Plane & Pilot December 2018

First helicopter capable of hovering flight with pilot: Paul Cornu’s unnamed helicopter, 1907 Height of that first flight: About 1 foot Duration: 20 seconds Fate of Cornu’s helicopter design: Abandoned Early design standoff: Dual contra-rotors vs. one plus tail rotor Early enabling technology: Swashplate for collective pitch changes First “practical” helicopter: Sikorsky VS-300 Fastest helicopter ever: Eurocopter X3 experimental, 250 knots Fastest military helicopter: Boeing CH-47 Chinook, 170 knots Largest helicopter ever: Soviet Mil V-12 Weight: 213,485 pounds max takeoff weight Payload: Approximately 60,000 pounds Rotors: Two main rotors, each 114 feet, 10 inches in diameter Number built: 2 Most-produced civil helicopter: Probably the Bell 206 Jet Ranger, 8,460 built Most-produced helicopter ever: Soviet Mil Mi-8, more than 17,000 Crew of Mi-8: Three—pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer Useful load: About…

I’ve been fascinated by the trials and tribulations of Tesla, the electric carmaker famous and infamous for both its cars’ capabilities and limitations. A high-profile crash while one of its vehicles was being “driven” on autopilot in Florida raised concerns about the readiness of the auto-drive feature, and the recent production and delivery logistics problems for the company’s new Model 3 have vexed buyers of that new car who have been waiting for ages to get their high-tech wheels. The thing about Tesla’s woes wasn’t that I’d never seen anything like it before. It was that I’ve seen exactly those same challenges time and time again in the aviation world. One of the coolest things in the history of aviation is the personal jet. So far there have been exactly…

Round airports have been around since the early days of aviation, because that layout allowed the notoriously lightly wing-loaded planes of the day to land directly into the wind no matter which direction it was blowing. But circular runways are another thing altogether. And while the idea might seem totally crazy at first blush, there’s some serious research being done to see if circular runways could achieve increased airspace system capacity, which absolutely is limited by the number of available runway ends. With a circular runway, there would be, theoretically, an unlimited number of runway “ends” at any given airport. THE IDEA With a circular runway, planes could approach to land from many different angles, so you could have multiple planes on approach simultaneously. And you could have planes taking…

ACROSS 1 The answer is right in front of your eyes! 5 A seal is used in one to cut drag 9 Long range (acronym) 11 Some flight crew in EMT planes 12 “American Champion” plane 13 Time-saving alternative to plans 14 World's biggest aviation marketplace 16 Flying prefix 17 Mathematical ratio 18 “Air capital of the world” 20 It’s a factor that will affect a used plane’s price 23 State where flying is a major form of civilian transport 24 Left tip color 26 Technically, gas piston, yes, but electric, no 27 This plane flew out the hangar door 28 Fokker Dr.-1 29 Douglas and Cessna both built one 31 Snoopy’s mount 32 What pilots can’t do when they get invited to fly 33 The founder of this company?…

JETBLUE’S USE OF RENEWABLE FUEL TAKES OFF JetBlue made its first flight using renewable fuel in September when an A321 newly delivered to the airline flew using a blend comprised of traditional fuel and 15.5 percent renewable fuel. The company expects to take delivery of four additional A321s that will run on the renewable mixture by the end of the year. FOREFLIGHT DELIVERS TEXT MESSAGE FLIGHT CLEARANCES ForeFlight and Satcom Direct have teamed up to provide a service that enables IFR pilots to obtain pre-flight clearances via text messaging, allowing them to forgo the traditional radio call. Pilots can currently utilize the feature at 76 airports throughout the country. RENO AIR RACES CELEBRATES 55TH EVENT Big crowds descended on Reno Stead Airport for the 55th edition of the Reno Air…

For people looking for an industry with exciting jobs, high salaries and attractive benefits packages, not to mention numerous quality-of-life perks, there probably aren’t a lot of options. But there are a few, if you’ve got the right stuff and get the right training. And aviation is one such industry, and there are a lot of aviation jobs just waiting to be filled. According to studies by Boeing, Airbus and others, the need for skilled workers is immense and will continue to be so. The number of pilots the industry needs to hire over the next 20 years is a staggering figure, nearly a million, and the growth will likely be linear, without a lot of the burn and churn from previous employment spikes. Bottom line: The world’s airlines and…