Boeing unveils new Hypersonic Aircraft model at the AIAA SciTech aerospace forum this week

In what can be termed as a futuristic model of a reusable hypersonic aircraft, Boeing unveiled a model and an artist's rendering of the concept delta-wing jet at the AIAA SciTech aerospace forum this week. 

Representative | ArtStation

Acting as a spiritual successor to the Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird, the hypersonic concept by Boeing could, theoretically, fly at five times the speed of sound, owing to a "waverider" configuration that would see the aircraft use its own shock waves produced during flight to increase lift and reduce drag. 

Boeing X-51A Waverider | Wikipedia

Boeing has internally named the aircraft "Valkyrie II", though Boeing has yet to reveal any substantial official information, and the aircraft is very much in the concept stage.According to Aviation Week

Reportedly, the design is an evolution of concepts that were first displayed 4 years ago, with potential applications in military and commercial operations, including a space launch mothership.

Valkyrie II is an evolution of Boeing's 2018 concept, called Valkyrie, for a hypersonic commercial aircraft that could travel between London and New York in just two hours. The hypersonic concept draws comparisons to Lockheed Martin's own SR-72 project- which would be the literal successor to its SR-71 Blackbird.

SR-71 Blackbird | The National Interest

Lockheed Martin and Boeing's designs utilize a combined-cycle engine to reach speeds of Mach 3 before switching to a dual ramjet to accelerate to hypersonic speeds. Typically, Ramjets and Scramjets do not work optimally, at lower speeds and hence a  "combined cycle" concept is being studied to put into practical application. The concept would combine traditional jet turbines with ramjets or scramjets to produce highly complex viable TBCC (turbine-based combine cycle) engine arrangements, which is highly touted to be the next big leap in technology when it comes to designing viable reusable hypersonic aircraft that can take off and land using existing runway infrastructure.

It is a refined, more realistic Mach 5 reusable air-breathing design targeting military and space launch roles. Mach 5 is the accepted threshold for hypersonic speedAviation Week's Norris said on Twitter

https://twitter.com/AvWeekGuy/status/1478491208452227072?s=20

Guy Norris | @AvWeekGuy | Twitter

Boeing's interest in such designs for various applications in commercial and military operations isn't new as the last time the company toyed with a similar idea was for a supersonic design back in 1958- The Boeing B2707 touted to be the future of supersonic travel. Unfortunately, due to several obvious reasons- economics majorly and bad marketing, the project never saw the light of the day.

The annual AIAA SciTech Forum and Exposition, which commenced on the 3rd, ends today, in San Diego, California.

SOURCE(s)

COVER: WIRED

Three cabin crew personnel and a pilot failed the breath analyser test between Christmas and January 1. The four individuals belonged to different airlines. Directorate General of Civil Aviation sources stated that all the incidents were reported from the Delhi airport.

One cabin crew member failed the breath analyser detection test on Christmas, another failed the next day and the third on January 1, according to India Today Television. The pilot failed the breath analyser test on December 29 at the Delhi airport.

The civil aviation regulator revised its guidelines on breath analyser tests for the flight crew on December 20.

Three cabin crew personnel and a pilot failed the breath analyser test between Christmas and January 1.

The DGCA asked airlines to make their doctors, paramedics or emergency medical technicians conduct breath analyser tests for the crew. The regulator also asked them to conduct post-flight breath analyser tests on aircraft upon arrival.

The regulator in its order stated that low alcohol blood levels also disturb sensor-motor, visual and cortical reaction. “Consumption of alcohol results in significant deterioration of psychomotor performance and decreases the amount of mental capacity available to deal with many essential tasks involved in the conduct of the safe flight,” it had stated.

In the revised Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), the regulator mandated all scheduled airlines, operating flights originating in India to conduct tests to detect alcohol levels in the blood for all flight crew.

All the incidents were reported from the Delhi airport.

During the pandemic, authorities have been striking a balance between the need to test crew members and the risk of catching the novel coronavirus while doing so. The percentage of crew members tested has varied based on the Covid situation.

In late March 2020, aviation personnel, including pilots and cabin crew, were temporarily exempted from BA tests in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic for some time.

From Friday, January 7 fully vaccinated travellers coming to England will no longer have to take a test before they travel. And from Sunday, January 9 rather than taking a PCR test on day two of arrival, they can take a cheaper lateral flow.

The rules for self-isolating on arrival will also change. The shake-up was confirmed by Boris Johnson earlier, following calls from travel firms who said the measures were not effective now that Omicron was spreading widely.

The Omicron variant has created headaches for travellers and airlines alike. Some airlines have slashed their January schedules as a result. However, it seems as though travelling to the UK is set to get a whole lot easier as Omicron-related travel restrictions are relaxed.

Pre-departure Covid testing facility (Image Courtesy - Reuters)

Under the current rules in force until Friday, all fully-vaccinated travellers over the age of 12 must show proof of a negative test lateral flow or PCR test taken in the two days before coming to the UK. Fully vaccinated people must also pay for a PCR test within two days of arrival and self-isolate while waiting for the result.

People who aren't fully vaccinated must currently take PCR tests on both days two and day eight after arriving, and self-isolate for 10 days.

But under the new rules:

From 04:00 GMT on Friday, January 7, people who are fully vaccinated and those aged under-18 will no longer need to take a test two days before travelling to England from countries outside the UK and the Common Travel Area. On arrival, they will have to take a PCR test but they will no longer have to self-isolate while awaiting the resultFrom 04:00 GMT on Sunday, January 9, they will only have to take a lateral flow test instead of a PCR test on day two. But this test must be bought from a private test provider - free NHS tests are not allowedUnvaccinated passengers will need to continue to take a pre-departure test, PCR tests on day two and day eight, and self-isolate for 10 days

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the pre-departure test "discourages many from travelling for fear of being trapped overseas and incurring significant extra expense".

The Omicron variant has created headaches for travellers and airlines alike. (Image courtesy - CNN)

The announcement comes after airlines said passenger testing was making no real impact, with data last week suggesting one in 25 people in England had the virus. They also said compulsory testing had held back the sector's recovery.

“Good news for travellers from India to the UK - lightening of testing requirements including scrapping pre-departure test requirement,” British High Commissioner to India Alex Ellis Tweeted Thursday, January 6.

https://twitter.com/10DowningStreet/status/1478815272891039757

The official Twitter handle of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday, January 6: “From 4 am January 7, fully vaccinated adults and under 18s don’t need to take a pre-departure test before entering England. From 4 am, January 9, fully vaccinated adults and children over 5 must take a post-arrival lateral flow test. A PCR is only required if they test positive.”

“From January 11 in England, people who receive a positive lateral flow test for Covid-19 won’t be required to take a confirmatory PCR test. They should continue to self-isolate,” it added.

The Lufthansa Group has announced the resumption of Swiss International Airlines operations to Mumbai from international destinations starting from January 10 under the Air Bubble agreement.

In a statement, the Lufthansa Group said that it is resuming Lufthansa flights between Delhi and Munich from January 18, 2022. Lufthansa has also increased Lufthansa frequencies to Frankfurt from India until January 31, 2022. 

Lufthansa resumes flights from India to Switzerland and Germany

As per the announcement, Swiss International Airline has scheduled LX154, from Zurich, Switzerland to Mumbai, India every Monday and Wednesday starting 10 January 2022 and the return flight LX155 from Mumbai to Zurich will be operated on every Wednesday and Friday effective from 12 January 2022.

Flight NoDepartureDep. TimeArrivalArr. TimeFreq.Start DateLX154Zurich20:20Mumbai09:05 +1Mon, Wed10th Jan 22LX155Mumbai01:30Zurich06:20Wed, Fri12th Jan 22

The announcement about the flights came after India and Switzerland signed an air bubble pact earlier this month. The agreement permits both countries to operate a specific number of flights in the wake of Covid-19 curbs across the world.

Lufthansa has also announced its flights between India and Germany. As per the updates, the airline will connect Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru with Munich and Frankfurt with special flights operated under air bubble arrangements.

Flights to India:

Flight No.DepartureDep. TimeArrivalArr. TimeDays of Dep.LH762Munich12:15Delhi00:10 +1Tue, Thu (18th- 31st Jan)LH762Munich16:25Delhi04:20 +1Sun (23rd- 31st Jan)LH760Frankfurt13:15Delhi01:30 +1Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri, SatLH756Frankfurt12:10Mumbai01:00 +1Wed, Fri, Sun (01st-16th Jan)LH756Frankfurt12:10Mumbai01:00 +1Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun (17-31 Jan)LH754Frankfurt12:50Bengaluru01:55 +1Tue, Fri

The airline said that the air tickets can be purchased via Travel Portals or swiss.com/Lufthansa.com. Moreover, the air passengers need to ensure that they strictly observe the passenger eligibility criteria for these flights at the time of booking.

Flights from India:

Flight No.DepartureDep. TimeArrivalArr. TimeDays of Dep.LX155Mumbai01:30Zurich06:20Wed, Fri (12th-31st Jan)LH763Delhi01:50Munich05:45Wed, Fri (19th-31st Jan)LH763Delhi06:00Munich09:55Mon (24th-31st Jan)LH761Delhi03:35Frankfurt07:45Tue, Thu, Fri, Sat, SunLH757Mumbai02:55Frankfurt07:50Mon, Thu, Sat (1st-15th Jan)LH757Mumbai02:55Frankfurt07:50Mon, Tue, Thu, Sat, Sun (17-31st Jan)LH755Bengaluru03:35Frankfurt09:00Mon, Fri

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had on December 1 decided not to resume scheduled international flights from December 15, less than a week after announcing that it would restart the services. However, this suspension won’t apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by DGCA.

Notably, the scheduled international passenger services have been suspended in India since March 23, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic. But special international flights have been operating under the Vande Bharat Mission since May 2020 and under bilateral “air bubble” arrangements with selected countries since July 2020.

The announcement about the flights came after India and Switzerland signed an air bubble pact earlier this month.

So far, India has formed air bubble pacts with around 32 countries including Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Canada, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mauritius, Maldives, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Russia, Seychelles, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Tanzania, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom (UK), United Arab Emirates (UAE), Uzbekistan and the United States of America (USA).

Under an air bubble pact between two countries, special international flights can be operated by their airlines between their territories.

Lufthansa, Germany’s leading airline, also holds Europe’s Leading Airline position for 2020 and has previously been a leading airline for the 27-nation-bloc for six constructive years (2011 to 2016).

Moreover, Lufthansa has been a leading air company in Europe 11 times, leaving behind Swiss-based airlines (Swiss International airlines with five first positions and Swiss Air with five constructive leading spots from1997 to 2001). In addition, British Airways, which is the EU’s leading airline for 2021, holds three top spots. Honourable mentions are Turkish Airways and KLM, with the latter’s leading position being in 2010.

The value and demand for safe airlines have grown more than ever before. There has been a significant drop in air travel around the world as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. This slump is likely to continue in 2022, with the Omicron variant wreaking havoc in most countries.

As a result, Covid-19 protocols have become a major indicator in determining an airline's safety, alongside factors such as aircraft age, crashes, and serious incidents. This is reflected in some significant changes in AirlineRatings.com's list of the world's safest airlines for 2022, an airline safety and product review website.

Air New Zealand named as the world's safest airline for 2022

Air New Zealand was named the safest airline in the world by the website, which monitored 385 airlines from around the world.

“Air New Zealand is a stand-out airline with a firm focus on safety and its customers and over the past 18 months, COVID-19 has brought another new dimension to the challenges the industry faces.Air New Zealand has excelled across the broad safety spectrum never losing sight of the smallest detail while caring for its flight crews who have worked under significant stress.All airlines have incidents every day and many are aircraft manufacture issues, not airline operational problems. It is the way the flight crew handles incidents that determines a good airline from an unsafe one."Geoffrey Thomas, Editor-in-Chief, AirlineRatings.com

“Throughout the pandemic, the whole Air New Zealand team has been focused on protecting the health and safety of our people, customers, and the wider New Zealand community. We were the first airline in the world to ask our customers flying on our domestic services to either be vaccinated or tested before boarding and come 1 February, will require all customers on our international services to be fully vaccinated too.”Greg Foran, CEO, Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand is followed by Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways to occupy second and third positions respectively.

Qantas, which held the title of the world’s safest airline from 2014 to 2017 and from 2019 to 2021, has slipped to the seventh position due to an incident at Perth airport in 2018. “The report into that complex and serious incident was not issued till late 2020, and too late to be included in our 2021 safety rankings,” the rating portal noted.

Here’s the list of the top 20 safest airlines in the world

1. Air New Zealand

2. Etihad Airways

3. Qatar Airways

4. Singapore Airlines

5. TAP Air Portugal

6. SAS

7. Qantas

8. Alaska Airlines

9. EVA Air

10. Virgin Australia/Atlantic

11. Cathay Pacific Airways

12. Hawaiian Airlines

13. American Airlines

14. Lufthansa/Swiss Group

15. Finnair

16. Air France/KLM Group

17. British Airways

18. Delta Air Lines

19. United Airlines

20. Emirates

AirLineRatings.com also identified the world’s top 10 safest low-cost airlines. In alphabetical order, they are Allegiant, Easyjet, Frontier, Jetstar Group, Jetblue, Ryanair, Vietjet, Volaris, Westjet and Wizz.

Factors like incident records over the past two years, crash records over the past five years, results of audits conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation have been considered to decide the top 10 safest low-cost airlines.

Ireland's Ryan Air comes in the world’s top 10 safest low-cost airlines.

According to Thomas, when it came to safety incidents, the editors only looked at ones in making its determination.

AirlineRatings was launched in June 2013 and rates the safety and in-flight product of 385 airlines using its unique seven-star rating system. It has been used by millions of passengers from 195 countries and has become the industry standard for safety, product and COVID-19 rating.

Jet Airways acting CEO Sudhir Gaur has stepped down from the role on January 5, ahead of the domestic relaunch in the first quarter of 2022. He will be replaced by Captain PP Singh, former senior VP, Operations at JetLite.

Captain P P Singh was one of the senior-most pilots in JetLite. He has almost 20,000 hours of flying hours collectively on three types of aircraft — Boeing 737, Airbus A330 and A340 — and is an examiner on them.

After Jet shut down in April 2019, Captain Singh joined Nepal Airlines as chief pilot and head of training and standards. People in the know say he has resigned from Nepal Airlines and will join Jet 2.0 after the notice period is over.

The private airliner is set to make a comeback after a resolution plan was approved in 2021 to resume operations in 2022, almost two years after it was grounded in April 2019 due to a financial crisis.

Earlier on September 13, 2021, the Jalan Kalrock Consortium had said that it will restart operations with a New Delhi to Mumbai flight. The Consortium had said that it aims to restart short-haul international operations by Q3 or Q4 2022.

While Gaur’s resignation is seen as yet another setback to the virtually stalled revival plan, the news of Captain P P Singh coming in has given a faint ray of hope to some ex-employees from an operational readiness perspective.

A full-service airline, Jet Airways ruled the Indian aviation market till the early years of the past decade before it abruptly shut down operations in April 2019.

Jet stated that Captain Gaur who “recently resigned” was employed in July 2021 as VP of Operations and for purposes of the requirements under civil aviation laws and regulations, as the Accountable Manager of the company. According to the resolution plan approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the day-to-day operations and management of the airline are being carried out by the monitoring committee until the closing date as defined in the plan.

Murari Lal Jalan, lead member of the consortium and proposed promoter and Non-Executive Chairman of Jet Airways said: “We are excited to embark on the next phase of the revival of India’s most loved Airline. We at JKC await the Hon’ble NCLT’s decision on our last filing and look forward to recommencing operations of Jet Airways at the earliest.”

In the revival plan, Jalan had said that they plan to have more than 50 aircraft in three years and over 100 in five years. The Kalrock-Jalan resolution plan had been approved by the NCLT on June 22, 2021. The Mumbai bench of the NCLT had given the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MCA) 90 days from June 22 to allot slots to Jet Airways.

A full-service airline, Jet Airways ruled the Indian aviation market till the early years of the past decade before it abruptly shut down operations in April 2019. It has been trying to take wings again under new management headed by the Jalan Kalrock Consortium.