Yet another aviation thread.

Quote: Pacomartin

As science, I would think it would be right up your alley, as it is essentially looking into the fundamental structure of the universe including the first few hundred thousand years after the big bang.

Yes and no. Grand Cosmology runs far too esoteric sometimes. It's really hard to keep up.

Quote:

In the 1980s it spread around the world including Mexico City.

I'll take your word for it. if you asked me to name five current Mexican bands, I'd draw a blank.

Quote: Nareed

Yes and no. Grand Cosmology runs far too esoteric sometimes. It's really hard to keep up.

Other uses of SKA:

The SKA will be able to probe the habitable zone of Sun-like protostars, where Earth-like planets or moons are most likely to have environments favorable for the development of life. The signatures of forming Earth-like planets imprinted on circumstellar dust may be the most conspicuous evidence of their presence and evolution, and may even detect planets capable of supporting life.

Astrobiologists will also use the SKA to search for complex organic compounds (carbon-containing chemicals) in outer space, including amino acids, by identifying spectral lines at specific frequencies.

The SKA will be capable of detecting extremely weak radio emissions "leakage" from nearby extraterrestrial civilizations, if they exist.

Monarch Airlines over in the UK stopped flight operations and has ceased to exist.

And so Europe, like America, heads towards massive consolidation of the air travel market. It's a bit less plain in Europe. For example, Swiss, Eurowings, Lufthansa, Austrian and Brussels Airlines are all part of the Lufthansa group.

This doesn't bode well for the future of air travel, especially as the big competitors to the mainline carriers are ULCCs driving prices, and comfort, way down.

Quote: Nareed

This doesn't bode well for the future of air travel, especially as the big competitors to the mainline carriers are ULCCs driving prices, and comfort, way down.

One puzzling thing when I look at BTS data from the government, I always find some unusual data. For instance Southwest Airlines for April 2017 (latest data) shows information on all 87 domestic airports they were using at the time, but then five airports (shown in red) have a record of one or two landings and takeoff for the month. I always wonder if this was a mistake, or do they land for emergencies, or do they have unscheduled landings.

It seems like there are states that even Southwest considers too empty to expand into like Montana, North and South Dakota, Wyoming,Mississippi, Vermont and West Virginia in addition to Alaska and Hawaii

On the news yesterday, the island of St. Helena received its first ever scheduled commercial flight to its brand new, and first ever, airport.

St. Helena is a tiny speck of land in the South Atlantic, well off the western coast of Africa. It's one of the most remote places in the world. It's a British territory, which served as a stop in voyages to India and Asia centuries ago. It's most famous for being the place where Napoleon was finally contained until his death in 1821.

Even with an airport and regular air service, it's not an easy place to reach. The flight is to-from Johannesburg and takes about 6 hours.

Quote: Pacomartin

It seems like there are states that even Southwest considers too empty to expand into like Montana, North and South Dakota, Wyoming,Mississippi, Vermont and West Virginia in addition to Alaska and Hawaii

Coincidentally, Southwest just announced upcoming flights to Hawaii :)

I wonder if they'll ever get bitten by the narrow body transatlantic bug. it seems unlikely.

I wonder if they will fly DAL to HNL

Quote: Pacomartin

I wonder if they will fly DAL to HNL

That would qualify as cruel and unusual, even for this new age of long haul narrow body travel. I think they'll go with the west coast, perhaps even Las Vegas (tons of traffic between Hawaii and Vegas)

Quote: Nareed

That would qualify as cruel and unusual, even for this new age of long haul narrow body travel. I think they'll go with the west coast, perhaps even Las Vegas (tons of traffic between Hawaii and Vegas)

Bergen Norway to Newburgh NY 3,444 miles Norwegian Air
Honolulu to Dallas TX is 3,796 miles: Potential flight for Southwest

Las Vegas is also the best served CONUS destination

Here is the competition. Will southwest become the 5th airline to fly from Vegas to Hawaii, the 6th to fly from LAX to HNL, or will it seek out smaller airports like Austin, Tucson, Albuquerque or Dallas.

The purple line are 2935 nmi, 3010 nmi and 3515 nmi from Honolulu, which is the "still air range" of the B737-800, B737-700 and B737-8 Max.

The approval for 270 minutes ETOPS was given to the 737 in 1999, and Aloha airlines began B737-700 flights to the west coast and Reno in the year 2000. From 2000 to 2008 loha airlines had 8 Boeing 737–700s with 124 and a Boeing 737–800 for the last few months before going bankrupt. They flew narrowbodies to:

Burbank (Bob Hope Airport)
Oakland (Oakland International Airport)
Orange County (John Wayne Airport) Focus City
Sacramento (Sacramento International Airport)
San Diego (San Diego International Airport)
Las Vegas (McCarran International Airport)
Reno (Reno/Tahoe International Airport)
Phoenix (Sky Harbor International Airport)



Current destinations are shown in RED on the map
Las Vegas
Hawaiian Airlines Las Vegas
Allegiant Air Las Vegas
Boyd Vacations Hawaii Charter: Las Vegas
Delta Air Lines Seasonal: Las Vegas (begins December 21, 2017)

Within range of Max-8
Hawaiian Airlines Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose (CA),
American Airlines Los Angeles, Dallas/Fort Worth, Phoenix–Sky Harbor
Delta Air Lines Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Salt Lake City, Seattle/Tacoma Seasonal: San Francisco, Portland (OR)
United Airlines Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Houston–Intercontinental,
Virgin America Los Angeles, San Francisco
Hawaiian Airlines Seattle/Tacoma Oakland, Phoenix–Sky Harbor, Portland (OR),
Alaska Airlines Anchorage, Oakland, Portland (OR), San Diego, San Jose (CA), Seattle/Tacoma

LONG RANGE
United Airlines : Chicago–O'Hare, Washington–Dulles
Delta Air Lines : Atlanta, Seasonal: New York–JFK
Hawaiian Airlines : New York–JFK,

There's been some buzz lately about further reducing the cockpit crew. Many can recall when three people sat at the cockpit: pilot, copilot, and flight engineer. Automation ended the last position (though some older jets still fly which require three crew). Next would be cutting the requirements in half and having only one pilot.

At first glance this is absurd. The workload on takeoff alone is too much for one person. It's not strenuous, but most people top out at two eyes and one brain. Meaning one can only pay attention to one thing at one time.

So the idea is to have a co-pilot on the ground to assist remotely.

How is this better? Well, a grounded pilot could work on several flights, not just one.

That's the idea.

I don't think it's very wise. How would you dela with emergencies? how about if the communication and data link malfunctions? how about multiple emergencies? What happens if the pilot on the ground gets his flights mixed up?

Proponents want to try it out on cargo planes to begin with. So give them credit for good sense. But I just don't see it happening for decades yet.