Special: Air Security

On Christmas Day, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab brought PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, the same plastic explosive used eight years ago by would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid, onboard Northwest Flight 253 from AMS-DTW (Amsterdam to Detroit).

This sparks a debate involving the questions:

• To what extremes should countries and airports alike go to preserve air security?
• If upgauging security, should airports use new technologies such as full body scanners that can see IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) hidden under clothes, but also blurred private parts?
• To what extent is security justified and moral? Intrusion of private body parts? "Virtual strip searches"?
• How affective is increasing security after all? Didn't we do that after 9/11? After which this event and the shoe-bombing incident happened?
• Isn't air security also an issue outside of the airport too? Most recently, Umar's father alerted U.S. officials of the potential danger of Umar? Shouldn't he have been on a no-fly list? Then wouldn't increased security at airports be unnecessary, if we could stop terrorists prior to the airport?
• Should racial profiling be considered? Will that accomplish security better? As in more screenings for people with certain skin color, coming from certain places, and from certain ethnic groups? Is that justified? 

I'll post my take pretty soon, after a bit more research and thought. 

Special: Overshooting planes.

• American Airlines 331, a 737-800, overran the runway at Kingston, Jamaica. Around 50 injuries, but none serious, luckily. Supposed bad weather, but investigations continue. After skidding off the runway, the aircraft stopped on the beach. Aircraft fuselage cracked in three places, engines detached from wings, aircraft unusable obviously. Picture on the left shows beach where aircraft finally stopped.

• Hours later, a Ryanair 737-800 overran the runway at Prestwick Airport in Scotland. This time there were no injuries reported, as the airplane stopped in a field of grass. There was no damage to the aircraft. Ryanair's records of no major injuries to a crew member or passenger still stands.

Aviation Abbreviations

Besides three letter airport codes which would take forever to learn, there are three letter/number aircraft abbreviations. Here are some of the most common, which I will constantly refer to.

General Rules:

ER- Extended Range

LR- Long Range

For planes not marked with an ER at the end, sometimes they do have an ER variant, but there is no common acronym, and the model plus ER is used instead of a letter (777-300 ER vs 77W. They're the same thing.)

717/712- Boeing 717-200

721- Boeing 727-100
727/722/72G/72S- Boeing 727-200
737- Any Boeing 737 variation

737NG- Any Next Generation 737 Variant (736, 737, 738, 739)
731- Boeing 737-100
732- Boeing 737-200
733- Boeing 737-300
734- Boeing 737-400
735- Boeing 737-500
736- Boeing 737-600
73G- Boeing 737-700 (without winglets)

73W-Boeing 737-700 (with winglets)

738- Boeing 737-800 (without winglets)

73H- Boeing 737-800 (with winglets)
739- Boeing 737-900
747- Any Boeing 747 variation
741- Boeing 747-100
742- Boeing 747-200
743- Boeing 747-300
744- Boeing 747-400
748- Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental
757- Any Boeing 757 variation
752- Boeing 757-200
75W- Boeing 757-200 with winglets
753- Boeing 757-300
767- Any Boeing 767 variation
762- Boeing 767-200
763- Boeing 767-300
764- Boeing 767-400
777- Any Boeing 777 variation
772- Boeing 777-200

77E- Boeing 777-200 ER

77L- Boeing 777-200 LR
773- Boeing 777-300

77W- Boeing 777-300 ER
787- Any Boeing 787 variation
783- Boeing 787-3
788- Boeing 787-8
789- Boeing 787-9

D9S- DC-9-30
D95- DC-9-50
S80- Any MD-8x series, but often specifically referring to an AA MD-82/3.
DC8- DC-8
M81- MD-81
M82- MD-82
M83- MD-83
M87- MD-87
M88- MD-88
M90- MD-90
M95- MD-95 (Boeing 717)

306- Airbus A-300-600
312- Airbus A-310-200
313- Airbus A-310-300
318- Airbus A-318
319- Airbus A-319
32S- Airbus A-319, A-320, A-321

320- Airbus 320
321- Airbus A-321
330- Any Airbus A-330 variation
332- Airbus A-330-200
333- Airbus A-330-300
340- Any Airbus A-340 variation
342- Airbus A-340-200
343- Airbus A-340-300
345- Airbus A-340-500
346- Airbus A-340-600
350- Any Airbus A-350 variation
388- Airbus A-380-800

F28- Fokker F-28
F50- Fokker F-50
F70- Fokker F-70
100- Fokker 100

ER3- Embraer ERJ-135
ERD- Embraer ERJ-140
ER4- Embraer ERJ-145
E70- Embraer EMB-170
E75- Embraer EMB-175
E90- Embraer EMB-190
E95- Embraer EMB-195

BE1 - Beechcraft 1900

SF3 - Saab 340

FRJ - Fairchild-Dornier 328JET

CRJ - Bombardier (Canadair) CRJ series
CR2 - CRJ-200
CR7 - CRJ-700
CR9 - CRJ-900

Friday Aviation News

• 787 first flight (see separate post)
• East Coast Snowstorm. Delays. Lots. Cancellations. Lots.
• Frontier to start 4x weekly Denver to Fairbanks nonstop service!
• OpenSkies (Premier airline part of British Airways flying ORY [Paris Orly Airport] to JFK [New York John F Kennedy Airport]) switches flights from ORY-JFK to ORY-EWR (Newark, New Jersey). Effective January 4th.
• Beginning of Continental Airline's HNL (Honolulu, Hawaii) to NAN (Nadi, Fiji) service. 2x a week
• Southwest makes numerous changes: http://blogsouthwest.com/files/May%202010%20Flight%20Changes%20effective%20May%209.pdfMajor addition is Panama City, Florida with service to Houston Hobby, Nashville, Orlando and Baltimore.
• US Airways inaugural CLT (Charlotte, North Carolina) to HNL (Honolulu, Hawaii) flights begin, however with a fuel stop on the first day. The fuel stop is not regular, but could end up being common as the 767-200ER (762)'s abilities can be strained under the combination of the 4,678 mile flight plus heavy Pacific winds.
• Singapore Airlines to start SIN (Singapore) to MUN (Munich) [continuing onto MAN (Manchester, UK)]. Rumors flying about SIN to BCN (Barcelona) to GRU (Sao Paulo, Brazil).

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

787 Flies: "The Airplane of the Future 21st Century"

Finally, after frustrating delays, mechanic strikes, and wing strength problems, the Boeing 787 primarily made of reinforced carbon fiber has flown. Chief test pilot Mike Carriker piloted the 1st 787-800 on December 15, 2009.

A great moment for aviation and Jet City.

Inclement weather over the Cascades shortened the length of the flight, and advancing cloud cover also shortened the length of the flight, as the pilots wanted to land visually, not via instruments as customary for a first flight.

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Comac C919

Comac recently released a picture of a model of the C919 commercial airliner, a first for China. I suppose this is China's way of thanking Airbus for giving them the information China needed to get their own aircraft up and running.

Oddly looks like an airbus 320, with 788 cockpit windows, and a scaled down version of an a380 nose. Hmm.

The seat count given (120-200), seems to imply three sub-models, possibly like the A319, 320, 321.

Much remains a mystery, as what materials it will be produced from and whether it will have Fly By Wire. Comac is reportedly negotiating with Western Firms and engine makers such as GE.

Watch out, here it comes. China's commercial aircraft.