Tag: November 2023

Virgin Galactic Launches 5th Commercial Flight

Spaceflight Now reported that the first of two Falcon 9 missions SpaceX “is planning for Sunday carried into orbit the largest batch of second-generation Starlink satellites to be launched from the West Coast.” The Falcon 9 “lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 2 a.m. PDT (5 a.m. EDT / 0900 UTC) with 22 satellites aboard.” The California launch “will be followed on Sunday by another Starlink delivery mission carrying 23 satellites, which will launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 7:45 p.m. EDT (2345 UTC).” The Starlink 7-6 mission “was the first time a Falcon 9 has carried 22 of the so-called V2 Mini satellites from the West Coast.” Previously, missions from there “had been limited to 15 or 21 Starlinks, depending on the orbit.” On the East Coast, a Falcon 9 “launched 23 V2 Minis a week ago on Oct. 21, one more than the previous maximum load for a mission from the Cape.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

 

Video

Virgin Galactic-05
(NASASpaceflight; YouTube)

Joby CEO Announces 84% Completion of Stage 3 FAA Certification Work for EVTOL Aircraft

Aviation Today reports that Joby Aviation CEO JoeBen Bevirt says the company’s eVTOL aircraft is 84% on its way to completing FAA Stage 3 certification requirements. The company “checked off several milestones in the past three months that bring it ever closer to launching commercial passenger flights in 2025.” Joby is “ramping up production at its pilot manufacturing facility in Merina, Calif., with one aircraft in final assembly and two more in production.” It also has “chosen Dayton, Ohio, as the site for the first scaled manufacturing facility, after receiving promises for $325 million in state and local incentives and benefits, Bevirt said.”
Full Story (Aviation Today)

Boeing Tallies Delivery of 46 737s in November

Reuters reports that The Boeing Company “delivered 46 narrowbody 737s in November, sources told Reuters on Tuesday.” Last month’s total “brings Boeing’s single-aisle deliveries up to 351 units for the year so far, leaving the US planemaker about 25 planes away from making its revised target for at least 375-400 737 deliveries this year.” Last month’s 737 deliveries “included 45 MAX planes and 1 737 NG-based P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, sources said.”
Full Story (Reuters)

 

FAA Calls for Extending Length of Cockpit Voice-Recording Requirements

Reuters reports the Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday “said it is proposing to extend the cockpit voice-recording requirement to 25 hours for all new airplanes from the current two-hour loop.” Reuters explains the voice recorder “captures transmissions and sounds in the cockpit…and can be crucial in understanding why airplane crashes occur.” The National Transportation Safety Board “has been pushing for the change since 2018, and the United States is behind much of the world in the requirement for commercial planes.” Europe, for instance, “has required new airplanes to collect 25 hours of cockpit voice recordings since 2021.” Reuters adds that the issue “has taken on new urgency after a series of near miss incidents raised alarm about U.S. air safety. The NTSB has opened seven investigations into near-miss incidents since January, including some that could have been catastrophic.”
Full Story (Reuters)

Aeronautic Groups Recognize Record Tamarack King Air Flight

Aviation International News reports, “A Beechcraft King Air 350 equipped with Tamarack Aerospace active load-alleviating winglets set two records during flights to and from Orlando, Florida, for NBAA-BACE 2022.” The records have now been recognized by the National Aeronautic Association and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. The first flight was “2,032.8 nm nonstop from Spokane, Washington, to Orlando on Oct. 15, 2022, in 7 hours 46 minutes.” During the second flight “six days later, the King Air flew 1,770.7 nm from Orlando to Las Vegas – with a stop in Albuquerque – in 8 hours 8 minutes due to strong headwinds.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)

Virgin Atlantic Jet Powered by 100% SAF Lands After Maiden Transatlantic Flight

Reuters reports, “A Virgin Atlantic passenger jet powered by 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) successfully completed a London-to-New York jaunt on Tuesday in an effort to showcase the potential of low-carbon options that currently make up a tiny fraction of the industry’s fuel mix.” Although it carried no passengers, “the flight, operated by a Virgin Boeing 787 powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines, is the first time a commercial airliner has flown long haul on 100% SAF.” In a statement, Virgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson said, “It’s going to take a while before we can get enough fuel where everybody’s going to be able to fly. But you’ve got to start somewhere.”
Full Story (Reuters)

German Air Taxi Firm Lilium Receives EU Approval for Electric Vehicles

CNBC reports, “Lilium, a German air taxi firm, has received regulatory approval to design and operate its electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, the company said Monday.” Lilium was “awarded ‘Design Organization Approval’ by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, a special condition license that grants the company the ability to design and manufacture its aircraft in lieu of formal rules for the industry having been agreed and implemented.” The Lilium Jet “uses multiple small propellers driven by electric motors to provide lift during takeoff and landing, as well as thrust during the cruise phase.”
Full Story (CNBC)

Embraer CEO Touts Company Future

Aviation International News reported that Embraer CEO Francisco Gomes Neto spoke at Embraer’s Media Day presentation in New York on Friday and “said the company is now reaping the harvest from the investments and changes it made in recent years.” He pointed “to the portfolio of new products the Brazilian manufacturer has introduced over the past decade in its commercial, defense, and private aviation markets.” This portfolio “includes the E-Jets E2, the C-390 Millennium military transport, and, on the private aviation side, the Praetor family and upgrades to its Phenom light jets.” He explained that Embraer currently “employs a staff of 100 engineers committed to developing production efficiencies and cost reduction, which has allowed it to not only maintain margins on its products but even increase them in some cases.” One of the company’s “standing projects is to reduce the production time of its aircraft by 30 percent by the end of 2025.”
More Info (Aviation International News)

Joshua Dobbs Highlighted

The Star Tribune spotlights Joshua Dobbs, the Vikings new quarterback, who majored in aerospace engineering at the University of Tennessee and was involved with AIAA’s Design/Build/Fly competition.
Full Story (The Star Tribune)

 

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Josh Dobbs receives congratulations from coaches and teammates following his comeback win, days after being traded to the Minnesota Vikings
(Bleacher Report; YouTube)

Tool Bag Dropped During ISS Spacewalk

CNN reports that NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara “marked their first spacewalk this month with a tool bag floating through space.” The pair “concluded their maintenance work outside the International Space Station (ISS) in six hours and 42 minutes, according to the space agency.” The spacewalk on November 1 “saw Moghbeli and O’Hara complete works on the station’s solar arrays, which track the sun, but they ran out of time to remove and stow a communications electronics box.” Leaving this task “for a future spacewalk, the pair instead conducted an assessment of how the job could be done.” During the mission, a tool bag “gave them the slip and was ‘lost,’ NASA said, with flight controllers spotting it using the ISS’ external cameras.” Fortunately, the tools “were not required for the remainder of their tasks.” According to EarthSky, “a website tracking cosmic events, the tool bag is currently orbiting Earth ahead of the ISS, and can potentially be spotted from Earth with a pair of binoculars during the next few months until it disintegrates in our planet’s atmosphere.”
Full Story (CNN)

Rocket Scientist Quarterback Moves Team Towards the NFL Playoffs

A profile of NFL quarterback Josh Dobbs in The Wall Street Journal discussed his background in aerospace engineering, including his two NFL offseasons moonlighting at NASA. The piece also discusses Dobbs participation as part of a team of Tennessee students participating in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Design/Build/Fly competition, where the team had to launch a model airplane they built.
Full Story (The Wall Street Journal – Subscription Publication)

Rocket Scientist Moonlights as Professional Quarterback

Forbes reports that Joshua Dobbs started a game at quarterback for a new team the same week he arrived. For his new team, he had to learn cadences including numbers, colors, and other codes all quarterbacks call out to communicate with his offensive teammates in order to effectively combat the defensive tactics and succeed in moving the ball down the field. His team, the Minnesota Vikings, “use five cadences to run hundreds of offensive plays, which takes days, weeks and even months for quarterbacks to learn cold.” A quarterback usually has months to learn this information specific to his team, but Dobbs was just traded to the Vikings on Tuesday, and the starter ahead of him was injured with a torn Achilles, forcing him into his first game for the team on Sunday. If one of his teammates or coaches yelled out to him, “Hey Josh, don’t worry, it’s not rocket science!” then that would have been appropriate, “because Dobbs studied aerospace engineering at the University of Tennessee and competed on the Engineers team at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Design/Build/Fly competition while playing football.” Dobbs entered the game in the first quarter following his predecessor’s injury “and went 20-for-30 with 158 yards and two touchdowns, while scrambling for 66 yards on seven carries.” The Vikings won 31-28.
Full Story (Forbes)

 

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Josh Dobbs receives congratulations from coaches and teammates following his comeback win, days after being traded to the Minnesota Vikings
(Bleacher Report; YouTube)

AIAA Announces $10,000 Scholarship in Partnership with Blue Origin’s Club for the Future

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 16, 2023 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation announced today a partnership with Blue Origin’s nonprofit Club for the Future to provide a $10,000 scholarship each year to one high school senior who has demonstrated an interest in pursuing a career in aerospace engineering. The scholarship is known as “AIAA and Club for the Future’s Resilient Student Scholarship.”

Students can apply here. Applications are due by 31 January 2024.

Any high school senior enrolling in a STEM program at a college, university, or technical institution who matches other qualifying criteria will be eligible. In addition to the $10,000 award, the recipient will be matched with an AIAA professional member to serve as a mentor. The scholarship will be offered to high school seniors who are AIAA members; high school membership in AIAA is free. The scholarship is specifically designed to empower and inspire students who have faced unique challenges, including but not limited to: students with disabilities; from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds, gender minorities, or disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances; and first-generation college students.

Students who apply for this scholarship will be asked to describe why they are interested in aerospace and write about their vision for their future career in the aerospace field. They also must submit a short personal essay on their values of compassion, tenacity, and resilience, and how they have used one or all of these traits to problem-solve or accomplish something in their life.

This scholarship follows other support for aerospace young talent development provided to the AIAA Foundation by Blue Origin’s Club for the Future, including a $1 million grant in 2021 for educational programs.

“Club for the Future is proud to empower future innovators to explore the boundless opportunities of space through STEM careers for the benefit of Earth,” said Heather Nelson, director of Club for the Future.

Basil Hassan, chair, AIAA Foundation, recognizes that the scholarship partnership with Blue Origin’s Club for the Future offers an exciting pathway to develop new engineering talent for the aerospace industry. “Giving students a chance to focus their immediate future on aerospace has been one of the goals of the AIAA Foundation since its inception in 1996,” he said. “We have chosen National Scholarship Month to roll out this new program as a way of bringing extra attention to a life-defining opportunity for a graduating high school student. The recipient of this scholarship will be able to explore aerospace engineering in greater detail and develop their expertise in one of the fastest growing industries in the world.”

For more information, visit aiaa.org/foundation.

AIAA Media Contact: Rebecca B. Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell

About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org, or follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

About Club for the Future
Founded by Blue Origin, Club for the Future is a foundation whose mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM for the benefit of Earth. The Club and its collaborators are doing this through Postcards to Space, space-inspired lessons and events, and access to space on Blue Origin’s rockets. For more information visit, ClubforFuture.org.