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Aviation | Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as hot air 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. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This was the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896. A major leap followed with the construction of the Wright Flyer, the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet engine which enabled aviation to become a major form of transport throughout the world.
== Etymology ==
The word aviation was coined by the French writer and former naval officer Gabriel La Landelle in 1863. He originally derived the term from the verb avier (an unsuccessful neologism for "to fly"), itself derived from the Latin word avis ("bird") and the suffix -ation.
== History ==
=== Early beginnings ===
There are early legends of human flight such as the stories of Icarus in Greek myth, Jamshid and Shah Kay Kāvus in Persian myth, and the flying automaton of Archytas of Tarentum (428–347 BC). Later, somewhat more credible claims of short-distance human flights appear, such as the winged flights of Abbas ibn Firnas (810–887, recorded in the 17th century), Eilmer of Malmesbury (11th century, recorded in the 12th century), and the hot-air Passarola of Bartholomeu Lourenço de Gusmão (1685–1724).
=== Lighter than air ===
The modern age of aviation began with the first untethered human lighter-than-air flight on November 21, 1783, of a hot air balloon designed by the Montgolfier brothers. The usefulness of balloons was limited because they could only travel downwind. It was immediately recognized that a steerable, or dirigible, balloon was required. Jean-Pierre Blanchard flew the first human-powered dirigible in 1784 and crossed the English Channel in one in 1785.
Rigid airships became the first aircraft to transport passengers and cargo over great distances. The best-known aircraft of this type were manufactured by the German Zeppelin company.
The most successful Zeppelin was the Graf Zeppelin. It flew over one million miles, including an around-the-world flight in August 1929. However, the dominance of the Zeppelins over the airplanes of that period, which had a range of only a few hundred miles, was diminishing as airplane design advanced. The "Golden Age" of the airships ended on May 6, 1937. That year the Hindenburg caught fire, killing 36 people. The cause of the Hindenburg accident was initially blamed on the use of hydrogen instead of helium as the lift gas. An internal investigation by the manufacturer revealed that the coating used in the material covering the frame was highly flammable and allowed static electricity to build up in the airship. Changes to the coating formulation reduced the risk of further Hindenburg type accidents. Although there have been periodic initiatives to revive their use, airships have seen only niche application since that time. There had been previous airship accidents that were more fatal, for instance, a British R38 on 23 August 1921, but the Hindenburg was the first to be captured on newsreel.
=== Heavier than air ===
In 1799, Sir George Cayley set forth the concept of the modern airplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control.
Otto Lilienthal was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with gliders, therefore making the idea of "heavier than air" a reality. Newspapers and magazines published photographs of Lilienthal gliding, favorably influencing public and scientific opinion about the possibility of flying machines becoming practical.
Lilienthal's work led him to develop the concept of the modern wing. His flight attempts in Berlin in 1891 are seen as the beginning of human flight and the "Lilienthal Normalsegelapparat" is considered to be the first airplane in series production, making the Maschinenfabrik Otto Lilienthal in Berlin the first air plane production company in the world.
Lilienthal is often referred to as either the "father of aviation" or "father of flight".
Early dirigible developments included machine-powered propulsion (Henri Giffard, 1852), rigid frames (David Schwarz, 1896) and improved speed and maneuverability (Alberto Santos-Dumont, 1901)
There are many competing claims for the earliest powered, heavier-than-air flight. The first recorded powered flight was carried out by Clément Ader on October 9, 1890, in his bat-winged, fully self-propelled fixed-wing aircraft, the Ader Éole. It was reportedly the first manned, powered, heavier-than-air flight of a significant distance (50 m (160 ft)) but insignificant altitude from level ground. Seven years later, on October 14, 1897, Ader's Avion III was tested without success in front of two officials from the French War ministry. The report on the trials was not publicized until 1910, as they had been a military secret. In November 1906, Ader claimed to have made a successful flight on October 14, 1897, achieving an "uninterrupted flight" of around 300 metres (980 feet). Although widely believed at the time, these claims were later discredited.
The Wright brothers made the first successful powered, controlled and sustained airplane flight on December 17, 1903, a feat made possible by their invention of three-axis control and in-house development of an engine with a sufficient power-to-weight ratio. Only a decade later, at the start of World War I, heavier-than-air powered aircraft had become practical for reconnaissance, artillery spotting, and even attacks against ground positions.
Aircraft began to transport people and cargo as designs grew larger and more reliable. The Wright brothers took aloft the first passenger, Charles Furnas, one of their mechanics, on May 14, 1908.
During the 1920s and 1930s great progress was made in the field of aviation, including the first transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown in 1919, Charles Lindbergh's solo transatlantic flight in 1927, and Charles Kingsford Smith's transpacific flight the following year. One of the most successful designs of this period was the Douglas DC-3, which became the first airliner to be profitable carrying passengers exclusively, starting the modern era of passenger airline service. By the beginning of World War II, many towns and cities had built airports, and there were numerous qualified pilots available. During World War II one of the first jet engines was developed by Hans von Ohain, and accomplished the world's first jet-powered flight in 1939. The war brought many innovations to aviation, including the first jet aircraft and the first liquid-fueled rockets.
After World War II, especially in North America, there was a boom in general aviation, both private and commercial, as thousands of pilots were released from military service and many inexpensive war-surplus transport and training aircraft became available. Manufacturers such as Cessna, Piper, and Beechcraft expanded production to provide light aircraft for the new middle-class market.
By the 1950s, the development of civil jets grew, beginning with the de Havilland Comet, though the first widely used passenger jet was the Boeing 707, because it was much more economical than other aircraft at that time. At the same time, turboprop propulsion started to appear for smaller commuter planes, making it possible to serve small-volume routes in a much wider range of weather conditions.
Since the 1960s composite material airframes and quieter, more efficient engines have become available, and Concorde provided supersonic passenger service for more than two decades. However, the most important lasting innovations have taken place in instrumentation and control. The arrival of solid-state electronics, the Global Positioning System, satellite communications, and increasingly small and powerful computers and LED displays, have dramatically changed the cockpits of airliners and, increasingly, of smaller aircraft as well. Pilots can navigate much more accurately and view terrain, obstructions, and other nearby aircraft on a map or through synthetic vision, even at night or in low visibility.
On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded aircraft to make a spaceflight, opening the possibility of an aviation market capable of leaving the Earth's atmosphere. Meanwhile, the need to decarbonize the aviation industry to face the climate crisis has increased research into aircraft powered by alternative fuels, such as ethanol, electricity, hydrogen, and even solar energy, with flying prototypes becoming more common.
== Operations of aircraft ==
=== Civil aviation ===
Civil aviation includes all non-military flying, both general aviation and scheduled air transport.
==== Air transport ====
There are seven major manufacturers of civil transport aircraft (in alphabetical order):
Airbus, based in Europe
Antonov, based in Ukraine
Boeing, based in the United States
Bombardier, based in Canada
Comac, based in China
Embraer, based in Brazil
United Aircraft Corporation, based in Russia, with its subsidiaries Ilyushin, Tupolev, Yakovlev and Sukhoi
Boeing, Airbus, Ilyushin and Tupolev concentrate on wide-body and narrow-body jet airliners, while Bombardier, Embraer and Sukhoi concentrate on regional airliners. Large networks of specialized parts suppliers from around the world support these manufacturers, who sometimes provide only the initial design and final assembly in their own plants. The Chinese ACAC consortium has also recently entered the civil transport market with its Comac ARJ21 regional jet.
Until the 1970s, most major airlines were flag carriers, sponsored by their governments and heavily protected from competition. Since then, open skies agreements have resulted in increased competition and choice for consumers, coupled with falling prices for airlines. The combination of high fuel prices, low fares, high salaries, and crises such as the September 11 attacks and the SARS pandemic have driven many older airlines to government-bailouts, bankruptcy or mergers. At the same time, low-cost carriers such as Ryanair, Southwest and WestJet have flourished.
==== General aviation ====
General aviation includes all non-scheduled civil flying, both private and commercial. General aviation may include business flights, air charter, private aviation, flight training, ballooning, paragliding, parachuting, gliding, hang gliding, aerial photography, foot-launched powered hang gliders, air ambulance, crop dusting, charter flights, traffic reporting, police air patrols and forest fire fighting.
Each country regulates aviation differently, but general aviation usually falls under different regulations depending on whether it is private or commercial and on the type of equipment involved.
Many small aircraft manufacturers serve the general aviation market, with a focus on private aviation and flight training.
The most important recent developments for small aircraft (which form the bulk of the GA fleet) have been the introduction of advanced avionics (including GPS) that were formerly found only in large airliners, and the introduction of composite materials to make small aircraft lighter and faster. Ultralight and homebuilt aircraft have also become increasingly popular for recreational use, since in most countries that allow private aviation, they are much less expensive and less heavily regulated than certified aircraft.
=== Military aviation ===
Simple balloons were used as surveillance aircraft as early as the 18th century. Over the years, military aircraft have been built to meet ever increasing capability requirements. Manufacturers of military aircraft compete for contracts to supply their government's arsenal. Aircraft are selected based on factors like cost, performance, and the speed of production.
==== Types of military aviation ====
Fighter aircraft's primary function is to destroy other aircraft. (e.g. F-35, Eurofighter Typhoon, F-15, MiG-29, Su-27, and F-22).
Ground attack aircraft are used against tactical earth-bound targets. (e.g. Panavia Tornado, A-10, Il-2, J-22 Orao, AH-64 and Su-25).
Bombers are generally used against more strategic targets, such as factories and oil fields. (e.g. B-2, Tu-95, Mirage IV, and B-52).
Transport aircraft are used to transport hardware and personnel. (e.g. C-17 Globemaster III, C-130 Hercules and Mil Mi-26).
Surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft obtain information about enemy forces. (e.g. RC-135, E-8, U-2, OH-58 and MiG-25R).
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used primarily as reconnaissance fixed-wing aircraft, though many also carry payloads (e.g. MQ-9, RQ-4, and MQ-1C Gray Eagle). Cargo aircraft are in development.
Missiles deliver warheads, normally explosives.
=== Air safety ===
Aviation safety means the state of an aviation system or organization in which risks associated with aviation activities, related to, or in direct support of the operation of aircraft, are reduced and controlled to an acceptable level. It encompasses the theory, practice, investigation, and categorization of flight failures, and the prevention of such failures through regulation, education, and training. It can also be applied in the context of campaigns that inform the public as to the safety of air travel.
=== Aviation MRO ===
A maintenance, repair, and overhaul organization (MRO) is a firm that ensures airworthiness or air transport. According to a 2024 article, "maintenance (M) involves inspecting, cleaning, oiling, and changing aircraft parts after a certain number of flight hours. Repair (R) is restoring the original function of parts and components. Overhaul (O) refers to extensive maintenance, the complete refurbishment of the aircraft, and upgrades in avionics, which can take several weeks to complete." Airlines are legally obligated to certify airworthiness, meaning that a civil aviation authority must approve an aircraft suitable for safe flight operations. MRO firms are responsible for this process, thoroughly checking and documenting all components' repairs while tracking mechanical, propulsion, and electronic parts. Aviation regulators oversee maintenance practices in the country of aircraft registration, manufacture, or current location. All aircraft maintenance activities must adhere to international regulations that mandate standards.
== Aviation accidents and incidents ==
An aviation accident is defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight until such time as all such persons have disembarked, in which a person is fatally or seriously injured, the aircraft sustains damage or structural failure or the aircraft is missing or is completely inaccessible. An accident in which the damage to the aircraft is such that it must be written off, or in which the plane is destroyed, is called a hull loss accident.
The first fatal aviation accident occurred in a Wright Model A aircraft at Fort Myer, Virginia, US, on September 17, 1908, resulting in injury to the pilot, Orville Wright, and death of the passenger, Signal Corps Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge. The worst aviation accident in history was the Tenerife airport disaster on March 27, 1977, when 583 people died when two Boeing 747 jumbo jets, operated by Pan Am and KLM collided on a runway in Los Rodeos airport, now known as Tenerife North.
An aviation incident is defined as an occurrence, other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft that affects or could affect the safety of operations.
== Air traffic control ==
Air traffic control (ATC) involves communication with aircraft to help maintain separation – that is, they ensure that aircraft are sufficiently far enough apart horizontally or vertically for no risk of collision. Controllers may co-ordinate position reports provided by pilots, or in high traffic areas (such as the United States) they may use radar to see aircraft positions.
Becoming an air traffic controller in the United States typically requires an associate or bachelor's degree from the Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative. The FAA also requires extensive training, along with medical examinations and background checks. Some controllers are required to work weekend, night, and holiday shifts.
There are generally four different types of ATC:
Center controllers, who control aircraft en route between airports
Control towers (including tower, ground control, clearance delivery, and other services), which control aircraft within a small distance (typically 10–15 km horizontal, and 1,000 m vertical) of an airport.
Oceanic controllers, who control aircraft over international waters between continents, generally without radar service.
Terminal controllers, who control aircraft in a wider area (typically 50–80 km) around busy airports
ATC is especially important for aircraft flying under instrument flight rules (IFR), when they may be in weather conditions that do not allow the pilots to see other aircraft. However, in very high-traffic areas, especially near major airports, aircraft flying under visual flight rules (VFR) are also required to follow instructions from ATC.
In addition to separation from other aircraft, ATC may provide weather advisories, terrain separation, navigation assistance, and other services to pilots, depending on their workload.
ATC do not control all flights. The majority of VFR (Visual Flight Rules) flights in North America are not required to contact ATC (unless they are passing through a busy terminal area or using a major airport), and in many areas, such as northern Canada and low altitude in northern Scotland, air traffic control services are not available even for IFR flights at lower altitudes.
== Environmental impact ==
Like all activities involving combustion, operating powered aircraft (from airliners to hot air balloons) releases soot and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) are also produced. In addition, there are environmental impacts specific to aviation: for instance,
Aircraft operating at high altitudes near the tropopause (mainly large jet airliners) emit aerosols and leave contrails, both of which can increase cirrus cloud formation – cloud cover may have increased by up to 0.2% since the birth of aviation. Clouds can have both a cooling and warming effect. They reflect some of the sun's rays back into space, but also block some of the heat radiated by Earth's surface. On average, both thin natural cirrus clouds and contrails have a net warming effect.
Aircraft operating at high altitudes near the tropopause can also release chemicals that interact with greenhouse gases at those altitudes, particularly nitrogen compounds, which interact with ozone, increasing ozone concentrations.
Most light piston aircraft burn avgas, which contains tetraethyllead (TEL). Some lower-compression piston engines can operate on unleaded mogas, and turbine engines and diesel engines – neither of which require lead – are appearing on some newer light aircraft.
Another environmental impact of aviation is noise pollution, mainly caused by aircraft taking off and landing. Sonic booms were a problem with supersonic aircraft such as the Concorde.
== Innovation and development ==
Air transportation is a mode of travel and commerce, involving the movement of people, goods, and animals through the atmosphere using aircraft such as airplanes and helicopters. It is a major mode for the overall transportation system, because of its speed and the ability to cover long distances quickly, connecting remote regions and major economic hubs. It plays a significant role in global trade and passenger mobility, influencing economic development and international relations. However, its share of CO2 emissions is significant, accounting for 2% of global CO2 emissions in 2023, having grown faster between 2000 and 2019 than rail, road or shipping. Even under the High Ambition scenario, where total emissions are reduced significantly, aviation emissions will still be a major concern.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has highlighted the need for ambitious policies in order to achieve significant reductions in aviation emissions, projecting that CO2 emissions from aviation could be cut by up to 50% by 2050 with the right measures in place. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) also emphasizes the potential of accelerating the transition to sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) and implementing efficiency technologies for both commercial and cargo aircraft to achieve significant emission reductions. These commitments reflect a concerted effort by global organizations to address the climate impact of the aviation sector.
Two significant megatrends are observed in terms of air transport innovation, sustainability and digitalization. A report published by WIPO in 2025 show a steady increase of patents publication in air transportation, the majority of which being related to communication and security, followed by sustainable propulsion.
Sustainable Propulsion technologies such as efficient aircraft turbines (to improve fuel efficiency, reduce emissions and lower noise levels), sustainable aviation fuels (reduction in CO2 emissions compared to traditional jet fuel), battery-based electric and/or hybrid aircraft (for short-haul and regional flights) and hydrogen-powered aircraft (for long-haul flights and heavy-duty applications) are being developed to reduce emissions and improve environmental sustainability.
Automation and Circularity technologies are promoting efficient material use, smart production and robotics, and enhanced recycling practices.
Communication and Security technologies are revolutionizing air transportation by improving operational efficiency, safety and customer experience. They include navigation technologies such as advanced air traffic management (ATM) systems, device-to-device technology, cloud computing, low-latency internet, and cybersecurity. McKinsey's analysis points out that the rise in digital technologies has made aviation systems more vulnerable to cyberattacks, emphasizing the need for robust cybersecurity measures.
Advanced Human– Machine Interfaces, such as extended reality technologies, speech recognition technology, facial recognition technology, touch displays and data gloves, and head-up displays, are making interactions more intuitive, secure, and responsive, thereby improving operational efficiency and user experience.
The air transportation sector is undergoing a surge in patenting activity, with annual Air transport-related patent families increasing from under 1,100 in 2000 to over 12,800 in 2023 – a growth of 11%. China, the South Korea, and Japan stand out for their high patent volumes and significant growth rates, although they exhibit a relatively low Relative Specialization Index, reflecting a broad approach to innovation at the country-level across various sectors. In contrast, France, the United States and Canada demonstrate a high degree of specialization in Air transportation technologies reflecting a concentrated focus on advancing specific innovations in aviation.
Leading aviation companies such as RTX, General Electric, Safran, Boeing, Rolls-Royce Holdings, and Honeywell International dominate the patent filings. The Aero Engine Corporation of China leads in recent growth with a compound annual growth rate of 81.1%. Generally Chinese patent owners exhibit strong recent growth in air transport patent, in contrast to the other top patentees. Mitsubushi Electric in Japan emerges as the only non-Chinese entity among the fastest-growing patent owners, highlighting its strategic emphasis on Air transportation research and innovation. The diverse landscape underscores the dynamic interplay of high-volume patenting and strategic specialization across different regions, driven by both established aviation multinationals and emerging players.
== See also ==
Aeronautics
Environmental impact of aviation
Index of aviation articles
Timeline of aviation
== Notes ==
== Bibliography ==
Berliner, Don (1996). Aviation: Reaching for the Sky. The Oliver Press, Inc. ISBN 1-881508-33-1.
Cassard, Jean-Christophe (2008). Dictionnaire d'histoire de Bretagne (in French). Morlaix: Skol Vreizh. ISBN 978-2-915623-45-1.
De Angelis, Gina (2001). The Hindenburg. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers. ISBN 0-7910-5272-9.
This article incorporates text by Wirths, Oliver; Tóth,Zsófia; Diaz Ruiz, Carlos available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC-BY-4.0. Text taken from WIPO Technology Trends: Future of Transportation, WIPO.
== External links ==
Flying travel guide from Wikivoyage
Media related to Aviation at Wikimedia Commons
Learning materials related to Aviation at Wikiversity
The dictionary definition of aviation at Wiktionary
Aviation, aerospace, and aeronautical terms |
2025 in aviation | The following aviation-related events occurred in the year 2025.
== Events ==
=== January ===
28 January
Boom Technology's XB-1 demonstrator successfully went supersonic, achieving a speed of Mach 1.1.
An Airbus A321 operating as Air Busan Flight 391 caught fire shortly before takeoff from Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea. All 176 people on board evacuated safely, with only 7 suffering minor injuries.
29 January
A Beechcraft 1900 operated by Light Air Services crashed shortly after takeoff from Unity oilfield in South Sudan, killing 20 of the 21 people on board.
A Bombardier CRJ700 operating as American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with a United States Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter as the CRJ700 was attempting to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River in the collision. All 64 people on board the CRJ700 and 3 on the helicopter were killed.
31 January
A Learjet 55 operating as Med Jets Flight 056 crashed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, causing an explosion, setting multiple houses on fire. All six people on board the aircraft and one person on the ground were killed in the crash. At least 23 other people on the ground were injured, one of whom later succumbed to their injuries.
=== February ===
3 February
ITA Airways begins the process of integration into the Lufthansa group and leaves the SkyTeam alliance.
6 February
A Cessna 208B Grand Caravan operating as Bering Air Flight 445 from Unalakleet to Nome, Alaska, disappeared off radar 10 minutes before its scheduled arrival at Nome. The wreckage of the aircraft was found 34 miles from Nome, and all 10 people onboard the aircraft died.
10–14 February
The Aero India Airshow took place at Bengaluru, India.
17 February
A Bombardier CRJ900 operating as Delta Connection Flight 4819 crashed and overturned on landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport. All 80 occupants on board survived the accident, with 21 injured.
25 February
An Antonov An-26 operated by the Sudanese Air Force crashes into a residential area of Omdurman, Sudan, killing all 17 occupants. An estimated 29 people on the ground were also killed and at least 10 injured, and several homes were severely damaged.
=== March ===
6 March
Two General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon jets operated by the Republic of Korea Air Force accidentally dropped eight Mark 82 bombs on a village in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, injuring 29 civilians and 14 soldiers.
17 March
A British Aerospace Jetstream, operated by Lanhsa Airlines as Flight 018, crashed into the sea at Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport, killing 13 of the 18 people on board. Honduran musician Aurelio Martínez is among the dead.
20 March
An electrical substation near Heathrow International Airport caught fire and led to the closure of the airport. The duration lasted around one day and disrupted global travel.:
25–28 March
The Australian International Airshow was originally scheduled to be held from 25 March to 30 March at Avalon Airport in Geelong, Australia. An accident on 28 March led to the cancellation of the rest of that day's events. The airshow continued as scheduled without any further incidences.
28 March
Mandalay International Airport and Nay Pyi Taw International Airport are heavily damaged by a violent earthquake in Myanmar. At Mandalay International Airport, ceilings collapsed and the basement was damaged, while at the Nay Pyi Taw International Airport, a runway and two aircraft were damaged and an air traffic control tower collapse killed all six staff. Thailand, which was also affected by the earthquake, issued a nationwide no-fly order for all airports.
=== April ===
10 April
A Bell 206 helicopter experienced an in-flight breakup and crashed into the Hudson River during a New York City sightseeing flight. The pilot and a family of five passengers were killed.
17 April
A Cessna 208 operated by Tropic Air was hijacked during a domestic flight in Belize. Two passengers and a pilot were stabbed by the hijacker, who was shot dead by one of the injured passengers.
24 April
Aerobatic pilot Rob Holland was killed when his MX Aircraft MXS crashed on approach into Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, USA.
28 April
Hundreds of flights were delayed and cancelled after a power outage across the Iberian Peninsula, with Lisbon, Porto, Faro in Portugal, and Barcelona and Madrid-Barajas in Spain, being some of the few major airports affected. Faro and Porto airport would both later switch to generator power.
=== May ===
14 May
Qatar Airways signs a $96-billion order for 150 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 30 Boeing 777X aircraft, with options for a further 50 aircraft. This is reportedly Boeing's largest-ever wide-body order.
15 May
Global Airlines, a British startup airline, conducted its inaugural flight from Glasgow to New York. The airline plans to operate an all-A380 fleet.
17 May
Two Robinson R44 civilian helicopters collided mid-air and crashed into the ground in a forested area while en route from Tallinn to Piikajärvi Airfield near Eura, Satakunta, Finland. All five occupants of both helicopters, including Estonian businessmen Oleg Sõnajalg and Priit Jaagant, were killed.
22 May
A Cessna Citation II crashes in a residential area of San Diego, California. All six people on board are killed.
=== June ===
30 June
Oman Air, the flag carrier of Oman, will join the Oneworld alliance.
=== July ===
18–20 July
The Royal International Air Tattoo is scheduled to be held at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
21–27 July
The EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is scheduled to be held at Wittman Regional Airport and Pioneer Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
=== August ===
30 August – 1 September
The Canadian International Air Show is scheduled to be held at Toronto, Canada, at the Canadian National Exhibition.
=== September ===
26–28 September
The Oregon International Air Show is scheduled to be held at McMinnville, Oregon.
== Deadliest accident ==
The deadliest aviation accident of 2025 so far is the mid-air collision on 29 January between a Bombardier CRJ700 operating as American Airlines Flight 5342 and a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter above the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. All 64 people on board the Bombardier CRJ700 and 3 on board the helicopter were killed.
The deadliest military accident so far is that of an Antonov An-26 that crashed after takeoff in Sudan on 25 February, killing all 17 on board and an estimated 29 on the ground.
== References == |
Timeline of aviation | This is a timeline of aviation history, and a list of more detailed aviation timelines. The texts in the diagram are clickable links to articles.
== Timeline ==
Timeline of aviation before the 18th century
Timeline of aviation – 18th century
Timeline of aviation – 19th century
Timeline of aviation – 20th century
=== By decade ===
1900s: 1900 – 1901 – 1902 – 1903 – 1904 – 1905 – 1906 – 1907 – 1908 – 1909
1910s: 1910 – 1911 – 1912 – 1913 – 1914 – 1915 – 1916 – 1917 – 1918 – 1919
1920s: 1920 – 1921 – 1922 – 1923 – 1924 – 1925 – 1926 – 1927 – 1928 – 1929
1930s: 1930 – 1931 – 1932 – 1933 – 1934 – 1935 – 1936 – 1937 – 1938 – 1939
1940s: 1940 – 1941 – 1942 – 1943 – 1944 – 1945 – 1946 – 1947 – 1948 – 1949
1950s: 1950 – 1951 – 1952 – 1953 – 1954 – 1955 – 1956 – 1957 – 1958 – 1959
1960s: 1960 – 1961 – 1962 – 1963 – 1964 – 1965 – 1966 – 1967 – 1968 – 1969
1970s: 1970 – 1971 – 1972 – 1973 – 1974 – 1975 – 1976 – 1977 – 1978 – 1979
1980s: 1980 – 1981 – 1982 – 1983 – 1984 – 1985 – 1986 – 1987 – 1988 – 1989
1990s: 1990 – 1991 – 1992 – 1993 – 1994 – 1995 – 1996 – 1997 – 1998 – 1999
2000s: 2000 – 2001 – 2002 – 2003 – 2004 – 2005 – 2006 – 2007 – 2008 – 2009
2010s: 2010 – 2011 – 2012 – 2013 – 2014 – 2015 – 2016 – 2017 – 2018 – 2019
2020s: 2020 – 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024 - 2025
== See also ==
Aircraft records
Aviation accidents and incidents
Aviation archaeology
Early flying machines
History of aviation
List of firsts in aviation
Timeline of spaceflight
Timeline of transportation technology |
Aviation safety | Aviation safety is the study and practice of managing risks in aviation. This includes preventing aviation accidents and incidents through research, educating air travel personnel, passengers and the general public, as well as the design of aircraft and aviation infrastructure. The aviation industry is subject to significant regulations and oversight.
Aviation security is focused on protecting air travelers, aircraft and infrastructure from intentional harm or disruption, rather than unintentional mishaps.
== Statistics ==
=== Evolution ===
Aviation is safer today than it has ever been. Modern commercial aviation boasts an accident rate of approximately 1 fatal accident per 16 million flights, far lower than historic numbers.
On December 14, 1903, the Wright Brothers conducted a test flight of their powered airplane from the slope of Big Kill Devil Hill in North Carolina. Upon takeoff, the airplane lifted about 15 feet off the ground, stalled, and crashed into the sand. Only three days later, on December 17, 1903, Wilbur's brother, Orville Wright flew the airplane for the world's first powered, sustained, and controlled heavier-than-air flight in history. Although the failed test flight on December 14 would be mostly forgotten in aviation, it remains one of the earliest recorded aviation accidents in history.
In the early years of air travel, accidents were exceedingly common. 1929 was named the year of "The Great Crash" due to the frequency of aircraft accidents that occurred during the year, with 24 fatal accidents officially reported. In 1928 and 1929, the overall accident rate was about 1 in every million miles (1.6 million kilometers) flown. In today's industry, that accident rate would translate to about 7,000 fatal accidents each year.
For the ten-year period 2002 to 2011, 0.6 fatal accidents happened per one million flights globally, 0.4 per million hours flown, 22.0 fatalities per one million flights or 12.7 per million hours flown.
From 310 million passengers in 1970, air transport had grown to 3,696 million in 2016, led by 823 million in the United States, then 488 million in China.
In 2016, 19 fatal accidents involved civil airliners with more than 14 passengers. These accidents resulted in 325 fatalities, the second safest year ever after 2015 with 16 accidents and 2013 with 265 fatalities.
For planes heavier than 5.7 metric tones, there were 34.9 million departures and 75 accidents worldwide with 7 of these fatal for 182 fatalities, the lowest since 2013 : 5.21 fatalities per million departures.
In 2017, there were 10 fatal airliner accidents, resulting in 44 occupant fatalities and 35 persons on the ground: the safest year ever for commercial aviation, both by the number of fatal accidents as well as in fatalities.
By 2019, fatal accidents per million flights decreased 12 fold since 1970, from 6.35 to 0.51, and fatalities per trillion revenue passenger kilometre (RPK) decreased 81 fold from 3,218 to 40.
=== Typology ===
Runway safety represents 36% of accidents, ground safety 18% and loss of control in-flight 16%.
Loss of control inflight represents 35% of the fatal accidents, Controlled flight into terrain 21%, runway excursions 17%, system or component failure: 6%, Touchdown off the runway: 5%, Abnormal Runway Contact: 4% and fire: 2%.
Safety has improved from better aircraft design process, engineering and maintenance, the evolution of navigation aids, and safety protocols and procedures.
=== Transport comparisons ===
There are three main ways in which the risk of fatality in a certain mode of travel can be measured: (1) deaths per billion typical journeys taken, (2) deaths per billion hours traveled, and (3) deaths per billion kilometers traveled. The following table displays these statistics for the United Kingdom (1990–2000), and has been appended. (Note that aviation safety does not include travelling to the airport.)
The first two statistics are computed for typical travels by their respective forms of transport, so they cannot be used directly to compare risks related to different forms of transport in a particular travel "from A to B". For example, these statistics suggest that a typical flight from Los Angeles to New York would carry a larger risk factor than a typical car travel from home to office. However, car travel from Los Angeles to New York would not be typical; that journey would be as long as several dozen typical car travels, and thus the associated risk would be larger as well. Because the journey would take a much longer time, the overall risk associated with making this journey by car would be higher than making the same journey by air, even if each individual hour of car travel is less risky than each hour of flight.
For risks associated with long-range intercity travel, the most suitable statistic is the third one: deaths per billion kilometers. Still, this statistic can lose credence in situations where the availability of an air option makes an otherwise inconvenient journey possible.
Aviation industry insurers base their calculations on the deaths per journey statistic while the aviation industry itself generally uses the deaths per kilometre statistic in press releases.
Since 1997, the number of fatal air accidents has been no more than 1 for every 2,000,000,000 person-miles flown, and thus is one of the safest modes of transportation when measured by distance traveled.
The Economist notes that air travel is safer by distance travelled, but trains are as safe as planes. It also notes that cars are four times more hazardous for deaths per time travelled, and cars and trains are respectively three times and six times safer than planes by number of journeys taken.
Because the above figures are focused on providing a perspective to the realm of everyday transportation, air travel is taken to include only standard civil passenger aviation, as offered commercially to the general public. Military and special-purpose aircraft are excluded.
=== United States ===
Between 1990 and 2015, there were 1874 commuter and air taxi accidents in the U.S. of which 454 (24%) were fatal, resulting in 1,296 deaths, including 674 accidents (36%) and 279 fatalities (22%) in Alaska alone.
The number of deaths per passenger-mile on commercial airlines in the United States between 2000 and 2010 was about 0.2 deaths per 10 billion passenger-miles. For driving, the rate was 150 per 10 billion vehicle-miles for 2000: 750 times higher per mile than for flying in a commercial airplane.
There were no fatalities on large scheduled commercial airlines in the United States for over nine years, between the Colgan Air Flight 3407 crash in February 2009, and a catastrophic engine failure on Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 in April 2018.
=== Security ===
Another aspect of safety is protection from intentional harm or property damage, also known as security.
The terrorist attacks of 2001 are not counted as accidents. However, even if they were counted as accidents they would have added about 1 death per billion person-miles. Two months later, American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in New York City, killing 265 people, including 5 on the ground, causing 2001 to show a very high fatality rate. Even so, the rate that year including the attacks (estimated here to be about 4 deaths per billion person-miles), is safe compared to some other forms of transport when measured by distance traveled.
== Developments ==
=== Before WWII ===
The first aircraft electrical or electronic device avionics system was Lawrence Sperry's autopilot, demonstrated in June 1914. The Transcontinental Airway System chain of beacons was built by the Commerce Department in 1923 to guide airmail flights.
Gyrocopters were developed by Juan de la Cierva to avoid stall and spin accidents, and for that invented cyclic and collective controls used by helicopters. The first flight of a gyrocopter was on 17 January 1923.
During the 1920s, the first laws were passed in the United States of America to regulate civil aviation, notably the Air Commerce Act of 1926, which required pilots and aircraft to be examined and licensed, for accidents to be properly investigated, and for the establishment of safety rules and navigation aids; under the Aeronautics Branch of the United States Department of Commerce (US DoC).
A network of aerial lighthouses was established in the United Kingdom and Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. Use of the lighthouses has declined with the advent of radio navigation aids such as non-directional beacon (NDB), VHF omnidirectional range (VOR), and distance measuring equipment (DME). The last operational aerial lighthouse in the United Kingdom is on top of the cupola over the RAF College main hall at RAF Cranwell.
One of the first aids for air navigation to be introduced in the United States in the late 1920s was airfield lighting, to assist pilots in making landings in poor weather or after dark. The Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) was developed from this in the 1930s, indicating to the pilot the angle of descent to the airfield. This later became adopted internationally through the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Jimmy Doolittle developed instrument rating and made his first 'blind' flight in September 1929. The March 1931 wooden wing failure of a Transcontinental & Western Air Fokker F-10 carrying Knute Rockne, coach of the University of Notre Dame's football team, reinforced all-metal airframes and led to a more formal accident investigation system.
On 4 September 1933, a Douglas DC-1 test flight was conducted with one of the two engines shut down during the takeoff run, climbed to 8,000 feet (2,438 metres), and completed its flight, proving twin aircraft engine safety.
With greater range than lights and weather immunity, radio navigation aids were first used in the 1930s, like the Australian Aeradio stations guiding transport flights, with a light beacon and a modified Lorenz beam transmitter (the German blind-landing equipment preceding the modern instrument landing system - ILS). ILS was first used by a scheduled flight to make a landing in a snowstorm at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1938, and a form of ILS was adopted by the ICAO for international use in 1949.
=== Post-WWII ===
Hard runways were built worldwide for World War II to avoid waves and floating hazards plaguing seaplanes.
Developed by the U.S. and introduced during World War II, LORAN replaced the sailors' less reliable compass and celestial navigation over water and survived until it was replaced by the Global Positioning System.
Following the development of radar in World War II, it was deployed as a landing aid for civil aviation in the form of ground-controlled approach (GCA) systems then as the airport surveillance radar as an aid to air traffic control in the 1950s.
A number of ground-based weather radar systems can detect areas of severe turbulence.
A modern Honeywell Intuvue weather system visualizes weather patterns up to 300 miles (480 km) away.
Distance measuring equipment (DME) in 1948 and VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) stations became the main route navigation means during the 1960s, superseding the low frequency radio ranges and the non-directional beacon (NDB): the ground-based VOR stations were often co-located with DME transmitters and the pilots could establish their bearing and distance to the station.
=== Jetliners ===
To highlight the jetliner evolution, Airbus split them in four generations:
from 1952, early jets (Comet, Caravelle, BAC-111, Trident, B707, DC-8...) have dials and gauges cockpits and early auto-flight systems ;
from 1964, new designs (A300, F28, BAe 146, B727, original B737 and B747, L-1011, DC-9, DC-10...) have more elaborate autopilot and autothrottle systems ;
From 1980, glass cockpit & FMS designs (A310/A300-600, F100, B737 Classic & NG/MAX, B757/B767, B747-400/-8, Bombardier CRJ, Embraer ERJ, MD-11, MD-80/MD-90...) have improved navigation performance and Terrain Avoidance Systems, to reduce CFIT accidents;
From 1988, Fly-By-Wire (in the A220, A320 family, A330/A340, A350, A380, B777, B787 and Embraer E-Jets) enabled flight envelope protection to reduce LOC in flight accidents.
The fatal accident rate fell from 3.0 per million flights for the first generation to 0.9 for the next, 0.3 for the third and 0.1 for the last.
With the arrival of Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), satellite navigation has become accurate enough for altitude as well as positioning use, and is being used increasingly for instrument approaches as well as en-route navigation. However, because the GPS constellation is a single point of failure, on-board Inertial Navigation System (INS) or ground-based navigation aids are still required for backup.
In 2017, Rockwell Collins reported it had become more costly to certify than to develop a system, from 75% engineering and 25% certification in past years.
It calls for a global harmonization between certifying authorities to avoid redundant engineering and certification tests rather than recognizing the others approval and validation.
Groundings of entire classes of aircraft out of equipment safety concerns is unusual, but this has occurred to the de Havilland Comet in 1954 after multiple crashes due to metal fatigue and hull failure, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 in 1979 after the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 due to engine loss, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in 2013 after its battery problems, and the Boeing 737 MAX in 2019 after two crashes preliminarily tied to a flight control system.
== Hazards ==
=== Unapproved parts ===
Parts manufactured without an aviation authority's approval are described as "unapproved". Unapproved parts include inferior counterfeits, those used beyond their time limits, those that were previously approved but not properly returned to service, those with fraudulent labels, production overruns that were not sold with the agency's permission, and those that are untraceable. Unapproved faulty parts have caused hundreds of incidents and crashes, some fatal, including about 24 crashes between 2010 and 2016.
=== Foreign object debris ===
Foreign object debris (FOD) includes items left in the aircraft structure during manufacture/repairs, debris on the runway and solids encountered in flight (e.g. hail and dust). Such items can damage engines and other parts of the aircraft. In 2000, Air France Flight 4590 crashed after hitting a part that had fallen from a departing Continental Airlines DC-10.
=== Misleading information and lack of information ===
A pilot misinformed by a printed document (manual, map, etc.), reacting to a faulty instrument or indicator (in the cockpit or on the ground), or following inaccurate instructions or information from flight or ground control can lose situational awareness, or make errors, and accidents or near misses may result. The crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 was a result of receiving and interpreting incorrect coordinates, which caused the pilots to inadvertently fly into a mountain.
=== Lightning ===
Boeing studies showed that airliners are struck by lightning twice per year on average; aircraft withstand typical lightning strikes without damage.
The dangers of more powerful positive lightning were not understood until the destruction of a glider in 1999. It has since been suggested that positive lightning might have caused the crash of Pan Am Flight 214 in 1963. At that time, aircraft were not designed to withstand such strikes because their existence was unknown. The 1985 standard in force in the US at the time of the glider crash, Advisory Circular AC 20-53A, was replaced by Advisory Circular AC 20-53B in 2006. However, it is unclear whether adequate protection against positive lightning was incorporated.
The effects of typical lightning on traditional metal-covered aircraft are well understood and serious damage from a lightning strike on an airplane is rare. Modern airliners like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner with exteriors and wings made from carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer have been tested and shown to receive no damage from lightning strikes during testing.
=== Ice and snow ===
Ice and snow can be major factors in airline accidents. In 2005, Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 slid off the end of a runway after landing in heavy snow conditions, killing one child on the ground.
Even a small amount of icing or coarse frost can greatly impair the ability of a wing to develop adequate lift, which is why regulations prohibit ice, snow or even frost on the wings or tail, prior to takeoff. Air Florida Flight 90 crashed on takeoff in 1982, as a result of ice/snow on its wings.
An accumulation of ice during flight can be catastrophic, as evidenced by the loss of control and subsequent crashes of American Eagle Flight 4184 in 1994, and Comair Flight 3272 in 1997. Both aircraft were turboprop airliners, with straight wings, which tend to be more susceptible to inflight ice accumulation, than are swept-wing jet airliners.
Airlines and airports ensure that aircraft are properly de-iced before takeoff whenever the weather involves icing conditions. Modern airliners are designed to prevent ice buildup on wings, engines, and tails (empennage) by either routing heated air from jet engines through the leading edges of the wing, and inlets, or on slower aircraft, by use of inflatable rubber "boots" that expand to break off any accumulated ice.
Airline flight plans require airline dispatch offices to monitor the progress of weather along the routes of their flights, helping the pilots to avoid the worst of inflight icing conditions. Aircraft can also be equipped with an ice detector in order to warn pilots to leave unexpected ice accumulation areas, before the situation becomes critical. Pitot tubes in modern airplanes and helicopters have been provided with the function of "Pitot Heating" to prevent accidents like Air France Flight 447 caused by the pitot tube freezing and giving false readings.
=== Wind shear or microburst ===
A wind shear is a change in wind speed and/or direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. A microburst is a localized column of sinking air that drops down in a thunderstorm. Both of these are potential weather threats that may cause an aviation accident.
Strong outflow from thunderstorms causes rapid changes in the three-dimensional wind velocity just above ground level. Initially, this outflow causes a headwind that increases airspeed, which normally causes a pilot to reduce engine power if they are unaware of the wind shear. As the aircraft passes into the region of the downdraft, the localized headwind diminishes, reducing the aircraft's airspeed and increasing its sink rate. Then, when the aircraft passes through the other side of the downdraft, the headwind becomes a tailwind, reducing lift generated by the wings, and leaving the aircraft in a low-power, low-speed descent. This can lead to an accident if the aircraft is too low to effect a recovery before ground contact. Between 1964 and 1985, wind shear directly caused or contributed to 26 major civil transport aircraft accidents in the U.S. that led to 620 deaths and 200 injuries.
=== Engine failure ===
An engine may fail to function because of fuel starvation (e.g. British Airways Flight 38), fuel exhaustion (e.g. Air Canada Flight 143), foreign object damage (e.g. US Airways Flight 1549), mechanical failure due to metal fatigue (e.g. Kegworth air disaster, El Al Flight 1862, China Airlines Flight 358), mechanical failure due to improper maintenance (e.g. American Airlines Flight 191), mechanical failure caused by an original manufacturing defect in the engine (e.g. Qantas Flight 32, United Airlines Flight 232, Delta Air Lines Flight 1288), and pilot error (e.g. Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701).
In a multi-engine aircraft, failure of a single engine usually results in a precautionary landing being performed, for example, landing at a diversion airport instead of continuing to the intended destination. Failure of a second engine (e.g. US Airways Flight 1549) or damage to other aircraft systems caused by an uncontained engine failure (e.g. United Airlines Flight 232) may, if an emergency landing is not possible, result in the aircraft crashing.
=== Structural failure of the aircraft ===
Examples of failure of aircraft structures caused by metal fatigue include the de Havilland Comet accidents (1950s) and Aloha Airlines Flight 243 (1988). Improper repair procedures can also cause structural failures include Japan Air Lines Flight 123 (1985) and China Airlines Flight 611 (2002). Now that the subject is better understood, rigorous inspection and nondestructive testing procedures are in place.
Composite materials consist of layers of fibers embedded in a resin matrix. In some cases, especially when subjected to cyclic stress, the layers of the material separate from each other (delaminate) and lose strength. As the failure develops inside the material, nothing is shown on the surface; instrument methods (often ultrasound-based) have to be used to detect such a material failure. In the 1940s several Yakovlev Yak-9s experienced delamination of plywood in their construction.
=== Stalling ===
Stalling an aircraft (increasing the angle of attack to a point at which the wings fail to produce enough lift) is dangerous and can result in a crash if the pilot fails to make a timely correction.
Devices to warn the pilot when the aircraft's speed is decreasing close to the stall speed include stall warning horns (now standard on virtually all powered aircraft), stick shakers, and voice warnings. Most stalls are a result of the pilot allowing the airspeed to be too slow for the particular weight and configuration at the time. Stall speed is higher when ice or frost has attached to the wings and/or tail stabilizer. The more severe the icing, the higher the stall speed, not only because smooth airflow over the wings becomes increasingly more difficult, but also because of the added weight of the accumulated ice.
Crashes caused by a full stall of the airfoils include:
British European Airways Flight 548 (1972)
United Airlines Flight 553 (1972)
Aeroflot Flight 7425 (1985)
Arrow Air Flight 1285 (1985)
Northwest Airlines Flight 255 (1987)
The Paul Wellstone crash (2002)
Colgan Air Flight 3407 (2009)
Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 crash (2009)
Air France Flight 447 (2009)
=== Fire ===
Safety regulations control aircraft materials and the requirements for automated fire safety systems. Usually these requirements take the form of required tests. The tests measure flammability of materials and toxicity of smoke. When the tests fail, it is on a prototype in an engineering laboratory rather than in an aircraft.
Fire and its toxic smoke have been the cause of accidents. An electrical fire on Air Canada Flight 797 in 1983 caused the deaths of 23 of the 46 passengers, resulting in the introduction of floor level lighting to assist people to evacuate a smoke-filled aircraft. In 1985, a fire on the runway caused the loss of 55 lives, 48 from the effects of incapacitating and subsequently lethal toxic gas and smoke in the British Airtours Flight 28M accident which raised serious concerns relating to survivability – something that had not been studied in such detail. The swift incursion of the fire into the fuselage and the layout of the aircraft impaired passengers' ability to evacuate, with areas such as the forward galley area becoming a bottle-neck for escaping passengers, with some dying very close to the exits. Much research into evacuation and cabin and seating layouts was carried out at Cranfield Institute to try to measure what makes a good evacuation route, which led to the seat layout by Overwing exits being changed by mandate and the examination of evacuation requirements relating to the design of galley areas. The use of smoke hoods or misting systems were also examined although both were rejected.
South African Airways Flight 295 was lost in the Indian Ocean in 1987 after an in-flight fire in the cargo hold could not be suppressed by the crew. The cargo holds of most airliners are now equipped with automated halon fire extinguishing systems to combat a fire that might occur in the baggage holds. In May 1996, ValuJet Flight 592 crashed into the Florida Everglades a few minutes after takeoff because of a fire in the forward cargo hold. All 110 people on board were killed.
At one time, fire fighting foam paths were laid down before an emergency landing, but the practice was considered only marginally effective, and concerns about the depletion of firefighting capability due to pre-foaming led the United States FAA to withdraw its recommendation in 1987.
One possible cause of fires in airplanes is wiring problems that involve intermittent faults, such as wires with breached insulation touching each other, having water dripping on them, or short circuits. Notable was Swissair Flight 111 in 1998 due to an arc in the wiring of IFE which ignited flammable MPET insulation. These are difficult to detect once the aircraft is on the ground. However, there are methods, such as spread-spectrum time-domain reflectometry, that can feasibly test live wires on aircraft during flight.
=== Bird strike ===
Bird strike is an aviation term for a collision between a bird and an aircraft. Fatal accidents have been caused by both engine failure following bird ingestion and bird strikes breaking cockpit windshields.
Jet engines have to be designed to withstand the ingestion of birds of a specified weight and number and to not lose more than a specified amount of thrust. The weight and numbers of birds that can be ingested without hazarding the safe flight of the aircraft are related to the engine intake area. The hazards of ingesting birds beyond the "designed-for" limit were shown on US Airways Flight 1549 when the aircraft struck Canada geese.
The outcome of an ingestion event and whether it causes an accident, be it on a small fast plane, such as military jet fighters, or a large transport, depends on the number and weight of birds and where they strike the fan blade span or the nose cone. Core damage usually results with impacts near the blade root or on the nose cone.
The highest risk of a bird strike occurs during takeoff and landing in the vicinity of airports, and during low-level flying, for example by military aircraft, crop dusters and helicopters. Some airports use active countermeasures, including a person with a shotgun, playing recorded sounds of predators through loudspeakers, or employing falconers. Poisonous grass can be planted that is not palatable to birds, nor to insects that attract insectivorous birds. Passive countermeasures involve sensible land-use management, avoiding conditions attracting flocks of birds to the area (e.g. landfills). Another tactic found effective is to let the grass at the airfield grow taller (to approximately 12 inches or 30 centimetres) as some species of birds won't land if they cannot see one another.
=== Human factors ===
Human factors, including pilot error, are another potential set of factors, and currently the factor most commonly found in aviation accidents. Much progress in applying human factors analysis to improving aviation safety was made around the time of World War II by such pioneers as Paul Fitts and Alphonse Chapanis. However, there has been progress in safety throughout the history of aviation, such as the development of the pilot's checklist in 1937. CRM, or crew resource management, is a technique that makes use of the experience and knowledge of the complete flight crew to avoid dependence on just one crew member, and to improve pilot decision making.
Pilot error and improper communication are often factors in the collision of aircraft. This can take place in the air (1978 Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182) (TCAS) or on the ground (1977 Tenerife disaster) (RAAS). The barriers to effective communication have internal and external factors. The ability of the flight crew to maintain situational awareness is a critical human factor in air safety. Human factors training is available to general aviation pilots and called single pilot resource management training.
Failure of the pilots to properly monitor the flight instruments caused the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 in 1972. Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT), and error during take-off and landing can have catastrophic consequences, for example causing the crash of Prinair Flight 191 on landing, also in 1972.
==== Pilot fatigue ====
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines fatigue as "A physiological state of reduced mental or physical performance capability resulting from sleep loss or extended wakefulness, circadian phase, or workload." The phenomenon places great risk on the crew and passengers of an airplane because it significantly increases the chance of pilot error. Fatigue is particularly prevalent among pilots because of "unpredictable work hours, long duty periods, circadian disruption, and insufficient sleep". These factors can occur together to produce a combination of sleep deprivation, circadian rhythm effects, and 'time-on task' fatigue. Regulators attempt to mitigate fatigue by limiting the number of hours pilots are allowed to fly over varying periods of time. Experts in aviation fatigue often find that these methods fall short of their goals.
==== Piloting while intoxicated ====
Rarely, flight crew members are arrested or subject to disciplinary action for being intoxicated on the job. In 1990, three Northwest Airlines crew members were sentenced to jail for flying while drunk. In 2001, Northwest fired a pilot who failed a breathalyzer test after a flight. In July 2002, both pilots of America West Airlines Flight 556 were arrested just before they were scheduled to fly because they had been drinking alcohol. The pilots were fired and the FAA revoked their pilot licenses. At least one fatal airliner accident involving drunk pilots occurred when Aero Flight 311 crashed at Kvevlax, Finland, killing all 25 on board in 1961. Another example is the crash Aeroflot Flight 821, in which the captain's intoxication contributed to the accident, killing all 88 on board.
==== Pilot suicide and murder ====
There have been rare instances of suicide by pilots. Although most air crew are screened for psychological fitness, a very few authorized pilots have flown acts of suicide and even mass murder.
In 1982, Japan Airlines Flight 350 crashed while on approach to the Tokyo Haneda Airport, killing 24 of the 174 on board. The official investigation found the mentally ill captain had attempted suicide by placing the inboard engines into reverse thrust, while the aircraft was close to the runway. The first officer did not have enough time to countermand before the aircraft stalled and crashed.
In 1997, SilkAir Flight 185 suddenly went into a high dive from its cruising altitude. The speed of the dive was so high that the aircraft began to break apart before it finally crashed near Palembang, Sumatra. After three years of investigation, the Indonesian authorities declared that the cause of the accident could not be determined. However, the US NTSB concluded that deliberate suicide by the captain was the only reasonable explanation.
In 1999 in the case of EgyptAir Flight 990, it appears that the first officer deliberately crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while the captain was away from his station.
Crew involvement is one of the speculative theories in the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on 8 March 2014.
On 24 March 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525 (an Airbus A320-200) crashed 100 kilometres (62 miles) north-west of Nice, in the French Alps, after a constant descent that began one minute after the last routine contact with air traffic control, and shortly after the aircraft had reached its assigned cruise altitude. All 144 passengers and six crew members were killed. The crash was intentionally caused by the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz. Having been declared 'unfit to work' without telling his employer, Lubitz reported for duty, and during the flight locked the captain out of the flight-deck. In response to the incident and the circumstances of Lubitz's involvement, aviation authorities in Canada, New Zealand, Germany, and Australia implemented new regulations that require two authorised personnel to be present in the cockpit at all times. Three days after the incident, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued a temporary recommendation for airlines to ensure that at least two crew members, including at least one pilot, are in the cockpit at all times of the flight. Several airlines announced they had already adopted similar policies voluntarily.
==== Deliberate aircrew inaction ====
Inaction, omission, failure to act as required, willful disregard of safety procedures, disdain for rules, and unjustifiable risk-taking by pilots have also led to accidents and incidents.
Although Smartwings QS-1125 flight of 22 August 2019 successfully made an emergency landing at destination, the captain was censured for failing to follow mandatory procedures, including for not landing at the nearest possible diversion airport after an engine failure.
==== Human factors of third parties ====
Unsafe human factors are not limited to pilot errors. Third party factors include ground crew mishaps, ground vehicle to aircraft collisions and engineering maintenance related problems. For example, failure to properly close a cargo door on Turkish Airlines Flight 981 in 1974 caused the loss of the aircraft. (However, design of the cargo door latch was also a major factor in the accident.) In the case of Japan Air Lines Flight 123 in 1985, improper repair of previous damage led to explosive decompression of the cabin, which in turn destroyed the vertical stabilizer and damaged all four hydraulic systems which powered all the flight controls.
==== Controlled flight into terrain ====
Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) is a class of accidents in which an aircraft is flown under control into terrain or man-made structures. CFIT accidents typically result from pilot error or of navigational system error. Failure to protect ILS critical areas can also cause CFIT accidents. In December 1995, American Airlines Flight 965 tracked off course while approaching Cali, Colombia, and hit a mountainside despite a terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS) terrain warning in the cockpit and desperate pilot attempt to gain altitude after the warning. Crew position awareness and monitoring of navigational systems are essential to the prevention of CFIT accidents. As of February 2008, over 40,000 aircraft had enhanced TAWS installed, and they had flown over 800 million hours without a CFIT accident.
Another anti-CFIT tool is the Minimum Safe Altitude Warning (MSAW) system which monitors the altitudes transmitted by aircraft transponders and compares that with the system's defined minimum safe altitudes for a given area. When the system determines the aircraft is lower, or might soon be lower, than the minimum safe altitude, the air traffic controller receives an acoustic and visual warning and then alerts the pilot that the aircraft is too low.
==== Electromagnetic interference ====
The use of certain electronic equipment is partially or entirely prohibited as it might interfere with aircraft operation, such as causing compass deviations. Use of some types of personal electronic devices is prohibited when an aircraft is below 10,000 feet (3,000 m), taking off, or landing. Use of a mobile phone is prohibited on most flights because in-flight usage creates problems with ground-based cells. Wireless devices such as cellphones feature an airplane mode.
=== Ground damage ===
Various ground support equipment operate in close proximity to the fuselage and wings to service the aircraft and occasionally cause accidental damage in the form of scratches in the paint or small dents in the skin. However, because aircraft structures (including the outer skin) play such a critical role in the safe operation of a flight, all damage is inspected, measured, and possibly tested to ensure that any damage is within safe tolerances.
An example problem was the depressurization incident on Alaska Airlines Flight 536 in 2005. During ground services, a baggage handler hit the side of the aircraft with a tug towing a train of baggage carts. This damaged the metal skin of the aircraft. This damage was not reported and the plane departed. Climbing through 26,000 feet (7,900 m) the damaged section of the skin gave way under the difference in pressure between the inside of the aircraft and the outside air. The cabin depressurized explosively necessitating a rapid descent to denser (breathable) air and an emergency landing. Post-landing examination of the fuselage revealed a 12-inch (30 cm) hole on the right side of the airplane.
=== Volcanic ash ===
Plumes of volcanic ash near active volcanoes can damage propellers, engines and cockpit windows.
In 1982, British Airways Flight 9 flew through an ash cloud and temporarily lost power from all four engines. The plane was badly damaged, with all the leading edges being scratched. The front windscreens had been so badly "sand" blasted by the ash that they could not be used to land the aircraft.
Prior to 2010 the general approach taken by airspace regulators was that if the ash concentration rose above zero, then the airspace was considered unsafe and was consequently closed.
Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers enable liaison between meteorologists, volcanologists, and the aviation industry.
=== Runway safety ===
Types of runway safety incidents include:
Runway excursion – an incident involving only a single aircraft making an inappropriate exit from the runway.
Runway overrun – a specific type of excursion where the aircraft does not stop before the end of the runway (e.g., Air France Flight 358).
Runway incursion – incorrect presence of a vehicle, person, or another aircraft on the runway (e.g., Tenerife airport disaster).
Runway confusion – crew misidentification of the runway for landing or take-off (e.g., Comair Flight 5191, Singapore Airlines Flight 6).
The last two types can be prevented with airport surveillance and broadcast systems, a Runway Awareness and Advisory System, and landing navigation systems (e.g. transponder landing system, microwave landing system, instrument landing system).
=== Terrorism ===
Aircrew are normally trained to handle hijack situations. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, stricter airport and airline security measures are in place to prevent terrorism, such as security checkpoints and locking the cockpit doors during flight.
In the United States, the Federal Flight Deck Officer program is run by the Federal Air Marshal Service, with the aim of training active and licensed airline pilots to carry weapons and defend their aircraft against criminal activity and terrorism. Upon completion of government training, selected pilots enter a covert law enforcement and counter-terrorism service. Their jurisdiction is normally limited to a flight deck or a cabin of a commercial airliner or a cargo aircraft they operate while on duty.
=== Military action ===
Passenger planes have rarely been attacked in both peacetime and war. Examples:
In 1955, Bulgaria shot down El Al Flight 402.
In 1973, Israel shot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114.
In 1983, the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007.
In 1988, the United States shot down Iran Air Flight 655.
In 2001, the Ukrainian Air Force accidentally shot down Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 during an exercise.
In 2014, Russia shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
In 2020, Iran shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752.
== Accident survivability ==
Earlier tragedies investigations and improved engineering has allowed many safety improvements that have allowed an increasing safer aviation.
=== Airport design ===
Airport design and location can have a large impact on aviation safety, especially since some airports such as Chicago Midway International Airport were originally built for propeller planes and many airports are in congested areas where it is difficult to meet newer safety standards. For instance, the FAA issued rules in 1999 calling for a runway safety area, usually extending 150 metres (500 ft) to each side and 300 metres (1,000 ft) beyond the end of a runway. This is intended to cover ninety percent of the cases of an aircraft leaving the runway by providing a buffer space free of obstacles. Many older airports do not meet this standard. One method of substituting for the 300 metres (1,000 ft) at the end of a runway for airports in congested areas is to install an engineered materials arrestor system (EMAS). These systems are usually made of lightweight, crushable concrete that absorbs the energy of the aircraft to bring it to a rapid stop. As of 2008, they have stopped three aircraft at JFK Airport.
=== Emergency airplane evacuations ===
According to a 2000 report by the National Transportation Safety Board, emergency aircraft evacuations happen about once every 11 days in the U.S. While some situations are extremely dire, such as when the plane is on fire, in many cases the greatest challenge for passengers can be the use of the evacuation slide. In a Time article on the subject, Amanda Ripley reported that when a new supersized Airbus A380 underwent mandatory evacuation tests in 2006, thirty-three of the 873 evacuating volunteers got hurt. While the evacuation was considered a success, one volunteer suffered a broken leg, while the remaining 32 received slide burns. Such accidents are common. In her article, Ripley provided tips on how to make it down the airplane slide without injury.
Another improvement to airplane evacuations is the requirement by the Federal Aviation Administration for planes to demonstrate an evacuation time of 90 seconds with half the emergency exits blocked for each type of airplane in their fleet. According to studies, 90 seconds is the time needed to evacuate before the plane starts burning, before there can be a very large fire or explosions, or before fumes fill the cabin.
=== Aircraft materials and design ===
Changes such as using new materials for seat fabric and insulation has given between 40 and 60 additional seconds to people on board to evacuate before the cabin gets filled with fire and potential deadly fumes. Other improvements through the years include the use of properly rated seatbelts, impact resistant seat frames, and airplane wings and engines designed to shear off to absorb impact forces.
=== Radar and wind shear detection systems ===
As the result of the accidents due to wind shear and other weather disturbances, most notably the 1985 crash of Delta Air Lines Flight 191, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration mandated that all commercial aircraft have on-board wind shear detection systems by 1993. Since 1995, the number of major civil aircraft accidents caused by wind shear has dropped to approximately one every ten years, due to the mandated on-board detection as well as the addition of Doppler weather radar units on the ground (NEXRAD). The installation of high-resolution Terminal Doppler Weather Radar stations at many U.S. airports that are commonly affected by wind shear has further aided the ability of pilots and ground controllers to avoid wind shear conditions.
== Accidents and incidents ==
List of airship accidents
Lists of aviation accidents and incidents
Aviation accidents and incidents
List of airliner shootdown incidents
Flight recorder, includes flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder
=== National investigation organizations ===
Australian Transport Safety Bureau
Flugunfalluntersuchungsstelle im BMVIT Archived 2008-09-21 at the Wayback Machine (Austria)
Centro de Investigação e Prevenção de Acidentes Aeronáuticos (Brazil)
Transportation Safety Board of Canada
Air Accidents Investigation Institute (Czech Republic)
Danish Aircraft Accident Investigation Board
Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (France)
Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung (Germany)
Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (India)
KNKT - Komite Nasional Keselamatan Transportasi (Indonesia)
International Civil Aviation Organization
Air Accident Investigation Unit (Ireland)
Agenzia Nazionale per la Sicurezza del Volo (Italy)
Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission (Japan)
Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand
Transport Accident Investigation Commission (New Zealand)
Onderzoeksraad voor Veiligheid (The Netherlands)
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines
South African Civil Aviation Authority (South Africa)
Comisión de Investigación de Accidentes e Incidentes de Aviación Civil (Spain)
Swedish Accident Investigation Board
Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (Switzerland)
Air Accidents Investigation Branch (UK)
National Transportation Safety Board (USA)
European Co-ordination Center for Aircraft Incident Reporting Systems (ECCAIRS)
== Air safety investigators ==
Air safety investigators are trained and authorized to investigate aviation accidents and incidents: to research, analyse, and report their conclusions. They may be specialized in flight operations, training, aircraft structures, air traffic control, flight recorders or human factors. They are employed by government organizations responsible for aviation safety, manufacturers or unions, though only government organizations have statutory powers to investigate.
== Safety improvement initiatives ==
The safety improvement initiatives are aviation safety partnerships between regulators, manufacturers, operators, professional unions, research organisations, and international aviation organisations to further enhance safety.
Some major safety initiatives worldwide are:
Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) in the US. The Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) was founded in 1998 with a goal to reduce the commercial aviation fatality rate in the United States by 80 percent by 2007.
European Strategic Safety Initiative (ESSI) . The European Strategic Safety Initiative (ESSI) is an aviation safety partnership between EASA, other regulators and the industry. The initiative objective is to further enhance safety for citizens in Europe and worldwide through safety analysis, implementation of cost effective action plans, and coordination with other safety initiatives worldwide.
After the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, in June 2014, the International Air Transport Association said it was working on implementing new measures to track aircraft in flight in real time. A special panel was considering a range of options including the production of equipment especially designed to ensure real-time tracking.
Since pilot error accounts for between one-third and 60% of aviation accidents, advances in automation and technology could replace some or all of the duties of the aircraft pilots. Automation since the 1980s has already eliminated the need for flight engineers. In complex situations with severely degraded systems, the problem-solving and judgement capability of humans is challenging to achieve with automated systems, for example the catastrophic engine failures experienced by United Airlines Flight 232 and Qantas Flight 32. However, with more accurate software modeling of aeronautic factors, test planes have been successfully flown in these conditions.
While the accident rate is very low, to ensure they do not rise with the air transport growth, experts recommend creating a robust culture of collecting information from employees without blame.
== Regulators ==
Directorate- General of Civil Aviation, India.
Civil Aviation Authority (United Kingdom)
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government (Australia)
European Aviation Safety Agency
Federal Aviation Administration (United States)
Federal Aviation Regulations
Irish Aviation Authority
Transport Canada
Directorate General of Civil Aviation (Indonesia)
== See also ==
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Aviation safety network database
10 Plane Crashes That Changed Aviation
Safety Behaviours – a guide for pilots (comprehensive human factors information)
NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS)
Latest Aviation Safety Occurrences at the Aviation Safety Network
Aviation Safety: Advancements Being Pursued to Improve Airliner Cabin Occupant Safety and Health, 2003 |
Dassault Aviation | Dassault Aviation SA (French pronunciation: [da.so]) is a French manufacturer of military aircraft and business jets. It was founded in 1929 by Marcel Bloch as Société des Avions Marcel Bloch (Marcel Bloch Aircraft Company). After World War II, Marcel Bloch changed his name to Marcel Dassault, and the name of the company was changed to Avions Marcel Dassault on 20 January 1947.
In 1971 Dassault acquired Breguet, forming Avions Marcel Dassault-Breguet Aviation (AMD-BA). In 1990 the company was renamed Dassault Aviation, and is a subsidiary of Dassault Group.
Dassault Aviation has been headed by Éric Trappier since 9 January 2013.
== History ==
The Société des Avions Marcel Bloch was founded by Marcel Bloch in 1929. In 1935 Bloch and Henry Potez entered into an agreement to buy Société Aérienne Bordelaise (SAB), subsequently renamed Société Aéronautique du Sud-Ouest. In 1936 the arms industry in France was nationalised as the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Ouest (SNCASO). Marcel Bloch was asked to act as delegated administrator of the Minister for Air. During the occupation of France by Nazi Germany the country's aviation industry was virtually disbanded. Marcel Bloch was imprisoned by the Vichy government in October 1940. In 1944 Bloch was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp by the German occupiers where he remained until it was liberated on 11 April 1945.
On 10 November 1945, at an extraordinary general meeting of the Société Anonyme des Avions Marcel Bloch the company voted to change its form to a limited liability entity, Société des Avions Marcel Bloch, which was to be a holding company. On 20 January 1947 Société des Avions Marcel Bloch became Société des Avions Marcel Dassault to reflect the name adopted by its owner.
In 1954, Dassault established an electronics division (by 1962 named Electronique Marcel Dassault), the first action of which was to begin the development of airborne radars, soon followed by seeker heads for air-to-air missiles, navigation, and bombing aids. From the 1950s to late 1970s exports become a major part of Dassault's business, major successes were the Dassault Mirage series and the Mystere-Falcon.
In 1965 and 1966, the French government stressed to its various defense suppliers the need to specialize to maintain viable companies. Dassault was to specialise in combat and business aircraft, Nord Aviation in ballistic missiles and Sud Aviation civil and military transport aircraft and helicopters. (Nord Aviation and Sud Aviation would merge in 1970 to form Aérospatiale which would itself later merge with 2 other firms and become EADS (now Airbus)).
On 27 June 1967, Dassault (at the urging of the French government) acquired 66% of Breguet Aviation. Under the merger deal Société des Avions Marcel Dassault was dissolved on 14 December 1971, with its assets vested in Breguet, to be renamed Avions Marcel Dassault-Breguet Aviation (AMD-BA).
Dassault Systèmes was established in 1981 to develop and market Dassault's CAD program, CATIA. Dassault Systèmes was to become a market leader in this field.
In 1979 the French government took a 20% share in Dassault and established the Societé de Gestion de Participations Aéronautiques (SOGEPA) to manage this and an indirect 25% share in Aerospatiale (the government also held a direct 75% share in that company). In 1998 the French government transferred its shares in Dassault Aviation (45.76%) to Aerospatiale. On 10 July 2000, Aérospatiale-Matra merged with other European companies to form EADS (presently Airbus).
In 2000 Serge Dassault resigned as chairman and was succeeded by Charles Edelstenne. Serge Dassault was appointed honorary chairman. The American company Atlantic Aviation based in Wilmington, Delaware, was acquired in October 2000.
Airbus sold some of its ownership back to Dassault in 2014, and further reduced its share to 27% in 2015 then to 10% in 2016.
In April 2024, it was announced that Serbia would sign a deal with Dassault worth £3 billion. This was the largest weapons deal in Serbian history.
== Subsidiaries ==
Sogitec, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dassault, makes advanced avionics simulation, 3D imaging, military flight simulators, and document imaging systems.
== Products ==
=== Military ===
Breguet family See main article: Dassault Breguet
MD 315 Flamant, 1947
MD 450 Ouragan, 1951
Mystère, 1951
MD 452 Mystère I, II, III (a one-off MD-452 nightfighter), 1951
MD 454 Mystère IV, 1952
Super Mystère, 1955
MMD 550 Mystère-Delta, 1955 prototype
Étendard, 1956
Étendard II, 1956
Étendard IV, 1958
Super Étendard, 1974
Mirage series:
Mirage III, 1956
Mirage IV (strategic bomber), 1959
Mirage IIIV, (1965–1966)
Mirage 5, 1967
Mirage F1, 1966
Mirage F2, 1966 (Prototype)
Mirage G, 1967
Mirage G-4/G-8, 1971
Mirage 2000, 1978
Mirage 2000N/2000D 1986
Mirage 4000, 1979 (Prototype)
Mirage 50, 1979
Mirage III NG, 1982
Cavalier MD 610 – VSTOL concept, 1959
MD 410 Spirale, 1960
Balzac V, 1962 VSTOL
Atlantique (ATL 1, originally a Breguet product), 1965
Milan, 1968
MD 320 Hirondelle, 1968 (light military utility aircraft, only 1 prototype was built)
Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet (Joint venture with Dornier) 1973
SEPECAT Jaguar (50/50 joint venture with BAC) begun within Breguet, 1973
Falcon Guardian 1, 1977
Falcon Guardian 2, 1981
Atlantique 2 (ATL 2), 1982
Rafale, 1986
AVE-D, (experimental, first flight 2000)
nEUROn, (experimental, first flight 2012)
New Generation Fighter, (Rafale replacement)
=== Civilian ===
Breguet family See main article: Dassault Breguet
Falcon family
Falcon 10 (Falcon 100 Upgraded Version)
Falcon 20 (Falcon 200 upgraded version)
Falcon 30 (Mystère 30) (30-seat airliner prototype)
Falcon 40 (Mystère 40) (40-seat airliner proposal)
Falcon 50
Falcon 900
Falcon 2000
Falcon 6X
Falcon 7X (originally Falcon FNX)
Falcon 8X
Falcon 10X (in development)
Mercure – The only commercial airliner that ever flew made directly by Dassault Aviation. Designed to compete with Boeing 737. Only 12 units ever built.
Communauté – Only 1 prototype was built.
== Facilities and offices ==
=== Production ===
St. Cloud – c. 1938 former engine and fighter plant now heavy-duty simulation systems, and technical branch headquarters
Argenteuil - c. 1952
Biarritz – acquired Breguet plant 1971
Merignac - c. 1947
Talence - operating from 1939 to 1947
Lorraine – c. 1951 as rented facility before moved to Argenteuil
Nagpur – a Joint Venture with Reliance Aerostructure Limited operating as Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL), at MIHAN at Nagpur airport, Maharashtra, India. The facility supplies parts for Dassault Falcon family and Dassault Rafale.
=== Service Facilities ===
United States, France, China, Brazil
Noida : Dassault Aviation is setting up a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in India under a subsidiary of Dassault Aviation Maintenance Repair Overhaul India (DAMROI) for Dassault Mirage 2000 and Dassault Rafale fleet of the Indian Air Force as well as that of the Indonesian Air Force. SEPECAT Jaguar can also be provided service if required though the fleet is nearing the end of its service.
=== Sales Offices ===
China, Greece, Malaysia, Oman, Russia, Taiwan
=== DAS Network ===
Paraguay and United States
== See also ==
Dassault Group
Dassault Falcon
Dassault Rafale
Mirage 2000
nEUROn
== References ==
Dassault Aviation History, 1916 to this day. Accessed 5 January 2006.
== External links ==
Official website |
Aviation engineering | Aviation engineering is a branch of engineering that deals with airspace development, airport design, aircraft navigation technologies, and aerodrome planning. It also involves the formulation of public policy, regulations, aviation laws pertaining to airspace, airlines, airports, aerodromes and the conduct of air services agreements through treaty.
This branch of engineering is distinct from aerospace engineering which deals with the development of aircraft and spacecraft.
== Airspace development ==
The global airspace is divided into territorial airspace which then belongs to a country. Generally, airspace has to be engineered to benefit both military and civil users. Planning and designing airspace is important so as not to affect military operations and in order to designate air routes for commercial airlines to navigate freely without intervention by military authorities. For instance, not all of China can be used for commercial aeronautical navigation. Certain airspaces are designated as military-use only. Navigating outside commercial airspaces in the country may lead to the risk of the astrayed aircraft.
In prior years, airspace has been limited to military and airmail services. The advancement in aerospace engineering brought to fore aircraft designs that lead to the development of commercial airliners. Governments around the world concluded air rights for their respective airlines and their corresponding aircraft. The government saw the economic potential of airspace as a state enterprise. This rise in the development of commercial aviation led to the study of the complexities of aircraft (plane) management, airport design and construction, international air services agreements (treaties).
In recent years, the global airline industry has demanded that China should reform its aviation policies.
== Airport design ==
Recent designs of airports have been engineered to align with global environmental standards. Advancement in civil engineering and architecture make an interplay of the two disciplines.
== Career ==
Governments around the world hire aviation engineers for all sorts of reasons. In the United States, federal, state and local agencies all commonly employ aviation engineers for agencies such as the Department of Transportation. The Federal Aviation Administration, which is in charge of controlling aircraft navigation throughout the whole nation, maintaining navigation, licensing and certification for aviation engineers. FAA employs many aviation engineers to work on research and development problems, noise pollution and hypersonic aircraft among other things.
Engineers are heavily involved in improving aviation technologies to support the advancement of military and commercial aviation. Aviation engineers are often employed in aerospace machine shops specializing in the technological advancement of aircraft parts and equipment. These shops produce aircraft components such as electrical connectors, oxygen generation systems, landing gear assemblies, and other pieces that require special attention.
Aviation engineers do more than work on planes. Aviation engineers also play a large role in airport design. They provide guidance for the construction and daily running of the airports, as well as help in the operation and maintenance.
== References == |
Naval aviation | Naval aviation / Aeronaval is the application of military air power by navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases.
It often involves navalised aircraft, specifically designed for naval use.
Seaborne aviation encompasses similar activities not restricted to navies, including marines and coast guards, such as in U.S. naval aviators.
Naval aviation units are typically projected to a position nearer the target by way of an aircraft carrier. Carrier-based aircraft must be sturdy enough to withstand the demands of carrier operations. They must be able to launch in a short distance and be sturdy and flexible enough to come to a sudden stop on a pitching flight deck; they typically have robust folding mechanisms that allow higher numbers of them to be stored in below-decks hangars and small spaces on flight decks. These aircraft are designed for many purposes, including air-to-air combat, surface attack, submarine attack, search and rescue, matériel transport, weather observation, reconnaissance and wide area command and control duties.
Naval helicopters can be used for many of the same missions as fixed-wing aircraft while operating from aircraft carriers, helicopter carriers, destroyers and frigates.
== History ==
=== Establishment ===
Early experiments on the use of kites for naval reconnaissance took place in 1903 at Woolwich Common for the Admiralty. Samuel Franklin Cody demonstrated the capabilities of his 8-foot-long black kite and it was proposed for use as either a mechanism to hold up wires for wireless communications or as a manned reconnaissance device that would give the viewer the advantage of considerable height.
In 1908 Prime Minister H. H. Asquith approved the formation of an "Aerial Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence" to investigate the potential for naval aviation. In 1909 this body accepted the proposal of Captain Reginald Bacon made to the First Sea Lord Sir John Fisher that rigid airships should be constructed for the Royal Navy to be used for reconnaissance. This resulted in the construction of Mayfly in 1909, the first air component of the navy to become operational, and the genesis of modern naval aviation.
The first pilots for the Royal Navy were transferred from the Royal Aero Club in June 1910 along with two aircraft with which to train new pilots, and an airfield at Eastchurch became the Naval Flying School, the first such facility in the world. Two hundred applications were received, and four were accepted: Lieutenant C R Samson, Lieutenant A M Longmore, Lieutenant A Gregory and Captain E L Gerrard, RMLI.
The French also established a naval aviation capability in 1910 with the establishment of the Service Aeronautique and the first flight training schools.
U.S. naval aviation began with pioneer aviator Glenn Curtiss who contracted with the United States Navy to demonstrate that airplanes could take off from and land aboard ships at sea. One of his pilots, Eugene Ely, took off from the cruiser USS Birmingham anchored off the Virginia coast in November 1910. Two months later Ely landed aboard another cruiser, USS Pennsylvania, in San Francisco Bay, proving the concept of shipboard operations. However, the platforms erected on those vessels were temporary measures. The U.S. Navy and Glenn Curtiss experienced two firsts during January 1911. On 27 January, Curtiss flew the first seaplane from the water at San Diego Bay and the next day U.S. Navy Lt. Theodore G. Ellyson, a student at the nearby Curtiss School, took off in a Curtiss "grass cutter" plane to become the first naval aviator.
$25,000 was appropriated for the Bureau of Navigation (United States Navy) to purchase three airplanes and in the spring of 1911 four additional officers were trained as pilots by the Wright brothers and Curtiss. A camp with a primitive landing field was established on the Severn River at Greenbury Point, near Annapolis, Maryland. The vision of the aerial fleet was for scouting. Each aircraft would have a pilot and observer. The observer would use the wireless radio technology to report on enemy ships. Some thoughts were given to deliver counterattacks on hostile aircraft using "explosives or other means". Using airplanes to bomb ships was seen as largely impractical at the time. CAPT Washington Irving Chambers felt it was much easier to defend against airplanes than mines or torpedoes. The wireless radio was cumbersome (greater than 50 pounds), but the technology was improving. Experiments were underway for the first ICS (pilot to observer comms) using headsets, as well as connecting the observer to the radio. The navy tested both telephones and voice tubes for ICS. As of August 1911, Italy was the only other navy known to be adapting hydroplanes for naval use.
The group expanded with the addition of six aviators in 1912 and five in 1913, from both the Navy and Marine Corps, and conducted maneuvers with the Fleet from the battleship USS Mississippi, designated as the Navy's aviation ship. Meanwhile, Captain Henry C. Mustin successfully tested the concept of the catapult launch in August 1912, and in 1915 made the first catapult launching from a ship underway. The first permanent naval air station was established at Pensacola, Florida, in January 1914 with Mustin as its commanding officer. On April 24 of that year, and for a period of approximately 45 days afterward, five floatplanes and flying boats flown by ten aviators operated from Mississippi and the cruiser Birmingham off Veracruz and Tampico, Mexico, respectively, conducting reconnaissance for troops ashore in the wake of the Tampico Affair.
In January 1912, the British battleship HMS Africa took part in aircraft experiments at Sheerness. She was fitted for flying off aircraft with a 100-foot (30 m) downward-sloping runway which was installed on her foredeck, running over her forward 12-inch (305 mm) gun turret from her forebridge to her bow and equipped with rails to guide the aircraft. The Gnome-engined Short Improved S.27 "S.38", pusher seaplane piloted by Lieutenant Charles Samson become the first British aircraft to take-off from a ship while at anchor in the River Medway, on 10 January 1912. Africa then transferred her flight equipment to her sister ship Hibernia.
In May 1912, with Commander Samson again flying the "S.38", the first ever instance of an aircraft to take off from a ship which was under way occurred. Hibernia steamed at 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph) at the Royal Fleet Review in Weymouth Bay, England. Hibernia then transferred her aviation equipment to battleship London. Based on these experiments, the Royal Navy concluded that aircraft were useful aboard ship for spotting and other purposes, but that interference with the firing of guns caused by the runway built over the foredeck and the danger and impracticality of recovering seaplanes that alighted in the water in anything but calm weather more than offset the desirability of having airplanes aboard. In 1912, the nascent naval air detachment in the United Kingdom was amalgamated to form the Royal Flying Corps and in 1913 a seaplane base on the Isle of Grain, an airship base at Kingsnorth and eight new airfields were approved for construction. The first aircraft participation in naval manoeuvres took place in 1913 with the cruiser Hermes converted into a seaplane carrier. In 1914, naval aviation was split again, and became the Royal Naval Air Service. However, shipboard naval aviation had begun in the Royal Navy, and would become a major part of fleet operations by 1917.
Other early operators of seaplanes were Germany, within its Marine-Fliegerabteilung naval aviation units within the Kaiserliche Marine, and Russia. In May 1913 Germany established a naval zeppelin detachment in Berlin-Johannisthal and an airplane squadron in Putzig (Puck, Poland). The Japanese established the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, modelled on the RNAS, in 1913. On 24 January 1913 came the first wartime naval aviation interservice cooperation mission. Greek pilots on a seaplane observed and drew a diagram of the positions of the Turkish fleet against which they dropped four bombs. This event was widely commented upon in the press, both Greek and international.
=== World War I ===
At the outbreak of war the Royal Naval Air Service had 93 aircraft, six airships, two balloons and 727 personnel, making it larger than the Royal Flying Corps. The main roles of the RNAS were fleet reconnaissance, patrolling coasts for enemy ships and submarines, attacking enemy coastal territory and defending Britain from enemy air-raids, along with deployment along the Western Front. In 1914 the first aerial torpedo was dropped in trials performed in a Short "Folder" by Lieutenant (later Air Chief Marshal Sir) Arthur Longmore, and in August 1915, a Short Type 184 piloted by Flight Commander Charles Edmonds from HMS Ben-my-Chree sank a Turkish supply ship in the Sea of Marmara with a 14-inch-diameter (360 mm), 810-pound (370 kg) torpedo.
The first strike from a seaplane carrier against a land target as well as a sea target took place in September 1914 when the Imperial Japanese Navy carrier Wakamiya conducted ship-launched air raids from Kiaochow Bay during the Battle of Tsingtao in China. The four Maurice Farman seaplanes bombarded German-held land targets (communication centers and command centers) and damaged a German minelayer in the Tsingtao peninsula from September until 6 November 1914, when the Germans surrendered. One Japanese plane was credited being shot down by the German aviator Gunther Plüschow in an Etrich Taube, using his pistol.
On the Western front the first naval air raid occurred on 25 December 1914 when twelve seaplanes from HMS Engadine, Riviera and Empress (cross-channel steamers converted into seaplane carriers) attacked the Zeppelin base at Cuxhaven. The raid was not a complete success, owing to sub-optimal weather conditions, including fog and low cloud, but the raid was able to conclusively demonstrate the feasibility of air-to-land strikes from a naval platform. Two German airships were destroyed at the Tøndern base on July 19, 1918, by seven Sopwith Camels launched from the carrier HMS Furious.
In August 1914 Germany operated 20 planes and one Zeppelin, another 15 planes were confiscated. They operated from bases in Germany and Flanders (Belgium). On 19 August 1918 several British torpedo boats were sunk by 10 German planes near Heligoland. These are considered as the first naval units solely destroyed by airplanes. During the war the German "Marineflieger" claimed the destruction of 270 enemy planes, 6 balloons, 2 airships, 1 Russian destroyer, 4 merchant ships, 3 submarines, 4 torpedo boats and 12 vehicles, for the loss of 170 German sea and land planes as well as 9 vehicles. Notable Marineflieger aces were Gotthard Sachsenberg (31 victories), Alexander Zenzes (18 victories), Friedrich Christiansen (13 victories, 1 airship and 1 submarine), Karl Meyer (8 victories), Karl Scharon (8 victories), and Hans Goerth (7 victories).
=== Development of the aircraft carrier ===
The need for a more mobile strike capacity led to the development of the aircraft carrier - the backbone of modern naval aviation. HMS Ark Royal was the first purpose-built seaplane carrier and was also arguably the first modern aircraft carrier. She was originally laid down as a merchant ship, but was converted on the building stocks to be a hybrid airplane/seaplane carrier with a launch platform and the capacity to hold up to four wheeled aircraft. Launched on 5 September 1914, she served in the Dardanelles campaign and throughout World War I.
During World War I the Royal Navy also used HMS Furious to experiment with the use of wheeled aircraft on ships. This ship was reconstructed three times between 1915 and 1925: first, while still under construction, it was modified to receive a flight deck on the fore-deck; in 1917 it was reconstructed with separate flight decks fore and aft of the superstructure; then finally, after the war, it was heavily reconstructed with a three-quarter length main flight deck, and a lower-level take-off only flight deck on the fore-deck.
On 2 August 1917, Squadron Commander E.H. Dunning, Royal Navy, landed his Sopwith Pup aircraft on Furious in Scapa Flow, Orkney, becoming the first person to land a plane on a moving ship. He was killed five days later during another landing on Furious.
HMS Argus was converted from an ocean liner and became the first example of what is now the standard pattern of aircraft carrier, with a full-length flight deck that allowed wheeled aircraft to take off and land. After commissioning, the ship was heavily involved for several years in the development of the optimum design for other aircraft carriers. Argus also evaluated various types of arresting gear, general procedures needed to operate a number of aircraft in concert, and fleet tactics.
The Tondern raid, a British bombing raid against the Imperial German Navy's airship base at Tønder, Denmark was the first attack in history made by aircraft flying from a carrier flight deck, with seven Sopwith Camels launched from HMS Furious. For the loss of one man, the British destroyed two German zeppelins, L.54 and L.60 and a captive balloon.
=== Interwar period ===
Genuine aircraft carriers did not emerge beyond Britain until the early 1920s.
The Japanese Hōshō (1921) was the world's first purpose-built aircraft carrier, although the initial plans and laying down for HMS Hermes (1924) had begun earlier. Both Hōshō and Hermes initially boasted the two most distinctive features of a modern aircraft carrier: a full-length flight deck and a starboard-side control tower island. Both continued to be adjusted in the light of further experimentation and experience, however: Hōshō even opted to remove its island entirely in favor of a less obstructed flight deck and improved pilot visibility. Instead, Japanese carriers opted to control their flight operations from a platform extending from the side of the flight deck.
In the United States, Admiral William Benson attempted to entirely dissolve the USN's Naval Aeronautics program in 1919. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt and others succeeded in maintaining it, but the service continued to support battleship-based doctrines. To counter Billy Mitchell's campaign to establish a separate Department of Aeronautics, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels ordered a rigged test against USS Indiana in 1920 which reached the conclusion that "the entire experiment pointed to the improbability of a modern battleship being either destroyed or completely put out of action by aerial bombs." Investigation by the New-York Tribune that discovered the rigging led to Congressional resolutions compelling more honest studies. The sinking of SMS Ostfriesland involved violating the Navy's rules of engagement but completely vindicated Mitchell to the public. Some men, such as Captain (soon Rear Admiral) William A. Moffett, saw the publicity stunt as a means to increase funding and support for the Navy's aircraft carrier projects. Moffett was sure that he had to move decisively in order to avoid having his fleet air arm fall into the hands of a proposed combined Land/Sea Air Force which took care of all the United States's airpower needs. (That very fate had befallen the two air services of the United Kingdom in 1918: the Royal Flying Corps had been combined with the Royal Naval Air Service to become the Royal Air Force, a condition which would remain until 1937.) Moffett supervised the development of naval air tactics throughout the '20s. The first aircraft carrier entered the U.S. fleet with the conversion of the collier USS Jupiter and its recommissioning as USS Langley in 1922.
Many British naval vessels carried float planes, seaplanes or amphibians for reconnaissance and spotting: two to four on battleships or battlecruisers and one on cruisers. The aircraft, a Fairey Seafox or later a Supermarine Walrus, were catapult-launched, and landed on the sea alongside for recovery by crane. Several submarine aircraft carriers were built by Japan, each carrying one floatplane, which did not prove effective in war. The French Navy built one large submarine, Surcouf, which also carried one floatplane, and was also not effective in war.
=== World War II ===
World War II saw the emergence of naval aviation as the decisive element in the war at sea. The principal users were Japan, United States (both with Pacific interests to protect) and Britain. Germany, the Soviet Union, France and Italy had a lesser involvement. Soviet Naval Aviation was mostly organised as land-based coastal defense force (apart from some scout floatplanes it consisted almost exclusively of land-based types also used by its air arms).
During the course of the war, seaborne aircraft were used in fleet actions at sea (Midway, Bismarck), strikes against naval units in port (Taranto, Pearl Harbor), support of ground forces (Okinawa, Allied invasion of Italy) and anti-submarine warfare (the Battle of the Atlantic). Carrier-based aircraft were specialised as dive bombers, torpedo bombers, and fighters. Surface-based aircraft such as the PBY Catalina helped finding submarines and surface fleets.
In World War II the aircraft carrier replaced the battleship as the most powerful naval offensive weapons system as battles between fleets were increasingly fought out of gun range by aircraft. The Japanese Yamato, the heaviest battleship ever built, was first turned back by light escort carrier aircraft and later sunk lacking its own air cover.
During the Doolittle Raid of 1942, 16 Army medium bombers were launched from the carrier Hornet on one-way missions to bomb Japan. All were lost to fuel exhaustion after bombing their targets and the experiment was not repeated. Smaller carriers were built in large numbers to escort slow cargo convoys or supplement fast carriers. Aircraft for observation or light raids were also carried by battleships and cruisers, while blimps were used to search for attack submarines.
Experience showed that there was a need for widespread use of aircraft which could not be met quickly enough by building new fleet aircraft carriers. This was particularly true in the North Atlantic, where convoys were highly vulnerable to U-boat attack. The British authorities used unorthodox, temporary, but effective means of giving air protection such as CAM ships and merchant aircraft carriers, merchant ships modified to carry a small number of aircraft. The solution to the problem were large numbers of mass-produced merchant hulls converted into escort aircraft carriers (also known as "jeep carriers"). These basic vessels, unsuited to fleet action by their capacity, speed and vulnerability, nevertheless provided air cover where it was needed.
The Royal Navy had observed the impact of naval aviation and, obliged to prioritise their use of resources, abandoned battleships as the mainstay of the fleet. HMS Vanguard was therefore the last British battleship and her sisters were cancelled. The United States had already instigated a large construction programme (which was also cut short) but these large ships were mainly used as anti-aircraft batteries or for shore bombardment.
Other actions involving naval aviation included:
Battle of the Atlantic, aircraft carried by low-cost escort carriers were used for antisubmarine patrol, defense, and attack.
At the start of the Pacific War in 1941, Japanese carrier-based aircraft sank many US warships during the attack on Pearl Harbor and land-based aircraft sank two large British warships. Engagements between Japanese and American naval fleets were then conducted largely or entirely by aircraft - examples include the battles of Coral Sea, Midway, Bismarck Sea and Philippine Sea.
Battle of Leyte Gulf, with the first appearance of kamikazes, perhaps the largest naval battle in history. Japan's last carriers and pilots are deliberately sacrificed, a battleship is sunk by aircraft.
Operation Ten-Go demonstrated U.S. air supremacy in the Pacific theater by this stage in the war and the vulnerability of surface ships without air cover to aerial attack.
=== Post-war developments ===
Jet aircraft were used on aircraft carriers after the War. The first jet landing on a carrier was made by Lt Cdr Eric 'Winkle' Brown who landed on HMS Ocean in the specially modified de Havilland Vampire (registration LZ551/G) on 3 December 1945. Following the introduction of angled flight decks, jets were regularly operating from carriers by the mid-1950s.
An important development of the early 1950s was the British invention of the angled flight deck by Capt D.R.F. Campbell RN in conjunction with Lewis Boddington of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. The runway was canted at an angle of a few degrees from the longitudinal axis of the ship. If an aircraft missed the arrestor cables (referred to as a "bolter"), the pilot only needed to increase engine power to maximum to get airborne again, and would not hit the parked aircraft because the angled deck pointed out over the sea. The angled flight deck was first tested on HMS Triumph, by painting angled deck markings onto the centerline flight deck for touch and go landings. The modern steam-powered catapult, powered by steam from a ship's boilers or reactors, was invented by Commander C.C. Mitchell of the Royal Naval Reserve. It was widely adopted following trials on HMS Perseus between 1950 and 1952 which showed it to be more powerful and reliable than the hydraulic catapults which had been introduced in the 1940s. The first Optical Landing System, the Mirror Landing Aid was invented by Lieutenant Commander H. C. N. Goodhart RN. The first trials of a mirror landing sight were conducted on HMS Illustrious in 1952.
The US Navy built the first aircraft carrier to be powered by nuclear reactors. USS Enterprise was powered by eight nuclear reactors and was the second surface warship (after USS Long Beach) to be powered in this way. The post-war years also saw the development of the helicopter, with a variety of useful roles and mission capability aboard aircraft carriers and other naval ships. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United Kingdom and the United States converted some older carriers into Commando Carriers or Landing Platform Helicopters (LPH); seagoing helicopter airfields like HMS Bulwark. To mitigate the expensive connotations of the term "aircraft carrier", the Invincible-class carriers were originally designated as "through deck cruisers" and were initially to operate as helicopter-only craft escort carriers.
The arrival of the Sea Harrier VTOL/STOVL fast jet meant that the Invincible-class could carry fixed-wing aircraft, despite their short flight decks. The British also introduced the ski-jump ramp as an alternative to contemporary catapult systems. As the Royal Navy retired or sold the last of its World War II-era carriers, they were replaced with smaller ships designed to operate helicopters and the V/STOVL Sea Harrier jet. The ski-jump gave the Harriers an enhanced STOVL capability, allowing them to take off with heavier payloads.
In 2013, the US Navy completed the first successful catapult launch and arrested landing of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aboard an aircraft carrier. After a decade of research and planning, the US Navy has been testing the integration of UAVs with carrier-based forces since 2013, using the experimental Northrop Grumman X-47B, and is working to procure a fleet of carrier-based UAVs, referred to as the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) system.
== Roles ==
Naval aviation forces primarily perform naval roles at sea. However, they are also used for other tasks which vary between states. Common roles for such forces include:
=== Fleet air defense ===
Carrier-based naval aviation provides a country's seagoing forces with air cover over areas that may not be reachable by land-based aircraft, giving them a considerable advantage over navies composed primarily of surface combatants.
=== Strategic projection ===
Naval aviation also provides countries with the opportunity to deploy military aircraft over land and sea, without the need for air bases on land.
=== Mine countermeasures ===
Aircraft may be used to conduct naval mine clearance, the aircraft tows a sled through the water but is itself at a significant distance from the water, hopefully putting itself out of harm's way. Aircraft include the MH-53E and AW101.
=== Anti-surface warfare ===
Aircraft operated by navies are also used in the anti-surface warfare (ASUW or ASuW) role, to attack enemy ships and other, surface combatants. This is generally conducted using air-launched anti-ship missiles.
=== Amphibious warfare ===
Naval aviation is also used as part of amphibious warfare. Aircraft based on naval ships provide support to marines and other forces performing amphibious landings. Ship-based aircraft may also be used to support amphibious forces as they move inland.
=== Maritime patrol ===
Naval aircraft are used for various maritime patrol missions, such as reconnaissance, search and rescue, and maritime law enforcement.
=== Vertical replenishment ===
Vertical replenishment (VERTREP) is a method of supplying naval vessels at sea, by helicopter. This means moving cargo and supplies from supply ships to the flight decks of other naval vessels using naval helicopters.
=== Anti-submarine warfare ===
During the Cold War, the navies of NATO faced a significant threat from Soviet submarine forces, specifically Soviet Navy SSN and SSGN assets. This resulted in the development and deployment of light aircraft carriers with major anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities by European NATO navies. One of the most effective weapons against submarines is the ASW helicopter, several of which could be based on these light ships. These carriers are typically around 20,000 tons displacement and carry a mix of ASW helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. Land-based maritime patrol aircraft are also useful in this role, since they can operate independently of aircraft carriers.
=== Disaster relief ===
Naval aircraft are used to airlift supplies, insert specialized personnel (e.g. medical staff, relief workers), and evacuate persons in distress in the aftermath of natural disasters. Naval aircraft are vital in cases where traditional infrastructure to provide relief are destroyed or overtaxed in the wake of a disaster, such as when a region's airport is destroyed or overcrowded and the region cannot be effectively accessed by road or helicopter. The capability of ships to provide clean, fresh water which can be transported by helicopter to affected areas is also valuable. Naval aircraft played an important part in providing relief in the wake of the 2010 Haiti earthquake and Typhoon Haiyan.
== List of naval aviation units ==
=== Current ===
Argentine Naval Aviation (Argentine Navy)
Fleet Air Arm (RAN) (Royal Australian Navy)
Bangladesh Naval Aviation (Bangladesh Navy)
Brazilian Naval Aviation (Brazilian Navy)
People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force (Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy)
Republic of China Naval Aviation Command (Republic of China Navy)
Chilean Navy Aviation (Chilean Navy)
Colombian Naval Aviation (Colombian Navy)
Department of Aviation (United States Marine Corps)
Flotilla de Aeronaves (FLOAN) (Spanish Navy)
French Naval Aviation (French Navy)
Marineflieger (German Navy)
Navy Aviation Command (Hellenic Navy)
Indian Naval Air Arm (Indian Navy)
Indonesian Naval Aviation Center (Indonesian Navy)
Islamic Republic of Iran Navy Aviation (Islamic Republic of Iran Navy)
Italian Naval Aviation (Italian Navy)
Fleet Air Force (Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force)
Air Wing Six (Republic of Korea Navy)
Royal Malaysian Navy Aviation (Royal Malaysian Navy)
Mexican Naval Aviation (Mexican Navy) * Aviacion Naval Espanola (Spanish Navy)
Pakistan Naval Air Arm (Pakistan Navy)
Peruvian Naval Aviation (Peruvian Navy)
Polish Naval Aviation (Polish Navy)
Portuguese Naval Aviation (Portuguese Navy)
Russian Naval Aviation (Russian Navy)
Royal Thai Naval Air Division (Royal Thai Navy)
Turkish Naval Aviation (Turkish Navy)
Ukrainian Naval Aviation (Ukrainian Navy)
Fleet Air Arm (United Kingdom Royal Navy)
United States Naval Air Forces (United States Navy)
Naval Air Force, Vietnam People's Navy (Vietnam People's Navy)
=== Former ===
K.u.K. Seefliegerkorps (Austro-Hungarian Navy)
Naval Air Service (Greece) (Greece Navy)
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (Imperial Japanese Navy)
Netherlands Naval Aviation Service (Royal Netherlands Navy)
Royal Naval Air Service (UK Royal Navy)
Soviet Naval Aviation (Soviet Navy)
== See also ==
Aerial warfare
Army aviation
List of naval air forces
Military aviation
Modern United States Navy carrier air operations
Naval air squadron
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Grosnick, Roy A. United States Naval Aviation 1910 - 1995 (4th ed. 1997) partly online. Full text (775 pages) public domain edition is also available online Archived 2014-12-16 at the Wayback Machine.
Ireland, Bernard. The History of Aircraft Carriers: An authoritative guide to 100 years of aircraft carrier development (2008)
Polmar, Norman. Aircraft carriers;: A graphic history of carrier aviation and its influence on world events (1969)
Polmar, Norman. Aircraft Carriers: A History of Carrier Aviation and Its Influence on World Events (2nd ed. 2 vol 2006)
Polmar, Norman, ed. Historic Naval Aircraft: The Best of "Naval History" Magazine (2004)
Smith, Douglas, V. One Hundred Years of U.S. Navy Air Power (2010)
Trimble, William F. Hero of the Air: Glenn Curtiss and the Birth of Naval Aviation (2010)
=== World War II ===
King, Dan, ed. The Last Zero Fighter: Firsthand Accounts from WWII Japanese Naval Pilots (2012) excerpt and text search
Lundstrom, John B. The First Team: Pacific Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway (2005) excerpt and text search
Reynolds, Clark G., The fast carriers: the forging of an air navy (3rd ed. 1992)
Reynolds, Clark G. On the Warpath in the Pacific: Admiral Jocko Clark and the Fast Carriers (2005) excerpt and text search
Symonds, Craig L. The Battle of Midway (2011) excerpt and text search
Tillman, Barrett. Enterprise: America's Fightingest Ship and the Men Who Helped Win World War II (2012) excerpt and text search
== External links ==
Media related to Naval aviation at Wikimedia Commons
United States Naval Aviation 1910-1995 Archived 2014-12-16 at the Wayback Machine - A comprehensive history from the U.S. Naval Historical Center |
Federal Aviation Administration | The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a U.S. federal government agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in the United States and surrounding international waters.: 12, 16 Its powers include air traffic control, certification of personnel and aircraft, setting standards for airports, and protection of U.S. assets during the launch or re-entry of commercial space vehicles. Powers over neighboring international waters were delegated to the FAA by authority of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
The FAA was created in August 1958 (1958-08) as the Federal Aviation Agency, replacing the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA). In 1967, the FAA became part of the newly formed U.S. Department of Transportation and was renamed the Federal Aviation Administration.
== Major functions ==
The FAA's roles include:
Regulating U.S. commercial space transportation
Regulating air navigation facilities' geometric and flight inspection standards
Encouraging and developing civil aeronautics, including new aviation technology
Issuing, suspending, or revoking pilot certificates
Regulating civil aviation to promote transportation safety in the United States, especially through local offices called Flight Standards District Offices
Developing and operating a system of air traffic control and navigation for both civil and military aircraft
Researching and developing the National Airspace System and civil aeronautics
Developing and carrying out programs to control aircraft noise and other environmental effects of civil aviation
== Organizations ==
The FAA operates five "lines of business". Their functions are:
Air Traffic Organization (ATO): provides air navigation service within the National Airspace System. In ATO, employees operate air traffic control facilities comprising Airport Traffic Control Towers (ATCT), Terminal Radar Approach Control Facilities (TRACONs), and Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC).
Aviation Safety (AVS): responsible for aeronautical certification of personnel and aircraft, including pilots, airlines, and mechanics.
Airports (ARP): plans and develops the national airport system; oversees standards for airport safety, inspection, design, construction, and operation. The office awards $3.5 billion annually in grants for airport planning and development.
Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST): ensures protection of U.S. assets during the launch or reentry of commercial space vehicles.
Security and Hazardous Materials Safety (ASH): responsible for risk reduction of terrorism and other crimes and for investigations, materials safety, infrastructure protection, and personnel security.
== Regions and Aeronautical Center operations ==
The FAA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and also operates the William J. Hughes Technical Center near Atlantic City, New Jersey, for support and research, and the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for training. The FAA has nine regional administrative offices:
Alaskan Region – Anchorage, Alaska
Northwest Mountain – Seattle, Washington
Western Pacific – Los Angeles, California
Southwest – Fort Worth, Texas
Central – Kansas City, Missouri
Great Lakes – Chicago, Illinois
Southern – Atlanta, Georgia
Eastern – New York, New York
New England – Boston, Massachusetts
== History ==
=== Background ===
The Air Commerce Act of May 20, 1926, is the cornerstone of the U.S. federal government's regulation of civil aviation. This landmark legislation was passed at the urging of the aviation industry, whose leaders believed the airplane could not reach its full commercial potential without federal action to improve and maintain safety standards. The Act charged the Secretary of Commerce with fostering air commerce, issuing and enforcing air traffic rules, licensing pilots, certifying aircraft, establishing airways, and operating and maintaining aids to air navigation. The newly created Aeronautics Branch, operating under the Department of Commerce assumed primary responsibility for aviation oversight.
In fulfilling its civil aviation responsibilities, the U.S. Department of Commerce initially concentrated on such functions as safety regulations and the certification of pilots and aircraft. It took over the building and operation of the nation's system of lighted airways, a task initiated by the Post Office Department. The Department of Commerce improved aeronautical radio communications—before the founding of the Federal Communications Commission in 1934, which handles most such matters today—and introduced radio beacons as an effective aid to air navigation.
The Aeronautics Branch was renamed the Bureau of Air Commerce in 1934 to reflect its enhanced status within the Department. As commercial flying increased, the Bureau encouraged a group of airlines to establish the first three centers for providing air traffic control (ATC) along the airways. In 1936, the Bureau itself took over the centers and began to expand the ATC system. The pioneer air traffic controllers used maps, blackboards, and mental calculations to ensure the safe separation of aircraft traveling along designated routes between cities.
In 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Act transferred the federal civil aviation responsibilities from the Commerce Department to a new independent agency, the Civil Aeronautics Authority. The legislation also expanded the government's role by giving the CAA the authority and the power to regulate airline fares and to determine the routes that air carriers would serve.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt split the authority into two agencies in 1940: the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) and the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). CAA was responsible for ATC, airman and aircraft certification, safety enforcement, and airway development. CAB was entrusted with safety regulation, accident investigation, and economic regulation of the airlines. The CAA was part of the Department of Commerce. The CAB was an independent federal agency.
On the eve of America's entry into World War II, CAA began to extend its ATC responsibilities to takeoff and landing operations at airports. This expanded role eventually became permanent after the war. The application of radar to ATC helped controllers in their drive to keep abreast of the postwar boom in commercial air transportation. In 1946, meanwhile, Congress gave CAA the added task of administering the federal-aid airport program, the first peacetime program of financial assistance aimed exclusively at development of the nation's civil airports.
=== Formation ===
The approaching era of jet travel (and a series of midair collisions—most notably the 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision) prompted passage of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958. This legislation passed the CAA's functions to a new independent body, the Federal Aviation Agency. The act also transferred air safety regulation from the CAB to the FAA, and gave it sole responsibility for a joint civil-military system of air navigation and air traffic control. The FAA's first administrator, Elwood R. Quesada, was a former Air Force general and adviser to President Eisenhower.
The same year witnessed the birth of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was created in response to the Soviet Union (USSR) launch of the first manmade satellite. NASA assumed NACA's aeronautical research role.
=== 1960s reorganization ===
In 1967, a new U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) combined major federal responsibilities for air and surface transport. The Federal Aviation Agency's name changed to the Federal Aviation Administration as it became one of several agencies (e.g., Federal Highway Administration, Federal Railroad Administration, the Coast Guard, and the Saint Lawrence Seaway Commission) within DOT. The FAA administrator no longer reported directly to the president, but instead to the Secretary of Transportation. New programs and budget requests would have to be approved by DOT, which would then include these requests in the overall budget and submit it to the president.
At the same time, a new National Transportation Safety Board took over the Civil Aeronautics Board's (CAB) role of investigating and determining the causes of transportation accidents and making recommendations to the secretary of transportation. CAB was merged into DOT with its responsibilities limited to the regulation of commercial airline routes and fares.
The FAA gradually assumed additional functions. The hijacking epidemic of the 1960s had already brought the agency into the field of civil aviation security. In response to the hijackings on September 11, 2001, this responsibility is now primarily taken by the Department of Homeland Security. The FAA became more involved with the environmental aspects of aviation in 1968 when it received the power to set aircraft noise standards. Legislation in 1970 gave the agency management of a new airport aid program and certain added responsibilities for airport safety. During the 1960s and 1970s, the FAA also started to regulate high altitude (over 500 feet) kite and balloon flying.
=== 1970s and deregulation ===
By the mid-1970s, the agency had achieved a semi-automated air traffic control system using both radar and computer technology. This system required enhancement to keep pace with air traffic growth, however, especially after the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 phased out the CAB's economic regulation of the airlines. A nationwide strike by the air traffic controllers union in 1981 forced temporary flight restrictions but failed to shut down the airspace system. During the following year, the agency unveiled a new plan for further automating its air traffic control facilities, but progress proved disappointing. In 1994, the FAA shifted to a more step-by-step approach that has provided controllers with advanced equipment.
In 1979, Congress authorized the FAA to work with major commercial airports to define noise pollution contours and investigate the feasibility of noise mitigation by residential retrofit programs. Throughout the 1980s, these charters were implemented.
In the 1990s, satellite technology received increased emphasis in the FAA's development programs as a means to improvements in communications, navigation, and airspace management. In 1995, the agency assumed responsibility for safety oversight of commercial space transportation, a function begun eleven years before by an office within DOT headquarters. The agency was responsible for the decision to ground flights after the September 11 attacks.
=== 21st century ===
In December 2000, an organization within the FAA called the Air Traffic Organization, (ATO) was set up by presidential executive order. This became the air navigation service provider for the airspace of the United States and for the New York (Atlantic) and Oakland (Pacific) oceanic areas. It is a full member of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation.
The FAA issues a number of awards to holders of its certificates. Among these are demonstrated proficiencies as an aviation mechanic (the AMT Awards), a flight instructor (Gold Seal certification), a 50-year aviator (Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award), a 50-year mechanic (Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award) or as a proficient pilot. The latter, the FAA "WINGS Program", provides a lifetime series of grouped proficiency activities at three levels (Basic, Advanced, and Master) for pilots who have undergone several hours of ground and flight training since their last WINGS award, or "Phase". The FAA encourages volunteerism in the promotion of aviation safety. The FAA Safety Team, or FAASTeam, works with Volunteers at several levels and promotes safety education and outreach nationwide.
On March 18, 2008, the FAA ordered its inspectors to reconfirm that airlines are complying with federal rules after revelations that Southwest Airlines flew dozens of aircraft without certain mandatory inspections. The FAA exercises surprise Red Team drills on national airports annually.
On October 31, 2013, after outcry from media outlets, including heavy criticism from Nick Bilton of The New York Times, the FAA announced it will allow airlines to expand the passengers use of portable electronic devices during all phases of flight, but mobile phone calls would still be prohibited (and use of cellular networks during any point when aircraft doors are closed remains prohibited to-date). Implementation initially varied among airlines. The FAA expected many carriers to show that their planes allow passengers to safely use their devices in airplane mode, gate-to-gate, by the end of 2013. Devices must be held or put in the seat-back pocket during the actual takeoff and landing. Mobile phones must be in airplane mode or with mobile service disabled, with no signal bars displayed, and cannot be used for voice communications due to Federal Communications Commission regulations that prohibit any airborne calls using mobile phones. From a technological standpoint, cellular service would not work in-flight because of the rapid speed of the airborne aircraft: mobile phones cannot switch fast enough between cellular towers at an aircraft's high speed. However, the ban is due to potential radio interference with aircraft avionics. If an air carrier provides Wi-Fi service during flight, passengers may use it. Short-range Bluetooth accessories, like wireless keyboards, can also be used.
In July 2014, in the wake of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, the FAA suspended flights by U.S. airlines to Ben Gurion Airport during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict for 24 hours. The ban was extended for a further 24 hours but was lifted about six hours later.
The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 gives the FAA one year to establish minimum pitch, width and length for airplane seats, to ensure they are safe for passengers.
As of 2018,
the FAA plans to replace the "FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure" (FTI) program with the "FAA Enterprise Network Services" (FENS) program.
The first FAA licensed orbital human space flight took place on November 15, 2020, carried out by SpaceX on behalf of NASA.
=== History of FAA Administrators ===
The administrator is appointed for a five-year term.
On March 19, 2019, President Donald Trump announced he would nominate Stephen Dickson, a former executive and pilot at Delta Air Lines, to be the next FAA Administrator. On July 24, 2019, the Senate confirmed Dickson by a vote of 52–40. He was sworn in as Administrator by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao on August 12, 2019. On February 16, 2022, Dickson announced his resignation as FAA Administrator, effective March 31, 2022. In September 2023, President Joe Biden announced that he would be nominating Mike Whitaker to lead the FAA. Whitaker previously served as deputy administrator of the FAA under President Barack Obama.
== Criticism ==
=== Conflicting roles ===
The FAA has been cited as an example of regulatory capture, "in which the airline industry openly dictates to its regulators its governing rules, arranging for not only beneficial regulation, but placing key people to head these regulators." Retired NASA Office of Inspector General Senior Special Agent Joseph Gutheinz, who used to be a Special Agent with the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Transportation and with FAA Security, is one of the most outspoken critics of FAA. Rather than commend the agency for proposing a $10.2 million fine against Southwest Airlines for its failure to conduct mandatory inspections in 2008, he was quoted as saying the following in an Associated Press story: "Penalties against airlines that violate FAA directives should be stiffer. At $25,000 per violation, Gutheinz said, airlines can justify rolling the dice and taking the chance on getting caught. He also said the FAA is often too quick to bend to pressure from airlines and pilots." Other experts have been critical of the constraints and expectations under which the FAA is expected to operate. The dual role of encouraging aerospace travel and regulating aerospace travel are contradictory. For example, to levy a heavy penalty upon an airline for violating an FAA regulation which would impact their ability to continue operating would not be considered encouraging aerospace travel.
On July 22, 2008, in the aftermath of the Southwest Airlines inspection scandal, a bill was unanimously approved in the House to tighten regulations concerning airplane maintenance procedures, including the establishment of a whistleblower office and a two-year "cooling off" period that FAA inspectors or supervisors of inspectors must wait before they can work for those they regulated. The bill also required rotation of principal maintenance inspectors and stipulated that the word "customer" properly applies to the flying public, not those entities regulated by the FAA. The bill died in a Senate committee that year.
In September 2009, the FAA administrator issued a directive mandating that the agency use the term "customers" to refer to only the flying public.
=== Lax regulatory oversight ===
In 2007, two FAA whistleblowers, inspectors Charalambe "Bobby" Boutris and Douglas E. Peters, alleged that Boutris said he attempted to ground Southwest after finding cracks in the fuselage of an aircraft, but was prevented by supervisors he said were friendly with the airline. This was validated by a report by the Department of Transportation which found FAA managers had allowed Southwest Airlines to fly 46 airplanes in 2006 and 2007 that were overdue for safety inspections, ignoring concerns raised by inspectors. Audits of other airlines resulted in two airlines grounding hundreds of planes, causing thousands of flight cancellations. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held hearings in April 2008. Jim Oberstar, former chairman of the committee, said its investigation uncovered a pattern of regulatory abuse and widespread regulatory lapses, allowing 117 aircraft to be operated commercially although not in compliance with FAA safety rules. Oberstar said there was a "culture of coziness" between senior FAA officials and the airlines and "a systematic breakdown" in the FAA's culture that resulted in "malfeasance, bordering on corruption". In 2008 the FAA proposed to fine Southwest $10.2 million for failing to inspect older planes for cracks, and in 2009 Southwest and the FAA agreed that Southwest would pay a $7.5 million penalty and would adopt new safety procedures, with the fine doubling if Southwest failed to follow through.
=== Changes to air traffic controller application process ===
In 2014, the FAA modified its approach to air traffic control hiring. It launched more "off the street bids", allowing anyone with either a four-year degree or five years of full-time work experience to apply, rather than the closed college program or Veterans Recruitment Appointment bids, something that had last been done in 2008. Thousands were hired, including veterans, Collegiate Training Initiative graduates, and people who are true "off the street" hires. The move was made to open the job up to more people who might make good controllers but did not go to a college that offered a CTI program. Before the change, candidates who had completed coursework at participating colleges and universities could be "fast-tracked" for consideration. However, the CTI program had no guarantee of a job offer, nor was the goal of the program to teach people to work actual traffic. The goal of the program was to prepare people for the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, OK. Having a CTI certificate allowed a prospective controller to skip the Air Traffic Basics part of the academy, about a 30- to 45-day course, and go right into Initial Qualification Training (IQT). All prospective controllers, CTI or not, have had to pass the FAA Academy in order to be hired as a controller. Failure at the academy means FAA employment is terminated. In January 2015 they launched another pipeline, a "prior experience" bid, where anyone with an FAA Control Tower Operator certificate (CTO) and 52 weeks of experience could apply. This was a revolving bid, every month the applicants on this bid were sorted out, and eligible applicants were hired and sent directly to facilities, bypassing the FAA academy entirely.
In the process of promoting diversity, the FAA revised its hiring process. The FAA later issued a report that the "bio-data" was not a reliable test for future performance. However, the "Bio-Q" was not the determining factor for hiring, it was merely a screening tool to determine who would take a revised Air Traffic Standardized Aptitude Test (ATSAT). Due to cost and time, it was not practical to give all 30,000 some applicants the revised ATSAT, which has since been validated. In 2015 Fox News levied criticism that the FAA discriminated against qualified candidates.
In December 2015, a reverse discrimination lawsuit was filed against the FAA seeking class-action status for the thousands of men and women who spent up to $40,000 getting trained under FAA rules before they were abruptly changed. The prospects of the lawsuit are unknown, as the FAA is a self-governing entity and therefore can alter and experiment with its hiring practices, and there was never any guarantee of a job in the CTI program.
=== Close Calls ===
In August 2023 The New York Times published an investigative report that showed overworked air traffic controllers at understaffed facilities making errors that resulted in 46 near collisions in the air and on the ground in the month of July alone.
=== Next Generation Air Transportation System ===
A May 2017 letter from staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure to members of the same committee sent before a meeting to discuss air traffic control privatization noted a 35-year legacy of failed air traffic control modernization management, including NextGen. The letter said the FAA initially described NextGen as fundamentally transforming how air traffic would be managed. In 2015, however, the National Research Council noted that NextGen, as currently executed, was not broadly transformational and that it is a set of programs to implement a suite of incremental changes to the National Airspace System (NAS).
More precise Performance Based Navigation can reduce fuel burn, emissions, and noise exposure for a majority of communities, but the concentration of flight tracks also can increase noise exposure for people who live directly under those flight paths. A feature of the NextGen program is GPS-based waypoints, which result in consolidated flight paths for planes. The result of this change is that many localities experience huge increases in air traffic over previously quiet areas. Complaints have risen with the added traffic and multiple municipalities have filed suit.
=== Staffing cuts ===
In 2025, despite the ongoing overhaul of the U.S. ATC system—spanning past administrations and on into the Trump presidency—DOGE elimination of numerous FAA management positions has not only demoralized staff, but by eliminating deep expertise at a very critical juncture also threatens to degrade the ability of the agency to expedite modernization efforts. In the resulting leadership vacuum, “ …the FAA is losing not only its chief air traffic official, Tim Arel, but also its associate administrator for commercial space, his deputy, the director of the audit and evaluation office, the assistant administrator for civil rights and the assistant administrator for finance and management …” in addition to: multiple leadership positions in programs within the Air Traffic Organization, including mission support and safety, technical operations, and technical training.
=== Boeing 737 MAX controversy ===
As a result of the March 10, 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash and the Lion Air Flight 610 crash five months earlier, most airlines and countries began grounding the Boeing 737 MAX 8 (and in many cases all MAX variants) due to safety concerns, but the FAA declined to ground MAX 8 aircraft operating in the U.S. On March 12, the FAA said that its ongoing review showed "no systemic performance issues and provides no basis to order grounding the aircraft." Some U.S. Senators called for the FAA to ground the aircraft until an investigation into the cause of the Ethiopian Airlines crash was complete. U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said that "If the FAA identifies an issue that affects safety, the department will take immediate and appropriate action." The FAA resisted grounding the aircraft until March 13, 2019, when it received evidence of similarities in the two accidents. By then, 51 other regulators had already grounded the plane, and by March 18, 2019, all 387 aircraft in service were grounded. Three major U.S. airlines--Southwest, United, and American Airlines—were affected by this decision.
Further investigations also revealed that the FAA and Boeing had colluded on recertification test flights, attempted to cover up important information and that the FAA had retaliated against whistleblowers.
== Regulatory process ==
=== Designated Engineering Representative ===
A Designated Engineering Representative (DER) is an engineer who is appointed under 14 CFR section 183.29 to act on behalf of a company or as an independent consultant (IC). The DER system enables the FAA to delegate certain involvement in airworthiness exams, tests, and inspections to qualified technical people outside of the FAA. Qualifications and policies for appointment of Designated Airworthiness Representatives are established in FAA Order 8100.8, Designee Management Handbook. Working procedures for DERs are prescribed in FAA Order 8110.37, Designated Engineering Representative (DER) Handbook.
Company DERs act on behalf of their employer and may only approve, or recommend that the FAA approves, technical data produced by their employer.
Consultant DERs are appointed to act as independent DERs and may approve, or recommend that the FAA approves, technical data produced by any person or organization.
Neither type of DER is an employee of either the FAA or the United States government. While a DER represents the FAA when acting under the authority of a DER appointment; a DER has no federal protection for work done or the decisions made as a DER. Neither does the FAA provide any indemnification for a DER from general tort law. "The FAA cannot shelter or protect DERs from the consequences of their findings."
=== Designated Airworthiness Representative (DAR) ===
A DAR is an individual appointed in accordance with 14 CFR 183.33 who may perform examination, inspection, and testing services necessary to the issuance of certificates. There are two types of DARs: manufacturing, and maintenance.
Manufacturing DARs must possess aeronautical knowledge, experience, and meet the qualification requirements of FAA Order 8100.8.
Maintenance DARs must hold:
a mechanic's certificate with an airframe and powerplant rating, under 14 CFR part 65 Certification: Airmen Other Than Flight Crewmembers, or
a repairman certificate and be employed at a repair station certificated under 14 CFR part 145, or an air carrier operating certificate holder with an FAA-approved continuous airworthiness program, and must meet the qualification requirements of Order 8100.8, Chapter 14.
Specialized Experience – Amateur-Built and Light-Sport Aircraft DARs Both Manufacturing DARs and Maintenance DARs may be authorized to perform airworthiness certification of light-sport aircraft. DAR qualification criteria and selection procedures for amateur-built and light-sport aircraft airworthiness functions are provided in Order 8100.8.
=== Continued Airworthiness Notification to the International Community (CANIC) ===
A Continued Airworthiness Notification to the International Community (commonly abbreviated as CANIC) is a notification from the FAA to civil airworthiness authorities of foreign countries of pending significant safety actions.
The FAA Airworthiness Directives Manual, states the following:
8. Continued Airworthiness Notification to the International Community (CANIC).
a. A CANIC is used to notify civil airworthiness authorities of other countries of pending significant safety actions. A significant safety action can be defined as, but not limited to, the following:
(1) Urgent safety situations;
(2) The pending issuance of an Emergency AD;
(3) A safety action that affects many people, operators;
(4) A Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR);
(5) Other high interest event (e.g., a special certification review).
==== Notable CANICs ====
The FAA issued a CANIC to state the continued airworthiness of the Boeing 737 MAX, following the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
Another CANIC notified the ungrounding of the MAX, ending a 20-month grounding.
=== Proposed regulatory reforms ===
==== FAA reauthorization and air traffic control reform ====
U.S. law requires that the FAA's budget and mandate be reauthorized on a regular basis. On July 18, 2016, President Obama signed a second short-term extension of the FAA authorization, replacing a previous extension that was due to expire that day.
The 2016 extension (set to expire itself in September 2017) left out a provision pushed by Republican House leadership, including House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA). The provision would have moved authority over air traffic control from the FAA to a non-profit corporation, as many other nations, such as Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom, have done. Shuster's bill, the Aviation Innovation, Reform, and Reauthorization (AIRR) Act, expired in the House at the end of the 114th Congress.
The House T&I Committee began the new reauthorization process for the FAA in February 2017. It is expected that the committee will again urge Congress to consider and adopt air traffic control reform as part of the reauthorization package. Shuster has additional support from President Trump, who, in a meeting with aviation industry executives in early 2017 said the U.S. air control system is "....totally out of whack."
== See also ==
Acquisition Management System
Airport Improvement Program
Aviation Safety Knowledge Management Environment
Federal Aviation Regulations
Civil aviation authority (generic term)
Office of Dispute Resolution for Acquisition
SAFO, Safety Alert for Operators
United States government role in civil aviation
Weather Information Exchange Model
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Records of the Federal Aviation Administration in the National Archives (Record Group 237) Archived January 16, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
Federal Aviation Administration in the Federal Register
Works by or about Federal Aviation Administration at the Internet Archive
Works by Federal Aviation Administration at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
FAA HIMS Program Overview – An independent educational resource explaining the FAA’s Human Intervention Motivation Study (HIMS) Program structure and certification process. |
Archer Aviation | Archer Aviation Inc. is a publicly traded company headquartered in San Jose, California, which is developing eVTOL aircraft.
Its eVTOL aircraft is designed to allow airline operators to transport people in and around cities in an air taxi service and are claimed to have a range of up to 100 miles (160 km) at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h). United Airlines is its first major corporate partner, having ordered two hundred Archer electric aircraft.
== Aircraft and air taxi service ==
Maker, Archer's full size demonstrator aircraft, was unveiled on June 10, 2021, at an event in Los Angeles, California. Maker was a fully electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with 12 electric propellers: six tilt-props (each with five blades) for forward and VTOL flight and six aft propellers that are stationary (each propeller with two blades) for VTOL-only flight. The aircraft is powered by six independent battery packs. In November 2021, Archer moved Maker from its headquarters to its flight test facility to start initial test flights. Maker also received its airworthiness certificate to start flight test operations from the FAA in December 2021. Archer completed its first flight in December 2021.
Archer's aerial ridesharing service, also referred to as Urban Air Mobility (UAM), has been pushed back one year to 2025 and is planned to begin operations in Miami, Florida and Los Angeles, California. Archer is working with Urban Movement Labs and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to help build the necessary infrastructure and service routes. It is also working with the City of Miami on similar plans.
=== Midnight ===
Midnight is Archer’s planned production aircraft. The aircraft was unveiled on November 17, 2022 at an event in Palo Alto, California. Archer’s Midnight is a piloted, four-passenger aircraft designed to perform rapid back-to-back flights with minimal charge time between flights. Midnight has 12 propellers: six tilt props in the front of the wing for forward and VTOL flight and six aft propellers that are stationary for VTOL flight only. Midnight is designed to travel at up to 150 mph (240 km/h) with a maximum range of 100 miles (161 km). The aircraft is powered by six independent battery packs. On June 12, 2024, Midnight completed its first transition flight. Archer flew over 400 test flights in 2024.
== History ==
Archer was founded on October 16, 2018, by Adam Goldstein and Brett Adcock to develop electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. The company was originally started by Goldstein and Adcock and privately funded. Later, Marc Lore, a Walmart executive, also supported its launch.
In 2022, Adcock departed from both the leadership team and the board. Goldstein is currently the sole CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company.
Initially, Archer worked on developing aircraft with the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida; Goldstein and Adcock are both alumni. Archer now operates a research lab on the University of Florida's campus in Gainesville, Florida, which was funded by Goldstein and Adcock .
In August 2022, United Airlines paid Archer a $10 million deposit for 100 electric flying taxis. On November 10, 2022, Archer and United Airlines announced plans for the first electric air taxi route in the US, with an initial route between Newark Liberty International Airport and the Downtown Manhattan Heliport. Archer became an IPO (ACHR)on September 20, 2021.
On November 17, 2022, Archer unveiled details of its production vehicle dubbed "Midnight". The aircraft is a piloted, four-passenger air taxi the company said will enter flight testing by the second quarter of 2023 and service by 2025. It is designed to carry passengers on short trips of around 20 miles (32 km) between airports and downtown city centers.
In November 2022, Archer unveiled its Midnight production aircraft, an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that can carry four passengers and a pilot. It is designed to be optimized for back-to-back 20-mile trips, with a payload of over 1,000 pounds. Midnight is the evolution of Archer's previous aircraft, Maker, and is expected to be certified by the FAA in late 2024.
Archer announced its Maker prototype had achieved full transition from vertical to horizontal flight on November 29, 2022. This milestone was said to be an important validation step for the flight control systems and aircraft architecture that is also applicable to its Midnight production aircraft.
In January 2023, Archer announced a partnership in which Stellantis, a multinational automobile manufacturer, would provide up to $150 million in equity capital to support Archer's growth and to collaborate on the development and production of Archer's eVTOL aircraft for urban air mobility. The purpose of the partnership solidifies Stellantis as Archer's exclusive contract manufacturer for mass production of its eVTOL aircraft.
In March 2023, Archer and United Airlines announced plans for an electric air taxi route between O'Hare International Airport and Vertiport Chicago on the city's near west side.
On June 5, 2024 Archer received its Part 135 Air Carrier and Operator Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
In July 2024, Archer and Southwest Airlines established an agreement to develop operational concepts for air taxi networks.
On Feb, 2025 Archer Aviation has received its Part 141 certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), enabling the company to establish its pilot training academy.
== See also ==
eVTOL
Vertical Aerospace
Joby Aviation
Lilium
Urban Air Mobility
Volocopter GmbH
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Business data for Archer Aviation: |
Astral Aviation | Astral Aviation is a cargo airline based in Nairobi, Kenya. It was established in November 2000 and started operations in January 2001. It operates scheduled and non-scheduled/ad-hoc cargo charters, as well as humanitarian-aid flights, to regional destinations in Africa, Asia and to Liège in Belgium as its only European destination, as of 2023. Its main base is Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi. It has one subsidiary operating in India since October 2022, Pradhaan Air Express, which leased an Airbus A320P2F cargo aircraft, thus making it the world's first airline to have such an aircraft in its fleet.
== History ==
Founded in November 2000, Astral Aviation acquired its Air Operators Certificate (AoC) and Air Service License (ASL) from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority in January 2001, thus it started operations in the same year in the same month. It was designated as a cargo airline by the Ministry of Roads, Transport and Public Works in November 2006.
== Services ==
The airline operates through and non-stop to 25 regular destinations and 5 charter destinations used for charter operations like food, electronics and medical transport, etc. as well as humanitarian support.
It has one subsidiary operating in India based in New Delhi, Pradhaan Air Express, since October 2022. Two more subsidiaries are planned to be launched, taking the number to three subsidiaries by 2025. Its second subsidiary will be Suid Cargo Airlines based in Johannesburg, which will operate to more than 20 destinations in Southern and Eastern Africa, is expected to be launched by September 2023. Its third subsidiary will be an airline to be launched in 2025, based in Europe.
== Destinations ==
Astral shows the following scheduled and charter destinations in their 2023 online timetable.
== Fleet ==
=== Current fleet ===
As of April 2024, the Astral Aviation fleet consists of the following aircraft:
=== Former fleet ===
The airline previously operated the following aircraft (as of July 2023):
1 Boeing 727-200F
2 Boeing 737-400F
2 Boeing 747-400F, leased from Atlas Air
1 Fokker 27-500F, leased from AeroSpace Consortium
1 Fokker 27F
1 McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30CF
== Awards ==
The airline has won the "Africa All-Cargo Carrier of the Year" six consecutive times in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2023, and the "Best All-Cargo Airline in Africa" in February 2023, by STAT Times International Award for Excellence in Air Cargo during Air Cargo Africa 2023 event held at Johannesburg, South Africa, from 21 to 23 February 2023.
== See also ==
List of airlines of Kenya
2023 Sudan conflict
List of conflicts in Somalia
Yemeni Civil War (2014–present)
COVID-19 vaccine
United Nations Humanitarian Air Service
== References ==
== External links ==
Media related to Astral Aviation at Wikimedia Commons
Official website |
General aviation | General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other purposes. However, for statistical purposes, ICAO uses a definition of general aviation which includes aerial work.
General aviation thus represents the "private transport" and recreational components of aviation, most of which is accomplished with light aircraft.
== Definition ==
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines civil aviation aircraft operations in three categories: General Aviation (GA), Aerial Work (AW) and Commercial Air Transport (CAT). Aerial work operations are separated from general aviation by ICAO by this definition. Aerial work is when an aircraft is used for specialized services such as agriculture, construction, photography, surveying, observation and patrol, search and rescue, and aerial advertisement. However, for statistical purposes ICAO includes aerial work within general aviation, and has proposed officially extending the definition of general aviation to include aerial work, to reflect common usage. The proposed ICAO classification includes instructional flying as part of general aviation (non-aerial-work).
The International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Associations (IAOPA) refers to the category as general aviation/aerial work (GA/AW) to avoid ambiguity. Their definition of general aviation includes:
Corporate aviation: company own-use flight operations
Fractional ownership operations: aircraft operated by a specialized company on behalf of two or more co-owners
Business aviation (or travel): self-flown for business purposes
Personal/private travel: travel for personal reasons/personal transport
Air tourism: self-flown incoming/outgoing tourism
Recreational flying: powered/powerless leisure flying activities
Air sports: aerobatics, air races, competitions, rallies, etc.
General aviation thus includes both commercial and non-commercial activities.
IAOPA's definition of aerial work includes, but is not limited to:
Agricultural flights, including crop dusting
Banner towing
Aerial firefighting
Medical evacuation
Pilot training
Search and rescue
Sight seeing flights
Skydiving flights
Organ transplant transport flights
Commercial air transport includes:
Scheduled air services
Non-scheduled air transport
Air cargo services
Air taxi operations
However, in some countries, air taxi is regarded as being part of GA/AW.
Private flights are made in a wide variety of aircraft: light and ultra-light aircraft, sport aircraft, homebuilt aircraft, business aircraft (like private jets), gliders and helicopters. Flights can be carried out under both visual flight and instrument flight rules, and can use controlled airspace with permission.
The majority of the world's air traffic falls into the category of general aviation, and most of the world's airports serve GA exclusively. Flying clubs are considered a part of general aviation.
== Geography ==
=== Europe ===
In 2003, the European Aviation Safety Agency was established as the central EU regulator, taking over responsibility for legislating airworthiness and environmental regulation from the national authorities.
==== United Kingdom ====
Of the 21,000 civil aircraft registered in the United Kingdom, 96 percent are engaged in GA operations, and annually the GA fleet accounts for between 1.25 and 1.35 million hours flown. There are 28,000 private pilot licence holders, and 10,000 certified glider pilots. Some of the 19,000 pilots who hold professional licences are also engaged in GA activities. GA operates from more than 1,800 airports and landing sites or aerodromes, ranging in size from large regional airports to farm strips.
GA is regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority. The main focus is on standards of airworthiness and pilot licensing, and the objective is to promote high standards of safety.
=== North America ===
General aviation is particularly popular in North America, with over 6,300 airports available for public use by pilots of general aviation aircraft (around 5,200 airports in the U.S. and over 1,000 in Canada). In comparison, scheduled flights operate from around 560 airports in the U.S. According to the U.S. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, general aviation provides more than one percent of the United States' GDP, accounting for 1.3 million jobs in professional services and manufacturing.
== Regulation ==
Most countries have a civil aviation authority that oversees all civil aviation, including general aviation, adhering to the standardized codes of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
== Safety ==
Aviation accident rate statistics are necessarily estimates. According to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, general aviation in the United States (excluding charter) suffered 1.31 fatal accidents for every 100,000 hours of flying in 2005, compared to 0.016 for scheduled airline flights. In Canada, recreational flying accounted for 0.7 fatal accidents for every 1000 aircraft, while air taxi accounted for 1.1 fatal accidents for every 100,000 hours. More experienced GA pilots appear generally safer, although the relationship between flight hours, accident frequency, and accident rates are complex and often difficult to assess.
A small number of commercial aviation accidents in the United States have involved collisions with general aviation flights, notably TWA Flight 553, Piedmont Airlines Flight 22, Allegheny Airlines Flight 853, PSA Flight 182 and Aeroméxico Flight 498.
== See also ==
Commercial aviation
Environmental impact of aviation
General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994
List of current production certified light aircraft
List of very light jets
OpenAirplane (defunct web-based service)
One Six Right (2005 documentary)
Private aviation
Small Airplane Revitalization Act of 2013
Associations
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
Canadian Owners and Pilots Association
Experimental Aircraft Association
General Aviation Manufacturers Association
National Business Aviation Association
== References ==
== External links ==
International Aircraft Owners and Pilots Associations
European General Aviation Safety Team (EGAST) |
Flight | Flight or flying is the motion of an object through an atmosphere, or through the vacuum of space, without contacting any planetary surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift associated with gliding or propulsive thrust, aerostatically using buoyancy, or by ballistic movement.
Many things can fly, from animal aviators such as birds, bats and insects, to natural gliders/parachuters such as patagial animals, anemochorous seeds and ballistospores, to human inventions like aircraft (airplanes, helicopters, airships, balloons, etc.) and rockets which may propel spacecraft and spaceplanes.
The engineering aspects of flight are the purview of aerospace engineering which is subdivided into aeronautics, the study of vehicles that travel through the atmosphere, and astronautics, the study of vehicles that travel through space, and ballistics, the study of the flight of projectiles.
== Types of flight ==
=== Buoyant flight ===
Humans have managed to construct lighter-than-air vehicles that raise off the ground and fly, due to their buoyancy in the air.
An aerostat is a system that remains aloft primarily through the use of buoyancy to give an aircraft the same overall density as air. Aerostats include free balloons, airships, and moored balloons. An aerostat's main structural component is its envelope, a lightweight skin that encloses a volume of lifting gas to provide buoyancy, to which other components are attached.
Aerostats are so named because they use "aerostatic" lift, a buoyant force that does not require lateral movement through the surrounding air mass to effect a lifting force. By contrast, aerodynes primarily use aerodynamic lift, which requires the lateral movement of at least some part of the aircraft through the surrounding air mass.
=== Aerodynamic flight ===
==== Unpowered flight versus powered flight ====
Some things that fly do not generate propulsive thrust through the air, for example, the flying squirrel. This is termed gliding. Some other things can exploit rising air to climb such as raptors (when gliding) and man-made sailplane gliders. This is termed soaring. However most other birds and all powered aircraft need a source of propulsion to climb. This is termed powered flight.
==== Animal flight ====
The only groups of living things that use powered flight are birds, insects, and bats, while many groups have evolved gliding. The extinct pterosaurs, an order of reptiles contemporaneous with the dinosaurs, were also very successful flying animals, and there were apparently some flying dinosaurs. Each of these groups' wings evolved independently, with insects the first animal group to evolve flight. The wings of the flying vertebrate groups are all based on the forelimbs, but differ significantly in structure; insect wings are hypothesized to be highly modified versions of structures that form gills in most other groups of arthropods.
Bats are the only mammals capable of sustaining level flight (see bat flight). However, there are several gliding mammals which are able to glide from tree to tree using fleshy membranes between their limbs; some can travel hundreds of meters in this way with very little loss in height. Flying frogs use greatly enlarged webbed feet for a similar purpose, and there are flying lizards which fold out their mobile ribs into a pair of flat gliding surfaces. "Flying" snakes also use mobile ribs to flatten their body into an aerodynamic shape, with a back and forth motion much the same as they use on the ground.
Flying fish can glide using enlarged wing-like fins, and have been observed soaring for hundreds of meters. It is thought that this ability was chosen by natural selection because it was an effective means of escape from underwater predators. The longest recorded flight of a flying fish was 45 seconds.
Most birds can fly, with some exceptions. The largest birds, the ostrich and the emu, are earthbound flightless birds, as were the now-extinct dodos and the Phorusrhacids, which were the dominant predators of South America in the Cenozoic era. The non-flying penguins have wings adapted for use under water and use the same wing movements for swimming that most other birds use for flight. Most small flightless birds are native to small islands, and lead a lifestyle where flight would offer little advantage.
Among living animals that fly, the wandering albatross has the greatest wingspan, up to 3.5 meters (11 feet); the great bustard has the greatest weight, topping at 21 kilograms (46 pounds).
Most species of insects can fly as adults. Insect flight makes use of either of two basic aerodynamic models: creating a leading edge vortex, found in most insects, and using clap and fling, found in very small insects such as thrips.
Many species of spiders, spider mites and lepidoptera use a technique called ballooning to ride air currents such as thermals, by exposing their gossamer threads which gets lifted by wind and atmospheric electric fields.
==== Mechanical ====
Mechanical flight is the use of a machine to fly. These machines include aircraft such as airplanes, gliders, helicopters, autogyros, airships, balloons, ornithopters as well as spacecraft. Gliders are capable of unpowered flight. Another form of mechanical flight is para-sailing, where a parachute-like object is pulled by a boat. In an airplane, lift is created by the wings; the shape of the wings of the airplane are designed specially for the type of flight desired. There are different types of wings: tempered, semi-tempered, sweptback, rectangular and elliptical. An aircraft wing is sometimes called an airfoil, which is a device that creates lift when air flows across it.
===== Supersonic =====
Supersonic flight is flight faster than the speed of sound. Supersonic flight is associated with the formation of shock waves that form a sonic boom that can be heard from the ground, and is frequently startling. The creation of this shockwave requires a significant amount of energy; because of this, supersonic flight is generally less efficient than subsonic flight at about 85% of the speed of sound.
===== Hypersonic =====
Hypersonic flight is very high speed flight where the heat generated by the compression of the air due to the motion through the air causes chemical changes to the air. Hypersonic flight is achieved primarily by reentering spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle and Soyuz.
=== Ballistic ===
==== Atmospheric ====
Some things generate little or no lift and move only or mostly under the action of momentum, gravity, air drag and in some cases thrust. This is termed ballistic flight. Examples include balls, arrows, bullets, fireworks etc.
==== Spaceflight ====
Essentially an extreme form of ballistic flight, spaceflight is the use of space technology to achieve the flight of spacecraft into and through outer space. Examples include ballistic missiles, orbital spaceflight, etc.
Spaceflight is used in space exploration, and also in commercial activities like space tourism and satellite telecommunications. Additional non-commercial uses of spaceflight include space observatories, reconnaissance satellites and other Earth observation satellites.
A spaceflight typically begins with a rocket launch, which provides the initial thrust to overcome the force of gravity and propels the spacecraft from the surface of the Earth. Once in space, the motion of a spacecraft—both when unpropelled and when under propulsion—is covered by the area of study called astrodynamics. Some spacecraft remain in space indefinitely, some disintegrate during atmospheric reentry, and others reach a planetary or lunar surface for landing or impact.
==== Solid-state propulsion ====
In 2018, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) managed to fly an aeroplane with no moving parts, powered by an "ionic wind" also known as electroaerodynamic thrust.
== History ==
Many human cultures have built devices that fly, from the earliest projectiles such as stones and spears, the
boomerang in Australia, the hot air Kongming lantern, and kites.
=== Aviation ===
George Cayley studied flight scientifically in the first half of the 19th century, and in the second half of the 19th century Otto Lilienthal made over 200 gliding flights and was also one of the first to understand flight scientifically. His work was replicated and extended by the Wright brothers who made gliding flights and finally the first controlled and extended, manned powered flights.
=== Spaceflight ===
Spaceflight, particularly human spaceflight became a reality in the 20th century following theoretical and practical breakthroughs by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Robert H. Goddard. The first orbital spaceflight was in 1957, and Yuri Gagarin was carried aboard the first crewed orbital spaceflight in 1961.
== Physics ==
There are different approaches to flight. If an object has a lower density than air, then it is buoyant and is able to float in the air without expending energy. A heavier than air craft, known as an aerodyne, includes flighted animals and insects, fixed-wing aircraft and rotorcraft. Because the craft is heavier than air, it must generate lift to overcome its weight. The wind resistance caused by the craft moving through the air is called drag and is overcome by propulsive thrust except in the case of gliding.
Some vehicles also use thrust in the place of lift; for example rockets and Harrier jump jets.
=== Forces ===
Forces relevant to flight are
Propulsive thrust (except in gliders)
Lift, created by the reaction to an airflow
Drag, created by aerodynamic friction
Weight, created by gravity
Buoyancy, for lighter than air flight
These forces must be balanced for stable flight to occur.
==== Thrust ====
A fixed-wing aircraft generates forward thrust when air is pushed in the direction opposite to flight. This can be done in several ways including by the spinning blades of a propeller, or a rotating fan pushing air out from the back of a jet engine, or by ejecting hot gases from a rocket engine. The forward thrust is proportional to the mass of the airstream multiplied by the difference in velocity of the airstream. Reverse thrust can be generated to aid braking after landing by reversing the pitch of variable-pitch propeller blades, or using a thrust reverser on a jet engine. Rotary wing aircraft and thrust vectoring V/STOL aircraft use engine thrust to support the weight of the aircraft, and vector sum of this thrust fore and aft to control forward speed.
==== Lift ====
In the context of an air flow relative to a flying body, the lift force is the component of the aerodynamic force that is perpendicular to the flow direction. Aerodynamic lift results when the wing causes the surrounding air to be deflected - the air then causes a force on the wing in the opposite direction, in accordance with Newton's third law of motion.
Lift is commonly associated with the wing of an aircraft, although lift is also generated by rotors on rotorcraft (which are effectively rotating wings, performing the same function without requiring that the aircraft move forward through the air). While common meanings of the word "lift" suggest that lift opposes gravity, aerodynamic lift can be in any direction. When an aircraft is cruising for example, lift does oppose gravity, but lift occurs at an angle when climbing, descending or banking. On high-speed cars, the lift force is directed downwards (called "down-force") to keep the car stable on the road.
==== Drag ====
For a solid object moving through a fluid, the drag is the component of the net aerodynamic or hydrodynamic force acting opposite to the direction of the movement. Therefore, drag opposes the motion of the object, and in a powered vehicle it must be overcome by thrust. The process which creates lift also causes some drag.
==== Lift-to-drag ratio ====
Aerodynamic lift is created by the motion of an aerodynamic object (wing) through the air, which due to its shape and angle deflects the air. For sustained straight and level flight, lift must be equal and opposite to weight. In general, long narrow wings are able deflect a large amount of air at a slow speed, whereas smaller wings need a higher forward speed to deflect an equivalent amount of air and thus generate an equivalent amount of lift. Large cargo aircraft tend to use longer wings with higher angles of attack, whereas supersonic aircraft tend to have short wings and rely heavily on high forward speed to generate lift.
However, this lift (deflection) process inevitably causes a retarding force called drag. Because lift and drag are both aerodynamic forces, the ratio of lift to drag is an indication of the aerodynamic efficiency of the airplane. The lift to drag ratio is the L/D ratio, pronounced "L over D ratio." An airplane has a high L/D ratio if it produces a large amount of lift or a small amount of drag. The lift/drag ratio is determined by dividing the lift coefficient by the drag coefficient, CL/CD.
The lift coefficient Cl is equal to the lift L divided by the (density r times half the velocity V squared times the wing area A). [Cl = L / (A * .5 * r * V^2)] The lift coefficient is also affected by the compressibility of the air, which is much greater at higher speeds, so velocity V is not a linear function. Compressibility is also affected by the shape of the aircraft surfaces.
The drag coefficient Cd is equal to the drag D divided by the (density r times half the velocity V squared times the reference area A). [Cd = D / (A * .5 * r * V^2)]
Lift-to-drag ratios for practical aircraft vary from about 4:1 for vehicles and birds with relatively short wings, up to 60:1 or more for vehicles with very long wings, such as gliders. A greater angle of attack relative to the forward movement also increases the extent of deflection, and thus generates extra lift. However a greater angle of attack also generates extra drag.
Lift/drag ratio also determines the glide ratio and gliding range. Since the glide ratio is based only on the relationship of the aerodynamics forces acting on the aircraft, aircraft weight will not affect it. The only effect weight has is to vary the time that the aircraft will glide for – a heavier aircraft gliding at a higher airspeed will arrive at the same touchdown point in a shorter time.
==== Buoyancy ====
Air pressure acting up against an object in air is greater than the pressure above pushing down. The buoyancy, in both cases, is equal to the weight of fluid displaced - Archimedes' principle holds for air just as it does for water.
A cubic meter of air at ordinary atmospheric pressure and room temperature has a mass of about 1.2 kilograms, so its weight is about 12 newtons. Therefore, any 1-cubic-meter object in air is buoyed up with a force of 12 newtons. If the mass of the 1-cubic-meter object is greater than 1.2 kilograms (so that its weight is greater than 12 newtons), it falls to the ground when released. If an object of this size has a mass less than 1.2 kilograms, it rises in the air. Any object that has a mass that is less than the mass of an equal volume of air will rise in air - in other words, any object less dense than air will rise.
==== Thrust to weight ratio ====
Thrust-to-weight ratio is, as its name suggests, the ratio of instantaneous thrust to weight (where weight means weight at the Earth's standard acceleration
g
0
{\displaystyle g_{0}}
). It is a dimensionless parameter characteristic of rockets and other jet engines and of vehicles propelled by such engines (typically space launch vehicles and jet aircraft).
If the thrust-to-weight ratio is greater than the local gravity strength (expressed in gs), then flight can occur without any forward motion or any aerodynamic lift being required.
If the thrust-to-weight ratio times the lift-to-drag ratio is greater than local gravity then takeoff using aerodynamic lift is possible.
=== Flight dynamics ===
Flight dynamics is the science of air and space vehicle orientation and control in three dimensions. The three critical flight dynamics parameters are the angles of rotation in three dimensions about the vehicle's center of mass, known as pitch, roll and yaw (See Tait-Bryan rotations for an explanation).
The control of these dimensions can involve a horizontal stabilizer (i.e. "a tail"), ailerons and other movable aerodynamic devices which control angular stability i.e. flight attitude (which in turn affects altitude, heading). Wings are often angled slightly upwards- they have "positive dihedral angle" which gives inherent roll stabilization.
=== Energy efficiency ===
To create thrust so as to be able to gain height, and to push through the air to overcome the drag associated with lift all takes energy. Different objects and creatures capable of flight vary in the efficiency of their muscles, motors and how well this translates into forward thrust.
Propulsive efficiency determines how much energy vehicles generate from a unit of fuel.
=== Range ===
The range that powered flight articles can achieve is ultimately limited by their drag, as well as how much energy they can store on board and how efficiently they can turn that energy into propulsion.
For powered aircraft the useful energy is determined by their fuel fraction- what percentage of the takeoff weight is fuel, as well as the specific energy of the fuel used.
=== Power-to-weight ratio ===
All animals and devices capable of sustained flight need relatively high power-to-weight ratios to be able to generate enough lift and/or thrust to achieve take off.
== Takeoff and landing ==
Vehicles that can fly can have different ways to takeoff and land. Conventional aircraft accelerate along the ground until sufficient lift is generated for takeoff, and reverse the process for landing. Some aircraft can take off at low speed; this is called a short takeoff. Some aircraft such as helicopters and Harrier jump jets can take off and land vertically. Rockets also usually take off and land vertically, but some designs can land horizontally.
== Guidance, navigation and control ==
=== Navigation ===
Navigation is the systems necessary to calculate current position (e.g. compass, GPS, LORAN, star tracker, inertial measurement unit, and altimeter).
In aircraft, successful air navigation involves piloting an aircraft from place to place without getting lost, breaking the laws applying to aircraft, or endangering the safety of those on board or on the ground.
The techniques used for navigation in the air will depend on whether the aircraft is flying under the visual flight rules (VFR) or the instrument flight rules (IFR). In the latter case, the pilot will navigate exclusively using instruments and radio navigation aids such as beacons, or as directed under radar control by air traffic control. In the VFR case, a pilot will largely navigate using dead reckoning combined with visual observations (known as pilotage), with reference to appropriate maps. This may be supplemented using radio navigation aids.
=== Guidance ===
A guidance system is a device or group of devices used in the navigation of a ship, aircraft, missile, rocket, satellite, or other moving object. Typically, guidance is responsible for the calculation of the vector (i.e., direction, velocity) toward an objective.
=== Control ===
A conventional fixed-wing aircraft flight control system consists of flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls, connecting linkages, and the necessary operating mechanisms to control an aircraft's direction in flight. Aircraft engine controls are also considered as flight controls as they change speed.
==== Traffic ====
In the case of aircraft, air traffic is controlled by air traffic control systems.
Collision avoidance is the process of controlling spacecraft to try to prevent collisions.
== Flight safety ==
Air safety is a term encompassing the theory, investigation and categorization of flight failures, and the prevention of such failures through regulation, education and training. It can also be applied in the context of campaigns that inform the public as to the safety of air travel.
== See also ==
Aerodynamics
Levitation
Transvection (flying)
Backward flying
== References ==
Notes
Bibliography
== External links ==
Flight travel guide from Wikivoyage
Pettigrew, James Bell (1911). "Flight and Flying" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). pp. 502–519. History and photographs of early aeroplanes etc.
'Birds in Flight and Aeroplanes' by Evolutionary Biologist and trained Engineer John Maynard-Smith Freeview video provided by the Vega Science Trust. |
Flight International | Flight International, formerly Flight, is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's oldest continuously published aviation news magazine.
Flight International is published by DVV Media Group. Competitors include Jane's Information Group and Aviation Week. Former editors of, and contributors include H. F. King, Bill Gunston, John W. R. Taylor and David Learmount.
== History ==
The founder and first editor of Flight was Stanley Spooner. He was also the creator and editor of The Automotor Journal, originally titled The Automotor Journal and Horseless Vehicle. From around 1900 the journal had a separate section relating to aviation and aeronautical matters. The 5 April 1908 issue of The Automotor Journal included a diagram of patent drawings of a plane made by the Wright brothers. Stanley kept in contact with them via his friend Griffith Brewer.
Eventually, Spooner decided that a journal focused solely on matters relating to flying should be published—and so, Flight magazine was established as an offshoot of The Automotor Journal.
Claiming to be the first aeronautical weekly in the world, Flight first appeared on 2 January 1909 as the official journal of the Aero Club of the United Kingdom (later the Royal Aero Club). In April 1934, Flight was acquired by Iliffe & Sons, who were proprietors and printers of technical magazines, one of which included Autocar. On 4 January 1962, the magazine was renamed Flight International. In October 1968, Aeroplane: The International Air Transport Journal—commonly known as Aeroplane—merged with its sister publication, Flight International.
In August 2019, Flight International and its associated divisions (except analytics and consulting divisions, which were retained by RELX as Cirium) were sold to DVV Media Group. In September 2020, Flight International switched from a weekly to monthly publication.
== See also ==
Aviation Week & Space Technology, a similar aerospace sector industry magazine
FlightGlobal
== Notes ==
== References ==
Robertson, Bruce (1982). Aviation Enthusiasts' Data Book. Cambridge, England: Patrick Stephens Limited. ISBN 0-85059-500-2.
== External links ==
DVV Media International
Flight archives Flightglobal.com
Aerospace illustrations ("cutaways") on Flight International's website (snapshot of site from December 2012)
Archived Flight International magazines on the Internet Archive |
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