It sure is nice when your plane comes in early. For Airbus shareholders, it is something that could in theory happen more often.
Airbus results published Thursday restored some faith in the airplane making giant and its ability to become a cash flow machine—though it remains well behind arch rival Boeing in that regard. Airbus’s measure of free cash flow, closely watched by investors, was more than €6.2 billion in the fourth quarter, handily beating analysts expectations. It boosted its dividend and gave a bullish outlook…
“Beacon Hill is diverse. About eight out of 10 are people of color,” Batayola says. “One out of five meets poverty level, … and we have about 36 percent who don’t speak English well.” And, she says, “no other neighborhood in the city of Seattle is experiencing this difficulty.”
The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is one of the fastest growing airports in the U.S., which is heating up the region’s fight over how to deal with airplane noise. But the issue is hardly unique to this one city. Residents elsewhere, including San Diego, Phoenix, New York, and Charlotte, have also organized against—and, in some cases, even sued over—airplane noise.
This spring, however, some see an opportunity for change. The Federal Aviation Administration is up for reauthorization in Congress, and a group of lawmakers who are concerned about airplane noise hope this can be a tool to rewrite noise regulations. (Congress faces a March 30 deadline to fully reauthorize the agency or pass a short-term extension, as it did in September.)
Democratic Congressman Adam Smith, whose district includes many of the Seattle-area neighborhoods closest to the airport and underneath its flight paths, including Beacon Hill, helped found the House Quiet Skies Caucus in 2015 to prepare to rewrite the rules on noise during the reauthorization process. The last rewrite of the FAA’s noise rules happened in 1998.
Planes are quieter than they used to be, but that doesn’t mean
The FAA issued the AD, which affects model 401, 401A, 401B, 402, 402A, 402B, 402C, 411, 411A, 414, 414A, 421, 421A, 421B, 421C, and 425 airplanes, following a report of a fully cracked lower forward carry-through spar cap on a Textron Aviation 402C airplane (formerly a Cessna Aircraft Co. type certificate) caused by metal fatigue.
Although cracking was found only on the model 402C airplane, loads on the other models “are similar to (or higher than) the Model 402C airplanes. This condition, if not addressed, could cause failure of the carry through spar cap during flight and result in loss of control,” the FAA said. The agency estimated that 2,147 U.S.-registered airplanes are affected by the AD.
The FAA noted that it considers the AD an “interim action,” and may revisit the rulemaking after Textron Aviation evaluates the initial and repetitive inspection intervals, and designs a replacement lower carry-through spar cap “from an improved material.”
The AD’s costs are estimated at $1,020 per product per inspection cycle, or the fleet’s total cost of about $2.2 million; and $73,000 per product for replacing a carry-through spar, if needed.
The initial inspection differs for airplanes that have more than 24,975 hours time in service (TIS) and those with less. For airplanes that have less than 24,975 hours TIS, compliance times differ slightly between affected models. For example, the compliance time for models 421B and C airplanes is before the accumulation of 12,000 hours TIS or within the next 50 hours TIS after Feb. 28, 2018, whichever
A drone pilot has sparked outrage and condemnation by posting a video showing his camera drone “dive bombing” a passenger jet landing at a US airport. The drone came dangerously close to the aircraft during the stunt, which can be seen in the clip above.
The video was originally posted to a Facebook group called “1% FPV” by a “James Jayo Older” with the caption: “Found the SD card.. 1%ers only.”
The video shows the drone hovering above McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas as an airliner approaches in the distance. As the Frontier Airlines airplane approaches the drone, the drone suddenly dives to keep the jet in the frame as it zooms past below.
Although the video was shared privately, a number of people decided to record a screen capture and share it more widely to raise the alarm.
“Some guy in the United States, an FPV quad racer flies in the path of an airliner,” Gilmore writes. “What a knob. Seriously. This is not a joke. Not CGI, this is real. For a 10 second moment of fame. Even if there would be no harm. You just can’t get over this level of stupidity.”
“By all appearances, this is clearly and explicitly an illegal and reckless flight by a drone,” writes Air Transport World. “The unmanned aircraft is above 400 ft., it is near an airport, and it is above another, manned aircraft—all gross violations of the rules that
Redditor notwearingwords was shocked by how enormous and numerous storks were in Spain — and how nonchalant everyone seemed to be about it.
“We were driving through Spain, and to the side of one of the roads, we noticed these MASSIVE bird nests in the high power electrical towers. They were at least twice the size of eagle’s nests that I had seen. And there were so many of them!
Then we saw these giant birds in them! We stopped by the side of the road and tried to take some pictures (didn’t have a great zoom lens, sadly). But no one else was stopping. It was so odd. We are accustomed to at least a few people stopping to watch the osprey, eagles, or other birds where I’m from.
So a few days later, we are chatting with a German tourist, and we bring up the birds… I think she thought we were joking until we pulled out the pictures. Then she started laughing.
Storks. Those are storks. Of course, don’t you know that? They are everywhere and such a nuisance. Don’t you have storks in America?
Well…no?
Then she looked confused. Well, if you don’t have storks, who brings the babies in kids stories?
Storks.
Um…how does that work?
And that was when we realized that the story of the storks makes a whole lot more sense when storks are nesting on every chimney, tree, or tall
Former DeKalb County student Connor Owens’ career as a Navy pilot is finally taking flight this month. Owens’ accomplishment as a first-generation pilot comes during the national celebration of Black History Month. After years of training and dedication, the 23-year-old was commissioned into The United States Navy on December 15 as a Naval Aviator and reported for duty on Thursday, Feb. 8 in Pensacola, Florida to continue rigorous flight training for the military.
“I’m definitely excited and looking forward to starting pilot training. I’ve been dreaming about this moment for a very long time and it’s still surreal to know that I am doing something I’ve been dreaming to do my entire life,” said Owens who took his first assisted flight at fourteen.
Owens’ mother, Sandra Owens, who lives in Lithonia, said she is extremely proud of her son.
“I’m very proud because he’s remained focused and kept his eye on the prize. He has not been sidetracked by anything. His whole focus was becoming an aviator for the Navy. I’m just proud that he reached his goal,” said Owens.
Owens said her son’s fascination with airplanes began when he was just four years old and that both his grandfathers, the late Thomas Calvin Owens II (paternal) of Johnson, South Carolina and the late Lemmie J. Smith (maternal) of Dothan, Alabama were both in the military.
“He built his own model airplanes with anything he could find from wood to Legos,” said Owens, who lives in Lithonia.
When Owens began to display an interest in aviation early
A group of local radio modelers is hoping to once again use a park in northeast Forsyth for flying radio-controlled planes.
The Forsyth County Radio Control Modelers recently spoke at a meeting of the Forsyth County Parks and Recreation Board asking for consideration to use a flying field at Eagle’s Beak Park. The facility was previously used by the now-defunct Georgia Model Aviators.
“We went before parks and recreation … to explain what we would like to do, which is fly model airplanes at Eagle’s Beak, prove that there is demand in Forsyth County for this activity, to show that we would respect the boundaries of the park,” said Lou Melancon, the group’s president, on Monday.
Melancon said several spoke in favor of the proposal, and there were also some opposed to it at the meeting.
According to county records, board members voted 4-1 with District 5 member Bibiano Lopez opposed, to defer the request to Forsyth County Commissioners.
Board chairman Gary Cooper made a motion saying that, “because this item is a legal issue bound to a pre-existing legal agreement by the county, the parks and recreation board would like to defer this request to be heard by the county commissioners with the county attorney present.”
Formerly, Georgia Model Aviators operated at the site.
The group had a lease with the previous owner that carried over when Forsyth County purchased the land. The lease expired at the end of 2017.
The county purchased the 225-acre property in 2009 with funding from the $100 million bond referendum for
