get: * Sport pilot: You can fly light sport aircraft, which are one- or two-seater aircraft that tend to be smaller, lighter and simpler. * Recreational pilot: You can fly one additional passenger. Initial restriction of 50 nautical miles. * Private pilot: Requires minimum age of 16. You can fly unlimited passengers for sightseeing or charity flights. International flights and night flights allowed. * Instrument rating: You can fly at altitudes above 18,000 feet above sea level or in weather with reduced visibility. * Commercial pilot: Requires private license. You can fly for hire. * Certificated flight: Requires commercial license, instrument rating. You can teach people how to fly and give flight reviews. * Airline transport pilot: Requires commercial license, instrument rating, minimum age of 23. You can fly airline, corporate and charter aircraft. * Designated examiner: Requires decades of experience. You can perform check rides or flight tests. Source: Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, aopa.org It's just your average weekday morning at Anaheim's newest pilot school, and students are getting ready to fly. Three computer screens surround a student's head as he sits within his virtual cockpit. Rotating the yoke - the "steering wheel" of his simulated aircraft - he executes a slow, steady turn through a blue expanse of sky over the virtual city of Long Beach. An airport looms in the distance, one open space in a sea of gray, cubic buildings. "Pull up!" his partner says. The young pilot hits the asphalt successfully, but the students are concerned about the landing and check the exterior of their craft. These Canyon High School students are juggling practicing their airplane landings with attending football games, studying for the SATs and taking dates to homecoming. The Anaheim Hills school is home to the only high school aviation program in Orange County. By the end of the program, these 45 students will be on track for several potential aviation careers and could take the written portion of the test for a pilot's license. "I'd like to be able to design airplanes, or maybe even fly them to test," said James Stupin, 17, who is eyeing careers in aerospace engineering or automotive design. "(We use) a lot of cool technology that there's no way a normal class would get to have," said program founder Steve Smith, who does triple duty at Canyon, teaching aviation, mathematics and student leadership. "(It's) doing everything that educators are pushing for these days with science, math and technology." Smith, a professional pilot and accredited math teacher, has more than five years of flight experience. And it took almost that long to launch the Canyon Aviation program, which started in fall 2014. "I saw some of the other classes we had on campus with culinary arts and auto shop and computers ... and I thought, 'Why couldn't we have a pilot ground school class?'" said Smith, who has an aviation science degree from Baylor University. "Anyone I talked to thought it was a good idea but didn't know how to get it started." About three years ago, the district cleared the program for takeoff. With the help of Kathy Boyd, coordinator of Orange Unified School District's career training and STEM programs, the school secured a planning grant of $50,000 from the district - enough to buy two flight simulators and new classroom furniture. "It is high-skill, high-wage and high-need," Boyd said of aviation. "We knew it would be popular with kids, but it also had those categories of putting kids in the right place." Smith wrote the entire curriculum from scratch and recruited students from registration days and eighth- grade information nights. Officials told him to expect a small class, perhaps even as few as five students - most people wouldn't know what they were getting themselves into, they told him. Thirty-nine students signed up for Aviation I in the fall of 2014. "It was awesome," Smith said. "It was just really cool to see that there was, right out of the gate, more interest than I was anticipating." The program offers two classes, Aviation I and II. More will be added. Smith wrote the curriculum using Federal Aviation Administration guidelines, modeling it after university introductory aviation courses. By the end of Aviation II, Smith said students should possess enough technical knowledge to pass the written portion of their private pilot license test, which is open to anyone 16 or older. Students not only take FAA-style written exams but also pilot planes themselves on the classroom's Microsoft flight simulator systems. Each unit costs about $4,500 and features three monitors, speakers, an instrument panel, pedal system, side console, yoke and radios used for simulated conversations with air traffic control. This year, the program received a $100,000 implementation grant from the district to buy four new simulators in addition to class sets of Chromebooks and flight planners. One challenge Smith said he faced was tailoring the curriculum to a wide spectrum of background knowledge. Some may have signed up for an easy senior elective, he said; others enrolled because the pathway appealed to their career interests. There are a multitude of careers in the aviation industry, Smith said. Last year, he took students on field trips to museums and airfields, including Fullerton Municipal Airport and Corona Airfield. "I didn't want the focus just to be (on becoming) an airline pilot," Smith said. "I wanted it to be, 'Look at all the different possibilities that exist ... air traffic control, the military, maintenance, management, airport operations.'" The local aviation community has been extremely supportive, he said. The Planes of Fame museum gave his class free guided tours, and the Anaheim Police Department Air Support Team donated expired flight charts and demonstrated the airplanes and helicopters used for surveillance. Canyon Aviation also hosts guest speakers, and when a representative from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University visited the class, 16-year-old Zach Marshall said he found his new dream school. Marshall said he finds meteorology and flight planning fascinating. Recently, a class volunteer opportunity helped him land a job at the Chino airport. "Since I was able to make a paper airplane, I've always wanted to fly," said Marshall, a junior. "We had a Marine F-18 mechanic who came in. That got me interested in maybe going to the Marines." Word of the program has flown as far as San Diego and Riverside, district officials said. "(We're) in talks with community colleges that own planes in Orange County," said Diana Schneider, senior director for the Career Technical Education Partnership in the Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Orange Unified school districts. "Students are all being encouraged to go forward and take the next level, whether it's at a community college or a four-year university, because we want them to get to the top of their field ... There's so many job openings for people with flight experience," she said. Including girls. Smith added that he wants to encourage more girls to take the program - he's had only two each year. There are, he said, a ton of scholarships and internships open for females interested in flying. Canyon Aviation is making more big changes in the coming years. Smith wants to implement an aviation internship class for college credit in which students can get off-campus positions in aircraft maintenance, business, operations, engineering or even flying. In addition, a new Aviation Science class will be introduced in 2016. Physics and calculus teacher Khoa Dao, who started at Canyon last fall, is working on curriculum for the new class that will address topics such as motion, meteorology and the physics of flight. "I am working on the outline for the class because it includes a quarter of physics," said Dao, who also coaches Canyon's Academic Decathlon team. "We are modeling the class from college aviation science courses." Smith said he's happy that many of the students have said they want to later obtain a pilot's license. "It's already bigger than my initial vision was and I think it has the potential to be huge," he said. "If you speak aviation ... it can benefit you and open up career possibilities you might not have thought of." http://www.ocregister.com/articles/aviation-684234-smith-students.html Back to Top Embry-Riddle's aerospace engineering program Nos. 1, 3 in nation Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University continues its dominance in engineering and military education as reflected in the 2016 Best Colleges guidebook published by U.S. News & World Report. In the specialty category of "Best Undergraduate Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering Programs at Schools Whose Highest Degree is a Bachelor's or Master's," Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach Campus is No. 1 for the 16th year in a row, and the Prescott Campus is No. 3 for the 13th year in a row. In the broader category of "Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs at Schools Whose Highest Degree is a Bachelor's or Master's," the Daytona Beach Campus tied at No. 8, its ninth time in the top 10; the Prescott Campus tied at No.15, its 10th time in the top 20. Among "Best Regional Universities (South)," Embry-Riddle climbed to its highest rank ever, No. 9, landing in the top 13 for 11 years in a row. In that same Southern regional category, Embry-Riddle received the following placements: ? Embry-Riddle ranks No. 4 in "Most Innovative Schools," a category that highlights advances in curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities. ? The university is No. 8 in the category of "Best Colleges for Veterans," recognizing schools that provide veterans and active-duty service members with benefits to make their college education more affordable. "It is an honor for Embry-Riddle's aerospace engineering programs to be identified for 16 years running as the best," said university Interim President Dr. John R. Watret. "It is a well-deserved nod not only to the quality of the programs, but also to the unsurpassed quality of our current students, our graduates and our faculty." Embry-Riddle has garnered many other honors and rankings this year, including the following: ? U.S. News & World Report rated the university's Worldwide Campus No. 4 in the category of "Best Online Bachelor's Programs for Veterans" and No. 5 for the second year in a row in "Best Online Undergraduate Degree Programs." ? CareerBuilder named Embry-Riddle a "Top Company to Work For in Arizona." ? The Chronicle of Higher Education named Embry-Riddle a "Great College to Work For" for the fifth straight year and listed the university as an Honor Roll school in seven categories. ? The Orlando Sentinel rated Embry-Riddle one of Central Florida's "Top 100 Companies for Working Families" for the 11th year in a row, ranking the university No. 4 in its size category. Highlights of the rankings of nearly 1,800 accredited four-year schools in the United States are posted at www.usnews.com/colleges. http://dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=74&SubSectionID=114&ArticleID=149935 Back to Top CERTIFICATE OF MANAGEMENT IN AVIATION SAFETY Professional education seminars for aviation practitioners Embry-Riddle will host a variety of aviation safety focused executive education courses at its Daytona Beach Campus; all courses are offered in a face-to-face traditional classroom setting taught by subject matter experts from the aviation industry. Who Should Attend: These courses are tailored for industry professionals involved in the operations, management, and supervision of aviation organizations. What You Will Learn:The certificate is designed for participants interested in obtaining a strong safety foundation; the objective is to produce aviation industry professionals who are skilled in providing expertise in safety management and technical guidance on FAA, OSHA, DOT and EPA Compliance Issues. The certificate requires completion of three 5-day courses in Occupational Safety and Health & Aviation Ground Safety, Aviation Safety Program Management & Aircraft Accident Investigation and Management. REGISTER TODAY ONLINE ERAU FALL 2015 CERTIFICATE OF MANAGEMENT IN AVIATION SAFETY SERIES: OCT. 19-23, 2015: OSHA & Aviation Ground Safety Oct. 26-30, 2015: Aviation Safety Program Management Nov. 2-6, 2015: Aircraft Accident Investigation LOCATION: DAYTONA BEACH CAMPUS, FLORIDA CONTACT INFORMATION: Ms. Sarah Ochs, Director of Professional Programs Email: case@erau.edu Phone: (386) 226-6928 www.erau.edu/cmas iSMS - Safety Management System Training Back to Top Upcoming Events: Fundamentals of IS-BAO October 1, 2015 Farnborough, UK https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1661564 IS-BAO Auditing October 2, 2015 Farnborough, UK https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1661567 Fundamentals of IS-BAO November 2, 2015 Hong Kong, China https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1724162 IS-BAO Auditing November 3, 2015 Hong Kong, China https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1724176 BARS Auditor Training October 6-8, 2015 Dubai, United Arab Emirates http://flightsafety.org/bars/auditor-training OSHA & Aviation Ground Safety Training Course (ERAU) Oct. 19-23, 2015 Daytona Beach, FL www.erau.edu/cmas Aviation Safety Program Management Training Course (ERAU) Oct. 26-30, 2015 Daytona Beach, FL www.erau.edu/cmas Aircraft Accident Investigation Training Course (ERAU) Nov. 2-6, 2015 Daytona Beach, FL www.erau.edu/cmas Aviation Safety Management Systems (SMS) Seminar (ERAU) Nov. 17-19, 2015 Daytona Beach, FL www.erau.edu/sms Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Seminar (ERAU) Dec. 8-10, 2015 Daytona Beach, FL www.erau.edu/uas New HFACS workshop Las Vegas December 15 & 16 www.hfacs.com 'DTI QA & SMS Workshops are Back in Town!' (Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Melbourne FL, and YOUR town just contact us) www.dtitraining.com Back to Top JOBS AVAILABLE: *IOSA FLT Auditors *Experienced Trainers in the area of Safety Management Systems *Quality Control Specialist *Manager Quality Assurance and Quality Control Aviation Quality Services GmbH www.aviation-quality-services.com Flight Training Human Factors Specialist Emirates www.emirates.com/careers Manager Group Safety Management Systems Virgin Australia Location: Brisbane, Australia http://careers.virginaustralia.com/cw/en/job/496413/manager-group-safety-management-systems Business Aviation Regional Sales Manager ARGUS International, Inc. https://home2.eease.adp.com/recruit/?id=18211162 Vice President Flight Operations FEDEX Express https://www.appone.com/MainInfoReq.asp?R_ID=1120042 Curt Lewis