Portal:Aviation
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The Aviation Portal
Aviation, or air transport, refers to the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, parachutes, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as balloons and airships. Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal; then a largest step in significance came with the construction of the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized with the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world.
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jetBlue flight 292, an Airbus A320, as it makes an emergency landing at LAX on Wednesday 9/21 after the front landing gear malfunctioned.
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Elizabeth Muriel Gregory "Elsie" MacGill (27 March 1905 – 4 November 1980), known as the Queen of the Hurricanes, was the world's first female aircraft designer. She worked as an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War and did much to make Canada a powerhouse of airplane construction during her years at Canada Car and Foundry (CC&F) in Fort William, Ontario. After her work at CC&F she ran a successful consulting business. Between 1967–1970 she was a commissioner on the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada, published in 1970.
Did you know
...that the Soviet spotter aircraft Sukhoi Su-12, though approved, was never produced due to lack of manufacturing capacity in the USSR?
...that Garuda Indonesia flight 152 was the deadliest air disaster of 1997, claiming the lives of over 230 people?
...that François Denhaut built the world's first flying boat, or seaplane with a hull?
Aviation News
- January 7: 'Suspicious' package closes half of Washington Dulles Airport terminal
- December 20: 'Unacceptable' and 'without foundation': Poland rejects Russian air crash report
- December 19: Major snow disruption in Britain; Wikinews reports from affected village
- December 3: 'Critical safety issue' with A380 engines
- November 27: Qantas says A380 aircraft are safe to fly after 'serious' incident
Today in Aviation
- 1990 - Avianca Flight 52, a Boeing 707 crashes in the town of Cove Neck, New York, due to fuel exhaustion and pilot error.
- 1930 - American Airways is formed.
Selected Aircraft
The de Havilland Canada DHC-8, popularly the Dash 8, is a series of twin-turboprop airliners designed by de Havilland Canada in the early 1980s. They are now made by Bombardier Aerospace which purchased DHC from Boeing in 1992. Since 1996 the aircraft have been known as the Q Series, for "quiet", due to installation of the Active Noise and Vibration Suppression (ANVS) system designed to reduce cabin noise and vibration levels to near those of jet airliners.
Notable features of the Dash 8 design are the large T-tail intended to keep the tail free of propwash during takeoff, a very high aspect ratio wing, the elongated engine nacelles also holding the rearward-folding landing gear, and the pointed nose profile. First flight was in 1983, and the plane entered service in 1984 with NorOntair. Piedmont Airlines (formerly Henson Airlines) was the US launch customer for the Dash 8 in 1984.
The Dash 8 design had better cruise performance than the earlier Dash 7, but was less expensive to operate, and more notably, much less expensive to maintain. The Dash 8 had the lowest costs per passenger mile of any feederliner of the era. The only disadvantage compared to the earlier Dash 7 was somewhat higher noise levels, but only in comparison as the Dash 7 was notable in the industry for extremely low noise due to its four very large and slow-turning propellers.
- Length: 107 ft 9 in (32.84 m)
- Wingspan: 93 ft 3 in (32.84 m)
- Height: 27 ft 5 in (8.34 m)
- Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150A turboprops, 5,071 shp (3,781 kW) each
- Cruise speed: 360 knots (414 mph, 667 km/h)
- Maiden Flight: June 20, 1983
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