Last week’s storms came and went without undue hazards to
stored aircraft, but they did discourage cross-country travel. As the big
0shkosh, Wisconsin airshow starts up next week, we can expect an influx of
travelers stopping through. It’s be just in time for the winding up of the
airspace confusion surrounding the World Cup Soccer matches, which will relieve
pilots’ minds about all the Te,porary
Flight Restrictions.
The only transient visitors noted this week were a Cessna
340 twin and a Piper Archer. Local aircraft taking wing were the BCS AirTractor
agplane and the club Cessna Skyhawk.
As usual, last week’s worldwide aviation news was only
reported if it was something bad. Accordingly, we heard ad nauseam about the
demented flight instructor in Argintina who opened the door of a Cessna 150 at
several thousand feet and jumped out, leaving his inexperienced trainee to go
back and land with shaken nerves. Personally, I don’t know how he could get the
door open far enough against the 100-mph slipstream to squeeze himself out.
And then there was the Ryan Air 737 that was departing
Greece for Germany when a cabin window lost all three of its panes at 16,000
feet. The resulting sudden depressurization reportedly sucked the closest
passenger halfway out the small opening before his wife thought better of it
and hauled him back in. The while affair was precipitated by an engine’s
uncontained compressor fan blade disintegrating, throwing debris against the
window. All the more reason to keep your seat belt fastened when sitting in an
airliner seat.
In less-sensational news, Chinese-owned Cirrus Aircraft
announced that it will be building the previously-announced TRAC10 trainer
plane in Duluth, with deliveries next year. It will have the hot-rod Rotax 916
160-hp (takeoff only) engine and all the usual Cirrus amenities; glass cockpit,
parachute, three seats for include an observer in back. All for a base price of
only $500,000.
Another new airplane
unveiled last week is the coming CubCrafters Carbon Cub ULT, a Piper Cub
lookalike for the well-heeled. This one will be powered by a TurboTech TP-R90
turboprop engine. Price and horsepower are yet to be announced, probably
expected at AirVenture next week. In an age of half-million dollar Super Cub
clones, it’ll probably be above that.
Boeing’s Australian-built MQ-28 Ghost Bat drone fighter
flew alongside USAF F-15 and F-35 manned fighters in an Operation Valiant
Shield joint exercise last week. Looking like a small squattened F-22, the
Ghost Bat is to fly as wingman for conventional aircraft.
Last week’s question was why the old Beech Model 17 was
called the “Staggerwing?” As Rodney Rod responded, the big cabin biplane had
the lower wing ahead of the upper wing, to improve visibility. Actually, most
all biplanes are staggerwings; Beech’s 17 was unique in having negative
stagger, rather than the usual positive stagger. For this coming week, who was
the designer of Israel’s first fighter planes, in 1948? You can send your
answers to [email protected].
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