Flight Safety Information January 30, 2020 - No. 022 In This Issue Pilot In Kobe Bryant Helicopter Crash Wasn't Allowed To Fly By Instruments Incident: Skywest CRJ9 near Minneapolis on Jan 29th 2020, hydraulic failure Incident: Antilles Express AT42 at Sint Maarten on Jan 28th 2020, engine shut down in flight Incident: Austrian E195 enroute on Jan 29th 2020, hydraulic failure NTSB issues 10 recommendations after Embraer ERJ-175 pitch control incident Bahamas Races To Fill Aviation Safety Gaps UAE bans Moldovan cargo operators from its airports, citing safety fears FAA proposes $3.9M fine against Southwest for bad weight, balance data on 21,000 flights Alaska Airlines: Boeing or Airbus to replace Virgin America fleet Aircraft wings could be assembled cheaply and easily using nanotubes Boeing still deciding which market segment its next aircraft should target Boeing takes rare annual loss over grounded jet SpaceX launches 60 new Starlink satellites, sticks rocket landing at sea Investigation Management from SCSI MITRE - SMS Course - March 2020 ACSF Safety Symposium Pilot In Kobe Bryant Helicopter Crash Wasn't Allowed To Fly By Instruments Helicopter Crash Kobe Bryant Killed NTSB investigator Carol Hogan examines wreckage Monday from a helicopter crash near Calabasas The helicopter that crashed Sunday killing basketball star Kobe Bryant and eight others was owned by a charter company that only operated under visual flight rules, and its pilots were not permitted to fly solely based on their cockpit gauges if they encountered weather that limited visibility, a former pilot for the company told Forbes. The pilot of the doomed flight, Ara Zobayan, was licensed to fly by cockpit instruments, but he likely had little real-world experience in doing so given the operating limitations of Island Express Helicopters, says Kurt Deetz, a former pilot for the company who flew Bryant for two years. On a morning when heavy fog and low clouds were reported in parts of the Los Angeles area, and law enforcement agencies and helicopter tour companies weren't flying their choppers, the last radio communication from Zobayan to air traffic controllers was that he was climbing to try to get above a layer of clouds. "I don't think he had any actual [experience] inside the clouds," says Deetz, who notes that it can be unnerving for pilots limited to operating under visual flight rules, or VFR. "You spend your whole career thinking, 'I shouldn't do this.' " It's unknown whether Zobayan's visibility was in fact impaired, but soon after his last radio message, which came while the Sikorsky S-76B helicopter was headed west following the Ventura Freeway, it ascended to 2,300 feet and then turned abruptly to the south into the Santa Monica Mountains near Calabasas, where it quickly lost altitude and crashed on a slope at 1,085 feet in elevation, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the accident. Island Express Helicopters, a Long Beach-based company that has seven helicopters registered to it and a related holding corporation, is certified under Part 135 of FAA regulations to provide on-demand charter services under VFR conditions only, according to FAA records. The regulations impose tight specifications on how air carriers operate, including what kind of weather conditions they can fly in. It's financially demanding and time-consuming for a company to ensure it and its pilots can operate under instrument flight rules, or IFR, says Dee tz, and in the Los Angeles area, with its usually balmy weather, he says it isn't worth it for most helicopter operators, apart from emergency medical services. "You can spend all this money and maybe get three flights a year that you do IFR," says Deetz, 54, who has flown helicopters in the L.A. area for 30 years. Zobayan, 50, was the chief pilot for Island Express, where he had worked for ten years, according to a statement on the company's website, and had 8,200 hours of flight time as of July. An instrument flight instructor as well, he reportedly flew Bryant regularly and Deetz says he knew the area well. An Island Express representative reached by phone declined to answer questions. The helicopter took off on Sunday morning at 9:06 a.m. from Orange County's John Wayne Airport near Bryant's home, carrying the retired NBA player, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and six others to a basketball tournament at Bryant's sports academy in Thousand Oaks. Coming north from Los Angeles, Zobayan was allowed to proceed under special visual flight rules through the airspace controlled by Burbank Airport, a not uncommon permission for helicopters in less than ideal weather conditions where the pilot believes they have enough visibility to fly safely. A controller at nearby Van Nuys Airport to the west, whose airspace the helicopter subsequently passed through, advised Zobayan that there was a cloud ceiling in the area of 1,100 feet and visibility of 2.5 miles. Kobe Bryant flight map The weather can vary widely throughout the L.A. region, and the area that the helicopter crashed in is a blind spot with no weather reporting station, says Deetz. "Once you leave Van Nuys, there's no weather reporting until you get to Camarillo," he says. Many pilots in that situation would push forward in the hope that the conditions would turn out to be fine, he says, and either turn back or land nearby if they were not. The Sikorsky S-76B is certified for single-pilot instrument flying, but Deetz says it's not something a VFR-restricted pilot would switch to doing lightly, given the legal repercussions. In a situation where a helicopter pilot inadvertently flies into challenging weather, he says they can declare an emergency requiring that they fly by instruments, and the nearest air traffic controller will vector the aircraft in for a landing. However, Deetz says, it's not easy to suddenly switch from VFR to IFR in the clouds, and the S-76B's rapid descent from 2,300 feet may have been an attempt by Zobayan to get below the ceiling. "It's a very unnerving feeling if you're not ready. He may have gotten in it and thought, 'I don't want to be here.' " The helicopter was not equipped with a system that warns pilots when their aircraft is in close proximity to the ground, NTSB board member Jennifer Homendy said in a media briefing Tuesday. FAA made such systems mandatory for air ambulances in 2014 but declined to act on a 2006 recommendation by NTSB that they be required on all helicopters. The NTSB's lead investigator on the case, Bill English, cautioned that it's too early to say whether a terrain awareness and warning system could have helped prevent the accident. With the probe into the crash still in its early stages, there are a host of possible factors other than poor visibility that could turn out to have played a role, including a mechanical malfunction. However, given that weather forecasts for airports near the route of flight appear to have been better than the conditions that Zobayan encountered in the final minutes, the accident could lead NTSB and FAA to re-examine the requirements for special visual flight rule operations, says Alan Diehl, a former NTSB and FAA crash investigator. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2020/01/29/pilot-in-kobe-bryant- helicopter-crash-wasnt-allowed-to-fly-by-instruments/#67ba93df26ea Back to Top Incident: Skywest CRJ9 near Minneapolis on Jan 29th 2020, hydraulic failure A Skywest Canadair CRJ-900 on behalf of Delta, registration N817SK performing flight DL-3705 from Detroit,MI to San Antonio,TX (USA), was enroute at FL340 about 70nm north of Memphis,TN (USA) when the crew decided to divert to Memphis due to a hydraulic failure. On approach to Memphis the crew advised they would need to perform an alternate gear extension, they were planning for a low approach to check whether the landing gear was down, and they would have no nosegear steering. The aircraft performed a low approach to Memphis' runway 36C, emergency services reported both main and nose gear appeared to be down and in position. The aircraft positioned for another approach to runway 36C and landed safely. A replacement CRJ-900 registration N825SK reached San Antonio with a delay of about 6 hours. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL3705/history/20200129/1330Z/KDTW/KSAT http://avherald.com/h?article=4d29d620&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: Antilles Express AT42 at Sint Maarten on Jan 28th 2020, engine shut down in flight An Air Antilles Express Avions de Transport Regional ATR-42-500 on behalf of Winair, registration F-OIXD performing flight WM-806 from Sint Maarten (Sint Maarten) to Curacao (Curacao), was climbing out of Sint Maarten when shortly after departure the left hand engine (PW127) needed to be shut down. The aircraft returned to Sint Maarten for a safe landing. WinAir confirmed one of their ATR-42s wet leased from Air Antilles needed to shut an engine down. The airline continued their aircraft have an ETOPS certification for 120 minutes. A replacement ATR-42-500 registration F-OIXH reached Curacao with a delay of about 4 hours. http://avherald.com/h?article=4d29c5a1&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: Austrian E195 enroute on Jan 29th 2020, hydraulic failure An Austrian Airlines Embraer ERJ-195, registration OE-LWN performing flight OS-848 from Tirana (Albania) to Vienna (Austria), was enroute at FL360 when the crew received indications the hydraulic system #2 had failed. The crew requested emergecy services in their stand by positions for the landing. The aircraft landed on Vienna's runway 29 and taxied to the apron with emergency services in trail. The aircraft is still on the ground in Vienna about 7 hours after landing. http://avherald.com/h?article=4d29cc98&opt=0 Back to Top NTSB issues 10 recommendations after Embraer ERJ-175 pitch control incident 29 January 2020 Based on preliminary findings from its ongoing investigation of a pitch control incident involving an Embraer ERJ-175 airplane, the NTSB issued 10 safety recommendations. On November 6, 2019, Republic Airways flight 4439, an Embraer ERJ-175 declared an emergency shortly after takeoff from Atlanta-Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, reporting a pitch trim-related flight control issue and difficulty controlling the airplane. There were six passengers on board the airplane. The captain and first officer later reported that they both needed to use both hands to counter the airplane's nose-up pitch motion and that doing so involved such effort that neither felt that they could reach for the QRH to troubleshoot the problem. Ultimately, the flight crew was able to trim the airplane with the first officer's trim switch, return to Atlanta, and land the airplane safely about 15 minutes after declaring the emergency. The NTSB issued six safety recommendations to the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC) and four to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The recommendations are designed to address areas of concern including wire chafing, application of Embraer service bulletins relating to the pitch trim switch, and potential limitations in checklist memory items for pilots to address unintended operation of the pitch trim system. Although the cause of the incident remains under investigation, post-incident examination of the airplane revealed chafed insulation around wires connecting the horizontal stabilizer actuator control electronics to the captain's pitch trim switch and autopilot/trim disconnect button. The chafing was caused by contact with the incorrectly untucked pigtail of the forward mechanical stop bolt safety wire. When the captain's pitch trim switch was removed from the yoke, marks were observed that indicated at some point before the incident flight, the pitch trim switch had been installed in an inverted position. Embraer previously issued three service bulletins related to pitch trim switch installation error following reports from flight crews in 2015 about flight control system difficulties. However, neither the FAA nor the ANAC required incorporation of the service bulletins. While it is not yet known if inverted switch installation was a factor in the incident, the NTSB is concerned the condition could lead to flight crew confusion, delaying appropriate recognition of and response to increased control forces. Preliminary information from the NTSB's investigation also suggests that unintended pitch trim operation may be masked and go undetected during certain phases of flight, such as during takeoff. Further, limitations in the checklist memory items may delay pilots in properly responding to and regaining control of the Embraer ERJ- 170/175/190/195 and Lineage 1000 series airplanes. The NTSB is concerned the crew's application of the memory item(s) on the ERJ-175 Pitch Trim Runaway checklist may not comprehensively address circumstances of the trim system operation in a timely manner. More information: * NTSB ASR-20-01 https://news.aviation-safety.net/2020/01/29/ntsb-issues-10-recommendations-after- embraer-erj-175-pitch-control-incident/ Back to Top Bahamas Races To Fill Aviation Safety Gaps Aviation chiefs yesterday pledged to double The Bahamas' compliance score after global regulators found it had implemented less than one-third of the required "safety oversight" regime. Captain Charles Beneby, the Bahamas Civil Aviation Authority's director-general, told Tribune Business that his agency was "working feverishly" to plug the numerous gaps identified in time for the next International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) audit in early 2021. The last ICAO report, which has been obtained by this newspaper, reveals that The Bahamas had only properly implemented 32 percent of the "critical elements of a safety oversight system" for the aviation industry with deficiencies found in all eight key areas. The report, which effectively "downgraded" The Bahamas from 56.98 percent compliance pre-audit, found it had implemented just 2.5 percent of its aviation industry "surveillance", and 15.97 percent of its "licensing, certification and authorisation", obligations. Similar low scores were achieved on the "resolution of safety issues", where The Bahamas was found by ICAO's team to be just 11.76 percent compliant, and on "qualified technical personnel", where it gained a 36 percent ranking. It fared better on the quality of its aviation legislation and "state systems and functions", which both scored in the 50 percent range, and achieved its highest compliance rating of 61.06 percent for "specific operating regulations". Captain Beneby said the latest report, which was published in April 2018 following an 11-day ICAO mission to The Bahamas in October-November 2017, had caught the Bahamas Civil Aviation Authority (BCAA) when it was "transitioning" from a government entity to a standalone regulator. As a result, he argued that the BCAA "didn't have sufficient time" to show ICAO that The Bahamas had implemented more of the necessary safety standards than allowed for by a report that has not been publicly disclosed until now. The BCAA chief acknowledged that it was critical for an aviation-dependent economy such as The Bahamas to "meet the standard" for industry "safety and security", otherwise tourist-related travel and commercial cargo operations could be impacted. He revealed that the regulator had hired the Aviation Registry Group (ARG), the company also charged with developing a Bahamian aircraft registry, to work with it in identifying the shortcomings flagged by the ICAO report and correct all weaknesses. Legislative reforms, especially a revised Civil Aviation Act, will form the "centrepiece" of efforts to tackle ICAO's concerns with Captain Beneby promising it will focus on "making it easier for the industry to come into compliance" and thereby obtain greater private sector buy-in to what the regulator is seeking to achieve. Voicing optimism that The Bahamas will show major improvement by the time ICAO assessors land again in the 2021 first quarter, he added that the Bahamas Civil Aviation Authority had set an "aggressive" timeline to have all legislative and infrastructure-type upgrades in place by mid-2020 so that they had six months to bed-in before the audit. Acknowledging that the regulator faces "a fight" to meet these deadlines, Captain Beneby said it was aiming to achieve a 65 percent "effective implementation" score at the next audit - effectively 'doubling' the present 31.98 percent safety oversight compliance rating. "I'm very confident that we will certainly do better than where we are now," he told Tribune Business of the upcoming audit. "That's a no brainer. We have greater expectations. There's a kind of regional level of acceptance that we hope to achieve, and that happens at the 65 percent implementation level. #"I think we're well on the way. I don't want to give a number or percentage, but we are working feverishly to show we have the legislation implemented and the changes required. If the audit is taking place in the 2021 first quarter, that means we need to be ready by mid-2020 with the legislation and infrastructure items, and then go out and execute on those." Asked whether The Bahamas will be able to meet those timelines, Captain Beneby added: "We want to give ourselves six months [before the audit]. I think so. It's a fight, but I think so." He revealed that The Bahamas had bought itself more time to meet ICAO's standards by successfully "rescheduling" the audit for early 2021 - a move that was supported by the global regulatory body's head/regional offices in Montreal and Canada. "I can say that is true," Captain Beneby confirmed. "The Bahamas government requested a reschedule of the audit, which would have been a kind of validation mission where they [ICAO] would come in to test the steps taken to address the findings of the audit. "That has been rescheduled for the first quarter of 2021. We are very actively and aggressively working to implement a number of changes that allow us to be able to address these findings. No matter what we do, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. They will be looking to see we have implemented the changes we have made." Acknowledging that the Bahamas Civil Aviation Authority functions as the "guardian" of the whole Bahamian oversight regime, Captain Beneby added that the last ICAO audit caught it just one year after it was created at a time when it was still finding its legs. "We were established in 2016. The audit took place in 2017," he noted. "We were still in a state of transition. We functioned somewhat differently as a government department. This is a standalone body doing what it's supposed to be doing. "There are still some initiatives that have to happen but we are further down the road than we were in 2017. What we were not able to show was the implementation that was so necessary as we simply did not have sufficient time." Revealing that the Authority and ARG have "done a lot of work already to address some of the issues", Captain Beneby added: "Central to where we need to go was the decision to seek to amend, repeal and replace existing legislation. We are working aggressively to get that done. That's the centrepiece of what we're trying to do. All these legislative and regulatory issues flow down. "Where we are right now is reviewing the existing legislation and regulations, and flowing from that we will be documenting instructions to inspectors, issuing advisory circulars to to general aviation. ICAO will look to see that we have good legislation and regulations, we have trained our personnel, and can show implementation not just in the first instance but ongoing. "Our goal is to build on what we have now to ensure we have a system that's sustainable. It's a process we follow. ARG are actively working in situ and away. They are working to draft new and amended legislation that flows down to all the activities required for The Bahamas to demonstrate that we have an organised system that allows us to carry out our obligations; international obligations." Captain Beneby said the Civil Aviation Act will be the focus, and added: "We want to make it easier for the industry to come into compliance. That's always a challenge. You can pass whatever legislation you want, but if it's a burden on the industry they will not want to have it happen. "These changes in regulations and legislation require us to interface with the industry so that we get some kind of buy-in. They need to feel it's in their best interests as well. If they buy-in to what we're trying to do it makes the whole job much easier." Captain Beneby said it was "extremely important" that The Bahamas improved its "safety oversight" standing not just for the domestic aviation industry but its international standing, as ICAO represents 192 nations. "It says we are a body working to ensure the security and safety of aviation activity is at an acceptable level," he explained. "States are required to ensure they have the infrastructure that complies with that objective. "It's very important. If a state does not meet the standard it can have an impact on the economy of a state that is dependent and reliant on air travel such as we are." Emphasising that ICAO safety oversight compliance is a state responsibility, Captain Beneby said the regulator has the full support of Dionisio D'Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, to do what is necessary. Agreeing that more progress should have been made before the Bahamas Civil Aviation Authority was created, he told Tribune Business: "I would hasten to say we aren't where we are today because we woke up this morning and said we would start to do this. "The Bahamas signed the ICAO Convention in 1975. Then to now is 45 years. There's a lot of work to be done still. We can wring our hands about what should have happened or go forward. We've chosen to go forward. "I want The Bahamas to advance and retain its place as an organised state, which can ensure the safety and security of the travelling public. That's my mission and what keeps me awake at night. How do we do it?" http://www.tribune242.com/news/2020/jan/29/bahamas-races-to-fill-aviation-safety- gaps/ Back to Top UAE bans Moldovan cargo operators from its airports, citing safety fears An Aerotrans Cargo 747F The UAE has banned cargo operators from Moldova from its airports over safety concerns. The ruling will affect Aerotrans Cargo, Air Stork and Global Air Transport. The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority wrote to Moldova's equivalent authority, the MCAA, on 19 January, noting "in the interest of aviation safety and in accordance with Article 4 of the Air Service Agreement ... the UAE GCAA has decided to ban all operations of cargo aircraft from the republic of Moldova to/from UAE airports, until further notice". The ban comes into effect on 1 February. The UAE said it had seen "no significant improvement of safety standards of the cargo operators, or in adoption of long-term measures by MCAA, since the first safety consultation meeting in 2013". It said that since July, several safety issues had been logged, including the ban of Air Stork in September for safety violations, and three instances where the pilot was "identified as the instigator", including a taxiway incursion and deviation from ATC clearance. None of these instances was reported by the operator, as required. The UAE added that at least two non-scheduled cargo operators had broken the aviation agreement between the countries by basing an aircraft in the UAE and exercising the seventh freedom with no continuation of service to or from Moldova. According to one source, the ban will affect the operations of Global Air Transport and Bismillah Airlines, which use Aerotrans Cargo's AOC to fly from Sharjah to Delhi, Dhaka and Ostend. Aerotrans Cargo, which operates four 747 freighters, has its headquarters in Moldova - but its operational base is in Sharjah. The Aviation Herald has reported three safety issues with its aircraft since February 2018, all in Europe. One Moldovan carrier, Fly Pro, was launched in 2016, with one 747 freighter used for chartered cargo services on various routes in the Middle East and Asia, but its AOC was revoked by the Moldovan CAA on 1 April 2019. That freighter continues to operate however; although it is not clear who the operator is. https://theloadstar.com/uae-bans-moldovan-cargo-operators-from-its-airports-citing- safety-fears/ Back to Top FAA proposes $3.9M fine against Southwest for bad weight, balance data on 21,000 flights Corrections and clarifications: The proposed fine announced Friday is separate from the FAA's investigation, launched in 2018, of Southwest's weight and balance calculations before takeoff. The original story conflated the two investigations. The FAA proposed a $3.92 million fine against Southwest Airlines on Friday for incorrect weight and balance data on 21,000 flights in 2018. In an enforcement letter to Southwest Chief Operating Officer Mike Van de Ven on Friday, the agency said Southwest operated 44 planes on a total of 21,505 flights between May 1 and Aug. 9, 2018 with incorrect baseline weights for the plane in its system. The starting weight is used in determining how many passengers and how much fuel can be safely carried, as well as where cargo must be located, the FAA said. The FAA alleges that Southwest's operation of the planes ran contrary to the airline's approved weight-and-balance program and FAA-issued operations specifications. Southwest has 30 days to respond to the agency. The two sides can negotiate a settlement that will lower the amount Southwest ultimately pays. Southwest spokesman Brian Parrish said in a statement Friday that the proposed penalty stems from data processing issues that occurred when Southwest was switching computer systems in the spring of 2018. He said Southwest reported what it called record-keeping issues, which involve the empty weight of aircraft needed to establish a baseline weight for each plane, to the FAA in late July 2018 and resolved them in August 2018. Southwest and the FAA said Friday's action is unrelated to a separate investigation of how Southwest calculates weight and balance data before a flight. That data, which takes into account factors including the weight of bags, cargo and passengers and how they are positioned on the plane, are a critical pre-flight task that dictates how much fuel is needed, takeoff and landing speeds and other factors. The FAA had been investigating Southwest's calculations on that front for nearly two years. Southwest has since switched from manually counting bags to scanning them, as most airlines do. The Wall Street Journal said the investigation, publicly disclosed a year ago, was sparked by a whistleblower complaint. When the FAA investigation was disclosed by The Wall Street Journal in 2019, Southwest Airlines officials said they were switching from manually counting bags to scanning them, as most other airlines already did. This isn't the largest fine the FAA has proposed against Southwest. In 2014, the FAA proposed a $12 million fine against the Dallas-based carrier for allegedly failing to comply with repair orders for Boeing 737s.In 2008, the FAA announced a $10.2 million fine related to cracks in the fuselage. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2020/01/10/southwest-airlines- faa-proposed-3-9-million-fine-incorrect-weight-balance-data/4435651002/ Back to Top Alaska Airlines: Boeing or Airbus to replace Virgin America fleet This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. For an explanation of our Advertising Policy, visit this page. Alaska Airlines is weighing the question nearly every major airline today faces: order more Airbus A320neo family jets or up its commitments for the beleaguered Boeing 737 MAX. The Seattle-based carrier needs to replace the 61 leased Airbus A319s and A320s that it inherited from Virgin America by around 2024. Those jets begin returning to lessors later this year, prompting the need for a decision. Alaska's impending narrow-body aircraft campaign, which will likely kick off this quarter, looks set to be the next major order among U.S. carriers. It will also determine the future of Alaska's long-standing slogan: "Proudly All Boeing." "We have an opportunity to replace 61 A319 and A320 aircraft with larger gauge, more efficient assets... [that] would give us the ability to generate more revenue while lower unit cost," said Shane Tackett, Alaska's executive vice president of planning and strategy - and chief financial officer since March - during a quarterly earnings call on Tuesday. The airline will consider either additional A321neos or more 737 MAX 9s or MAX 10s to replace the outgoing jets, Tackett said. The airline operated 10 A321neos - all via its Virgin America acquisition -and had orders for 32 737 MAX jets at the end of December. The issues surrounding both the Neo and MAX do not appear to weigh on Alaska's consideration, at least not yet. Production delays have plagued recent A321neo deliveries that, for example, have forced JetBlue Airways to lease additional jets to make up for the shortfall of new aircraft. The 737 MAX's issues are well known. The aircraft has been under a microscope since it was grounded last March. Under Boeing's latest forecast, the jet is not expected to take to the skies again until the middle of the year. Alaska is due to take delivery of 10 737 MAX 9s this year, though Tackett called the timeline "uncertain." "Boeing's challenges with the MAX did cause us to rework the sequencing of events and some of our timing," Nathaniel Pieper, senior vice president of fleet, finance and alliances at Alaska, said about the replacement timing for the A319s and A320s. However, he is confident that the airline will make a decision by the fourth quarter. Alaska has known about the coming A319 and A320 retirements since it bought Virgin America in 2016. In early 2017, Alaska said it would make a replacement decision by year-end - a decision it has punted every year since. The carrier already has two aircraft options in its back pocket. Alaska has commitments for 30 A320neo family jets with deliveries from 2022 to 2024 in an order it inherited from Virgin, and options for a further 37 737 MAXes. It could exercise either - or both - of these alternatives if it wanted. Alaska plans to grow capacity by 3-4% year-over-year in 2020. Part of this is its network pivot back to its strongest markets along the West Coast. The airline has unveiled a number of new north-south routes in recent months, including new flights to Monterey, California (MRY). https://thepointsguy.com/news/alaska-airlines-airbus-neo-boeing-max-replace-virgin- america-fleet/ Back to Top Aircraft wings could be assembled cheaply and easily using nanotubes Carbon nanotubes have been used to simply and inexpensively join together aerospace- grade composites used to manufacture aircraft. The technique, developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), bypasses the need for costly and energy intensive pressure vessels and could speed up the production of aircraft and high-performance composite structures like wind turbine blades. Modern aircraft are constructed from sheet-like composites, which are fused together at high temperatures within giant pressurised vessels called autoclaves. These are required to force out tiny pockets of air that form between the sheets thanks to their microscopic surface roughness - much like squeezing out air bubbles that form under a plastic film. 'If you're making a primary structure like a fuselage or wing, you need to build a pressure vessel, or autoclave, the size of a two- or three-storey building, which itself requires time and money to pressurise,' MIT aeronautics researcher Brian Wardle explains. Wardle and colleagues have turned to nanoporous networks - ultrathin films made of internally-aligned materials like carbon nanotubes - to join composites together. The spaces between each nanotube in such dense films can act as capillaries - and generate pressure based on their geometry and surface energy. The team predicted that by sandwiching such a film between two sheets of other materials and heating it, a 50% greater capillary pressure could be applied to the surrounding materials than is possible in an autoclave - while similarly eliminating any trapped voids. An image showing a way to manufacture autoclave-formulated aerospace-grade advanced carbon fiber composites MIT researchers have devised a way to manufacture aerospace-grade advanced carbon fibre composites without applied pressure from an autoclave. Cross-sections of the composites show that heating a carbon nanotube film between the two parts to be fused can provide the needed pressure at the interfaces to elinate voids that weaken the joints Putting the idea to the test, the team sandwiched a film of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes between two sheets of aircraft composite material and heated them using an electrified wrap of nanotube film. The resulting material was void-free, just like an autoclaved composite. 'We found that our out-of-autoclave composite was just as strong as the gold-standard autoclave process composite used for primary aerospace structures,' Wardle says. The approach complements a technique developed by the team in 2015 that used a wrapping of carbon nanotubes to heat and fuse together composites without a giant oven and for a hundredth the energy cost. 'Autoclaved components are regarded as the standard that any alternative process should exceed to have any chance of wide scale adoption in industry, particularly for the manufacture of critical parts,' says advanced manufacturing expert Keith Ridgway of the University of Strathclyde, who was not involved in the study. Calling out-of-autoclave curing the 'holy grail' of composites manufacturing, he notes that other proposed alternatives - such as microwave-based approaches - can appear attractive but do not provide the requisite integrity, often leaving as much as 1% of the material containing voids that weaken it. 'At the current time - with the added focus on climate change and reducing energy use - the innovation proposed is both exciting and timely,' Ridgway adds. The team is now investigating how production films can be scaled up from their centimetre-size test samples to structures as large as aircraft wings. 'Now we have this new material solution that can provide on-demand pressure where you need it,' Wardle says. 'Beyond airplanes, most of the composite production in the world is pipes - for water, gas, oil, all the things that go in and out of our lives. This could make all those things, without the oven and autoclave infrastructure.' https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/aircraft-wings-could-be-assembled-cheaply- and-easily-using-nanotubes/4011096.article Back to Top Boeing still deciding which market segment its next aircraft should target Boeing is assessing which segment of the commercial aircraft market it should actually address with its next aircraft development programme, suggesting options other than its proposed New Mid-market Airplane (NMA) may be on the table. Speaking during Boeing's 2019 earnings call on 29 January, chief executive David Calhoun also insists the company will not design its next aircraft purely as a response to the hugely-popular Airbus A321neo. "We have asked the team to step back and reassess our commercial product development strategy to determine what family of airplanes will be needed in the future," Calhoun says. For several years Boeing talked of launching the NMA, an aircraft with 270 seats and 4,000-5,000nm (7,400-9,300km) range. But the 737 Max grounding delayed the NMA beyond an ideal mid-2020s launch, and in the meantime Airbus attacked the mid- market niche with the 2019 launch of its A321XLR. A digital representation of Boeing's NMA concept. Boeing will not make a knee-jerk reaction by rushing an aircraft to compete with the A321XLR, according to Calhoun. "This is a decision [that] me and our new commercial aircraft leader wanted to make. We will not design our next airplane on the basis of the A321," he says. "I know where the NMA is targeted now. I want to be sure I understand everything about the widebody, narrowbody world." Without addressing specifics, Calhoun insists Boeing's next aircraft programme will leverage tools that will significantly "differentiate" it from competing products. "I want to make sure we have an airplane [specification] that I believe in," Calhoun says. "As soon as we come to a [specification] on what we want to do, we will move forward very quickly." The NMA had been weaved tightly into a broader Boeing plan to transform its production system, analysts have said. The aircraft would have only incremental technology improvements but would serve as a platform by which Boeing would begin modernising production in preparation for launching the 737 replacement, an aircraft dubbed the Future Single Aisle (FSA) aircraft. Richard Aboulafia, industry analyst with Teal Group, suggests Boeing might leap over the NMA and instead move straight to developing the FSA. Perhaps, he says, the FSA could include a larger variant suited for the mid-market segment. "It's also possible that they do nothing, and simply continue returning cash to shareholders. That would be disastrous for the company's market standing," Aboulafia says. https://www.flightglobal.com/air-transport/boeing-still-deciding-which-market- segment-its-next-aircraft-should-target/136438.article Back to Top Boeing takes rare annual loss over grounded jet FILE - In this Jan. 25, 2020, file photo a Boeing 777X airplane takes off on its first flight with the Olympic Mountains in the background at Paine Field in Everett, Wash. Boeing Co. reports financial results on Wednesday, Jan. 29. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File) Ted S. Warren Boeing, an icon of American manufacturing, suffered its first annual financial loss in more than two decades while the cost of fixing its marquee aircraft after two deadly crashes soared to more than $18 billion. New CEO David Calhoun on Wednesday stood by his estimate that regulators will certify changes Boeing is making to the 737 Max by mid-year. Calhoun criticized the company's prior leadership for not immediately disclosing a trove of damning internal communications that raised safety questions about the Max. He promised to be more transparent. "I have to restore trust, confidence and faith in the Boeing Co.," he told Wall Street analysts. Boeing reported a loss of $1 billion in the fourth quarter as revenue plunged 37% due to the grounding of the Max. The company suspended deliveries of the plane last spring and hadn't expected the stoppage to last this long. The company lost $636 million for all 2019, compared with a profit of nearly $10.5 billion in 2018. It was the first annual loss since 1997, when Boeing was roiled by parts shortages, production delays, and expenses from merging with McDonnell Douglas. Boeing's problems aren't limited to the Max. Slowing demand for larger planes led the company to announce it will reduce production of the 787 Dreamliner from 14 a month to 12 later this year, then 10 early next year. The plane has become more important to Boeing's health during the Max grounding. In addition, Boeing's 777X jet is behind schedule, and a decision on whether to build a new mid-size plane to compete with one from Airbus has been delayed. Revenue in the company's defense and space business fell 13% and it took a $410 million charge in case NASA requires another unmanned flight of the Starliner - the spacecraft that failed to reach the International Space Station during a test flight in December. Boeing's focus, however, is on fixing the Max. Without any Max deliveries since April, the company is burning through cash, and Boeing confirmed that it is lining up bank commitments for $12 billion in new borrowing. The Max was grounded worldwide last March, after two crashes within five months killed 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia. The crisis torpedoed sales and deliveries of new jetliners, leaving Boeing far behind Airbus. It caused a shutdown in Max production, layoffs at suppliers, and led to the firing of CEO Dennis Muilenburg. U.S. airlines that own Maxes - Southwest, American and United - don't expect it back until after the peak of the summer travel season. It is anyone's guess about how willing passengers will be to fly on the plane. The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Stephen Dickson, told U.S. airline officials late last week that he was content with Boeing's progress toward getting the Max back in the year, raising the possibility that the plane could fly sooner than Boeing has estimated. Calhoun said Wednesday he appreciated Dickson's comments, but they wouldn't cause him to change Boeing's projection of regulatory approval by midyear because Dickson could change his tune in a month. Calhoun insisted the Max "is a sound airplane" that will be safer than ever after extensive tests and scrutiny by the FAA. He said passengers will fly on it once they see pilots get on board. "Airplanes unfortunately have gone down before," he told reporters. "People take a breath and wonder whether they'll ever fly one again ... and then slowly and steadily, they do." Boeing won't change the name of the plane either, as President Donald Trump and others have suggested. "I'm not going to market my way out of this," Calhoun told CNBC. Boeing has been embarrassed in recent weeks by the disclosure of years-old internal messages in which test pilots and other key employees raised safety concerns about the Max - even saying they wouldn't put their families on it - while the plane was in development and testing. Calhoun criticized company leaders who didn't disclose the messages right away. He said if the right people in leadership had seen the employee concerns about the Max, they might have pushed for training in flight simulators before pilots could fly the Max. Boeing recently reversed its longstanding and determined opposition to simulator training, which will add time and expense before airlines can use the plane. Calhoun, a former General Electric and Nielsen executive who had been on Boeing's board since 2009, became CEO this month. Fourth-quarter revenue tumbled to $17.9 billion, far below Wall Street's forecast of $21.7 billion, according to a FactSet survey of analysts. The Chicago-based company booked another $9.2 billion in estimated current and future extra costs for production delays, deliveries, and compensation for airlines that have canceled tens of thousands of Max flights. That raised Boeing's estimate of the total financial hit from the crisis to $18.6 billion. Analysts said the charge for airline compensation was anywhere from $4 billion to $6 billion less than most investors had feared. For all the troubling news from the company, investors were happy that the damage wasn't worse. Shares rose 2.3% to $323.74 in afternoon trading. https://www.gazettenet.com/Grounded-jet-sends-Boeing-to-first-annual-loss-in-2- decades-32342421 Back to Top SpaceX launches 60 new Starlink satellites, sticks rocket landing at sea There are now 240 Starlink satellites in orbit. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - SpaceX successfully launched its fourth batch of Starlink satellites into orbit and nailed a rocket landing today (Jan. 29) following days of weather delays for the mission. A sooty Falcon 9 rocket - which made its third flight with this launch - roared to life at 9:06 a.m. EST (1406 GMT), lifting off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station here in Florida. The rocket carried 60 more Starlink satellites for SpaceX's growing constellation, the second such launch by the company this month. The satellites all successfully deployed about an hour after liftoff. Last week, strong upper level winds forced the private spaceflight company to postpone the Starlink-3 mission's launch. SpaceX then aimed for the backup launch date of Jan. 28; however, rough seas where the drone ship was waiting may have thwarted any attempt at a landing. The Falcon 9 rocket that launched SpaceX's Starlink-3 mission landed safely on the company's drone ship Of Course I Still Love You after launching the Starlink-3 satellites into orbit on Jan. 29, 2020. It was the third launch for this rocket. The star of this mission, the Falcon 9 first stage dubbed B1051.3 by SpaceX, previously lofted a Crew Dragon capsule as part of the company's uncrewed mission to the space station (Demo-1) as well as a trio of Earth-observing satellites for Canada. Following the successful launch, the rocket's first stage gently touched down on a SpaceX's drone ship landing platform "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Atlantic Ocean, marking the company's 49th booster recovery. SpaceX designed its souped up Falcon 9 rocket to fly as many as many as 10 times with only light refurbishments in between. The company has yet to fly a booster five times, but continues to rack up veterans with three or four flights, proving their capability. A Growing Constellation Today's launch is part of SpaceX's goal of connecting the globe with its Starlink network. Each satellite is identical, weighing in at roughly 485 lbs. (220 kg), and is part of a larger network that aims to provide internet coverage to the world below. With this launch, it brings SpaceX's burgeoning constellation up to 240, making it the largest in orbit to date. But SpaceX is not the only aerospace company with dreams of global connectivity. OneWeb launched its first set of six satellites in 2019, and Amazon hopes to launch its own constellation soon. However, SpaceX (with its own rockets) is the first to amass a sizable constellation. Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and founder, has said the company will need at least 400 satellites in orbit to provide minimal coverage, and at least 800 to provide moderate coverage. With this launch, the private spaceflight company is over halfway to the minimal coverage mark and says service could begin sometime this year. When that happens, the first places to receive coverage would be portions of the U.S. and Canada. How Starlink works SpaceX's Starlink project has one simple goal: to provide constant high-speed internet access to users around the world. Currently technology limitations often leave remote and rural areas without access; SpaceX wants to change that. To access the internet, we rely on wireless cell towers or cables routed into our homes and offices. To that end, massive communications satellites will beam down internet coverage down from their orbital perched high above the Earth, in what's known as geostationary orbit (typically 22,000 miles up). The signal has to travel such a long distance, which translates to slower connections speeds. By operating at a lower altitude (and with more satellites), SpaceX says it can mitigate this issue and provide reliable coverage at an affordable price. But at what cost? Astronomical nuisance? Not everyone is thrilled about the idea of SpaceX's new mega-constellation. Astronomers have voiced concerns that the satellites could interfere with crucial scientific observations. SpaceX's Starlink satellites stand out as they march across the night sky. That's because they're incredibly bright, appearing as a train of bright dots as they orbit. Just how bright they were shocked and concerned scientists. Many were nervous that the Starlink constellation (and the others that will follow it) could interfere with their work. Astronomers rely on ground-based telescopes to take long-exposure images of astronomical objects they want to study. When something bright passes in front of the telescope's field of view, it can obscure the image, and the observer has to figure out what caused it. Musk and SpaceX listened to the concerns of astronomers and have experimented with ways of reducing the satellite's brightness. One satellite in the previous batch was coated in a special material to make it appear darker in orbit. Once the dark coating has been tested, SpaceX will decide how effective it is and whether or not the whole fleet will receive the same treatment. During live launch commentary today, Starlink engineer Lauren Lyons said the satellite with that dark coating is still making its way to its final orbit, so more time will be needed for SpaceX to complete its tests. Falling fairings SpaceX has proven that it can successfully reuse its rocket boosters, but the company wants to take the notion of reusability one step further by recovering and refurbishing payload fairings. After today's launch, SpaceX successfully "caught" one half of the payload fairing with one of its net-wielding boats, known as "Ms. Tree." The rocket's nose cane is comprised of two halves (also known as payload fairings), which are designed to protect the payload during launch. SpaceX has equipped each fairing with its own navigation system that allows it to glide gently back to Earth. The company hopes this will facilitate the recovery and reuse of the fairing. With each piece fetching roughly $3 million, SpaceX hopes to save some money by reusing them on future flights. To that end, the company has outfitted two of its recovery vessels with giant nets. Acting as mobile catcher's mitts, SpaceX hopes that it will be able to snag a fairing in each net. To date, GO Ms. Tree (the vessel formerly known as Mr. Steven) has now made three successful catches. The second boat, GO Ms. Chief has yet to snag a falling fairing. https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-3-satellites-launch-rocket-landing-success.html Curt Lewis