The rise and fall of an alien industrial spy
On 11/08/2010, in Environment - Without hot air, by cleo
As soon as teleporting was perfected for the military in a far corner of the galaxy, the first assignment for the new system was to send an agent to Earth to check out the source of incessant radio noise and strange video images alternately showing humans killing each other or pairing in strange ways often involving acrobatics that the far off aliens could not fathom. Mr. Fa’reye’s (a name quite impossible to pronounce for Earthlings) was selected as the agent for the mission. He was instructed to observe and provide a comprehensive report.
When Mr. Fa’reye’s arrived in Earth orbit, he was amazed to discover the incredible amount of junk that was floating around… his teleport capsule needed all of its computing power to dodge the obstacles. His first scan showed what he discovered were parliaments where people apparently went to discuss things which were subsequently mostly ignored by most other people. A lot of talk was about the environment and it seemed this was a subject that could actually make many of the two legged creatures in the parliaments quite passionate. They seemed to be saving their planet from some future catastrophe… They did not seem to realize that it was already happening. But, sure enough, they voted to spend a lot of money on future projects with doubtful outcome while very little if anything was being spent on mitigating the damage already being caused by their changing climate.
To Mr. Fa’reye’s’ amazement, people were also being duped by something they seemed to call hybrid cars which, apparently, they thought were not producing any harmful emissions. Power stations belching smoke as they produced the electricity for charging those hybrids were usually out of site and the people buying those cars did not seem to connect the smoke with their “emission free” vehicles.
On his last scan, he spotted a company making airplanes and what he discovered there was truly incredible on a world that seemed to be so hung up on protecting their environment.
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When winglets turn green – Continental flies on bio-fuel
On 09/08/2010, in Environment - Without hot air, by steve
It is more than a year ago now, but on 7 January 2009 Continental Airlines was the first US airline to conduct a bio-fuel test flight with one of their Boeing 737-800s. One engine was running on a mixture of traditional jet fuel, algae and jatropha oil.
The 73 got a special paint job for the occasion, proclaiming the arrival of “eco-skies” on the side of the fuselage and winglets sporting a bright green color.
Continental was blasted by wary environmentalists for the extra paint job but they were reassured that the paint used was of the high solids kind and the surface treatment underneath was also of a modern, chromium-free type, both as environmentally friendly as they come.
N76516 had been spotted in its new livery all over the US but there is scant news on any follow up to this initial test.
Getting the new paint job
Volcanic ash and jet engines do not mix
On 27/05/2010, in Environment - Without hot air, by steve
Although the following pictures have appeared on several sites already, we thought it would be interesting to provide them also on Roger-Wilco. They show clearly what happens when a jet engine flies through a volcanic ash cloud.
The plane is a Cessna Citation that flew out of Germany and they escaped because the other engine kept running, even if with reduced power.
The burns are due to hot air being blocked from escaping as the cooling ducts were clogged by the ash. Interestingly the stator seems to have failed rather than the rotor.
Behold…
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Volcanic Ash – the Rationale for Removing the 60Nm buffer zone
On 12/05/2010, in Environment - Without hot air, by phil
The UK CAA has reviewed the current knowledge on the effects of volcanic ash and the accuracy of the forecasting models. The document describing the rationale for removing the buffer zone can be found here.
This is good news for the aviation industry, not only because it will reduce some of the restrictions that have been placed on flights but, more importantly, because it shows the increasing scientific knowledge that has been gained. While it states that the ash concentration that can cause engine shut down is known with reasonable accuracy, it also admits that, at the lower levels, ‘the exact rate of change of damage with ash concentrations is not known’. Clearly more scientific work is needed in this area.
However, my main reason for optimism is the work being done to determine the validity of the forecast models. This has been done using flight test data gained from specially instrumented aircraft (Do228 and BAe146) during flights in and around the No-Fly Zones. This data has also been correlated with ground based LIDARs and Met Office weather balloons.
Flying AIRE – the pilot’s view
On 30/04/2010, in Environment - Without hot air, by eric
AIRE (Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions) is a joint initiative between the European Commission and the FAA. It is the green component of the SESAR programme. In 2009, 1,152 flight trials in operational conditions were carried out on the European side.
Claude Godel was the Pilot in Command of the first complete green transatlantic flight, operated by Air France on 6 April from Paris-Charles de Gaulle to Miami.
Captain Godel and part of his crew on the green transatlantic flight
In a first reaction after this green flight, Captain Godel describes it from a pilot’s perspective, “The AIRE flight is the almost perfect flight for a pilot. On a normal flight you never know how you will be incorporated in the traffic but you are sure that you will fly level at non optimal altitudes, have to beg ATC for better speed, better lateral track. In one word, you spend your time in negotiating or accepting non optimal compromises. The AIRE flight needs more pre-flight preparation but, once off-block, the pilot can expect to fly the best track from end to end, at the best speed and the best altitude. Isn’t that the pilot’s dream?”
He further describes the principle of green flights as a virtuous circle as an optimised flight path leads to shorter flight time, less fuel burn and CO2 emissions which in return reduces costs and leaves fewer place for contingencies. The pilot can thus satisfy the aspirations of modern passengers and himself finds new pleasure and satisfaction in his job.
During the approximately nine hours flight, enhanced green procedures were used to improve the aircraft’s energy efficiency. These procedures, applied at each flight stage and coordinated among all project participants, reduce fuel consumption (and hence carbon dioxide emissions) throughout the flight, from taxiing at Paris-Charles de Gaulle to arrival on the parking stand in Miami. Air France estimates that applying these optimisations to all Air France long-haul flights to and from North America, would result in a cut of CO2 emissions by 135,000 metric tons per year, with fuel savings of 43,000 metric tons.
For more information on AIRE, click here.
This article is reprinted with the kind permission of the author, Eric Platteau, Senior Communication & Public Affairs Specialist at the SESAR Joint Undertaking.
Volcanic Ash, an awesome danger
On 21/04/2010, in Environment - Without hot air, by phil
Despite the great beauty of many things found in nature, some also present a great danger to mankinds’ activities. The unprecedented closure of so much of Europe’s airspace highlights the problems caused by volcanic ash. This is not just an issue for airlines and the travelling public, but also affects the whole economy and all those industries that rely on air transport.
I am now retired, but with many friends knowing that I worked in aviation, I have been asked over and over again what the fuss is all about. So, I have trawled a number of aviation and science websites and have put together the following layman’s guide. Back in 1982, when I was the Flight Training Manager of the British Airways 747 Fleet, one of our Boeing 747-236 aircraft flew into a volcanic ash cloud over Indonesia. The incident occurred at night, the crew couldn’t see the ash cloud either visually or on the radar, and the forecast had given virtually no information. At that time the aviation industry knew relatively little about the effects of volcanic ash on jet engines. The crew did a magnificent job after all 4 engines stopped and managed to get back on the ground at Jakarta. Wikepedia has a good account of what happened here.
Click here to read the full article
A propos volcano – Are we preparing for the wrong things?
On 18/04/2010, in Environment - Without hot air, by steve
It is amazing how easy it is to bring aviation to its knees. An errant volcano on Iceland, winds blowing in the wrong direction and air transportation in Europe and beyond comes to a grinding halt as country after country closes their airspace to protect the traveling public. Volcanic ash is very bad news for aircraft engines and instruments… We are now into the third day of the almost total ban on flying with the skies over Europe empty and airports eerily silent. This is like a bad horror movie. Or is it?
Of course one may argue about the wisdom or indeed the need for such a total ban on flying on account of volcanic ash in the atmosphere. Test flights by KLM and Lufthansa conducted to check the theory have not shown any damage to the engines (when I first heard about these test flights, I was really surprised… who would risk a multimillion dollar set of engines to test such a theory… but then with their fleet all but grounded, the price of a few engines would be small change compared to the loss they were already making).
Whether the ban was justified or not, there is an important message here for the industry and the aviation business and it ties in with an article I have written recently, discussing how we are preparing, or rather, failing to prepare, for possibly catastrophic changes in the atmosphere. My focus was changes that may come about as a result of global warming and the current situation is the result of an old-style volcano, but the end result is the same: by assuming that the atmosphere in which we fly remains essential the same and a known quantity we ignore the need to prepare for the times when this assumption is no longer true.
And that time is to-day.
Click here to read the full article
Copenflop fall-out – what next?
On 16/02/2010, in Environment - Without hot air, by cleo
The Copenhagen environment conference was supposed to bring solutions to the problems nearer. The conference was a complete flop, certainly in
respect of aviation. Of course, trusting anything this serious to politicians is a bad idea to begin with, but this is the world we live in. We must trust them to get it right every now and again. Copenhagen was not one of their better days… But what will aviation be doing now?
Luckily, we are long past the initial arguments saying that aviation’s part in harmful emissions was so small, it was not even worth talking abut. The contribution is still very small but avoiding talking about it gets few friends for any industry… Aviation has built itself a reputation of environmental consciousness and as a source of innovative solutions, both of which were set as examples to other industries just before the Copenflop. That none of those ideas were used or even considered by the conference is not aviation’s fault….
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Is the industry ready for this?
On 19/01/2010, in Environment - Without hot air, by steve
The northern hemisphere has just gone through its snowiest January days in 40 years and polar temperatures reached as far South as Orlando in Florida. Sure, this is not abnormal some may say… but what if we do not have to wait forty years for the next episode?
An Air France flight en-route from Brazil to France encountered so severe turbulence that they issued a Mayday call but subsequently they completed the flight without incident. As we all know, AF447 was less fortunate.
Over the past 18 month or so, there were several incidents where unexpected severe turbulence caused passenger injuries…
And now the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) says, as reported in Aviation Week, that “climate change could be contributing to more extreme weather conditions at high altitudes that have not previously been encountered by aircraft”.
Make no mistake, although the current investigation of the crash of AF447 talks a lot about the problems with pitot tubes prone to freezing, there is a much more sinister implication here. Pilots are trained to handle situations where pitot tube data is lost or is unreliable… You cannot however train pilots to fly an aircraft with a wing or stabilizer gone. This is the point… who says extreme weather can only come in the form of extreme cold and not also as extreme turbulence?
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Energy, the environment and hot air
On 01/01/2010, in Environment - Without hot air, by phil
The book. Free!
Protecting the environment and using energy sustainably are both of great importance for Europe and the world. The SESAR Programme for ATM has, as one of its business objectives; “Reducing the environmental impact per flight by 10%”. Other European initiatives such as ACARE and Clean Sky aim at improving the efficiency and reducing the environmental impact of aircraft and engines. And Europe as a whole has set itself some very tough targets for reducing CO2. But what technologies should we be developing and what is physically possible? Far too much hot air is being talked by politicians and companies with vested interests who either don’t know the basic numbers, or who wish to become rich by selling their own pet projects.
Aviation is often victimised as one of the main offenders. Yet without aviation how well would our modern economy function? Transport is essential to the way we live, but what technologies should we use – biofuel, hydrogen, electricity or continue to burn hydrocarbons? We also need energy to heat our homes, our commercial buildings and to generate electricity, but should we use nuclear, solar, gas, clean coal, hydro-electric, wind, tide or wave? And in what proportion should these be used if we wish to live sustainably and as comfortably as we do now?
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Environment. The Copenflop – Is aviation better off now?
On 27/12/2009, in Environment - Without hot air, by cleo
We all remember how seriously aviation had been preparing for the UN environmental conference held earlier this month in Copenhagen. Led by IATA, the aviation industry arrived with concrete proposals and plans which were seen by several non-aviation experts as templates suitable also for other industries.
Once the conference kicked off, aviation experts must have felt like adults thrown into a kindergarten with a very poor teacher at the helm. Kids shouting all over the place, getting into fights, leaving the playroom when not granted their favorite toys… Those who ventured outside to escape the worst of the circus fared no better. There was another kind of kindergarten out there, albeit with destruction and tear-gas thrown in to increase the fun.
Of course the kids inside were the same politicians who are convinced that electric cars charged from a public utility produce virtually no emissions and also who had promised to shutter nuclear reactors while having no idea how to replace their generating capacity. It was no surprise to see them come together after having brandished the environmental flag at home and then fail to agree on the time of day, let alone actual environmental action.
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When blue means green
On 27/11/2009, in Environment - Without hot air, by steve
The KLM 747 shown below circled The Netherlands for an hour on 23 November with one of its four engines running on a 50 % mix of biokerosene. The new fuel aptly tagged “sustainable kerosene” was manufactured from the camelina plant by a biotechnology company in Seattle, USA.
KLM said that this was the first ever flight in Europe powered partly by sustainable kerosene.
Some 40 people, including politicians, airline officials and journalists, were on board.
KLM stressed that its interest in sustainable kerosene is conditional on the availability of solutions that do not jeopardize the food supply, forests or water resources.
This flight was definitely an important first step towards cleaner and sustainable air transport. The general availability of sustainable kerosene is one aspect that will determine how quickly companies adopt the new fuel.
I have only one nagging question… what color will the contrail be behind a fully bio aero engine? (SMILE)
Bio is in…
On 17/09/2009, in Environment - Without hot air, by steve
One of the, perhaps not unexpected, results of the current world economic crisis is the explosive growth of corporate social responsibility. Part of this is in response to the growing demand of the general population to move from unchecked consumerism and predatory capitalism to a more sustainable and socially more equitable form of market economy. Protecting the environment while working on this change is a natural.
Corporations are responding because they have discovered that a more socially responsible attitude brings not only new sources of investment but also increased customer loyalty. Of course this is nothing new. Benjamin Franklin was on the same track when he was popularizing the idea of doing well by doing good… and that was quite some years before Lehman Brothers et al.
For some reason, air transportation has been a popular target of environmentalists and politicians alike who tend to attack the industry for being environmental morons who are also socially irresponsible. Since it is not really realistic (even for environmentalists and politicians) to suggest that airlines offer bicycles to their customers instead of aircraft seats, the elegant and simple solution of capping air traffic growth is being put forward instead by some.
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Perpetuum mobile…
On 29/08/2009, in Environment - Without hot air, by steve
Great news! I have invented a truly working perpetual motion machine. The perpetuum mobile is now reality! What? You do not believe it? Never mind. You are then one of those people who will not buy a Hybrid drive car and who also do not stand in awe in front of those aberrations ruining the countryside, wind turbines claiming to be THE solution for renewable energy.
But there are others, including governments, who believe in both, what is more, subsidize them to make the show even grander… Alongside Hybrid drive cars and wind turbines, my perpetual motion machine has a real chance. But what does this have to do with air traffic management?
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