All posts tagged: aviation

Furry Airline Pilots Are Just Minding Their Own Business

Furry Airline Pilots Are Just Minding Their Own Business

Published by Miika Tikkanen

The greatest threat to humanity’s survival isn’t climate change, nor is it AI. It’s airline pilots who like dressing up as hot cartoon foxes. That seemed to be the takeaway from a bizarre speech made last week by Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville on the Senate floor last week. During a lengthy anti-trans rant about “gender confusion,” Tuberville started pontificating on the furry fandom, a subculture consisting of people who enjoy drawing and dressing as anthropomorphized animals. “Many airline pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers are part of the furry community,” Tuberville alleged. “Lord help us. It’s terrifying when you think about this.” To bolster his point, he later posted a viral audio clip of airline pilots at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport meowing and barking at each other over the radio, though there is no evidence that the pilots in question were furries; the video was possibly a reference to a joke in the 2001 movie Super Troopers. “When you walk onto a commercial flight, it’s possible that the pilot flying your plane could …

Dubai VDX becomes world’s first purpose-built eVTOL vertiport

Dubai VDX becomes world’s first purpose-built eVTOL vertiport

Published by Miika Tikkanen

The developers behind the new Dubai VDX project are calling it the world’s first purpose-built commercial vertiport – and after receiving a green light from regulators the vertiport is ready to get started. Developed by Skyports Infrastructure, the new commercial vertiport is designed in to enable small, battery-powered aircraft to take off and land vertically without the need for conventional runways. The facility recently received regulatory certification issued by the United Arab Emirates’ General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), which is crucial in its bid to operate commercial eVTOLs throughout the emirate. “This certification is a defining moment for Advanced Air Mobility, demonstrating that the infrastructure, operational standards and regulatory frameworks required for commercial eVTOL services are now a reality,” explains Duncan Walker, CEO, Skyports Infrastructure. “With VDX now certified and construction of the wider Dubai Air Taxi Network progressing at pace, we are one step closer to launching commercial air taxi operations, and unlocking a new era of safe, efficient and sustainable urban transport.” Moving on up DubaiVDX is ready, via Skysports. The facility features …

A Fundamental Principle of Aeronautical Engineering Has Been Overturned

A Fundamental Principle of Aeronautical Engineering Has Been Overturned

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Aerodynamic drag is a major “barrier” in high-speed airplanes, automobiles, and bullet trains. This is because a design with less aerodynamic drag allows the aircraft to move at higher speeds with less energy. When an aircraft or car body moves at high speed, a thin layer of air called the “boundary layer” is formed on its surface. This boundary layer has two states: laminar flow, in which air flows in an orderly fashion, and turbulent flow, which involves turbulence. The longer the air stays in the laminar flow state with low friction, the smaller the air resistance becomes, but as the air speed increases, it transitions to turbulent flow. The key to reducing aerodynamic drag is how to delay this transition to turbulence. For more than 80 years, the principle of “the surface of an object must be smooth” has been the basic premise of aeronautical engineering throughout the world in order to suppress the transition to turbulence and reduce aerodynamic drag. This premise was based on the results of a 1940 study by Ichiro …

American Aviation Is Near Collapse

American Aviation Is Near Collapse

Published by Daniella Wilson

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. The American commercial-aviation system is a modern marvel. On any day of the week, a passenger can get to and from nearly any two cities of decent size and to destinations on five other continents, for a relatively affordable price and with exceptional safety. Or at least all of that was true until recently. Today, the system seems near collapse. Travelers around the country are facing long security lines: two to three hours at New York airports, three in Atlanta, two in Houston. Checkpoints are staffed by the Transportation Security Administration, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. DHS has not been paying TSA workers since Valentine’s Day because of a partial government shutdown. Meanwhile, at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, one of the nation’s busiest, all flights are paused until at least this afternoon after an Air …

Paving the way for sustainable aviation by 2050

Paving the way for sustainable aviation by 2050

Published by Miika Tikkanen

The UK is committed to supporting sustainable aviation development through its Jet Zero Strategy, which aims to achieve net-zero aviation emissions by 2050 through initiatives like sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), technological advancements, and infrastructure support. As the UK aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, advancing sustainability within the aviation sector is becoming increasingly critical. Aviation is a key driver of business and leisure travel in the UK, supporting over a million jobs and contributing billions to the economy.¹ However, aviation accounted globally for 2.5% of carbon dioxide emissions before the pandemic,² and with travel numbers back on the rise again post-pandemic, decarbonisation of the aviation industry is once again becoming a more urgent topic to address. While there are ongoing global efforts to decarbonise transportation, the aviation industry faces unique challenges, in particular due to the high energy density of jet fuel. Executing the Jet Zero Strategy In 2022, the UK government introduced its Jet Zero Strategy, a comprehensive roadmap aiming for net-zero aviation by 2050 and net-zero domestic flights and airports …