What is the Future of Aviation?

So I've picked up a new side job because that's just how I roll--Social Media Pathfinder for Powering Imagination, an organization dedicated to advancing and advocating for improving aviation technology. How, exactly, does one do that, and how can I help? I'm still working that out. For now, I'm going to take a little time with this blog to share what I'm reading.

How, Exactly, Do You Make Airplanes Better?
Human beings have been flying in heavier-than-air crafts ever since 1903. The basic forces at work in flying a plane are lift, drag, thrust, and gravity. Since very little can be done about gravity, inventors have worked on increasing lift, reducing drag, and increasing thrust. As aircraft have increased in their performance and utility, they have become more specialized, and each type of plane has its own performance needs...and that performance can always be improved.

Commercial Aviation
Powering Imagination's primary effort is to improve aircraft performance is commercial aviation--those big, winged aluminum tubes we see filling our airports. While I'd love to tell you that P.I. is looking for ways to improve in-flight comfort, they're more interested in how to make the planes' performance better in the following ways:

• Quiet Flight: making aircraft engines quieter--in the air and on the ground. The last big advance on commercial airliners was the high-bypass turbofan. But the Environmental Protection Agency keeps raising the bar for noise pollution standards. Powering Imagination is looking to demonstrate a quieter electric aircraft over the Grand Canyon.
  
  In addition to the standard subsonic aircraft we see every day, there are folks who would like to make supersonic aircraft quieter--so quiet, in fact, that those Earth-rattling sonic booms practically disappear. And then, of course, there's Elon Musk, who wants to reinvent aviation as he's been reinventing rockets and automobiles. Musk believes it's feasible to build an electric supersonic aircraft that performs both vertical takeoff and landing.
• Improved Fuel Efficiency and Emissions: One of Powering Imagination's founders is Erik Lindbergh, grandson of Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Among their early feats, to demonstrate the commercial viability of aviation, the Lindberghs flew a "Great Circle" route from the Pacific Northwest north over Siberia, then south over Japan to China. Their grandson is looking to refly that trip 85 years later, this time to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of sustainable fuel technologies.
  
  While a lot of work is being done on cutting-edge, non-kerosene-fueled aircraft, the conventional power plant builders--Pratt & Whitney and General Electric--have their own programs to wring as much power for as little fuel as possible within the current state of the art.

There are challenges to any new technology. Electric aircraft capable of flying 200-300 passengers across the Atlantic are unlikely anytime soon. Right now solar-powered planes capable of long-distance travel, like Switzerland's Solar Impulse, have massive wingspans and carry only one person.

A friend who's more tech-savvy than I am called electric aircraft "a joke," adding, "There are certain unmanned surveillance aircraft where that feature would come in handy, but today those aircraft can only be launched and recovered in very calm weather. Despite huge wingspans, their payload capability is quite low."

So there is skepticism, to be sure. Biofuels are not the only answer, either, and they'll need a lot of federal support to prime the pump, so to speak, before they become commercially viable. Whether that can or should be done is a debate reasonable people can make. But still: we never used to need an excuse to advance the state of the art. Why not keep trying?

Potpourri CIV

Another mixed bag this evening. Two days until vacation. Thank goodness. The blathersphere is starting to wear me down (as, no doubt, the pack-mentality piling on is intended to do).

If you read this piece from the L.A. Times, it becomes quickly apparent from the writer's tone that you are just too stupid to realize that government-run health care is good for you. It's that tone alone that puts off people--something to consider when going out to sell the superiority of your ideas to "the rubes"--why should people listen if you act as if you're an idiot?

Speaking of L.A., I've been watching the news of the L.A. fires sporadically--more specifically, about the fires' proximity to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Mt. Wilson Observatory, two organizations close to my heart. The good news is that it appears both facilities are out of danger for the moment. One thing that has fascinated me about the firefighting effort has been the size of the aircraft doing the work now. It used to be small transports like C-130s; now they're using DC-10s and 747s. Wow! That's a lot of water or flame retardant!

This one came from my "foodie" friend Michelle, and it's just too good to pass up: a blow-by-blow email chain from a company attempting to get its first Twitter posting approved. Too funny!

Some gratuitous pictures of aircraft. Before the space geekitude kicked in, I loved airplanes. Still do, obviously.

New from Hu: an interesting video splicing together some of the discussions of the Augustine Panel.

Does President Obama want to politically pre-program your kids? Perish the thought.

Need a Science Cheerleader t-shirt? Sure you do! And now you can buy one--at a $4 discount, if you do well on Dar's science literacy test. And speaking of Dar, she's made another interview appearance, this time on TheScientist.com. Gooooo Dar!

The AFL-CIO is suggesting that the government put a tax on every single stock sale/transaction. No doubt they hope to stir up populist resentment against "Wall Street fat cats" and other capitalists, hoping that the angry public won't recall that half of the populace owns stocks via pensions or 401(k) plans. For gosh sakes...will someone please put a BRAKE on these guys? They passed the point of overreach several months ago.

From Rhonda at Learn to Read: a site with adult literacy resources.

From Stephanie at work: a do-it-yourself podcast program for students to create their own space-related podcast. Cool!

You know, with all these old TV shows being brought back in one form or another, I would love to see Night Court on DVD...NOT remade into a sequel or "reboot" or whatever. I just want to savor some of the zaniness. The example here will suffice; this one stars the usual cast plus Brent Spiner, later known as Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

And a last little bit of silliness for your day: the wife of the new Japanese prime minister claims to have been abducted by aliens.

The Last Minutes of Flight 447

It's not like I'm an utter pessimist or afraid of flying--I rather like it, actually, TSA shenanigans and all. But perhaps because my family worked at Eastern Airlines and I flew a lot, I pay a lot of attention to commercial airliner crashes. I also used to knock on the side of the airplane for luck before boarding. What the heck, it never hurt, right? Now I just pray. Anyhow, on a related note, the New York Post today reports than a Brazilian news paper posted the last transmissions from Air France Flight 447, which went down in the South Atlantic. I feel only slightly better that the authorities are saying it was likely not terrorism-related because they found oil/fuel on the surface--otherwise, I presume, the fuel would have burned if it were an explosion. Maybe. Some airplanes and ships in the area reported some sort of flash, I believe. Also, JP-8 has a pretty high flash point, so there could still have been some sort of fire without all of the fuel getting caught up in it. Just sayin'.

I pay attention to these things a little more when I've got to travel by air. Just collating data, as they say. And yeah, in addition to the prayer, I might start knocking on the side of the airplanes for luck. Couldn't hoit.

Afternoon at the Moontown Airport


My buddy Scott, who serves as one of my subject matter experts on things aviation, Navy, logistics, Special Forces, and other matters, emailed me from New Zealand a couple days ago to remind--no, order me to go to a fly-in of a Douglas DC-3 at Moontown Airport in Gurley, Alabama. I did so because I like airplanes, not out of any particular sense of obedience...I mean, Scott's 10,000 miles away or more, it's not like he's going to come after me tomorrow if he finds out I didn't go.

But the trip was, of course, worthwhile. The plane was late arriving due to rain between Huntsville and Atlanta, so I had a chance to wander around, take pictures of airplanes, talk to a couple of folks, and catch a nap before the plane finally DID show up, about 4.5 hours later than expected.


I'll start with the airport itself. Every airport has its own three- or four-character code to identify it to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). For example, ORD for Chicago O'Hare, MCO for Orlando International, HSV for Huntsville International, etc. Moontown is 3M5, which sounds like the first part of a London postal code to me, but go figure.

























I saw a couple of cool banners hanging in the various hangars at Moontown (hereafter MT). The one here is for the 82nd Combat Air Brigade out of Fort Bragg, NC.


























There is, apparently, a Red Star Pilots Association. Who knew? I found this flag hanging from one of the probes jutting from the forward end of a YAK-52.

There are several golf carts at MT, one of which was imported from Thailand.

A "No Bull$#!t" sign is displayed prominently in the service building, which looks like a pilot ready room that hasn't changed in 60 years.

The upper part of the walls are festooned with cloth signs proclaiming pilot's first solo flights. Not sure if the cloth comes from t-shirts or what, but they had that ambience to them.

There was a flying map of the U.S. on the wall, which marks out (I believe) typical city-to-city flight paths and restricted air space (more on that a little later).

And because there is, in fact, only so much time one can spend in the ready room, I eventually wandered the hangar area to take pictures of airplanes that interested me. One plane I spotted was this gray U.S. Army scout plane.

I found this sporty little model that looked like a UFO with its bubble canopy. No idea who makes it, but it looks very fun to fly.

The yellow biplane below is made of composites but has a design based on the Beechcraft 17 Staggerwing. It's one of only five in the country. I saw a couple of these at an air show at Andrews Air Force Base a few years ago. Pretty aircraft. Nine-cylinder engine, 450 horsepower, seats for 6, but more comfortably seats 4.

This sporty little red monoplane is a kit aircraft built by Van called the RV-3. I chatted with the owner, David E., for awhile, getting myself less stupid about private aircraft flying vs. commercial flying (which is all I've done). The RV-3 has a four-cylinder Lycoming engine capable of pushing the plane to 190 miles per hour and an altitude of 10,000 to 12,000 feet. Edgewood manages to get about 100 hours per year in her, and seems to enjoy the experience just for flying's sake. He doesn't use it for travel much.

I asked him if he'd been put under a lot of restrictions by TSA since 9/11, and he indicated that flying into regular commercial airports is not worth the hassle. However, small fields like MT were still easy to fly into and out from, with a minimum of paperwork or formality. MT doesn't even have a tower, and operates under VFR (visual flight rules) as opposed to IFR (instrument flight rules). In connection with long-distance travel, though, David was a little less positive. "A lot of us [private pilots] don't have kind things to say about our politicians these days. A lot of them are jumping at shadows." He also indicated that random TFRs (temporary flight restrictions) can pop up when you least want or expect them. Examples include keeping private planes out of areas where Air Force One is flying or near televised sports events. "Flying into DCA [Washington National] is like flying into a foreign country. And a lot of these TFRs sprout up like mushrooms for no reason. They'll be a couple thousand feet high and two or three miles out from a location."

Much to my surprise, David was not a commercial pilot or retired military pilot. He learned to fly in college and just caught the bug. He'd fly more, he said, if his wife didn't get a bad habit of being airsick.

I asked about the foam chocks inside his engine inlets, which had string sticking from them, which was wrapped around the propeller. He explained that those were in there to keep birds, bugs, and other stuff out. "And when the prop turns on, they have the benefit of just flying right out."

Several of the Russian YAK-52s I saw at Scottsboro a couple weeks ago are based at MT. I asked how, exactly, one acquires a Russian trainer aircraft, Czech-made or not. One young guy just shrugged and said, "Russians. They'll sell anything."

This plane just intrigued me, like the cockpit window was added as an afterthought. The name on the side was "Pawnee D," which might be the name of the plane or the name of the pilot's tribe, for all I knew. (Follow-up note: It's a Piper PA-25-235 Pawnee.)

The guys there in the "tower" are most likely checking their watches. There's not much other equipment there besides a radio.

The reason I and a lot of other people were there, of course, was to see the Douglas DC-3, which got held up by rainy weather between Huntsville and Atlanta. I had enough time to finish a magazine and take a nap.

When the gray lady finally showed up, she did a couple of low passes over the field, the first one so low and close that I d@mn near dropped my camera. There are "mountains" (big, friggin' hills for anyone who's been to Colorado) past either end of the runway, so the plane came in at a bit of an angle. Must've made for an interesting time in the cockpit.

It's hard to get an appreciation for how big these things are until you see them up close, especially if you're a tourist like me who's been flying on commercial jets all his life. For example, compared to one of the last McDonnell-Douglas aircraft, the DC-10, the DC-3 looks like a little putt-putt plane. However, she compares favorably if you've spent any time in regional jets.

The DC-3 held a record for years as the most-produced aircraft in history, a record that I believe was finally surpassed by the 737. She was big for her day, carrying 30-35 passengers, unpressurized, and probably noisy as heck onboard, but she over 16,000 of her sisters managed to provide air transport in war and peace...and obviously still do.

Unlike most of the commercial DC-3s, which were drafted for military service or the C-47s that were built specifically for war use, this particular aircraft did not serve in World War II. She rolled off the assembly line in 1938 and was sold to Swissair, which remained neutral throughout the war. The plane was subsequently sold to Ozark Airlines and then Academy Air before the current private owner acquired her.

The plane is still flying with her original Pratt & Whitney Wasp piston engine, carefully maintained. Where do you find spare parts for a 70-year-old engine, anyway?

AVWeb.com has been doing a web feature on this plane. Thus the sponsorship banner on the nose.

The airport operator was interviewed by AVWeb...

I'm not sure if it was standard equipment on all DC-3s, but this one has a double door, one half of which opened for passengers, the back half of which opened to stow cargo.

The interior ceiling was surprisingly roomy. The plane itself was a bit cluttered from the other stuff they were carrying. The four seats shown here were the only passenger seats on the plane. The rest of the interior was used for cargo.

I couldn't wait to sit down in the cockpit of this baby. All of the instruments are mechanical, hydraulic, or electrical, not electronic. The pilot and copilot seats had wool seat covers. I felt like I was in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon or something.

This beast must be a pain to taxi, as you cannot look directly forward most of the time--the nose is pointed up toward the sky--leaving you only the side window to see the ground and the tail wheel and your propellors to move you in the direction you want to go. However, the view from up there is pretty impressive, as long as it's not raining. (Correction from Scott: the tail wheel has no role in turning--thanks for the catch!)

Who knows how much longer hobbyists will be able to keep the "Dakotas" or DC-3s or C-47s in the air using their original equipment. But while they can, it's worth your time to see one of these planes up close. Seeing one in the Air & Space Museum is one thing. Climbing into one that's still flying is something else.

Scottsboro Airport Fly-In

I decided to drive out to Scottsboro, Alabama, because they were having a "fly-in," which was to feature some Russian fighters and a Douglas DC-3. The DC-3 didn't make it in--most likely due to the exciting weather we've been having in the Tennessee Valley this weekend. Anyhow, I wandered around with the Canon, letting my sense of humor or aesthetics guide me where they might.

In my pre-NASA life, I worked for a defense logistics company that handled, among other things, fuel systems for the Army. As a result of this, I got to learn more than I really needed to about the differences between JP-8, AvGas, Jet-A, and the other flavors of petroleum that keep our military vehicles moving (for instance, did you know tanks are running on JP-8?). I'm trying to imagine a jet landing on Scottsboro's 5,000-foot runway, and I'm thinking the plane better have good brakes--or a Navy pilot aboard, used to landing things on short runways.

The airport has a very festive mailbox...

Word!...uh, Field.

The Russian planes they were showcasing were Yakovlev Yak-52s. The planes look like World War II-era fighters, but are trainer aircraft that first flew in 1976. They reminded me a little of the Dauntless SBD Dauntless dive bomber, but they're too small and light.

Action shot, which kind of looks like a clip from Tora, Tora, Tora! but is more the result of me trying to follow the planes and shoot (with the camera, in this case).

These guys weren't doing any seriously scary acrobatics, probably because a couple of them were carrying kids onboard. Always fun to see formation flying, though. I couldn't do it.

The interior of a Beechcraft cockpit. One of the better parts of doing a fly-in at a local airport instead of an Air Force base is that you can walk around pretty much anywhere along the flight line.

More formation flying. They had three Yak-52s, and a Yak-52TW, which has a slightly different wing and tail shape.

Screaming in low over the deck...

The loud end of a PT-17 Stearman "Kaydet" trainer aircraft. Note the wooden prop--standard equipment on a lot of aircraft until the jet era. The wings are covered with canvas.

The greasy kid stuff was leaking off the local fire department truck that was there, not any of the aircraft.

Like I said, spectators could get really close to the flightline. Probably closer than they should have been, but what the heck.

The lucky guy who got to remove the chocks from the landing gear. Situational awareness is vital around and in aircraft.

Anyone want to take a guess at the structure on the left? Tornado siren? The wind sock showed almost no wind.

Not sure of the make/model of this aircraft, but it looked sporty.

Again, a question for airplane buffs--what's this horn-shaped protuberance on the port side?

I liked this one, too: a Piper Aztec. Don't think they make them new anymore--they're not for sale on the Piper web site, but I'm guessing I couldn't afford one used, either.

The "Kay-Det" returns from a tourist run with a young passenger.

Another shot of the Aztec. It could almost pass for a Cessna 404 at a distance.

One of the Yak-52s prepares to get under way.

A small herd of Yaks.

"D@mn it! They puked on the seat again!" (Kidding)

Is that a red star or red sun on its side? Almost hard to tell. Red star on the tail was distinctive, though.

Anyhow, I'm an equal-opportunity aerospace buff--propellors, helicopters, jets, rockets--I'm there. And I still had time to get home and watch the Kentucky Derby. A good day.