Aviation

Cannon Creek Airpark

2010-05-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

How about living in an airport? Roads are taxiways as well. You have hangars instead of garages. Amazing!:)

Watch this video about Cannon Creek Airpark in Lake City, Florida.

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Fire-x

2010-05-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

Northrop Grummman and Bell Helicopters are developing a new UAV. It is the Bell 407, but unmanned. It is expected to do the first flight in 2010. Check it out:

News release at Northrop

Fedex and UPS single pilot operations

2010-04-23T03:57:00.000-07:00

I found this on various blogs and in some us military newsletters:

"Chealander, member of the NTSB ( National transportation Safety Board ), 2007-2009, is a retired American Airlines captain. He gave a safety presentation at recurrent training about two years ago. He opened the floor for questions; and one guy asked facetiously when we are going to one-pilot cockpits. Chealander said that is not funny. He said FedEx and UPS are now (two years ago) working on the procedures for one-pilot long-haul over-water operations. The pilot would be at the controls for take off and landing, then go the bunk for cruise while the guy back in Memphis would take over for the cruise. One- pilot passenger flights will take a bit longer to get approved. 12 years ago I was Director of Operations for the Alaska Air Guard. I went to a high-level conference, and this three-star gave a presentation that said the exact same thing the major said. The only limitation on fighter aircraft now is the pilot. We have the technology to do everything from the ground; and it will be a huge cost savings. No search and rescue, no life-support systems, no backlash when we lose a plane.
So this article is right on the money."

"I attended a flight safety presentation last evening from a retired USAF Major ( test pilot ) from Edwards AFB, Bill Koukourikas---now serving there as a civilian. During the course of his presentation, his statement: No future attack military aircraft within the next 15 years will have pilots in the cockpit. The last tactical aircraft with a pilot in the cockpit will be the F-35. He also indicated that within the next 10 or so years all UPS and FedEx cargo flights will be with pilot-less aircraft. This prediction coming from their test shop at Edwards.

All drone testing, development etc. is taking place just south of Edwards in the Palmdale area. Sounds like a continuation of the Skunk Works developments of Lockheed, which previously took place in that area."

I couldn't find anything more about this in the web. If you know anything please share. I am very curious about this matter.

Thanks

X-37B

2010-04-23T03:26:00.000-07:00

X-37B is the new unmanned NASA space vehicle. It was lunched yesterday, 22 April 2010, for the first time. Little is known about it, but probably is the future vehicle used by NASA in space missions. Lets see how it goes

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Volcanic ash 2

2010-04-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are interested, I found a document published by the Flight Safety Foundation which is very complete about volcanic ash.

Check it here

Volcanic ash

2010-04-16T11:19:00.000-07:00

Nasa

As you all know, due to the Icelandic "EYJAFJALLAJOKULL" volcano many flights in Europe are cancelled.

Volcanic ash represents a real danger in aviation today. They can cause the shut down of the engines, malfunction of the instruments(due to sensors blocking), cover the cockpit windows making it impossible to see anything, among other things...

There were some incidents in aviation history caused by volcanic ash, being "Speedbird 9" flight in Indonesia the most famous of them all. During that flight, all 4 engines of a BA B747 were shut down. Fortunately they were able to restart the engines and land safely at Jakarta airport. After the accident all 4 damages had to be replaced due to the damage caused by the volcanic ash. It's quite amazing how the engines restarted and kept working with that kind of damage. The next videos show how the incident developed. Enjoy!

Innopedia Website

2010-04-14T03:34:00.000-07:00

Innopedia is a great website. It is aimed for new ideas in Aeronautics and Air Transport, you can find there ideas as commercial formation flying(fuel saving); ultrasound projector for bird strikes; nuclear engines; invisible aircraft; modular, morphing and reconfigurable aircrafts; and many more.

You can register and comment, introduce or help developing new ideas. Your member status as to be approved by the Site Manager. It belongs to CREATE project from European Commission and it was made to help designing the future of Aviation.

The Poor Copilot

2010-04-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

Do you want to be a co-pilot? Yes! So listen to this Oscar Brand song that describes the duties of any honorable copilot:)

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SMA - Shaped Memory Alloys

2010-04-02T07:08:00.000-07:00

SMA are the materials of the future. Know since 1930s, only now we are starting to being able to use it with success. They are materials that change form, due to the application of a determined temperature, electricity or magnetic power. They will allow to save weight, energy and to allow us new ways of flying. The way we are going to fly, will be similar to a birds flight.

Bellow I posted a Dassault Aviation study and a Boeing test using SMA's.

I also posted some youtube videos.

Enjoy!

Dassaul Trailing Edge Control

Boeing's Variable Geometry Chevron

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FESTO

2010-03-28T07:38:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard about FESTO? If you didn't, you should google it! They are developing strange flying machines(Airray, AirJelly, AirPinguin), that communicate with each other, have free will to fly wherever they want and that someday will be on our skies. Patrolling or doing other kind of works. Check the videos and dream with future:

Single Pilot Commercial Operations

2010-03-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

Today I found a nice study in the web, about "Single Pilot Commercial Operation" that I would like to share with you.

It's from 2005 and I couldn't find anything more about that subject. So if you find something please share, as I am very interested. (Want to know for how long I can keep my job;))

It's says that this kind of flight may be achieved using voice recognition technologies. In a way the the Pilot Flying would be the human and the Pilot Not Flying would be the machine. So you are flying, and ask for flaps, gear, etc and the machine obey. The computer will monitor your actions and advise you when needed. Using datalink you can order to acknowledge, cancel, wilco the messages. The computer will also do the checklists. Will the passengers like it? I know cargo will not complaint...:)

I can see this being possible. But when? Let's wait and see...

The study