Flight Safety Information June 10, 2016 - No. 114 In This Issue Jets collide from Swiss Patrouille display team Sukhoi Su-27 Accident (Russia) Russia grounds Su-27 jets after crash Urgent search narrows to find cause of EgyptAir crash NTSB Blames Pilot in Maryland Phenom Accident FAA rules out requiring psychological testing for airline pilots Govt rules out proposal for Civil Aviation Authority to replace DGCA (India) TSB Chair Inducted into Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame BAE Says Drone Warplanes to Aid Fighter Pilots, Not Replace Them Woman Found Guilty of Trying to Send Jet Engines to China How the World's First Vertical Takeoff and Landing Jet Can Change the Future of Private Aviation Larry Page is secretly behind two electric aircraft startups, financing them with over $100 million North Korea's Air Koryo ranked world's worst airline 2016 FAA Asia-Pacific Flight Standards Meeting July 19-21 ARGUS Charter Operator Flash Survey Jets collide from Swiss Patrouille display team The site of the F-5 plane that crashed between a pond and a greenhouse complex (Keystone) Two Swiss F-5 fighter jets from the Patrouille Suisse aerobatic display team collided on Thursday near a northern Dutch air base, with one crashing in a pond and the other landing safely with a damaged tail. The Swiss defence ministry said on Friday that two teams had been dispatched to the Netherlands, comprising flight safety specialists and a care team for the pilots. The pilot of the plane that crashed ejected before impact and landed in a greenhouse, said Air Force Commander Aldo Schellenberg at a media conference on Thursday. He was not badly hurt but had a few cuts and bruises. "Under the circumstances, he's doing well," said spokeswoman Brigitte Matter of the Menameradiel municipality. National broadcaster NOS showed footage of the plane, still burning, after it crashed in near a house. There were no reports of injuries on the ground. Schellenberg said he was "enormously relieved" that the accident wasn't more serious. He said the two planes had collided at 4.15pm. The causes of the accident were still unknown, but he added that both pilots were experienced. The crash was near the northern city of Leeuwarden, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of the capital Amsterdam. The Swiss plane, part of the Patrouille Suisse display team, had been due to take part in an air show this weekend. First serious incident Schellenberg said it was the first serious incident in Patrouille Suisse's 52-year history and that an inquiry had been launched by the Swiss military. Last October an F/A-18 fighter belonging to the Swiss air force crashed in France. The pilot was able to eject to safety. The most recent fatality involving the Swiss air force was in October 2013, when a fighter plane crashed into a cliff wall in Alpnachstad, canton Obwalden. The pilot and an air force doctor both died. It was later concluded that the accident had been caused by pilot error. Patrouille Suisse Founded in 1964, the Patrouille Suisse is one of the four display teams of the Swiss Air Force. With its shows, both at home and abroad, it has become a trademark for Switzerland, showing the capability, precision and readiness of the Swiss Air Force. Its goal is to inspire the public and spark young people's interest in all the aviation professions. All members of the Patrouille Suisse are professional military pilots or air traffic controllers. There are no Swiss Air Force pilots performing exclusively for air shows, therefore being part of the Patrouille Suisse is an extra task in addition to their everyday jobs. http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/breaking-news_jet-crashes-from-swiss-patrouille-display-team/42216600 ***************** Date: 09-JUN-2016 Time: 16:15 Type: Northrop F-5E Tiger II Owner/operator: Patrouille de Suisse Registration: J-3086 C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: near Leeuwarden Air Base - Netherlands Phase: Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) Nature: Demo/Airshow/Display Departure airport: EHLW Destination airport: EHLW Narrative: Two Northrop F-5E Tiger II jets of the Swiss Air Force display team 'Patrouille de Suisse' were involved in a mid-air collision near Leeuwarden Air Base, the Netherlands. One of the aircraft, J-3086, crashed near a pond. The pilot successfully ejected. The other aircraft, J-3088 landed safely back at Leeuwarden Air Base. The aircraft had lost about 3/4 of the right hand horizontal stabilizer. The display team was practicing in preparation for the Royal Netherlands Air Force Open Days (10-11 June). https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=187992 Back to Top Sukhoi Su-27 Accident (Russia) Date: 09-JUN-2016 Time: Type: Sukhoi Su-27 Owner/operator: Russian Air Force Registration: C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Pushkinsky district of Moscow region - Russia Phase: En route Nature: Military Departure airport: Kubinka AB Destination airport: Kubinka AB Narrative: The Sukhoi Su-27 plane from the Russian Air Force crashed under unknown circumstances.The pilot died in the crash. The plane belonged to the Russian Knights aerobatic squadron and was returning from a group demonstration flight marking the opening of a monument to airmen near Moscow. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=187991 Back to Top Russia grounds Su-27 jets after crash Russia has grounded its Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets while a crash of one is investigated. (CNN)The Russian air force has grounded its fleet of Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets until determining what caused one of the planes to crash on Thursday, killing the pilot, the government-run Tass news agency said. The warplane, part of the Russian Knights aerobatic team, crashed near Moscow after the team took part in the opening ceremony for a monument to aviators in Ashukino, Tass said. The Defense Ministry said technical problems probably caused the crash, Tass said. The ministry said the pilot steered the plane away from a community and did not have time to eject before the crash, Tass said. The flight data recorder has been recovered and is in good condition, Tass said. Russia is thought to have about 200 of the aircraft, according to Jane's Information Group. This kind of jet conducted a "barrel roll" last April over the top of a U.S. Air Force RC-135 which was flying a reconnaissance mission in international airspace above the Baltic Sea, the Defense Department said. The plane approached alongside within 25 feet of the U.S. aircraft and then flew inverted over the top of the plane to the other side, Lt. Col. Michelle L. Baldanza, a U.S. Army spokesperson, said in a statement. http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/09/asia/russia-grounds-sukhoi-27-jets/ Back to Top Urgent search narrows to find cause of EgyptAir crash Three weeks after EgpytAir Flight 804 plunged into the Mediterranean Sea, safety investigators hope they soon find wreckage showing whether a mechanical flaw or crew mistake - or terrorism - downed one of the most widely used planes worldwide. Although initial speculation pointed to terrorism that brought down the Airbus A320, no evidence of an intentional crash has been found and no one has claimed responsibility, which is rare in terrorism cases. "Nothing is more important than finding out what occurred," said Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates plane crashes. "We have millions of passengers flying daily on thousands of flights essentially in the dark as to whether the safety or security issue that brought this aircraft down could be a danger to the aircraft they're on." The A320 family is a workhorse of the fleet, with 6,700 flying worldwide. The plane has been relatively safe, with 0.14 accidents involving fatalities per million departures, according to a Boeing study. Search ships are closing in on the data recorders that will allow investigators to rule out terrorism as a cause. Egyptian officials pledged Thursday to release a report of their findings one month after the May 19 crash. Chief investigator Ayman al-Moqqadem said his team is continuing to search for more debris and body parts for indicators of what caused the disaster. "No bodies have been recovered so far, we've able only to locate small body parts. DNA tests are underway to identify the remains," said al-Moqqadem. Determining the cause of the crash without the so-called black boxes is not possible because so few clues were left before the plane disappeared from radar. The pilots didn't call for help before plummeting into the Mediterranean with 66 people aboard the flight from Paris to Cairo. Mayday calls are uncommon in an aviation disaster, leaving the question of whether a catastrophic problem overwhelmed the crew or a bomb destroyed the plane abruptly. The plane's maintenance system reported clues in the final minutes of flight including smoke in the plane's avionics and lavatory, and temperature changes in the cockpit windows. Jeff Price, aviation-security professor at Metropolitan State University in Denver, said terrorism also was suspected initially in crashes of ValuJet Flight 592 and TWA Flight 800 in 1996, and Air France Flight 447 in 2009. Other causes were found in those crashes, and Price leans toward a non-terrorism cause for EgyptAir. "That said, there is some speculation out there that it was caused by terrorist activity, but whichever organization caused it wants to keep their methods secret so that they can repeat it," Price said. "That is a very scary notion and not completely without precedent." Searchers found floating wreckage quickly after the crash. A week ago, the French ship Laplace detected signals from at least one of the plane's two recorders. The pingers have batteries to last at least 30 days. Even if they fall silent, the search area has been narrowed so that sonar and video cameras could pinpoint the recorders. EgyptAir's pingers should continue for at least another week. The private company Deep Ocean Search's ship John Lethbridge is steaming to the scene with a remote- controlled underwater vehicle to search the ocean floor nearly 2 miles deep starting within days. The Comanche 6000 vehicle has video cameras and limbs to sample and recover objects. "Even if they go out, it won't be long before they find them," Steven Marks, a Miami aviation lawyer at Podhurst Orseck, said of the pingers. Pilots rarely call air-traffic controllers in a catastrophe because they are first trying to keep the plane aloft, he said. But that's why the recorders known as black boxes are crucial to understanding what happened, he said. The voice recorder captures sounds in the cockpit, which will reveal what pilots were saying and other sounds, such as buttons being pushed or warnings if equipment is malfunctioning. The data recorder will have more than 1,000 types of data about how the plane was operating, such as how the engines were running or what position the wing flaps, horizontal stabilizer and rudder were in. "The most critical information of the universe of data in the accident is on the flight-data recorder and the cockpit-voice recorder, by far," Marks said. The most tantalizing clues to emerge so far were messages from the plane's Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, which sends maintenance notes during flight to Airbus, the plane's manufacturer. The final three minutes of messages mentioned cockpit windows and also reported "lavatory smoke" and "avionics smoke." If the messages signaled a fire in or near the cockpit, that could have at least distracted the pilots. The EgyptAir messages are inconclusive, reaffirming the importance of the recorders. "With the limited data available, the analysis of these messages does not allow to establish the sequence of events that would explain the accident," Airbus said in a statement. Al Diehl, a former NTSB investigator, speculated the fire could have been caused by electronics such as the lithium battery from an iPad that pilots use for flight information. If the fire spread to avionics, the pilots could have been rendered unable to fly the plane. "This enigmatic data suggests that a fire may have initially occurred near the first officer's windows," Diehl said. "Of course, this is only one potential scenario and it is impossible to know exactly what happened until the wreckage and recorders are recovered and scientifically analyzed." http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/06/09/egyptair-crash-flight804/85608110/ Back to Top NTSB Blames Pilot in Maryland Phenom Accident A series of errors by the pilot caused the 2014 crash, the Board finds. Phenom 100 Embraer An NTSB report found pilot error to be at fault in a 2014 crash of a Phenom 100 near an airport in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The pilot of an Embraer Phenom 100 failed to turn on either the jet's engine anti-ice or structural de-ice system during the last 15 minutes of a December 8, 2014, instrument approach despite flying in known icing conditions. The pilot also selected an approach airspeed that was too slow for flight in ice, according to findings released Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board. The Board was unable to determine exactly why the pilot failed to turn on the icing systems during the final moments of the flight. The Phenom stalled at 300 feet AGL, then crashed less than a mile short of Runway 14 at Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg, Maryland (GAI), killing the pilot and two passengers. Three people on the ground also died when the aircraft struck three homes, igniting a fire. GAI weather was reported as marginal VFR with a temperature of 28 degrees Fahrenheit. The aircraft was operating under Part 91 on an IFR flight plan. The NTSB said a contributing factor to the accident was the pilot's apparent rush to reach GAI, a view supported by interviews with line personnel at the departure airport in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The NTSB learned that a normal startup checklist took an experienced Phenom pilot about nine minutes to complete. Data from the digital data recorder on the Phenom indicated the pilot skipped some checklist items entirely when he called ready for departure just six minutes after climbing aboard the aircraft. During the rush, the pilot failed to enter accurate weights into the Garmin avionics system prior to takeoff, which created the inaccurate landing speeds at GAI. In icing conditions, the Board determined the Phenom's approach speed should have been 126, with final flaps set to 3. The Phenom stalled on final at 92 knots, with flaps set to 4. The Board praised Embraer for its standard installation of digital cockpit and flight data recorders on Phenoms. Without them, the Board would never have known, for example, that some of the checklist items had been skipped. The NTSB developed three recommendations during the investigation, including one to the FAA to "Work with the General Aviation Manufacturers Association to develop a system that can automatically alert pilots when the ice protection systems should be activated on turbofan airplanes that require a type rating and are certified for single-pilot operations and flight in icing conditions." http://www.flyingmag.com/ntsb-blames-pilot-in-maryland-phenom-accident Back to Top FAA rules out requiring psychological testing for airline pilots WASHINGTON D.C. -- The Federal Aviation Administration has ruled out requiring psychological testing for airline pilots in favor of enhanced mental health support programs in response to a crash last year in which a German pilot deliberately flew an airliner full of passengers into a mountainside, agency administrator Michael Huerta said Thursday. Psychological tests are ineffective because they reveal a pilot's mental health for only a moment in time without providing insight into whether the pilot will suffer problems later, Huerta told reporters at a news conference. Instead, he announced several steps the FAA and industry are taking to encourage more voluntary self-reporting by pilots of mental health problems. Airlines and pilot unions will be encouraged to expand programs to assist pilots, including the use of "peer-to-peer" programs that connect troubled pilots with other pilots for help and make mental health hotlines available. Germanwings co-pilot reached out to doctors before crash The agency also began additional training for aviation medical examiners earlier this year to help them spot mental health warning signs. The steps are based on recommendations made by an industry advisory committee. "We need to do more to remove the stigma surrounding mental illness in the aviation industry so pilots are more likely to self-report, get treated and return to work," Huerta said. Michael Berry, the FAA's deputy flight surgeon, drew a distinction between testing and evaluation. Currently no psychological testing is required of airline pilots, but they are routinely evaluated on how they handle stress during tests of their flying skills. Pilots are also required to undergo a medical exam annually or every six months, depending on their age, that is administered by an FAA certified medical examiner. Most of the exam is devoted to the pilot's physical condition. Examiners aren't required to ask specific mental-health questions. However, they evaluate a pilot's mental health based on their conversation with the pilot during the exam. Pilots are also required to fill out a health form in conjunction with their visits that asks whether they've ever been diagnosed with or are being treated or taking medications for a mental illness. While examiners can decline to issue a medical certificate, they don't currently alert the FAA to mental health concerns, Berry said. Just 1.1 percent of U.S. airline pilots are denied medical certificates at the time of their exams, and only .05 percent are finally denied a medical certificate after the FAA considers all the medical information, according to the FAA. Airlines generally require pilots to take psychological tests before hiring them, but they are primarily personality tests used to judge whether a prospective pilot will fit well with the company rather than attempts to uncover mental illness, Berry said. Germanwings pilot rehearsed rapid descent, report says On March 24, 2015, co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked Germanwings Flight 9525's captain out of the cockpit and deliberately set the plane on a collision course with a mountainside in the French Alps. All 150 people aboard, including Lubitz, were killed. An investigation revealed that Lubitz had concealed from his airline that he was being treated for a relapse of severe depression and that he had been treated in the past for suicidal tendencies. Germany has strict patient privacy regulations and Lubitz's doctors didn't inform the airline of his condition. The French agency that investigated the crash recommended aviation authorities reconsider how pilots' mental health is examined and monitored. The Aerospace Medical Association, which researches aviation health issues, is asking the American Medical Association to set a national standard that clarifies when public safety trumps patient privacy and whether congressional legislation is needed to allow examiners to alert the FAA to a pilot with a mental health condition that should prohibit flying, Berry said. Requirements also vary widely from state to state, he said. Cases of pilot suicide are extremely rare. In 2012, the captain of a JetBlue flight was locked out the cockpit by the first officer and subdued by passengers after he started acting erratically. The captain later was found not guilty by reason of insanity of a charge of interference with a flight crew and was transferred to a mental health facility. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/faa-rules-out-requiring-psychological-testing-for-airline-pilots/ Back to Top Govt rules out proposal for Civil Aviation Authority to replace DGCA (India) The UPA government had proposed to replace Directorate General of Civil Aviation with Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) having full functional and financial autonomy to give the regulator more teeth. Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju. (Source: Express) Virtually ruling out setting up of a Civil Aviation Authority to replace DGCA, Union Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju on Friday said that he saw no need to merely rename the regulator. The UPA government had proposed to replace Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) with Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) having full functional and financial autonomy to give the regulator more teeth. "What is the need for CAA? What purpose will be served by just changing the name? I do not see any reason (to replace DGCA)," the Civil Aviation Minister said. Raju, however, admitted there is "opaqueness" in working of DGCA and promised to usher in transparency in the body in the interest of passenger safety and security. The Minister said an ambitious plan is being worked out to make the DGCA a more "responsive" and "meaningful" body, which had faced a downgrade on safety grounds during the UPA regime. The DGCA is expected to make completely online 18 major services including granting of licence to pilots, approval of safety procedures and engineering and flight operations this month as part of its e-GCA (e- Governance in Civil Aviation) project. "We need more transparency in DGCA. Things have to be more transparent and the opaqueness has to go away so as to make things more responsible and responsive," Raju told PTI in an interview. His comments come at a time when there are increasing threats to aviation security worldwide, particularly after the terror attack on Brussels airport in March. Questions relating to safety of passengers had come into focus following incidents such as a pilot trying to land an aircraft on a road mistaking it for the runway and another pilot allowing a cabin crew to travel in the cockpit. Against the backdrop of safety lapses in domestic carriers raising concerns about the effectiveness of DGCA, Raju said safety was very important and no government can ignore it. "DGCA was downgraded under the previous government. It was upgraded under the current government. We want to make it a meaningful regulator," Raju said. US Federal Aviation Administration had downgraded India's aviation safety rating in January 2014 and an upgrade was given in April last year. Asserting that improvement of overall aviation safety was a major focus area for the government, Raju said various critical issues are being looked into by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS). "Safety angles have to be strengthened and it is a continuous process," the Minister said. At the same time, he said regulations have to be purposeful and laxity cannot be allowed at any cost. "Certain regulations probably need to be modified and there is lot of work going on," he added. Based on certain "security format", the Minister said, BCAS is in the process of upgrading various security features. "They do audit depending on classification of airports. We would like them to do it without any interference from anyone to keep Indian skies safe." http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/govt-rules-out-proposal-for-civil-aviation- authority-to-replace-dgca-2845317/ Back to Top TSB Chair Inducted into Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame GATINEAU, QC, 9 June 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is proud to announce that Chair Kathy Fox has been inducted into Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame (CAHF). The CAHF recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to aviation and aerospace in Canada. Ms. Fox has enjoyed a 33-year professional career in air traffic control where she began as a controller and progressed to Vice-President, Operations at NAV Canada. For more than 40 years, she has also been extensively involved in other aviation activities, including sport parachuting and commercial aviation. She holds an airline transport pilot license and a flight instructor rating, and has flown over 5000 hours. Ms. Fox has received a number of accolades in the past. She is a recipient of the Fédération aéronautique internationale Paul Tissandier Diploma and the Queen Elizabeth II Anniversary Medal, which she received for her contributions to sport parachuting in Canada. She also received the Transport Canada Aviation Safety Award in 1999. In November 2004, she was inducted into the Quebec Air and Space Hall of Fame. Ms. Fox received the Elsie MacGill Northern Lights Award in 2010 and the David Charles Abramson Flight Instructor Safety Award in 2011. Congratulations, Chair Fox! The TSB is an independent agency that investigates marine, pipeline, railway and aviation transportation occurrences. Its sole aim is the advancement of transportation safety. It is not the function of the Board to assign fault or determine civil or criminal liability. The TSB is online at www.tsb.gc.ca. Keep up to date through RSS, Twitter (@TSBCanada), YouTube, Flickr and our blog. SOURCE Transportation Safety Board of Canada http://www.aviationpros.com/news/12218924/tsb-chair-inducted-into-canadas-aviation-hall-of-fame Back to Top NYS Stiffens Penalties for Pointing Lasers at Aircraft Photo via Flickr creative commons Andrew "FastLizard4" Adams (CC BY-SA 2.0) The New York State Senate is getting serious about pointing lasers at aircraft after it passed a measure on Wednesday putting further penalties on the dangerous activity. The bill, which is sponsored by Senator Joseph Griffo, will give greater authority to state and local law enforcement to prevent and punish people who use laser pointers to distract pilots. "Intentionally shining laser pointers into the cockpit of flying aircraft can put hundreds of passengers at risk of crashing, yet current state law designed to prevent this dangerous act carries no more than a slap on the wrist," Griffo said in a statement. "By punishing this reckless behavior more severely, my bill would give state and local law enforcement more authority to hold people accountable for threatening the safety of our skies." Pointing a laser at an aircraft is a safety risk and federal crime because the lasers can incapacitate pilots' vision, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA recorded 5,352 laser strikes from January to October 2015. The passed measure increases the penalty for laser pointing at an aircraft in the second degree (when one knowingly discharges a laser and causes a disruption in safe air travel) from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class D felony and pointing a laser pointer at an aircraft in the first degree (when one knowingly discharges a laser) from a Class E felony to a Class B felony. Griffo also tweeted on Wednesday, saying, "My bill will help keep air passengers safe from this reckless act!" http://jpupdates.com/2016/06/09/nys-stiffens-penalties-for-pointing-lasers-at-aircraft/ Back to Top BAE Says Drone Warplanes to Aid Fighter Pilots, Not Replace Them Taranis drone. Source: BAE Systems Plc BAE Systems Plc lifted the veil on plans for the world's first combat drones, saying it's working toward a scenario in which the unmanned warplanes will fight alongside piloted aircraft rather than instead of them. Europe's largest defense company has modeled a battlefield scenario in which a super-stealthy successor to its current Taranis drone penetrates enemy lines and destroys key ground defenses before calling in conventional strike aircraft. The simulation, made public this week, indicates that the drone BAE expects to emerge from a 10-year development program with France would wield its own air-to-ground weapons but leave the bulk of bomb and missile attacks to jets such as the Eurofighter Typhoon and Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35. Close all those tabs. Open this email. Unlike current military drones such as the General Atomics Reaper, which are generally flown by ground- based "pilots," the new model would have the autonomy to reach its own operational decisions and would contact ground personnel only to initiate attacks, Martin Rowe-Willcocks, BAE's head of business development for future combat air systems, said in a briefing at the company's Warton plant in northwest England. Fully Integrated At the same time, BAE's simulation makes it clear that a future Unmanned Combat Air System would be fully integrated with conventional warplanes -- dispelling suggestions that it might make obsolete the newest fifth-generation fighters such as the F-35, of which Britain has ordered 138 examples, or the French Rafale produced by Dassault Aviation SA. The parameters for a 2 billion-pound ($2.9 billion) demonstrator drone to be produced under the Franco- British accord signed in March and likely to pave the way for a prototype craft should be set by the two governments in the next nine or 12 months, Rowe-Willcocks said. The demonstrator, to be built by six countries including jet-engine makers Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc and Safran SA, will combine elements of BAE's current Taranis model and the French Neuron from Thales SA. No Photos BAE this week displayed Taranis to defense reporters for only the second time since it was announced and then only from a distance of 15 meters (50 feet), sufficient to disguise a complex surface aimed at making the vehicle all but invisible to ground defenses. Photographs and even sketches were forbidden. The U.K. manufacturer also confirmed that Taranis, named after the Celtic god of thunder and measuring 9 meters wide by and 4 meters high, has completed the third and final phase of flight testing at the hitherto undisclosed site of Woomera in South Australia, a defense range the size of England. Britain and France are betting that when a combat drone eventually enters service it will allow Europe to eliminate a U.S. lead in the current generation of military unmanned aerial vehicles. There is, though, little prospect as yet of drones taking on air-to-air war-fighting roles, according to Rowe-Willcocks. "We won't be going dog-fighting," he said. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-09/bae-says-drone-warplanes-to-aid-fighter-pilots- not-replace-them Back to Top Woman Found Guilty of Trying to Send Jet Engines to China A California woman has been convicted in South Florida of conspiring to export fighter jet engines and an unmanned aerial vehicle to China. The U.S. attorney's office in Miami reported in a news release Thursday that jurors found 45-year-old Wenxia Man guilty of conspiring to export and cause the export of defense articles without the required license. She faces up to 20 years in prison at an Aug. 19 hearing. From March 2011 and June 2013, authorities say Man conspired with Xinsheng Zhang, who was in China, to illegally acquire and export the items. When talking to an undercover agent, Man referred to Zhang as a "technology spy" who worked on behalf of the Chinese military to copy items obtained from other countries. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/woman-found-guilty-send-jet-engines-china-39742006 Back to Top How the World's First Vertical Takeoff and Landing Jet Can Change the Future of Private Aviation Wonder what's in store for the future of private jet flying? Here's a glimpse. A start-up company-hosted in a European Space Agency (ESA) business incubator center (BIC) Bavaria-released an idea for an egg- shaped two-seater plane called Lilium that's currently in the works. With a top speed of 250 mph and a range of 300 miles, the plane can travel roughly between Munich and Berlin in about 90 minutes. And according to the ESA, if the testing succeeds, this will be the world's first vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for personal use. The project came about when Daniel Wiegand-CEO and one of the four founders of Lilium-wanted to realize flying for the masses in a fast, inexpensive, efficient and ecofriendly way. "Our goal is to develop an aircraft that doesn't need the complex and expensive infrastructure of an airport, can be used close to urban areas, and doesn't produce too much noise and pollution," he said. So to produce this new class of airplanes available from 2018, Wiegand and his team in Germany came up with a design using electric engines, and incorporated movable fan turbines so the plane could take off and land vertically anywhere with a surface area of 50 by 50 feet. Currently in its incubation phase, the team at Lilium is working on designing the interior and exterior of the electric jet. With lower retail cost than similar-sized aircraft at approximately $340,000 and lower running and energy costs at approximately $3 per 100 km (62 miles) and $0.3 per kWh respectively, one of the reasons that made this project so compelling is the way it "addresses a very promising market in the field of sustainable and smart mobility," said Thorsten Rudolph, CEO of Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO), which runs the incubator ESA BIC Bavaria. What Lilium is offering here will improve air transportation in many ways, according to ESA. First, there's greater convenience since the aircraft wouldn't need the space regularly required to accommodate the extensive runways and noise of aircrafts. For the same reason, it's more efficient because people could avoid airports that are often 12.5 to 31 miles from city centers. And while helicopters too could save time with its vertical landing system, their noise level and operational challenges make for more expensive licenses and higher building and maintenance costs. What's more, Lilium is quieter with ducted fan engines. And as an entirely electric Light Sport Aircraft that only requires 20 hours' minimum training for a pilot's license, more people could potentially operate this jet. http://www.forbes.com/sites/eustaciahuen/2016/06/09/how-the-worlds-first-vertical-takeoff-and-landing- jet-can-change-the-future-of-private-aviation/#221b9fcadd87 Back to Top Larry Page is secretly behind two electric aircraft startups, financing them with over $100 million Earlier this year, we wrote a profile on an interesting startup, Zee Aero, developing a battery-powered vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft near Google's X lab. The company caught our attention when it started hiring talent from NASA, Tesla and Stanford. At the time, we couldn't confirm where the money was coming from, but today we learn that Alphabet's billionaire CEO Larry Page is secretively behind the electric aircraft startup, reportedly financing it with over $100 million, and even setting up a competing startup, Kitty Hawk, to test another model. The group's proximity with Google led a lot of people to believe it was financed by the tech giant, but in fact, Page is financing the initiative himself and not through Alphabet or Google Ventures. The new information comes from a profile of several electric aircraft startups by Ashlee Vance and Brad Stone published in Bloomberg Businessweek today. As we discussed in our profile back in March, Zee Aero was founded by Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford and former NASA Researcher at Ames Ilan Kroo. He recruited a surprising number of students and colleagues from both organisations to launch his startup, which managed to develop several prototypes of battery-powered and self-piloting aircraft. While Kroo was listed in filings as the founder since the company's inception in 2010, we now learn that Page was crucial to the founding as he provided all the capital and asked for his involvement to remain secret. Vance and Stone wrote: "The Zee.Aero headquarters is a 30,000-square-foot, two-story white building with an ugly, blocky design and an industrial feel. Page initially restricted the Zee.Aero crew to the first floor, retaining the second floor for a man cave worthy of a multibillionaire: bedroom, bathroom, expensive paintings, a treadmill-like climbing wall, and one of SpaceX's first rocket engines-a gift from his pal Musk. As part of the secrecy, Zee.Aero employees didn't refer to Page by name; he was known as GUS, the guy upstairs. Soon enough, they needed the upstairs space, too, and engineers looked on in awe as GUS's paintings, exercise gear, and rocket engine were hauled away." The fact that Page kept a SpaceX rocket engine gifted by Elon Musk at the Zee.Aero headquarters is particularly interesting since Tesla's CEO often talks about having himself developed a special electric VTOL aircraft design. Musk and Page have been reported meeting with other tech leaders at a secret location in Silicon Valley to discuss innovative ideas. This place could be it. Musk mentioned that for electric aircraft to become a reality, energy capacity in batteries needs to improve to 400 Wh/kg, while his Tesla vehicles are believed to be powered by battery cells with ~240 Wh/kg. While the battery capacity needs to improve, several other technologies need to be developed in aerospace to support a new electric powertrain. It's exactly with Page is trying to do with his startups: Zee.Aero and Kitty Hawk. Yes, he also started another company to challenge his own startup: "Last year a second Page-backed flying-car startup, Kitty Hawk, began operations and registered its headquarters to a two-story office building on the end of a tree-lined cul-de-sac about a half-mile away from Zee's offices. Kitty Hawk's staffers, sequestered from the Zee.Aero team, are working on a competing design. Page and Google declined to speak about Zee.Aero or Kitty Hawk, as did Thrun." The aircraft are often referred to as "flying-cars" because the prototypes are often only for 1 to 4 passengers and can only travel relatively short distances. What is particularly interesting, and something we noted in our last report, is that most of those concepts are basically "manned-drone", meaning that they are autonomous vehicles. Self-piloting is a lot easier to achieve than self-driving, something Page is also working on through Google, since you don't have to deal with all the corner cases of two-dimensional roads. It's a lot easier to autonomously deal with air traffic, takeoff and landing. Interestingly, some of the companies interviewed by Bloomberg are talking about a similar timeline as self-driving cars: 5 to 10 years. Though there's no word on when Zee.Aero and Kitty Hawk will be ready to unveil their technology. Strangely, Bloomberg reports that Page once vowed to a colleague that if his involvement with the two startups ever became public, he might pull support from the companies. Let's hope he will keep financing these interesting projects. You can read the full Bloomberg report here. They talk about several other electric aircraft prototypes: http://electrek.co/2016/06/09/larry-page-behind-two-electric-aircraft-startup/ Back to Top North Korea's Air Koryo ranked world's worst airline Routine safety checks are not implemented on board, according to one traveler. North Korean flight attendants at Pyongyang's Sunan International Airport. Air Koryo service received low ratings, according to a recent report. File Photo by KCTV SEOUL, June 7 (UPI) -- If the prospect of arbitrary arrest isn't enough to deter Americans from visiting North Korea, perhaps the high odds of an unpleasant flight experience could make travelers think twice about a vacation to Pyongyang. North Korea's Air Koryo, the only carrier providing commercial service between North Korea and the outside world, was ranked the world's worst airline for the fifth year in a row. The annual list compiled by British aviation consultancy Skytrax ranks hundreds of airlines based on factors such as aircraft efficiency, customer service and in-flight meal quality. Skytrax gave Air Koryo a one-star, the lowest rating out of a possible five stars, Radio Free Asia reported Tuesday. Air Koryo began to be ranked in 2012. Other factors that were taken into consideration in 2016 include aircraft safety, airport facilities, customer service and the service-mindedness of flight attendants, Yonhap reported. Service, however, seems to be the last thing on the mind of Air Koryo employees. A Chinese tourist who had taken the North Korean carrier told RFA that the flight attendants paid scant attention to passengers. "Routine procedures that take place on other airliners, including checking on passengers' seat belts and mobile phones, were not being implemented" on the Air Koryo flight, according to the tourist. In 2015, reviewers on Skytrax said Air Koryo flight attendants behaved unprofessionally and appeared more interested in applying their makeup than serving passengers. Entertainment in the cabin was also limited to propaganda films that praised the lives and achievements of North Korean leaders, according to previous reports. Air Koryo has four active aircraft in its fleet, according to Flight Radar 24. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/06/07/North-Koreas-Air-Koryo-ranked-worlds-worst- airline/5581465325259/ Back to Top The deadline is fast approaching to reserve your hotel room for the 2016 FAA Asia-Pacific Flight Standards Meeting July 19-21 at the Westin City Center Hotel in Washington, DC. A special discounted rate of $174/night (exclusive of taxes) has been reserved for conference participants. This rate includes daily breakfast for one person. Click here to reserve your room now! To receive this special rate, you must reserve your room by June 18(subject to availability). Still haven't registered to attend the conference? Please visit the conference website to get the latest information and to register: www.regonline.com/2016-AsiaPacificFlightStandardsMeeting. The deadline to register for the conference is Wednesday, June 29. Questions? Email us at ConferenceSupport@sidemgroup.com. Back to Top ARGUS Charter Operator Flash Survey Dear Air Charter Operators, We are asking for your help in collecting some quick metrics to assess revenue vs. non-revenue flight activity within the charter industry. This is a very short one-question survey that will take less than a minute of your time! Survey Link: http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07ecqh07moiomz0q4d/_tmp/questions Curt Lewis