Hide/Show Archive Navigation.

All News

July 12, 2022

Airborne 07.11.22: RV-15 Flies!, P-36 Replica 1st Flt, Military On Highways

Also: CAPSTONE Spacecraft, ALPA On The Warpath, SAS Strike, Tora! Tora! Tora!

Van's Aircraft is now flying the engineering protype of the RV-15, their first high-wing bird, announced at Oshkosh last year. Van's JUST published a very short video of a test flight on YouTube and set the sport aviation community on fire. The video shows N7357, conducting a pretty short takeoff followed by nearly a minute of inflight beauty shots. ScaleBirds’ Sam Watrous, has confirmed that their P-36 replica has now flown a number of times and outside of the usual teething pains, the P-36 looks to have a bright future. Overall controllability appears promising and the ground handling also appears to be on target. Instrumentation was a little off, so performance numbers

More Videos

NTSB Prelim: Cessna 336

Observed The Airplane Descending In A Wings Level, Approximate 45° Or Steeper, Nose Down Attitude

On June 18, 2022, about 1454 Pacific daylight time, a Cessna 336, N3835U, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Porterville, California. The pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. Recorded Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) data, depicted in figure 1, showed the airplane in a left climbing turn shortly after takeoff from runway 30 at Porterville Municipal Airport (PTV). The airplane climbed to about 825 ft msl on a southeasterly heading. About 1 minute 7 seconds later, the airplane initiated a right turn to a southerly heading.

Of High Stakes and Low Bars

In a move evocative of a last ditch bluff, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun (pictured below) has declared he’ll scrap the 737 MAX 10 program if Congress doesn't extend a regulatory deadline that would allow the model to enter service without upgrades to aspects of its crew-alerting system. Carried out, Calhoun’s threat would do away with the largest member of the MAX family—for which Boeing has, to date, logged 640 firm orders—and curtail job growth at Boeing’s Renton, Washington plant, where the entirety of the world’s fleet of over eleven-thousand 737s has been built.

Cape Town Incident Evinces Unrest

In an incident that underscores the duality of human aspiration and endeavor, a student pilot and his instructor—after suffering engine failure and safely landing their light, single-engine airplane in a field near Cape Town, South Africa—were set upon by a crowd that robbed the pair and looted their aircraft. Cape Town city spokesperson Eckhardt Winks stated that the light aircraft—the wreckage of which resembles a Piper Cherokee variant—belongs to a local flight-school, and went down after experiencing engine trouble during a 28 June instructional flight.

Inside, Outside, and Upside-Down

For almost forty-years, the AeroShell Aerobatic Team has been thrilling crowds with aerial feats that leave even inveterate aviators wondering what sort of Faustian devilry it takes to impel a quartet of 2.8-ton, AT-6 Texans to snap and leap and pirouette like stunt-kites. Throughout 2022, the team will perform its superbly-choreographed, deftly-executed routine of close-formation, classic aerobatics at no fewer than 23-air-shows—including major engagements at Sun ‘n Fun, AirVenture, and the Rose City Airfest. By dint of its members’ skill, tenacity, and graciousness, the Aer

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight … — Dylan Thomas

Uncertainty is among war’s lesser acknowledged horrors. To look upon a sunset and wonder if a loved one fighting abroad has survived the day is a burden beyond bearing, yet families have borne it—in some instances, for decades. Comes now the end of 78-years of uncertainty for the family of Technical Sergeant William F. Teaff of Steubenville, Ohio, who died at the age of 26 after being sent to a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp in the hellish, penultimate year of the second world-war.

NASA Rebukes Russian Cosmonauts for ISS Presumed Political Statement

Flags of Our Comrades

The regrettable state of worsening enmity between the United States and Russia made an unexpected leap space-ward when three Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station photographed themselves posing with flags NASA construed to be anti-Ukraine propaganda. The photos were subsequently posted to the Telegram channel of Roscosmos, the Russian Federation‘s state corporation responsible for space-flights, cosmonaut programs, and aerospace research.

Proven UAV Serves Thor and Freyja

Schiebel Corporation—the Austrian manufacturer of helicopter unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and mine detectors—is helping keep Iceland’s territorial waters safe from pirates, smugglers, poachers, and every other iteration of maritime baddie. The Vienna-based company’s Camcopter S-100 is supporting the Icelandic Coast Guard operations through a contract with the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

Right Questions: Wrong ANSWERS

Extending from thirty to some six-hundred miles above the planet’s surface, the ionosphere—as the appellation suggests—is that part of the Earth’s atmosphere that’s ionized. Readers who failed, never took, or have forgotten high school chemistry (or physics) are reminded that ionization is the process by which atoms acquire negative or positive charges by gaining or losing electrons. The ionosphere—which is ionized by solar radiation—has practical importance insomuch as it influences the transmission of electromagnetic waves—such as radio, and television signals.

AD 2022-14-11 Requires Inspecting The Left-Hand (LH) And Right-Hand (RH) Outer Wing Spars

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Stemme AG (type certificate previously held by Stemme GmbH & Co. KG) Model Stemme S 12 gliders. This AD was prompted by mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) issued by the aviation authority of another country to identify and correct an unsafe condition on an aviation product. The MCAI identifies the unsafe condition as a deviation in the construction of the connection of the inner wing to the outer wing, resulting in a wrong positioning of the glass-fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) blocks. This AD requires inspecting the left-hand (LH) and right-hand (RH) outer wing spars f

Aero Linx: Helicopter Association of Canada (HAC) To promote a political and regulatory environment that will foster a prosperous Canadian Helicopter industry; To educate members, civil servants, and the general public about issues important to the industry; To promote the continued enhancement of flight safety; To develop expanded utilization of helicopter transport at all levels of Canadian life; and; To exchange maintenance practices and common issues among members...

"This is a risk I'm willing to take... If I lose the fight, I lose the fight.” Source: Yup... that's Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, who has declared he’ll scrap the 737 MAX 10 program if Congress doesn't extend a regulatory deadline that would allow the model to enter service without upgrades to aspects of its crew-alerting system.

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (07.12.22): National Flight Data Center (NFDC)

National Flight Data Center (NFDC)

A facility in Washington D.C., established by FAA to operate a central aeronautical information service for the collection, validation, and dissemination of aeronautical data in support of the activities of government, industry, and the aviation community. The information is published in the National Flight Data Digest.