Convergence Journalism Project

http://centralhighnews.blogspot.com/

GermanWings Airbus A320 Crashes in France

       On the 24 March, 2015, GermanWings flight 4U 9525 plummeted into the mountains of France, killing all 150 people on board. After a normal departure from Spain, the aircraft headed North, as it was crossing over France, the plane started suddenly descending from its cruising altitude of about 38,000 feet for no apparent reason. After only eight minutes of descending, the aircraft slammed into the mountains of France, pulverizing the plane into pieces no larger than a car. Mysteries surround this plane crash as the black boxes showed no strange mechanical problems or stress from the pilots.

         The latest mystery that has come from the crash is that the co-pilot was suicidal or murderous. The evidence for this argument was found on the black boxes, in the audio of the black boxes, you can hear the captain trying to enter the cockpit after going into the rear of the plane. The captain knocks several times with no answer from the co-pilot, but the black boxes captured the co-pilot breathing and moving the controls so he was obviously conscious. The history of the Co-pilot is currently being looked into.

Crash Site from the Air

      The video far above shows the same A320 that was in the accident taking off one week before the accident. The mystery of this devastating accident may never be solved, we can only hope to better the future of aviation by learning from accidents like this.

FAA Gives Amazon The Go For Drone Testing

      In the last decade, technology for unmanned aerial devices has increased substantially. The technology has gotten to the point of which companies are looking into using unmanned vehicles for their own use. The most recent and famous company: Amazon. Amazon released a commercial in 2014 that showed a multi-rotor delivering a package to a house without ever interacting with a person. They released this commercial showing a hopeful idea that many people don't believe can happen.  

      The drone showed in the video has been named the Amazon Prime Air delivery system. During this week, the FAA or Federal Aviation Administration has given Amazon the all clear to test their aerial system. Many people have low expectations from the system. The technology is still not even close to being possible to deliver packages any further than about a mile. Batteries for even the 

lightest, most efficient multi-rotor a can only last about 15 minutes. 

Bombardier CS300 Airliner Makes First Flight

     On the 27 of February 2015, the Bombardier CS300 left the ground for the first time. The creator, Bombardier is one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world. With many side companies including, Learjet, Bombardier is a big name in aviation. Bombardier has been producing single-aisle airliners for years and they make some of the most popular Regional jets in the world. Their newest jet, the CS300 is the newest addition to the Bombardier family. The CS300 is designed to be more efficient and more economical than the previously used regional jets.

EC300 Taking Off

       The EC300 left the ground for the first time at Bombardiers main facility at Mirabel Airport near Montreal. The flight was a complete success and the plane climbed to an altitude of 43,000 feet before it descended back to Earth. The new EC300 turned the heads of Bombardier employees back to the sky after many delays and problems. Bombardier put all of their effort into this project to ensure its success. They even put the new Learjet 85 on hold until it was completed.

Bombardier proved their technology and innovation on this project. Their employees and designers all worked tirelessly for this new jet that will be around for decades to come.

Wichita Plans Aviation Exhibit in Museum

        When you think of Wichita Kansas, you might not think much of it. For a town in Kansas, it has a huge technology history that many people don't know about. Wichita Kansas is actually one of the greatest places for Aviation in the whole country. For over 80 years, Wichita has been home to the largest and most famous aviation companies and factories. Companies like Learjet, Cessna, and Hawker all have major manufacturing plants in Wichita Kansas. In fact, every single Cessna ever produced has come out of the factory in Wichita Kansas. Wichita is also famous for it's Exploration Center. The Exploration Center is a large science museum in Wichita which offers guests interactive exhibits that vary over many subjects.

The Current Small Aviation Exhibit in Exploration Center

       In about 18 months, the Exploration Center in Wichita Kansas is planning on creating a massive, interactive aviation experience in their museum. Many of the local aviation companies have agreed to contribute planes or plane parts to the museum to incorporate in the new exhibit. The new exhibit is expected to have a large jet fuselage, many pieces of jets that are interactive, and a few smaller aircraft.

Cessna Factory in Wichita

     The hope for this aviation exhibit is to promote aviation by educating the public about it and educating people about the rich aviation history of Wichita Kansas. The way this city is used as an Aviation HQ is not known by many and it is important for people to know about it.

India's First Indigenous Fighter

         When you think of Aviation Technology in India, there isn't much. For India's Air Force and military, most of their aerial vehicles originate from Russia or the U.S. For the past decades, all of India's fighters and other aircraft were foreign aircraft. Their fighters came from Russia and the U.S., and their transport planes were from Airbus. This year, India finally completed the designing and engineering of their first native fighter jet. India's new Tejas jet is their first Indigenous fighter jet to ever come out of an Indian factory. This new jet will make India's dependency on other countries lessen and their Air Force stronger.

Tejas Jet Banking

        The Tejas jet is not new, but it is the first jet to be produced in India. The first Tejas jet flew in 2001, but the first fighter jet made in India flew this year. This jet has been acclaimed for being ultra lightweight and very effective as a fighter jet. Although this jet isn't as advanced as an F-22 Raptor, it still gives India bragging rights for the production of an effective, lightweight jet.

      The Tejas jet is finally ready for production in India. This jet will replace India's aging Mig-21's and F-16's. This time, the jets will be their own creations, they will know how to fix them, maintain them and upgrade them for the future without depending on another country for assistance. India's new Tejas jet will fly them into the future of aviation.

Dassault's New X8 Falcon

      When you think of a privately owned jet, you probably think of about 3 names in the game, the Learjet, Bombardier, and Dassault. For wealthy people all around the world, the choice of brand can be a tough one and the jets are all very similar. For people wanting to chose a jet, they look at cost, effectiveness, and range. The new Dassault X8, the 3 engined private is one of the fastest, most technological aircraft of today.

Dassault X8 Test Flight

; The new Dassault X8 has the longest range of flight of all the Dassault line jets in production. The new Falcon X8 can fly more than 6,450 nautical miles on one tank of fuel. This range of fuel makes the X8 far more tempting to wealthy people who need to go International. Most private jets have to island hop across the ocean which takes much more time and money. The Dassault can make it across the ocean in one trip. 

         The Dassault X8 is very expensive. At about $46 Million starting price, the Falcon is for the elite. Although the X8 costs far more than most other competitors, people who have the money and need to travel international, might consider this new jet.

Boeing 737, The Many Variants

         Since the mid 1960's, the Boeing 737 has been one of the premier airliners of the sky. With advancements in almost every aspect of the jet, this jet remains Boeing's #1 sold aircraft. Even with all of Boeing's newer, larger, more efficient airliners, the 737 dominates the Boeing market by about 5x more than any other aircraft. Of their total orders this year (1,432), the 737 has been 1,104 of those orders. People might wonder why the 737; one of Boeing's oldest jets, remains at the top. The key to the 737's success has been it's modifications over the years.

Lineup of 737s

       The 737 has been one of the most produced airliners in history. The key to this success has been modifying the original popular jet to fit almost any circumstance. With about 5 classes of 737 produced in history, and countless variations to those, the 737 can handle almost anything it receives. From freight to rowdy passengers, the 737 was build to handle it all. So many of these jumbo jets were produced, that at any given time period, there are about 1,250 737's in the air.

      Although the 737 is one of Boeing's oldest airliners, it has been varied and changed so much to the point where it is a completely different plane from the prototype. From more efficient engines, to composite technologies, the 737 has been a completely different aircraft. Even though it was designed for passenger use, this jumbo jet has been varied to carry freight and even military variants have been created to do aerial refueling and submarine scouting. The 737, one of Boeing's original airlines has become their most popular. If you turn your head to the sky, odds are you will see a Boeing 737 soaring high above.

Airbus A350 Makes First Flight With Passengers

     For many years, the aircraft company Airbus has been making the biggest, most fuel efficient planes of the sky. Since their release of the A380, the world's largest airliner with 2 floors and room for up to 850 people, aviation nerds have wondered what is coming next. With Boeing's release of their new 787 Dreamliner, Airbus needed a plane to compete with Boeing. Their answer was the Airbus A350, a plane made of the newest space age materials very similar to the 787.

Airbus A350 test plane

       The A350, originally flown in 2013, is the first Airbus aircraft with wing structures and fuselage made of mostly carbon fiber, a material lighter and stronger than aluminum. The A350 was made to compete directly with Boeing's 787 and 777, both extremely popular jets in the airlines. The new aircraft made it's first flight with passengers yesterday, the 15 January 2015. During the flight, the reaction from the crowd was noticeable, everybody loved the new plane.

      The A350 has very impressive performance standards. Because of it's lightweight construction and powerful engines, it can takeoff and land in very little areas and it can climb at a massive rate of climb. So far, the A350 has over 800 orders upcoming. At a price of over 340 million dollars a piece, Airbus has a very large amount of money incoming.

Cirrus Vision Jet Closer To Completion

      For over 3 decades now, the Cirrus aircraft company has produced some of the most luxurious propeller planes in the world. Their aircraft are some of the fastest and safest aircraft in the skies. Their current best seller, the Cirrus SR-22 has a built in parachute that will catch the whole aircraft if any critical component fails. The Cirrus reputation has been a good one in the last few years and they have decided to start competing with companies like Learjet and Cessna to create a new luxury private jet. Their new jet, the Cirrus Vision will be one of the lightest and most efficient private jets in the world.

The new Cirrus jet is known as a "Very Light Jet". This style of jet is produced to combat high fuel prices and large fuel guzzling engines. It's simple, if the plane is lighter, it will burn less fuel. So the Cirrus Jet uses it's light weigh design, along with an efficient small engine to create an extremely efficient and fast private jet.

       The Cirrus jet first flew in 2008; since then, 3 prototypes have been created and almost 2,000 hours of flight time have been logged in them. The Jet is expected to start production very soon. The starting cost for a Vision will be $2,000,000 and there have already been 550 people who have made deposits to guarantee their aircraft.

UAV'S Becoming More Popular In Military

     Since the origins of the "Dogfight" in World War I, military's have been questioning a way to get the same dog fight without having the risk of losing a human life if the plane gets shot down. In recent years, many Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV's) have been developed to go into use in military's all around the world. Recently, drones like the Predator, Reaper, and Global Hawk have been in use in war. These drones can be flown longer, further, and higher than an equivalent plane with a human inside of it.

   
    The newest aircraft in the military is going to the US Navy. This new aircraft called the X-47 is an unmanned carrier capable unmanned fighter jet. The X-47 has recently completed its first carrier testing in which it successfully took off and landed on a moving aircraft carrier. This new UAV will substitute and possibly replace the F-18 in the future. The new jet is still in the developing stages so not much information is known about it yet except that it is a carrier capable fighter jet.

The Common but Deadly USAF Predator UAV

        The UAV's in the USAF are some of the most effective in the world. In the Middle East, the air force uses the Predator and similar drones everyday to monitor and target enemies safely and effectively. If a UAV gets shot down, it is not as bad as if it were an attack aircraft because no pilot loses their lives in a drone.

NASA Orion Spacecraft Launches for Maiden Flight

      Since the 1960's the US has been doing almost constant missions into space. Since the moon landings in the 60's most of the flights have just been routine research flights to the International Space Station in orbit around Earth. After the cancellation of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, the only way for US astronauts to get to the space station has been to pay Russia for a seat in their spacecraft. Today the new era of NASA took off from the launch pad in Cape Canaveral. The new spacecraft called Orion takes a modern spin on the style of the old Apollo rockets in which a capsule at the top detaches and parachutes down into the ocean rather than landing like the shuttle.

Orion Spacecraft Leaves Cape Canaveral 5 December 2014

 The Orion capsule built by Lockeed Martin is capable of leaving low Earth Orbit and traveling a much greater distance than what has been possible in the past with the Space Shuttle. NASA hopes to use this shuttle in the future to go to asteroids and possibly Mars. The maiden flight lasted a little less than 4 and a half hours and went flawlessly. NASA hopes to do a manned flight by 2021.

 

Mooney Brings New Trainer into the Game

     The Mooney aircraft company, a Chinese owned, American based manufacture was founded in 1929. Since their introduction, Mooney created some of the fastest, most efficient aircraft in the 70s-80s. Their claimed specialty tail designs such as their V-tails and forward swept tails brought them into the light. The Mooney company went bankrupt for a long period of time before coming back this year. When they came back, they did it right; their first plane in production when they came back was the fastest production piston plane in the world. On the other end of the speed spectrum, Mooney recently released a new trainer aircraft onto the market. In the last 45 years, the Cessna 150 has been the premier trainer for almost all student pilots. Many companies have tried hard to replace the 150, but with high prices and almost no advantage, they have failed. The new Mooney may, or may not work well as a trainer, only time can tell a plane's value.

Mooney M10T

      The new Mooney M10T is critiqued as to having a cheap engine for an expensive plane. The plane incorporates carbon fiber, digital avionics, and composite technology but people are saying it uses a cheap diesel engine. Mooney chose the diesel engine because it is not as loud, fuel efficient, and jet/diesel fuel is much cheaper. People however, are saying that they should have used a standard Lycoming engine since they are much more reliable and are known for lasting more than 60 years.

The M10T Has Amazing Avionics For a Trainer Aircraft

      The Mooney M10T is supposed to be released in 2017 to the public market. Mooney wants to have a mix of American and Chinese consumers purchase this aircraft.

China Unveils New FC-31 Stealth Fighter at Air show

     This Thursday, the 13 of November, China unveiled it's newest technological achievement at an air show in China. The new "stealth fighter" is most likely created to compete with the US Air Force F-22 Raptor, if a war ever broke out. Aviation experts are actually strongly opposing the jet though. In a statement made by Reuben F. Johnson, a correspondent for Jane's Defense Weekly, he stated "it is impossible to tell just how "stealthy" it is without knowing how it was built". Johnson also said that the plane performs very poorly, it looses lots of energy in turns, and looses altitude quickly. He believes that if weapons were added, it would only perform worse. 

USAF F-22 Raptor

The FC-31 Looks Very Similar To The USAF F-22

           Many people believe that China was strictly building the FC-31 to compete with the new F-22 and F-35 USAF fighters. Since they were building them to compete, they also built it to look just like them. Many people believe that China copied Lockeed Martin's F-22 design to build the FC-31. Though they may look alike, the F-22 has technology that will last for at least 30 years and remain dominant. The FC-31 is known to fly very poorly and does not perform anywhere near as well as the F--22. Below is a video of the F-22 Raptor, the American competitor of China's new fighter. 

NASA Antares Rocket Explodes on Launch

     On October 28, 2014, the NASA resupply rocket deemed "Antares" exploded about 10 seconds into the launch. The rocket had a planned destination of the ISS (International Space Station) for a resupply. Antares was full of supplies and new materials for experiments, and other necessities for the ISS. Luckily, nobody was killed or even hurt on this deadly launch since it was an unmanned flight.

       
     About 2 miles away at the press site, where all of the news and cinematographers sit and watch, there was panic and confusion as the rocket unexpectedly dropped from the sky and caused a major shock wave. About 10 seconds after the rocket hit the ground, a very distinct loud explosion was heard at all of the press sites. Seconds later, NASA launch teams sent out recovery crews and firefighters to put out the blazes caused by the blast. The rocket failure was caused by one of it's 2 engines suddenly losing thrust. Shortly after, to prevent further destruction, the Antares operator opted to self destruct the rocket.

People Leaving the Launch Site After the Accident

      The Cygnus rockets (Antares) have only had 5 totals launches since their introduction in 2013. This was their first failure and until they find out what caused the problem, it is expected that their competitor, Space X is going to take over the resupply missions. The Antares rockets have had good success until now and Orbital Sciences hopes to fix their hurt reputation by improving Antares and finding out what caused the disaster.

Mitsubishi Releases New Regional Jet

       Since WWII, Mitsubishi has produced more than cars and UTV's. Mitsubishi has been a famed producer of planes since WWII. In the war, Mitsubishi was most famous for their "Zero" fighter. This is the kind of fighter that attacked Pearl Harbor. In modern times, the manufacturer is planning on releasing the first major Japanese jet in 50 years. The newest jet will be produced for Regional Airlines like Allegiant, and American Eagle.

MRJ Before It Receives It's Paint Job

        The MRJ is considered by many to be the most advanced regional jet ever produced. The jet produced by Mitsubishi has 4, large computer displays in the cockpit, and a heads up display (HUD) in front of each pilot in the cockpit. The jet also integrates new turbine technology. The engines have larger blades, and fewer of them, cause for reduced noise, and efficient thrust quantities. The new engines produced by Pratt and Whitney produce far more thrust to the amount of weight than most current regional jets.

The Cockpit of the MRJ Is Very Technology Based

    The new jet is scheduled to take it's first test flight in the second quarter of 2015. Mitsubishi hopes to have the jet in the airlines by 2017, Since almost all of the regional airlines jets are nearing the end of their service, Mitsubishi has already had 400 orders.

Virgin Galactic's Space Ship Two

       Since the 1970's the Virgin Group founded by Richard Branson has been making technological advancements and amazing feats of engineering. The Virgin Group owns many companies including Virgin Atlantic (airline service) Virgin Mobile (cellular service) and recently Virgin Galactic (spacecrafts). Founded in 2004, Virgin Galactic has been creating and designing new spacecraft including the Spaceship One, and the new Space Ship Two. Their newest spacecraft is supposedly going to offer the chance for people to buy tickets to take a ride into space.

      The space ship called "Space Ship Two" is carried into the lower atmosphere by a twin boom, four engine aircraft called "White Knight Two" built specifically for the challenge. Once the craft arrives at a set altitude, the smaller spacecraft is released from the belly and a large rocked sends it into the lower altitude of space. This design reduces cost and makes the journey easier for the smaller craft by giving it a piggy back ride half way there.

The Smaller Shuttle Hangs Between the Wing of the Large Carrier Aircraft

  This space craft is capable of flying into the lower extents of the upper atmosphere. This is technically going into space and passengers will feel reduced gravity effects. People who desire to go to space will actually be able to pay for a ticket for a ride into space. Virgin Galactic is currently building a second spacecraft since their first was for research only. Hopefully in the upcoming years, all of their research goes as planned and they can start taking passengers up for the ride of their lives.

Many Fear Pilot Shortage in Future

    Since the 1940's, air travel has continually grown. More and more people every year get to their destinations by traveling through the sky. But in recent times, regional airliners are having more trouble finding pilots to fly their aircraft. 

American Eagle CRJ-900

     Ever since September 11, 2001, air travel has been more secure and more restricted. Since air travel has become more restricted, the number of new pilots per year has gone down about 2% per year. Every time there is an accident with a commercial jet, the FAA seems to add a new law or change the minimum requirements to become a pilot. Although you only needed 250 hours of flight time to get into the airliners before, now you need 1,500 hours. To get this amount of flight time, it will take you about 2 years of flying every chance you get and it will cost you about $80,000. Since it costs this much to train for a job that starts at an annual salary of $20,000, many people aren't too excited to be a new pilot. 

A Cessna 172, a Common Plane for a Student Pilot

      Since people are reluctant to become pilots because of cost and low benefits, very few people are getting their pilot's licenses in modern times. If people do get their licenses, they don't go into the Regional airlines in fear of getting paid less than a fast food worker and never paying off debt. Since the regional airlines are the bottom of the chain that you move up to get to the big time jets, people never start the chain and that is where the shortage is coming from. 

Federal Aviation Administration Attacks Hobby Community

     Since the origins of aviation, people have always looked for a cheaper alternative to actually flying. In the last twenty years, the aviation hobby community has grown exponentially and the technology has become amazing. Though this technology seems to have an unlimited amount of usefulness and endless possibilities, the FAA has recently pulled in the reigns on the hobby and really limited it's use.

     The above video was taken on a GoPro mounted on one of my home created planes. This is the activity that the FAA has recently outlawed. The act of shooting live stream video from an unmanned aerial aircraft is called FPV (First Person View). Thousands of hobbyists around the world have recently taken up FPV for it's amazing feeling of virtually flying a plane. The pilot wears video goggles that display a live stream video from the camera mounted on the plane. Though some people buy already created planes, many hobbyists like myself, create their own planes from various foam and composite materials. Though FPV has many uses like search and rescue in dangerous areas, and filming agriculture for farmers, the FAA has decided FPV is too dangerous and too much of a cause for concern. 

My Quadcopter That Can be Used for FPV

   Although the FAA has only allowed Hollywood production companies to use FPV for now, many hobbyist organizations are suing the FAA for their quickly made law. One organization called "FliteTest" told everyone who saw their post to put a bad review on the FAA's Facebook page. Since they made that statement, the FAA now has a very low review and most are complaints about the FPV ban.  Although this technology has continued to advance for years, the recent law has put the hobby to a standstill and is taking us into the past. 

Aviation, The Invisible Highway is Coming to Theaters

     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.