21st Century Aviation: Still A Man’s World?

Capt. Tammie Jo Shults’ recent heroic action would have been called “the miracle at Philadelphia Airport”, but is the prevailing sexism at the aviation world prevented her from becoming “the next Sully”?

By; Ringo Bones 

Maybe it was the tragic death of passenger Jennifer Riordan of Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 – where a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 carrying 149 passengers developed a fault with one of its CFM56-78 jet engines and was forced to make an emergency landing at Philadelphia Airport back in April 17, 2018 – but the social networking world was set alight by posts hailing the pilot Capt. Tammie Jo Shults as a hero who safely landed the stricken plane. It was no mean feat because without the quick action of Captain Shults, Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 would have ended in tragedy because for a few harrowing seconds, the stricken aircraft rolled to an angle of 41 degrees after one of the plane engines exploded and yet Captain Shults managed to land the plane safely. Tragically, 43 year old mother of two Jennifer Riordan was nearly sucked out of the plane after a few pieces of shrapnel of the exploding engine smashed the window next to her causing rapid decompression in the cabin that nearly blasted her out of the jet. Nearby passengers managed to pull her back in and tried to revive her but she died from her injuries. 

Capt. Tammie Jo Shults is a New Mexico native who graduated with university degrees in biology and agribusiness before joining the military. Her first choice was to join the US Air Force as a military aviator but at the time, USAF doesn’t yet allow women aviators so she applied for the US Navy as a naval aviator but only served as an instructor for 10 years because the US Navy still bans women from doing frontline duty. She ended her active service in 1993 after achieving the rank of lieutenant commander. Her husband Dean Shults also works as a pilot for Southwest Airlines. 

Is the 21^st Century aviation world still largely a man’s world? Well, most folks today probably only knew one woman aviator – i.e. Amelia Earhart, but I bet most of them probably don’t know the record setting test flights made by test pilot Jacqueline Cochran with an F-104 Starfighter back in 1964 even though there’s a major airport named in her honor. Sadly, this could be the main reason why Capt. Tammie Jo Shults is currently not as big as Capt. Sully Sullenberger.

Self Piloting Passenger Aircraft: The Future Of Civil Aviation?

Despite of the current regulatory hurdles, are self-piloting of autonomous passenger aircraft the future of civil aviation?

By: Ringo Bones 

Uber first announced its own concept of self piloting / autonomous passenger aircraft after making a situational advert on what happens if their self-driving car service got snarled by heavy traffic. According to Uber, solution is already at hand via its very own self piloting or autonomous passenger aircraft – and the possibility of it entering service is sooner than you think.  

The ride-sharing firm Uber and Urban Aviation are already partnering with Bell Helicopters and already have a flying prototype of their “pilotless air taxi” which a fleet could enter service as soon as 2020 current regulatory hurdles permitting. But the good news is NASA and the United States Federal Aviation Administration is already developing new air traffic control systems specifically designed to accommodate the upcoming fleets of autonomous air taxis once they enter service by 2020. 

Currently, a number of firms have already joined the bandwagon on pilotless air taxis and pilotless / autonomous passenger aircraft. A Mainland Chinese firm Ehang and Germany’s Volocopter already made a flyable prototype capable of carrying four passengers plus a pilot in case the autonomous computer fails. All of the firms who had released plans to offer a pilotless air taxi service say that the “pilot” only serve as a technician if the autonomous flying computer develops problems but most of the time, the “pilot” will be serving as a de-facto ambassador to the passengers to allay any fears or doubts that they have on their self-flying technology. 

Technically, all of the pilotless air taxis are battery powered, capable of carrying 4 to 5 passengers and has a range of between 60 to 100 miles which make them a very viable alternative to avoid being stuck in rush-hour traffic when commuting from one city center to another which has recently classivied this class of aircraft as “urban air vehicles”. The good news is that the batteries they use to power their aviation grade electric motors are the latest ones that are able to be fully charged between 5 to 15 minutes.   

2017: The Safest Year For Air Travel?

Given that there are no commercial airline crashes for the entire year last year – will 2017 go down in history as the safest year for air travel?

By: Ringo Bones 

 Even though it is a proven fact – statistically at least – that flying is the safest form of travel, groups in charge of monitoring air safety are quite surprised that 2017 turned out to be the safest year for air travel given that not a single tragic airline crash occurred for the entire year. There were no passenger jet crashes anywhere in the world for the whole of 2017, according to separate reports made by Dutch consultancy firm To70 and The Aviation Safety Network. 

Despite of the tragic and scary chapter that we call 9/11, the number of airliner accidents has been in a slow and steady decline during the past 20 years. Harro Ranter, president of The Aviation Safety Network said: “Since 1997 the average number of airliner accidents has shown a steady and persistent decline, for a great deal thanks to the continuing safety-driven efforts by international aviation organizations such as ICAO, IATA, Flight Safety Foundation and the aviation industry.” 

The Dutch consultancy To70, estimated there was now one fatal accident for every 16-million flights, although its report was compiled before the Costa Rica crash occurred. While the Aviation Safety Network’s report shows that the accident rate now stands at one fatal passenger flight accident per 7,360,000 flights. If cargo planes were included, a report by the Airline Safety Network shows that there were a total of 10 fatal accidents, resulting in 79 deaths for the whole of 2017, compared with 16 accidents and 303 lives lost in 2016. The organization based its figures on incidents involving civil aircraft certified to carry at least 14 people. Could civil aviation industry’s safety record get better in the coming years? Sadly, fake president Trump already claims that the 2017’s air travel safety record was the result of his “presidency”.