World’s First All-Electric, 100-Passenger Regional Jet

Wright Electric, Inc. announced the newest addition to their zero-emission portfolio, in conjunction with the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland. The Wright Spirit is a 100-passenger, one-hour flight regional jet with megawatt-class propulsion. Using the short-haul BAe 146 platform as a starting point, the 4-engine jet sports a famously quiet operational signature and robust, simple construction. Wright chose it for its relative quietness (though mostly a product of its stock turbine engines) , as it dovetails nicely into their plans for a 100% reduction in all emissions starting in 2026. CEO Jeff Engler says there’s hardly a better company in the market to build thi

“The Brake System Should Have Been Designed To Protect Against Human Error During Maintenance..."

A passenger turboprop airplane overran a runway because its braking system was compromised by incorrectly wired anti-skid sensors, the National Transportation Safety Board determined. On Oct. 17, 2019, PenAir flight 3296, a Saab SA-2000, overran the runway during a landing attempt in Unalaska, Alaska. The airplane crashed through the perimeter fence, crossed a road, and came to rest on shoreline rocks on the edge of Dutch Harbor. One passenger was killed; another was seriously injured; and eight sustained minor injuries, mostly during the evacuation. The flight crew, the flight attendant, and the other 29 passengers were uninjured.

EuroControl Trial Aimed at Contrail Prevention Shows Some Results

As part of a pilot project to reduce non-CO2 emissions, EuroControl’s Maastrict Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) has worked with German Aerospace Center (DLR) to conduct a live operational trial aimed contrail prevention. Seeing that much of aviation’s impact on climate change is believed to be from emissions other than carbon dioxide, a system of monitoring and routing aircraft to minimize passage through ice-super-saturated areas was used on 209 of their trajectories.