The world's third global aerospace market: India's civil aviation sector takes off

Good news! About 15% of all Indian pilots are women! Sometimes two female pilots are flying the same plane. However, there are significant staffing shortages in this fast growing industry.

(255) The world's third global aerospace market: India's civil aviation sector takes off • FRANCE 24 - YouTube

The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed a new rule that would allow civilian aircraft to fly faster than Mach 1 over the continental US

Good news! Long overdue!

Flying again faster across the US thanks to President Trump!

"The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed a new rule that would allow civilian aircraft to fly faster than Mach 1 over the United States if their sonic booms stay below a strict noise threshold at ground level. If finalized, the rule, along with another planned rule that would set landing and takeoff noise standards for supersonic aircraft, would end the 1970s ban on overland civilian supersonic flight. ..."

Doomslayer: Progress Roundup - by Malcolm Cochran

FAA releases draft of new commercial supersonic flight regulations

FAA Supersonic Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (63 pages)

Welcome back the famous Concorde supersonic airplane

Warum in Deutschland immer mehr Privatflugzeuge abheben, kein Statussymbol

Na und! Warum nicht! Aber im Klimawahn der Bananenrepublik D ist das wohl anrüchig?

Warum in Deutschland immer mehr Privatflugzeuge abheben | FAZ "Der Unternehmer, der Anwalt, der Immobilienentwickler – immer mehr Menschen in Deutschland steigen statt in die Bahn lieber ins Privatflugzeug. Aber kaum einer will darüber reden."

India Needs More Airlines To Grow Its Aviation Market. Here's Why with Palki Sharma

Very recommendable! India is already the largest domestic aviation market in the world.

Zwischen Stunts und Hakenkreuz: 4 deutsche Pionierinnen der Luftfahrt

Empfehlenswert! So Beate Uhse war die erste Stuntpilotin! Ich kannte Beate Uhse eher nur durch ihre Geschäfte mit der Erotik.

NASA Tests "Quiet" Supersonic X-59 Jet to End Sonic Booms with Palki Sharma

Good news! Very recommendable!

Why (human) Pilots Will Matter in the Age of Autonomous Planes. Really!

Maybe for a short transition period! And it does not apply to onboard human pilots!

Waymo cars have already sufficiently demonstrated that autonomous vehicles on the ground in dense urban areas can be operated without any human driver behind the steering wheel.

Maybe one human pilot will fly hundreds of autonomous planes!

The opening paragraph of this article is already quite ridiculous and outdated! Since 2001 we have had a revolution in machine learning & AI going on.

Caveat: I did not bother to read the whole article. Waste of my time!

"In August 2001, an anonymous guest posted on the forum at Airliners.net, a popular aviation website. “How Long Will Pilots Be Needed?” they wondered, observing that “20 years or so down the road” technology could be so advanced that planes would fly themselves. “So would it really be useful for a person to go to college now and be an airline pilot if a few years down the road they will be phased out by technology?” ..."

Autonomous Planes: Will Pilots Become Relics of the Past? - IEEE Spectrum "Long after planes start flying themselves, humans will still be in the loop."

First Electric Plane Carrying 4 Passengers Flies 130 Kilometres For Just $8 and the flight is very quiet

Very recommendable! I just blogged here yesterday about this historic flight (but without video)!

First passenger-carrying electric airplane makes history landing at JFK airport in NYC

Good news! The Wright brothers were watching and smiling!

"Kyle Clark, founder and CEO of Beta Technologies, was at the controls as the company's electric aircraft flew from East Hampton to JFK. With four passengers on board, the trip covered about 70 nautical miles in just over half an hour. That's right, a fully electric plane, carrying people, quietly and efficiently making its way through the skies above New York. ..."

First passenger-carrying electric airplane makes history landing at JFK | Fox News

Credits: The Flyover

Trump’s Executive Order to Make Flying Cars a Reality

Very recommendable!

Sole Survivor of Air India Crash Says How He Survived

His brother did not survive! How will he survive the horror for the rest of his life? I wish him good luck and full recovery!

Beijing to New York in just 2 hours? Maybe as early as 2027?

Just hype? "... on October 27, 2024, that its Yunxing prototype plane completed the test flight the previous day ..."

Rotating detonation ramjet engine for hypersonic speeds to fly in 2025

Amazing stuff! Will civil aviation be taken to the next level? What is the boom, if any?

"... A case in point is Venus Aerospace's new Venus Detonation Ramjet 2000 lb Thrust Engine (VDR2). ...

Unveiled at the recent Up.Summit in Bentonville, Arkansas the VDR2 looks ridiculously simple in a cutaway view because it's essentially an empty tube without moving parts. This is because it's mainly a ramjet, where the incoming air is compressed by the speed of the engine moving forward instead of by spinning turbine blades as in a conventional jet engine. ...

The VDR2 takes things a step further by incorporating a Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE), which overcomes the limitations of a rocket or jet engine by using another novel principle – again, with no moving parts. The RDRE part of the VDR2 consists of two coaxial cylinders with a gap between them. A fuel/oxidizer mixture is squirted into the gap and ignited. The next step is a bit tricky, but if the detonation is configured properly, this generates a closely coupled reaction and shock wave that speeds around inside the gap at supersonic velocity that generates more heat and pressure. ...

It has the high thrust and efficiency needed to power an aircraft to speeds of up to Mach 6 and an altitude of 170,000 ft (52,000 m) [conventional civil aviation planes fly at about 9,000-12,000 meter altitude] and is 15% more efficient than conventional engines, if Venus Aerospace meets its current design goals. ...

The VDR2 is expected to make its first test flight in a test drone next year."

Rotating detonation ramjet engine for hypersonic speeds to fly in 2025

Electronic warfare against GPS is spooking civilian pilots, airlines and air-safety officials

Bad news!

"GPS spoofing, which militaries use to ward off drones and missiles, is also permeating growing numbers of commercial aircraft, including U.S. airlines’ international flights. Fake data can cause glitches such as false warnings and misdirected flight paths, according to pilot reports. The airline industry and regulators are working on short-term workarounds and longer-term fixes, but anti-GPS spoofing equipment standards won’t be issued until next year at the earliest, according to people familiar with the matter."

The Wall Street Journal What's news

Not always friendly and safe!

How China’s C919 passenger jet is faring a year after maiden flight

More trouble for Boeing and Airbus! Competition from a communist country!

How times have changed for Boeing

Well, the CEO and other top employees of Boeing will soon be gone for a serious of shoddy quality issues!  😊 Credits

This button is from the Boeing store and still available for $0.75! 😊

World’s first jetpack race in Dubai

Very recommendable! Looks like a lot of fun! And this is happening in the Arab world not the Western world!

Startup Aims High With synthetic Jet Fuel Made From Waste

Who needs fossil fuels anymore! Welcome to the age of synthetic fuels!

"Israeli scientists, however, have now developed sustainable [??? synthetic] aviation fuel (SAF) that they say will revolutionize the industry and play a key role in countering climate change.  ...

“This process is able to extract the SAF and [with] actually very good efficiency, and have the [pollutants] very contained in a very sustainable way,” ...

The company says its technology “embraces the diversity of waste streams [thereby] converting much more waste into greener products, while slashing carbon emissions.” ...

The European Commission, meanwhile, has issued a mandate for aviation companies to begin blending SAF into their fuel at EU airports from 2025, beginning with a 2 percent blend next year and rising to 70 percent by 2050.  ..."

Startup Aims High With Green Jet Fuel Made From Waste

Microbe-made syntetic jet fuel

Fossil fuels are so passé! Welcome to the age of synthetic fuels!

"Aviation fuel produced by fermentation

The first commercial-scale plant that produces jet fuel from ethanol is about to come online. The plant, run by US company LanzaJet, will use catalytic steps adopted from the petrochemical industry, but their ultimate goal is to leave much of the catalytic work to microbes. The ethanol used by the plant is already produced by microbes: in a separate process, Clostridium autoethanogenum is fed waste carbon monoxide from places such as steel mills and metabolizes it into the compound. Jet fuel made from waste gases could help feed an aviation industry under pressure to find ‘sustainable’ alternatives to conventional fuel."

"Over the next few months, the world’s first commercial-scale ethanol-to-jet fuel plant will begin producing its first gallons of aviation fuel. The plant, located in Soperton, Georgia and developed by LanzaTech and its spin-out LanzaJet, represents a major milestone in their nearly 20-year effort to turn waste industrial gases into ethanol, and then to jet fuel. ..."

Microbe-made jet fuel | Nature Biotechnology The aviation industry readies to embrace aviation fuel produced by fermentation.

Nature briefing

China’s C919: first home-grown airliner makes international debut at Singapore's airshow

Another milestone for China!

Money was not an object!