Have you ever looked up at an aircraft and wanted to know exactly what type of plane it was? Having already taken a look at the key Airbus and Boeing differences, we explore the important features for identifying the wide array of aircraft in the Boeing long-haul fleet.
Gone are the glory days of the Boeing 747, the 'Queen of the Skies'. The first commercial double-decker aircraft flew in 1969, and though several are still flying today, only a few airlines operate the type on commercial passenger flights. According to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, there are only four airlines operating 747s this month: Air China, Korean Air, Lufthansa, and Aeroflot. //
In October 2014, 33 airlines operated 747 passenger flights, and British Airways (BA) had the most. Ten years ago, 12,171 747 flights were scheduled worldwide, more than 2,000 of which were operated by BA. More than half of BA's 747 flights were to and from the United States (US). //
Data shows that in October 2014, 1,112 flights were scheduled to and from the US on BA 747s. This included 11 cities and more than 350,000 seats. It should come as no surprise that the busiest 747 route was from Heathrow to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York. Ten years ago, there were 215 flights scheduled in each direction to JFK on 747s, up to eight flights in one day.
Jet engines are known for their unique sounds, from the powerful roar of takeoff to the soothing hum of cruising altitude. For some, the distinct noise of different jet engines can evoke excitement and nostalgia. Whether it’s the distinctive buzz of an RB211 or the roar of a GE90 which sound resonates with you most? Let us know and share your thoughts!
The 51 Factory has been established with the goals of supporting the legendary P51 Mustang, British Spitfire, and other Rolls Royce or Packard Merlin powered aircraft of the WWII era.
These superb aircraft powered by 1650 cubic inch, over 1500 hp, liquid cooled V-12 engines, represented some of the most advanced technologies of the day, and most certainly greatly contributed to the allied victory, both in the Pacific, and in Europe.
The fighters developed in WWII are the pinnacle of piston engine, propeller driven aircraft performance. Even today, the fastest piston engine aircraft in the world are modified WWII fighters with Rolls Royce/Packard Merlin V-12’s, as seen at the annual Reno Air Races.
Around 0800 hrs of 22 December 1992, the Boeing 727 of Libyan Arab Airlines, registered as 5A-DIA, underway on Flight 1103 from Benghazi to Tripoli, was approaching the Libyan capital. The ground control advised the crew per radio to hold its position at 1,067m (3,500ft) above the Papa Echo beacon, about 10 kilometres (5.4nm) from Tripoli International for three minutes, due to military traffic. The ‘military traffic’ in question was a MiG-23UB of No. 1023 Squadron, crewed by Captain Abdel-Majid Tayari and a novice pilot. Following the take-off from Mitiga AB, the ground control advised Tayari to climb, turn and head towards Papa Echo.
Unaware of the airliner ahead of him, the seasoned fighter-pilot followed instructions of his ground controller to the dot and comma.
Moments later, Tayari and the student in the front cockpit were shocked to sense a detonation on the underside or below their aircraft. A fire broke out. A friction of second later, they saw the big fin of the Boeing 727 right in front of them, already separated from the airliner – and then Tayari initiated an ejection. The airliner disintegrated while still on approach to Tripoli International, killing all 157 of its crew and passengers.
The ‘negative effects of international sanctions’
Barely surviving this tragedy – Tayari suffered multiple fractures in his right hand during ejection – the crew of the MiG-23UB was shocked to find itself jailed in the hospital of Mitiga AB. The investigation of the Libyan authorities – unfairly – blamed them of either colliding with the Boeing 727, or opening fire and shooting it down: many of their superior officers and civilian servants wanted them hung on the Green Square in Tripoli.
….actually: Gaddafi ordered the flight to be shot down to demonstrate ‘negative effects of international sanctions’ – imposed on Libya after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1989: because of numerous embargos, Libyan Arab Airlines could not fly its planes safely, and thus the victims of the crash were supposed to be presented as victims of ‘Western terrorism’. A bomb with a timer had been placed on board the Boeing 727: when this failed to detonate, Gaddafi personally ordered the aircraft to be knocked out of the sky….
Then it was time for the individual interview. The head of training and the HR guru sat me down and weren’t quite sure what to make of me. I was clearly the first (and probably only) F-14 pilot they’d ever interviewed, so they fumbled with questions like “Um… what makes you think you can handle a 250-knot turboprop?”
‘Then came the clincher: “So, why should we hire you versus all those other people out there?” They expected an answer involving hundreds of carrier landings, flying supersonic, blah, blah so I must be a great pilot. Instead, I thought for a second and said “I’m sure any of us can fly your planes just fine. I’d like to think I’m the sort of person who you can sit next to for ten hours, and not want to slug.”
‘The interview screeched to, a halt. Director of training looked at the HR dude and said “Write that down.” HR said “Already got it.” They thanked me, shook my hand, and I knew I had the job.’
Schiphol will invest €6 billion over the next five years to improve infrastructure. //
The announcement comes amid an 11 per cent year-on-year increase in passenger numbers throughout the first half of 2024, whilst capacity also increased 12 per cent year on year with 230,417 flights recorded between January and the end of June.
In 2023, the hub welcomed more than five million passengers in 2022 but announced that charges will increase by 14.8 per cent in 2024, higher than the 12 per cent rise that was previously anticipated. Schiphol CFO Robert Carsouw said in a statement: “We've notified the airlines and understand that they're not very pleased. At the same time, it's necessary for the quality at Schiphol and for our financial position. It's also how the legislation works. In good years we are not allowed to profit from airport charges and so in bad years we cannot afford any losses.” The airport - which did acknowledge that the charges paid to them by airlines are "strictly regulated by legislation" and cover costs such as runway maintenance, security and cleaning. The CFO added: "Simply put, Schiphol is not permitted to make any profit from airport charges. If what Schiphol earns in airport charges exceeds the costs incurred from facilitating the airlines, the additional revenue is 'given back' to the airlines
Thursday 2nd April 2020 15:11 GMT
BJC
Millisecond roll-over?
So, what is the probability that the timing for these events is stored as milliseconds in a 32 bit structure?
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Re: Millisecond roll-over?
My first thought too, but that rolls over after 49.7 days.
Still, they could have it wrong again.
Re: Millisecond roll-over?
I suspect that it is a millisecond roll over and someone at the FAA picked 51 days instead of 49.7 because they don't understand software any better than Boeing.
Thursday 2nd April 2020 17:05 GMT
the spectacularly refined chap
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Re: Millisecond roll-over?
Could well be something like that, the earlier 248 day issue is exactly the same duration that older Unix hands will recognise as the 'lbolt issue': a variable holding the number of clock ticks since boot overflows a signed 32 bit int after 248 days assuming clock ticks are at 100Hz as was usual back then and is still quite common.
See e.g. here. The issue has been known about and the mitigation well documented for at least 30 years. Makes you wonder about the monkeys they have coding this stuff. //
bombastic bobSilver badge
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Devil
Re: Millisecond roll-over?
I've run into that problem (32-bit millisecond timer rollover issues) with microcontrollers, solved by doing the math correctly
capturing the tick count
if((uint32_t)(Ticker() - last_time) >= some_interval)
and
last_time=Ticker(); // for when it crosses the threshold
[ alternately last_time += some_interval when you want it to be more accurate ]
using a rollover time
if((int32_t)(Ticker() - schedule_time) >= 0)
and
schedule_time += schedule_interval (for when it crosses the threshold)
(this is how Linux kernel does its scheduled events, internally, as I recall, except it compares to jiffies which are 1/100 of a second if I remember correctly)
(examples in C of course, the programming lingo of choice the gods!)
do the math like this, should work as long as you use uint32_t data types for the 'Ticker()' function and for the 'scheduld_time'; or 'last_time' vars.
If you are an IDIOT and don't do unsigned comparisons "similar to what I just demonstrated", you can predict uptime-related problems at about... 49.71 days [assuming milliseconds].
I think i remember a 'millis()' or similarly named function in VxWorks. It's been over a decade since I've worked with it though. VxWorks itself was pretty robust back then, used in a lot of routers and other devices that "stay on all the time". So its track record is pretty good.
So the most likely scenario is what you suggested - a millisecond timer rolling over (with a 32-bit var storing info) and causing bogus data to accumulate after 49.71 days, which doesn't (for some reason) TRULY manifest itself until about 51 days...
Anyway, good catch.
US air safety bods call it 'potentially catastrophic' if reboot directive not implemented //
The US Federal Aviation Administration has ordered Boeing 787 operators to switch their aircraft off and on every 51 days to prevent what it called "several potentially catastrophic failure scenarios" – including the crashing of onboard network switches.
The airworthiness directive, due to be enforced from later this month, orders airlines to power-cycle their B787s before the aircraft reaches the specified days of continuous power-on operation.
The power cycling is needed to prevent stale data from populating the aircraft's systems, a problem that has occurred on different 787 systems in the past. //
A previous software bug forced airlines to power down their 787s every 248 days for fear electrical generators could shut down in flight.
Airbus suffers from similar issues with its A350, with a relatively recent but since-patched bug forcing power cycles every 149 hours.
What is the max skin temperature?
I heard/read somewhere that the reason the max skin temp of the real thing was 127℃ was because it made the maths easier for the engineers. Which makes sense after a little thinking.
I also heard about an SR-71 crew who were buzzing around the Caribbean being alerted to "Civilian traffic at your altitude" and being "WTF?"
Happy
Re: What is the max skin temperature?
What, so _skintemp could be stored as a 7-bit uint?
So... if any part of Concorde's skin ever reached 128°C, it would instantly flash-freeze?
Re: What is the max skin temperature?
127+273=400. (K)
Re: What is the max skin temperature?
Maximum skin temperature of 127ºC was set by the properties of the aluminum alloy used on the Concorde. Sustained exposures to temperatures above that would weaken the alloy. Sustained Mach 3 flight requires use of Titanium or stainless steel.
IIRC, the SR-71's typical operating altitude was a few km higher than the Concorde.
Re: What is the max skin temperature?
There's an interview with the SR71 pilot in the Omegatau podcast.
He was describing how he was pootling around over Cuba doing SR71 type things, when asked to look out for civilian traffic at his flight level
His observation was that he was wearing a space suit and peeing in a tube, while these businessmen flew past in shirt sleeves eating dinner and sipping champagne.
Tom Lopes flew a 2018 Cessna 172S Skyhawk SP on a ferry flight between California to Hawai’i. He flew the small single-engine general aviation aircraft an incredible 2,425 miles over more than 17 hours over the Pacific Ocean to the aircraft’s new home. This feat is even more mind-blowing when you learn that this was a nonstop flight that was more than three times the normal range of the aircraft. Here’s how Lopes did it.
Perhaps the coolest part about this journey is the fact that it’s something that Lopes has done before. Tom Lopes, the owner of Gateway Air Center, is a ferry pilot. He’s the guy you hire when you’ve just purchased a plane from somewhere far away and you want it delivered to where your home base is. Two years ago, Lopes flew the same crazy journey we’re talking about today. Lopes flew a different Cessna 172 between Merced Regional Airport/Macready Field in Merced, California, and the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, Hawai’i. I wrote about that trip two years ago and it took Lopes over 18 hours to fly the little plane 2,521 miles, or 2,190 nautical miles.
There may be no greater debate amongst pilots than the “rich of peak” or “lean of peak” (ROP vs. LOP) exhaust gas temperature method of leaning the aircraft engine. //
So that leaves us with the question; is it better to operate rich of peak or lean of peak?
Some engines achieve maximum economy range on the leaner fuel side of peak exhaust gas temperatures (EGT) and maximum power on the rich side of peak EGT. Some achieve both on the rich side of peak EGT. The ultimate answer comes from your engine manufacturer’s engine operator’s manual (EOM).
Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) provides pilots a way of monitoring the fuel/air mixture in the engine. It uses the stoichiometric mixture (where Fuel and Air are perfectly balanced so that there is no unburned fuel and no unburned oxygen at the end of the combustion event) as a reference: At this mixture the EGT is at its hottest ("Peak EGT"). Making the mixture richer or leaner will reduce the EGT, and all other mixture settings are described in terms of "Degrees Rich of Peak" or "Degrees Lean of Peak". //
The area of the chart from peak EGT to about 100 degrees Rich of Peak is often referred to as "The Red Box" -- in this range the fuel/air mixture has a low detonation margin, and the combustion event is producing the most internal stress on the engine components (cylinders, pistons).
As you can see from the Lycoming chart the Cylinder Head Temperature (CHT) peaks in this range, and there is a risk of exceeding the CHT limits and seriously damaging your engine by operating in this range for extended periods of time, particularly at high power settings.
The Terminal Procedures Search application allows searching, viewing, and downloading of the U.S. Terminal Procedure Publications (TPPs) as PDF files
https://avgeekery.com/kc-46-flies-around-the-world-nonstop/
Brian Millar about 15 hours ago 2
Search 20-46075 and you should be able to see its most recent flights; RCH046 on June 29 and July 1.
Departed from McConnell June 29 around 21:00Z headed west. Left the CONUS near Ft. Bragg, CA and dropped from tracking. Picked up a brief blip as it passed over Hawaii.
The July 1 RCH046 flight track picks it up again over the UAE, through the Persian Gulf to Turkiye and across Europe. We see a loop off the coast of England north of RAF Mildenhall for refuelling.
It appears again with a brief blip off the coast of Iceland and disappears again until it re-enters the CONUS over Lake Superior.
I searched through all the 16-46.., 17-46.., 18-46.., etc Pegasus aircraft’s in the fleet and any flights around July 1 to try to figure out which one it was.
Once I landed on 20-46075 and googled it I found a good write up on Twitter/X by “MeNMyRC”
https://x.com/MeNMyRC1/status/1808242275710898243 //
srobak about 7 hours ago 2
The funniest part is it also couldn't refuel itself - and instead had to rely on the 135 that it is supposed to replace to keep it in the air lol. //
srobak about 7 hours ago 0
The boomers hate them because the remote boom ops are complete garbage. Latency and precision issues. They've been plagued with design and electrical issues on multiple fronts and the entire fleet has been grounded more times than the max. Read up on the history - the 46 and the 35 alike are the most hated aircraft in the af. The funniest part is it also couldn't refuel itself - and instead had to rely on the 135 that it is supposed to replace to keep it in the air lol.
matt jensen about 5 hours ago 2
We love the KC135 as it only requires three man crew. The 46 needs 8-10 men to do the same job
MCAS was added on at the end as a high-tech Band-Aid to mitigate an unacceptable issue within the underlying MAX design.
Incompatible requirements had the MAX engineering team figuring out how to retrofit a large, next-generation engine (with fuel efficiency to compete with the Airbus A320neo) onto a legacy 737 airframe from 1968 without room for the new engine in the original mounting location. The team moved the engine mounting location forward and higher to fit the larger engine. The new mounting location was analyzed to cause an undesirable, increased tendency for this aircraft design to pitch upward (which can cause a stall in extreme situations).
Instead of pursuing other structural design options such as redesigning the landing gear, the team turned to the engineering elixir of automation. Sound engineering was outsourced to an autonomous MCAS computer with the authority to push the plane downward as it saw fit — tragically so in the 2018-2019 crashes.
An engineering team would not follow this course of action of its own accord. The legacy airframe was an issue; the new mounting location was an issue; inserting automation into the loop to smooth over these issues is unfathomable. Further investigation through a criminal trial should determine whether a trade study (engineering team’s comparative review of design options — a best practice) was conducted and, if so, who decided the outcome. //
Boeing is guilty of fraudulent behavior. But nothing about MCAS or individual engineer communications is the root cause. The grieving families and the public deserve to know who at Boeing directed the 737 MAX competitive strategy fundamentals and to see that party brought to justice.
SODPROPS stands for Simultaneous Opposite Direction Parallel Runway OPerationS. SODPROPS regulations allow airports to move traffic in opposite directions while maintaining safety standards. Opposite direction operations are often useful at airports with noise sensitive neighbors on one side, where arriving and departing traffic over water or away from residential areas might be preferred.
A Batik Air 737-8 MAX landing on Runway 34L, while a Jetstar A320 departs in the opposite direction on Runway 16L during SODPROPS.
SODPROPS is most commonly associated with Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport. At Sydney, traffic can arrive on Runway 34L and depart Runway 16L, keeping flights over the bay.
SODPROPS are only possible during periods of light winds and good visibility, which often makes for excellent photography.
The B-52 has been a stalwart of the U.S. Air Force since the 1950s. Eighty years after its introduction, the bomber is still relevant, with new variants planned to extend the airframe's service life for decades to come. Indeed, the B-52 will likely reach the 100 year mark of active-duty service.
When the B-52 first flew, aviation itself was only 50 years old, so as of today, the B-52 has been in the Air Force for more than half of the time that humans have been flying airplanes. Along the way, it has received consistent upgrades – to avionics, engines, weaponry, and more – allowing the 50s-era airframe to stay useful in a modern air force.
The B-52J is the latest iteration, with a new Rolls Royce F-130 engine that promises to improve fuel efficiency and stealth performance. It also brings a new radar system borrowed from the F/A-18 Super Hornet, as well as improved weaponry. //
That presents lots of options for un-aliving bad guys. Which, of course, is the whole purpose of the Air Force and all our armed forces, at least in the non-DEI world: to close with and destroy the enemy by fire, maneuver, and shock effect, or, in the case of the Stratofortress, bombing bad guys back into the Stone Age. //
War Planner
25 minutes ago edited
Thank you, Ward,
Almighty proud here! It's how I got my sobriquet: worked for USAF SAC DOCODW writing the SIOP (war plan) for these beasts. You know the safe you saw in Dr Strangelove? Yeppers, that's where my work product went every six months whether we needed it or not!
..kinda feel like Steve McQueen in Papillion on the raft floating out to sea, "I'm still here you bastards!"
Soldier on, Buffs*, soldier on! //
War Planner C. S. P. Schofield
19 minutes ago edited
SACism:
A B-52 is powered by engines that generate the horsepower of 100 railroad locomotives and is constructed with 25 miles of wire and enough aluminum to make 1,000 garbage cans.
..and it flies just like driving 100 locomotives hauling 1,000 garbage cans with 25 miles of wire!
On the final leg of the journey, after boarding, the pilot asked for volunteers to leave the plane as they were too heavy to take off.
They had flown a 50 min flight from my final destination to where I was and, without fuelling, were turning around to go back. They were adamant that the plane was too heavy and (with a print out from one of the flight computers in hand) were asking for 27 people to leave the flight. //
LH2327, today (11.2.20) A320 Neo. I'd guess at somewhere around 120 people (two full bus loads). they definitely didn't refuel. They said they filled the plane in Munich the day before to give the plane more balast to cope with the storm winds. //
The filling of the plane with fuel thing might have been a red herring, one of the stewards said it, although they hinted it was to keep it more firmly planted on the ground during the storm, not to affect flight performance in any way.
While American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have used all their lobbying might to try to get the federal government to shut down competitor JSX - because JSX offers a product that consumers prefer to their own - the origin of the fight against JSX stems from the big pilot union. And it wasn't even JSX they were really concerned with. //
That triggered the Air Line Pilots Association, which fought hard to make it more expensive and take longer to become a pilot. They didn’t want an expansion of flying outside of rules meant to limit the supply of pilots.
To go after SkyWest Charter – which fully complies with current rules, but DOT has simply sat on the application for no valid reason – they had to go after JSX which is a bigger scheduled charter operation. There are others, like Contour, but they saw the space growing.
Once the union started going after Dallas-based JSX, they were able to get Dallas-based Southwest Airlines and American Airlines on board for the fight. //
Nonetheless, the FAA plans to issue regulations cracking down on part 135 carriers and then investigate whether there are actual safety issues. This is a solution in search of a problem, because no one wants to talk about the real reason lobbyists have been pushing this.
There is simply no legitimate safety concern with JSX operations.