Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Air Mekong Launching Service in Vietnam with SkyWest CRJ 900s
Air Transport and Cargo, Regional Airlines Vietnam’s Air Mekong, 30-percent owned by U.S. regional airline SkyWest, plans to launch domestic services on October 9 using four 86-seat Bombardier CRJ900s subleased from the St. George, Utah-based regional. The new airline, aided with a $7 million investment by SkyWest and staffed with several pilots recruited from SkyWest subsidiary Atlantic Southeast Airlines, will fly to eight destinations, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Phu Quoc, according to SkyWest vice president of finance and treasurer Mike Kraupp. Early next month it plans to add to two more destinations to a schedule expected to cover between 28 and 30 flights a day.
Apart from SkyWest’s stake, the capital base of privately held Air Mekong consists of investments from Vietnamese businesses and individuals, said Kraupp.
SkyWest has sought opportunities outside the U.S. ever since it invested $5 million in Brazil’s Trip Airlines in 2008. Six months later it invested another $15 million, and during the first quarter of this year it invested another $10 million in the airline, bringing its total ownership stake to 20 percent–the most it is permitted to own under Brazilian law. Trip Airlines flies ATR turboprops and Embraer E175 jets.
Sixth Boeing 787 Takes Flight, Company Reports ‘Good Progress’ with Test Program
By: Gregory PolekOctober 5, 2010
Aerospace Industry, Air Transport and Cargo The sixth and final Boeing 787 to join the flight test fleet flew for the first time yesterday from Paine Field in Everett, Wash. The airplane, ZA006, landed at Seattle’s Boeing Field as planned, but two hours earlier than expected. A Boeing spokesperson said a maintenance message during the flight forced Captains Christine Walsh and Bill Roberson to cut short the mission “as a precautionary measure.” ZA006, the second 787 equipped with General Electric GEnx engines to fly, took off from Paine Field at 11:41 a.m. local time and landed at Boeing Field one hour and four minutes later. “It's great to have our last flight-test airplane join the fleet,” said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program. “We have been focused on completing the testing required for certification of the 787 with Rolls-Royce engines, because that is the first model we deliver. A great deal of the testing that we’ve done also applies to the 787s with GE engines and won’t need to be repeated.” Boeing noted, however, that a smaller portion of testing unique to the engine/airframe combination includes noise trials, extreme weather operations, function and reliability and extended operations. Furthermore, the 787 team must verify uniformity of airplane handling and systems function regardless of engine type. Boeing said it plans to conduct some further flight tests with one of the production airplanes, the ninth 787 built, but that it does not consider that airplane a full-time member of the flight-test fleet. Boeing reports that the Dreamliner team has completed a number of flight-test milestones in recent weeks, including a series of natural and artificial icing tests. The trials indicated no need for changes, it added, and pilots reported that the airplane handled well despite the presence of ice. The company has also finished flight loads survey testing, which demonstrates the pressure distribution on the airplane structure throughout the phases of flight in a variety of configurations. The team conducted that testing on ZA004, primarily at the airport at Victorville, Calif. Analysis of this testing continues. Boeing completed a series of tests that stress the airplane’s brakes, called maximum brake energy testing, in late September at Edwards Air Force Base. It used ZA001 to conduct that testing, as well as a series takeoffs and landings under extreme conditions, including minimum takeoff speed testing. Earlier in the month, ZA001 completed wet runway testing at Roswell, N.M. The third Dreamliner, ZA003, flew to Glasgow, Mont., to complete community noise testing. All results fell within expectations. Boeing reports that it has completed all takeoff performance and handling characteristics testing for the Rolls-Royce-powered 787. It will need to perform some further testing with the two 787s equipped with GE engines. The 787 flight-test program has logged more than 1,900 hours over 620 flights and completed more than 65 percent of the flight-test conditions for 787s with Rolls-Royce engines. Boeing has also completed “well over” 4,000 hours of ground testing on the same airplanes involved in the flight-test program. Meanwhile, fatigue testing has started at a test rig in Everett, where Boeing has simulated 15 flights. Federal regulations require the company to conduct twice as many flight cycles as any airplane in revenue service. Boeing plans to have completed 10,000 flight cycles before first delivery. Back
Aerospace Industry, Air Transport and Cargo The sixth and final Boeing 787 to join the flight test fleet flew for the first time yesterday from Paine Field in Everett, Wash. The airplane, ZA006, landed at Seattle’s Boeing Field as planned, but two hours earlier than expected. A Boeing spokesperson said a maintenance message during the flight forced Captains Christine Walsh and Bill Roberson to cut short the mission “as a precautionary measure.” ZA006, the second 787 equipped with General Electric GEnx engines to fly, took off from Paine Field at 11:41 a.m. local time and landed at Boeing Field one hour and four minutes later. “It's great to have our last flight-test airplane join the fleet,” said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program. “We have been focused on completing the testing required for certification of the 787 with Rolls-Royce engines, because that is the first model we deliver. A great deal of the testing that we’ve done also applies to the 787s with GE engines and won’t need to be repeated.” Boeing noted, however, that a smaller portion of testing unique to the engine/airframe combination includes noise trials, extreme weather operations, function and reliability and extended operations. Furthermore, the 787 team must verify uniformity of airplane handling and systems function regardless of engine type. Boeing said it plans to conduct some further flight tests with one of the production airplanes, the ninth 787 built, but that it does not consider that airplane a full-time member of the flight-test fleet. Boeing reports that the Dreamliner team has completed a number of flight-test milestones in recent weeks, including a series of natural and artificial icing tests. The trials indicated no need for changes, it added, and pilots reported that the airplane handled well despite the presence of ice. The company has also finished flight loads survey testing, which demonstrates the pressure distribution on the airplane structure throughout the phases of flight in a variety of configurations. The team conducted that testing on ZA004, primarily at the airport at Victorville, Calif. Analysis of this testing continues. Boeing completed a series of tests that stress the airplane’s brakes, called maximum brake energy testing, in late September at Edwards Air Force Base. It used ZA001 to conduct that testing, as well as a series takeoffs and landings under extreme conditions, including minimum takeoff speed testing. Earlier in the month, ZA001 completed wet runway testing at Roswell, N.M. The third Dreamliner, ZA003, flew to Glasgow, Mont., to complete community noise testing. All results fell within expectations. Boeing reports that it has completed all takeoff performance and handling characteristics testing for the Rolls-Royce-powered 787. It will need to perform some further testing with the two 787s equipped with GE engines. The 787 flight-test program has logged more than 1,900 hours over 620 flights and completed more than 65 percent of the flight-test conditions for 787s with Rolls-Royce engines. Boeing has also completed “well over” 4,000 hours of ground testing on the same airplanes involved in the flight-test program. Meanwhile, fatigue testing has started at a test rig in Everett, where Boeing has simulated 15 flights. Federal regulations require the company to conduct twice as many flight cycles as any airplane in revenue service. Boeing plans to have completed 10,000 flight cycles before first delivery. Back
Pratt & Whitney Canada Launches Global Flight Test Operations Facility
Aerospace Industry, Air Transport and Cargo Engines, Business Aviation Engines Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) joined Canadian and Quebec government officials in inaugurating the company’s global flight test operations center yesterday at Montreal-Mirabel International Airport. The ceremony marked the launch of the first phase of Pratt & Whitney Canada’s Mirabel Aerospace Center at Montreal-Mirabel International Airport, where the company plans to conduct flight testing of its complete range of engines, including turboprops and turbofans rated at up to 90,000 pounds of thrust. The center houses two Boeing 747SPs converted to flying test beds designed to simulate a complete range of flight conditions and collect record amounts of engine data.
The second phase of the project, already under way and scheduled for completion next spring, involves construction of facilities dedicated to assembly and testing of Pratt & Whitney’s PurePower PW1524G for the Bombardier C Series and the PW800 engine family for the next generation of large business jets.
A 300,000-sq-ft facility, the Mirabel Aerospace Center represents a $360 million investment. P&WC plans to employ some 300 people at the center by 2015.
Consistent with P&WC’s stated commitment to sustainable development, P&WC has equipped the Mirabel Aerospace Center with a wall to absorb and store solar energy as well as an energy-efficient lighting system that maximizes the use of natural light.
ADS-B Gets Green Light, GPS Backup Less Clear
Government, ATC, Avionics Following successful ADS-B deployment at key sites in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, Louisville and Philadelphia, the FAA recently gave the go ahead for the system’s national rollout, with coast-to-coast U.S. coverage forecast in 2013. The agency’s announcement also stated that wide-area multilateration (Wam) “will serve as a backup to ADS-B in the event of a GPS outage in high-value airspace.
The FAA did not define high-value airspace , but it possibly includes that surrounding the nation’s 35 Operational Evolution Plan airports. Puzzlingly, however, the FAA has an expert panel currently examining GPS backups, with its recommendations still to be made, while the agency’s final ADS-B rule in May downplayed Wam as a backup candidate.
Possibly, this is a pre-emptive FAA strike, following continuing concerns of the Government Accountability Office in September that the Department of Defense cannot be certain that the GPS constellation will always provide adequate civil coverage before 2018. The expert panel’s recommended solutions might also not be widely available commercially to counter any early GPS outages.
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