Flight Safety Information [December 4, 2020] [No. 245] In This Issue : When You Need A Supplement Lift - ARGUS IS YOUR PARTNER : Incident: Cargolux B748 at Novosibirsk on Dec 4th 2020, gear problem on departure : Accident: Sanga DHC6 at Wobagen on Dec 1st 2020, runway excursion : Couple Arrested After Boarding Flight To Hawaii While Infected With COVID-19 : Pilots, maintainers are worn out and under-trained, aviation safety commission says : Momentum Is Building for Pre-Flight COVID-19 Airport Testing : FAA, EUROPEAN REGULATORS EXPAND AVIATION SAFETY AGREEMENT : Alibaba and Ethiopian Airlines to launch cold chain exporting China’s COVID vaccines : Ryanair orders 75 additional Boeing 737 MAX jets : SAC to decide on extending Heavy Airlift Wing, adding new aircraft and members : Southwest Airlines warns employees of impending layoffs, 92 pilots impacted in Phoenix : Airbus Bets on Hydrogen to Deliver Zero-Emission Jets : Space startup Aevum debuts world's first fully autonomous orbital rocket launching drone : SCSI: Flight Data Analysis and Electronic Systems Investigation Incident: Cargolux B748 at Novosibirsk on Dec 4th 2020, gear problem on departure A Cargolux Boeing 747-8, registration LX-VCN performing flight CV-9745 from Novosibirsk (Russia) to Zhengzhou (China) with 4 crew, was climbing out of Novosibirsk's runway 25 when the crew stopped the climb at 8000 feet due to a problem with the landing gear. The aircraft returned to Novosibirsk, dumped fuel and landed safely on runway 25 about 45 minutes after departure. The aircraft had suffered the same problem about 11.5 hours earlier, see Incident: Cargolux B748 at Novosibirsk on Dec 3rd 2020, gear problem on departure. On Dec 4th 2020 Westsiberia's Transport Investigation Department reported a sensor indicated the right main gear could not be retracted, the same problem had occurred the previous day, therefore the department dispatched an investigation team on site to check the circumstances of the occurrences and establish whether violations of safety regulations have occurred. http://avherald.com/h?article=4e00f6d0&opt=0 Accident: Sanga DHC6 at Wobagen on Dec 1st 2020, runway excursion An Air Sanga de Havilland DHC-6-300, registration P2-ASM performing a flight from unknown point of origin to unknown point of destination (Papua New Guinea), was operating at Wobagen Airport in the western province but went off the runway. The nose gear collapsed. Papua New Guinea's AIC reported: "Information provided to the AIC indicates that as a result of the occurrence, a child resulted injured and the aircraft sustained damage. The child was later airlifted to a hospital in Kiunga to receive medical attention." The AIC was informed the same day and opened an investigation. http://avherald.com/h?article=4e00a7f1&opt=0 Couple Arrested After Boarding Flight To Hawaii While Infected With COVID-19 A Hawaiian couple were arrested and charged with second-degree reckless endangerment after they boarded a flight while reportedly being aware they had COVID-19. Wesley Moribe and Courney Peterson were traveling home with their child Sunday from San Francisco to Lihue Airport on Kauai when authorities discovered they had tested positive for COVID-19 in a pre-travel screening, a Kauai police spokesperson told NBC News in a statement Wednesday. Officials said the couple had been taken to a quarantine station at San Francisco International Airport and told not to board their United Airlines flight. “They knowingly boarded a flight aware of their positive COVID-19 test results, placing the passengers of the flight in danger of death,” Kauai police said, according to Hawaii News Now. Police said the two were stopped after arriving at the Lihue Airport. They were released after posting bail of $1,000 each. Their 4-year-old child was taken home by a family member. The couple’s close contacts are being identified and directed to get tested and quarantine, the Kauai Department of Health told ABC News in a statement. Hawaii requires all passengers entering the state to upload negative test results to the Safe Travels website prior to departure in order to avoid a mandatory 14-day quarantine on arrival. Passengers who receive a positive test result are not allowed to fly. “Following CDC guidelines, you will not be able to travel on United for at least 10 days after the date you tested positive and only after you have two successive negative COVID-19 results that were administered at least 24 hours apart,” the United Airlines website states. https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/hawaii-couple-covid-arrest-flight-035150070.html Pilots, maintainers are worn out and under-trained, aviation safety commission says A group of aviation experts tasked with getting to the bottom of a surge in deadly military aviation accidents during the last decade came back with its report on Thursday, and there’s a lot that needs fixing. A confluence of cultural issues, budget shortfalls and a lack of oversight have contributed to a general malaise, according to the report, as well as a rash of deadly and costly mishaps from 2013 to 2018: 198 deaths, 157 aircraft destroyed and $9.41 billion lost. Despite finding passionate professionals on flight lines around the world, the heads of the National Commission on Military Aviation Safety told reporters, a lack of flight hours, a stressed supply chain, high operational tempo and administrative distractions have left the community in a bit of disrepair. “What we found was that morale was generally degraded,” Dick Healing, a retired Coast Guard pilot and vice chairman of NCMAS, told reporters in the morning, before he was due to brief the results of the commission’s investigation to members of the House Armed Services Committee. That period dovetails seamlessly with congressionally-imposed budget sequestration that began in 2013 and was carried on by delayed proper budgets in the following years, but the commission did not blame it entirely on money. What’s going wrong? Despite recovering that funding, the commission found that aviation units are still not getting enough flight hours, maintenance time and proper parts to keep everything running safely and smoothly, which is a likely contributor to accidents. About 43 percent of mishaps are caused by human error, he explained, generally because someone didn’t follow procedure to the letter, or properly coordinate with the other aircrew or those on the ground. Another 38 percent were due to environmental factors, like weather and visibility. The remaining 19 percent were split among organization issues ― among those, worn out parts or lack of proper manning ― and supervision issues, which include superiors making bad judgment calls or not enforcing policies. Generally, human error is prevented by proficiency ― for example, pilots and aircrew with so much recent experience that they are operating on instinct and able to troubleshoot problems with ease. But troops told the NCMAS members they, in many cases, they weren’t getting enough flight hours. In the past, the issue had been budget cuts slashing the amount of time they could afford to be in the air. Now, according to retired Army Gen. Dick Cody, NCMAS chairman it’s more an issue of prioritizing. Some young pilots are coming out of schoolhouses that lean heavily on hours in a simulator. That’s great for practicing emergency procedures, he said, but not for gaining proficiency in the aircraft. So in order to get them up to speed, their first units of assignment are spending flight hours closing that gap, rather than spreading them more evenly up through more experienced pilots. And that, in turn, is resulting in more waivers, or units making exceptions for pilots assigned to missions who are about to fall out of balance with the required number of flight hours they need every 60 days. “We shouldn’t have pilots being tasked to do missions that have been waivered,” Cody said, adding that there have been “way too many accidents right on the 60-day current limit, and they’re out there flying a mission.” While mishaps in general were down in 2019, the Navy and Marine Corps saw individual increases, including a 30-percent increase in the Corps. The commission isn’t sure what caused that spike, Cody said, adding that the service is, anecdotally, “about as a stressed as any of the services that we saw” during their visits to 200 units across 80 installations over the past year and a half. “We didn’t seen any new [types of] accidents,” he added, explaining that the most common causes of mishaps have largely remained the same. But he did call out the physical conditions of the Marine Corps aviation community, which has been seen as taking a backseat to its other organizations. “And some of their facilities were not facilities that we would want young Americans maintaining multi-million dollar aircraft [in],” Cody said. How to fix the problem While the report calls for cultural change and budget predictability, two factors that can’t be remedied with the snap of a finger, it does lay out several institutional changes that can happen right away. Cody’s top recommendation is to start tracking those flight waivers, so that the services know just how common it is for borderline-current pilots to get in the cockpit and those trends can be traced. Along those same lines, Healing made a plug to create a joint safety council within the defense secretary’s office, reporting directly to the deputy defense secretary, as an authority to centrally track aviation trends, factors and data that can be fed directly to high-level policy and funding decisions. Such a council “basically gives them the information they need in order to make decisions that can seriously impact aviation safety,” Healing said. Other remedies will require institutional motivation. The report focuses heavily on the grinding combination of being overworked, untrained and under-incentivized. The commission recommends increasing the ceiling on pilot retention bonuses to $100,000 per year. It also recommends boosting manning levels of administrative personnel in aviation units, so that pilots and maintainers don’t get sucked into doing paperwork rather than focusing on their intricate skill sets, which they have reported as a problem. But the last part of the equation might be more difficult to tackle, as combatant commanders continue to request forces. The relentless demand for aviation units to support operations around the world, as they’re becoming more and more strained, is a recipe for disaster, both in safety but also retention of pilots and maintainers. For example, carrier air wing deployments have stretched from the long-standing six-month underway to nine months or beyond ― and in the case of the aircraft carriers Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower, having only a few months at home before heading out again. In the Army, downsized aviation brigades are doing back-to-back rotations in Korea and Europe. Doing the same amount, or more with less ― fewer aircraft, fewer personnel, fewer parts ― has become part of the culture. “And they always say, ‘Will do,’ " Healing said. “People need to understand that there may be a time when they need to say ‘no.’ " https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/12/03/pilots-maintainers-are-worn-out-and-under-trained-aviation-safety-commission-says/ Momentum Is Building for Pre-Flight COVID-19 Airport Testing Even as the race to approve and distribute COVID-19 vaccines is entering its final stretch, parts of the travel industry are sprinting to a different finish line: airport testing. In hubs large and small, from JFK to Boston to Frankfurt, Germany, a variety of companies are figuring out how to scale preflight rapid and PCR COVID testing in hopes of facilitating safe air travel and lessening quarantine requirements for anyone who isn’t first in line for a shot. The leaders of that effort may come as a surprise. In the U.S., it’s XpressSpa, the purveyor of quickie mani-pedis and travel pillows. It’s currently operational in four major U.S. airports, with more to come in December. In the UK, Collinson—the parent company of the Priority Pass airport lounge network—is the testing partner for London Heathrow and Virgin Atlantic, which recently began offering free tests for passengers on flights to select Caribbean destinations. This effort expanded to three additional UK airports this week. Collinson also announced a partnership in mid-November with American Airlines, British Airways, and the Oneworld airline alliance that will bring testing to select flights and hopefully lead to the creation of an “air bridge.” In other words: Momentum is building. “We went from concept to pilot in 75 days,” says XpressSpa Chief Executive Officer Doug Satzman of the effort’s early days; the company’s first COVID-19 testing facility opened at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in June. But expanding has been slow work. “Operating in airports is a difficult, highly complex, highly regulated environment—just getting an electrician in to fix something in your store is kind of a pain,” Satzman explains. “It’s been a tiring journey, I won’t deny it,” says David Evans, co-CEO of Collinson, whose company got into the testing game due to its knowledge of airport operations and its history as a purveyor of travel insurance. While its Heathrow effort has grown from testing 25,000 passengers per day to testing more than 1 million, some challenges to scaling up are hard to overcome. Difficulties have little to do with square footage or money. Creating airport testing sites, Evans says, is a low-cost proposition that can fill any empty or under-utilized space, of which there are many in airports today. It’s the lack of coordinated policy around testing requirements that has thwarted any type of global (or even country-wide) expansion. “If they rolled out a national testing mandate for air travel, we’d be there to support in as many airports as possible,” adds Evans, who has been lobbying vociferously for that exact approach to “get the world moving again.” Both Satzman and Evans think their efforts will pay off, whether they’re the turtle or the hare in a race with vaccines. After all, both executives are of the mindset that airport testing will be a long-term need, relevant for at least the next two years and possibly far longer. Mounting Pressure For both Satzman and Evans, providing airport testing is less a way to compensate for COVID-related losses than a means to get air travel—and therefore their core businesses—back on track. As Satzman puts it, “It’s not a big money thing, it’s a service you offer to let people back in so you can make money off your other businesses.” The same could be said about Lufthansa, which in mid-November started to roll out free and rapid pre-flight testing for certain flights between Munich and Hamburg in collaboration with the German biotech firm Centogene. “Successful testing of entire flights can be the key to revitalizing international air traffic,” says Christina Foerster, Lufthansa Group’s executive board member for customer, IT, and corporate responsibility. There’s data to support the idea that testing could reestablish consumer confidence. In a study published by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) in October, 76% of respondents said that rapid testing prior to departure—with waived quarantining requirements for those who test negative—would be the best way to open up international travel. The barrier is a patchwork approach to entry requirements across state, regional, and international levels, and the lack of a unified system to verify results. In Hong Kong, for instance, travelers need to present a “physical, stamped, paper copy of results,” says Collinson’s Evans; travelers to other destinations need only log into a health portal for an agent to review. Satzman doesn’t see much of that changing. In the U.S., as in other countries, coordinated policy for airport testing would require unprecedented cooperation among agencies as wide-ranging as the Federal Aviation Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Health and Human Services. But with infections in the U.S. reaching an all-time high, and Europe batting down its second wave, the need for testing has become more urgent. Add in the desire to make long-awaited holiday travels stick, and you have demand boiling over from passengers who are less concerned about quarantine requirements than keeping their relatives safe. Slow and Steady Against all these odds, airport testing efforts are gaining liftoff, thanks to a few recent developments. First is the recent, increased availability of rapid tests, which have allowed companies such as XpressSpa to think a bit further outside the box. Reliability is a growing positive, too: Just this week the NFL announced that it has helped prove the concept of a rapid test that’s as reliable as PCR swabs. Then there’s interest from airlines, who are seeing wide adoption of a vaccine as too far-off to suit their financial hopes. “Airlines are the ones stringing together the air bridges,” says Satzman, referring to the joint participation of two destinations in a pre-approved testing requirement for entry. “They see us as a strategic partner because we’re the only ones that will be in various airports.” As a result, Satzman says XpressSpa is carrying out negotiations with nearly every major American carrier, from implementing a pilot program that one airline hopes to roll out across all of its busiest airports to bundling the price of a required pre-flight COVID test with airfares. The next steps, say both Satzman and Evans, involve creating digital passports via which results could be uploaded and accessed by airline agents and border control officials, as needed. (Imagine, for instance, not being able to board a plane unless you scanned your boarding pass and your digital health app at the gate.) Then, Satzman says, it can be time to look at the next chapter: administering vaccines in addition to tests, and providing additional services such as strep throat tests to help unwell passengers decide whether it’s prudent to board a plane. “Whether we call this XCheck or something else—whatever this turns into, I do believe it will be bigger than the XpressSpa business,” Satzman adds. “There’s a lot to do in airports. And we’re going to do it, step by step by step.” https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2020/12/04/592754.htm FAA, EUROPEAN REGULATORS EXPAND AVIATION SAFETY AGREEMENT The FAA and the European Commission announced the expansion of their bilateral aviation safety agreement to allow mutual acceptance of some pilot certification and training rules, streamlining administrative processes and reducing training costs. One of two annexes to the Agreement on Cooperation in the Regulation of Civil Aviation Safety that emerged from the fourteenth meeting of the Bilateral Oversight Board allows “the conversion of FAA and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) private pilot certificates, airplane ratings and instrument ratings,” the FAA said in a November 19 news release. The FAA estimated that approximately 9,000 European residents have FAA pilot certificates. Another annex allows “the FAA and EU or Member State authorities to conduct recurrent evaluations on Flight Simulation Training Devices on each other’s behalf in the U.S. and in Europe.” “These annexes reduce duplication and leverage FAA and EU resources, which allows both agencies to allocate resources to higher safety-risk areas. The streamlined procedures and reduced costs will benefit industry, government and the flying public,” the announcement said, noting that the annexes create “new areas of collaboration” between the two safety agencies. AOPA welcomed the advances in cooperation, said Jim Coon, AOPA senior vice president of government affairs. “Streamlining processes and creating efficiencies, while ensuring safety, are positive for both general aviation pilots and civil aviation authorities,” he said. In a separate announcement of the agreements, the European Commission said the pilot certificate conversion provisions would “ensure that pilots residing in the EU fly aircraft on the basis of licences and ratings issued in accordance with EU regulations, under the oversight of EU Member States. It will also ensure that they maintain and develop their qualifications via EU training organisations.” The measure expanding flexibility for use of flight simulation training devices will generate cost savings for the aviation industry by eliminating duplicative evaluations and reducing pilot training costs for air carriers, it said. https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2020/december/03/faa-european-regulator-expand-aviation-safety-agreement Alibaba and Ethiopian Airlines to launch cold chain exporting China’s COVID vaccines China has pledged that it would be sharing its COVID-19 vaccines with other countries, especially those with which it has close ties. While the country is not ready to deploy its vaccines internationally, it is gearing up the infrastructure for mass distribution. This week, Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao announced that it has struck a partnership with Ethiopian Airlines to introduce a cold chain capable of transporting temperature-sensitive medicines from China to the rest of the world. The air freight will depart from Shenzhen Airport, which Alibaba says houses China’s first cross-border medical cold chain facility, twice a week to countries via Dubai and Addis Ababa. “As soon as the vaccines are ready, we will have the capabilities to transport them,” a Cainiao spokesperson told TechCrunch. Shenzhen is the home base of SF Express, another major logistics operator in China that has also been working on storing and shipping vaccines. The route is carried out by Cainiao, which operates in more than 200 countries and regions. It’s certified by the International Air Transport Association to fly COVID-19 vaccines, which normally need to be stored at low temperatures. Cabins will contain temperature-controlled monitors, for instance, and Ethiopia’s cargo terminal comes with facilities that can be adjusted between -23°C and 25°C, or -9.4°F and 77°F. “The launch of the cold chain air freight has further bolstered our global logistics capabilities and allow us to offer a one-stop solution for the global distribution of medical products such as the COVID-19 vaccines,” said James Zhao, general manager of Cainiao’s international supply chain unit. China has been a major exporter of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic and the country’s logistics giants, from Cainiao to SF Express, all promptly introduced programs specifically for shipping medical relief items. https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/03/alibaba-ethiopian-airlines-to-ship-covid-vaccines/ Ryanair orders 75 additional Boeing 737 MAX jets Europe's largest airline grows its firm 737 order book to 210 airplanes. Boeing and Ryanair announced that Europe's largest airline is placing a firm order for 75 additional 737 MAX airplanes, increasing its order book to 210 jets. Ryanair again selected the 737 8-200, a higher-capacity version of the 737-8, citing the airplane's additional seats and improved fuel efficiency and environmental performance. "Ryanair's board and people are confident that our customers will love these new aircraft. Passengers will enjoy the new interiors, more generous leg room, lower fuel consumption and quieter noise performance. And, most of all, our customers will love the lower fares, which these aircraft will enable Ryanair to offer starting in 2021 and for the next decade, as Ryanair leads the recovery of Europe's aviation and tourism industries," said Ryanair Group CEO Michael O'Leary. O'Leary and Ryanair leaders joined the Boeing team for a signing ceremony in Washington, D.C. Both companies acknowledged COVID-19's impacts on air traffic in the near-term but expressed confidence in the resilience and strength of the passenger demand over the long term. "As soon as the COVID-19 virus recedes – and it likely will in 2021 with the rollout of multiple effective vaccines – Ryanair and our partner airports across Europe will – with these environmentally efficient aircraft – rapidly restore flights and schedules, recover lost traffic and help the nations of Europe recover their tourism industries, and get young people back to work across the cities, beaches, and ski resorts of the European Union," O'Leary said. Ryanair is the launch customer for the high-capacity 737-8 variant, having placed its first order for 100 airplanes and 100 options in late 2014, followed by firm orders of 10 airplanes in 2017 and 25 in 2018. The 737 8-200 will enable Ryanair to configure its aircraft with 197 seats, increasing revenue potential, and reduce fuel consumption by 16% compared to the airline's previous airplanes. "Ryanair will continue to play a leading role in our industry when Europe recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and air traffic returns to growth across the continent. We are gratified that Ryanair is once again placing its confidence in the Boeing 737 family and building their future fleet with this enlarged firm order," said Dave Calhoun, president and CEO of The Boeing Company. "Boeing remains focused on safely returning the full 737 fleet to service and on delivering the backlog of airplanes to Ryanair and our other customers. We firmly believe in this airplane, and we will continue the work to re-earn the trust of all of our customers," Calhoun said. An Airworthiness Directive issued by the FAA spells out the requirements that must be met before U.S. carriers can resume service with Boeing 737 MAX airplanes. Boeing officials vow to continue to work with regulators and customers to return the airplane to service worldwide. https://www.aerospacemanufacturinganddesign.com/article/ryanair-orders-75-additional-boeing-737-max-jets/ SAC to decide on extending Heavy Airlift Wing, adding new aircraft and members The NATO supported Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) is to decide in the coming months whether or not to extend the current 30-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) that is currently due to expire in 2038, with potentially additional aircraft and new members also being added. The SAC programme will look at potentially extending the MoU it has in place with 12 nations to operate three C-17 transport aircraft out of Pápa Airbase in Hungary, with additional aircraft types and new members also a possibility. (NATO) Speaking at the virtual SMi Military Airlift and Air-to-Air Refuelling 2020 conference, the commander of the SAC’s Heavy Airlift Wing (HAW), US Air Force (USAF) Colonel James Sparrow, said that with the capability’s three Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft now set to remain in USAF service for a lot longer than originally anticipated, consideration is being given to extending the programme at the same time as potentially adding new airframe types and members. “The MoU is a 30-year agreement that started in 2008. This timeline was based on the original lifespan of the aircraft, but as it will now be around a lot longer than that – the USAF is talking about operating it through into the 2080s – in the next year the 12 participating nations will start a discussion on whether to extend the MoU beyond 2038,” Col Sparrow said on 2 December, adding, “When the MoU extension comes up, that will be the perfect time to maybe add more nations.” https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/sac-to-decide-on-extending-heavy-airlift-wing-adding-new-aircraft-and-members Southwest Airlines warns employees of impending layoffs, 92 pilots impacted in Phoenix Southwest Airlines warned 6,800 employees Thursday they may be furloughed in the spring, the airline told CNN. DALLAS (CNN) -- Southwest Airlines warned 6,800 employees Thursday they may be furloughed in the spring, the airline told CNN. If the layoffs do take place, they would be the first in the carrier's nearly 50-year history. The total includes 2,551 ground crew members who handle baggage, cargo, and restocking planes, as well as 1,176 customer service agents, 1,500 flight attendants and 1,221 pilots. The airline said the cuts would take place on March 15 or April 1 for different groups of employees. Arizona's Family has confirmed 92 pilots from Phoenix would be impacted by the layoff. US airlines, including Southwest, received a total of $25 billion in federal help earlier this year with the condition that they not institute any involuntary job cuts through the end of September. United and American Airlines furloughed 32,000 employees between them on October 1, the day that prohibition ended. Delta Air Lines has avoided involuntary job cuts because employees took voluntary buyouts and early retirement offers, and its pilots agreed to changes in their contract that would reduce labor costs. But some 16,000 other job cuts have been instituted or planned across the rest of the airline industry before Thursday's announcement from Southwest. Southwest has typically been among the most profitable major US airlines. But it has reported losses of $2.75 billion through the first nine months of the year, which also puts it on track for its first annual loss. Over Thanksgiving, US airlines had their busiest week since mid-March, when the pandemic brought air travel to a near halt. But United, Southwest and American have all warned investors that they are seeing a new drop in bookings as Covid-19 cases have risen nationwide, and public health experts have urged people not to travel during the holidays if possible. Southwest has asked the 12 unions representing the 83% of its employees who are unionized for approximately 10% pay cuts to avoid furloughs. The airline told CNN it has reached agreements with its meteorologist and dispatcher unions. An internal memo to employees noted that the airline is open to pay cut agreements with other union groups that would avoid the 6,800 looming furloughs in 2021. The memo said "we are not closing the door — we'll continue negotiations if union representatives want to continue working toward reaching mutually agreeable solutions." Southwest's major unions quickly objected to the company's planned furloughs and said they will continue to fight to save the jobs. "While this development is not completely surprising it is incredibly disappointing to our pilots and their families," said Captain Jon Weaks, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association. The union "remains committed to finding solutions that will dissuade the company from taking any further steps towards furloughs." He said that the pilots union had made several offers that meet the company's savings target, but the company made no counter offers. Southwest's stock symbol has always been LUV, for Love Field Airport, which is the company's home base in Dallas. The Transport Workers Union, which represents Southwest flight attendants among others employees, said the notices to employees made Thursday the "the day the 'LUV' died." "Southwest Airlines has approximately $15 billion in cash on hand and is predicted to be the first airline to emerge in making money for its shareholders," said Dan Akins, airline economist and an advisor to the TWU. The union said that it has made additional cost savings proposals, and that thousands of Southwest flight attendants would be willing to take additional unpaid leave in order to save jobs. "The opportunity to help save our members' jobs is all we're asking for," said Lyn Montgomery, president of the TWU unit that represents Southwest's flight attendants and a career flight attendant herself. The TWU members "have been the front line workers in the air during this pandemic, helping to ensure the safety of transportation infrastructure critical to this country and to business, and their skills are necessary as this company expands to additional destinations." The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association said it is filing for arbitration to stop the furloughs, which it said is its right under the contract since Southwest has been outsourcing some of the mechanical work at the airline. Several airline unions continue to lobby Congress for a stimulus bill that includes payroll funding for their employees. But despite bipartisan support there has so far been no additional help for the industry approved by Congress. https://www.azfamily.com/news/ap_cnn/southwest-airlines-warns-employees-of-impending-layoffs-92-pilots-impacted-in-phoenix/article_f84e27f4-83d5-535b-8856-ae32eef9d8be.html Airbus Bets on Hydrogen to Deliver Zero-Emission Jets There are plenty of obstacles standing in the way of developing the first zero-emission, hydrogen-powered plane. It’s tricky to safely store and use the highly combustible fuel. There aren’t any airports equipped to refuel jets with it. And the cost of hydrogen itself is prohibitive, at least if you want to avoid producing greenhouse gases. Yet in September, Airbus SE gave itself five years to develop a commercially viable hydrogen aircraft. The world’s biggest planemaker has the backing of its stakeholders—the French, Spanish, and German governments, who have pledged to be carbon neutral by 2050—and billions of euros in government subsidies. Even with help it’s going to be a herculean task that will require reinventing the trillion-dollar aviation industry. Hydrogen wasn’t the company’s first option. Airbus engineers spent years studying the potential of using batteries to store electricity on planes with Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc, only to shelve the project earlier this year. While batteries make sense in cars and buses, the relatively low levels of energy they produce means anything that could carry enough charge for a long-haul flight would be too heavy for an aircraft. “Hydrogen is the most promising energy type to allow us to power aircraft and aviation with renewable energy,” says Glenn Llewellyn, the engineer leading Airbus’ moonshot experiment. “Battery technology is not evolving at the pace required for us to achieve our ambition.” The project is currently the world’s best shot at achieving flight that doesn’t pollute the planet. It could put an end to emissions that are set to persist long after city grids are running on 100% clean energy and electric vehicles have become mainstream. And it will make eco-conscious travelers feel less guilty about contributing to global warming every time they step on a plane. The aviation industry added more than 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in 2019, according to BloombergNEF. While emissions are set to plummet this year because of Covid-19, that drop will be temporary. Unlike fossil fuels, which emit planet-warming carbon dioxide when they’re burned, hydrogen mostly produces water vapor. Today, most hydrogen is used in oil refining and chemical manufacturing, and it’s almost always made from natural gas or coal. But it can also be generated, at higher cost, by running an electric current through water. If that process is powered by renewable energy such as wind and solar, it’s possible to use the fuel without producing any CO₂. This is what Airbus plans to do. The company estimates that green hydrogen has the potential to halve the aviation industry’s emissions—a tantalizing prospect given that clean energy research group BloombergNEF projects that those emissions are set to double globally by 2050. Llewellyn’s team is studying three designs: a classic commercial aircraft, a turboprop plane, and a new model that blends the wing into the body of the jet. All of them will use hydrogen in modified gas turbines to propel the engines, and in fuel cells to create electrical power. The main issue is how to store the hydrogen. Because more of it is needed to power an aircraft than the blend of gasoline and kerosene used today, it can’t be stored inside the wings as fuel is now. That means hydrogen jet fuel will most likely have to go in the body of the plane. Or perhaps designers will need to allow for an elongated tail, so that hydrogen tanks can be stored in the area separating the cabin from the non-pressurized part of the aircraft. Airbus is also considering other solutions, including putting the gas in pods under the wing or in the cheeks underneath the aircraft, Llewellyn says. The blended-wing model would be the most ideal for storing hydrogen because there would be more cabin space, but its new design would also be the most difficult to get certified for flight. Because of that, Airbus will probably stick with a classic aircraft chassis, at least initially. The company plans to spend the next five years developing the concepts and flying flight demonstrators. In 2025 it will decide whether to push the button on spending billions to actually develop the jet. It would take two additional years to choose suppliers and manufacturing sites, meaning production would probably begin around 2028. If all goes well, the company says the first hydrogen aircraft could start flying passengers in 2035. “This project is prioritized extremely highly within Airbus,” says Llewellyn. I’m “very optimistic that we can achieve the schedule, given this mindset.” By 2035, Airbus hopes hydrogen-based fuel will be cheap enough to compete with fossil fuels, and enough airports will be able to support hydrogen planes to make it an attractive purchase for airlines. That’s why the company is making its ambitions known 15 years in advance, Llewellyn says. It’s still a big ask, especially with the industry crippled by the coronavirus pandemic. But things could change quickly in the coming years, with governments around the world pushing hydrogen as a way to cut carbon emissions. Major economies like those of Europe, China, and Japan plan to scale up low-carbon hydrogen production as a key strategy to achieving their net-zero goals. That could help bring down the cost of clean hydrogen enough to be competitive with the kind made with fossil fuels by 2030, according to BloombergNEF. Universal Hydrogen Co., a startup founded by former Airbus executive Paul Eremenko and advised by former Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders, is already working on a solution for the airport problem. The company developed capsules coated in Kevlar that can store and transport hydrogen before it’s used on aircrafts, meaning that airports won’t have to invest in costly infrastructure such as pipelines and hydrogen-storage facilities. Eremenko says Universal Hydrogen has had discussions with Airbus, its U.S. rival Boeing Co. and China’s state-owned Comac about using its technology. Airbus is looking to use liquid hydrogen, which will take up less space than gas, though that brings an additional set of challenges. The technology to make liquified hydrogen has hardly changed for 50 years, says Jacob Leachman, founder of the Hydrogen Properties for Energy Research Laboratory at Washington State University. The current process of liquefying the gas for transport consumes about a third of the energy that would be generated when the hydrogen itself is burned. But increased demand for liquid hydrogen could lead large manufacturers to invest in better technology that cuts the amount of energy used in the process—making it more economical to produce. The stakes are high if Airbus’s hydrogen gamble should fail. Right now, it has the lead over Boeing, which is about to bring its beleaguered Max aircraft back to the air. But a major misstep on an unproven technology could set Airbus back, especially since Boeing plans to develop a new conventional aircraft before it starts working on a zero-emission model. “I think even Airbus would say its timeline is quite ambitious,” says Robert Thomson, an analyst at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants Ltd. “There's a lot of technology development work to be done.” Aircraft programs usually take at least five or six years to develop once the technology is proven, meaning Airbus has just seven or eight years to bring an entire ecosystem of hydrogen producers, manufacturers, and airports along with it. And if it doesn’t find a way to lower costs along every step of the process, it will all be for naught. “There’s no point creating something that’s technically feasible—which then ultimately, nobody can afford to fly in,” says Llewellyn. “We won't reduce the climate impact of flying unless we create something that’s economically viable. https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/nation/airbus-bets-on-hydrogen-to-deliver-zero-emission-jets/article_6a301f58-bbb1-5527-8c54-92d282fae53c.html Space startup Aevum debuts world's first fully autonomous orbital rocket launching drone VIDEO Launching things to space doesn't have to mean firing a large rocket vertically using massive amounts of rocket-fuel-powered thrust -- startup Aevum breaks the mould in multiple ways, with an innovative launch vehicle design that combines uncrewed aircraft with horizontal take-off and landing capabilities, with a secondary stage that deploys at high altitude and can take small payloads the rest of the way to space. Aevum's model actually isn't breaking much new ground in terms of its foundational technology, according to founder and CEO Jay Skylus, with whom I spoke prior to today's official unveiling of the startup's Ravn X launch vehicle. Skylus, who previously worked for a range of space industry household names and startups, including NASA, Boeing, Moon Express and Firefly, told me the startup has focused primarily on making the most of existing available technologies to create a mostly reusable, fully automated small payload orbital delivery system. To his point, Ravn X doesn't look too dissimilar from existing jet aircraft, and bears obvious resemblance to the Predator line of UAVs already in use for terrestrial uncrewed flight. The vehicle is 80 feet long, and has a 60-foot wingspan, with a total max weight of 55,000 lbs including payload. Seventy percent of the system is fully reusable today, and Skylus says the goal is to iterate on that to the point where 95% of the launch system will be reusable in the relatively near future. Ravn X's delivery system is designed for rapid response delivery, and is able to get small satellites to orbit in as little as 180 minutes -- with the capability of having it ready to fly and deliver another again fairly shortly after that. It uses traditional jet fuel, the same kind used on commercial airliners, and it can take off and land in "virtually any weather," according to Skylus. It also takes off and lands on any one-mile stretch of traditional aircraft runway, meaning it can theoretically use just about any active airport in the world as a launch and landing site. One of they key defining differences of Aevum relative to other space launch startups is that what they're presenting isn't theoretical, or in development -- the Ravn X already has paying customers, including over $1 billion in U.S. government contracts. Its first mission is with the U.S. Space Force, the ASLON-45 small satellite launch mission (set for late 2021), and it also has a contract for 20 missions spanning nine years with the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. Deliveries of Aevum's production launch vehicles to its customers have already begun, in fact, Skylus says. The U.S. Department of Defense has for quite some time now been actively pursuing space launch options that provide it with responsive, short turnaround launch capabilities. That's the same goal of companies like Astra, which was originally looking to win the DARPA challenge for such systems (since expired) with its Rocket small launcher. Aevum's system has the added advantage of being essentially fully compatible with existing airfield infrastructure -- and also of not requiring that human pilots be involved or at risk at all, as they are with the superficially similar launch model espoused by Virgin Orbit. Astra targets December for next orbital launch attempt Aevum isn't just providing the Ravn X launcher, either; its goal is to handle end-to-end logistics for launch services, including payload transportation and integration, which are parts of the process that Skylus says are often overlooked or underserved by existing launch providers, and that many companies creating payloads also don't realize are costly, complicated and time-consuming parts of actually delivering a working small satellite to orbit. The startup also isn't "re-inventing the wheel" when it comes to its integration services -- Skylus says they're working with a range of existing partners that all already have proven experience doing this work but haven't previously had the motivation or the need to provide these kinds of services to the customers that Skylum sees coming online, both in the public and private sector. The need isn't for another SpaceX, Skylus says; rather, thanks to SpaceX, there's a wealth of aerospace companies that previously worked almost exclusively with large government contracts and the one or two massive legacy rocket companies to put missions together. They're now open to working with the greatly expanded market for orbital payloads, including small satellites that aim to provide cost-effective solutions in communications, environmental monitor, shipping and defense. Aevum's solution definitely sounds like it addresses a clear and present need, in a way that offers benefits in terms of risk profile, reusability, cost and flexibility. The company's first active missions will obviously be watched closely, by potential customers and competitors alike. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/space-startup-aevum-debuts-worlds-170036117.html Curt Lewis