Inbox

Former CAF joins Lockheed Martin Australia board

Romeo Lima says: Wow. August 3 story: LM snaps up former Navy chief. August 5 story: LM snaps up former Air Force chief. Anyone notice a pattern here? I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Military Industrial Complex. Google it people.

Hong Kong and Fiji show little enthusiasm to renegotiate bilateral air services agreement

Pontius the pilot says: No slots, need more seats? That’s what the A380 is all about! Cathy says: You really don’t get what Cathay has learnt. Frequency is what business passengers in particular need. It generates more passengers than a single large aircraft. The 380 makes money for no-one ( if you pay market rates for fuel ) and is a generation behind the composite aircraft. I bet Cathay would make it 5 flights a day if they could.

US Air Force declares F-35A combat ready

Jason says: Getting popcorn, sitting back, and waiting for all the JSF-haters to chime in!

All 300 passengers safely evacuated after Emirates aircraft crashes at Dubai, bursts into flames

Mac says: Incredible that passengers inside a burning aircraft would try to recover bags from the overhead lockers.

Central locking of overhead lockers must be considered for takeoff and landings. However, in the event of a cabin fire, short circuiting of electrical looms must be considered.

Strange things have known to happen to actuator systems when wiring looms burn.

Aircraft designers might consider a system operated by compressed air or nitrogen to actuate overhead locker central locking system to ensure that they stay locked in the event of a cabin fire.

The cabin crew must be commended on their ability to evacuate the burning aircraft cabin with no major casualties or injuries.

Knackers says: Problem with the ‘locking the overhead bins’ idea is that some of the safety/evacuation equipment (on some aircraft) is actually stored in the overhead bins. The other issue is weight, a sturdy central locking system would be heavy …. Just can’t see it happening.

Pitch Black 2016 begins

Ben says: Love this time of year in Darwin, not for the weather but the fighters.

Qantas expands 717 domestic network

Bob Brinckley says: The introduction of the 717 to the Canberra routes has hardly been a bonus for me. The older second hand aircraft from my experience seem to be having a higher rate of going U/S. Paxing on a genuine QF-crewed flight out of Canberra is now becoming very difficult.

How could you have a UH-1 without the soundtrack…