PTEParis: Collins Aerospace showcases recently acquired FlightAware

Having acquired the digital aviation company, FlightAware, at the end of 2021 Collins Aerospace has been showcasing how data analytics and machine learning can improve decision-making and enhance overall airport operations during this week’s Passenger Terminal Expo (PTE) in Paris. FlightAware provides global flight tracking solutions, as well as predictive technology, analytics and decision-making tools, all of which are helping Collins unlock the full power of the connected ecosystem for its… (www.regionalgateway.net) More...

Sullenberger Abruptly Resigns as ICAO Ambassador

C.B. “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot who successfully dead sticked an Airbus A320 to a safe landing on New York’s Hudson River in 2009 after hitting a flock of geese, said late last week that he would step down as U.S. envoy to the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), effective this Friday (July 1). (www.ainonline.com) More...

FlightAware Aviation Stats Update: March 1, 2023

"COVID-19 put the brakes on aviation in March 2020. But almost exactly 3 years later, all regions of the world are showing big recoveries. This is especially true in China, where commercial aviation has finally come back to life in the last few weeks, with flight counts off only 15% from 2019 record highs"... (blog.flightaware.com) More...

An airplane pilot went viral for scolding his passengers—Harvard expert says it’s great leadership: ‘Bravo’

When a video of an American Airlines pilot scolding his passengers during a pre-flight announcement went viral, some people deemed it patronizing. Others, including a Harvard University expert, are hailing the pilot’s speech as an example of strong leadership — at a time when passengers desperately need it. “I say bravo to the American Airlines pilot. He has every right to do that. He’s the captain of the flight, and he’s in charge of what happens,” Bill George, an executive fellow at Harvard… (www.cnbc.com) More...

Wrong fuel tank cap leads to accident

The pilot reported that during the preflight inspection, he filled the Piper J-4A’s forward (main) fuel tank to about 1 inch below the top and noted that the auxiliary fuel tank contained 4 gallons of fuel. The pilot used a stick to “dip” the two fuel tanks and validate the amount of fuel in them. The pilot planned on departing from North Omaha Airport (3NO) in Nebraska for flight operations in the airport’s traffic pattern. Before the takeoff, the fuel selector was positioned for the forward… (generalaviationnews.com) More...

The oldest aircraft flown in to Oshkosh 2023

“It’s the oldest airplane on the airport that flew in.” Pilot Andrew King is justifiably proud of the claim he makes for the 1926 Waco 9 he stands beside in the Vintage area at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023. The biplane’s neatly-faired OX-5 engine clattered and chugged to get King and the Waco to AirVenture from Brodhead, Wisconsin, near the state’s southern border with Illinois, where the plane was restored. The Waco 9 is a classic link in American civil aviation, enjoying popularity in the… (generalaviationnews.com) More...

Next Generation Model Serving

Model Server Motivation Producing real-time predictions requires two components: feature vector building and model evaluation (aka inference). Our original infrastructure (the Python streamer) handled both of these in one place. It followed our flight data feed to build feature vectors and evaluated those vectors on models it loaded into memory. The streamer was not performant enough to run for all the airports we wished to make predictions for, so we ran many copies of it, with each streamer… (flightaware.engineering) More...

FlightAware 2023 Intern Summer Projects - Part 1

This summer, we had 5 students from across the country join FlightAware as interns. They collaborated with other FlightAware engineers to build out their project (and in one case, two projects!) and accomplished impressive work that they demoed to the entire company. In addition to that, they got to know each other better through get-togethers and participated in talks about tech and career development presented by FlightAware engineers. We invite you to see the results of their hard work, as we… (flightaware.engineering) More...

FlightAware Foresight: A Window into the Future

In the world of aviation, having even just a few minutes advanced notice of changes to a flight arrival time - or a taxi time - can have huge downstream effects. One of the things we’ve been focused on at FlightAware is expanding and innovating our Predictive technologies (which we call FlightAware ForesightSM), and not only that, but deepening the trust in our predictions while simplifying the overall customer experience so that we can unlock the value that comes from having a confident view… (blog.flightaware.com) More...

What You Need to Know About Turbulence

Countless travelers have experienced the distinct anxiety-inducing sensation of turbulence on flights: Eyes squeezed shut, hands clamped to the armrests for dear life, bracing for the roller coaster to come. Recent incidents have left dozens of passengers with injuries. Last month, seven passengers on a Lufthansa flight from Texas to Frankfurt were hospitalized with minor injuries after their plane encountered severe turbulence as it flew over Tennessee. And in December, about two dozen people,… (www.nytimes.com) More...