Also: Virgin Orbit Scores, B-29 Doc Adds Milwaukee, Mackay Trophy, Special Mission Longitude
Elektra Solar has successfully test-flown the Elektra Trainer, the company’s two-seat, electric, ultralight aircraft. With test-pilot Uwe Nortmann at the controls, the Elektra Trainer prototype departed Memmingen International Airport in southern Germany on 29 June. The aircraft rose, silently and sans-emissions, after an impressively brief, one-hundred-meter takeoff roll, and climbed at a brisk, eight-meters per second and remained aloft for twenty minutes. At altitude, the Elektra Trainer operated in a low-cruise mode that drew only about ten-kilowatts of power. Top Gun: Maverick—the sequel to the 1986 blockbuster that established Tom Cruise as an i
Another FrancoAmerican Treat
Daher—the French industrial conglomerate with focuses in the aerospace, defense, nuclear, and automotive sectors and parent company of both SOCATA and Quest Aircraft—has begun customer deliveries of its TBM-960 aircraft. Daher unveiled the 960–the latest, high-end version of its pressurized, single-engine turboprop aircraft—at Sun ‘n Fun 2022 in Lakeland, Florida. The aircraft is motivated by Pratt & Whitney Canada’s PT6E-66XT powerplant and Hartzell five-blade Raptor composite propeller, both of which are linked to a dual-channel, single-lever, digital Engine and Propeller Electronic Control System (EPECS).
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A Spy By Any Other Name
Nomenclature is a curious, often misleading business. A zephyr, for example, is a light, west-wind named for Zephyrus, the Greek god and personification of the west-wind. Zephyrus was held by his adherents to be the bringer of spring and early-summer breezes. Airbus, conversely, has applied the Zephyr moniker to its series of lightweight, solar-powered unmanned aerial-vehicles.
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When The Airplane Joined An Approximate 6-Mile Final, It Was Aligned With Runway 28L
On June 21, 2022, at 0944 eastern daylight time (EDT), United Airlines Flight 2627, a Boeing 737-9 Max, N37513, was cleared for a visual approach and landing on runway 28C at the Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but instead lined up with and landed on runway 28L. None of the 174 occupants aboard the airplane were injured and the aircraft was not damaged. The regularly scheduled passenger flight was operating under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulation Part 121 from the Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, Illinois to PIT.
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