Click Here To Help Improving This Blog !According to a report from FlightGlobal, Diamond will announce at the next ILA show in Berlin the availability of its own engine, as an alternative to Thielert. The engine will also be made available to other manufacturers (a.k.a. Cessna for the C172 TDI).
This is not a new project, but it has certainly been accelerated by […]
The weather here over the last two weeks was simply perfect for flying. Blue skies with a few benign clouds in the afternoon, and temperatures reaching the high 20’s (celsius). Air is dry, and it’s not yet the CBs season. Simply cool. Before temperatures get in the 30’s it’s time for the seasonal warning about […]
According to AOPA’s website, Cessna will not deliver any C172 with Thielert engine in 2008, because of Thielert bankruptcy. There is no information yet on Cessna’s website, but I do believe that AOPA is well informed.
More than 100 such aircraft had been ordered, but none had been delivered yet, and the type certificate was still […]
The race towards aviation improvement never stops. Improvements pop-out here and there nearly every day, mostly aiming at a better flow of traffic, or to reduce fuel consumption… but not only. Here is a compilation of four recent developments in various fields of aviation.
DeltaHawk is developing a new aero-diesel engine. It will rely on a […]
Once again, Garmin announced a spectacular improvement to its already spectacular G1000 integrated avionics suite: synthetic vision ! This new enhancement uses a terrain and obstacles database to display a 3D representation of what the pilot would see if he looked outside.
This will greatly improve situational awareness, particularly in marginal VFR conditions. If everything is […]
The first “Fuel Cell” powered manned plane ever flew recently, Boeing anounced on 3rd of April. The airframe was a Diamond Dimona, modified by Boeing Reserach & Technology Europe (BR&TE). The engine has been replaced by an electical enging coupled to a standard propeller. Electricity was provided by batteries, and a fuel cell.
The fuel cell […]
A PhD student working on fish skin to improve water processing in the laboratories of a well-known chemical firm in Geneva recently made an important step forward. His work explains how the surface structure of fish skin helps to optimize water stream, and reduce the drag, and help fish to go faster.
Using an improved version […]
The DA42 recently received its FIKI certification from FAA. FIKI ? Flight Into Known Icing conditions. Happy owners of DA42 equipped with the TKS system can now legally fly in clouds at temperatures below zero. Legally. But would that be a sound decision ?
Ice impact on performance is really strong. My experience of icing is […]
Someone recently attracted my attention to an interesting part of the DA40 aircraft flight manual: the maximal landing mass. Large airplanes (business jets and airliners) often have can’t land at the maximum take-off weight, because of landing gear structural constraints. If the landing has to be anticipated, the crew must dump or burn fuel, to get the weight within limits (read this […]
Have you already heard of GBAS and Point Merge ? If not, have a look at the latest issue of the Eurocontrol Experimental (EEC) Newsletter.
GBAS stands for Ground Based Augmentation System. GPS is not precise enough to fly an approach to minimums, particularly in the vertical plane, mostly because of atmospheric perturbations. The “Augmentation” consists […]
