Flight Safety Information June 13, 2016 - No. 115 In This Issue Race against time to find EgyptAir black boxes Jet lands safely at Newark airport despite hydraulics problem Search for Malaysian airliner: How far can a jet fly on fumes? Black boxes could be improved by realtime jet data streaming Air France-KLM taps jet data to defend maintenance share Nok Air pilots joked about crashing plane with Yingluck aboard (Thailand) Medical Examiners Re-Evaluate Mental-Health 'Firewalls' Govt to speed up action to boost aviation safety (Thailand) Remote e-learning for pilots fails to take off, DGCA says it's not safe (India) Etihad flight college takes delivery of new Embraer Phenom 100E Aircraft Drop the Supersonic Aircraft Ban, Watch Business Boom NASA enlists the United Arab Emirates' help for mission to Mars 2016 FAA Asia-Pacific Flight Standards Meeting July 19-21 PhD Research Survey (I) PhD Research Survey (II) Race against time to find EgyptAir black boxes EgyptAir plane black box signal detected INVESTIGATORS say time is running out to find the black box flight recorders from crashed EgyptAir flight MS804, revealing the device batteries were likely to expire by the end of the week. Authorities are still searching for answers as to why the EgyptAir plane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea last month, killing all 66 people on board. Small pieces of debris and human remains have been retrieved from the crash site so far. In a statement on Sunday, Egyptian investigators said they would intensify sea searches for evidence of the crash as there were only about five days left until batteries on the flight's data and cockpit voice recorders would expire and stop emitting signals. A French soldier aboard an aircraft looking out a window during searches for debris from the crashed EgyptAir flight MS804 over the Mediterranean Sea. Picture: Marine Nationale/AFP Last week French investigators said they thought they heard locator-beacon signals from at least one of the black boxes, prompting salvage experts to head to the site for a closer look. It is possible to find the devices without signals, but it would be more difficult, AP reports. The boxes are essential to revealing whether the plane crashed due to a mechanical fault, a hijacking or a bomb explosion. Some of the debris the search teams have found so far. Picture: AFP The EgyptAir flight crashed after disappearing from radar while flying from Paris to Cairo on May 20. Australian-UK dual national Richard Osman was among the 66 passengers and flight crew on board the Airbus A320. An act of terror has firmed as the most likely cause of the plane crash, however no group has come forward to claim responsibility. But last week it was revealed the plane made three emergency landings in the 24 hours before it crashed into the Mediterranean, and each time it was cleared to take off again despite showing signs of abnormalities, Euronews reported. Egyptian authorities have denied this. http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/race-against-time-to-find-egyptair-black- boxes/news-story/644991c9109b7c4ccb681d997f7f1f2f Back to Top Jet lands safely at Newark airport despite hydraulics problem Emergency vehicles surrounded a Delta jet on the tarmac at Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday afternoon. NEWARK - Emergency crews were put on alert at Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday, after a Delta Airlines jet reported a hydraulics issue, officials said. The commuter jet reported the problem as it approached the airport at 3:35 p.m., said Port Authority police spokesman Joe Pentangelo. The department's lime green firefighting vehicles awaited the plane's arrival on the tarmac, but in the end weren't needed, when the plane landed without incident, Pentangelo added. A Port Authority agency spokesman, Scott Ladd, said no on was hurt, and the plane was towed to the terminal. Delta did not immediately respond to requests for comment. http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2016/06/delta_jet_draws_emergency_response_at_newark_airpo.html Back to Top Search for Malaysian airliner: How far can a jet fly on fumes? Technicians work aboard the Furgo Equator, a ship searching for the remains of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. (DAVID DARE PARKER/NYT) The failure to find any wreckage in the area raises the possibility that the plane began descending earlier, or perhaps changed course in an attempt at an emergency landing at sea. PERTH, Australia - The search for Malaysia Airlines' missing Flight MH370 on the floor of the southern Indian Ocean is nearing an end with no sign of the plane in the area investigators had concluded it most likely went down, prompting a last-ditch reassessment of assumptions used to calculate its final descent and draw the search zone. At issue are estimates of how far the plane may have traveled after it ran out of fuel, notably whether it followed a tight or broad spiral down as it fell or glided toward the ocean, officials said. "We're really doing further work to test our assumption about the end of flight, which defines our search area," said Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. "It's really testing to make sure we haven't missed anything, and that our assumptions remain valid." The failure to find any wreckage in the area also raises the possibility that the plane began descending earlier, or perhaps changed course in an attempt at an emergency landing at sea, though investigators have discounted these outcomes as inconsistent with other evidence. There is still hope that the plane will be found in the search zone, an expanse of 46,000 square miles, about the size of England. But ocean survey vessels have scoured about 90 percent of the area and are expected to finish the rest in August. Unless new information emerges, that is when the governments of Australia, Malaysia and China plan to abandon the search, leaving one of the greatest mysteries in the history of modern aviation unsolved. Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, carrying 239 passengers and crew members from 15 nations. An analysis of radar and satellite communications data determined that the Boeing 777-200 made several turns and then flew south for five hours with little deviation. But investigators never pinpointed where the plane ran out of fuel. Instead, they identified a 400-mile arc from which the plane most likely sent its last satellite signal. Survey vessels have been going back and forth at walking speed across that swath of the southern Indian Ocean for two years, using sonar devices towed over the seafloor to scan the inky depths more than 2 miles below the waves. Investigators are now asking whether they have been looking in the right place. They are reconsidering an assumption that when the plane's engines ran dry, the aircraft spiraled into the sea without traveling a horizontal distance of more than 10 nautical miles - a relatively tight spiral. Analysts at Boeing and elsewhere have been re-examining their models of how the aircraft operating under autopilot might have responded to an initial loss of power on one side of the aircraft, and, up to 15 minutes later, on both sides. The simulations assume the right engine ran out of fuel first, because over its years of service that engine on the aircraft had tended to burn slightly more fuel than the left engine, according to records from Rolls-Royce, the engines' manufacturer. The three countries bankrolling the search for the missing Boeing 777-200 agreed in April last year not to expand the search area unless new information provided clear clues that the plane was somewhere else. So far, no evidence has emerged that would justify an expanded search, Dolan said. While the search for Flight MH370 is the largest and most costly in aviation history, relatives of passengers on the plane have called for it to be extended, as have many scientists, pilots, hobbyists and others mesmerized by the mystery of its disappearance. "There is no reason we should give up the search - at least they have to give us an answer," said Steve Wang, a technology company salesman in Beijing who has served as an unofficial spokesman for the families and whose 57-year-old mother was on the plane. "Everything about MH370 remains a mystery - what happened, and how?" The search zone was calculated using the last automatic signal sent by the aircraft's engines to a satellite just before it disappeared. The signal indicated the satellite system had been reset, suggesting a power failure, possibly caused by the engine's running out of fuel. Though the signal did not include location data, analysis of the time it took the transmission to travel to and from the satellite led investigators to focus on the 400-mile arc. Duncan Steel, a scientist on a panel of experts that has advised the Australian government, said the arc might have been drawn too far south. Investigators have assumed the plane was at cruising altitude when it sent its last signal, he said, but if the plane had started descending earlier as it ran low on fuel, it would have covered less distance before it hit the ocean. Investigators said May 12 that two pieces of debris recovered in March from South Africa and from Rodrigues Island, part of Mauritius, were "almost certainly" from the missing plane. But neither part - a piece of the interior panel in the main cabin and a piece of engine covering - provided significant information about the aircraft's location. Australia's minister of infrastructure and transport, Darren Chester, said on May 26 that two more pieces of debris had been found in Mauritius and another in Mozambique that would also be examined for possible links to the missing aircraft. The Australian government said on Friday that four more pieces of debris, three found on Madagascar and one on a southern Australian island, would be checked to determine whether they came from the missing plane. Three other pieces linked to the plane were discovered on African beaches last year and early this year. One was identified as clearly belonging to the right wing, while another was identified as "almost certainly" coming from the right wing and a third as "almost certainly" coming from the right side of the tail. The accumulation of parts from the aircraft's right side has led some to suggest that the plane may have changed course before it crashed, possibly under the control of a conscious pilot. http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/search-for-malaysian-airliner-how-far-can-a-jet-fly-on-fumes/ Back to Top Black boxes could be improved by realtime jet data streaming Authorities last week continued their race against time to recover the flight recorders from Egypt Air Flight 804 before the batteries die on the devices' homing beacons. But the timeconsuming and costly search for the black boxes of the Airbus 320 that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19 has raised questions about whether more should be done to transmit flight data in real time. "What we should care about is autonomous, uninterruptable, realtime tracking of aircraft position," aviation analyst Bob Mann said. Tracking aircraft on a secondbysecond basis as they fly over the ocean would enable searchandrescue teams to pinpoint the location of a downed plane to within a tiny onetenth of a square mile area, Mann said. At present, two leading trade organizations, IATA and Airlines for America have set a goal that member airlines report their positions at least every 15 minutes, no matter where they are in the world. But with jetliners cruising at approximately 500 mph, a 15minute reporting interval can leave a search area as large as 70,000 square miles, according to Mann. Moreover, the technology required for realtime tracking and reporting already exists, though no major carrier has yet installed it. Two Canadian companies say they have developed technologies that can go a long way toward augmenting black boxes. And aside from that, they claim that their devices can improve aircraft operating efficiency and reduce maintenance costs. "There aren't very many operators that will buy our system just to invest in safety," said Tom Schmutz, CEO of Calgary, Albertabased Flyht Aerospace Solutions. "But not only can they save money? in the event there is a problem, they have this data they wouldn't otherwise have." The data box at the core of the Star Navigations system. It would track the aircraft and monitor its parameters. Flyht and Torontobased Star Navigation Systems are separately marketing solutions that monitor flight operations and have the ability to stream them to the ground in real time. Viraf Kapadia, CEO of Star Navigation, said that his company's system is operated by means of a small onboard computer that taps into the existing data flow on an aircraft. The Star system continuously tracks the aircraft and monitors various parameters, including, for example, engine temperature and the angle of attack. Customers such as commercial airlines can track the status of their craft in real time and can set threshold levels for setting off an alert. When a threshold is met, an alert is immediately beamed via satellite to the ground, where the airline can access it. Warnings can also trigger realtime reporting of common flight data, including mechanical information and position tracking. Kapadia said that in an emergency, his computer is capable of transmitting such data every second, though airlines may choose to transmit it less often in order to save expense. "There is a money cost, as well as a moral cost," Kapadia said. "And I don't know why the international agencies don't come out and say, 'Tracking every 10 and 15 seconds with airlines.'" He said that the Star Navigation system sends a report to the airline after every flight. The reports shed light on the craft's operations, helping the customer save fuel and pinpoint the best time to undertake maintenance. That would more than recover the approximately $105,000 per plane that the onboard computer would cost to purchase and operate over the first year, Kapadia said. Star Navigation has yet to sell a unit to a commercial airline, though the system has been tested by airlines in Canada and Asia. Flyht, on the other hand, is already doing business with 50 airlines, Schmutz said, though none is a major player in the industry. He cited Air Niugini in New Guinea and the U.S. charter operator Omni as examples of his customer base. Like Star Navigation, the Flyht system monitors the operations of an aircraft and sends an alert when an operating threshold is exceeded. At that point, realtime data streaming can be triggered. "Our objective is not to replace the black box," Schmutz said. "It holds hours and hours of information. We're trying to augment the black box." The Flyht system costs less than $100,000 per plane installed, he said. Though systems such as Star Navigation and Flyht offer options to airlines, Mann says the best way to make sure jetliners like Malaysia Air Flight 370, which famously disappeared over the South China Sea in 2014, never get lost again is to require realtime reporting each second. That reporting should be uninterruptable and autonomous, he said, meaning that it happens without the need for any action from an aircraft or airline and can't be switched off. An autonomous tracking regime will more or less be in place over ground in the U.S. in 2020, when aircraft will be required to be equipped with Automatic Dependent SurveillanceBroadcast systems, which will enable air traffic controllers to track planes with the satellitebased NextGen system that the FAA currently has under development. Mann said autonomous reporting should be instituted globally. By continuously collecting data on a flight's location and heading, but not other bandwidthconsuming information such as cockpit recordings and engine monitoring, he said, such a system could be both functional and affordable. "This could be done now, but isn't," Mann said. http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/Black-boxes-could-be-improved-by-real-time-jet- data-streaming Back to Top Air France-KLM taps jet data to defend maintenance share An employee works on an Airbus A380 plane inside the Air France KLM maintenance hangar at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Roissy, near Paris, France, May 31, 2016. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer PARIS (Reuters) - Air France-KLM is tapping data from sensors on modern jets to bolster its position as the second-largest independent supplier of jet maintenance but faces a tug of war with planemakers over the profits to be made from Big Data. Maintenance is one of the most profitable activities of the Franco-Dutch airline group, whose French passenger operations have been engulfed by strikes and restructuring, but planemakers are also seeking a slice of the $65 billion overhaul market. The weapons in this latest aircraft industry battle are bits and bytes, rather than the nuts and bolts of a repair hangar. Sensors on newer jets provide vast amounts of information on the performance of parts, and Air France- KLM's maintenance boss believes airlines have the edge over planemakers, because they can put the stream of data to better use. "The (manufacturers) are designing the data and they are very well placed to understand and analyze the data. We are an operator, we know exactly what to do with the data," Franck Terner, head of Air France- KLM's maintenance and engineering division, told Reuters in an interview. Aerospace is one of many industries grappling with the challenges and possibilities of "digitalization," using rich data to improve production or develop new services. Armed with growing databanks, planemakers Airbus and Boeing are gradually following the lead of engine makers, who make much of their money from maintenance. But consolidation in the sector has given their airline customers more bargaining power. In 2011, Air France-KLM ordered 25 Airbus A350s but it took two years to finalize the deal due to a tussle with Rolls-Royce over maintenance contracts for the high-tech jets. Meanwhile, independent competition in the jet maintenance industry is growing. "There is very intense and harsh competition," Terner said. "The emerging competition is very aggressive, sometimes by buying market share. All this combined puts pressure on the price." CRUNCHING DATA Air France-KLM's maintenance division, second in the market behind Lufthansa , accounts for only 15 percent of group sales but 26 percent of its operating profit. However, the profit margin was flat at 5.2 percent last year. Air France-KLM has invested 400 million euros ($452 million) over the last decade to modernize its maintenance services and aims to outpace predicted industry growth of 4-5 percent. At the same time, the aircraft maintenance industry is adjusting to a shift in contracts to more frequent, shorter services to continuously monitor the condition of jets and minimize the time spent on the ground for lengthy overhauls. Terner, who ran Concorde maintenance for three years in the 1990s, said Air France-KLM could provide customers with the right data sets to help them improve reliability. It is also working on ways to help customers manage the availability of fleets, such as designing predictive fuel-system maintenance for the A380, the world's largest jetliner, which sends alerts when parts are running at lower performance so they can be changed before they fail entirely. But Airbus says it too is working on predictive maintenance by crunching data from its jets to anticipate failures. Customer services head Didier Lux said last week that by using data collected during flights, a computer could generate an alert to prompt engineers to carry out a preventive fix and avoid the cost of an unscheduled maintenance visit. Pascal Pincemin, aerospace and defense partner at Deloitte, said airlines with maintenance units such as Air France-KLM and Lufthansa face tough competition from rivals ready to invest to increase market share, but the fact they operate fleets gives them credibility when it comes to selling maintenance services. "The advantage for an airline over a specialist like Airbus is that the airline has experience of planes made by both Boeing and Airbus," he said. http://www.businessinsider.com/r-air-france-klm-taps-jet-data-to-defend-maintenance-share-2016-6 Back to Top Nok Air pilots joked about crashing plane with Yingluck aboard (Thailand) Nok Air chief executive Patee Sarasin Monday apologised to Yingluck Shinawatra over controversial Line comments directed at the ex-prime minister by some of the airline's pilots while she was aboard a flight. "It is a personal opinion. I don't know whether they were joking but it is unacceptable for the airline because there were other passengers on board,'' he said in an interview to a TV channel. He said he wrote an apology letter to Yingluck, telling her that the event had nothing to do with Nok Air. "The airline is for every Thai and we do not get involved in politics. Passengers' safety is our first priority and the image of the airline belongs to Thais,'' he said. He said he would take drastic action against the staff involved. "We cannot let go of this because the airline business is about safety,'' he said. He said that it was not suitable for uniformed pilots to make political remarks because the airline had nothing to do with politics. According to reports, a group of assistant pilots exchanged messages on Sunday on flight DD8005 from Phrae province to Don Mueang International Airport. The messages were followed by pictures of Yingluck and her team getting on the plane. One of the messages said "victims are on board" followed my another message stating "CFIT.'' CFIT is an aviation term, meaning an accident in which an aircraft, under pilot control, is unintentionally flown into the ground, a mountain, a body of water or an obstacle. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Nok-Air-pilots-joked-about-crashing-plane-with-Yin- 30288051.html Back to Top Medical Examiners Re-Evaluate Mental-Health 'Firewalls' The FAA and its aviation medical examiners-physicians who evaluate commercial airline pilots every six months to one year-are considering several options to break through actual or perceived "firewalls" that prevent them from alerting airlines when they observe potential mental-health issues during routine or special examinations. The action comes as the agency moves to implement recommendations from an aviation rulemaking committee (ARC) formed in the wake of the Germanwings crash in March 2015 to assess pilots' mental- health issues. After reaching cruise altitude, the Germanwings copilot locked the captain out of the cockpit. He then commanded the AirbusA320 autopilot to descend from cruise altitude into the French Alps, killing all on board. The copilot had been suffering from severe mental-health issues that-due to privacy laws and the pilot's lack of voluntary disclosure-were known to private doctors, but not to the German civil-aviation regulator or Lufthansa. In its final report, the French aviation-safety agency BEA called for the World Health Organization and the EU to develop guidelines for member countries to set "clear rules" for when doctor-patient confidentiality should be breached to inform authorities "when a specific patient's health is very likely to impact public safety." A European task force launched after the Germanwings crash also called for a review of national regulations to find the correct balance between patient confidentiality and protection of public safety. In the U.S., similar confidentiality concerns and reporting requirements vary by state, and licensing and specialty boards cloud the issue. There is no national standard for physicians to follow. Based on the recommendations of the ARC, the FAA asked the Aerospace Medicine Association (ASMA), the trade group representing doctors in the aerospace field, "to consider addressing the issue of professional reporting responsibilities on a national basis." ASMA, a member of the American Medical Association (AMA), planned to debate potential national mental-health reporting standards for doctors June 11-15 during the AMA's annual meeting in Chicago. "The ARC felt that we needed something at the national level to encourage private practitioners to come forward," said Michael Berry, the FAA's deputy federal air surgeon. Depending on the outcome of the debate in Chicago, Berry said AMA could study the issue further or ask the U.S. Congress to take action. The FAA also initiated enhanced training for its corps of aviation medical examiners (AME), physicians who provide pilots with "medicals" to help them spot warning signs of mental illness. During their required medical examinations with AMEs, airline pilots must self-disclose mental-health and other physiological issues in the past three years. Pilots under age 40 must receive a first-class medical every year, and those age 40 or older must pass the checks every six months. Based on his or her assessment of the pilot's self- disclosure form and the pilot's general condition, the AME may ask for additional tests or defer the application to the FAA's Office of Aerospace Medicine. Berry said the FAA has traditionally not shared its mental-health concerns about a particular pilot with the pilot's airline. "We think we should," he said. While an airline will eventually find out indirectly about a problem if a pilot fails his or her six-month or yearly medical examination, Berry said the FAA is considering processes for quicker notification. "If we are examining a pilot's ability to hold a medical certification in-between that time, and if we find out that something [has happened], can we let the airline know that we are examining the pilot's medical credentials? We're looking at that and we are trying to make sure we are on firm legal underpinnings [to disclose the information]," he said. www.aviationweek.com Back to Top Govt to speed up action to boost aviation safety (Thailand) THE government will speed up its action plan to meet the safety requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) within the next six months after the country was red-flagged about a year ago, Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith has said. The ICAO's regional director for the Asia Pacific, Arun Mishra, met yesterday with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and urged the country to quickly solve its problems so that Thailand can become a stronger aviation hub. The ICAO says the Thai tourism industry will also benefit from speedy remedial action, as more foreign airlines want to fly to Thailand. Arkhom said the ICAO had sent 7-8 experts on aviation safety to help Thailand overhaul its regulatory system, while the Cabinet recently approved a plan to hire several experts from Britain to help train local officials for auditing airlines that operate here. The government has also approved a budget for the Royal Thai Air Force to train a number of airline auditors. A shortage of auditors has been blamed for lax supervision of Thai-registered airlines, the number of which has risen sharply over the past few years. Arkhom said Thailand needs at least 30 specialists to audit airlines operating in the country over the next five years, so the Air Force would send its pilots for training to be airline safety auditors. They would then work according to new rules and regulations developed by the ICAO to ensure overall safety in the aviation sector. These regulations cover airlines as well as their aircraft, which need to be certified to meet the ICAO requirements. The minister said the auditing process would begin next month based on rules and regulations in new safety manuals formulated in cooperation with the ICAO experts. He said the ICAO expects Thailand to quickly address the safety issues so the country can help promote tourism not only in Thailand but across the Asia Pacific, as Thailand is currently an aviation centre in the region. According to Arkhom, the government expects to complete its action plan on issuing new certificates within the next six months. After that, there will be an internal evaluation of the country's overall aviation safety measures. The ICAO will later be invited to assess these measures, covering a total of 33 items in eight areas, he said. The government will also ensure that work on legal amendments and manpower recruitment to support the new regulatory system are completed within the next six months. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Govt-to-speed-up-action-to-boost-aviation-safety- 30287898.html Back to Top Remote e-learning for pilots fails to take off, DGCA says it's not safe (India) While the domestic airlines are pushing for the policy change as it would cut down training costs significantly, the regulator fears that the online medium has no checks on pilots who decide to skip classes. AFP/Goh Chai Hin Less than a month after permitting pilots to attend mandatory ground classes online from their homes, India's aviation safety regulator has pulled back the approval citing a safety gap it may have overlooked. While the domestic airlines are pushing for the policy change as it would cut down training costs significantly, the regulator fears that the online medium has no checks on pilots who decide to skip classes. On June 4, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) wrote to a private airline which was the first domestic carrier to get approval. At least two more airlines in India had approached the safety regulator to switch to the new medium known as remote e-learning, said sources. "There is no way we would know if the person logging in online for the classes is the pilot himself. The regulator wants airlines to look up something such as a webcam to rule out such doubts," said an official. The first step towards e-learning for pilots began in 2013, when the DGCA permitted domestic airlines to conduct ground classes online. But it still required pilots to take a break from routine flying duty and spend six-odd days at an airline facility in a year. Last month, a private airline took that provision to another level when it got permission for pilots to attend these classes from any 'remote' location, including their homes. According to DGCA rules, it's mandatory for all pilots to attend 26 hours of ground classes which largely comprises brushing up basic flying skills and getting updated on new safety regulations. Airlines have been pushing remote e-learning to cut down training costs. According to estimates, the training which currently takes up to 6 days could be reduced by 2 days if they switch to remote e-learning, said industry experts. Independent safety experts said there is a trust deficit in India. "There have been several cases of pilots fudging training records. The regulator is doing to the right thing by treading cautiously," said a former member of a government-appointed panel. DGCA chief M Sathiyavathy said chief flight operation inspector, Captain Ajay Singh, was better placed to comment but Capt Singh was unavailable for comment. http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/remote-e-learning-for-pilots-fails-to-take-off-dgca-says-it-s- not-safe/story-PG0QblRl2Uj3rplEJb4AAP.html Back to Top Etihad flight college takes delivery of new Embraer Phenom 100E Aircraft Abu Dhabi, UAE - Etihad Flight College, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has taken delivery of the first of four Embraer Phenom 100E. Etihad Flight College will be the first flight school in the world to use the Phenom 100E in the initial phase of flying training. The twin jet training aircraft will begin service with the flight college in July 2016. A second aircraft will arrive at the flight college's base in Al Ain later this month. Two further jets will be delivered in early 2017. The Phenom will be used to instruct students on the Multi-Crew Pilot Licence (MPL) course. MPL is an innovative competency based approach to flying training using multi-engine aircraft. Introducing Multi Crew Pilot operations from the onset training is more effective, as airline flight crews operate as a team - in older formats, pilots are trained individually. The aircraft arrived at Etihad Flight College's facilities in Al Ain following a marathon 10 day voyage from Embraer's manufacturing base in São José dos Campos, Brazil. The ferry flight, via four continents and covering over 12,500 miles, was commanded by Etihad Flight College's MPL Program Manager, Senior First Officer Timothy Schoenauer. The 18 sector route from Brazil went via two Caribbean islands, Florida, Virginia, Maine, Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland, Belfast, Amsterdam, Italy, Greece, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, before arriving Al Ain. Philip Chandler, Etihad Flight College's General Manager, said: "Our flight college is a world-class training facility, producing a constant stream of well trained, highly-skilled pilots - the majority of whom are Emirati - for the growing operations of Etihad Airways. The Phenom 100E is an exciting new asset for Etihad Flight College. The airline-grade technology, performance and reliability make the Phenom an ideal initial training aircraft to prepare our students for line operations." Marco Tulio Pellegrini, President and Chief Executive Officer, Embraer Executive Jets, said: "Designed for high utilisation, with a pilot-friendly cockpit and docile flying qualities, the Phenom 100E is considered an obvious choice by airlines to prepare its cadets for jet operations. I'm glad to start delivery of Etihad Flight College's Phenom 100E fleet, which will be the first flight school to use the aircraft in the initial phase of flying training." The order for four Embraer Phenom 100E was announced in June 2015. Once delivered, the four new aircraft will bring the number of aircraft in the trainer fleet to 22 - which also includes 10 Cessna 172SP Skyhawk, six Diamond DA42NG, and two EXTRA 300 aircraft. There are 186 cadet pilots currently in Etihad Flight College training programmes, 122 of whom are Emiratis. In addition to training pilots for Etihad Airways, Etihad Flight College also trains pilots for two Etihad equity partner airlines - Alitalia and Air Seychelles. Etihad Airways currently employs over 2,200 pilots and operates a fleet of 122 Airbus and Boeing aircraft, with over 204 additional aircraft on firm order. http://www.eturbonews.com/72018/etihad-flight-college-takes-delivery-new-embraer-phenom-100e-air Back to Top Drop the Supersonic Aircraft Ban, Watch Business Boom The technology is vastly improved since the Concorde was regulated out of existence. British Airways Concorde Flight 1215 arrives from London at Boston's Logan International Airport on Oct. 8, 2003. In the 1960s the future of aviation seemed bright. In 1958 Boeing had built its first jetliner, the 707, which cruised at speeds of up to 600 mph. The Concorde came along in 1969, flying at Mach 2-more than 1,500 mph. An age of affordable supersonic flight seemed inevitable, promising U.S. coast-to-coast travel in just 90 minutes. Today, neither the Concorde nor any other supersonic passenger jet operates. And the 707, still in limited use, remains one of the fastest commercial jets operating in the world. What happened? Regulation happened. In 1973, shortly after Boeing abandoned the 2707, its Mach 3 government-funded competitor to the British- and French-made Concorde, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a rule banning supersonic transport over the U.S. The move came after growing concerns about the impact of sonic booms over land, including fears that the shock wave would damage buildings, shatter windows and create intolerable noise near airports. These fears were spread by the Anti-Concorde Project, founded in 1966 by the environmental activist Richard Wiggs. Based on his belief that the Concorde represented a critical front line in the battle between technology and the environment, Wiggs, who died in 2001, made it his mission to prevent the development of supersonic transport. He took out full-page advertisements in the New York Times, testified at congressional hearings, and organized a coalition of academic advisers and residents' associations near major airports, all to oppose the Concorde. It wasn't until after Wiggs's lobbying succeeded and supersonic transport was banned that research commissioned by the FAA and British Civil Aviation Authority debunked his most-controversial claims. The Concorde was not, in fact, noisier than conventional jets upon takeoff. And while a sonic boom near the ground can in theory cause structural damage, it was not an issue at the Concorde's 60,000-ft. cruising altitude. The Concorde was ultimately limited to flights over oceans, and was retired from commercial operation in 2003 due to a combination of high maintenance costs and depressed demand after 9/11. Nonetheless, in the four decades since the FAA ban, supersonic designs have advanced dramatically. If the original ban was an overreaction, today it's an outright absurdity-and remains in place due more to regulatory inertia and the FAA's deeply precautionary culture than a sober accounting of costs and benefits. Among other things, sonic booms are a function of the aircraft's weight. The Concorde was a beast, weighing up to 412,000 pounds at takeoff. A smaller supersonic jet, taking advantage of modern lightweight materials, would produce a boom that could be a tiny fraction of the Concorde's. Today's aircraft designers are able to run hundreds of computer simulations to discover "quiet supersonic" designs that substantially curtail perceived noise. NASA has been investing in noise-abatement research like this since the mid-1980s, and now private startups are also getting into the game, with at least two U.S. companies, Boom and Aerion, in preproduction of affordable supersonic passenger jets. So long as the FAA maintains the supersonic ban, these companies have a reduced incentive to implement noise-abatement technologies and gain access to the lucrative coast-to-coast market. But the agency's official position-offered in a 2008 public statement-is that it will forgo issuing a noise standard for supersonic travel until the "designs become known and the noise impacts of supersonic flight are shown to be acceptable." And that's the catch: Without an official noise standard, how are America's aviation companies to know what counts as acceptable? No company is going to spend millions of dollars producing a quiet supersonic aircraft behind a veil of ignorance, only to discover later that the FAA does not find it to be quiet enough. A supersonic noise standard is the only way to create the policy certainty companies need to raise capital and design quiet supersonic aircraft to specification. As with subsonic jets, such a noise standard would be moderate at first and then made more stringent as the market matures and manufacturers climb the noise-abatement learning curve. A pro-innovation FAA could propel us out of our aviation stagnation overnight. More vague statements and delays will push the development of affordable supersonic transport even further out into the future-a future that seemed just around the corner over half a century ago. Mr. Dourado is the director of the Technology Policy Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where Mr. Hammond is a master's student in economics. http://www.wsj.com/articles/drop-the-supersonic-aircraft-ban-watch-business-boom-1465769638 Back to Top NASA enlists the United Arab Emirates' help for mission to Mars NASA has signed a new agreement to work with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on space exploration. The agency has agreed to share everything from scientific data to telescopes and (potentially) spacecraft with the oil-rich Arab state, but says the first target for collaboration will be "the exploration of Mars." The details of the agreement aren't clear, but Khalifa Al Romaithi, chair of the UAE Space Agency, said the agreement "opens the door to the creation of a wide range of mutually beneficial programs [for] the UAE and the USA." For NASA, deals like this seem intended to shore up its ambitious plans to take humans to the Red Planet by the 2030s. The agency's Mars project has been under criticism recently, with Congress questioning last month whether such a mission is even affordable. (The total cost could end up exceeding a trillion dollars.) Others have suggested that establishing a base on the Moon as an intermediary step to a Martian colony makes more sense at our current level of technology. Meanwhile, the UAE's previous Mars ambitions have been limited to plans to send an unmanned probe to the planet by 2021. The country's space agency also recently signed similar "cooperative" agreements with China, Russia, and the UK - placing the deal with NASA as only the latest in a string of partnerships. Nevertheless, NASA administrator Charles Bolden is confident about the fruits of this sort of "space diplomacy." In a blog post written before the deal's signing, Bolden said that such agreements unite us as a species. "Together, we can bring humanity to the face of Mars and reach new heights for the benefit of all humankind," writes Bolden. "...And we will." http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/13/11919782/nasa-uae-collaborative-agreement-mars Back to Top The deadline is fast approaching to reserve your hotel room for the 2016 FAA Asia-Pacific Flight Standards Meeting July 19-21 at the Westin City Center Hotel in Washington, DC. A special discounted rate of $174/night (exclusive of taxes) has been reserved for conference participants. This rate includes daily breakfast for one person. Click here to reserve your room now! To receive this special rate, you must reserve your room by June 18(subject to availability). Still haven't registered to attend the conference? Please visit the conference website to get the latest information and to register: www.regonline.com/2016-AsiaPacificFlightStandardsMeeting. The deadline to register for the conference is Wednesday, June 29. Questions? Email us at ConferenceSupport@sidemgroup.com. Back to Top PhD Research Survey (I) Cranfield University Research: Do you or have you worked in aerospace design, manufacturing, or test engineering? My name is Steve Daniels, PhD researcher at Cranfield University, and ground crew for Lightning T-5 XS458. As part of my PhD, I am investigating how many aircraft design professionals have had some form of flying experience, and what effect this may have. If you currently work, or have previously worked in aerospace design, manufacturing, or test engineering (e.g: Conceptual Design, Aerospace Engineering Consultancy, Structural Engineering, Systems/Sub- Assembly Engineering, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Tooling Design, Flight Testing) I'd be grateful if you could spare some time to complete the survey by following the link below. If you know of anyone working in these areas who might also be interested, please share the link: https://cranfielduniversity.eu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_82LinCFK4OdpEJn This research has been approved by the University's ethics committee, and will not record sensitive personal or commercial data. If you have any queries or comments, I welcome any contact at - s.daniels@cranfield.ac.uk Back to Top PhD Research Survey (II) Survey Link: https://cranfielduniversity.eu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_d4IlfWhuMW3RgRn Curt Lewis