FAA
First Boeing 747-8 Freighter delivered to AirBridgeCargo Airlines
Boeing and AirBridgeCargo Airlines, part of Volga-Dnepr Group, celebrated the delivery of the first of five new Boeing 747-8 Freighter aircraft to the airline.
FAA announces safety ratings for Curaçao, Sint Maarten
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced that Curaçao and Sint Maarten do not comply with international safety standards.
Deliveries of Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental to take off after FAA certification
It’s a green light for Boeing as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded its certification for the new 747-8 Intercontinental, clearing the way for delivery of the new aircraft early next year. Read more
Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight test program moves to Florida
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted Boeing expanded type inspection authorization (TIA) today, clearing the way for its personnel to fully participate in future test flights and for the collection of required flight-test data. Initial TIA was granted 11th February, which supported the collection of flutter certification data.
The expanded TIA marks the FAA’s confirmation that the airplane and team are ready to collect additional certification data. Boeing achieved the expansion by demonstrating the readiness of the airplane throughout a variety of speeds, altitudes and configurations.
Boeing Dreamliner 787 ZA003 In Florida for testing
“This TIA expansion is another significant step toward delivering airplanes to our customers. We remain on track to deliver the first airplane to ANA this year,” said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program, Commercial Airplanes.
In addition to receiving expanded TIA, Boeing finalized the aerodynamic configuration of the 787.
“We have completed sufficient testing to decide that no additional changes to the external lines or shape of the airplane are required,” said Fancher. “Having an airplane match its expected performance with so few changes is rare and speaks to the maturity of the design.”
The 787 flight-test fleet logged its 500th hour of flying April 16. On Sunday, ZA003, the flight-test airplane outfitted with interior elements, landed in Florida, where it will go through extreme weather testing at McKinley Climatic Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base.
Boeing released two videos highlighting flutter and ground effects testing. These videos feature commentary by the pilots and the chief project engineer and are available on www.boeing.com and www.newairplane.com.
Aviation organisations launch safety information exchange
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), along with three governmental aviation safety organisations, took the first step to creating a global information exchange to improve aviation safety.
IATA, together with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the Commission of the European Union (EU), has signed a Declaration of Intent to exchange safety data. The signing took place during the ICAO High-Level Safety Conference in Montreal.
“Today’s milestone agreement marks the first time the global aviation community has come together to work on a global safety information exchange. Data must drive our actions so that we can focus our joint efforts on reducing the greatest risks,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
“Working together with governments using global standards, safety has improved tremendously. In 1945, there were 9 million passengers and 247 fatalities. In 2009, 2.3 billion people flew with 685 fatalities. Every fatality is a human tragedy and reminds us that we must do better. Today’s agreement is one more important step to make a safe industry even safer,” said Bisignani.
Audit data will be a key element in the project. IATA, ICAO, the FAA and the EU conduct audit programs that collect complementary safety information. “We must understand safety trends, not just from the handful of accidents each year, but by bringing together and analyzing data from millions of safe flights. With this we can take more effective action to reduce risks and improve safety performance,” said Bisignani.
“There is no competition when it comes to safety. Cooperation is the way forward. We have a common goal of zero accidents and zero fatalities. The safety data from audits and oversight programs contains important parts of a whole picture. Agreeing to put this data together is a major step forward,” said Bisignani.
The four organisations will now start work on a way to standardize safety audit information and ensure compliance with local privacy laws and policies. This is targeted to be completed within 12 to 18 months.
The 2009 global accident rate, measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jet aircraft, was 0.71. This is a significant improvement of the 0.81 rate recorded in 2008. Compared to 10 years ago, the accident rate has been cut 36% from the 1.11 rate recorded in 2000.
