Model Airplanes

(Originally published at 8:40 a.m. MDT October 4, 2018)

This year the U.S. Forest Service reduced the number of large air tankers on exclusive use (EU) contracts from 20 in 2017 to only 13. There are an additional 11 large air tankers on call when needed (CWN) contracts which may be activated — if they are available with flight crews and mechanics to staff them. An analysis we completed in February found that the average cost to the government for CWN large air tankers is much more than EU aircraft. The daily rate is 54 percent higher while the hourly rate is 18 percent higher.

The Forest Service began the solicitation process for additional large and very large CWN air tankers May 30, 2018, but no contracts have been awarded. The specifications for both sizes of air tankers were changed six times. The last revision on September 7 occurred three days after protests by 10 Tanker Air Carrier for both solicitations were denied by the Government Accountability Office. It appears that the contracts will only be awarded after the fire season in most of the western states has wound down.

Below is a press release issued October 1 by the American Helicopter Services and Aerial Firefighting Association.

A huge number of exceptionally destructive, back to back wildland fires throughout the Western United States this year is prompting some aerial firefighting companies

Article source: https://fireaviation.com/2018/10/04/forest-service-relying-more-on-call-when-needed-air-tankers/

Years in the making, Leonardo finally cracks the US market

It’s sweet, if belated satisfaction for the Italian firm.

Article source: https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2018/10/04/t-x-loss-casts-shadow-over-south-korean-arms-exports/

Lufthansa might mark a win as Ryanair cuts back air service in Germany and closes bases in response to ongoing strikes, but we’ve already seen this rot in Denmark, and the play ends favorably for the Irish carrier. 

Michael O’Leary at Press Briefing in Copenhagen, 2015Marisa Garcia

On the back of Ryanair’s massive growth in Europe, the airline is increasingly encroaching on the territories of the continent’s big three—Air France/KLM, IAG and Lufthansa—but it has found a notable foe in the German carrier with strong support from local unions.

“While we successfully managed five strikes by 25% of our Irish pilots this summer, two recent coordinated strikes by cabin crew and pilots across five EU countries have affected passenger numbers through flight cancellations, close in bookings and yields as we re-accommodate disrupted passengers, and forward airfares into Q3,” the airline’s CEO Michael O’Leary said in the company’s announcement. “While we regret these disruptions, we have on both strike days operated over 90% of our schedule. However, customer confidence, forward bookings, and Q3 fares have been affected, most notably over the Oct school mid-terms and Christmas, in those five countries where unnecessary strikes have been repeated.”

Ryanair lowered its full-year profit guidance (excluding Laudamotion) on Monday from $1.44 billion to $1.55 billion (€1.25 billion – €1.35 billion) to a revised range of $1.27 billion to $1.38 billion (€1.10 billion – €1.20 billion).  

The airline’s response to this crisis has been to cut back its winter 2018 capacity by 1% and to adjust its presence in Germany.

Article source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisagarcia/2018/10/02/ryanair-cuts-germany-bases-due-to-strikes-but-we-have-seen-how-this-play-ends-in-denmark/

The irony is that Tehran doesn’t need to be ashamed of its resourceful use of old jet fighters. In the nine-year-long Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s, Iranian fighter pilots fought one of the most intense air wars in recent history defending their home soil. Though higher-performance F-4 Phantoms and F-14 Tomcats shot down dozens of Iraqi fighters (and suffered losses in return), even the F-5s chalked up a number of kills against MiG-21 fighters and Su-20 attack jets.

In February 2017 I published an article on the Iranian Saeqeh (“Thunderbolt”) fighter. Billed as Iran’s first domestically-built jet fighter to enter operational service, the Saeqeh.

(This first appeared last month.)

Fast forward a year and a half later and we are again greeted with headlines for yet another “100% indigenously made” fighter jet, this time a “state of the art” two-seater called the Kowsar. And yet it appears identical to an F-5F Tiger II two-seater jet.

If anything, it is far less original than the Saeqeh, which has airframe modifications including enlarged strakes and twin vertical tail stabilizers. The Kowsar doesn’t appear to have any external changes from the F-5F. How was this jet even worthy of the photo-op with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the instructor’s seat for Iranian Defense Industry Day?

It happens there really is a program to build a combat-capable Kowsar advanced jet trainer. It simply wasn’t the aircraft on display this summer.

Related

A REVOLUTIONARY new passenger transport capsule made its debut in front of the world’s media in Spain yesterday (Tuesday).

For the first time, Carbures, a Spanish company from Cadiz, revealed a model of a passenger capsule of the train carriage of the future at El Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz.

Measuring 32-metres long and weighing five tonnes, the capsule required 21,000 hours of engineering work to be completed.

Hyperloop is the commercial name registered by SpaceX, the aerospace transport company.

Their concept transport system features vacuum tubes capable of transporting both passengers and goods at speeds on the verge of breaking the sound barrier.

The company has described their vision for the world of transportation, stating: “Hyperloop brings airplane speeds to ground level, safely. Passengers and cargo capsules will hover through a network of low-pressure tubes between cities and transforming travel time from hours to minutes.”

The Hyperloop promises to cut travel times across the Spanish peninsula, claiming the capsule will be able to travel between Cadiz and Barcelona in just one hour, as opposed to the eight-hour train journey currently offered by Renfe.

The revolutionary transport could be fully functioning and open to the public in some parts of world in as little as five years.

“It is an honour and a pride that a world milestone like this one is done with an Andalucian accent” said Susana Diaz, President of Junta de Andalucia.

Article source: https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2018/10/03/watch-space-age-hyperloop-capsule-unveiled-in-spain-will-bring-airplane-speeds-to-ground-level/