Avcen Jetpod Sky Taxi

Flying cars have captured the imagination of people around the world ever since the idea of flying and driving have entered our consciousness.  In 1903 the Wright Brothers got airborne and ever since there have been predictions of flying cars in no time at all.

As an avid aviation fan, I must admit that having the sky full of average drivers is not the most comforting thought, but perhaps automation can help ease the concerns of mid-air collisions and human disregard for rules of the air.

So as we press forward in our human quest for easy transportation from densely populated urban sprawl, and luxury travel that does not involve stopping at multiple airports for a simple cross-country jaunt, I thought I might summarize some of the offereings from hardy individuals and lone entrepenours looking to enter the mini-aviation market. 

First, there is the NASA challenge for developers to increase utilization rates of small airfields to reduce congestion on the ground and in the air around large airfields.  The Small Aircraft Transportation System envisions 4-10 passenger aircraft that can move people to their final destination without delays associated with transiting a hub.  Door-to-door service via the underutilized smaller airfields.  Unfortunately, I found the NASA website to have fallen out of date and could only locate a factsheet on SATS. Only Embry Riddle Aeronautical University maintains the NASA information on SATS. 

Actual contenders for the SATS program consist of the Aven Jetpod Sky Taxi (pictured above). I place this one first since the force behind this sadly died today in a crash shortly after takeoff.  On Aug 17, 2009, the 53 inventor was taking his prototype out for a spin and died in a fiery crash in Malaysia.  The aircraft was scheduled to begin production in 2010 and looked to be an implementable concept.

The Terrafugia Transition being built by MIT grads who got together and launched this car-like airplane. It has flown in ground effect, but no higher and no farther.

The Parajet SkyCar is a dune buggy with a glider wing and backup parachute.  Cool for short trips down off the moutain, but not sure I’d feel comfortable landing in a cross wind in a metropolitan sprawl.

Others that I planned to include in this article seemed to be either stuck in design phase without testing, or embroiled in litigation over loss of funding.  I hope that a year from now, the designs will be ready for production so that we can enter the 21st century with a new phase of aviation that makes travel friendlier and closer to home.

D

Air France Flight 447 Empenage Found Floating

If you run a google search on “Ground the Airbus? William Cox” you will find that hundreds of blogs are following this discussion. This is big news. On May 31, 2009, an Aribuse A330 operated as Air France Flight 447 flies into a storm and tragically 216 passengers and crew fly out, spread over 53 miles with the plane’s plastic tail is found intact floating in the ocean.

Go back in time just a bit to Nov 12, 2001 over Queens New York and you have and Airbus A300-650R operated as American Airlines Flight 587 where the vertical stabilizer was ripped from the airplane and was found relatively intact floating in Jamaica Bay. None of the 251 passengers or crew survived.

January 2002 a FedEx Airbus A300 freighter experiences uncommanded rudder inputs. In subsequent tests, the rudder actuator forced the rudder to tear a hole around its hinges. Hydraulic fluid caused the composite materials to delaminate. But the bottom line is the actuator damaged the airplane!

Mar 6, 2005, Air Transat Flight 961 was operating an Airbus A310-300 with 262 passengers. The crew felt strange vibrations and a bang, but managed to execute an safe emergency landing. They found the rudder had been torn from the airplane!

Nov 27, 2005, FedEX discovered extensive damage to the composites on their rudder apparently caused by hydraulic fluid. This discovery led to requirement for frequent and extensive testing on composite rudders of about 20 airplanes. This test barely scratches the surface of the the over 5,000 aircraft of similar design.

But wait, there’s more. Nov 18, 2008, an aircraft leased by XL Airways from Air New Zealand crashes during a test flight preparing it for return to Air New Zealand. This A320 disintegrated at low altitude with its plastic tail floating at the crash site. Was this tail also ripped off? It is unkown and may never be known.

The Boeing 777 also has a composite tail. But the stresses are not concentrated at one attachment point as in the Air Bus Design. The composites are tied into the aluminum structure of the aircraft spreading the load.

So the question I am posing here is not whether composite tails are safe or not. The question is whether an aircraft design that can cause the aircraft to damage itself can continue to generate revenue with impunity. Shouldn’t there be greater scrutiny? Who can provide this? Do we the public demand to fly non Airbus aircraft? Can our governments band together to lcoate the cause and deficiency of the aircraft? Are the governments associated with Airbus to be implicated in a coverup? What conspiracy theories can we generate? But more importantly, when lives are on the line, shouldn’t we ask for more from our governments?

D
Source: American Chronicle

http://www.air-attack.com/

In a nutshell: The F-16 was developed because the “fighter mafia” wanted a more maneuverable airplane and Congress thought the F-15 was too much…The F-15 grew out of the idea that the F-111 was trying to do too much and wasn’t going to be a very good fighter. The F-111 grew out of the idea that the USAF and USN should save money by purchasing similar equipment (to save on development costs) so they spent a bunch of money trying to make everyone happy and ended up with a plane that didn’t, so the Navy liked the F-14 better and did not adapt the swiss-army-knife-F-111.  In 1971 Congress wasn’t happy with all this and pushed for a new lightweight fighter.  This eventually drove the YF-16 and YF-17 prototypes with General Dynamics’ YF-16 winning the USAF contest, and the Northrup Grumman YF-17 morphing into the F/A-18A. 

Obviously, there is much more to this story. 

Next time, I’ll plug in F-35 and F-22 and see what pops up….Happy Surfing.