A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months…
OAG reports that North America (U.S./Canada; they seem to include Mexico in Central/South America) has become the world’s third largest commercial aviation market, with 99 million airline seats. Asia Pacific is number one with 109.6 million and Europe is number two with 105.5 million (press release).
Full post, including commentsFolks: I’d like to hire a freelance illustrator/graphic designer for a variety of personal projects, e.g., a party invitation composited out of some photos. What’s a good marketplace to find someone? From 10 years ago, I remember elance.com being useful. A Google search brings up guru.com as well.
Full post, including commentsFolks:
I need to be in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Wednesday, August 11 (next week) for business. I’m staying in the Caribe Hilton. I could fly in mid-day on August 10th and depart late on August 12th and/or fly in a day early on August 9th. What would be some fun things to do in San Juan? Given that I will be sitting on a plane for at least four hours in each direction, I don’t want to do any activities that involve significant travel time.
If any readers would like to meet up at the Hilton, I would be delighted to talk over coffee on the afternoon of the 10th or the morning of the 12th (email philg@mit.edu).
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
[Note that I’ve been to San Juan back in 2002 and spent a couple of days wandering around Old San Juan. I’ve also been to the Arecibo telescope and the rain forest.]
Full post, including commentsI was talking with a guy at Oshkosh who owns a NASCAR team. I asked if the popularity of television in general and NASCAR in particular is evidence that Americans aren’t too worried about the economy. Consider a guy who chooses to spend a Sunday afternoon watching cars drive around in circles. He could have signed up for a class or been reading a book that would help him earn a new credential. Instead, he was sitting on a sofa with his brain on “hold”. This doesn’t look like a picture of a person who is concerned that he won’t have a job next year. Thoughts?
What happens in China? Do working-age adults spend a lot of time watching television? Following sports on television?
[The team owner’s response was to look at me as though I were slightly retarded to question why tens of millions of Americans spend time being NASCAR fans.]
Full post, including commentsI played around recently with the Droid X phone. It seemed like a great device, but I can’t get used to the on-screen keyboard. I find it unnerving to watch characters pop up as I type. I greatly prefer the physical keyboard of a Blackberry or my now-ancient Android G1 phone. Anyone having good luck with the Droid X care to explain the secret of typing on the device? Are there rumors of a similar phone with a slide-out keyboard?
Full post, including commentsOshkosh has the following segments:
In many ways, my favorite groups were the last two: antique airplanes and homebuilt. These are folks whose interest in aviation is closest in spirit to ancient human dreams: escaping the Earth and getting a bird’s eye view. The home-builders are also the most inclusive. My favorite was a 249 lb. all-metal low-wing airplane called the “Hummel” (site). It qualifies as an ultralight and requires no license to fly. With 37 HP it can lift a 200 lb. pilot, full fuel (5 gallons), and still be 70 lbs. under gross weight. With a 45 mph approach speed and hardly any instruments, there is no need for a 7000′ runway, control tower, and instrument landing system. Given the objectives of the pilots of the Hummel (short, local, daytime flights in excellent weather), they can probably be safe after just 10 or 20 hours of training.
Although the range of homebuilders includes some who are superb craftsmen, some who have done significant engineering work, and some who are expert and highly experienced pilots, the message is “anyone can do this”. And indeed there are quick-build kits, factories who provide builder assistance, and airplane designs that are extremely slow and forgiving.
As far as the most significant innovation on display, my vote goes to envelope protection for light airplanes. Introduced on the Airbus A320 in 1988, envelope protection discourages or prevents pilots from stalling or overspeeding an airplane. Stalls often lead to spins and are a common source of low altitude maneuvering accidents, e.g., by pilots preparing to land. Envelope protection is now available in the Avidyne autopilot, an easy retrofit to the popular Cirrus four-seater, and in new airplanes with the Garmin G1000 panel (“Garmin ESP”). This technology would have saved the passengers of Colgan 3407 (previous post).
Full post, including commentsOne inspiring thing at Oshkosh was the spirit of cooperation among light aircraft manufacturers amid a declining market. Despite rapid population growth and growth in the number of airline jobs, the number of pilots in the U.S. has declined roughly 25 percent since 1980 (source; FAA statistics show 692,000 active pilots in 1990 and 594,000 today). The U.S. population has grown from 226 million to 310 million while the number of Americans capable of operating an aircraft has fallen.
As demonstrated by the numerous 75-year-old and 50-year-old airplanes flying at Oshkosh, there is no need for any company to produce new light airplanes. The U.S. has so many two- and four-seat airplanes parked in obscure corners of sleepy airports that we could supply the growing Indian and Chinese markets with airworthy planes given up by U.S. pilots grown too old to hold a medical certificate. The most significant innovations in new airplanes, e.g., glass panel avionics, are easily retrofitted to older planes.
In a bleak environment where sales is usually a zero-sum game (i.e., one company’s sale comes at the expense of another company’s), one might expect to find a lot of bad-mouthing of competitors and fervent prayers that weak manufacturers would simply disappear. Instead one finds the opposite: sincere hopes that everyone in the industry can succeed and cooperative attempts to get Americans to pursue flying as a passion or a business tool.
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