Flight Safety Information August 31, 2016 - No. 171 In This Issue MH370 Search May Have Missed the Wreckage, Investigators Admit ANA Says Boeing 787 Turbine Blade Fix May Take 3 Years Shannon Airport emergency landing: 12 taken to hospital Reported: Lion air Fuel Exhaustion on landing (Unconfirmed) ANA 787 Engine Vibration FAA alerted to pilot's DWIs 3 years before fatal balloon crash DOT Inspector General Faults FAA's NextGen R&D Plan Pilots off flight duty as Air Force investigates low-altitude pass over Charlotte Joe Sutter, Father of Boeing's 747 Jumbo Jet, Dies at 95 Ageing fighter jets to launch satellites into space Boeing's new 3D-printed tool for making wings is so big it set a world record Five Aircraft Ideas NASA Is Exploring Woman shoots drone: "It hovered for a second and I blasted it to smithereens." The U.S. Military shot down a drone with a laser - in 1973 NEW GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY ISASI 2016, Reykjavik, Iceland...17 to 20 October, 2016 (ISASI) DFW Regional Chapter (DFRC) Summer Meeting, September 8, 2016 MH370 Search May Have Missed the Wreckage, Investigators Admit Sonar indicates several potential resting areas for the missing 777 at the bottom of the ocean that warrant a closer look, the Australian team in charge says. The undersea search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 may have missed the wreckage, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, leading the search, admitted Tuesday to The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast can also reveal the Dutch company providing one of the search vessels, Fugro, admitted as far back as June that there were gaps in sonar coverage of the ocean floor that needed further investigation. As a result, a search that has so far cost $180 million and that was expected to end this summer could now be extended into next year. This will be encouraging news for the families of the passengers and crew on the flight who feared that the search was being prematurely curtailed. The ATSB says that a second sweep of the search area in the southern Indian Ocean will be made using a remotely operated vehicle "to investigate sonar contacts that are judged to warrant a closer look." "These targets are scattered throughout the greater search area, and have been identified over the course of the underwater search," Dan O'Malley, a spokesman for the ATSB, told The Daily Beast. In October, when the weather in the Southern Hemisphere should be more cooperative, a Chinese-owned search vessel, the Dong Hai Jiu 101, equipped with the ROV operated by a Maryland-based company, Phoenix International, will leave Fremantle, Australia and begin the second more precisely targeted search. The new sweep is considered so important that it will begin before the primary search of the full area is due to be completed in December. After 29 months of operations there are still 6,200 square miles of the southern Indian Ocean left to be searched out of the total search area of 46,332 square miles, much of it at depths of up to 20,000 feet. That search was originally expected to end this month, but atrocious weather has afflicted the area for months, making operations impossible. Pressure to return to sites on the ocean floor already covered by a torpedo-like sonar-scanner called a towfish has been building for some time. At an Offshore Engineering Society conference in London in June, Fugro gave a video presentation that demonstrated how formidable the underwater terrain is in the far reaches of the southern Indian Ocean, including deep valleys and more than 220 volcanoes spewing mud. It was in that context that the company indicated that gaps remained in the coverage of the search that justified a second look. The remains of the Malaysian Boeing 777 could be scattered over a wide area. An expert who viewed the video told The Daily Beast, "It would be possible, but with what probability I have no idea, to miss the debris field in some of the underwater terrain in areas that have been searched." Earlier this year one of the sonar-scanning towfish collided with a volcano, snapping it from 15,000 feet of cable, the umbilical link to its host vessel. An ROV was used to locate and retrieve the towfish. Several promising sonar contacts were checked out by an ROV but two were the wrecks of old cargo ships and another a shipping container. Another development is simultaneously adding tantalizing clues to the fate of the airliner and the 239 people aboard is the steady accumulation of debris collected from the coastlines of the western Indian Ocean. (This week another small piece of debris was found off the coast of Mozambique and will be sent to Australia for examination.) The most urgent question raised by this debris is: Can its passage across the Indian Ocean from the presumed crash site-in some cases taking more than 800 days-be accurately traced back to provide a far more accurate fix on where that site is? In pursuit of the answer Australian oceanographers are doing something never attempted before. They have made models of the first piece of debris found last summer, part of the airplane's wing flight controls called a flaperon, and these will be set adrift with buoys fitted with satellite trackers. The ATSB says that 30 years of data used to model drift patterns will be used to control the experiment in the hope that it will pinpoint the correct location. Even then, the scientists are equivocal: "It is hoped that when added to our existing knowledge and any future learnings a specific location of the aircraft will be able to be identified." Soon the Australians are expected to confirm that the largest piece of debris washed ashore so far, a wing flap found on Pemba Island, off the coast of Tanzania in June, is in fact from MH370. Air crash experts have pored over this flap for weeks, attempting to assess whether or not it had been deployed during the last minutes of the flight-an action that can be taken only manually by pilots. So far investigators have insisted that during the flight's final hours the airplane was flown without any human intervention by the autopilot system, and their calculations on how, where and when it impacted the ocean have been based on that assumption. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/30/mh370-search-may-have-missed-the-wreckage- investigators-admit.html Back to Top ANA Says Boeing 787 Turbine Blade Fix May Take 3 Years What looked on Monday to be an issue that could be resolved relatively soon may, in fact, take up to three years to fix. That's according to Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA), which said Tuesday it may take that long to replace faulty turbine blades in the Rolls-Royce engines that power the airline's fleet of 50 Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) 787 Dreamliners. The airline cancelled 18 flights on its 787s last week, and although it said earlier that further cancellations were unlikely, Reuters reported Tuesday morning that ANA has now said that it may cancel some future flights. According to the report, vibrations caused by cracked turbine blades in the rear portions of the plane's Trent 1000 engines have forced three domestic Japanese flights to return to the airport. ANA was the launch customer for the 787, and all its Dreamliners, plus eight others already on order, use the Rolls-Royce engine. Of the total of 445 Dreamliners currently in service, about 40% use the Trent 1000 engine, according to Reuters. Boeing customers can choose between the Trent 1000 and the GEnx engine from General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE). As we noted on Monday, planes equipped with the GEnx engine were flagged for an immediate repair earlier this year. Rolls-Royce CEO Warren East told Reuters: It is an issue but it's a manageable issue. With the more intensive use, the natural wear and tear on the engines happens sooner. ANA was the 787's launch customer and received its first 787 in September of 2011. Several problems showed up almost as soon as Dreamliner deliveries began. A problem with the plane's landing gear came to light shortly after ANA received the first planes, and a delamination of the Dreamliner's carbon-fiber fuselage was discovered on an ANA plane early in 2012. In July of 2012, five of ANA's 11 Dreamliners were grounded due to a problem with the Rolls-Royce engines, and in early 2013, generator problems with the planes led to a grounding of the global 787 fleet. Last February an ANA flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo was forced to return to the airport just 40 minutes after takeoff due to a high-temperature warning light from one of the plane's two engines. The latest issue with the Trent 1000 engine already has resulted in about $800,000 of lost income to ANA, according to Reuters. Boeing has been silent on the issue so far, leading us to conclude that Rolls-Royce stands to bear most, if not all, of any costs related to replacing the turbine blades. http://247wallst.com/aerospace-defense/2016/08/30/ana-says-boeing-787-turbine-blade-fix-may-take-3- years/ Back to Top Shannon Airport emergency landing: 12 taken to hospital The Boeing 767-300 aircraft at Shannon Airport in County Clare after making an emergency landing this morning The Boeing 767-300 diverted to Shannon Airport in County Clare after the transatlantic turbulence Twelve people, including three children, have been injured on a transatlantic flight after it encountered "severe and unexpected turbulence". The incident prompted the United Airlines flight to make an emergency landing in the Republic of Ireland. Ten passengers and two crew members were taken to hospital from Shannon Airport shortly before 06:00 BST. All have now been discharged with the exception of one flight attendant. The United Airlines flight was travelling from Houston, Texas, to London Heathrow when it diverted to the airport in County Clare. The injured were taken to University Hospital, Limerick, with cuts, bruises and minor head injuries. "As of 10:30, one patient was still being assessed and the remaining 11 were discharged," said the hospital. "Hospital staff are working with the airline to transport the passengers back to Shannon Airport to continue their onward journey to London." What causes plane turbulence in the skies? According to to the Federal Aviation Administration, turbulence can be caused by: * air movement not normally seen * atmospheric pressure * jet streams * air around mountains * cold or warm weather fronts * thunderstorms In-air turbulence is the leading cause of injury to people on flights, according to the FAA, and on average 58 people in the US are injured during turbulent flights when not wearing seatbelts every year. Most accidents involving turbulence happen at 30,000 ft (9144m) or above. The Boeing 767-300 jet had 207 passengers and 13 crew members on board, and had been due to arrive at Heathrow at 06:55 BST. "The aircraft diverted to Shannon Airport in Ireland where it was met by medical personnel," said the airline. "United Airlines is providing care and support to customers and crew of flight UA-880. "Customers will be departing Shannon to London Heathrow shortly on an alternative aircraft," it added. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37228479 Back to Top Reported: Lion air Fuel Exhaustion on landing (Unconfirmed) Last night (30th August), Lion Air flight JT 961 from Denpasar (DPS) to Bandung (BDO), departed DPS at 1525 local, on an RPT flight. Near BDO pilot announces that due to storms they have to hold. After some 35-45 minutes pilot announces that they are short of "avtur " (fuel). Flight lands at BDO and apparently runs out of fuel on runway and is towed to terminal. Reported by Reader/Subscriber Back to Top ANA 787 Engine Vibration Date: 30-AUG-2016 Time: 13:00 LT Type: Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner Owner/operator: All Nippon Airways - ANA Registration: JA814A C/n / msn: 34493/69 Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 68 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: None Location: near Hamamatsu city, Shizuoka prefecture - Japan Phase: En route Nature: International Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Narita International Airport (NRT/RJAA), Japan Destination airport: Mumbai/Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (BOM/VBAA), India Narrative: A Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner of All Nippon Airways operating flight ANA/NH829 from Tokyo/Narita, Japan to Mumbai, India returned to Narita due to vibration of No.1 engine (RR Trent 1000). The plane made a safe landing at Narita at 13:55 JST without shutting down the engine in trouble. The flight restarted by a replacement plane, JA828A, with six hours of delay. ANA states that this problem seems to be different from the cracking problems happened frequently at the blades of intermediate turbines of RR Trent 1000 engines. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=189665 Back to Top FAA alerted to pilot's DWIs 3 years before fatal balloon crash AUSTIN (KXAN) - The Federal Aviation Administration was alerted to the drunk driving history of Alfred "Skip" Nichols, the balloon pilot who died with his 15 passengers in a July 30 crash, and the agency investigated Nichols in 2013, according to records obtained by KXAN. In December of 2012, a San Antonio FAA office received a complaint that "indicated that Alfred G. Nichols, certificate number 3192920, has a history of DWI arrests in the St. Louis, MO, area," according to records requested through the Freedom of Information Act. The San Antonio office forwarded "all pertinent information" to the FAA's Civil Aviation Security Office in Oklahoma City, the document states. Then the FAA closed the complaint with a "standard letter indicating further investigation is being conducted." Although KXAN requested all investigations into Nichols since 2013, FAA did not provide any record of the investigation that the agency said it conducted following the complaint. FAA has not told KXAN if it is still in the process of retrieving the 2013 investigation or if there is not further information about it. In-Depth Coverage: Lockhart Balloon Crash Skip Nichols, the pilot who died in a hot air balloon crash near Lockhart on July 30, 2016 (Facebook Photo) Regardless, it is not clear if the FAA would have taken any action against Nichols for his DWI history. Unlike airplane pilots, balloon pilots are not required to hold a FAA medical certificate, which is the paperwork that requires the disclosure of offenses like a DWI, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. NTSB board member, Robert Sumwalt, questioned that "discontinuity" in the FAA's rules, at an Aug. 1 news conference. FAA spokesman, Lynn Lunsford, said the agency could not comment beyond the document or discuss any actions the agency might have taken because the NTSB's crash investigation is still underway. Nichols operated Heart of Texas Balloon Rides. Nichols' past has been heavily scrutinized since the hot air balloon he was piloting collided with high-tension power lines near Lockhart, Texas. The balloon caught fire and crashed to the ground. Everyone aboard was killed. The FAA is still investigating the incident. Missouri court records show Nichols had a history of at least four drunk driving arrests, he spent time in jail and his driver's license was suspended. One of Nichols' riders in Missouri sued him in after suffering an injury during a 2009 landing. Since his death, Nichols' friends have told the media he was a kind and helpful person. In an interview with the Associated Press, an ex-girlfriend said Nichols had been sober for four years, and he never piloted a balloon after drinking. http://kxan.com/2016/08/30/faa-alerted-to-pilots-dwis-3-years-before-fatal-balloon-crash/ Back to Top DOT Inspector General Faults FAA's NextGen R&D Plan After the FAA "failed to establish a clearly defined role" for the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) and did not "set expectations for leveraging research at other federal agencies," the U.S. Congress cut JPDO funding. The JPDO was supposed to lead the effort to plan for implementation of the FAA's Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) and to coordinate this effort with other government agencies, according to a Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (OIG) Audit Report issued on August 25. After the funding was eliminated, the FAA reassigned the JPDO coordination duties to its Interagency Planning Office (IPO). While the "IPO has made some progress in identifying R&D priorities," according to the OIG report, "FAA has not established a normal process for identifying the R&D necessary to implement the agency's longer-term vision for NextGen." The OIG report faults the FAA for focusing more on implementing infrastructure and not "transitioning new and enhanced operational capabilities into operational use." Some of the missing capabilities include "automation for controllers for metering, merging and sequencing terminal airspace; use of flight plan information to determine which routes best meet airspace user needs based on aircraft equipment and performance capabilities; and complex, datalinked clearances to enable precise metering and four- dimensional trajectory management in both high altitude and terminal airspace." The OIG report concludes with five recommendations for improving the R&D process for air traffic management and linking the R&D with the long-term vision for NextGen: establishing and documenting a process with clear roles and responsibilities for identifying and prioritizing long-term R&D; linking the long- term vision for NextGen, once completed, with current R&D efforts to identify any additional necessary R&D; finalizing an MOU that establishes the structure for the FAA and partner agencies working on NextGen; updating the transition team document to include current projects in an annex, updated organization names and roles and assignments by position instead of name; and ensure that six high- priority NextGen capabilities are on the critical path for development. The FAA responded to the OIG report's recommendations by acknowledging them and providing estimated completion dates for most, but also highlighting budget constraints for the linking of its long-term vision for NextGen with current R&D efforts. The FAA plans to provide an update on the latter issue by Sept. 30, 2017. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/aerospace/2016-08-29/dot-inspector-general-faults-faas- nextgen-rd-plan Back to Top Pilots off flight duty as Air Force investigates low-altitude pass over Charlotte One of four A-10 Warthog jets skirts over Bank of America Stadium Monday. At least four military jets that flew over Charlotte and nearby neighborhoods about 11:45 Monday, startling residents and prompting a flurry of activity on social media. Video by Zakk Zwier, Photo by Jeff Siner Twitter The Air Force pilots who made a low-altitude pass over Bank of America Stadium and uptown Charlotte on Monday have been restricted from flight duties as the military and the Federal Aviation Administration investigate the incident. The FAA and officials at Georgia's Moody Air Force Base, where the pilots are stationed, said Monday that they were looking into the flight by four A-10 "Warthog" jets, which startled uptown residents and office workers. "As professional Airmen we take aviation safety very seriously," Col. Thomas Kunkel, commander of the 23d Wing, said in a statement Tuesday. "As we look into the circumstances of this incident we are working with the FAA to ensure both civil and military aviation instructions were complied with." The base, located near Valdosta, Georgia, said it will provide further updates as they become available. Charlotte-based air traffic controllers approved the pilots' request to fly over the Carolina Panthers' stadium after they departed from Charlotte Douglas International Airport around 11:30 a.m., the FAA has said. The pilots were participating in routine navigation training from Charlotte to Moody. Under FAA regulations, planes flying over congested areas of a city are required to stay "1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft." An FAA spokesperson said it might be a week or so before the agency has details to release from its investigation, including the altitude the planes flew over uptown. One uptown office worker on Twitter said the planes flew roughly even with the 42nd floor of the 48-story Duke Energy Center, which is 786 feet tall. A Charlotte Douglas spokeswoman initially said Monday that the airport had been advised by air traffic controllers that the jets were practicing a flyover of Bank of America Stadium. But the FAA later said that was an erroneous report. Panthers spokesman Steven Drummond said no stadium flyovers are currently planned for this season, although the team is trying to set one up for the home season opener against the San Francisco 49ers on Sept. 18. In any case, the planes would not be A-10s, he said. The aircraft that buzzed Charlotte were part of the 74th fighter squadron of the 23rd Wing, based at Moody. They have an "FT" tail marking, which stands for "Flying Tiger." Although nicknamed the Warthog, the jets are officially known as the as the A-10 Thunderbolt II. They fly close air support missions in combat and are distinguished by two prominent jet engines and a split tail. The Air Force had planned to retire the plane, but that move has been put on hold because the A-10 has been useful in attacks on Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, according to media reports. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article98900847.html#storylink=cpy Back to Top Joe Sutter, Father of Boeing's 747 Jumbo Jet, Dies at 95 Boeing Delivers 747-8 Intercontinental To Lufthansa Boeing 747 engineer Joe Sutter interviewed in 2012. Photographer: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images Joe Sutter, the Boeing Co. engineer who ushered in the modern era of long-range travel by spearheading the 747 jumbo jet in the 1960s, has died. He was 95. "Joe lived an amazing life and was an inspiration - not just to those of us at Boeing, but to the entire aerospace industry," Ray Conner, chief executive officer of Boeing's commercial airplane division, told employees in a message announcing the death Tuesday. "He personified the ingenuity and passion for excellence that made Boeing airplanes synonymous with quality the world over." The 747 was the capstone of a career spanning the twilight of piston-engine airliners to Boeing's rivalry with Airbus Group four decades later. Starting with a swept-wing prototype in 1954 paving the way for the first U.S. jetliner, Sutter's stamp was visible on aircraft through the 757 and 767 in the 1980s. "He was a great engineer," said Phil Condit, a former chief executive officer of Boeing who was once a member of Sutter's 747 engineering group. "He dearly, dearly loved that airplane." Like the 747, Sutter was a throwback to a time when large, physical products defined U.S. innovation. With Boeing's survival on the line, Sutter led a team that crafted the jet in less than two-and-a-half years even as he defied the design wishes of the first buyer: Juan Trippe, the Pan American World Airways founder who was then the most powerful person in aviation. "The aircraft was iconic and so was he," Richard Aboulafia, a Fairfax, Virginia-based aerospace analyst, said of Sutter. "It was a time of moonshots." Sutter retired in 1986 at age 65 as executive vice president in charge of Boeing's commercial airplane engineering and product development. He served as a senior adviser emeritus for a quarter-century, regularly stopping by a Seattle-area office into his 90s. 'Give-and-Take' "I have lots of ideas on how to develop good airplanes, and I will voice my comments to the fellas," Sutter said in a 2010 interview. "They listen to me sometimes, and sometimes they don't. But that's the give- and-take of Boeing." For a story on Boeing's century spanning seaplanes to 787s, click here Sutter helped shape the planes that cemented Boeing's industry dominance while U.S. competitors faltered. He also didn't shy from defying senior executives. Ordered to fire 1,000 engineers to save money on the 747, Sutter refused and demanded Boeing hire another 800 workers. He later wrote that he was certain he would be fired. He kept his job, and got extra manpower. "One on one, he was really neat," ex-CEO Condit said in a 2015 interview. "He could be a bit bombastic in a group." Sutter served as second-in-command on the narrow-body 737, which was launched in the 1960s with prodding from Deutsche Lufthansa AG. The jet became Boeing's best-seller. Aerial Liner His next assignment was the plane envisioned as an aerial ocean liner by Pan Am, then the dominant global carrier. While Trippe wanted a revolutionary double-decker seating 400 people, Boeing saw it as a mere stopgap in the march toward a glittering vision of supersonic travel. "If ever a program seemed set up for failure, it was mine," Sutter wrote in his 2006 autobiography, "747: Creating the World's First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures From a Life in Aviation." To Sutter, Trippe's insistence on a single-aisle design with two decks doomed the chances for the big plane's success. Sutter held out for the single-deck, twin-aisle design -- then a novelty but now the standard in long-range jets. Tensions ran high, Sutter recalled, until the Pan Am chief visited factory mock-ups of the competing concepts. "You made the right decision," Trippe told Sutter. Bigger, Farther The hump-backed, four-engine 747 brought jet-setting to the mass market when it debuted in 1970, featuring globe-girdling range and more than double the capacity of Boeing's next-largest aircraft. Joseph F. Sutter was born to Frank and Rosa Sutter in Seattle on March 21, 1921, five years after Boeing was founded. He fell in love with aircraft as a child in Beacon Hill, a working-class neighborhood south of the city's downtown overlooking the airfield where Boeing tested new planes. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1943 with a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering and married Nancy French before reporting for duty on the U.S. Navy destroyer escort Edward H. Allen. Recruited by two planemakers after World War II, Sutter accepted a job with Douglas Aircraft Co. because it paid $210 a month, $10 more than Boeing. Then he took a short-term post with Boeing in February 1946 so his pregnant wife could deliver their first child in Seattle -- and he never left. His first assignment was to help work out glitches on the 377 Stratocruiser, Boeing's last propeller-driven airliner. He went on to work on the Model 367-80, which led to the Boeing 707, the first U.S. jetliner, and then the 727, 737 and 747. In his final Boeing post, as executive vice president leading engineering and product development for all commercial airplanes, Sutter oversaw the best-selling jumbo variant, the 747-400. Toulouse, France-based Airbus didn't get its A380 superjumbo into service until 2007. He later served on the presidential commission that investigated the space shuttle Challenger disaster. "He dedicated two lives" to aerospace, Nico Buchholz, a former Lufthansa executive who pushed for the most-recent 747 version, said in a 2014 interview. Lindbergh Reaction A half century after Pan Am placed the initial jumbo order, Sutter's creation has logged 1,543 sales. But with interest waning in four-engine models, Boeing earlier this summer conceded it might have to end the 747 program unless customer interest picks up. In his book, Sutter recounted Charles Lindbergh's response to the stately jetliner: "You know, this is one of the great ones." Sutter's wife, Nancy, died in 1997. He is survived by three children: Gabrielle Sutter Young, Jonathan Sutter and Adrienne Sutter Craig. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-30/joe-sutter-engineer-who-led-boeing-s-747-jumbo- jet-dies-at-95 Back to Top Ageing fighter jets to launch satellites into space: Firm plans to fire rockets filled with CubeSats from F-104s * Aerospace firms are working to develop cheaper methods for launches * Their approach packs micro-satellites into a rocket aboard a fighter jet * F-104s would reach altitudes of 100,000 feet before launching the rocket * It will be available from 2018 for £190,000 ($250,000) for a 5 kg CubeSat Launching satellites could be get a whole lot easier and cheaper if one Californian firm gets its way. Rather than using a traditional rocket to take payloads into space, Mountain View-based firm CubeCab wants to fire microsatellites into orbit from to high altitude fighter jets. By packing tiny CubeSats into a rocket-like canister and launching them at more than 100,000 feet, the space firm claims it will slash the costs of sending lightweight space tech into low Earth orbit. Scroll down for video A US space firm is planning to slash the cost of sending micro-satellites into space by packing them into a rocket-like canister and launching them from F-104 fighter jets at more than 100,000 feet. Pictured is one of the jets, which were first used by the military in the 1950s SLASHING THE COST OF SATELLITE LAUNCHES Firms and research institutions looking to get satellites into orbit need to hitch a ride on a rocket. But space and weight are extremely limited and lead times can be years. Private space firms are looking to use fighter jets to deliver small payloads into space at a fraction of the cost. The concept would see tiny CubeSats packed inside a small, lightweight 3D printed rocket which would be attached to an F-104 fighter jet. After take-off, the jets would reach altitudes of more than 100,000 feet before the rocket is launched. Californian firm CubeCab claims the approach would slash the cost to $250,000 (£190,000) and would be able to launch satellites within a month of receiving an order. The use of CubeSats has exploded in recent years, with researchers and technology firms expanding the areas in which they can be used, in everything from atmospheric research to communications. But in order to get into orbit, firms and research institutions need to hitch a ride on a rocket - with space and weight extremely limited. CubeCab plans to shake things up by attaching its satellite payload to a fleet of ageing fighter jets, which first saw military service in the 1950s. The F-104 jets are operated by Starfighters Aerospace, which launches its fleet from Cape Canaveral in Florida, the home of Nasa's space missions. Starfighters' fleet is made up of retired F-104 jets from the Italian Air Force, which were taken out of service in 2004. In order to launch micro satellites, a small rocket containing them is attached to the pylons under the wings - which would have been used to attach bombs mission during military runs. Once launched from Cape Canaveral, the jets will reach altitudes of more than 100,000 feet, before the rocket launches and the canister of microsatellites is released into orbit. According to CubeCab, it will be able to launch microsatellites weighing no more than 5 kg (11 lbs) into low Earth orbit for $250,000 (£190,000), opening up commercial satellite delivery to more research institutions and businesses. 'Small rockets are inefficient, making it difficult to make a profit,' the firm explains on its website. A number of CubeSats have been released from the International Space Station (pictured centre), hitching a ride on resupply missions to the ISS 'We have a suite of technologies to optimise small launches so we can do it profitably. 'There are other rockets under development, mainly for 20-500 kilogram payloads, which is still too large for the popular CubeSat standard which we address. 'At just 5 kg, ours is the smallest rocket, as measured by payload to LEO, under serious commercial development that we are aware of to date.' CubeSat use has exploded in recent years, with researchers and tech firms expanding the areas in which they can be used While the small rockets may still be in the development stage, CubeCab is confident that the service will be available by 2018 and will focus exclusively on 3U CubeSats - which are three of the 10 x 10 x 10 cm units stacked together, resembling a box kite. Speaking to BBC Future, chief operating officer, Dustin Still said the firm is aiming for fast delivery times of around a month, vastly reducing the timescale of current launches, which can have lead times of years. Mr Still said: 'A typical mission might be getting an order from a college to launch a cubesat into a specific orbit. 'Within a few days later we should get the cubesat and load it into a rocket we have set aside for launch in Florida for regular equatorial orbits, or another facility or almost any location for a polar orbit launch.' http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3764956/Ageing-fighter-jets-launch-satellites-space-Firm- plans-fire-rockets-filled-CubeSats-F-104s.html#ixzz4IrZFND4b Back to Top Boeing's new 3D-printed tool for making wings is so big it set a world record Boeing and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory have together landed a new world record for creating the largest solid object 3D-printed in a single piece. The printed product, known as a "trim-and-drill" tool, will help create the wings of Boeing's next- generation 777X jet. The result of a joint project between Boeing and the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee, the record-breaking piece is 17.5 feet long, 5.5 feet wide, and 1.5 feet tall, and "comparable in length to a large sport utility vehicle," the team said in a release. The tool was made with ABS thermoplastic composite materials and weighs around 1,650 pounds. Guinness World Records judge Michael Empric confirmed the record measurement of 82.4 cubic feet at a special ceremony at the Oak Ridge facility on Monday where he also presented certificates to representatives from both ORNL and Boeing. Large printer Of course, a giant 3D-printed object like this requires a giant 3D printer, with Oak Ridge calling upon its Big Area Additive Manufacturing machine for the ambitious Boeing project. Commenting on the new 3D-printed tool, Leo Christodoulou, Boeing's director of structures and materials, said, "The existing, more expensive metallic tooling option we currently use comes from a supplier and typically takes three months to manufacture using conventional techniques." The 3D-printed equivalent, on the other hand, took just 30 hours to construct. Christodoulou said additively manufactured tools, such as the 777X wing trim tool, "will save energy, time, labor and production cost and are part of our overall strategy to apply 3D-printing technology in key production areas." Production of Boeing's new 777X aircraft is scheduled to begin in 2017 with first delivery targeted for 2020. The trim-and-drill tool will be used at the plane manufacturer's new production facility in St. Louis, Missouri, to secure the jet's composite wing skin for drilling and machining prior to assembly. The Boeing tool isn't the first piece of work like this to come out of Oak Ridge. The team also hit the headlines in 2015 when it 3D-printed a sports car, while in the same year it used its printing kit again to create an integrated automobile and house. https://www.yahoo.com/tech/boeing-3d-printed-tool-making-075214162.html Back to Top Five Aircraft Ideas NASA Is Exploring NASA does a lot more than just explore space. It has also long been inventing new ways to make flying safer and more efficient. To add to its successes in aviation, NASA recently selected five areas of aerospace technology to explore over the next two years as part of its Convergent Aeronautics Solutions project (a less-than-inspiring name and acronym). While NASA doesn't promise success, in real R&D, even failures teach something. Here's a look at the five topics being investigated: Fuel Cells for Aviation Technicians at AeroVironment hook up and test a fuel-cell electrical system on the solar-powered Helios in 2003. NASA has been using fuel cells successfully since Gemini space flights in the mid-1960s, and there have been aircraft that have tested them out as well. This program intends to see if a new type of fuel cell can power all-electric and hybrid aircraft. This fuel cell extracts hydrogen from standard aviation gas and oxygen from the air, then combines to generate electricity. Exhaust gases from the fuel cell would also be used to increase energy by pushing them through a turbine. It's estimated that the fuel cell would generate energy more efficiently than if the fuel went to a piston engine, thus saving fuel and reducing emissions. The technology can already be supported by airports as it wouldn't require new facilities or equipment. Printing Electric Motors As NASA pursues all-electric aircraft, it is also exploring whether motors themselves can be made more efficient with higher levels of power density. This program will try to determine if the increasingly capable process of 3D printing can manufacture electric motor parts that are significantly lighter, perhaps smaller, and made with materials that will give the final motor higher power densities. Lithium-Ion Batteries for Aircraft The Taurus G4, designed by Langelaan Aeronautics LLC / Pipistrel , based in Pennsylvania, uses lithium-ion batteries to power 145 kW electric motor. NASA wants to try lithium-air batteries. One potential hurdle engineers must get over before electric aircraft are viable is being able to store enough electricity for aircraft, even small planes, to make long flights. Traditional batteries are heavy, and weight is the bane of aerospace engineers. One possible solution is lithium-air (Li-Air) batteries, which have the highest theoretical energy storage capacity of any battery technology. Li-Air batteries, or "breathing batteries," pull oxygen in to react with lithium ions as it discharges. Then the battery expels oxygen as it's charged. Unfortunately, standard electrolytes-the internal material that lets electrons move quickly-decompose in Li-Air batteries during operation. So after only a few charge/discharge cycles, the battery is useless. NASA researchers will investigate the feasibility of designing novel, ultra-stable electrolytes that resistant decomposition and the batteries last longer, letting electric aircraft fly farther. Folding Wings NASA's spanwise adaptive wing has foldable sections at the wing tips that can be altered for take-offs and landing, as well as cruising. Over the years, NASA and other aerospace engineers have discovered that an aircraft's vertical stabilizer needs to be sized so that it can keep the plane centered on the runway in the event of engine failures during takeoff or landing. After the plane is cruising at altitude, the large tail just adds fuel, which contributes to the plane's weight and drag. It also creates more noise than a smaller tail would. NASA will be experimenting with wings with a good-sized outer portion at the tips that can fold up or down as needed to act as a rudder at the beginning and ending of flights, thereby letting the main vertical tail be smaller. The challenge will be in efficiently and reliably moving the airfoils in a compact and lightweight design Flexible Antennas A sheet of aerogel can conform to curved and rounded surfaces. Antennas made out of it could be mounted on the fuselage of planes and drones, hopefully without adding too much drag. Drones flying in the National Airspace System are required to stay within the radio line of sight of its ground-based pilot operator. That is usually less than 100 miles. Relaying communications through satellites is one potential solution but it takes a large, heavy antenna to transmit and receive data through a satellite. Large, bulky antennas could protrude from the aerodynamic fuselage and add weight and drag, as well as consume more fuel. NAS will work on developing a conformable antenna based made partly from thin, lightweight sheets of aerogel. One goal of the new antenna is that it be able to transmit signals in specific directions, assuring strong links with satellites while minimizing interference with the ground when the aircraft flies low. I wish NASA well on these projects and hope the results can be commercialized throughout commercial and general aviation, as well as the defense department. Are there any aerospace projects you think NASA should be concentrating on? Unmanned airliners? A manned space station in permanent orbit? Or maybe just more legroom as standard fare in all seats on commercial flights? http://machinedesign.com/blog/five-aircraft-ideas-nasa-exploring Back to Top Woman shoots drone: "It hovered for a second and I blasted it to smithereens." Virginian used 20-gauge shotgun against offending aircraft thought to be paparazzi. Jennifer Youngman (not pictured here), used a 20-gauge shotgun like this one to down the drone. With a single shotgun blast, a 65-year-old woman in rural northern Virginia recently shot down a drone flying over her property. The woman, Jennifer Youngman, has lived in The Plains, Virginia, since 1990. The Fauquier Times first reported the June 2016 incident late last week. It marks the third such shooting that Ars has reported on in the last 15 months-last year, similar drone shootings took place in Kentucky and California. Youngman told Ars that she had just returned from church one Sunday morning and was cleaning her two shotguns-a .410 bore and a 20-gauge-on her porch. She had a clear view of the Blue Ridge Mountains and neighbor Robert Duvall's property (yes, the same Robert Duvall from The Godfather). Youngman had seen two men set up a card table on what she described as a "turnaround place" on a country road adjacent to her house. "I go on minding my business, working on my .410 shotgun and the next thing I know I hear 'bzzzzz,'" she said. "This thing is going down through the field, and they're buzzing like you would scaring the cows." Youngman explained that she grew up hunting and fishing in Virginia, and she was well-practiced at skeet and deer shooting. "This drone disappeared over the trees and I was cleaning away, there must have been a five- or six- minute lapse, and I heard the 'bzzzzz,'" she said, noting that she specifically used 7.5 birdshot. "I loaded my [20-gauge] shotgun and took the safety off, and this thing came flying over my trees. I don't know if they lost command or if they didn't have good command, but the wind had picked up. It came over my airspace, 25 or 30 feet above my trees, and hovered for a second. I blasted it to smithereens." When the men began to walk towards her, she told them squarely: "The police are up here in The Plains and they are on their way and you need to leave." The men complied. "They got in their fancy ostentatious car-I don't know if it was a Range Rover or a Hummer-and left," she said. The Times said many locals believe the drone pilots may have been paparazzi or other celebrity spotters flying near Duvall's property. Youngman said that she recycled the drone but managed to still be irritated by the debris left behind. "I've had two punctures in my lawn tractor," she said. The Fauquier County Sheriff's Office said it had no record of anyone formally complaining about this incident. When Ars asked if the office had heard of any other similar incidents in the region, Sgt. James Hartman replied: "It's happened around the country but not in this region to my knowledge." A gray zone For now, American law does not recognize the concept of aerial trespass. But as the consumer drone age has taken flight, legal scholars have increasingly wondered about this situation. The best case-law on the issue dates back to 1946, long before inexpensive consumer drones were technically feasible. That year, the Supreme Court ruled in a case known as United States v. Causby that a farmer in North Carolina could assert property rights up to 83 feet in the air. In that case, American military aircraft were flying above his farm, disturbing his sleep and upsetting his chickens. As such, the court found he was owed compensation. However, the same decision also specifically mentioned a "minimum safe altitude of flight" at 500 feet-leaving the zone between 83 and 500 feet as a legal gray area. "The landowner owns at least as much of the space above the ground as he can occupy or use in connection with the land," the court concluded. Last year, a pilot in Stanislaus County, California, filed a small claims lawsuit against a neighbor who shot down his drone and won. However, it is not clear whether the pilot managed to collect. Similarly, a case ensued in Kentucky after a man shot down a drone that he believed was flying above his property. The shooter in that case, William Merideth, was cleared of local charges, including wanton endangerment. But earlier this year, the Kentucky drone's pilot, David Boggs, filed a lawsuit asking a federal court in Louisville to make a legal determination as to whether his drone's flight constituted trespassing. Boggs asked the court to rule that there was no trespass and that he is therefore entitled to damages of $1,500 for his destroyed drone. The case is still pending. Youngman said she believed in 2nd Amendment rights and also was irritated that people would try to disturb Duvall. "The man is a national treasure and they should leave him the fuck alone," she said. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/08/65-year-old-woman-takes-out-drone-over-her-virginia- property-with-one-shot/ Back to Top The U.S. Military shot down a drone with a laser - in 1973 The incident was likely the first use of a laser as a weapon Few things sound more 21st century than the phrase "laser weapons," but here's something you may not know. The United States government shot down a target drone with a laser in 1973, decades before laser weapons were considered ready for prime time. The incident, which took place in the New Mexico desert, happened more than 40 years before the U.S. military actually deployed a functioning laser weapon. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the Department of Defense R&D organization that later gave birth to the Internet, had begun working on weapon lasers under a project known as Eighth Card. It was part of an effort to create a laser plane that could escort bombers in a nuclear war, protecting them from Soviet interceptor jets and surface-to-air missiles. During a series of tests undertaken in mid-November 1973, the Eighth Card laser targeted a MQM-33B unmanned drone. The laser burned through the drone's skin and damaged its control systems, sending it wildly out of control. ARPA had thoughtfully added a parachute to the drone. The frame floated back to earth where the laser's effects could be studied. Laser Weapon System deployed on USS Ponce. https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/6830d6db-8d9b-35f2-9a88-6d86877fca6d/the-u.s.-military-shot-down- a.html Back to Top NEW GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Dear colleague in the aircraft ground handling industry My name is Mario Pierobon and I am conducting a doctoral study on aircraft ground handling safety at Cranfield University. As part of my research I have developed a survey that requires you to consider 40 different hazards that are peculiar to the aircraft ground handling environment and for each of them perform two exercises. The first exercise is about assessing the level of control an aircraft ground handling company has over a given hazard. The second exercise concerns establishing a relationship between the hazard (a situation or a condition that can lead to an accident) and a predetermined series of accident outcomes in terms of which accident outcomes a given hazard is likely to be associated with. In order to participate to this survey you are requested to have a management role in the aircraft ground handling industry. The survey may be accessed at the following link https://cranfielduniversity.eu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3abRtXF0f6D7oEJ Thank you in advance for your kind support, if you need any additional information you may reach me at m.pierobon@cranfield.ac.uk. Kind regards Mario Pierobon PhD Candidate (air safety), Cranfield University Back to Top The International Society of Air Safety Investigators (ISASI) will hold their 47th annual seminar at the Grand Hotel Reykjavik, Iceland, from October 17- 20, 2016 Up to date program details, links to the registration program and the hotel can be found at www.esasi.eu/isasi-2016 or www.isasi.org Dates to Remember Cut off date for the seminar rate at the hotel is September 10, 2016. Reservations made after that date will not be guaranteed the seminar rate. Cut off date for the early registration fee is September 25, 2016. We look forward to seeing you in Iceland Back to Top RSVP by contacting Erin Carroll, DFRC President by September 1 Email: erin.carroll@wnco.com or Telephone: (214) 792-5089 Curt Lewis