Jules Verne's Terrific Re-entry

After spending nearly six months attached to the International Space Station, ESA's Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) made a fantastic atmospheric re-entry today. And by fantastic I mean complete spacecraft vaporization as shown in this first known picture taken from an airborne DC-8. What remnants survived the re-entry splashed down into the Pacific Ocean. Jules Verne made such a spectacular show for those who could see it because it was so huge to begin with. Compare it below to the size of both the Apollo and Progress spacecraft. Jules Verne "carried almost five tonnes of food, breathing air, drinking water and fuel" to the ISS. Of course in typical fashion, Verne was discarded after it's use was no longer needed. ESA has at least two more ATVs in production for future launches. With more than 100 years since Jules Verne's death I'm glad to see he finally completed le voyage extraordinaire.



[Gizmodo]

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Pilot Arrested For Drunken Mooning

What is it with regional airline pilots that they keep getting arrested for being found drunk and partially disrobed? Now a couple of Trans State Airlines pilots have been charged with public intoxication in Alcoa, Tennessee with one of them found mooning oncoming traffic on the Alcoa Highway. In a similar fashion to our previous naked pilot escapade, this one started out at a nearby restaurant with the two getting a little out of hand after being denied any more alcohol. That's when Jeffrey Saltis decided to show people his good side after dropping his drawers on the side of the road. Unfortunately for Saltis, one of the people who saw his backside was an Alcoa police officer. The other pilot, Michael Etzel was found intoxicated in front of an Applebee's with a female who was trying to take pictures of Etzel showing his derriere to the public. Both pilots, who fly for United Express, were released from custody with a charge of public intoxication and Saltis also receiving an indecent exposure charge. If these guys keep this up, I'll have enough to start a PointNiner's Pilots Gone Wild file.

[The Daily Times]

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Craziest Idea For A Personal Helicopter Yet

This Austrian concept actually makes that Chinese man with the homemade helicopter seem like Igor Sikorsky. Could you look any goofier doing this?

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PointNiner Death Wish Weekend, Part 2

I was forced to grant a temporary extension on PointNiner's first Death Wish Weekend after Tom sent me this. Paul Steiner, a 45 year old Austrian man, gets his crazy on with this incredible aerial stunt. According to the Red Bull website, Steiner based the stunt off the 007 motto, "You Only Live Twice" (somewhat appropriate for this theme). At nearly 6,000 feet Steiner exits the cockpit of his Red Bull sailplane then proceeds to climb onto the wing as the aircraft begins a roll over. As it continues over, Steiner keeps moving until he is mounted on the underside of the fuselage while the aircraft is upside down. All this before jumping off the plane and sky diving down to the ground. Why am I explaining it detail by detail when you can just watch it below?

Now if Steiner could combine this act with the one from the guy who leaps from plane to plane, that would be an act I would pay to see. I wonder what their life insurance premiums are like?

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SpaceX Falcon 1 Finally Makes It Into Orbit

Well I guess SpaceX CEO Elon Musk won't have to commit suicide after all. His company finally got their Falcon 1 rocket into orbit today following a successful launch from the U.S. Army's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Defense Test Site on the Kwajalein Atoll. This was Falcon 1's fourth launch attempt with the previous three resulting in failure. The most recent, Flight Three, took place less than one month ago. But today is a new day, and Falcon 1 has become the first privately developed launch vehicle to reach Earth orbit from the ground. This is quite an amazing feat they've accomplished even without the help of Star Trek's beloved Scotty. "As the saying goes, the fourth time's the charm," Musk told his employees after the launch. "It's great to have this giant monkey off my back." While today's launch was only carrying a dummy satellite, this is just the beginning for the space launch startup. Musk and SpaceX are planning several commercial launches in the future as they continue to develop the Falcon family of rockets that they intend to one day use to provide launch services for NASA to the ISS. My hat is certainly off to SpaceX today on their momentous achievement, but I have to concur with PointNiner regular J.B. Does this mean we have corporate-owned ICBMs now?

You can watch SpaceX's webcast of the entire launch of Falcon 1 Flight 4 below. The video is long at 10 minutes, but it is interesting. Note how you can hear the SpaceX employees celebrating in the background following a successful first stage separation. That is because this failed to happen on Flight 3 which resulted in a vehicle loss. Obviously they become overjoyed also when the Kestrel second stage engine shuts down following a successful orbital insertion. Congrats SpaceX!

[Space.com]

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Chinese Wrap Up Whirlwind Space Mission

I'll hand it to those Chinese, they are efficient, even in their orbital space missions. Launch one day, spacewalk the next and land on the third day. That's exactly what the Chinese did by wrapping up their three day manned mission this morning by landing their Shenzhou spacecraft in a Mongolian field. Shenzhou 7 was only China's third manned mission, but it was their first to include an EVA making China the third nation to have the capability of independently launching astronauts, and now conduct spacewalks. Designed to pave the way for future missions including rendezvous and docking of spacecraft and an eventual space laboratory, Shenzhou 7 was huge step forward for the pride of the Chinese people. Some are even speculating that the Chinese are trying to get to the Moon before NASA makes their return in a new "Space Race". If that's the case, they'll have to increase the frequency of launches as their last took place nearly three years ago. While the Chinese are about 40 years behind NASA and the Russians in terms of achievements, I still applaud their determination to chart their own story in space exploration history, even if they make it up before it happens.



[Space.com]
AP Photos


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PointNiner Death Wish Weekend

I was originally going to put these videos up here as three separate posts but I think a theme weekend sounds like more fun now. I mean, who doesn't love a good theme weekend? All three of these are great videos with amazing footage and some seriously messed up people doing ridiculously ludicrous activities. The term "living on borrowed time" comes to mind.

This first video is about a guy who rides on the outside of a MD 500 helicopter to climb onto high voltage power lines for inspection purposes. I love his quote at the end, "there's only three things I'm afraid of...electricity, heights and women."




As if skydiving weren't extreme enough, the guy in next video really pushes his luck to the edge by jumping from one aircraft to another while free falling. Using the drogue chute to slow the other aircraft down was kind of a cool concept though.




And finally we wrap up with some European flair as this Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm BO-105 does a little stunt flying through a German forest. This one looked like the most fun to me but I still think it requires a psycho analysis.

Now see, what did I tell you? Theme weekends really are fun...and in this case frightening too.

[Flixxy.com]

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Mirror Images

It's really taking a lot of self control right now not to bust out singing a popular Foreigner song from 1978. What you are seeing here is not the result of some fancy photoshopping. It really is two Space Shuttles ready on the pads at the Kennedy Space Center. This is the last time you will ever see this occurrence and the first time it's happened since 2001. The Space Shuttle Atlantis is in the foreground on launch pad 39A in preparation for its launch on STS-125 while Endeavour stands ready on launch pad 39B in case it is needed as a rescue vessel for Atlantis during its risky Hubble servicing mission set to launch October 10. STS-125 will be the first Space Shuttle mission not to rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station since the Columbia disaster in 2003. As the Hubble and ISS are in vastly different orbits, a docking with the ISS in case of an emergency heat shield situation will be impossible. This is why NASA managers have Endeavour ready to go, should it be needed. Once it gets the all clear from it's rescue standby, Endeavour will be rolled over to 39A for STS-126 to the ISS targeted around November 26. After it rolls off 39B over to 39A NASA will begin it's transformation of 39B into a future launch pad for Constellation missions.

CLICK HERE to see an ultra high-res version of the picture above.

[NASA]
Image Credit: NASA/Troy Cryder

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Look Out "Chinese Taxi", It's The "Spanish Pushback"

Not to be outdone by those passengers who had to push their Chinese CRJ-700 from the runway to the terminal earlier this week, these Air Nostrum rampers show you how to do the "Spanish Pushback" in Seville. Amazingly, it's another CRJ. There must be a shortage of CRJ towbars overseas.

Thanks, JB.

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Passengers Have To Push Broken Plane Off Runway

Ghetto alert! You may want to think again about flying with this budget airline the next time you are traveling in China. After this CRJ-700 became disabled on the runway following its landing at Zhengzhou, the airline had no way of getting it off the runway and to the terminal. At first the crew from the Shandong Airlines flight and some airport staff tried to push it by themselves (yeah right). When that literally got them nowhere, passengers from the flight came to the rescue to help push the 20 ton beast 1,000 yards from where it died on the runway over toward the terminal building. It only took them two hours, too! I guess they've never heard of a tug and towbar in Zhengzhou?

[The Daily Mail via Fox News]

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Rocketman Crosses The English Channel (Without Killing Himself)

Remember that crazy Swiss dude that flies his own jet powered flying wing? Well, today he made history by flying that contraption across the English Channel from Calais, France to Dover, England. The picture above shows him after he popped his landing parachute while coming in to land near the White Cliffs of Dover. Yves Rossy actually had to leap from an aircraft at 8,800 feet to get his homemade deathtrap jet-pack airborne. There's just not enough power in the four tiny turbines strapped to his wings to get him off the ground without a flying start. The carbon composite wing weighs 121 pounds with a full load of fuel and the entire deice is controlled by Rossy moving his body. Hundreds of spectators turned out to see the adventurist make the historic flight and it was even covered live by the National Geographic Channel. Nice job, now let's see him do it transatlantic!

AP Photo
[CNN]

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24 Hour Global Air Traffic

This is absolutely nuts. It's cool to see Europe and the US get flooded in the morning before a mass exodus across the pond in the evening.

[Zhaw via Gizmodo]

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PointNiner's 500th Post!

Woohoo...



...(filler)...



...yeah!


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Chinese Manned Launch A Success, Even Before It Really Happened

Today's launch of the Shenzhou 7 mission was undoubtedly of major importance to the national pride of China. So much so that now it appears that a full article and narrative of the launch was posted on the web site of the country's official news agency, Xinhua...before the launch ever took place! The article, dated two days in the future, was eventually discovered and taken down. Fortunately the launch lived up to the article and was a success sending a three man crew into orbit on China's third manned mission and its first since 2005. The crew is expected to make an EVA from their Soyuz clone Shenzhou spacecraft sometime tomorrow, which would be another first for the Chinese space program. The mission is intended to help China develop technologies and procedures for an eventual orbital docking and space station. But it makes me wonder if the mission had been a failure (i.e. kaboom), would the government still have ran the propaganda piece to cover it up?

[AP via Gizmodo]

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The Big Picture Does Baikonur

We really can't say enough good things here at PointNiner about the Boston Globe's photo-blog, The Big Picture. I could almost swear that Alan Taylor's job is to feed this blog with big, beautiful and relevant photos. This time he's done a great piece on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan where the Russian Space Agency launches all of their manned and unmanned systems. You almost feel like you're watching the Space Race unveil before your eyes in some of these photos. The photographers do an excellent job capturing that "Cold War in a bottle" essence here.

CLICK HERE to see all of the beautiful hi-res photos.

Ahh, Proton...my favorite Russian giant.

Doesn't it look like this Soyuz spacecraft is just suspended in mid air?

Russians...still doing it old school.

[The Big Picture]

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Phony Air Force Ad Spoofs E-Trade Commercials

You'll just have to watch it. It's classic. UAV pilots may not think its funny though.

[The DEW Line]

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C-130 Chunks Up

How do you make the world's best selling military cargo aircraft, even better? Fatten her up! That's exactly what Lockheed Martin is considering with the C-130XL (should be XXL). This photo from Stephen Trimble's blog is the first known image of the new fat girl being designed to compete against the A400M and C-17B. The concept is still in the preliminary phases without an official go-ahead but it would include widening the current fuselage and supporting a new load of up to 65,000 lbs. What a pig!

Click on the photo for higher detail.

[The DEW Line]

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"Now That's How You Do An Emergency Landing"

The passenger in this ultralight was either very confident in the abilities of his pilot or he just wanted to film his own death. Either way, these two guys cut it pretty close as the pilot is forced to make an emergency landing following a total loss of power. The aircraft slams into the ground in a tiny field and comes to a stop just short of a line of trees. Notice how after the passenger comments on how close they were to total disaster the pilot says, "Yeah, but it was fun." Reminds me a bit of flying with Aaron.

[LiveLeak]

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Trainees Alone In Tower During Allentown Near Miss

So by now you may have heard about that Mesa CRJ-700 that almost hit a Cessna 172 on the runway in Allentown, PA recently. Well now AVweb is reporting that the only two controllers in the tower at Lehigh International Airport during the runway incursion were only trainees. One of the trainee controllers reportedly had instructed the Cessna, who had just landed, to exit the runway at a specific taxiway. The pilot advised the tower that he missed the exit and was going down to the next taxiway instead. The controller must have misinterpreted this as the pilot reporting that he had exited so he cleared the Mesa CRJ to take off from that same runway. What happened next was a guaranteed undie-messer as the CRJ had to "swerve" to miss the Cessna as it barreled down the runway at 120 knots coming within 10 feet of smashing into each other. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association is not disputing the facts of this incident but is hoping it builds on the case of an internal controller shortage, an issue sure to come up this Thursday during a House Aviation Subcommittee hearing on runway safety this. The Mesa flight (operating as United Express) was canceled after the incursion to deodorize the doodoo smell in the cabin.

[AVweb]

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Red Bull Racer Buzzes Tower

A Red Bull air racer pilot decides to give the controllers in this tower a treat by buzzing it several times much to the delight of one particular female controller. I hope no one loses their job over this video going public, especially as it is very entertaining for me.

[LiveLeak]

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New Presidential Helicopter Takes Flight

The new Presidential helicopter took flight yesterday in the UK.  The VH-71 helicopter is built by AgustaWestland and Lockheed Martin.  The lime green-ish aircraft will soon have its Prez livery with the dark green and white.  She, along with 27 other VH-71s will eventually make it stateside aboard a C-17 to be delivered to Maryland for programming and aircraft system installation by Lockheed Martin.  Who knew the President had such a fleet of helicopters?

According to the press release, the current Marine One helicopter is to be phased out starting in 2017 on a three-per-year basis.

As a side note, and do not get me wrong because I'm no Airbus lover, it is worth pointing out the Pres can fly in a UK designed helicopter, but everyone raised hell when the US was going to a Euro-designed tanker.  I think the VH-71 is a beauty though, don't you?

[Lockheed Martin]

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Dashcam Video of Barker and DJ AM's Jet Crash Scene

All I can say is this is nuts and it still seems a little unreal.

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It's Getting Dark In The Kibo Space Lab

The newest additions to the International Space Station, JAXA's Kibo Space Laboratories, are facing an unforeseen challenge. Unforeseen because it's getting too dark to see anything. Over half of the 21 florescent bulbs in the labs have already burned out since the modules' installation early this summer. Unfortunately with other bulbs burning out in the station, there are no spares left on board. As it gets darker in Kibo's two modules, JAXA is concerned that performing experiments will be too difficult. Senior managers believe the problem is due to the vacuum inside the bulb deteriorating since being in orbit. The Japanese Space Agency is currently working on an LED replacement for the fluorescent tubes, but that new system won't be ready until 2010. Astronauts on board will just have to wait until at least November when the next ISS-servicing Shuttle flight arrives with some spare bulbs. Can you light a candle in space?

[Wired Science]

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C-17 Makes First Antarctic Night Landing Using NVG

A C-17 from McChord AFB made the first known after-dark landing in Antarctica using night vision goggles on September 11th. The Globemaster III landed at night on the Pegusus Ice Runway near McMurdo Station in a mission that was flown as part of Operation Deep Freeze. This long standing mission airlifts critical supplies to the National Science Foundation and U.S. Antarctic Program that operates at McMurdo. Typically these supplies can only be delivered during the Antarctic Summer months due to long night hours in the Winter and limited airfield lighting. With this successful test operation, the Air Force now has the ability to airlift supplies or medevac personnel out of McMurdo year round. The new procedure uses reflective cones to outline the edges of the ice runway. When the C-17's lights reflect off the cones, it is easily picked up in the night vision goggles used by the flight crew. Commander of the 304th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, Lt. Col. Jim McGann said, "We found the cones to be very good at illuminating the runway and providing critical situational awareness." The real beauty of this system is that the markers require no electrical power at all.

Here is one of the reflective cones used at the Pegasus Ice Runway.

A C-17 Globemaster III sits on the Pegasus Ice Runway after a successful night landing.

[Photos: U.S. Air Force/Master Sgt. Chris Vadnais]
[AF Link]

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Struggling Air Force One To Begin Selling Passenger Tickets

WASHINGTON—With oil prices hitting record levels, the United States Air Force announced today that it has begun selling passenger tickets on all flights operated by its Air Force One fleet in order to maintain the service as a "feasible enterprise."

It no longer makes sense financially to let one passenger dictate when and where we travel," acting Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley said in a press conference at the Pentagon, the Air Force's corporate headquarters in Arlington, VA. "We've got a big plane here, and there's no reason we shouldn't be filling it."

Air Force One has been in operation since 1943. Like other "legacy carriers," it had trouble remaining solvent following industry deregulation in 1978, but the service was able to stay afloat thanks to increased summit travel to the Middle East through the early 1980s. Now, however, as costs continue to skyrocket, Air Force One has been forced to make changes to survive in the current economic climate.

"We've made some major changes to Air Force One in order to reflect our new emphasis on customer service," said Air Force chief of staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley. "On each aircraft, the conference room, office, workout room, bedroom, and war room have been gutted and replaced with narrow rows and plush seats to accommodate additional passengers. Our former private chef service has been replaced by carts of drinks and economically priced prepackaged snacks. Even the escape hatch, originally designed for sneaking away from Kazakh hijackers but never used, has been converted into luggage storage."

One Washington resident and Air Force One frequent flyer, however, was unhappy. The 62-year-old government employee, who neglected to give his name, said he has used the airline for all his business trips since 2001 and "never had a problem before," but was surprised by the changes made under the new system. After 14 stops, he said, the Boeing 747 finally arrived at his destination city, where friends had been waiting seven hours to pick him up for the treaty signing they were attending.

"I've flown with [Air Force One] for a long time, but next time I may have to go on the Internet and see what else is out there," he said. "The government really needs to step in and do something about the fuel crisis in this country before it really gets out of hand."

If you're completely perplexed and haven't figured it out yet, this story is bogus. Bogus but funny. It's an exerpt from a bogus article you can read on The Onion. And yes, that's a bad photoshop in the phony ad above. Looks like they tried to add 2 more engines to an A320. They did go to the trouble of registering the domain flyairforceoneair.com, though.

[The Onion]

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Airborne Porn

You've got to know that this is bound to happen when you install Wi-Fi on commercial airliners like American Airlines is doing. So far 16 of their aircraft are testing the new systems that allow passengers to access the internet while in flight. Of course passengers aren't just checking PointNiner.com while airborne. Some are making visits to nudie sites which has got American Flight Attendants and fellow passengers concerned about the content. So as American Airlines, what do you do?

[MSNBC]

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Night Refueling Over Iraq

Came across this photo I liked and just wanted to share it as it's something you don't typically see. It's an F-16 from Joint Base Balad, Iraq getting refueled from a KC-135 during an Iraqi night sortie back on September 6. Not sure what town they're over in the picture but it's cool nonetheless.

(U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Aaron Allmon II)

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Kanye West Arrested At LAX

We love it here at PointNiner when celebs do stupid things at airports, simply for the fact it makes for easy cannon fodder. Rapper Kanye West is now doing his part for this blog by getting himself arrested at LAX airport yesterday due to an altercation with the paparazzi. West and his manager Don Crowley were taken into custody by airport police after they smashed a paparazzo’s camera on the floor of the terminal. Both were booked for investigation of felony vandalism, however prosecutors have yet to determine what charges they might face. Some witnesses were claiming it was an act as self defense as paparazzi typically stalk celebrities at LAX hoping to get that candid shot. Both were released later that day. Below is raw video from the celeb site TMZ that shows the smashing and altercation. Unfortunately, it doesn't show what led up to the incident. Either way, Kanye West, who is already known for his temper tantrums, has failed to impress anyone here at PointNiner with this escapade. What do you think?

[MSNBC]

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Man Sues American For Losing His Dead Wife

Miguel Olaya simply wanted to bring the remains of his late wife back to their native Ecuador as her final resting place. Unfortunately, the airline lost his baggage wife along the way. Now Olaya is suing American Airlines and the funeral home in New York he made transportation arrangements with for negligence. The funeral home is pointing the blame towards American and claims that instead of sending the remains to Guayaquil in Ecuador, they accidentally sent it to Guatemala. Apparently the code for Guayaquil is GYE, not GUA which is Guatemala. That little bit of information may have helped a certain American Airlines employee. When Olaya went to the airport on April 1st to claim his wife's remains the airline told him it had been sent to the wrong country. Finally arriving four days later, the body was starting to decompose. Lovely.

[Fox News]

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DoD Cancels Refueling Competition, Tankergate Lives On

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates put the kabosh on the Air Force's tanker replacement competition today marking yet another end to yet another chapter in what has got to be one of the biggest black eyes in military procurement history. The program termination is being based on the fact that the DoD won't be able to complete the competition process before the end of the current presidential administration. Now either Obama or McCain will have the pleasure of adopting the red-headed step child that is the KC-X tanker replacement program. Aimed at replacing the venerable KC-135 Stratotanker, the program has been an embarrassment for the current administration for all eight years in office and has even led to the sacking of a few high ranking Air Force officials.

Ironically, McCain is one of the responsible parties from the early days of Tankergate. Since then the Air Force had rehashed the bid process and stunned the nation by awarding a contract to Northrop Grumman/EADS for their KC-45A based on the Airbus A330 airframe back in February. Not going down without a nasty catfight, Boeing filed a formal protest with the GAO citing inconsistencies in the Air Force's decision to select the KC-45A. The GAO accepted the protest and helped push the stop button on the KC-45A program in June. The very next month, the Defense Department said to hell with the Air Force and reopened the competition all over again this time running it straight from that 5-sided building on the Potomac. Things got nastier with some other Air Force SNAFUs and people up high on the chain lost their jobs as a part of this mess. So now it is only appropriate in considering the entire nightmare that has been KC-X for the whole thing to be called off.

"Over the past seven years the process has become enormously complex and emotional - in no small part because of mistakes and missteps along the way by the Department of Defense," says Gates. "It is my judgment that in the time remaining to us, we can no longer complete a competition that would be viewed as fair and objective in this highly charged environment." Now we are forced to sit through a "cooling off" period before the next administration starts their own chapter in what was supposed to be an already late retirement for the KC-135. Anyone really surprised? And yes, I realize that is not the current SecDef. It just really captured the theme of this post.

[Flight Global]

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ABL Fires High Energy Laser For First Time

The future of warfare is very very near. We're already seeing in Iraq and Afganistan autonomous drones that can loiter over combat for 24 hours and Humvee mounted microwave beams that can heat up the surface of the human skin. The Air Force also wants to develop laser gunships to replace AC-130s for precision ground...um...lasering. And now the Air Force's Airborne Laser program has reached a historic milestone in its quest to bring warfare into the 21st century when it achieved "first light" and fired its high-energy chemical laser during a ground test September 7th at Edwards AFB. The Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency are very optimistic about the future of the YAL-1 program and what it will mean for future combat. The prototype has been in testing for quite some time now and has had success in firing its beam control/fire control system, developed by Lockheed Martin. This has all lead up to the big ray gun (aka chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL)) developed by Northrop Grumman which is mounted on the modified 747-400F produced by Boeing. The multi-contractor team and the Air Force are moving one step closer with the recent test towards its first missile shoot-down demonstration scheduled for 2009. After that, perhaps the Defense Department should look into an Imperial Death Star for it's next futuristic weapon.

[Boeing]

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ISS Gets Wi-Fi

Here's another case of NASA finally catching up to the rest of the world in terms of technology. Just a few weeks after finding out a computer on board the International Space Station had a virus, the orbiting ISS has officially gone wireless (internet that is). Now astronauts and cosmonauts can do all their web surfing and illegal movie downloading from the cozy confines of their bunks instead of always being in the labs. I sure hope they turn on the WEP key though. I'd hate to see those pesky Chinese trying to pirate some free WiFi on their rare and occasional space flights. Here's more from NASA Watch:

"After transitioning the JSL (Joint Station LAN) network to the new Netgear wireless APs (Access Points, WAPs) which provide the ISS with WiFi (wireless+Ethernet) connectivity, Gregory today repeated functionality tests, abandoned earlier this week, in three Kibo JPM (JEM Pressurized Module) locations from the wireless SSC -11 laptop, and later also in the COL (Columbus Orbital Laboratory). Afterwards switching to "Proxim" APs, the new WiFi "Dolphin" BCRs (Barcode Readers) were also tested."

[NASA Watch via Gizmodo]

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NASA UAV Is Micro Hurricane Hunter

With Gustav and Hanna under the belt, and Ike and Josephine right behind them, make no doubt, the 2008 Hurricane season is in full swing. With that, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) are teaming up with Aerosonde North American to deploy a UAV that flies directly into hurricanes in an attempt to understand them better. While hurricane flying is nothing new, the new aerosonde will do it a little differently than its manned counterparts. The Aerosonde Hurricane Boundary Layer Mission takes the little UAV into the core of a hurricane system at only 500 feet off the water. This is an area of a hurricane typically considered too dangerous for manned missions, but also containing critical storm dynamics that scientists know little about. First deployed during Hurricane Noel last October, the aerosonde is controlled via satellite link from NOAA's National Hurricane Center in Miami, FL.

[NASA]

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Cessna 152 Lands On New Jersey Parkway

I'm not sure what's more congested, the NY/NJ airspace, or a New Jersey highway. Unfortunately for 44-year-old flight instructor Joe Rubino, and 58-year-old John Hannon they had to experience both today when the Cessna 152 they were piloting lost power on takeoff and was forced to make an emergency landing near Tinton Falls, NJ. The most surprising part is that someone was courteous enough to allow them to merge into traffic on the Garden State Parkway in order to put her down. Bystanders actually helped move the aircraft to the shoulder so they could keep on their commute. The aircraft was later loaded onto a flatbed truck and moved to another site.

(Don't drive this truck too fast, it doesn't take much for a 152 to want to get airborne.)

[Photos: MyFOXNY.com]
[Fox News]

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First Air-To-Air Synthetic Fuel Transfer

The US Air Force is wasting no time in testing their new synthetic jet fuel. Just yesterday they marked another milestone when the 50/50 blend of JP-8 and fuel derived from the Fisher-Tropsch method was transferred via aerial refueling from a KC-135 to an F-22 Raptor. This also marks the first flight of a Raptor using the new fuel. Neither the KC-135 from March ARB or the F-22 from Edwards AFB were modified to perform the test. "Our goal was to complete the test plan and to support the certification," said Maj. Drew Allen, 411 FLTS chief of standardization and evaluation and also the test pilot. "We wanted to prove that there was no negative effect in performing the aerial refueling using the synthetic fuel." This test moves the USAF another step closer to certifying the synthetic fuel for the entire Air Force fleet as well as moving them another step away from dependence on foreign oil.

[Lockheed Martin photo]
[AF Link]

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Helicopter Pilot Uses Helicopter to Cut His Birthday Cake

Crazy pilot cutting his birthday cake with a knife attached to the right skid on his helicopter.  And when I say cutting, I mean smashing and deforming.

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CRJ-1000 Makes First Flight

Bombardier's long and skinny CRJ-1000 prototype took to the Canadian skies for the first time during its maiden flight yesterday from their production facility at the Mirabel Airport in Montreal, Quebec. During the 25 minute flight, the CRJ-1000 reached an altitude of 30,000 feet and flew at a maximum speed of 260 knots. "We put the gear up, operated the flaps and slats and exercised our new 'fly-by-wire' rudder," says Jacques Thibaudeau, one of the test-flight crew members. Bombardier is saying it handles much like the CRJ-900 so transitioning flight crews to the larger 100-seater should be no problem. After a few more flights, the prototype will be flown to Bombardier's Test Flight Centre at Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita where it will be joined next year by the first production aircraft for its flight operations review and certification process. Entry into service is expected in the fourth quarter of 2009. Hopefully, the PointNiner crew will get a chance to see her during the testing phase like we have with the other CRJ stretches as Wichita is just down the road from our base of operations.



Pictures: Bombardier
[Bombardier via Flight Global]

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Frog In Aircraft Window

Not something you see every day. This little amphibian was spotted in a window of a Turkish Airlines' Airbus A320 in July during a flight from Moscow to Istanbul. A passenger quickly snapped this shot before he slid back in to the side wall. The frog was between the pressurized outer window and the inner cabin pane. After landing in Istanbul mechanics tore through the aircraft but could find no sign of the little guy. Earlier in the day the aircraft started out in the Turkish city of Adana which is known for having tons of frogs that eventually get shipped to China and Japan to end up on restaurant menus.

[Flight Global]

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PointNiner On Gustav

You won't hear much on Hurricane Gustav here at PointNiner. The national media has it pretty well covered. The closure of the airports, the airlifting of evacuees, the Air Force delivering supplies, the damage to aircraft. All of these are great aviation-related stories, but right now PointNiner will just be sitting back and watching what happens. New Orleans is and always will be a very special town to me. I was born there, my family is from there, and I've always considered it my real home as I grew up all over the country. That's why I just want to see what happens for now. My thoughts and prayers go out to the citizens of this fine town and everyone on the Gulf Coast, whether they have evacuated or are trying to ride out the storm.

Good Luck, New Orleans and may Godspeed.

Here are a couple pics from a few months after Hurricane Katrina that I took. Hopefully, Gustav will have a bit more mercy.

That's me with a dumb look on my face at the 17th St Canal breach site.

Some tangled mess of an aircraft at Lakefront Airport.

The old Million Air hangar at Lakefront Airport.

Another view of the same hangar.

What was left of Hangar 17.

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The Big Picture Highlights Upcoming Hubble Servicing Mission

We've made it clear on PointNiner before that the Boston Globe's The Big Picture is one of our favorite blogs. Today the site released a post of pictures from NASA highlighting its upcoming Space Shuttle mission, STS-125, that will provide the Hubble telescope with its final servicing. As always, The Big Picture delivered with some superb photography to document the preparations under way with this risky mission. Set to launch next month, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will deliver critical new instruments, batteries and gyroscopes to keep Hubble alive. Click HERE to see all of the sweet shots from The Big Picture's feature on this mission. I also found the video below in the forum on The Big Picture. It's a nice trailer for what NASA will do on STS-125. Enjoy.

Photo: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
[The Big Picture]

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Guy Nearly Decapitated By Takeoff

Who's dumber, the Turbo Otter pilot taking off directly into a bunch of crap, or the guy sitting directly in his path?

[LiveLeak]

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Old 747 Becomes Jumbo Hostel

If you plan on traveling through Sweden this winter, and you're too poor like me to afford a stay at Stockholm's finest hotels, then maybe a low-cost hostel is up your alley. And what better place to stay for poor aviation buffs, than a 747 converted into a hotel? Thank goodness for guys like Oscar Diös who purchased this old Transjet 747 classic with the intention of making a place to stay for people passing through. But don't get any ideas about the mile high club here, because this old bird will be planted firmly on the ground for now on near the Arlanda airport. The aircraft is being outfitted for 25 rooms with the upper deck becoming a cafeteria. The whole 747 is being sanitized, rewired, insulated, and having a climate control system installed as the windows don't exactly slide open for a cool night's breeze. It's taken Diös two years since the time he purchased the aircraft, but bookings will finally start in December for its low cost accommodations. Here you have another case of aviation making the world a better place.



[Jumbo Hostel via Gizmodo]

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