Flight Safety Information October 29, 2013 - No. 223 In This Issue Ka-52 helicopter crashes in Moscow near residential neighborhood NTSB went to South Korea as part of Asiana Airlines crash inquiry Regulator knew joy pilot had seizures (Australia) FAA Upgrades Ukraines Aviation Safety Rating to Category 1 Taking Steps To Improve Aircraft Safety In Nigeria Pet travel policies for top U.S. airlines Gogo Goes Global: Partners with Japan Airlines to Deliver In-flight Internet Law change gives lift to folding aircraft project Five Innovators In Experimental Aircraft Sector Think ARGUS PROS LETU SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH AMERICAN EAGLE FOR PILOT PIPELINE A pill for jet lag? Debut test flight looms for Orion, NASA's next manned spaceship Ka-52 helicopter crashes in Moscow near residential neighborhood A helicopter crashed just meters away from residential houses in the South East of Moscow. The Russian Emergencies Ministry said the pilots managed to bail out in time, but received trauma injuries. The Defence Ministry confirmed it was an experimental military helicopter Ka-52K. Eyewitnesses of the accident told Interfax the helicopter's crash was followed by two loud explosions. The aircraft fell in a wooded area, reportedly near a helipad. Thick smoke from the fire is now covering the neighborhood. "A green helicopter is on fire, the area of the blaze is around 20 square meters," an Emergencies Ministry spokesman told RIA. The preliminary cause of the accident, provided by a source, was the malfunction of the ejector mechanism, which caused it to involuntarily activate. Reports quoted by Interfax said the combat helicopter was a naval version of Ka-52 undergoing tests for the future deployment on Russian Mistral-class carriers. The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed it was an experimental military helicopter, the Ka-52. "The crash-landed Ka-52 helicopter was undergoing tests in the Kamov design bureau as part of a research and development process. The aircraft was piloted by a crew from the design bureau," the ministry said in a statement. The Kamov Ka-52 "Alligator" (NATO reporting name Hokum B) is a modified two-seat model of a renowned Russian attack helicopter, the Ka-50 "Black Shark." The distinctive coaxial rotor system of these attack helicopters allows high maneuverability, and they have become support helicopters of choice for Russian special forces. http://rt.com/news/helicopter-falls-moscow-906/ Back to Top NTSB went to South Korea as part of Asiana Airlines crash inquiry National Transportation Safety Board officials have traveled to South Korea as part of an investigation into the crash of an Asiana Airlines jet at San Francisco International Airport, in which three people died and more than 180 others were injured. The investigators interviewed managers and training personnel and "observed Asiana procedures in a simulator and an exemplar aircraft," according to a NTSB announcement Friday. Investigators in Korea also combed through records from the airplane involved in the accident. The NTSB on Friday also announced that a two-day investigative hearing on the crash will be held Dec. 10 and 11 in Washington, D.C. The hearing will focus on "pilot awareness in highly automated aircraft, emergency response, and cabin safety," according to the NTSB. Because of the government shutdown earlier this month, the NTSB said the hearing had been delayed from November to December. On July 6, Asiana Airlines Flight 214 clipped a seawall and slammed into a runway while landing at San Francisco International Airport. Three teenage girls were killed. One of them was struck by an emergency response vehicle on the runway. Also included in the NTSB update was an examination of the evacuation slide or raft systems at a manufacturing plant in New Jersey. The Survival Factors Group had also re-examined the wreckage. Investigators and others also met in Seattle "to examine the recorded flight data and compare it to the expected airplane systems operation." http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-asiana-investigation-update-korea- 20131025,0,1555594.story#axzz2j1JoXrla Back to Top Regulator knew joy pilot had seizures (Australia) THE air safety regulator has been blasted by a coroner for allowing a self-confessed cowboy of the aviation industry with serious health problems to continue flying until he crashed and killed himself and a paying passenger while suffering an epileptic fit. Barry Hempel and passenger Ian Lovell were killed on August 31, 2008 when his Yak aerobatics plane crashed into the sea off Stradbroke Island in southeast Queensland, after Lovell had been given the joy flight as a 35th birthday gift from his partner, Samantha Hare. Coroner John Hutton found Hempel, 60, had a rap sheet of 34 incidents dating back to 1968 and the licence he had at the time of the crash did not allow him to carry passengers, although he was openly running an aviation business. He found Hempel gave an impression of a man who believed he was "above the law", having completed more than 28,000 flying hours and that his health had been affected when he was hit on the head by a hangar door in 2001. The inquest heard that when the pilot had an epileptic fit at his home in 2002 paramedics were concerned that he wanted to leave immediately to fly. They were so concerned they parked their ambulance across his driveway to prevent him leaving. The inquest also heard Hempel had suffered an epileptic fit when flying but his passenger was also a pilot and took over the controls and landed the plane. The doctor who advised that Hempel's pilot's licence be returned in 2005 was not told of these events. He told the inquest that if he had, Hempel's career as a pilot would have been over. Mr Hutton was highly critical of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. "Given the litany of Barry Hempel's breaches, one is left wondering why CASA allowed him to continue flying . . . but given his history of breaches, the question arises as to whether he was a fit and proper person to hold any kind of aircraft licence," he said. "CASA was well aware that Mr Hempel was a pilot who flew with a total disregard for the safety regulations . . . Surely even with a private pilot's licence there was a risk that he would breach a safety regulation that could place in peril any private passengers, other planes and indeed people below his flight path. "In the case of the incident of 31 August 2008 the only fortunate aspect was that the Yak landed in open sea rather than on houses or roads, where many other people could have been killed." The inquest heard CASA's aviation medical branch had received a report about the 2002 incident and that Hempel had told the ambulance officers he had suffered at least two in the previous months. "This document ought to have put CASA on red alert as to Barry Hempel's ability to fly. It is unbelievable that CASA did not act," Mr Hutton said. It had became obvious medical officers were "cavalier" about the reports on the 2002 incident provided by ambulance officers. "CASA medical officers chose to disregard the observations of trained paramedics." A spokesman for CASA said yesterday the agency would respond to the judgment after it had been properly studied. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/regulator-knew-joy-pilot-had-seizures/story-e6frg95x- 1226733241444#sthash.MdWNEi58.dpuf Back to Top FAA Upgrades Ukraines Aviation Safety Rating to Category 1 The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced that Ukraine complies with international safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), based on the results of a July FAA review of Ukraine's civil aviation authority. Ukraine is now upgraded to Category 1 from the Category 2 safety rating the country received from the FAA in June 2005. Ukraine's civil aviation authority worked with the FAA on an action plan so that its safety oversight system fully complies with ICAO's standards and practices. A Category 1 rating means the country's civil aviation authority complies with ICAO standards. A Category 2 rating means a country either lacks laws or regulations necessary to oversee air carriers in accordance with minimum international standards, or that its civil aviation authority - equivalent to the FAA for aviation safety matters - is deficient in one or more areas, such as technical expertise, trained personnel, record keeping or inspection procedures. With the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) Category 1 rating, Ukraine's air carriers can add flights and service to the United States and carry the code of U.S. carriers. With the Category 2 rating, a country's airlines are allowed to maintain existing service to the United States, but cannot establish new services. Ukraine currently does not provide service to the United States. As part of the FAA's IASA program, the agency assesses the civil aviation authorities of all countries with air carriers that operate or have applied to fly to the United States and makes that information available to the public. The assessments determine whether or not foreign civil aviation authorities are meeting ICAO safety standards, not FAA regulations. In order to maintain a Category 1 rating, countries with air carriers that fly to the United States must adhere to the safety standards of ICAO, the United Nations' technical agency for aviation that establishes international standards and recommended practices for aircraft operations and maintenance. IASA information is at www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/iasa/. http://www.aviation.ca/2013102216754/news/international/us/federal-aviation-administration/16754-press- release-faa-upgrades-ukraines-aviation-safety-rating-to-category-1 Back to Top Taking Steps To Improve Aircraft Safety In Nigeria Recently, the safety of aircraft operations in the country and the safety of the nation's airspace received hard knocks following frequent accidents and incidents in the industry. Within the last couple of weeks, the industry has recorded incidents that highlighted major lapses in the nation's aviation industry in terms of safety. Preliminary reports into the accident involving the Associated Airline aircraft at the Lagos Airport on October 3, 2013, showed that the aircraft had major faults and yet the flight crew proceeded with the flight which resulted in the death of 16 persons on board. Also, subsequent incidents involving the Dana Air in Port Harcourt and IRS Airline in Kaduna could all be traced to major snags with the aircraft. This means that despite government's huge investments in infrastructure upgrade at airports and installation of up-to-date navigational equipment like the total radar coverage of the nation's airspace (TRACON) project, a major aspect of the safety chain is still missing. That according to experts is the absence of a maintenance hangar in the country that can adequately cater for the needs of airlines that spend a lot of money in maintaining their aircraft abroad. The fact that most airlines take their aircraft abroad for maintenance and the huge resources they spend in doing so apart from stifling their operations also impact on the safety of airline operations in the country. Analysts put the cost implication of aircraft maintenance abroad by Nigerian airlines at about N30 billion annually, and in some cases, some of these aircraft and aircraft engines taken abroad by indigenous airlines for major checks do not return to the country due to the inability to pay for the cost of maintenance and other overheads. The case of the liquidated Nigeria Airways is still fresh in the minds of many industry stakeholders. A breakdown of the cost of maintaining aircraft abroad include the actual cost of maintenance, purchase of spare parts, accommodation and feeding cost for the crew who would monitor the level and progress of work on the aircraft or engine in question among others. The president, Aviation Round Table (ART), Mr Dele Ore, lamented the inability of the federal government to establish a maintenance hangar in Nigeria years after the idea was suggested as a major step in the continuous growth of the nation's aviation industry and to fill up the missing gap in aviation safety in the country. The president, Nigerian Aviation Safety Initiative (NASI), Mr Dung Pam, speaking on the issue of safety in the industry, lamented the absence of a national hangar in the country. He said, "Once again another case of policy neglect at the implementation stage. If the national hangar project which was decided in 1977 had been implemented, this problem would have been solved. I know that in 2009 negotiations commenced between Nigeria's aviation authorities and Lufthansa Technik with a view to setting up a Maintenance and Repair Organisation (MRO) in Nigeria." That the negotiations with Lufthansa Technik did not materialise should not be enough reason to abandon the policy when its benefits to the industry cannot be quantified. Maybe the time has come for the industry to look inwards and take positive steps that are beneficial. http://leadership.ng/news/291013/taking-steps-improve-aircraft-safety-nigeria Back to Top Pet travel policies for top U.S. airlines Frequent business traveler Tamara Hall is allergic to cats and can't understand why pets are allowed in the passenger cabins of airplanes. She remembers two cats under seats and how they affected her and two other airline passengers with allergies on a 16-seat flight from Bozeman, Mont., to Salt Lake City several years ago. "With the dander blowing throughout, we were all sneezing and itching by landing," Hall recalls. "My eyes were almost swollen shut." Airlines stopped serving peanuts "because one person might be allergic, but cats?" she asks. "They smile and say, 'Deal with it.' There must be a solution." USA TODAY asked big U.S. airlines for their policies, and all allow pets to be brought into the cabin by passengers for a fee. Some allow only cats and dogs; others also allow birds and rabbits. Pets must be inside carriers, and the carriers must be put under the seat in front of the passenger bringing the pet aboard. The fee ranges from $75 on a Southwest Airlines or AirTran Airways flight to $200 on a Delta Air Lines foreign flight. Unlike airlines, Amtrak prohibits pets on trains, according to spokeswoman Kimberly Woods. In May, Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., introduced a bill that would require Amtrak to designate at least one car where pets would be allowed. The bill says Amtrak would collect an unspecified fee for each pet. Proposed legislation allowing pets on the rails may be great news for millions of pet lovers but unwelcome news for allergy sufferers. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, 15% to 30% of people with allergies have allergic reactions to cats and dogs. When cat or dog allergens are inhaled by highly sensitive people, severe breathing problems - coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath - can occur in 15 to 30 minutes, the foundation says. An "intense" rash on the face, neck or upper chest is also possible. For up to 30% of people with asthma, "cat contact can trigger a severe asthma attack," the foundation says. Mike Tringale, a spokesman for the foundation, says airlines should limit the number of pets allowed on a flight and establish policies to enable passengers with allergies to switch seats. Southwest Airlines, which sells a pet carrier for $48 at airport ticket counters, says it allows a maximum of six pets per flight, but it may make exceptions. A passenger "severely affected" by an animal allergy should notify a Southwest Airlines airport employee, and "we will work to ensure that the customer is seated on the opposite end of the aircraft, as far away from the animal as possible," says Michelle Agnew, the airline's spokeswoman. Alaska Airlines allows one pet in the first-class cabin and five in the main cabin, according to spokeswoman Marianne Lindsey. Alaska has received "very few" complaints from passengers objecting to animals on aircraft, she says. "Allowing pets in the cabin is a service offered by all major airlines, and we continue to offer it to serve our customers, many of whom enjoy and appreciate traveling with their pets." JetBlue spokeswoman says Tamara Young says the airline is carrying an increasing number of pets but limits them to four per flight. "If a customer has a pet allergy, we ask that they inform an in-flight crew member upon boarding the aircraft," Young says. "Upon request, an in-flight crew member will try to create a buffer zone and place the customer as far away as possible from any animal on board." JetBlue "will offer a full refund to customers for whom these conditions make it impossible to travel," she says. United Airlines has a three-pet limit per flight, says spokesman Christen David. "All pets must remain in their kennel throughout the duration of the flight, which mitigates most concerns customers would have about allergies," David says. If a passenger seated near a pet "is not comfortable," United will relocate or rebook the passenger on another flight, he says. Airlines prohibit or have restrictions on pets in the cabin on international flights. US Airways, for example, allows dogs, cats and birds on domestic flights, but they are prohibited on flights to and from Europe, South America, the Middle East and various Caribbean destinations. Spirit Airlines allows dogs, cats and birds on domestic flights but prohibits birds on flights to and from Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, says spokeswoman Misty Pinson. The airline doesn't allow pets - except "service or comfort animals" - on foreign flights. Hawaiian Airlines doesn't allow pets on flights from outside the state that land in Hawaii because of animal quarantine laws, spokeswoman Ann Botticelli says. The airline, though, allows a cat or a dog in the passenger cabin for $35 on a flight between the Hawaiian Islands or $175 for a North American flight that doesn't land in Hawaii. Frequent business traveler Bob Catlette of Collierville, Tenn., isn't allergic to animals and supports airline policies that allow them in passenger cabins. Catlette, an author and an executive coach, says he has flown on several flights next to passengers with service dogs or pets. "Contrary to dogs that I've heard barking incessantly in the aircraft belly, none of these on-board pets made a peep or other disturbance," he says. Another frequent business traveler, Barbara Korte of Plymouth, Mich., believes airlines should be more protective of people with allergies and not allow pets in the passenger cabin. She also recalls an unpleasant experience involving two puppies on a flight from Detroit to Amsterdam two years ago. "Everyone thought the puppies were very cute, including the lady who took them out of the carrier and had them on her lap, until they pooped during the flight," she says. "Then, when everyone was trying to sleep, the puppies were whining. It was not a good experience." http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2013/10/07/airline-pet-policies/2939981/ Back to Top Gogo Goes Global: Partners with Japan Airlines to Deliver In-flight Internet ITASCA, Ill., Oct. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Gogo (NASDAQ: GOGO), the world leader of in-flight connectivity and a pioneer in wireless in-flight digital entertainment solutions, announced today that it has signed a contract with Japan Airlines (JAL) to provide Gogo's in-flight Internet service on JAL's entire domestic fleet, which consists of 77 aircraft. "We couldn't be more excited to work with JAL on bringing Gogo's connectivity services to JAL's passengers," said Gogo's president and CEO, Michael Small. "We know from our experience that having connectivity has become a competitive necessity for airlines. We look forward to providing this service to JAL and keeping its passengers productive, connected and entertained during their travels." The new service will utilize Gogo's Ku-satellite connectivity technology and is expected to be available to JAL passengers beginning in the summer of 2014 "Gogo is the global leader when it comes to in-flight connectivity solutions and we are excited to work with them to be the first Japanese airline to bring Internet service to passengers onboard domestic aircraft," said Yoshiharu Ueki, JAL's president. "JAL is continually striving to bring passengers a unique and completely refreshing onboard experience and offering our passengers Internet access on domestic flights is part of that experience." About Gogo Gogo is the global leader of in-flight connectivity and wireless in-flight digital entertainment solutions. Using Gogo's exclusive products and services, passengers with Wi-Fi enabled devices can get online on more than 2,000 Gogo equipped commercial aircraft. In-flight connectivity partners include American Airlines, Air Canada, AirTran Airways, Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Japan Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways and Virgin America. In-flight entertainment partners include American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Scoot and US Airways. In addition to its commercial airline business, Gogo has more than 6,500 business aircraft outfitted with its communications services. Back on the ground, Gogo's 600+ employees in Itasca, IL, Broomfield, CO and London are working to continually redefine flying as a productive, socially connected, and all-around more satisfying experience. Connect with Gogo at www.gogoair.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gogo and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/gogo. Back to Top Law change gives lift to folding aircraft project By Adam Palin Former US airforce pilot and Stanford graduate, Kirk Hawkins, stands in front of a prototype of his Icon A5 aircraft Though former US Air Force pilot Kirk Hawkins signed up for business school so that he could hang up his jumpsuit, his departure from the world of aviation was shortlived. As he enrolled on the Sloan masters programme at Stanford Graduate School of Business - redesigned this year as the Stanford MSx - his imagination was captured by the idea of building a sports aeroplane. "I steered my curriculum towards anything entrepreneurial ... [and] I would use my classes in the context of analysing my business idea," says Mr Hawkins. After graduating from the California school in 2005, he founded Icon Aircraft, the company where he is now chief executive. The issue Aerial adventure has a romantic appeal, he says, but government regulations on private flight had historically grounded ambitions. However, in 2004 a change in US law creating a light sport category of aircraft opened the door for a breed of easy-to-fly recreational aeroplane. "This change in regulations presented a classic textbook start-up opportunity," says Mr Hawkins. The solution The portable Icon A5 has been in development since 2006. Its wings fold so it can be transported by road. The single-engine aircraft - which is designed to fly at up to 120 miles per hour with a range of 300 miles - will be able to land and take off on water, as well as on land. Mr Hawkins compares the A5 to a sports car, designed to capture buyers' imagination. Its cockpit has a comparable simplicity and style. "I want people to look at [the A5] and think: 'This is bad-ass. I want to go have fun exploring in it'." How the company was developed It became increasingly clear to Mr Hawkins during his degree that his business idea was viable. A marketing project illustrated the scale of the untapped market for the product. After finishing his studies, he concluded that he would regret not taking a risk on a start-up. "Disruption to technology causes great opportunities and they don't happen very often," he says. "My time at Stanford gave me the confidence to be ambitious [and] to walk into any boardroom." Mr Hawkins teamed up with Steen Strand, a friend from his earlier Stanford masters degree in engineering. "I knew enough about planes [and] Steen was an expert in sophisticated consumer design," he says. Raising launch capital proved an early challenge. However, investment from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs got the project off the ground. "The entire capital market here is built around monetising disruptive changes through investment in technology," says Mr Hawkins. To solve the technical challenges of producing an amphibious aircraft, a team of engineers was assembled. In 2007 Icon recruited aeronautical engineers from Scaled Composites, the company that designed Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo craft. "With this nucleus of rock-star talent, we could get down to building a compelling product," says Mr Hawkins. What next? The focus is now on starting production in southern California. The company raised $60m in its fourth round of equity fundraising this June. Mr Hawkins says the goal is to deliver Icon's first aircraft in 2014. "You have to start slowly ... check the quality and stage the rate of production." He adds that final production levels will be a function of market demand, but is strongly encouraged by interest so far. The A5 has a list price of $189,000, but more than 1,000 orders have already been placed. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/40f38072-2f38-11e3-8cb2-00144feab7de.html#axzz2j73zwQCc Back to Top Five Innovators In Experimental Aircraft Sector By John Croft Largely free from FAA certification rules, the experimental and light-sport aircraft markets are home to big ideas at low prices. Builders and owners equipping with non-certified avionics can have all the features of the most modern business jet or airliner-at a fraction of the cost. While many of the technologies ultimately fail or stay experimental, others are picked up by established avionics companies to be incorporated into new or upgraded products for the certified market. The annual week-long Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture general aviation show in July is often the site of the "pickups." At this year's show, Aviation Week focused on five small companies-Levil Technology,Vertical Power, DepotStar, World Aircraft Co. and Aerocross-that are developing innovative products for the experimental and light-sport aircraft market, often with a longer-term goal of reaching into the certified market. "We primarily go because there is some real innovation happening there at the grassroots level," says Paul DeHerrera, chief operating officer with Universal Avionics, a supplier to the business jet and airliner market. "We take the [vice president] of engineering, software development people and chief scientist. There's always a lot to learn, mostly in the halls." It was in those halls in 1997 that Universal first met Don Moore, founder of a small Colorado-based company called NavRadio that had developed a very small digital radio for aviation. The companies linked up, and Universal now incorporates Moore's radio design in its UniLink communications management unit. More recently, Dynon Avionics was looking for ideas for a new synthetic-vision-based integrated avionics system. At AirVenture, the company came across Tom Schnell, a University of Iowa human factors researcher who had developed a synthetic vision system with funding from NASA. Dynon ended up buying a non- exclusive license from the university for the intellectual property. "It gave us a head start on the [SkyView] project," says Mike Schofield, marketing manager for Dynon. Schofield describes the experimental sector as "very permissive" at its core. While the aircraft has to meet basic operational requirements-for example, having airspeed, altitude, oil pressure and other indications- Schofield notes that "nowhere is there any requirement for those avionics or instruments to be certified." There are certain exceptions where certified equipment is required, he says, including transponders and GPS units for instrument-flight-rules operations. The FAA verifies the basic functionality using an inspection by an FAA-designated airworthiness representative. "The entire home-built industry is framed around the notion that these things really are experimental," Schofield says. "There aren't very many regulations that restrict the aircraft or the avionics." He says the light-sport market, where aircraft are built to ASTM consensus-based standards, is "somewhere in the middle" between experimental and certified aircraft. Dynon is the market leader for integrated cockpits for light-sport aircraft. While no standards today exist for light-sport avionics, Schofield says ASTM committees are in the process of developing equipment standards that would cover avionics. Will those standards be one step closer to regulation? Schofield doesn't think so. "It's about finding a balance between a good product definition and helping the consumer know they're buying a competent product," he explains. Laminar Research's Austin Meyer, who developed the X-Plane simulator and Xavion, a cockpit safety aid that runs on Apple portables, believes a new product should be "locked down" first for the experimental market before attempting a certification effort. "As soon as certification starts, a lot of the creativity stops," he says. Meyer emphasizes this by noting that in one weekend, he developed and tested an automatic descent mode for an experimental avionics package for a Lanceair Evolution single-engine turboprop. "If it depressurizes, the aircraft automatically comes down to a lower altitude, maintaining separation from terrain," he adds. The certification process for all aircraft is purposefully slow in many cases to ensure product safety and durability. However, the FAA is studying moving to consensus standards for light aircraft (Part 23) structures and systems, a nod to bringing low-cost innovation back to the sector. http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_10_07_2013_p46-620663.xml&p=2 Back to Top Back to Top LETU SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH AMERICAN EAGLE FOR PILOT PIPELINE (LONGVIEW, Texas)-LeTourneau University and American Eagle Airlines signed an agreement Monday, Oct. 28, to provide a direct pathway for selected LETU flight students to find employment with American Eagle Airlines after graduation. LETU President Dr. Dale A. Lunsford and American Eagle Captain Richard King signed the letter of agreement that states that LETU and AEA will collaborate "to facilitate a steady supply of airline qualified pilots through specific recruitment, screening, selection, training, and placement strategies for pilots to be employed by AEA," which is known as the Pilot Pipeline Program. "This historic agreement we signed today will facilitate a pipeline for qualified LeTourneau University pilots who graduate from our flight program here to transition seamlessly into a career as an airline pilot and fly as first officers for American Eagle Airlines," said LETU President Dr. Dale A. Lunsford. "LETU's aviation program is built on excellence and on great partnerships. Today we celebrate this new partnership with the airline that serves our own great community. It is a testament to the quality of the pilots our school produces." LETU's Dean of the School of Aeronautical Science Fred Ritchey added that the agreement benefits the university's flight training program, as well. "This new partnership agreement will provide an incentive for graduates to remain at the university and provide valuable service as flight instructors while gaining the flight experience required to become an airline pilot," Ritchey said. American Eagle Captain Richard King complimented LETU on its beautiful campus, excellent facilities and outstanding aircraft. "We have seen some of our best and brightest come from LeTourneau, and we are very excited to continue and expand our relationship with LeTourneau and we look forward to seeing many more of you at American Eagle Airlines." The program includes four phases. LETU will recommend and AEA will interview eligible students who elect to enter the Pipeline Program, where AEA and LETU will monitor their performance. Students will attend mentoring events at the academy sponsored by AEA and the university. Students will need to satisfy Pipeline Student Requirements to move to the second phase. In the second phase, if LETU has a certified flight instructor position open, the university shall guarantee an interview for students in the pipeline program. Students must have completed the CFE course for the opportunity to be hired by AEA as a Pipeline Instructor and placed by AEA at LETU to provide certified flight instruction services. The candidate must be successful in meeting LETU's requirements as a certified flight instructor and maintain these requirements while providing such services to the university. If LETU does not have a CFI position available, AEA will attempt to place the candidate in a certified flight instructor position with another flight school affiliating with the pipeline program. Once the candidate is placed in a flight school as a certified flight instructor, AEA will enter into an employment agreement with the pipeline instructor to be an employee of American Eagle Airlines, eligible for health benefits an travel privileges, and if hired by American Eagle Airlines as a first officer, the individual will remain in that position for two years from the start of First Officer training. In the third phase, once the pipeline instructor completes the Federal Aviation Administration's required flight hours for commercial passenger airline pilots, if American Eagle Airlines is hiring first officers at that time, it will admit such Pipeline Instructor in AEA's First Officer training program. Pipeline Instructors who enter into First Officer training and sign a two-year letter of commitment will receive a $10,000 scholarship. The fourth phase of the agreement includes a guaranteed interview with American Airlines, which has agreed to grant interviews to all pilots hired by American Eagle after October 2011. Requirements for students to be eligible for inclusion in the pipeline program include the following: Students must be at least a sophomore enrolled in LETU's professional aviation pilot program with at least a 2.5 cumulative GPA and minimum 3.0 GPA in their cumulative aviation courses. They must hold at least an instrument rating and sign a release form authorizing AEA to review his or her academic, aeronautical and other university and FAA records. They must complete their commercial, instrument, multi-engine certificates and ratings at LETU and complete LETU's Advanced Airtransport Pilot Curriculum. Students also must be U.S. citizens or possess the legal right to work in the U.S. including the right to travel to and from the cities American Eagle serves. They must also successfully complete a list of tests and panel interviews. The student will be monitored by AEA and LETU for attendance, traffic violations, FAA actions, flight training records and criminal records. Upon the successful completion of the student phase, they will be given a conditional offer of employment for a Pipeline Instructor position with American Eagle. About LeTourneau University LeTourneau University is a Christ-centered, interdenominational institute of higher learning offering more than 90 undergraduate and graduate degree programs across a range of academic disciplines and delivery models. Students are enrolled in programs on ground at LETU's residential campus in Longview, Texas, as well as hybrid and fully online options at educational centers in Dallas and Houston. Back to Top A pill for jet lag? Jet lag has long been the business traveler's nightmare, but a new scientific study has boosted hopes of a cure to the often debilitating condition. Research by a group of scientists from Kyoto University in Japan, published in theScience magazine on Thursday, found that the internal body clock might be able to be reset, overcoming the effects of jet lag. Tiredness, insomnia and other symptoms of jet lag occur when the body's "circadian rhythm" - or body clock - is out of sync with nature's light and dark hours. The temporary sleep disorder commonly affects those flying across multiple time zones, as their body clock is often hours ahead - or behind - their end location. Michael Hastings, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge and author of aScience article accompanying the research, described the condition as "a blessing to circadian biologists". "The disruption of mental and physical well-being immediately highlights the importance of our internal 'body clock,'" he wrote. "It is also a curse because jet lag has so far eluded attempts at a cure." According to the Kyoto University scientists, led by Yoshiaki Yamaguchi, it takes around one day for the body to readjust to every 1-hour change in environmental time. However, mice that were genetically modified by the team recovered from jet lag much quicker than usual, readjusting their behavior almost immediately to 8-hour time-shifts, or changes to the light cycle. "This is equivalent to flying between Los Angeles and London without the accompanying 'red-eye'," Hastings wrote. These mice were lacking receptors for the hormone arginine vasopressin (AVP), which Yamaguchi's team found contributed to jet lag, by signaling to the "master clock" of the brain, known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or SCN. "Our results identify vasopressin signaling as a possible therapeutic target for the management of circadian rhythm (body clock) misalignment," Yamaguchi said in the paper. The benefits of such a treatment could be far reaching, according to Hastings, and may address a "more insidious threat" than jet lag. "Epidemiology shows that rotational shift work is a killer, increasing risks of cancer, and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases," he wrote. "If the 24/7 society is here to stay, helping shift-workers adjust more rapidly to their schedules by working with, rather than against, their SCN must be a good thing." http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/pill-jet-lag-8C11336456 Back to Top Debut test flight looms for Orion, NASA's next manned spaceship Exploration Flight Test-1, or EFT-1, for the NASA Orion multipurpose crew vehicle is targeted for a September 2014 liftoff. The unpiloted Orion will travel high above the Earth's surface, and then return to Earth in a high-speed re-entry. This test will evaluate several of the most significant aspects of a deep space mission and re-entry, a precursor to Orion's first human-rated flight. SAN DIEGO, Calif. - NASA is gearing up for the inaugural flight of its next manned spacecraft, which is now less than a year away. NASA's Orion capsule is slated to launch atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in September 2014. The unpiloted mission, known as Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), features a high-altitude, high-speed plunge into Earth's atmosphere to assess the craft's heat shield and ends with a parachute-aided splashdown into the Pacific Ocean. "We're on track," said Larry Price, Orion deputy program manager at Lockheed Martin, the aerospace firm that is building Orion for NASA. Final checks, testing of the avionics and software, structural testing of the craft and myriad other risk mitigation appraisals means "you're at the end of the road," he said. [See photos of NASA's Orion capsule] Space.com sat down last month with Price at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) SPACE 2013 conference here to discuss Orion's upcoming maiden voyage. Not your father's Apollo Despite the early description of Orion as "Apollo on steroids," it's clear that the 21st-century spacecraft is not simply a retread of the capsule that took astronauts to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. "Apollo on steroids is challenging. It sure looks like it because of its shape," Price said. That shape was chosen, he added, because it minimized the risk associated with Orion's aerothermal environment, the heating induced by the very high speeds of re-entry. "We had all the data on full-scale Apollo. Sizing that up a little bit, by 30 percent, was straightforward. That's why the outer mold line (Orion's outer surface) is the way it is. But then after that, it really is all different," Price said. [NASA's 17 Apollo Moon Missions in Pictures] For one, Orion's computer systems and the built-in redundancy are far different than they were on spacecraft 50 years ago, Price said. "We've got a million lines of software code. And when we go to the moon, we'll have another million." The Orion spacecraft is imbued with autonomy, failure detection systems and the ability to reroute things - say, a balky thruster that's automatically rebalanced by redundant thrusters, Price said. Orion1 Lockheed Martin Technicians at Textron in Wilmington, Mass., apply Avcoat ablative material to the composite honeycomb structure attached to the Orion heat shield carrier structure. "It's a lot more complexity," Price said, "so that it can be safer and more reliable. It makes for an amazing machine." Trial by fire The upcoming EFT-1 - which will take Orion about 3,600 miles (6,000 kilometers) away from Earth - is focused primarily on checking a dozen or so issues. Evaluating Orion's heat shield is "a big one," Price said. "We haven't returned at this speed since Apollo, and it's faster than (the space) shuttle came back." That heat shield needs to withstand a true trial by fire - the 20,000-mph (32,000 km/h) plunge through Earth's atmosphere. Orion's heat shield incorporates a different formulation of Apollo-era "Avcoat," a material designed to ablate as it heats up to safeguard the inside of the spacecraft from the severe temperatures of re-entry. Avcoat ablator material fills up some 330,000 cells of a honeycomb matrix that constitutes the heat shield. Price said that Avcoat's provider, Textron Defense Systems in Wilmington, Mass., is fabricating Orion's heat shield - the world's largest, measuring some 17 feet (5.2 meters) in diameter. "They haven't made Avcoat for 40 years," Price said, adding that NASA persuaded the company to restart production of the material. Building a space transportation system Another challenge faced in the Orion program was building the electrical systems, including the computers and processors, Price said. "We're going through the Van Allen radiation belts. So we've done a lot of testing to assure they survive the radiation environments," he said. "We aggressively tried to put as much as we could on this first flight. But as funding was reduced ... we moved some things around. Most of the crew systems that we don't need for this flight, we deferred until the 2017 flight." Also an unpiloted mission, that 2017 flight would fling Orion on a circumlunar trajectory - with details still being evaluated - using NASA's Space Launch System mega-rocket, which is also in development. Early Orion missions will be lighter than later flights, similar to what was experienced in building and flying the space shuttle fleet, Price said. Next year's EFT-1 flight should be a booster shot in the arm for NASA's deep-space mission plans, he added. "Building Orion is building a capability," Price said. "As science and politics drive us in a different direction, we can do different things with the same system. We can use this system with kit modifications to do the durations we need. It's a tool beyond Apollo that was a point design to go to the moon." Over the next several months, the march toward Exploration Flight Test-1 is loaded with calendar milestones to ready Orion, Price said. "And then we're on the range in September. We've got the range date. There's a lot of exciting things going on," he said. Government shutdown should have no impact The recent government shutdown, which forced NASA to stop most work from Oct. 1-16, should not alter the timeline for EFT-1, Lockheed Martin officials said. During the shutdown, all Orion contractor personnel located at NASA centers were redirected to alternate work locations so they could continue making progress on the Orion spacecraft, Allison Rakes, a spokeswoman for Lockheed Martin Space Systems, told Space.com via email on Oct 7. Orion's heat shield is continuing final assembly at Textron Defense Systems in Massachusetts, and fairings are being tested at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, Calif. In addition, the attitude control system is being tested at Aerojet in Sacramento, Calif., and the Delta launch system is being assembled at United Launch Alliance's facility in Decatur, Ala. "Right now, we do not anticipate an impact to the EFT-1 launch date," Rakes told Space.com. http://www.nbcnews.com/science/debut-test-flight-looms-orion-nasas-next-manned-spaceship-8C11481380 Curt Lewis