The General Airplane Thread

[Robin]

I thought this would be the best place to post this as it doesn't need a whole thread. American Airlines flight AA109 had to return to Heathrow only a few hours into the flight due to people suddenly falling ill with a mystery illness and passing out, both cabin crew and passengers. All luggage was confiscated on landing probably due to them thinking it might have been a dirty bomb but that has since been ruled out.

Any thoughts on what happened?, all signs are pointing to air system problems... either pressurisation imbalance, lack of oxygen, contamination from the engine. Scary stuff indeed. I did at one point think it was psychological auto suggestion where if someone sees someone become ill they feel ill.

 

[Brett]

Probably just the start of zombie apocalypse.

 

[Bleached]

I thought this would be the best place to post this as it doesn't need a whole thread. American Airlines flight AA109 had to return to Heathrow only a few hours into the flight due to people suddenly falling ill with a mystery illness and passing out, both cabin crew and passengers. All luggage was confiscated on landing probably due to them thinking it might have been a dirty bomb but that has since been ruled out.

Any thoughts on what happened?, all signs are pointing to air system problems... either pressurisation imbalance, lack of oxygen, contamination from the engine. Scary stuff indeed. I did at one point think it was psychological auto suggestion where if someone sees someone become ill they feel ill.

Did they have the fish?

 

[Robin]

Probably just the start of zombie apocalypse.

Brad Pitt will sort it out.

Did they have the fish?

Fish-cakes.... on a plane.

I'll get my coat.

 

[wfooshee]

Did they have the fish?

Surely you can't be serious!

 

[BobK]

Surely you can't be serious!

Don't call me Shirley!

 

[Carlos]

General Dynamics AGM-129 ACM

 

[catamount39]

Swiss F/A-18C FTW!

 

[Dan]

I wonder what it's like to pilot a B-2. Of course most of it is automated, but I wonder how it reacts to throttle inputs, control inputs, and turbulence.

 

[Rage Racer]

Birth of a helicopter.

 

[wfooshee]

Doesn't seem as messy as I would expect.....

 

[catamount39]

Birth of a helicopter.

"It's a girl!"

 

[Crash]

It was a gray, dreary Friday morning, and I'm standing outside by the local airport in the cold and rain drizzle to see the Boeing 737 MAX first flight. The plane is sitting on the tarmac, still in its stall, not quite ready for flight yet.

​

While people are waiting, a plane was flying above towing a banner, circling the airfield area.

​

That's a nice touch to thank the employees.

After a bit of waiting, a plume of smoke starts to come out of the tail of the plane as the APU comes online, then the unmistakeable whine of a jet engine is heard as the engines too, get started. Shortly after, everyone is cleared from the 737 MAX's path, and the plane starts moving onto the taxiway.

737 MAX First Flight I by C Ng


737 MAX First Flight II by C Ng​

The 737 MAX is scheduled to take off to the north for its first flight, so at the south end of the airport, the plane turns around onto the actual runway and gets ready for take off. The previous time, when I saw the 787-9 first flight, it seemed like it took forever for that airplane to transition from the taxiway to the runway. This time, that's not the case at all. The plane lines up, the engine spools, and off it goes.

737 MAX First Flight III by C Ng


737 MAX First Flight IV by C Ng

​

I'm disappointed that the trees got in the way, and I think there was another vantage point that I could have been/should have been where the trees wouldn't have gotten in the way. The new MAX took off and flew north into the cloudy skies.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

What's with the x shaped winglets, that's interesting.

 

[TenEightyOne]

What's with the x shaped winglets, that's interesting.

It's the MAX's "thing", amongst others. Quite an impressive spec overall.

 

[Dan]

How much ground clearance do the 737's engines have? I know it isn't a whole lot; that's why they have the distinct "marshmallow" shaped engine pods.

 

[TenEightyOne]

How much ground clearance do the 737's engines have? I know it isn't a whole lot; that's why they have the distinct "marshmallow" shaped engine pods.

Not sure, it's an FAA minimum though. Larger models (700, 800, 900 iirc) have longer landing struts so the nacelles are rounder.

EDIT: Here you go, Section 2.3 (page 44), the Boeing Airport Planning spec sheet for the 737 range... ground clearance is 2 feet.

 

[wfooshee]

What's with the x shaped winglets, that's interesting.

The winglet is something discovered by analying bird wingtips. If you watch a bird that soars, the feathers at the tip are spread, not laid against each other. It was found that this reduces the wingtip vortex, and thus reduced the drag on the wing. The extra winglet on the jet is just a little bit more of that.

 

[Swagger897]

Damn.... Schiphol terminals haven't changed much. E terminal is still the same.

The winglet is something discovered by analying bird wingtips. If you watch a bird that soars, the feathers at the tip are spread, not laid against each other. It was found that this reduces the wingtip vortex, and thus reduced the drag on the wing. The extra winglet one the jet is just a little bit more of that.

Airbus also has had this winglets for a long time. Although the -900 ER (and 800) has also had the split scimitar winglets:

Airbus:

New A350:

 

[Swagger897]

delete

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

The winglet is something discovered by analying bird wingtips. If you watch a bird that soars, the feathers at the tip are spread, not laid against each other. It was found that this reduces the wingtip vortex, and thus reduced the drag on the wing. The extra winglet one the jet is just a little bit more of that.

I know where wing tips come from and purpose, my field is aerospace engineering after all. I just haven't had the fortune to see this style before but thanks anyways.

 

[wfooshee]

OK. Your question sounded like "Why do they do that?"

 

[CodeRedR51]

Just saw this come across my facebook feed. It's from Dec 5, so not sure if it's been posted already.

 

[Swagger897]

daaaamn... Such a pretty Hawker turned to a pile of trash..

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

OK. Your question sounded like "Why do they do that?"

No @TenEightyOne answered it best, since it was posed in a manner as to why do that over conventional winglets and he gave me the insight. 1.8% better fuel efficiency over the best in class jetliner for starters

 

[ScottPuss20]

It was a gray, dreary Friday morning, and I'm standing outside by the local airport in the cold and rain drizzle to see the Boeing 737 MAX first flight. The plane is sitting on the tarmac, still in its stall, not quite ready for flight yet.

​

While people are waiting, a plane was flying above towing a banner, circling the airfield area.

​

That's a nice touch to thank the employees.

After a bit of waiting, a plume of smoke starts to come out of the tail of the plane as the APU comes online, then the unmistakeable whine of a jet engine is heard as the engines too, get started. Shortly after, everyone is cleared from the 737 MAX's path, and the plane starts moving onto the taxiway.

737 MAX First Flight I by C Ng


737 MAX First Flight II by C Ng​

The 737 MAX is scheduled to take off to the north for its first flight, so at the south end of the airport, the plane turns around onto the actual runway and gets ready for take off. The previous time, when I saw the 787-9 first flight, it seemed like it took forever for that airplane to transition from the taxiway to the runway. This time, that's not the case at all. The plane lines up, the engine spools, and off it goes.

737 MAX First Flight III by C Ng


737 MAX First Flight IV by C Ng

​

I'm disappointed that the trees got in the way, and I think there was another vantage point that I could have been/should have been where the trees wouldn't have gotten in the way. The new MAX took off and flew north into the cloudy skies.

Your local airport is Renton??? Dayuum

 

[AlvaroF]

My brother has 2 books on War Planes. This was on one of them, very interesting. The Mistel 2. A marriage between either a Fw 190 or a Bf 109 fighters and a Junker Ju 88 bomber. The idea was to increase action range and save fuel. Some Ju 88's were turned into bombs.

 

[Swagger897]

FW190. Not sure on the variant.

Somewhat related news, I'll be heading up to Atlanta Saturday and get to play around with Delta's level D and C simulators..

 

[CodeRedR51]

daaaamn... Such a pretty Hawker turned to a pile of trash..

I was just impressed by the super smooth landing. Could have been much worse.

 

[Carlos]

So this happened at Schiphol today..

And now they can't find the driver.

Accident: Daallo A321 near Mogadishu on Feb 2nd 2016, explosion rips fuselage open

By Simon Hradecky, created Tuesday, Feb 2nd 2016 15:27Z, last updated Tuesday, Feb 2nd 2016 18:37Z


A Daallo Airlines Airbus A321-100, registration SX-BHS performing flight D3-159 from Mogadishu (Somalia) to Djibouti (Djibouti) with 74 people on board, was climbing out of Mogadishu about 5 minutes into the flight when an explosion was heard. The crew stopped the climb and returned the aircraft to Mogadishu for a safe landing about 20 minutes after departure. A large hole was seen at the right hand side of the fuselage above the wing. Three occupants were taken to hospitals with injuries.

The airline confirmed an explosion on board, the cause is under investigation, an oxygen bottle is being suspected. There were two injuries, one of them serious.

Somalia's Ministry of Transport reported a fire on board of the aircraft, the fire was put out. The damage to the aircraft is being assessed.

Passengers report at least one person was blown out of the aircraft.

One passenger reported he saw the explosion occur inside the aircraft a couple of seat rows ahead of him followed by an air rush and sudden drop of cabin pressure, the seat belt held him in his seat. He saw two injured people around him, one an elderly man from Finland and another one being a young Italian. The elderly man was severly burned.

Local residents at Balad (Somalia), located about 21nm northnortheast of Mogadishu Airport, reported they saw a severly burnt body fall off an unidentified aircraft.
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