Single pilot operations to take over passenger and cargo flights alike

The first two waves of the Covid-19 pandemic proved to be extremely detrimental for air travel as demands hit an all-time low, both domestic and international. However, what remained resilient though was the cargo segment.

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Repeated lockdowns with major restrictions on public movements triggered a newfound love for online buying which, in turn, kindled an increased need for air cargo transportation. The movement of Covid-19 vaccines, medicines and other related essentials catapulted the need furthermore.

Therefore, with the scare of a possible third-wave still looming, it comes as no surprise, that the trend will continue to grow, except for now, it just might be piloted by a single pilot as opposed to the general norm of two. And it might not be limited to cargo-only flights as efforts are on to introduce single-pilot passenger flights too.

The Covid 19 pandemic, coupled with delays of transportation via water, has further bolstered the need for air cargo transport. This has brought the two aerospace giants, Airbus and Boeing, toe to toe with each other yet again, with each trying to put their best foot forward at addressing industrial needs.

Airbus had just launched the highly anticipated freighter version of the A350 at the very recent Dubai Airshow 2021.Air Lease Corporation, ALC, managed to place a 7 aircraft order with the company.It is touted to be the second-largest twin-engine cargo plane upon successful completion.

In direct competition is the freighter version of B777-300ER. Also dubbed as the "Big Twin", it is currently in development with Israel Aerospace Industries. (IAI).

B777-300 ER "Big Twin" | The GE Aviation Blog

The Dubai Airshow also witnessed the launch of the much anticipated Boeing B777-9, the first in the B777X series. Additionally, the company also has plans of unveiling the freighter version of B777X, which is currently put on hold as the company is focussing on getting the other models certified. Once B777-9 enters commercial service, it will be the world's largest twin-engine passenger aircraft.

B777-9 at Dubai Airshow 2021 | Airline Geeks

Reportedly, shipping costs have gotten worse to the point where certain companies have even resorted to chartering aircraft for cargo transportation, shelling up to $2 million and more for single flights.

Although single-pilot programs aren't new to private aviation and cargo transportation, it relatively is an entirely new concept for aircrafts such as the A350.

Airbus A350-900 | International Flight Network

Having said that, the A350 is a highly automated aircraft with state of the art avionics and technology. Hence Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury believes the A350 is an apt candidate for single-pilot operations.

Airbus has been working on the "single-pilot" program for quite a while now and studies are still ongoing to determine its overall efficacy.

The program would see only one pilot in the cockpit during the cruise phase and for monitoring the aircraft although both members would be present during the critical phases of landing and take-off.

Long-haul aircraft like these have dedicated rest areas or cabin(s) outside the flight deck, something which the passengers are oblivious to, and where the crew can take periodic rests.

Air cargo is one realm where experts believe, can the implementation of single-pilot be made easily owing to comparatively less paperwork and exemptions can be easily had.

Cargo is, to some extent, an easier first place to deploy this because you can get exemptions and work with the regulator to start flying initially over unpopulated areas. That way you're not just putting anyone on board in jeopardy, but you're also not putting anyone on the ground at riskMarc Piette, chief executive officer of autonomous aircraft startup Xwing,

Did you know? Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific and European Airbus have initiated Project Connect, where a minimum number of cockpit crew members (2 pilots) are required to fly a long-haul aircraft. This reduced cockpit crew member capacity will replace the existing capacity of 3-4 pilots present on all long-haul flights. Project Connect will give the liberty of only 1 pilot to be present in the cockpit in rotation. When one pilot breaks for rest, the other can take the former’s place in the cockpit.

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The Tata Group is devising a 100-day plan for Air India to improve the airline's operational and service standards under the supervision of an expatriate CEO, with former Delta president Fred Reid emerging as the frontrunner among the shortlisted candidates.

The group aims to improve on-time performance, as well as issues related to passenger complaints and call centres, as part of the 100-day plan for the national carrier it is set to take over from the government.

"As part of the 100-day plan, the aim is to improve basic service standards. While these issues cannot be improved completely during the first 100 days, improvements can happen. Also, these numbers (on-time performance, passenger complaints, etc.) are reported monthly, and any improvement will be for everyone to see," a source told ET.

The Tata Group said it would not comment on the matter. "The Air India share-purchase transaction is currently underway. We are working with the government of India to complete the process. We will refrain from commenting on any speculation till such time the deal is concluded," the Tata Group said in an emailed response to ET's questions.

The Tata Group, through wholly-owned subsidiary Talace Pvt Ltd, won a bid to acquire the entire stake in Air India, its low-cost subsidiary Air India Express and a 50% holding in ground-handling company AISATS.

The government plans to transfer Air India to the group by the third week of January. According to data for October released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Air India was the third-highest in terms of passenger complaints. It also operated the lowest number of flights on time among carriers in India.

The Tata Group is learned to have shortlisted a few candidates to lead the airline as its CEO, and Reid is the favourite among the shortlisted candidates, the person cited earlier said.

While the Tata Group has stakes in two joint-venture airlines - Vistara and AirAsia India - the person said the group doesn't have any aviation expertise on its own.

"It was always clear that an expat CEO will be brought in to implement the integration of Air India and prepare its plans. Reid has been shortlisted for the job," the person added.

The group's choice to enlist an expatriate to pilot the privatised airline should be seen in the context of the flagship carrier competing with fresh vigour under the new ownership against global airlines.

The main battleground will be increasing market share on international routes, so an expatriate with extensive international aviation experience would be ideal to lead the charge.

Reid is a civil aviation industry veteran who has served as the president of Delta Airlines and as the CEO of Virgin America. He was previously with Airbnb and is now the president of Surf Air Mobility, based in California, United States.

Separately, the Tata Group intends to complete the purchase of AirAsia Berhad's remaining 16% stake in AirAsia India before the government transfers Air India to the group.

(With Inputs from Th Economic Times)

Maharashtra's town planning authority, CIDCO, has obtained a blanket NOC from the Airport Authority of India (AAI) regarding the permissible heights for the buildings in the rehabilitation area of 2015, which it said will accelerate the development of the Navi Mumbai international airport (NMIA) rehabilitation and resettlement area.

The validity of the said NOC lapsed in the year 2020. Therefore, the applicants seeking development permissions and occupancy certificates had to approach individually the AAI for getting the No Objection Certificates, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) said in a release.

The blanket NOC has been granted for five of the six pockets namely sector-1 (Vadghar), sector 24 (Vahal 1), Sector 25 (Vahal 2), Sector 25A (Vahal 3), and Pushpak Nagar till January to March 2024.

Efforts are underway to extend the validity of remaining NOCs for the R-1 to R-5 (Vadghar 1) area, it said.

After this extension was granted, in October–November 2021, the CIDCO has granted seven development permissions and issued 34 Occupancy Certificates in R&R pockets, as per the release.

“In view of the CIDCO's continuous efforts and understanding of the problems of the project-affected people, No Objection Certificates were revalidated by the Airports Authority of India for 5 out of 6 pockets. This important decision will accelerate the development of the airport rehabilitation and resettlement area."Sanjay Mukherjee, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, CIDCO

The Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations (UDCPRs) are applicable for the CIDCO area. CIDCO had requested to permit row housing and semi-detached type development in the plots having an area up to 450sqm in R&R pockets, which was considered by the state.

Thereby, the plots allotted to PAPs in R&R pockets having an area up to 450sqm can be developed in semi-detached and row house type pattern with permissible FSI of 1.5, within the height of 13m (excluding the height of stilt floors for parking).

In an unfortunate event, an Air India flight headed to Newark in the US returned to Delhi airport three hours as a tragedy struck after take-off after a passenger died on board.

The flight took its standard route since Afghanistan airspace closed in September, flying through Pakistan and entering Iran on its way to northern Europe. However, tragedy struck approximately two or three hours into the flight.

The flight made a sharp turn back to Delhi after news of the deceased passenger reached the cockpit. (Image Courtesy - Simple Flying)

"Air India Delhi-Newark (US) flight returned to Delhi after more than three hours of flight, due to a medical emergency on board," an Air India official told news agency ANI.

A team of airport doctors arrived on the plane and after thoroughly checking the passenger declared him dead. The passenger was a US national who was travelling with his wife.

"On December 4, flight number AI-105 from Delhi to Newark returned due to the death of a male passenger, a US citizen, who was travelling with his wife to Newark," an airport official told the news agency.

The flight landed safely at the Delhi airport and as per the Flight Time Duty Limitation (FDTL) norms, another batch of the crew will be arranged for flight operations.

The entire matter was reported to the Airport Police for further legal formalities.

Even though billions of passengers fly safely every year, air travel is fraught with problems that also exist on the ground. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the wife and family of the passenger who died.

Ground testing is mandatory for all newly manufactured aircraft and the ones that have recently undergone significant structural modifications.

They are a series of tests the aircraft are subjected to before they make their first official flight.

Successful ground and flight tests lead to the eventual certification of the aircraft from international aviation regulatory. The aircraft is then labelled airworthy with a certificate of airworthiness and often it takes about a year or so to get there.

Ground testing encompasses, but is not limited to flight loads simulation, material static and fatigue, structural dynamics, modal analysis, airborne and structure bore acoustics and more.

International Flight Network

All new commercial and demonstrator aircraft undergo stringent ground tests although requirements for the latter are completely different. The basic difference is, commercial aircraft should meet the requirements of a regulatory agency, such as the FAA while in the case of demonstrators, requirements must convince the designers and the FAA that the aircraft will function as "intended".

1. Structural testing

Technically, the engineers will load the aircraft to a little beyond what is expected during a normal flight. Different aircraft models dedicated to different phases of the testing are subjected to various structural loads like aerodynamic forces, inertia, ground reactions and thrust.

Representative | Engineer Live

Oftentimes, manufacturers load it to its breaking point until it breaks.

2. Ground Vibration Test ( GVT)

These are done to make reliable flutter predictions for flight tests and to update the mathematical model of the aircraft. It takes into account various factors like new issues like passenger comfort, fan-blade-off (wind-milling) or aero-servo-elasticity within the same time window as for the modal identification topic during past GVTs.

GROUND VIBRATION TEST| REPRESENTATIVE | ELIXIR AIRCRAFT

Furthermore, the following also constitute an invariable part of ground testing:

“swinging” the landing gear on the ground (to simulate use in the air)testing all systems for electromagnetic interference with each otherrunning the engines to ensure adequate performancetesting the functionality of all systems in a manner that reproduces flight

Following the ground tests, the aircraft is now ready to taxi to the runway. The prototype now moves on to the " flight testing " phase where the aircraft performance would be analyzed to see how well it performs in the air.

Flight testing

Because the primary goal of a flight test program is to gather accurate engineering data, often on a design that is not fully proven, piloting a flight test aircraft requires a high degree of training and skill.

Broadly, it encompasses two major tasks:

finding and fixing any design problemsverifying and documenting the vehicle capabilities for government certification or customer acceptance

AIRBUS PURE POWER FLIGHT TEST | REPRESENTATIVE | NASA APPEL

Emergencies are also evaluated as a part of all flight test programs, for instance-engine failure during various phases of flight (takeoff, cruise, landing), systems failures, and controls degradation.

Did you know? The document used to prepare a single test flight for an aircraft is known as a Test Card. This will consist of a description of the Test Points to be flown. A full certification/qualification flight test program for a new aircraft will require testing for many aircraft systems and in-flight regimes; each is typically documented in a separate test plan. Altogether, a certification flight test program will consist of approximately 10,000 Test Points.

COVER: Aerospace Technology

"Eyebrow windows" were a thing back in the days and they pretty much came as a standard on the 737NG series although now, with the advent of modern avionics, they have become obsolete.

Technically, the eyebrow windows were carried over from the 707 to the 727 and finally to the 737, all of which share a common cockpit window design configuration.

Boeing 707 | Britannica

They are a couple of small extra windows, located diagonally above the pilots’ heads, in most of the older 737s manufactured up until 2004. The strategic placing of these windows above the main front windows imparts them the name "eyebrow windows".

So, why were they installed in the first place?

In the early 1950s, when radar and ATC facilities were still in their nascent stages, to make up for obstructed view during turns and to allow for the use of basic navigation instruments, Boeing equipped the 707s with "eyebrow windows".

Another popular theory rampant at the time was that these windows offered a better view of the night sky in case navigation guided by the location of stars was required, although it doesn't make much of a sense as astral navigation requires special instruments like for instance, a sextant, which in turn requires a special arrangement with a probe to fix the sextant with. A sextant is basically an instrument that measures the angle between a celestial body and a horizontal line of reference.

A sextant fixed in an aircraft back in the days | Representative | Source

It is also believed that FAA mandated the installation of eyebrow windows on early models of Boeing citing visibility concerns.

Why have they been removed now?

Airplane Pictures

After much research, and due to obvious reasons, Boeing came upon the realisation that it didn't serve much of a purpose. Reportedly, it saved the company around 300 hours of maintenance over the lifetime of the aircraft.

Furthermore, as these windows served no actual purpose, they became more of a hindrance during the hot summer months when pilots would cover them with checklists to prevent the blazing sunlight from entering in.

The certification of the TCAS in the late 1980s hit the final straw as windows were then no longer used for spotting traffic. Eyebrow windows were introduced to enhance visibility then became obsolete.

That said, it can still be found on certain military versions of Boeing jets although they no longer come as a standard feature.

COVER: Airplane Pictures