Airplane Geeks Podcast

This episode, we have an interview with the president of the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen. In the news, more woes for Boeing with FOD discovered in undelivered 737 MAX airplanes and the DOJ is reported to be investigating the company. Also, the Coronavirus continues to disrupt commercial aviation, a solar electric UAV planned to stay aloft for a year, a new tail-rotor design from Bell that should be quieter and safer, and this year’s Collier Trophy nominees are announced. Interview David Vanderhoof and Mel Payne, president, Greater Philadelphia Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen. At the American Helicopter Museum, David talks with Mel Payne, president of the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen. Tuskegee in Philadelphia: Rising to the Challenge is the story of dozens of Philadelphia-area natives who served as fighter pilots, bombers, nurses, mechanics, and in many other support roles. Aviation News Boeing Finds Fuel-Tank Debris in Two-Thirds of 737 MAX Jets Inspected So Far — Update Foreign Object Debris (FOD) has been a problem for Boeing. Two-thirds of the undelivered 737 MAX jets that have been inspected were found to contain tools, rags, and boot coverings in fuel tanks. The DOJ is reportedly probing whether Boeing’s chief pilot misled regulators over the 737 Max The Department of Justice wants to know if Boeing knowingly lied to the FAA while seeking certification of the 737 MAX. Boeing’s former 737 MAX chief pilot Mark Forkner was subpoenaed last year to answer questions from federal prosecutors in front of a grand jury. He invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Coronavirus flight cancellations top 200,000, sending jet fuel prices to more than 2-year lows More than 200,000 flights, mostly in China, have been canceled as a result of the Coronavirus. Delta, United, and American have halted service to mainland China and Hong Kong. With the resulting decrease in demand, jet fuel prices have fallen 17% in 2020. For an excellent explanation of the virus, see: You’re Likely to Get the Coronavirus. Solar airplane aims to stay afloat for a whole year BAE Systems and Prismatic designed the unmanned solar-powered PHASA-35 airplane, and have tested it at the Royal Australian Air Force’s Woomera in South Australia. A High Altitude, Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (HALE UAV), this “pseudo-satellite” could provide persistent service for defense, security, resource management, and communications. Another high-altitude solar-electric airplane under development is the manned SolarStratos. Bell’s New Design Could Make Helicopters Quieter—and Safer Helicopters with a single main rotor need an additional tail rotor to counteract the torque of the main rotor. But the tail rotor contributes a lot of noise and represents a safety hazard on the ground. Bell has come up with a different approach: four smaller shrouded electric fans in the tail. Video: Bell’s Electrically Distributed Anti-Torque EDAT https://youtu.be/jJUgmeSYox4 Trailblazing Projects to Compete for Collier Trophy The National Aeronautic Association announced nine projects that will compete for the Robert J. Collier Trophy: Airborne Collision Avoidance System Team Bombardier Global 7500 Gulfstream G500 and G600 Hubble Space Telescope Team magni500 Electric Propulsion System Project Heaviside Stratolaunch Carrier Aircraft The United States Air Force-Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Team Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management Team The Collier Trophy Selection Committee will meet on April 2, 2020, in Arlington, Virginia, and the recipient will be announced publicly the following day. The formal presentation of the Collier Trophy will take place on June 11, 2020, at a location to be determined. Mentioned Big Ass Fans Crisis Communications Training For Airline Executives Airport webcams: Prague Airport’s YouTube channel AirLive Airport Webcams.net Webcam Hopper Webcam Plaza.net Airbus’s New Concept Passenger Plane Is for the Birds Waco Air Museum

Airbus buys out Bombardier, the Gulfstream G700 makes its maiden flight, Airbus is testing a blended wing body aircraft, Boeing gets a 30 aircraft LOI for the passenger 747-8, Delta Airlines says they’ll spend $1B to become carbon neutral, a Canadian aviation museum seeks to appeal to people who aren’t #AvGeeks, the risks of turning off your ADS-B transponder, and the U.S. might block sale of the LEAP-1C engine to China. Also, a great positive airline story of the week, an emergency AD for the Cirrus Vision Jet, the Girls Go Fly organization, a Harrier jump jet for sale, a really good sonic boom story, the oldest continuously operating military base in the world, and an addendum to last week’s baseball toss on a moving train scenario. Einstein would be proud. Perhaps. Aviation News Airbus Buys Bombardier Out Of Commercial Aviation For $591 Million With this deal, Bombardier has fully exited the CSeries/A220 program. Bombardier receives $591 million, with $531 million paid at closing and $60 million to be paid in installments through 2021. Bombardier said with this deal the company avoids a roughly $700 million payment it would have had to make to fund production expansion. Airbus now holds 75% of Airbus Canada with the Government of Québec holding 25%, but Airbus can redeem the remaining government stake by 2026. All-New Gulfstream G700 Makes First Flight The Gulfstream G700 completed a successful two hour and 32-minute maiden flight, operating on a 30/70 blend of sustainable aviation fuel. Introduced in October 2019, the flagship G700 model has five flight-test aircraft. A structural test article has completed load testing. Powered by Rolls-Royce Pearl 700 engines, the G700 has an all-new winglet, it can fly at its high-speed cruise of Mach 0.90 for 6,400 nautical miles/11,853 kilometers or at its long-range cruise of Mach 0.85 for 7,500 nm/13,890 km. Airbus reveals futuristic blended wing aircraft design Airbus has been flying a small-scale, remote-controlled blended wing body aircraft demonstrator. They showed the 2-meter long model at the Singapore Air Show. If the MAVERIC (Model Aircraft for Validation and Experimentation of Robust Innovative Controls) leads to a full-scale aircraft, it could cut fuel consumption up to 20%. Video: MAVERIC, a “blended wing body” scale model technological demonstrator https://youtu.be/pgDRkNseNxU Boeing gets LOI for 30 747-8 passenger jets a deal worth over $10 billion Boeing received a Letter of Intent from Avatar Airlines for the purchase of 30 new 747-8 passenger version aircraft. Boeing has been selling the 747-8F freighter, but no new passenger orders were received in 2019. Avatar plans to operate low-fare scheduled service to large major city pairs throughout the U.S. and Hawaii, beginning with fourteen 747-400s using aircraft currently in storage. Then the airline plans to transition to the 747-8 with 539 economy seats on the lower deck and 42 business seats on the upper deck Investor Video: Avatar Airlines A Radical Departure 11 13 19 VER https://youtu.be/zfvFvSBSJlU Delta Air Lines Commits $1 Billion To Curb Its Carbon Emissions Delta Air Lines wants to be the world’s first carbon-neutral airline. To do that, they say that starting March 1, 2020, they’ll commit $1 billion over the next 10 years. Press release: Delta commits $1 billion to become first carbon neutral airline globally. “The airline will invest in driving innovation, advancing clean air travel technologies, accelerating the reduction of carbon emissions and waste, and establishing new projects to mitigate the balance of emissions.” Delta Airlines’ Claim Of Becoming Carbon Neutral In March Is Disingenuous At Best Michael Barnard, the Chief Strategist with TFIE Strategy Inc. (The Future is Electric), is not so impressed, noting that the Delta outlay is about 0.2% of their annual revenue. He also takes issue with Delta’s statement that they will continue to use jet fuel. The aviation museum for people who don’t care about aviation If you are not an #AvGeek, aviation museums can be boring. But the Canada National Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa aims “to spark interest in those who don’t think they care about planes — especially (but not exclusively) women, who often don’t feel like aviation museums are a place for them.” The museum wants visitors to hear stories about people who are like them. Curator Erin Gregory says, “One of my goals as a curator is to feminize the collection and to try to have the floor be much more representative of all the people who fly, including women. I’m working to revise and revamp the museum to make it as inclusive as possible.” Turn Off Your ADS-B, Go To Jail? The FAA posted a National Policy effective January 24, 2020 [PDF] that deals, in part, with ADS-B transponders: Page 9-13 says, “Single Acts of Misconduct Generally Warranting Revocation. Some acts of misconduct are, by their very nature, so egregious or signi

David Neeleman’s new airline, Breeze Aviation; Boeing’s board of directors, the 737 MAX, the NMA, and the FSA; United’s flight school purchase; NASA’s experimental X-59 jet and the prospects for supersonic transport; and a Southwest Airlines Teddy bear. Plus, the Igor Sikorsky Weekend Fly-In, other upcoming aviation events, the EAA mobile unit, carbon monoxide detectors and pulse oximetry, and a physics lesson. Guest Richard Aboulafia Richard Aboulafia is Vice President, Analysis at Teal Group. He manages consulting projects for clients in the commercial and military aircraft field, and has advised numerous aerospace companies. He also writes and edits Teal’s World Military and Civil Aircraft Briefing, a forecasting tool covering over 135 aircraft programs and markets. Richard also writes publicly about the aviation field, with numerous articles in Aviation Week, Aerospace America, and other publications. Frequently cited as an aviation industry authority by trade and news publications, he has appeared on numerous television news programs and has spoken at a wide variety of conferences. Aviation News JetBlue founder unveils new, Utah-based ‘world’s nicest airline’ The new airline being started by David Neeleman will be known as Breeze Aviation, headquartered in Utah. Neeleman’s previous startups include Morris Air, WestJet, JetBlue, and Azul. Breeze will nonstop fly between currently underserved airports. Breeze ordered 60 new Airbus 220-300 aircraft, with deliveries beginning in April 2021. The company leased 30 Embraer 195 aircraft from Azul, which will be delivered starting May 2020. Experts question whether Boeing’s board of directors is capable of righting the company Some think the Boeing board took a long time to fire Muilenberg. Is that an indicator of the board’s ability to deal with the crisis Boeing faces? New CEO Dave Calhoun says the board repeatedly considered confidence, but then in December decided it was lost. Richard Aboulafia was quoted: “The board you see today was largely created by McNerney, and he packed it with people with zero engineering experience.” United Airlines buys flight-training academy to speed up hiring of 10,000 pilots United Airlines needs to hire more than 10,000 pilots during the next decade. The airline is buying the Westwind School of Aeronautics in Phoenix, a flight-training academy, with plans to bring student pilots into the academy with zero flight experience to become fully-rated commercial pilots. NASA’s experimental X-59 supersonic jet could be built by the end of 2020 The X-59 QueSST is designed to test “quiet” supersonic transport over land. The aircraft was approved for final assembly in 2019. NASA commissioned Lockheed Martin to build the plane and they expect to have it completed by the end of 2020. First flight is expected in 2021. Video: Quiet Supersonic X-Plane https://youtu.be/C3ESPCQgDok Unbearably cute: A boy lost his teddy bear on a Southwest flight – so the airline sent him a new one After a young boy lost his favorite Teddy bear on a Southwest flight during the Thanksgiving holiday, his mother took to social media to try and locate the Teddy. The airline assigned an employee to find the bear but after an investigation, the Teddy couldn’t be located. So the corporate office decided to send the boy a new Teddy bear along with a storyline on how it was coming to live with the boy. Mentioned Igor I. Sikorsky Weekend Fly-In at The Bradford Camps on Munsungun Lake in northern Maine. Meals and private lodging in waterfront cabins are included. July 10-12, 2020. College Park Aviation Museum That Last Decade, by Courtney Miller. https://youtu.be/K7JnVCGubS4 The Air Current Expands with new analysis, new director The Experimental Aircraft Association will deliver the excitement of flight throughout the United States in 2020 as EAA’s “Spirit of Aviation” mobile unit, sponsored by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), visits numerous events in 2020. The traveling experiential exhibit introduces EAA to enthusiasts through aviation activities for people of all ages. April 17-18: Purdue University Aviation Day; West Lafayette, Indiana May 13-16: Joe Nall Fly-In; Woodruff, South Carolina May 29-30: AOPA Fly-In; San Marcos, Texas June 12-14: Chippewa Valley Air Show; Eau Claire, Wisconsin September 5-7: Lunken Airport Days; Cincinnati, Ohio September 11-12: AOPA Fly-In; Rochester, New York October 16-18: Fort Worth Alliance Air Show; Fort Worth, Texas AOPA’s 2020 Fly-ins (now in AvGeekFests.com) #StormCiara at London Heathrow – 20+ Go-Arounds and Crosswind Landings!! https://youtu.be/Gln7T-xxE4k  

What the Coronavirus means for air travelers, airlines, and other aviation-related activities. Also, a “test flight” program for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the only US state without commercial airline service, the Collings Foundation institutes a ground tour policy, former CEO Dennis Muilenburg’s departure package is announced, a Boeing announcement about the NMA, and the crash that killed Kobe Bryant and 8 others. Aviation News The Coronavirus is impacting air travelers, airlines, and other aviation-related activities: US travel restrictions go into effect to combat coronavirus spread U.S. flight rules on China visits will pose new airline challenges At least 50 airlines have canceled flights to China amid coronavirus fears — here’s the full list Coronavirus outbreak: What travelers need to know Flying and Coronavirus – should I cancel my flight? Coronavirus tips jet fuel margins into biggest monthly fall in over a decade Airlines Aren’t About to Succumb to the Coronavirus Is the Corona Virus Just Social Media Hype? Some exhibitors drop out of Singapore Airshow due to coronavirus ‘Test flight’ for people with disabilities to practice air travel The Wings for All Program is designed for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to make the flying experience better, or even possible. For many with these disabilities, the anxiety of being at an airport and flying on a plane can be enough to keep them from traveling by air. This program offers “flight tests” where the airport experience can be practiced in advance. Chapters of The Arc, local partners, and airport/airline/TSA personnel work collaboratively to design and carry out each Wings event. There’s only one US state with no commercial airline service. That’s about to change Delaware is the second-smallest US state, with a population of 967,171 in 2018, and a total area of 1,982 square miles, and it is the only state with no regular commercial airline service. Now, Frontier Airlines is returning to the Wilmington – New Castle Airport (ILG) May 14, 2020 with nonstop flights to Orlando. The airline left Delaware in 2015. Collings Foundation agrees to offer ground-only tours following last fall’s deadly crash. The Collings Foundation said it will now only offer ground tours for its airplanes. The foundation was the owner of the B-17 that crashed at Bradley Airport last year. This was part of an agreement it reached with the FAA. Hunter Chaney, director of marketing of the Collings Foundation said, “We have agreed to a temporary stand-down with our LHFE flights (living history flight exemption) as we work with the FAA thoroughly addressing questions regarding operations. We hope to have this resolved soon and continue this extraordinary living history experience.” Boeing’s fired CEO got his $62 million payout confirmed the same day 2,800 people in the 737 Max supply chain were laid off Former CEO Dennis Muilenburg forfeits a $14.6 million severance package, contractually receives equity and pension benefits valued at $62.2 million and retains stock options worth about $18.5 million. New CEO David Calhoun receives a $28 million compensation package, including a $7 million long term incentive award. Boeing collapses NMA and FSA into a single search for its next airplane Boeing’s new CEO, David Calhoun sent the NMA back to the drawing board to start with a clean sheet of paper. The New Mid-Market Airplane had planned to hold 220-270 seats. NTSB details the final moments of the helicopter before it crashed, killing Kobe Bryant and 8 others In his final transmission, the pilot of a helicopter that crashed, killing nine people including NBA legend Kobe Bryant, told air traffic control he was climbing to avoid a cloud layer, the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday. Mentioned Aviation Festival Americas 2020 Spray planes combat billions of locusts in Kenya A350 engine shutdown incidents linked to cockpit drink spills