Boeing to slack output, sees 19000 lost jobs!

With the Coronavirus impinging the entire aviation industry, Boeing Inc. delayed the debut of its novice aircraft and slackened its production as the company burned more cash.
The company intends to lacerate its commercial aircraft and service business with total job losses reaching 19000 this year which is 3000 more than it said before.

Apart from that, the new Boeing 777X aircraft won't carry passengers until 2022 instead of next year.
Unfortunately, Boeing again had to defer its production plans for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner as a saturated market left the company with a stockpile of undelivered jets.

As a consequence of reduction of manufacturing rates, Boeing is thinking on the terms of consolidating the assembly at a single site instead of building the model in Washington state and South Carolina.
Moreover, executives are trying to resize operations for a market slashed by the pandemic.

What ameliorates the worries of Boeing Inc. is the grounding of its best selling jet: The Boeing 737MAX.

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Check out here to find out why Boeing 737MAX was grounded: The-Real-Reason-why-Boeing-737MAX-crashed

Nevertheless, Boeing will also ramp up work at its 737 Max factory more gradually than initially planned due to the virus.

"This is a true business transformation effort," Chief Financial Officer Greg Smith said on a call with analysts to discuss Boeing's earnings.

With such impacts on Boeing, its shares fell 3% to $165.68 at 12:45 p.m. in New York, the biggest drop on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Boeing tumbled 48% this year through Tuesday, also the most on the Dow.

Although the analyst had predicted a drain of $6.57 billion as the company cut costs and slowed work on key aircraft programs to save cash while demand crumbled, the company saw a loss of $5.63 billion in the second quarter.
Investors had braced for an awful quarter after Boeing delivered just 20 commercial jets in the three-month period, down from 149 a year earlier.
Sales plunged 25% to $11.8 billion, compared with the $13 billion average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Total debt soared to $61.4 billion from $38.9 billion at the end of the first quarter.

Ultimately, their best bet is the 737MAX and they are making progress toward certifying the 737 Max, which in normal times would be the company's biggest cash generator.
But the virus has further delayed Boeing's plans to gain regulatory approval to return the jet to service, a milestone anticipated for later this year.

"Not only do you have to get the Max through certification -- and I feel like they're well on their way -- but they have to shepherd a bunch of airlines through taking deliveries," Ferguson said in an interview.

SpiceJet to Lease Hi-Fly Airbus A330NEO for repatriating operations!

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Indian low cost airline SpiceJet announced on 27th July about its plans to lease a Hi-Fly Airbus A330NEO for repatriating Indian nationals stranded in Europe.

According to a tweet released by the airline, the charter flight will be SpiceJet’s first long-haul flight and will depart from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) on August 1.

The flight will be a wet lease charter which means that the Portuguese operator's crew will fly it on behalf of SpiceJet.
The flight is supposed to depart from Amsterdam at 14:30 hours and arrive at Bengaluru at 03:00 hours the following day. It will then fly on to Hyderabad, arriving at 05:30 hours.

A spokesperson for the airline said:
“This A330-900 can do India-US non-stop. We plan to utilize it initially for charters to wherever the demand is for.
Later it may be used for scheduled flights under the travel bubbles India is forming with some countries.
That is an option. For now, it will be used for charters that can be booked by any organization or NGO.”

Although given the current circumstances, SpiceJet is operating for bring back stranded Indian nationals, it is intended to offer low-cost flights to Europe and North America in the future.

Nevertheless, SpiceJet has been granted persmission to fly to the United States and the United Kingdom last week and looks forward to perform repatriating operations starting 1st August.

Aviation Fact-5: You don't need both engines to fly!

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You're flying in an aircraft cruising at 36000ft, enjoying the services provided to you by the airline and looking at the mesmerizing views of nature from the aircraft.

Suddenly, you hear a huge bang and intense vibrations begin to occur. Few minutes after, you come to realize that an engine has failed.

Although anyone would be appalled from this frightening situation, but here's a thing to contemplate before freaking out:

Firstly, the passengers must have faith in their pilots. Pilots are appropriately trained to handle such situations and have undergone extensive sessions and tests involving convoluted actions from them.

All pilots are taught to abide by rudimentary aviation rules regardless of the severity of any airborne event. This includes the following three acronyms - Aviate, Navigate, Communicate.

The gist of this is to ensure that pilots prioritize flying the aircraft first, ensuring its full controllability (Aviate) before verifying or correcting its navigational path.

Once the pilots ascertain the controllability of the aircraft, they can go for the next step i.e. Navigate followed by communicating the relevant information to the concerned personnel in this case the Air Traffic Control.
It is their successful completion of such sessions and rigorous tests, when they receive their licenses and certifications.

Secondly, engineers have made sure that all airplanes are designed in such a way that even if one engine fails, the airplane can still operate safely which is the crux of this article.
Yes, that's true! In-fact, it can even continue the take-off and then safely land with just one engine.

Although, when operating with half the engine power, it can make the airplane less-fuel efficient and reduce its range effectively, they are designed and tested for such critical situations.

Apart from that any aircraft which is intended to fly on long-haul routes, especially those that fly over oceans or through uninhabited areas like the Arctic must be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for Extended-Range Twin Operations (ETOPS) which basically tells how far an aircraft can fly with one engine operative.
For example, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is certified for ETOPS-330. This signifies that Boeing 787 can fly for 330 minutes which is effectively five and a half hours with just one engine.
In informal aviation circles, ETOPS means “Engines Turn Or Passengers Swim”.

Nevertheless, there have been instances where-in all engines failed and still the plane was able to land safely.
So next time when you're flying in an aircraft just trust the engineers and pilots!

Emirates A380 returns to skies!

After a crucial 4 month span, when in the month of March Emirates was forced to ground its entire fleet of 115 Airbus A380s, it finally made a comeback and have returned to the skies.
Flight EK001 took off from Dubai International Airport for London Heathrow on Wednesday at 7:45A.M, closely followed by EK073 at 8:20A.M, bound for Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris.

Interestingly, EK073 received a warm welcome in Paris Charles De Gaulle on occasion of commencement of operating the first A380 since the Coronavirus pandemic began.

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Emirates although grounded its entire fleet in late March, some flights were resumed on 6th April. Typically the Boeing 777s took the skies while Airbus A380s still remained grounded.

And now Emirates has unveiled plans to deploy its iconic Airbus A380 on its quotidian Amsterdam service, and add a second quotidian A380 service to London Heathrow starting from 1st August, 2020.

Apart from that, the airline resumed regular flights from Dubai to seven additional cities namely Athens, Barcelona, Geneva, Glasgow, Larnaca, Munich and Rome.
Today, the airline will resume flights to Malé and Washington DC, whilst Brussels flights will recommence tomorrow i.e. 17 July.

A noteworthy point was made by Emirates stating that travellers will only be accepted on flights if they comply with the eligibility and entry criteria requirements of their destination countries.
Also before buying a ticket, passengers should check they have whatever insurance they need, and also verify very carefully with the relevant authorities for all the latest required regulations of not only their final destination, but also the airport they will fly from, return to, and any they may need to transit in.

What are your opinions regarding this commencement by Emirates? Also, what other points a passenger must contemplate for ensuring his/her safety as well as implementation of standard protocol amid this pandemic?
Would love to know in the comments!

Air France Boeing 777-300 returns to Réunion due to smoke in cockpit

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Air France Boeing 777-300 had to turn around and head back to Réunion after the crew reported smoke in the cockpit.

This event occured on Saturday 11th July when the flight was heading from Saint-Denis de La Réunion to Paris Charles de Gaulle.
With 468 souls on board, Air France flight AF671 fortunately landed back safely in Réunion at 4:45 hours after departure, and ultimately the flight was deferred until the next day.

The flight was en route to Paris when at an altitude of 32000ft and about 1,160 nautical miles northeast of Réunion, the issue came into picture.
The plane had no choice but to turn around and head back to its origin. Local media reported that the crew had reported smoke in the cockpit.

The plane was able to land in Réunion safely, and the flight was postponed for 24 hours.
The airline reported that the plane returned due to a technical problem, but no further information has been released.

Nevertheless, smoke can be fatal especially when it comes from the cockpit. It is usually the electrical failure or typical short circuits which lead to such events.
Moreover, the cause of the smoke has the ability to vandalize vital systems and instruments. If this happens there is absolutely no way of going back.

Air France flight AF671 was lucky enough to get out of this situation by taking corrective actions at the right time.

What are your opinions on this incident? Would love to know in the comments!

The real reason why Boeing 737MAX crashed! Engine Placement and MCAS explained!

March 2019, the time when Boeing's fast selling aircraft; the 737MAX was grounded owing to two catastrophic crashes killing over 346 souls.
These crashes were not merely due to any pilot errors or miscommunication. The real reason behind them involves far more convoluted details.

In order to understand the real reason of these crashes, it is necessary to roll back in time (in 2010) when Airbus was planning to upgrade their A320 aircraft.
Jet fuel is expensive and is one of the major contributing factors in terms of cost incurred to the airline.
Thus, improving fuel efficiency is one aspect which the aircraft manufacturers look forward to and make it their unique selling point.
This was the case with Airbus back in 2010. Therefore, Airbus came out with an updated version of the A320 family which came to be known as A320 NEO where NEO stands for "New Engine Option".

The updated version - Airbus installed new engines which had a larger diameter compared to its predecessors thus improving the fuel efficiency of the aircraft by 15%.
Interestingly, the engines could be installed on what was basically the same airframe because the ground clearance was sufficient enough to accommodate an engine with a larger diameter.

As a result airliners switched to buying A320 NEO airplanes more than any variant of Boeing 737.
Therefore, Boeing was forced to do some similar modifications to its single-aisle 737 as well to give competition. But there was a problem!
Unlike the Airbus A320, the ground clearance of Boeing 737 was much smaller. As a result, incorporating an engine of a larger diameter was not feasible.
The possible solution for incorporating a larger diameter engine would be to jack up the aircraft, but that will involve huge costs which Boeing did not wanted to incur.
Moreover, this process would also reduce the commonality with its current fleet which in-turn will result in high costs incurred by the airlines.

Nevertheless, in a March 2011 interview with Aircraft Technology, Mike Bair, then the head of 737 product development, said that re-engineering was possible.
“There’s been fairly extensive engineering work on it,” he said. “We figured out a way to get a big enough engine under the wing.”

So the engineers mounted the engines of larger diameter by installing them at a higher vertical level compared to its predecessors and shifted the engine in the forward direction.
By doing so, the aerodynamics of the aircraft changed significantly compared to the previous ones.

The problems associated with this modification:

1. Because of shift in the placement of engines in vertical direction, the thrust centreline changed as well.
2. Also because of this shift of engine nacelle in the front direction, when the power was increased, it resulted in lift generation by the engine nacelles as well particularly at high angle of attack.

As a consequence, the engines started developing a pitch up moment (clockwise direction), and allowed the 737MAX aircraft at an angle of attack to go to an even higher angle of attack.

Although the correct step here for Boeing would be to modify the airframe so as to compensate for the this erratic pitch up behavior, they in-turn decided to develop a system which could bring the nose back to level position as the former step would again have involved huge costs.
So, Boeing decided to create what is known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) which would certainly have been less expensive.

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Function of MCAS?
MCAS is responsible for pushing the nose of the plane down when the system thinks that the aircraft might exceed the critical angle of attack and go in what is known as aerodynamic stall (sudden loss of lift).
So it commands the aircraft's trim system to lower the nose as well as pushes the pilot's control columns (these are the things which helps pilot control the aircraft manually).

The MCAS is directly connected to what is called as the Angle-Of-Attack (AOA) Sensor which is responsible for giving pilots the information regarding what angle of attack the aircraft is flying at.

In both the crashes, it was first the angle of attack sensor which gave wrong readings (due to in-servisibility) to the MCAS. The system when it senses a reasonably high angle of attack prompted the aircraft to nose down along with pushing the control columns forward.
This resulted in plane going in a nose dive and since it achieved high velocities as a consequence, the pressure on the control surface (elevator) was too large which was nearly impossible for the pilots to overcome it by taking manual control.

But this manual control in the first place can be gained only when the pilot knows how to disengage the MCAS.
It was found out that pilots were not given any information that the new 737MAX incorporated a MCAS.
Apart from that even though the AOA sensor was faulty, the MCAS system too had numerous errors in its algorithm.

A potential solution could have been the pilots taking over the plane when AOA sensor gives faulty readings and keep MCAS as a redundant system instead of AOA sensor directly reporting to the MCAS.

In conclusion, had the AOA sensors were serviced along with the pilots having the knowledge on MCAS and how to disengage in case it activates, the situation would have been much different.
It is these chain of events which contributes to a bigger event.

Vistara to delay some of its aircraft deliveries!

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Indian airline - Vistara is in talks with the planemakers and leasing companies to delay some of its aircraft deliveries taking into consideration the current market situation and production delays.

Vistara had placed an order for 13 A320-neo family aircraft from Airbus in 2018 and would take another 37 Airbus planes from leasing companies - all due for delivery between 2019 and 2023.

Apart from that, it also has six Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner widebody planes on order, primarily for international flights, due to be delivered in 2020 and 2021.

"We are looking to see how we can push back some of the deliveries not just because of the delays in production but also from a commercial perspective," said Vinod Kannan (Chief Commercial Officer).

Due to current restrictions imposed as a result of covid-19 pandemic, the airline is flying only a handful of routes with around 1/3rd of its fleet (around 13 aircraft out of 41).
Moreover, Vistara is seeing an average of 50-60% passenger load since domestic flights resumed.
With restrictions imposed on international flights, Vistara has been unable to deploy its brand-new Dreamliner on any long-haul routes, rather uses it a few times for high-demand domestic flights.

As a consequence of pandemic, Vistara has significantly scaled back the number of planes it will add to its fleet.
Nevertheless, the airline will add three more aircraft to their fleet (one 787 dreamliner and two A320s) this year.

The precarious nature of covid-19 pandemic has ultimately put the airline's long term goals on hold.
The airline planned to double its international destinations this year and induct a large mix of widebodies and narrowbodies.
The delay could mean current aircraft deliveries extend into 2024.

What are your opinions on Vistara's delayed aircraft deliveries? Would love to know in the comments!