Aviation Fun Facts
Hey everyone! I thought of writing something different this week, I hope y’all like this!
1. 1919
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is the world's oldest airline, established in 1919.
2. 1920
Qantas is the world's second oldest airline, established in 1920.
3.USD$40,000
In 1987 American Airlines saved $40,000 by removing one olive from each salad served in first class.
4. 37 seconds
An aircraft takes off or lands every 37 seconds at Chicago O’Hare's International Airport.
5. Wingspan
The wing-span of the A380 is longer than the aircraft itself. Wingspan is 80m, the length is 72.7m
6. $700 million
Singapore Airlines spends approximately $700 million on food every year and $16 million on wine.
7. 1.5 litres
Travelling by air can shed up to 1.5 litres of water from the body during an average 3-hour flight.
8. JFK
John F. Kennedy Airport in New York was originally named Idlewild Airport.
9. 10 tons
Lufthansa is the world's largest purchaser of caviar, buying over 10 tons per year.
10. 120 feet
The Boeing 747 wing-span (195 feet) is longer than the Wright Brothers first flight of 120ft.
11. Check-in
The internet and online check-in were first introduced by Alaska Airlines in 1999.
12. 2.4 metres
The winglets on an Airbus A330-200 are the same height as the world's tallest man (2.4m).
13. 480,000
Total electricity capacity of a 747-8 can power up to 480,000 32inch flat screen TVs.
14. 78 Billion
The world-wide 747 fleet has logged more than 78 billion kilometres, equivalent to 101,500 trips to the moon and back.
15. 80%
The 747 family has flown more than 5.6 billion people - equivalent to 80% of the world's population.
16. 61,000 people
At any given hour there are over 61,000 people airborne over the USA.
17. 70% more
70% of aircraft today are over 70% more fuel-efficient per seat kilometre than jets in the 1960s.
18. 1979
Did you know Qantas invented business class in 1979?
19. Longest Flight
Auckland to Doha on Qatar Airways is the world's longest flight by distance at 14,525 kilometres.
20. iPad
By American Airlines switching a pilots paper manuals to iPad they will save $1.2 million in fuel.
21. 240km
The average 747 has between 240-280 kilometres of wiring.
22. 30,000
In the USA, over two million passengers board over 30,000 flights each day.
23. Meals
Pilots and co-pilots are required to eat different meals in case of food poisoning.
24. Taste Buds
About 1/3 of your taste buds are numbed while flying. Maybe that meal was not bland after all?
25. 800kmph
A commercial aircraft flies at an average speed of 800 kilometres per hour.
Yup, Hard to believe? Well, it’s all true.
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Here’s why Boeing 737 Max hasn’t returned to service yet
The Federal Aviation Administration has found a new problem in Boeing's troubled 737 Max that the company must address before the regulatory agency will allow the airplanes to fly passengers again. The discovery further delays the airliner's return to service.
Boeing's popular narrow-body aircraft has been grounded since March after an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crashed shortly after taking off from the airport in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board. It was the second crash of a Max plane in five months; as a Lion Air jet crashed in Indonesia last October, killing 189 people.
Investigators link both crashes, in part, to an automated flight control system that acted on erroneous information from malfunctioning sensors and put the planes into nose dives the pilots could not pull the planes out of.
Boeing has developed a software fix for that flight control system, called MCAS, but sources familiar with the situation tell NPR that in simulator testing last week, that FAA test pilots discovered a separate issue that affected their ability to quickly and easily follow recovery procedures for runaway stabilizer trim and stabilize the aircraft.
A statement from the regulatory agency says as part of a process designed to discover and highlight potential risks, "the FAA found a potential risk that Boeing must mitigate."
Boeing says in a statement that the company is working on the required software fix to address the FAA's request. A spokesman told NPR the company is committed to working closely with the FAA to safely return the 737 Max to service.
Here’s how jet engines work in few sentences!
Hi there readers! I know I promised for a new post last weekend but sadly I’ve been very busy and I’m truly sorry! I hope you enjoy this one! Now let’s find out how jet engines work!
For a jet going slower than the speed of sound, the engine is moving through the air at about 1000 km/h (600 mph). We can think of the engine as being stationary and the cold air moving toward it at this speed.
A **fan** at the front sucks the cold air into the engine and forces it through the inlet. This slows the air down by about 60 percent and its speed is now about 400 km/h (240 mph).
A second fan called a **compressor** squeezes the air (increases its pressure) by about eight times, and this dramatically increases its temperature.
Kerosene (liquid fuel) is squirted into the engine from a **fuel tank** in the plane's wing.
In the **combustion chamber**, just behind the compressor, the kerosene mixes with the compressed air and burns fiercely, giving off hot exhaust gases and producing a huge increase in temperature. The burning mixture reaches a temperature of around 900°C (1650°F).
The exhaust gases rush past a set of turbine blades, spinning them like a windmill. Since the turbine gains energy, the gases must lose the same amount of energy—and they do so by cooling down slightly and losing pressure.
The turbine blades are connected to a long axle (represented by the middle gray line) that runs the length of the engine. The compressor and the fan are also connected to this axle. So, as the turbine blades spin, they also turn the compressor and the fan.
The hot exhaust gases exit the engine through a tapering **exhaust nozzle**. Just as water squeezed through a narrow pipe accelerates dramatically into a fast jet (think of what happens in a water pistol), the tapering design of the exhaust nozzle helps to accelerate the gases to a speed of over 2100 km/h (1300 mph). So the hot air leaving the engine at the back is traveling over twice the speed of the cold air entering it at the front—and that's what powers the plane. Military jets often have an **after burner** that squirts fuel into the exhaust jet to produce extra thrust. The backward-moving exhaust gases power the jet forward. Because the plane is much bigger and heavier than the exhaust gases it produces, the exhaust gases have to zoom backward much faster than the plane's own speed.
In brief, you can see that each main part of the engine does a different thing to the air or fuel mixture passing through:
Compressor: Dramatically increases the *pressure* of the air (and, to a lesser extent) its temperature.
Combustion chamber: Dramatically increases the *temperature* of the air-fuel mixture by releasing heat energy from the fuel.
Exhaust nozzle: Dramatically increases the *velocity* of the exhaust gases, so powering the plane.
Thank you and I hope you enjoyed reading this one! I’m trying to get a new post published tomorrow so please subscribe so you don’t miss it!
The disaster of flight 302: Ethiopian Airlines
Here’s what really happened to Ethiopian flight 302:
On March 10th 2019, Ethiopian flight 302 took off from Bole international airport, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and was scheduled to land at Jomo Kenyatta International airport, Nairobi, Kenya.
The aircraft operating flight 302 is a 4 month old Boeing 737 Max 8 registered as ET-AVJ and was powered by two CFM International Leap engine. The aircraft was manufactured in October 2018 and delivered on 15 November 2018.
The Ethiopian airline flight 302 began the takeoff roll from runway 07R. Just a few seconds after getting off the ground, false readings were noticed by the flight crew on the captains AOA sensor. The sensor first indicated 11.1, then 35.7 then 74.5 and in a while the left stick shaker activated. Also, the airspeed, altitude and flight director pitch BAR values shown on the captains side was different from the first officers side values. The captain tried to engage the autopilot twice but it failed and resulted in autopilot warnings. At about 1,000 Feet the left autopilot was engaged and the pitch trim position decreases to 4.6 units. Just six seconds later, there were small amplitude roll oscillations accompanied by lateral acceleration, rudder oscillations and slight heading changes. The first officer then moved the flap handle from 5 to 0, and the flaps retraction began. In a few seconds, the selected headings starts to change from 072 to 197 and the captain requested the first officer to maintain runway heading. The autopilot disengaged in a few seconds and the pitch trim moves from 4.60 to 2.1 units and an automatic nose down activates for 9 seconds. Suddenly, the aircraft started to tilt ground wards and the ground proximity warning system alarmed. To counteract this, the tilt, the crew moved the control Column AFT and successfully re-established a positive climb but the aircraft still descended slightly. The trim of the horizontal stabilizer was reduced several degrees causing the tilt down so the crew raises it again in the aircraft nose up direction to 2.4 units. Just 5 seconds later, after the ANU stabilizer motion, a second instance of automatic stabilizer trim occurs and the stabilizer moves down to 0.4 units. The ground proximity warning started to alarm again. The crew used the trim button on their controls to counteract this automatic change of the stabilizer down. The crew then disabled the trim stab. And for the third time, the automatic trim command occurs without any corresponding motion of the stabilizer, which is consistent with the stabilizer trim cut-out switches and are in the cut-out position. The crew tried to counteract this by pulling their control column and in a while the over speed warning alarms as the engines are still in full take off power. The pilots then decided to return to the airport and they reactive the trim stab to try again with the electric stabilizer trim switch on the control column which worked and two momentary manual electro trim inputs are recorded in the ANU direction. However, in a short while, an automatic trim command occurs and the stabilizer moves down again without being commanded by the crew. The aircraft then began to pitch downwards eventually reaching about 500Kts and crashed six minutes after take off near the town of bishoftu.
The accident is still under investigation and there hasn’t been any final words yet
The preliminary report says there were many significant similarities in data between another lion air disaster involving a Boeing 737 MAX 8 in October 2018.
Following this crash, Ethiopian airlines have grounded all Boeing max aircrafts the same day and eventually all Boeing max aircrafts worldwide were grounded.
In memory of the 157 passengers and crew who lost their lives onboard.
by Airmaster
@Airmaster