A Pilot’s Blog
A blog about aviation, aviation news, and space.

Today is the one year “blogiversary” of A Pilot’s Blog in its current form. So, I’ve decided to create a little round-up of five of my favorite posts (not that I post all that often) from the past year.

Happy 7-8-7 Day (July 7, 2007)

Project Constellation (June 10, 2007)

Lunar Eclipse (March 3, 2007)

The Treadmill Problem Revisited (January 5, 2007)

The Treadmill Problem (December 12, 2006)

Being a government entity, the FAA always manages to come up with things with a straight face, that most anybody else would stop and go…wait a minute. All airports have a three-letter identifier with which they are referenced in the aviation world. The identifier that was given to Souix City, Iowa’s Gateway Airport? SUX. Of course, Souix City didn’t really like that, so they petitioned the FAA to have it changed. Their choices were “GWU, GYO, GYT, SGV and GAY”. Again, you’ve got to love the FAA. Anyways, the airport has decided to turn the tables around and use the unique identifier to their benefit. Fly SUX!.

AP story here.

On October 14, 1947 then Captain Chuck Yeager piloted his Bell X-1 “Glamorous Glennis” into the history books. What began as a flight that was just supposed to go to Mach .97, ended with a Mach 1.06 flight past the sound barrier. Captain Yeager went on to retire a Brigadier General in 1975. You are truly an inspiration General. I salute you.

Per a Press Release issued a few days ago:

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Cobham said Thursday that a memorandum of agreement (MOA) has been signed between its U.S. subsidiary, Sargent Fletcher and Boeing Integrated Defense Systems to provide the composite Body Fuel Tank System for the KC-767 Advanced Tanker.

The MOA was issued by The Boeing Company to Sargent Fletcher, part of Cobham’s Air Refuelling and Auxiliary Mission Equipment Division, in support of the USAF Tanker KC-X proposal, the company said.

The English military is going to be using the Boeing 767 tankers, and I can only hope that the USAF will also continue to use Boeing aircraft for their mid-air refueling needs.