The Blog of Record

A vehicle that combines the advantages of the ekranoplan (wing-in-ground-effect vehicle) and the hovercraft:

Because people can die if there is an evacuation and a guy like this is blocking the aisle:

An airline is using the global warming hysteria to save a few yen on fuel while looking environmentally conscious:

A Japanese airline has started asking passengers to go to the toilet before boarding in a bid to reduce carbon emissions.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) claims that empty bladders mean lighter passengers, a lighter aircraft and thus lower fuel use.

Airline staff will be present at boarding gates in terminals to ask passengers waiting to fly to relieve themselves before boarding, The Independent reported.

ANA hopes the weight saved will lead to a five-tonne reduction in carbon emissions over the course of 30 days.

I am much more likely to do something if those who ask me to do it aren’t blatantly lying about their motives while assuming that I am an idiot. I’m sure most people are like me.

Unless, of course, by “ask” they really mean “require”. Or maybe that will be the next step.

U.S. Air Force pilots who flew into the mushroom clouds after atomic and thermonuclear explosions.

(Via GeekPress.)

Both are designed for urban warfare: one is steered by vectoring propellers instead of moving aerodynamic surfaces, and the other can use its ducted fan to suck itself to a ceiling or wall to stay in place as a more-efficient alternative to hovering.

An Israeli pilot safely lands his damaged F-15 after flying ten miles to the nearest airfield, and only then finds out that the damage includes a missing wing. That’s one well-made machine.

It was in the New York Times, so it must be true.

Source.

Some unbelievably stupid people in the White House decided today it was a great idea to send a Boeing 747 – accompanied by two F-16s – for a low flyover around downtown Manhattan, 9/11 style, so they could shoot some photos:

A White House official apologized Monday after a low-flying Boeing 747 spotted above the Manhattan skyline frightened workers and residents into evacuating buildings.

The aircraft was a White House plane taking part in a classified, government-sanctioned photo shoot, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

“Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision,” said Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office. “While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it’s clear that the mission created confusion and disruption.”

Witnesses reported seeing the plane circle over the Upper New York Bay near the Statue of Liberty before flying up the Hudson River. It was accompanied by two F-16s.

Here is a video of the 747 flying over New York on a let’s-see-how-many-people-we-can-get-to-jump-out-of-windows mission:

Another video (from here):

And another one, with people running in panic:

Now a social worker who counsels post-traumatic stress disorder patients  is considering filing a class-action suit against the government. I would be cheering her on if there were any chance of Mr. Caldera paying for his stupidity with his own money.

It’s the Hotelicopter – the world’s first flying hotel. Technically, it’s a modified Soviet heavy lift Mil V-12 machine of which only two prototypes were built. The actual machine that the Hotelicopter company bought and modified was built in 1965.

The second prototype is still displayed on an open lawn in the aviation museum in Monino near Moscow. At least it was when I saw it there around 1985.

The rooms in that thing must be pretty tiny.

Click the photo to enlarge.

From this great collection of historic Nantucket photos.

A pilot error is possible:

Doomed Flight 3407 was on autopilot until it took a horrifying 26-second death plunge, leaving the pilot without enough time to react when the controls violently snapped back into his hands, federal officials said Sunday.

Pilot Marvin Renslow may have made a deadly error by leaving the plane on autopilot as ice built up on the wings, highlighting what critics say is a failure of the Federal Aviation Administration to order pilots to disengage the autopilot in such conditions.

Experts say had Renslow’s hands been on the flight controls, he may have detected the deadly problem before it was too late.

Why would a pilot fail to follow a simple rule like that? You don’t have to be a Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III to follow simple rules.

Continental Connection Flight 3407 was coming in for a landing Thursday night but suddenly dove into a house and exploded, killing all 49 aboard and one person in the house. The crash ended the longest-ever run without a passenger fatality for U.S. airlines.

One of the victims was a widow of a man killed in the 9/11 bombings.

Craig Newmark found this article in defense of business jets:

Perhaps a reality check would help: Envision a rectangle 11 feet long by 4 feet 9 inches wide. Now, stand in the center, scrunching down so the top of your head is no more than 57 ½ inches from the bottom of your heels. That’s the cabin area of those riding in a Cessna Citation CJ1, which together with its predecessors, comprise the most populous model — by far — of business jet in the world.

The oval cabin has seats for five passengers. Up front is a mini-pantry with a coffee dispenser; in back, a compact lavatory. The space is roughly equivalent to a large family van, and while quite comfortable, the jet is short on glamour and luxury.

Rather, the Cessna’s popularity, along with that of its close competitors, centers on another data point: 3,250. That’s the number of feet of runway required for the aircraft to accelerate to flying speed and take off or, should something catastrophic occur, slam on the brakes and still have pavement remaining.

That figure — 3,250 feet — means business aircraft can alight on any of the 5,000 or so public-use airports scattered throughout the nation’s suburbs, small towns and back country, as well as land at small city airports abandoned by airlines decades ago. By contrast, the airlines fly to only about 500 airports, and of those, fewer than 70 get about three-quarters of all traffic.

If two companies are competing for business, the one using a business aircraft can fly directly to one of those smaller airports and get to lunch with the client before the other guys taking the commercial airlines show up.

And the business people with the corporate jet won’t just arrive faster; they’ll also show up better prepared. After all, most companies send teams of people, and in their own airplane they’re free to discuss confidential information or polish up that PowerPoint presentation. What’s more, they can use the phones, their BlackBerrys and the Internet en route. In other words, these jets are offices that move.

Remember how the Detroit CEOs were shamed into driving their companies’ most-fuel-efficient cars to Washington for the bailout hearing after it was discovered that they had used their corporate jest the first time? Maybe they did need the jets.

It’s not called first class for nothing.

You get what you pay for, I guess. If being rich didn’t bring some benefits, who would ever want to work harder?

Source.

CNN has videos from surveillance cameras along Hudson River that captured the water landing and the moment of impact:

Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III is a former Air Force fighter pilot and an expert in crisis management. He is also a glider pilot, like the “Gimli glider” hero, Bob Pearson, whose commercial-airliner-gliding skills are probably even more impressive.

Being a hero usually requires long, painstaking preparation.

All 155 people on board rescued.

A similar accident happened in Leningrad, Soviet Russia, in 1963 (photo below), according to English Russia.

U.S. airlines go two years without a passenger fatality for the first time ever.

“If you see a child in the airport today or tomorrow, that child has a greater chance of growing up to be president than failing to reach his or her destination safely.”

Continental Airlines used a 50/50 mix of regular jet fuel and biofuel in one engine and jet fuel only in the other, and everything went without a hitch.

Pilots complain that

the A380 super-jumbo makes so little noise they’re having trouble getting to sleep.

Emirates airline pilots say the four engines propelling the long-haul jets are so quiet they can hear every crying baby, snoring passenger and flushing toilet, making it all but impossible to nod off during their breaks. The problems are unique to the A380, which Airbus boasts is significantly quieter than anything else in the sky. We took a ride aboard Emirate’s super-luxe A380, and it is indeed whisper-quiet. Emirates never expected that to be a problem.

“We’re getting lots of complaints,” Capt. Ed Davidson, the airline’s senior vice president for fleets, told Flight Global. “On our other aircraft, the engines drown out the cabin noise. [On the A380] the pilots sleep with earplugs, but the cabin noise goes straight through them.”

The lack of engine noise causes problems for passengers, too – they can hear other passengers talking several rows away.