Search Results for: Lockheed

The U.S. Air Force’s 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona said yesterday that F-35 training flights will remain grounded until further notice due to five separate incidents highlighting “irregularities” in the pilots’ oxygen supplies. The grounding was initially planned to be only short-term when it was first announced last Friday. The […]

Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation Calvin L. Scovel III’s recent report to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure about the FAA’s progress in modernizing the nation’s airspace might add fuel to the fire to those supporting the effort to separate the U.S. air traffic control system from the 60-year old agency. […]

Its taken for granted that when you fly a light aircraft, you take care of everything from preflight planning to all the in-flight tasks and securing the aircraft afterwards. All decisions are usually left to one person. This is such a common routine for many that the risks of whats known as Single-Pilot Resource Management are often overlooked, especially due to the external pressures that are often present for any flight. In this accident report, the combination of a sole pilots pressure to get home and poor weather conditions had tragic results.

While we certainly dont need to examine weather accidents to remind us that weather can be a killer, reviewing them can be a good teacher. The accidents well review attracted only a couple paragraphs in the local newspaper and were quickly forgotten, but every incident has the potential to save lives. Well try to understand their story by digging into radar and weather data and poring through the NTSB archives and try to find just how these pilots got themselves in trouble and what lessons we can learn.

The general-aviation airport in Santa Monica, California, which has been in place since the 1920s, has long been in contention, as the surrounding area has become densely populated at the same time as the airports importance as a GA hub has intensified. In January, the FAA said it had agreed to end decades of legal wrangling over the airport and close it in 2028, citing safety and environmental concerns. The airport has about 270 resident aircraft and 450 landings and takeoffs a day. NBAA, AOPA, and EAA said they may challenge the agreement. The city plans to turn the 227 acres into a park.

Successfully placing a satellite in orbit is no small expense, often costing tens of millions of dollars. In addition to the cost of the satellite itself, there’s the cost of the launch vehicle and the ground control system to bring all the elements together. If the satellite is tiny, less than 12 pounds, often referred […]

A group of NASA satellites was successfully launched this morning in a rocket deployed from the belly of a modified airliner. The Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket carrying the satellites, which NASA will use to study hurricanes from space, was deployed over the Atlantic at about 39,000 feet from its carrier aircraft, the L-1011 Stargazer. […]

At an event hosted at Clay Lacy Aviation’s brand new facility at the Van Nuys Airport in Van Nuys, California, a crowd of hundreds of aviation enthusiasts gathered to celebrate the life of famed military, test and airshow pilot R. A. Bob Hoover. Masters of ceremonies Sean D. Tucker and Danny Clisham encouraged the crowd […]

To assume that an aircraft automation system has a will of its own and will try to kill us would be anthropomorphic. Autopilots and other automation systems have not reached that stage of sophistication. Not yet. What can-and too often does-happen, however, is that flight crews turn the flying duties over to the autopilot and relax. With frightening repetition, this ends in disaster.

Most people know the term hypersonic, but few can probably define it. Hypersonic flight occurs when an object travels at speeds in excess of five times the speed of sound, or about 3,800 mph in dry air at sea level. At last month’s Forum on American Aeronautics held at the Mojave Air and Space Port, […]