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RTX subsidiary Pratt & Whitney brought its Boeing 747SP test bed to Oshkosh as part of the company’s global centennial celebration, commemorating 100 years since its founding in 1925. The 747SP is expected to be here until Thursday, July 24, offering attendees a rare opportunity to tour this iconic flying test bed.
Pratt & Whitney began operations in 1925 with the invention of the R-1340 Wasp engine, which revolutionized military and commercial aviation. The 1940s saw more innovation as the company powered several era-defining aircraft for the Allies in World War II and began exploring jet propulsion.
The Boeing 747SP (for special performance) is a shortened version of the 747 airliner that features a longer range than its full-sized counterpart and is powered by four Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines. Only 45 such aircraft were produced, with Pratt & Whitney owning the only two that are currently airworthy. The test bed variant features a fifth engine mount separate from the four main powerplants located below the wings. This extra engine configuration allows for testing engines in real-life weather conditions. Since 2001, Pratt & Whitney’s test beds have completed more than 1,400 ground runs and flight tests using 71 different experimental engines.
Regulations are always fully thought through and serve a clear purpose—thus always achieving their goals, right? Recently, I’ve started to question some of them and invite everyone to second-guess with me.
In Europe, many airports have strict curfews for noise abatement purposes. We can all agree on how important a good night’s sleep is. But is it always sensible to comply with a restriction if the outcome doesn’t actually uphold its intended purpose? If that sounds puzzling, the real-world example I’m about to share might strike you as equally amusing and frustrating. //
However, the point of this article isn’t to speculate on what-ifs. The pilots of NH203 and the tower controller played the cards they were dealt. And it all culminated at 04:59:42—just 18 seconds before the earliest allowed landing time—when the radio transmitted: “ALLNIPPON 203, GO AROUND”
A go-around call requires immediate compliance—no discussion, no delay. It’s part of our safety culture and rigorous training. Once stabilized, we can begin to ask “why.” Moments later, the tower controller explained: the aircraft had arrived too early. And this is why I’m writing this.
Have We Lost Sight of the Original Goal?
Somewhere along the line, we’ve lost the plot. Pilots, passengers, airlines—and the environment—were penalized for being early. //
The direct consequences?
- An additional 16 minutes of flight time
- Additional high-workload scenarios for the crew after nearly 14 hours of overnight flying
- A stressful experience for passengers, many of whom may never have experienced a go-around
Environmentally, an extra 1,900 kg of fuel burned, additional uncalled for CO₂ emitted, and perhaps the loudest possible noise event as the aircraft roared over Frankfurt and its surroundings—including, no doubt, a wake-up call—before the official opening hour.
All of this—done in the name of avoiding noise pollution.
I have to ask again, what was achieved here?
Two added critical phases of flight.
Higher operating cost.
And the very thing the regulation was supposed to prevent: excessive noise.
The report focused on the moments after the takeoff, showing the aircraft’s two fuel control switches moved to the ‘cutoff’ position in quick succession. This action cut off fuel supply to the engines, immediately causing the aircraft to lose all thrust.
The switches are on the centre console of the cockpit, just below the engine thrust levers. They are used to control fuel flow to the engines—primarily during engine start-up and shutdown on the ground, or to shut down an engine in the event of an engine failure during flight. //
The fuel control switches are equipped with a spring-loaded locking mechanism that keeps them in position and prevents unintended movement. You would have to pull the switch up before moving it from run to cutoff, or vice versa.
Aviation experts say a pilot would not have been able to move the fuel switches accidentally. Once moved, the effect would be immediate, cutting off engine power.
India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) found that fuel switches had flipped to cutoff position—a move typically done only after landing—just 50 seconds into the flight as the aircraft climbed to 625 feet. The cockpit voice recorder captured one pilot asking the other why he cut off the fuel, with his colleague replying that he hadn't. The switches flipped a second apart, roughly the time it would take to shift one and then the other manually. //
Both fuel switches were found in the run position with indications that both engines were attempting to relight before the crash.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 was the last American-built aircraft to feature an analog cockpit. The aircraft entered commercial service with Swissair in October 1980, and became a mainstay of short-haul aviation across the world. The US-based manufacturer went on to build a total of 1,191 MD-80s, several of which are still in service today.
Kwik EFIS is a suite of applications which implement a Glass Cockpit solution designed to function on most Android devices equipped with a GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer and a CPU with reasonable performance. The suite currently consist of applications:
- Primary Flight Display (PFD), Kwik PRIM
- Multi Function Display (MFD) Digital Moving Map, Kwik DMAP
- Combined Format Display (CFD), Kwik COMP
Around 03:13 UTC on 21 June (22:13 local time) a flight of US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft departed Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma. Operating in two flights of four aircraft, the Stratotankers headed northeast toward Missouri. Those aircraft quickly climbed to the top of Flightradar24’s most tracked flights list—not because thousands of people find aerial refueling aircraft over the central US fascinating, but for the inference of their purpose.
Thanks to the nature of my day job, I’ve covered quite a few commercial aviation accidents during the past decade. It’s easy to get caught up in the fast-paced news cycle and in some ways unintentionally neglect the human element of these tragedies.
The effort of producing content on these disasters, along with post-accident investigations, can stave off thoughts – at least temporarily – about how people are impacted, both in terms of the victims and their loved ones.
But that was far from the case last Wednesday when PSA flight 5342 and a Black Hawk helicopter collided over the Potomac River.
I grew up on the Maryland side of the Washington, D.C., area and started my aviation career at Reagan National. The so-called “little airport by the river,” as one former airport manager called it, was almost my second home.
Pan Am’s famous logo is returning to the skies this week as part of a transatlantic luxury tour.
The journey, known as “Tracing the Transatlantic,” will take travelers in a circuit from New York to Europe and back on board a privately chartered, all-business-class Boeing 757-200 bearing Pan Am’s blue and white insignia. The tour departs from New York-JFK on Tuesday and makes stops in Bermuda; Lisbon, Portugal; Marseille, France; London; and Foynes, Ireland, before returning to New York.
The trip is limited to just 50 participants.
“Tracing the Transatlantic” is a collaboration between tour operator Criterion Travel and private jet touring business Bartelings in an official licensed partnership with Pan Am.
On Monday, the Pan Am Museum Foundation wrote on social media that the 757 was close to landing at JFK after a flight from Florida. It is registered as TF-FIC and will be operated by Icelandair. //
While Pan American World Airways ceased operations over 30 years ago, Pan Am Global Holdings continues to manage the defunct airline’s intellectual property and licenses the Pan Am name and logo.
sectional charts
Photos of damage to the fuselage of an American Airlines Boeing 787-9, registration N839AA, caused by a lightning strike, are spreading through social media. The incident occurred on Monday’s Tokyo Narita to Dallas – Fort Worth flight.
On Monday, June 2 2025, American Airlines flight 780 took off from Philadelphia for Naples, Italy. They sent the wrong plane – and passengers wound up having to land 124 miles away in Rome.
Normally this flight is operated by a Boeing 787-8 aircraft. However, on Monday American used a larger Boeing 787-9 – which isn’t permitted at the Naples airport. //
Normally the American Airlines Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 are going to be pretty interchangeable. It isn’t for the Naples flight. And they clearly didn’t flag that restriction or program in logic to prevent this. That’s a big operational failure, reminiscent of when American sent the wrong Airbus A320 – a legacy US Airways plane not certified for extended overwater operations – to Hawaii.
https://www.flightaware.com/squawks/view/1/y_days/popular/50472/Oops_American_Accidentally_Flies_Wrong_Plane_To_Hawaii
Marc Scribner and Ginger Evans have a new report on remote air traffic control towers, looking at why the U.S. won’t adopt them even as they’re being used successfully around the world.
Remote towers would help a lot with the air traffic control shortage. They’re in use around the world, Congress has told the FAA to start using them, but the agency’s intransigence has blocked efforts for years.
These are facilities where controllers are not physically on-site at the airport. They use high-definition cameras, sensors, and communication links to transmit a real-time 360° view of the airport environment to controllers sitting at a n air traffic control center in another location. //
Sweden launched the world’s first remote tower at Örnsköldsvik Airport in 2015 and has built centers in Sundsvall and Stockholm that control eight airports. Norway operates 11 airports from a single center at Bodø. A single controller will handle multiple low volume airports from that center. //
Franz Stappen says:
May 24, 2025 at 4:05 pm
Foreign countries don’t have the amount of VFR traffic we do. That’s why everyone comes here to train. //
Regnad Radzinovic says:
May 24, 2025 at 7:45 pm
I worked in FAA air traffic control for nearly 40 years. I was also the second Terminal ATC rep from FAA headquarters assigned to the Leesburg (SAAB) project. This author and the people commenting have no idea what’s involved with providing sir traffic control service. Remote towers, given their current level of technology and capability will only work at small, low traffic-density airports. (Like the airports in Europe mentioned here. One of those airports, is so slow. The log only about five take off and landing operations per day.) Any comparison to Newark or any other large place like that, is ridiculous. //
SayAgain says:
May 24, 2025 at 7:48 pm
The real issue is folks that have never been a cpc are making decisions for us and junk articles like this just prove that most don’t fully understand the atc system.
The EWR CPC’s didn’t walk off the job, additionally the staffing shortage is with the radar controllers who work the EWR sector from Philly. So your remote tower idea is a bust there.
Having remote towers Co located in the same building is a great idea but it wouldn’t help with staffing. CPC’s are specialists in their respective airspace and airports. If one remote tower is short a body they just can’t grab Steve that works COS and plug him in to work APA. So womp womp that point is out.
PHX is not the only airport that the tower and TRACON are co-located. It’s called an Up/Down and the faa has quite a few. Pit / phl / sat / las / har just to name a handful. Smaller up/downs are great for newer controllers to cut their teeth and get both tower and radar experience before going to a busier facility where you don’t have time to learn the basics, you need to learn how to work the volume of traffic.
You want to fix atc, put one of us in charge. And by one of us I mean someone that has worked traffic the last 15 years. Not some manager ladder climber that has dodged working traffic the last 15 years.SayAgain says:
May 24, 2025 at 7:48 pm
The real issue is folks that have never been a cpc are making decisions for us and junk articles like this just prove that most don’t fully understand the atc system.
The EWR CPC’s didn’t walk off the job, additionally the staffing shortage is with the radar controllers who work the EWR sector from Philly. So your remote tower idea is a bust there.
Having remote towers Co located in the same building is a great idea but it wouldn’t help with staffing. CPC’s are specialists in their respective airspace and airports. If one remote tower is short a body they just can’t grab Steve that works COS and plug him in to work APA. So womp womp that point is out.
PHX is not the only airport that the tower and TRACON are co-located. It’s called an Up/Down and the faa has quite a few. Pit / phl / sat / las / har just to name a handful. Smaller up/downs are great for newer controllers to cut their teeth and get both tower and radar experience before going to a busier facility where you don’t have time to learn the basics, you need to learn how to work the volume of traffic.
You want to fix atc, put one of us in charge. And by one of us I mean someone that has worked traffic the last 15 years. Not some manager ladder climber that has dodged working traffic the last 15 years.
You could feel the tension—passengers staring at their watches, refreshing airline apps, sighing loudly, and shifting uncomfortably in their seats.
After we had all boarded and settled into the growing frustration of the unknown, the pilot stepped out of the cockpit, walked into the cabin, stood where we could all see him, and addressed the entire plane face-to-face.
“I want to start with an apology,” he said.
Just one sentence—seven words, to be precise—is all it took to make a huge difference in the overall experience for everyone on board. Nothing about the delay was his fault. Pilots don’t schedule thunderstorms or control air traffic flow. He hadn’t caused the delay, and he certainly wasn’t to blame for the chain reaction it was causing in all of our carefully planned travel itineraries. But he still began with an apology.
In that moment, the mood on the plane shifted. The pilot didn’t magically make the delay go away, and it didn’t guarantee that everyone would make their connection, but it did something almost as powerful—it made everyone feel seen. It made everyone on the plane feel like someone understood how frustrating the situation was and cared enough to acknowledge it. //
What the captain did at that moment offers three lessons every leader should remember:
He came to us
He started with empathy
He made it clear he was on our side
1 Hour of the world's most iconic airport KAI TAK filmed 30 years ago!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-pa-AHMZUw
The tax code encourages airlines to charge separately for checked bags, and Southwest Airlines was easily leaving $75 million in tax savings on the table each year by refusing to do so. //
The airline’s CEO Bob Jordan has essentially capitulated to activist investor Elliott in order to save his job, but at the expense of the airline’s culture and product differentiation. These changes won’t make Southwest Airlines better. Southwest had problems – Elliott and everyone else in the world observing them were not wrong – but there are no solutions to bring Southwest back to its earlier growth days because the model has simply run its course.
They have maxed out the ability to grow with a single fleet type, distributing tickets through their own channels, going it alone with a simplified product. So any future will be a lower growth, lower stock multiple, less valuable one. But that doesn’t have to mean doubling down on the race to the bottom, which is why it’s sad to see today’s change. //
Ultimately what this underscores is that there is no returning to the differentiated airline business model that gave Southwest significantly higher earnings multiples, catapulting their stock beyond peers, and generating decades of consistent profits.
Nobody had solutions, so they gave up and did what everyone else does which is what company executives do to protect their jobs. They stopped sticking their necks out, because they might get chopped off. Southwest is now just like everyone else, but a bit less (they don’t even plan to sell blocked middle seats, let alone first class; they have less valuable miles; they don’t have lounges; their wifi lags the industry). A moment of silence for this once great company. //
In the meantime, as checked bag fees roll out to tickets purchased May 28 onward, over the next few months we’ll begin to see everyone trying to carry all their bags on board. That’ll mean more gate checking of bags, which has meant Southwest needed to retrofit gate equipment. This will slow down boarding and delay flights. Good luck out there to Southwest customers!
F22 Raptor filmed with a camera so fancy, you can see the vertical stabilizers get all wobbly
More power, no moving parts: the quest to fly a rotating detonation engine
After decades of research, tests advance innovative engine for improved military effectors //
Rotating detonation engines have no moving parts and a unique design that makes them both lighter and more powerful than traditional engines. Here’s how they work.