Known to almost everyone who looks at aviation videos on the internet; a new movie called "Aviation-The Invisible Highway" is coming out in 2015. This movie, directed by Brian J. Terwilliger has taken the aviation community by surprise and it's trailer has spread like a virus on aviation sites and blogs. Since aviation has become such a "sacred" thing that the public is very uneducated about, Terwilliger's goal is to show the public what aviation has become and how amazing the technology has become. Terwilliger has recruited Harrison Ford to do the narration since Ford is an aviator himself and he supports the cause of educating the public about flying.
The producer; Brian J. Terwilliger, has directed another film that aviators crave called "One Six Right" that is aimed more towards pilots, this new film is aimed towards passengers and the general public. This film, is aimed towards making the public more aware of how they are getting from A to B in the air and how everything works together.
The movie is highly anticipated by almost everyone who loves and lives to fly. Though there is no way to fully capture aviation on film, most aviators are hoping that this movie will stimulate aviation since it is a quickly dying industry.
When an airliner reaches the end of it's life; the most common option is to take the plane to the desert in Pima Arizona, and scrap it for parts. Though this has been the case for over 75 years, recent airliners have began to take a different path to give these airliners a new life after they are past their expiration date. Recent airliners have been donating their old, fuel guzzling, planes to aviation technician universities.
A Depressing, Yet Common End to an Airliner's Life
Although these airliners may be past their airworthiness life, they have recently gained a new appreciation for universities learning how to work on modern airliners without working on real, flying planes. Universities like Purdue University need to have real aircraft for the students to work with. Since the students have not graduated yet, they are not legally allowed to work on airworthy aircraft. If any of the students worked on a flying aircraft, that aircraft would be legally, indefinitely grounded, so they have to work on planes that have already been grounded.
A Delta CRJ100, The Same Type That is Being Donated to Purdue
A FedEx Boeing 727, was a past donation to the Purdue University aircraft technician school. This plane is very old and outdated, and another airliner, Delta Airlines has pledged to donate a CRJ100, a common modern plane that will help them learn more about new systems in modern airliners. This CRJ100 was delivered to Delta in 1996, and left service in 2012. Instead of letting it decay in the Arizona desert, Delta decided to give the aircraft a second chance to serve a new purpose.
Though most planes that retire are still being sent to the desert to rot away, more and more airliners have started donating their planes to Universities. Hopefully in the future, all old aircraft will be given a second chance at the end of their life.
For over 75 years Boeing has been one of the top producers of American made planes. With a variety of planes from the WWII B-17 to Boeing's new unmanned helicopters, Boeing is the company to go to for any aviation needs. Although almost every airliner that they've produced in the "700" series was a hit, Boeing's newest high-tech airliner seems more like a rotten egg.
Boeing's newest airliner, the 787, took it's first flight on the 15th of December, 2009. Everyone at Boeing and airline owners thought Boeing's newest creation would be the most fuel efficient, high-tech plane to ever come from Boeing. The airline owners definitely felt confident when Boeing received over 1,000 orders for their new $297,000,000 jet. Although Boeing received so many orders initially, airliners have really slowed interest in the high tech, composite jet. The total number of 787 orders this year is only 18, while Boeing's most popular jet, the 737 has 663 orders scheduled for this year.
Although it is the most technologically advanced airliner ever created, the 787 has had many flaws that keep appearing and slowing the progress of Boeing. One recent problem that has come up 3 times now is the Lithium-Ion battery that is used to power the 787. Since the 787 relies on so much technology and computers, the 787 has to have a battery 10 times larger than Boeing's jumbo jet, the 777. In three different flights, the batteries have started smoking and caught on fire. Luckily, every time this happened, the planes were near airports for an emergency landing. Another major problem was discovered this March. Boeing found hairline cracks in the 787 wing. Since the 787 is made of composite materials like fiberglass and carbon fiber, this was very scary to Boeing engineers, if the wing cracks continued to grow, the wing could separate from the plane in flight. After a few weeks, Boeing reinforced all cracked areas and haven't found any cracks since.
Even though Boeing's new jet has some problems, hopefully in the future Boeing can fix all of the problems to make the new jet what it was meant to be; the most advanced airliner ever created.
On July 10, 2014 the Sonex JSX-2 took flight for the first time. This revolutionary jet takes the home building market to the next level as a kit plane that the customer purchases and builds at their home or shop. This small-single-seat-jet is relatively cheap for it's class and will provide the owner with a whole new home built plane experience. This jet is capable of speeds in excess of 240 mph with a maximum weight of only 1,000 pounds.
Sonex has been creating planes for aviation enthusiasts for many years with 5 models currently produced. Until the JSX arrived on the market, Sonex only produced small piston powered planes. Most of their planes were in the $20,000-$60,000 range until the JSX was released. Though Sonex originally expected the new jet to cost only $60,000, the price was released mid-August at a staggering $130,000. Though the price was quite a bit off Sonex's original estimate, many people are still excitedly pre-ordering the kit for it's 2015 release.
The reason for everyone's excitement on the release of this new toy is it's similarity to the old BD-5J jet that was created in 1971. The BD-5J is the record holder for the World's Smallest Jet. Since only a few BD-5J's remain in existence, their value has gone way higher than almost anyone can afford, that is why the new JSX-2 that is relatively cheap is so appealing to pilots. Both aircraft use the same engine and have similar size and weight characteristics, the key difference on the two is the way their engines are mounted. On the BD-5J, the engine is tucked away under the skin out of site, on the JSX-2, the engine is mounted on top of the fuselage.
Although the Sonex jet takes thousands of hours of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars, many future jet pilots are ready to give Sonex their money in exchange for the fun jet. Many people who want to be commercial jet pilots in the future will also show interest in this jet. In order for many airliners to hire pilots, they have to have a certain amount of jet flying time to get the job. Since this jet is about the cheapest jet currently around, pilots might think about investing in this jet to get their required jet flying time.
