Plane Answers: Sleeping gas to thwart terrorists, longer winter takeoffs and which aircraft is the smoothest in rough air

by Kent Wien on

Welcome to Gadling’s feature, Plane Answers, where our resident airline pilot, Kent Wien, answers your questions about everything from takeoff to touchdown and beyond. Have a question of your own? Ask away!

Jack asks:

I was wondering why the airlines don’t put sleeping gas on a plane for highjackers. This way when the plane is highjacked the pilot puts on an air mask and gases the rest of the plane, calls for help and lands the plane, arrest & shoot the highjackers, well at least arrest them. Nobody gets hurt and we won’t need all the security people.

Jack, if you only knew how many times the O2 masks have been dropped by a pilot inadvertently flipping the wrong switch during a preflight, you might think twice about this ‘feature.’ Not to mention the chance for leaks or having the system used against us in an attack.

Nope, I would prefer to have passengers available to assist in the case of any terrorist action.

TC asks:

I live in South Florida and drive by FLL (Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International) every morning and evening in transit to work. We recently had a few days of real cold temperatures and I noticed the planes taking off are lower over the interstate and seem to be on the runway longer. How does the effect of temperature and humidity relate to take-offs and landings?

Actually, it’s the opposite, TC. During the colder days, both piston and jet aircraft perform better in the colder weather. On hot weather days the engines produce slightly less power and the density altitude is higher resulting in a little less performance.

In an indirect way, the winter season may have been the cause of the longer takeoff distances. I suspect those flights were completely full of people and bags after escaping from the dreadfully long winter we’ve had here in the northeast!

Andrew asks:

On what type of medium to large jets do you feel the least turbulence, e.g., Airbus 320, Boing 737-400, Boing 737-500, etc.?

Certainly the larger aircraft are smoother in turbulence, usually. The 777 has a ‘gust suppression’ technology that helps with side to side turbulence, and the new 787 will have a system that’s designed to mitigate the effects of both horizontal and vertical turbulence.

More important than the type of aircraft is where on that aircraft you sit. The front-to-middle section is always a smoother ride. We’ve had flight attendants injured in the aft galley while the flight attendants were still able to serve meals in the front of the airplane. So try for row 17 and forward if you can on your next domestic flight. You might notice a difference.

Do you have a question about something related to the pointy end of an airplane? Ask Kent and maybe he’ll use it for next Monday’s Plane Answers. Check out his other blog, Cockpit Chronicles and travel along with him at work.

First flight delivery of 787 adjusted (again)

by Grant Martin on

Now that the whole strike and fastener ruckus has been sorted out at Boeing, manufacturing is back in full swing on the 787 Dreamliner. The Chicago based company is so confident in their progress that they’ve actually announced another first flight and delivery date for their long heralded aircraft. As of last week, the two respective events are slated for second quarter of ’09 and for the first quarter of ’10.

Not that that means anything. Delivery schedules have been set and broken by the airframe manufacturer a half-dozen times, and by this point, nobody really expects them to hit the milestones. We’ll keep our fingers crossed though.

As for when Joe-consumer gets to ride in a Dreamliner, your first chance domestically should be on Delta Airlines, who now have the rights to Northwest‘s early commitment to purchase 18 787-9’s. Word in the underground though is that Delta might be interested in converting the order to 777’s though, so we may have to wait even longer than that.

Boeing to push back 787 first flight, deliveries

by Grant Martin on

It was hard to imagine that Boeing could keep on schedule for 787 deliveries with the strike at large among machinists, but yesterday they made the news official: first flight and deliveries are definitely pushed back.

Originally scheduled for 2008, the first flight of Boeing’s Dreamliner has been repeatedly delayed, most recently to Q4 of 2008 and now into 2009. During that time, several PR specialists have cycled through the media chair at Boeing, but the most recent word from Yvonne Leach, courtesy of Saj at Fleetbuzzeditorial, states that:

“Given the duration of the IAM work stoppage, first flight of the 787 Dreamliner will not be accomplished in the fourth quarter of 2008. The timeframe for first flight has not been established and will be based on the strike recovery assessment. The program is working to determine a new program schedule that will be announced when it is finalized.”

In addition to the obvious delays caused by the strike, the airframe manufacturer also announced that several non-conformities in the fasteners for the 787 contributed to the setback.

So when do we get to fly in a Dreamliner? Official word is now that deliveries won’t even begin until 2010. Don’t worry — it’ll be here before you know it.

The 787 is delayed for the third time — Airbus says HA!

by Grant Martin on

Chicago based airframe manufacturer Boeing announced the third delay to their 787 Dreamliner this week, in a move that many industry analysts have been predicting for several weeks now. I guess things haven’t been coming together as fast as they had expected.

This time around, corporate has put sloppier dates on their milestones so that they can be more flexible on their timing and hopefully won’t miss any further checkpoints — multiple customers are relying on these timetables and it has been well publicized that Boeing often has to pay stiff penalties for being behind.

First flight has thus now been pushed back to the the fourth quarter of this year, with the first delivery scheduled in the third quarter of 2009. CEO Scott Carson boasted about the company’s achievements earlier in the week, conceding, however that “… the traveled work situation and some unanticipated rework have prevented us from hitting the milestones we laid out in January. Our revised schedule is built upon an achievable, high-confidence plan for getting us to our power-on and first-flight milestones”

Let’s hope that this schedule is actually achievable.

Could the 787 be delayed again?

by Grant Martin on

The last few months have been a little rough for Boeing. After all but laughing at their rival Airbus for delays related to their A380 program, the Chicago based airframe manufacturer has pushed back the delivery of their new 787 composite aircraft twice, citing supply chain and final construction issues.

Then, earlier this month, Boeing lost a key Department of Defense contract for airborne tankers to the European air and space conglomerate, EADS, in a performance based competition.

Now, some airline analysts are starting to predict another, more significant delay for the embattled aircraft. Construction and integration of the wing box, a critical section on the underbelly that interfaces with the wings, holds fuel and connects to the landing gear, appears to be the source of the issue. Steven Udvar-Hazy, chairman of International Lease Finance Corp, Boeing’s largest customer recently highlighted the problems and referred to the situation as “not pretty”.

This is, however, one opinion from one analyst in the industry. Boeing hasn’t made an official statement on the matter, stating that they’ve been “focused on [their] near-term milestones of power on and first flight”, but Yyvone Leach, their Senior 787 PR contact did proffer this foreshadowing:

“It is normal during the development of a new airplane to discover the need for design enhancements. We are working with our partners to address the need for design changes in some areas. While these changes are not good for final assembly because they are dealing with traveled work at this time, the design changes are not the sole pacing item.”

The program update for media and analysts is scheduled for April 23. Perhaps things will be more transparent by then.

Check out James Wallace’s blog for more info (and speculation).