As we all know, poor Japan has taken an utter beating from brutish Mother Nature this past week, and anyone who has spent any amount of time in Japan (Australian Flying Editor Justin Grey lived in Tokyo for 13 months as a uni student) would attest that this couldn’t have happened to a nicer nation and people. As was the case with the recent Queensland floods, some drastic aviation-related images have emerged from the traumatising earthquake and subsequent tsunami in north eastern Japan. You may have already seen these, but click here to see light aircraft from Sendai Airport skittled amongst cars and debris; here to see poor Sendai Airport (which sits right on the coast) getting consumed by a black mass of tsunami sludge; and here to see various other related images. Our hearts go out to not just our fellow aviators, but all of Japan.
The week before last we reported here that very popular US GA aircraft manufacturer Cirrus had been bought out by Chinese state-owned interests. While that deal is still in the process of being finalised, it’s been reported this week that a team of particularly patriotic US investors, led by financial consultant Brian Foley, is scraping together a counter-offer to buy Cirrus and keep it in US hands. Here’s a few rousing lines from Foley: “Cirrus is an American success story that started in a humble dairy barn, introduced important new technologies and rocketed to success. [I’m] confident we can identify and combine enough qualified investors who value Cirrus’s promise as a distinctively American company,”.
The US AOPA has reported a significant increase in GA accidents due to mechanical failure in their annual review of US GA safety data. According to the report, accidents due to mechanical causes happened at a significantly higher rate in 2009 compared to the previous year, reaching an all-time record high proportion of 17 per cent of all non-commercial fixed-wing accidents. Of note, amateur-built aircraft in the US continued to have significantly higher accident rates than comparable type-certificated aircraft, particularly from greater numbers of mechanical failures and unexplained losses of engine power. More than half the fatal mechanical accidents were in amateur-built aeroplanes.
Anyone seen recent-to-DVD (and excellent) Disney Pixar animated film Up? If you haven’t, it’s about an old man who ties umpteen helium balloons to his little cottage, and through a rustic yet workable system of pulleys, bedsheets and other household paraphernalia turns it into a flying machine. Anyway, Avweb reports this week that Jonathan Trappe – an “aerial Willy Wonka” – has built a workable version of the flying balloon house from Up. The roughly 4400 pound ‘aircraft’ flew under 282 eight-foot-diameter (at ground level) helium-filled balloons. The ‘house’ took off from a private ranch east of Los Angeles, flew for one hour and ten minutes, reached an altitude of 10,500MSL and due to variable winds landed about 10 miles from where it started. “It is certainly the strangest aircraft I have flown,” Trappe said. “But, more than that, it may be one of the strangest aircraft to have ever flown. [But] This had the capability to fly across the country on a multi-day flight.” If you’re having trouble picturing all of this, there’s some great photos here.
Stuck rudders seem to be becoming an increasing issue on Cessna’s Citation 560XL (Excel, XLS and XLS+ models) business jets. While no-one has been injured nor have any aircraft been damaged by the problem to date, three such incidents occurring in the US in December 2010 has prompted US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to declare it has “serious concerns”. Flight Global reports that post-incident investigations have revealed that water entering the aircraft’s tail cone “stinger” through torque tube openings may be accumulating, despite drain holes, and freezing around rudder cables, jamming the rudder control system. In one incident, the rudder pedals becamed jammed and the pilot was unable to align the aircraft’s nose with the runway centreline after turning off the yaw damper at 600ft. As such, Cessna has issued a service letter calling for a 19mm hole to be drilled in the bulkhead of the aft fuselage frame to allow water to drain away from the control cables, and the NTSB is asking the FAA to make this modification mandatory.
The Hastings District Flying Club has put up two scholarships for would-be pilots aged 15-20. Each scholarship offers $1000 towards a Recreational Pilot’s Certificate. Should you score one of these, the club will get you your wings in either a Foxbat or a Eurofox. But you’d best be quick as applications close at the end of this month. For more info click here.
The Courier Mail reports this week that the RAAF’s recently retired F-111 “Pig” fleet will only be displayed at secure RAAF bases and inside RAAF museums due to cost, red tape and asbestos concerns. Five of the 34 jets will be preserved as museum pieces at bases at Amberley, Point Cook and Edinburgh. Three more could apparently be preserved for “defence heritage” and a further two may be given to a US Air Force museum. According to the report, one was offered to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra but it declined due to the $1 million or more cost to “demilitarise” the Pig. But the real heartbreaker for the many “Pig” fans out there – including Australian Flying flight sim expert Dave Tonks – is that the remaining F-111s with be scrapped and sold as lumps of metal.
A young husband and wife aerobatic and wingwalking team were seriously injured while performing at an airshow in Texas earlier this week. Local newspaper The Brownsville Herald reports that Amanda Franklin was on the wing of the Waco Mystery Ship her husband Kyle was flying when fire erupted from the engine at low altitude. Amanda was able to get into a seat before Kyle made an emergency landing in a wooded area and the aircraft burned. While suffering severe burns, the Franklins are said to be recovering in hospital. The Brownsville Herald has some pictures of the incident here, if you can stomach it. And as if that wasn’t tragic enough, both Kyle and Amanda’s fathers died in a midair collision while performing at an airshow in 2005.
A US Navy Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber that was lost at sea in 1941 has been located off the coast of San Diego and the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Florida plans to raise it from the bottom, reports Avweb. The TBD Devastator was considered the US Navy’s most formidable airplane when it was introduced in 1937, according to the EAA. During the Battle of Midway in June 1942, 43 TBDs attacked the Japanese carriers, but 39 were destroyed. Many of the Devastator bombers were lost in World War II, and today there isn’t one on display anywhere. The museum says this is the, “Holy grail in terms of naval aviation”.
US Flying magazine reports that the team behind Sikorsky’s X2 technology demonstrator has won the 2010 Robert J. Collier Trophy, six months after the unique twin-coaxial rotorcraft set an unofficial speed record for a helicopter of 250 knots. The X2 program kicked off in 2005 when Sikorsky first committed resources and funding for the program's development of a co-axial, auxiliary propulsion helicopter. The X2's Collier Trophy victory marks the second time Sikorsky has won the trophy, after the S-92 helicopter program received the award in 2002. First presented in 1910, past winners of the Collier Trophy include such luminaries as Orville Wright, Howard Hughes and Chuck Yeager.
(National Geographic Channel)
