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BBC – Future – How to design the fighter cockpit of tomorrow

January 6, 2015

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Aviation, BAE Systems, F22, Flying, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

BBC – Future – How to design the fighter cockpit of tomorrow.

If you think your office needs a lick of paint and some new furniture, spare a thought for fighter pilots. Those who fly fighter aircraft like the F-16 or the Tornado are still, in effect, working in a 1970s office – because that’s when those aircraft were originally designed.

It takes a very long time to build a new fighter jet. Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor is currently the only supersonic stealth fighter in active service ‒ but when the contract for the first prototype was signed in 1986, Apple’s top-of-the-range Macintosh Plus computer had a mere 1Mb memory and no hard drive. The F-22 carried out its first combat mission on 22 September this year – three days after Apple released the iPhone 6. Technology has transformed in those intervening 28 years, and nothing dates faster than yesterday’s vision of the future.

Today’s aircraft designers must guess what the world of 40 years’ time might look like – a task that even the innovators in Silicon Valley might baulk at. “At the moment, I’m looking at stuff out to at least 2040,” says Mark Bowman, chief test pilot for BAE Systems at Warton, Lancashire…

Four dead in Kentucky plane crash, girl, 7, survives: police

January 3, 2015

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Aviation, Flying, Light Aircraft, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey, Pilot, Plane Crash Leave a comment

Four dead in Kentucky plane crash, girl, 7, survives: police.

A small plane crashed in Kentucky late Friday, killing the pilot and three other passengers, while a seven-year-old girl apparently survived and wandered from the wreckage to find help, state police said.

The plane went down in a heavily wooded area of Lyon County, about 115 miles northwest of Nashville, Kentucky State Police said.

Authorities received a 911 call from a resident in the area who said a 7-year-old girl “had walked to his home reporting that she had been involved in a plane crash,” state police said in a statement posted on Facebook.

“The juvenile was in distress and was transported to a local hospital for non-life threatening injuries,” the statement said.

Rescue crews fanned out to look for the plane and discovered its wreckage in a wooded area, police said. Four people on-board were killed, among them the pilot, they said….

Photo – What do VFR and IFR Mean? | AviationClub

August 26, 2014

Peter Singhatey Aviation Aviation, Flying, Madox, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

Photo – What do VFR and IFR Mean? | AviationClub.

As a prospective student, you probably hear about instrument training from more experienced students, and you might wonder what exactly “instrument” flying entails.

Instrument flying can seem like an elusive or abstract term if you’re not familiar with flying, but it quickly becomes clear as you learn the difference between VFR and IFR, or VMC and IMC. Even seasoned pilots tend to use these terms incorrectly, so don’t feel too bad if you don’t know exactly what they mean. Let’s take a look at what all of this means…

Gambia may get first pilot school – Daily Observer

June 1, 2014

Peter Singhatey Articles on Africa Aviation, Flying, Gambia, peter singhateh, Pilot Leave a comment

Gambia may get first pilot school – Daily Observer.

If the words of the latest investors from the Trans-continental nation of Turkey are anything to go by, The Gambia may be on the way toward getting its first ever pilot school.

This was disclosed by the chairman of the OmniTek Company, who is leading a team of investors from his company to explore possibilities of extending to The Gambia.

“We are also representing Airport Traffic Management System and we will be setting up training educational centers for airport traffic controllers and pilots. So this will make The Gambia benefit from these services and all the neighboring countries to be trained in The Gambia,” he disclosed.

If successfully put in place, he noted, people from all over Africa and even Europe would be attracted to come to The Gambia to undergo these trainings. ..

Those Hazardous Flying Birds – NYTimes.com

October 19, 2013

Peter Singhatey Aviation Aviation Safety, Bird Strikes, Flying, peter singhateh Leave a comment

Those Hazardous Flying Birds – NYTimes.com

via Those Hazardous Flying Birds – NYTimes.com.

Planes hit birds all the time. That doesn’t typically mean captains have to glide crippled jets onto a river as Capt. Chesley Sullenberger III famously did in January 2009. But a number of collisions have led to crashes, with some deaths. The Federal Aviation Administration says more than 9,000 birds are struck annually, a figure that’s increasing every year, with the total probably twice as large when unreported hits are included. Over the past 23 years, bird strikes have forced an average of one plane a day to land prematurely, according to the F.A.A…

…We can develop protocols for ironing out system imperfections as we go so as to better protect passengers and reduce the slaughter of wildlife both on the ground and in the air. But we shouldn’t wait for the next catastrophic event before beginning to install integrated avian radar systems.