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In the aftermath of a Boeing Co. 737 MAX jet crash in Indonesia in October, much of the American aviation industry—the plane maker, the FAA, U.S. airlines and their pilots—closed ranks to reassure the public the model was safe to fly.
Even after evidence emerged implicating a new automated flight-control system in the Indonesia disaster, the industry message was that pilots would be able to overcome glitches by following common emergency steps.
“Our pilots are trained to deal with any of these issues,” United Continental Holdings Inc.Chief Executive Oscar Munoz said at a March 7 aviation event in Washington. “Just fly the darn airplane—that’s what they’re taught.”
Three days later, a 737 MAX flown by United code-share partner Ethiopian Airlines nose-dived into the ground after six minutes aloft, an eerie replay of Indonesia’s Lion Air crash.
Excerpt from the WSJ
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Tension is simmering between U.S. and Ethiopian officials as investigators prepare to release in the coming days an interim report about the Boeing Co. 737 MAX jetliner that nose-dived after takeoff from Addis Ababa on March 10, according to people from both countries.
U.S. investigators, according to people familiar with their thinking, have privately complained that Ethiopian authorities have been slow to provide data retrieved from the black-box recorders of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which went down minutes into a flight to Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board.
American air-safety officials also have described what they view as an aloof attitude among the Ethiopians toward other investigators and say the Ethiopians have provided often limited access to relevant crash information, these people said.
Excerpt from the WSJ
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It’s been 50 years since the first Concorde took her maiden test flight, inaugurating the era of supersonic passenger travel, and almost 16 years since that era drew to a close, back in 2003. Since then we’ve had indulgent A380s and efficient 787s, but the truth is, we never really got over the Concorde. It’s still the one that got away, memorably beautiful if rather high-maintenance. Now several manufacturers are planning to eclipse those memories with planes that are cleaner, quieter, and yes, quicker than the Concorde. Up first: Denver-based Boom Supersonic, which is hoping to fly a prototype this year, and if all goes well, by 2025, have their 55-seat Overture craft whizzing passengers from Tokyo to San Francisco, typically a 9½-hour journey, in 5½ hours. Perhaps precipitously, Japan Airlines has taken an option on 20. Until this jet arrives, here’s a look at how its speediness will compare with the original Concorde and other brisk vehicles, existing and theoretical, that make our hearts beat faster.
3,400 MPH: Boeing NeXt Hypersonic Concept
Seats: N/A
First Flight: No earlier than 2029
This still very-much-theoretical hypersonic aircraft could make Mach 5 (about 3,400 mph) travel possible at altitudes of 100,000 feet.
Excerpt from WSK
World’s largest passenger plane was hurt by misjudged market trends, internal dysfunction and production problems<p>
Airbus has sunk at least $17 billion into the A380 project yet sold fewer than half of the 750 superjumbo jetliners it promised to deliver by the end of this year. An Airbus A380 of Lufthansa airline.<p>
When Airbus launched the A380 superjumbo in 2000, it touted the two-deck plane as “the Eighth Wonder of the World.” Instead, the world’s largest passenger plane exposed dysfunction inside the European aerospace company and now offers a textbook case of a company misjudging its market and losing big.<p>
Airbus has sunk at least $17 billion into the project yet sold fewer than half of the 750 superjumbo jetliners it promised to deliver by the end of this year. On Thursday Airbus said it would cease producing the 555-seat plane at the end of 2021.<p>
Excerpt from WSJ
Investigators in Texas looked Sunday for cockpit voice and data recorders in the wreckage of a cargo plane flying for Amazon.com<p>
Local and federal officials gathered at a staging area for the investigation into a cargo plane crash in Trinity Bay in Anahuac, Texas, on Saturday. The Boeing 767 was carrying goods for Amazon.com.<p>
Investigators in Texas searched Sunday for cockpit voice and data recorders in the wreckage of a cargo plane flying for Amazon.com Inc. that went into a sudden nosedive and crashed over the weekend, killing the three people on board.<p>
The Boeing Co. 767 crashed into Trinity Bay near Houston around 12:45 p.m. Central time Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Authorities on Sunday said two of the bodies had been recovered, and search teams were seeking locator signals from so-called black box recorders believed to be buried in mud.<p>
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Excerpt from WSJ
Honeywell unveils satellite-linked, in-flight devices intended to speed investigations. After the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean, it took two years for investigators to find the black boxes.
Honeywell International Inc. is introducing a new line of aircraft cockpit and flight-data recorders that offer more data-storage capacity and the ability, for the first time, to use satellites to retrieve accident information in real time.
Honeywell officials and other proponents of the new technology said the devices, commonly called black boxes, promise major benefits for future plane crash investigations.
Such options have been debated for years by aviation industry officials, and have been championed by many safety advocates and accident investigators. The aim is to ensure vital crash data can be gathered quickly, avoiding the uncertainties of lengthy and sometimes fruitless searches for conventional recorders.
Excerpt from WSJ
Travelers love to hate on airlines. Airlines sometimes do bad things to their customers, dinging them with add-on fees, penalizing them when plans change, squeezing them into shrinking seats and bathrooms and occasionally leaving them stranded for a couple of days.
So if you could wave a magic wand and improve air travel, what would you do?
We’re not talking about fantasies like first-class seats for $10. Airlines need to be able to pay their bills. But are there practical fixes that could make flying better for people who don’t have superelite status or the cash to buy flying beds?
The question is a serious one for airlines. Airline loyalty is in decline. Henry Harteveldt, founder and analyst at Atmosphere Research Group, says his surveys show only 21% of U.S. airline passengers considered themselves loyal to any one airline last year. In 2000, that number exceeded 40%, he says.
This is an excerpt from WSJ
Southwest Airlines Co. and air-safety regulators are scrambling to complete work that would allow the carrier to begin service between California and Hawaii, scheduling eight government-supervised flights but the shutdown was looming
The unusually tight timeline, spelled out in federal documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, partly reflects the desire to minimize the impact from a possible second partial federal government shutdown by the middle of the month. The White House and congressional negotiators are working under a Feb. 15 funding deadline, though industry and government officials said some of the flights are slated to occur a few days past that date.
Under the most optimistic scenario, these officials said, Southwest could start regular service for passengers across the Pacific from the West Coast by April. The timing depends on whether the designated flights without passengers are completed successfully and on time, as well as when the low-fare carrier opts to put tickets on sale.
Limited service flown by senior pilots or managers could begin in March, according to industry officials.
This is an excerpt from the Wall St. Journal