Air New Zealand is going to be paying $666 per head for fifty bald, frequent flying heads willing to temporarily tattoo speedy check-in promotions on their shaved heads. The concept is appropriately called “cranial billboard.
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Third NTSB Investigative Update on Boeing 787 Battery Fire in Boston
January 20, 2013
WASHINGTON – The National Transportation Safety Board today released a third update on its investigation into the Jan. 7 fire aboard a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 at Logan International Airport in Boston.The lithium-ion battery that powered the auxiliary power unit has been examined in the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington. The battery was x-rayed and CT scans were generated of the assembled battery. The investigative team has disassembled the APU battery into its eight individual cells for detailed examination and documentation. Three of the cells were selected for more detailed radiographic examination to view the interior of the cells prior to their disassembly. These cells are in the process now of being disassembled and the cell’s internal components are being examined and documented.
Investigators have also examined several other components removed from the airplane, including wire bundles and battery management circuit boards. The team has developed test plans for the various components removed from the aircraft, including the battery management unit (for the APU battery), the APU controller, the battery charger and the start power unit. On Tuesday, the group will convene in Arizona to test and examine the battery charger and download nonvolatile memory from the APU controller. Several other components have been sent for download or examination to Boeing’s facility in Seattle and manufacturer’s facilities in Japan.
Finally, examination of the flight recorder data from the JAL B-787 airplane indicate that the APU battery did not exceed its designed voltage of 32 volts.
In accordance with international investigative treaties, the Japan Transport Safety Board and French Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile have appointed accredited representatives to this investigation. Similarly, the NTSB has assigned an accredited representative to assist with the JTSB’s investigation of the Jan. 15 battery incident involving an All Nippon Airways B-787. Both investigations remain ongoing.
Virginia, NASA keep eyes on skies for air quality
Virginia, NASA keep eyes on skies for air qualityHAMPTON, Va. – Air quality in the skies above Hampton Roads will be monitored daily under a new partnership between NASA’s Langley Research Center and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
The agreement relocates the state agency’s air-quality measurement operation to Langley following closure of the Hampton organization where it had been located, the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind. The DEQ’s new site is expected to open in May, said Margaret Pippin, the scientist coordinating the move at Langley.
“This site will bring together the partnership of NASA, DEQ, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a coordinated effort to assess the relationship between space-based observations and surface observations of air quality,” Pippin said.
The federal and state agencies are both interested in generating a comprehensive data record of pollution from industrial processes and vehicles.
The DEQ station will be located at Langley’s Chemistry and Physics of the Boundary Layer Experiment site (CAPABLE), which will measure ozone and nitrogen dioxide. The DEQ will measure ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter.
The partnership will be mutually beneficial, said Pippin. The DEQ will have a bigger pool of data and a larger location to add to its statewide network of air-quality monitoring sites. And NASA scientists will be able to use the combined measurements to enhance a future satellite mission to measure air quality from space.
Since the early 1970s, the DEQ has worked with the EPA to uphold the standards of U.S. Clean Air Act. That includes taking widespread air quality measurements in Virginia and keeping a data record.
NASA Langley’s Science Directorate has a legacy in atmospheric science as well, leading early discoveries about the ozone hole and improving knowledge of human-created pollution on air quality and the atmosphere.
Last week at the new Langley site, NASA and DEQ began monitoring what the U.S. EPA calls “criteria pollutants.” These are the emissions from factories, power plants and cars that can damage human health, plants, the environment and infrastructure. They include ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and other airborne particulates.“For NASA Langley and the DEQ, I see this as a win-win situation where we can work together, share air-quality data and monitoring information and learn from each other,” said Tom Jennings of the DEQ Office of Air Quality Monitoring.
The DEQ’s transition to Langley will occur over the next two months and result in two identical environmental shelters positioned in a mirror image to one another – one for NASA’s instruments and the other for DEQ’s.The partnership was formalized in what is called a Space Act Agreement, which was signed last week. The agreement calls for a five-year partnership at the Langley site.
FAA Orders Inspections for Boeing 767 Pylons
July 21 – The FAA is ordering U.S. operators of 138 Boeing 767 airplanes to reduce the initial pylon inspection time mandated in a September 22, 2005 Airworthiness Directive from 10,000 to 8,000 total flights. This inspection must be done within 400 flights after the most recent inspection required by the 2005 directive, or within 90 days, whichever occurs later.The FAA is also reducing the interval for repetitive inspections for cracking of the pylon midspar structural fittings and an adjacent structure from 1,500 to every 400 flights thereafter. There is also an option for replacing the fittings instead of conducting the inspections.
Since the 2005 Airworthiness Directive (AD), the FAA has received two reports of cracking of the midspar structural fitting on Boeing 767 pylons. The pylon attaches the engine to the wing. Undetected cracking could lead to fracture of the structural components, damage to the pylon, and separation of the engine from the wing.
The Immediately Adopted AD affects 138 U.S.-registered airplanes out of 314 worldwide. The total cost to U.S. operators is approximately $46,920. The AD affects only those 767 models that have the original pylon design. Boeing has improved the design of the 767 pylon and those aircraft with the improved pylon designs are not included in this AD.