View from above from the tail of the Perlan 2. Photo: Airbus.
This stunning picture shows the view from the Airbus Perlan Mission II as it set its third world record in a week, this time reaching a height of 76,124 ft to surpass the highest altitude recorded for the U-2 spy plane.
The new pressure altitude record puts the Perlan 2 glider well on the way to reaching its goal of 90,000ft and is a significant increase on the 65,600 ft level reached on August 28.
The September 2 flight over Argentina’s El Calafate mountains by pilots Jim Payne and Tim Gardner surpasses the maximum recorded altitude in level flight of the U.S. Air Force’s famous U-2 Dragon Lady reconnaissance aircraft.
It is now less than 10,000 ft away from the overall record for level flight of manned aircraft: 85,069ft held by the SR-71 Blackbird.
The Perlan 2. Photo: AIrbus.
The Perlan 2 is engineless, weighs just 1,500 pounds, and soars to its record altitudes on massive “mountain waves”, rare air currents reaching the stratosphere and formed at certain times of the year by mountain winds combining with the Polar Vortex.
Flights this year for the first time used a special high-altitude tow plane, a Grob Egrett G520 reconnaissance aircraft, which released at the glider at 42,000 ft — roughly equivalent to the service ceiling of an Airbus A380.
Favorable conditions saw the Payne and Morgan Sandercock soar to more than 63,100 feet, besting the record of 54,000 feet set by Airbus Perlan Mission II on Sept. 3, 2017.
That record fell on April 28 as Payne Miguel Iturmendi reached the pressure altitude of 65,600 ft.
“World records are gratifying evidence of progress toward a goal, but the goal itself is advancing our knowledge and expertise,” said Airbus chief executive Tom Enders.
“By exploring an underexplored part of the atmosphere, Perlan is teaching us about efficient high-altitude flight, about detecting natural sources of lift and avoiding turbulence, and even about the viability of wing-borne exploration of Mars.
“As a company that makes not just airliners but also high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles such as Zephyr as well as the Mars rover robotic vehicle, every Perlan flight is an investment in our future.”
The mission will continue flying until mid-September and viewers can follow the flights live on the Airbus Perlan Mission II Virtual Cockpit: http://bit.ly/VirtualPerlan2.
The Virtual Cockpit shows the glider’s altitude, airspeed, remaining oxygen, map position, and even live streaming video from a camera in the tail when the aircraft is in range.
Europe’s Lufthansa is testing a subscription check-in app that gives passengers lounge discounts and free wi-fi on 36 airlines.
The AirlineCheckins app developed by Lufthansa Innovation Hub comes in three versions and is designed to automatically check-in travelers on more than 220 airlines worldwide.
Registration includes filling out a profile with information such as seating preferences, frequent flyer program, travel companions and identification documents.
The app stores the information and works across airlines offering online check-in.
Passengers send an email on a proprietary system when they make a booking and AirlineCheckins automatically checks them in as soon as the airline allows it.
It can secure a favorite seat, supports up to 10 companion travelers and sends a boarding pass via email or text message.
Having attracted more than 40,000 registrations after the app’s launch in June 2018, the German carrier is now expanding it to offer more services.
It comes in three versions, including a free version that gives passengers two check-ins per month.
There is also a BASIC version that costs €4.99 for three months and offers unlimited automatic check-ins as well as real-time flight information such as delays and gate changes.
The latest innovation is AirlineCheckins PLUS, which offers the BASIC benefits but also gives users unlimited wi-fi access on 36 airlines including Air France, Eurowings, KLM, Lufthansa, SWISS and American Airlines. It also offers access to 42 million wi-fi hotspots worldwide with no limits on data volume or speed.
A partnership with global internet company iPass means they will be able to use credentials supplied as part of their package to log-in on participating airlines without paying further inflight internet charges.
They also get up to 20 percent discount on more than 370 lounges at many of the world’s busiest airports. this can be used regardless of membership or frequent flyer status.
The PLUS package costs €29.99 ($US34.80) for three months during the initial phase and availability will be limited to 2222 users.
Lufthansa says the decision to continue the packages beyond the test phase will depend on user feedback.
“The check-in was an obvious gateway for us to reach frequent business travelers,” Lufthansa Innovation Hub venture development manager Kristian Weymar said.
“Now that we have solved this problem, we are now systematically expanding our product range along the travel chain,’’
“At first, the focus will be on the more efficient use of travel time, which includes unlimited connectivity in the air and status-independent access to airport lounges.’’
The app is available for both Apple and Android devices.
United Airlines is adding to the wave of 2019 summer US-Europe flight announcements with new year-round daily services between San Francisco and Amsterdam as well as seasonal operations to Prague and Naples from New York Newark.
United joins its fellow “big three”carrier in announcing new summer routes as tickets go on sale and, like its competitors, it is capitalizing on higher summer demand by adding services that only operate when people travel.
United will be the only US carrier to offer non-stop flights from San Francisco and Amsterdam and the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner service will be its fifth to the Netherlands. It joins daily, year-round flights to the popular Dutch city from Chicago, Houston, New York/Newark and Washington Dulles.
It will also by the only US carrier offering daily non-stop services between the US and Naples between May 22 and October 4 in what will be its sixth non-stop service to Italy. The flight is timed to connect customers to more than 60 destinations across the US.
The daily non-stop to Prague, in the Czech Republic, begins June 6 and goes through to October 24, connecting to more than 65 US cities.
Both the Prague and Naples flights will be operated by Boeing 767s.
“We’ve built an unparalleled global network and we are continuously looking for opportunities to make United the first choice for travelers booking flights to Europe and beyond,’’ said United vice president international network Patrick Quayle.
Delta recently announced it would first nonstop flight from Tampa Bay, Florida, to Amsterdam to bring the number of services it flies between the US and Dutch city to 11. It is its second from Florida after the launch of Orlando-Amsterdam earlier this year.
The US carrier also said it would expand to daily flights services from Los Angeles to both Amsterdam and Paris Charles de Gaulle from June 16, 2019.
American is adding nine new European routes, including a daily year-round service from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Munich; daily summer seasonal services from Dallas/Fort Worth to Dublin and Munich; as well as a daily summer seasonal service from Chicago to Athens, Greece.
The US giant will add three new destinations with the introduction of summer seasonal Boeing 767 flights from Philadelphia to Berlin- Tegel Airport, Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport in Italy and Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia. There will also be a new summer seasonal service between Philadelphia and Edinburgh, Scotland.
A UTAir Boeing 737-800, operating Fly UT-579 on August 31st from Moscow to Sochi overran the runway and crashed into a riverbed at 2.57am local time.
The flight had 164 passengers and 6 crew on board and 18 were injured in the evacuation.
The aircraft’s left engine burst into flames and the 737 is damaged beyond repair according to Aviation Herald.
According to AV, the “aircraft was initially vectored for an approach to runway 02 by approach, however, runway assignment was changed to runway 06 due to the weather developing. The aircraft aborted the first approach to Sochi’s runway 06 descending through about 2300 feet due to changing winds (now reported from 200 degrees instead of 60 degrees), positioned for another approach to runway 06 and went around from about 400 feet MSL again due to changing winds, positioned for the third and last approach to runway 06 (winds reported at 2m/s (4 knots) from 060 degrees on tower frequency), which ended in the runway overrun about 30 minutes after the first aborted approach and about 11 minutes after the go around.”
Sochi Airport Emergency services put the fire out.
AV says that the Investigative Department of the Southern Transport Prosecution Office has opened an investigation.
Sadly the airport of Sochi reported one of their workers died asa result of a heart attack while rescue and recovery work was ongoing during the accident.
Expert independent investigators looking into the disappearance of MH370 say that the data logs in the final report are not complete and/or were modified.
According to highly respected website www.RadiantPhysics.com author Victor Iannello, fellow Independent Group members Don Thompson and Richard Godfrey “have found some anomalies in the message logs that were included in Factual Information (FI) released by Malaysia on March 8, 2014, and the Safety Investigation Report (SIR) released by Malaysia on July 30, 2018.”
The logs from these two reports document the communication between MAS Operations Dispatch Center (ODC) and service providers that route messages over SATCOM and VHF paths, as part of the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS).
“The anomalies suggest the traffic logs appearing in the reports are not complete, and what appears in the reports has been modified,” says Mr Iannello.
According to text in both the Factual Information (FI) released by Malaysia on March 8, 2015, and the Safety Investigation Report (SIR) released by Malaysia on July 30, 2018, an urgent message from MAS ODC was submitted at 18:03 and then re-transmitted multiple times.
However, the last message sent to the aircraft cockpit printer from MAS ODC has the wrong time. Either the explanatory text in the final report is wrong, or the traffic logs do not contain all the message traffic.
The facts surrounding the Aircraft Communications and Reporting System (ACARS) traffic log “are more suspicious, with, starting on Page 2 of the report, the filter parameters used to generate the remaining pages of the report were changed so that VHF messages if any occurred, were excluded.”
The change in filter parameters and the repeated messages are clear evidence that the traffic log in the SIR is actually two reports that were pieced together and presented as a single report.
And in the ACARS traffic log in the SIR the last line of the text message that was sent by MAS ODC at 18:03:23 appears to have been edited.
Mr. Iannello says “it is disappointing that more than four years after MH370’s disappearance, we are still asking Malaysia to release withheld data. The military radar data is another example of a data set that has never been released in full despite its significance in providing information about how the aircraft was flown after the diversion from the flight plan.”
“It is important that Malaysia provide a complete, unmodified log of all ACARS communications on SATCOM, VHF, and HF paths for the period between 12:48 and 20:00 on March 7, 2014. This is particularly significant in light of questions surrounding the delayed response of Malaysian authorities after MH370 went missing,” said Mr Iannello.
Long-haul low-cost operator AirAsia X is evaluating Airbus’ long-range version of the A321neo as it moves to target more destinations within a range of seven hours.
Powered by CFM International’s LAEP-1A engines, the A321neo LR, is due to enter service in the fourth quarter of 2018 and is designed to carry up to 240 passengers 4000 nautical miles.
AirAsia X Bhd confirmed Thursday it was evaluating “the potential introduction” of the 321neo LR for developing routes as it announced the group had moved into the red with a second-quarter net loss of RM57.5m, down from an RM47.4 net profit a year ago.
The group’s net operating loss deepened to $RM99.3 million from a loss of RM16 million in the equivalent quarter of 2017.
Revenue for the quarter rose 2 percent to RM1.05 billion as a 13 percent year-on-year boost in passengers outpaced a 6 percent increase in capacity to boost the load factor.
Officials blamed the fall in profitability on a range of factors including softer demand during Malaysia’s general election and the rise of fuel prices during a traditionally lean quarter.
AirAsia X co-group chief executive Tony Fernandes said passenger traffic was expected to grow in the coming months but warned costs remained under pressure from higher fuel prices.
“However, the management remains focused on monitoring the other operating expenses to ensure further cost efficiencies to offset higher fuel expenses,’’ he said.
Fernandes said AirAsia X had cut loss-making routes since the start of 2018 and had moved away from single-route countries in favor of big countries with major cities.
He said these represented a bigger potential for the group to build up flight frequencies and higher-yielding “unique” routes.
“We will focus on routes within seven hours range as much as possible with the exception of a few routes such as Honolulu,” he said.
“Apart from the North Asia market, we are thrilled to grow India as one of our core market segments as well.
“ In the last seven months, we have added Jaipur and Amritsar into our fast growing network. Together with Jeju which was launched in December 2017, we have now launched three new routes into countries where we already have existing operations.
“In addition to that, we have removed Iran and (we’re) removing Nepal from our network, as we shift those capacities into North Asia.
“In a rather challenging period for the aviation industry, we view this move will give more cost efficiency to AirAsia X as we already have existing stations in China, South Korea and Japan.”
The group plans to increase its fleet to 36 Airbus A330s by the end of the year with five leased aircraft allocated to its Malaysian operation and one to AirAsia X Thailand.
Fernandes said the recent order A330neos also reaffirmed the commitment and confidence in the AirAsia X business model.
The group announced an order for an additional 34 A330neos at this year’s Farnborough Airshow, bringing the total number ordered to 100.
All of the aircraft are the bigger A330-900 model and deliveries are scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of 2019.
“The Airbus A330neo will give better fuel efficiency with improved flying range,’’ Fernandes said. “We are confident that the aircraft will allow AirAsia X to expand its value-based long-haul model with even lower operating costs.”
It is spotless, delightfully quiet – just a sanctuary for the weary or not so weary traveler.
And if you are weary, a visit to the wellness spa is perfect.
The Vitality Wellbeing and Fitness Centre offers a selection of therapeutic massages, nail salon, and recreational spaces such as an indoor swimming pool, a hydrotherapy tub, gym, and squash courts.
The entrance fee of A$66 allows a passenger to access a range of facilities at the Vitality Spa that includes; 25m temperature-controlled indoor swimming pool; fully equipped gym; hydrotherapy tub and shower room.
And if you want to go further there are a variety of anti-jetlag massages, rejuvenating facials and body treatments available, starting from A$90. Also included in that cost is access to the Vitality Spa.
If you’re traveling in premium classes the Al Safwa First Lounge and the Al Mourjan Business Lounge and are the finest.
CNN’s Mr Nield says the Al Safwa First Lounge is “airport nirvana” and has the feeling of “hallowed ground.”
Indeed, perfectly described, for how else would you describe a lounge that offers fine dining with a four-course menu, private cinema, private bedrooms and a spa?
The problem is you get lost in time and forget you have to catch a flight.
And the Al Mourjan Business Lounge is adorned with exclusive marbles, designer furniture, and intricate embellishments.
Hand-crafted accents, high ceilings, and bronze walls, featuring traditional calligraphy, create an elegant Arabian ambiance.
For the peckish traveler, there are a variety of dining areas to suit your tastes. You can explore flavors from around the world on the spacious mezzanine floor, where you can choose between a continental or oriental brasserie, a global deli, and a patisserie.
To complement, there is an exemplary bar, serving some of the world’s finest beverages.
And delightfully unlike so many other lounges, this lounge is massive –being 10 times the size on an Olympic swimming pool.
If you want to stay connected, there are a range of business services, from conference rooms to business centers.
And customers looking for a quieter working space can use a private workstation, which comes equipped with personal display screens and complimentary Wi-Fi.
Qatar Airways and oneworld First Class and Business Class passengers can access this lounge at no additional cost, while Economy Class passengers throughout the network can purchase lounge access at the check-in counters, preferred travel agents, or Qatar Airways’ sales offices at a cost of A$170.
There is also a frequent flyer lounge, and Arrivals lounge and these can be accessed by Economy Class customers from A$75.
Another wonderful attention to detail is the Al Maha Services which offers a range of personalized meet-and-greet service to ensure a comfortable and speedy experience when arriving, departing or transferring through the airport.
And for those with a longer transit stop then the Oryx Airport Hotel is perfect. Located within the terminal it is there for in-transit guest. And it’s luxurious!
The airline bagmen are at it again with hefty luggage fee rises of up to 100 percent and new rules popping up on some airlines in North America and Europe.
JetBlue, WestJet and Air Canada have all raised baggage fees while Ryanair has reversed its stance on carrying wheelie bags for free.
Effective August 27, JetBlue raised the charge for the first bag by 20 percent from $US25 to $US30. The cost of taking a second bag also rose by $US5 to $US40 while for those taking a third the cost soared from $US100 to a whopping $US150.
The cost of overweight or oversized bags also jumped by 50 percent while fees for sports equipment such a bicycle rose 100 percent.
The increases make JetBlue luggage fees more expensive than Legacy carriers American, Delta and United — at least for now.
Westjet and Air Canada also raised the fees for first bag from $C25 to $C30. People who bring a second bag will particularly feel the pain with prices rising from $C35 to $C50.
Canadians get a little more grace with the new fees applying October 5 on flights across Canada and as well as to and from the US, the Caribbean and Mexico.
The North American airlines airlines say the rises are to help offset higher costs but over in Europe, Ryanair says it has backflipped on a policy to allow wheelie bags to be carried in the hold for free because it wants to avoid flight delays.
From November 1, it will charge customers who have not paid the priority surcharge €/£8 to check in a 10kg wheelie bag to reduce the volume of free second gate bags.
Priority boarding customers will still be able to bring their wheelie bag and another small bag into the cabin.
The airline had already changed the policy in January to stop “non priority” customers from boarding with wheelie bags as cabin baggage. Instead, it took the bigger cabin bags at the gate and carried them for free in the hold.
Under the new policy, non-priority customers will have to check-in their wheelie bags and fork out the €/£8 fee at the time of booking for the privilege.
“This new policy will speed up the boarding and cut flight delays,’’ said Ryanair chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs, who added 60 per cent of customers “will be unaffected by these changes” because they buy priority tickets or don’t have cabin baggage.
“We expect that the other 40 percent will either choose to buy priority boarding or a 10kg check bag or will choose to travel with only one (free) small bag as 30 percent already do so today.”
The bag fees are among a widening range of charges, fees and commissions — known in the game as ancillary revenues — that airlines are levying customers under the banner of “choice”.
The IdeaWorks Company estimated ancillary revenues grew more than 20 percent in 2017 to reach US82.2 billion.
This included $US57 billion from “a la carte” passenger charges beyond the cost of a ticket such as extra legroom, food, drink and luggage.
Australian air crash investigators have issued a safety warning about pre-flight inspections of pitot tubes after a Malaysia Airlines jet took off with covers still on the crucial airspeed devices despite multiple opportunities to detect them.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau Thursday called on airlines operating to Brisbane to ensure they had rigorous processes in place to ensure pitot tube covers are removed prior to flight.
The warning came as a preliminary report confirmed the covers remained on the Malaysian aircraft throughout its flight from Brisbane Airport on July 18 despite separate inspections by the captain and a Malaysia Airlines engineer.
The Airbus A330, 9M-MTK, heading to Kuala Lumpur declared a PAN alert and returned to the airport after the pilots reported the airspeed indicators had failed.
Pitot tubes measure static and kinetic air pressure in a moving aircraft to determine the indicated airspeed. They provide critical information to the air data computers and flight instruments.
They are considered critical to an aircraft’s safety and there have been several incidents and accidents related to pitot tube failures, including the crash of Air France Flight 447, also an A330, in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.
“This is a serious incident,’’ ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood said. “The CCTV footage shows that the three covers were in place on the aircraft as it pushed back from the terminal and as it accelerated down the runway.
“Now this limited the amount of critical information that’s available to flight crew during the take-off and in fact during the short flight, up to 10,000ft, and then the return to Brisbane Airport, where the aircraft landed safely.”
The covers, which have red streamers attached to them, were placed on the aircraft’s three pitot probes soon after the aircraft landed. The covers are needed in Brisbane to guard against wasps which build nests in the tubes.
However, the covers were not identified during inspections of the plane and they were not moved prior to take-off.
Photo: Brisbane Airport, modified by ATSB.
Investigators said both Malaysia Airlines personnel and ground handling workers were responsible for conducting pre-departure checks.
On the day of the incident, aircraft turnaround duties were shared between a Malaysian maintenance engineer, two non-certifying engineers from an engineering support provider and four ground handlers.
“The presence of the pitot covers was not detected by the operator’s maintenance engineer or captain during separate external aircraft inspections,” the report said.
“The operator’s maintenance engineer boarded the aircraft during turnaround, and the engineering support personnel left the bay to attend to other aircraft. The pitot covers were not detected by ground handlers during pushback.”
The first officer was flying the plane and the captain was monitoring. Under Malaysia Airline’s standard operating procedures, the pilot monitoring was required to announce when the airspeed reached 100 knots and the pilot flying needed to cross-check this airspeed indication.
A transcript from the cockpit voice recorder shows the captain called 100 knots as the groundspeed reached 100 knots and the first officer initiated rotation when the groundspeed was 165 knots. The maximum decision speed at which a rejected take-off could be initiated during an emergency, known as V1, had been calculated at 153 knots.
“The flight crew recalled that they detected an airspeed anomaly during the take-off roll, including red speed (SPD) flags on both primary flight displays (PFD),’’ the report said.
“The standard operating procedures stated that the captain held responsibility for the decision to reject the take-off or continue.
“ It stated that rejecting a take-off between 100 kt and V1 was a serious matter, that a captain should be ‘go-minded’, and that very few situations should lead to the decision to reject the take-off.
“There was no indication on the CVR recording that the captain or the first officer discussed rejecting the take-off.”
After take-off, the crew carried out procedures for unreliable airspeed indications and made a PAN call, an international call that indicates an urgent safety problem but is below an emergency, to air traffic control.
The crew continued to climb above 10,000ft and took the aircraft to the north-east of Brisbane Airport where they carried out checklists and troubleshooting ahead of landing.
This included turning off three air data reference systems and gaining access to a color-coded speed scale derived from angle of attack and other information and altitude derived from GPS data.
They also obtained groundspeed information from air traffic control.
The color-coded speed scale. Image: ATSB/Airbus.
“Normal landing gear extension could not be accomplished with all three ADRs off,’’ the report said.
“The flight crew performed a landing gear gravity extension before conducting an overweight] landing on runway 01 at 0033.
“After landing the flight crew stopped the aircraft on the runway as nose wheel steering was unavailable following a landing gear gravity extension. The main landing gear doors, which remain open following a gravity extension, had minor damage where they contacted the runway surface.”
The aircraft was towed to the gate where passengers and crew disembarked without any reported injuries and a subsequent inspection revealed the pitot covers were still on the plane.
Hood said the continuing investigation would focus specifically on the role of flight and ground crew in pre-flight checks as well as the cockpit warnings received by the pilots as they accelerated down Brisbane’s runway 01.
“Today we’re issuing a safety advisory notice to all operators to take particular care and review their procedures for the fitment of pitot covers on landing at Brisbane Airport and ensure that their processes are robust for the removal of these covers prior to flight,’’ he said.
Former Cathay Pacific chief executive and International Air transport Association director general Tony Tyler is headed to the Qantas board.
Outgoing Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford announced on Thursday the intention to appoint Tyler to the board, saying he had significant experience in commercial aviation as well as in Key overseas markets.
The seasoned airline executive will join the board in October 2018, subject to shareholder approval.
Tyler was with Cathay Pacific from 1978 and held a series of commercial, operational and management roles in Europe, North America and Asia.
He was the Hong Kong carrier’s chief operating officer from 2005 to 2007 and its chief executive from 2077-11.
He headed IATA, the global airline lobby group, from 2011 to 2016, and has served on various airline boards.
Current board appointments include BOC Aviation and Bombardier and he has also been on the Dragonair, Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company and UK-based national Airt Traffic Services (NATS) boards
His knowledge of the growing Chinese market will be particularly useful to the Flying Kangaroo.
Clifford said Tyler was one of the world’s most seasoned airline executives with an involvement in commercial aviation spanning almost 40 years.
“His industry knowledge runs deep and so does his experience of doing business in Asia, which is a key market for the Qantas Group,” he said in the announcement.
“Tony’s perspective will be a valuable addition to the knowledge already on the Board,”
Tyler said he was excited to join the Qantas board.
“Qantas is one of the world’s most iconic airlines and it continues to be responsible for a lot of innovation in commercial aviation,’’ he said.
Clifford is due to step down in October after 11 years as chair of the Qantas board and will be succeeded by current board member and former Wesfarmers chief executive Richard Goyder.
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