SEATTLE, - The Boeing Company announced on Thursday it was combining Alteon, a wholly owned subsidiary, and existing training groups within Boeing Commercial Airplanes to form a new, unified training organisation.

The new training organization retains the Alteon name as a business unit within Boeing Commercial Aviation Services.

"The combined expertise of our Commercial Airplanes and Alteon teams will better serve our customers’ training needs by providing them with a more comprehensive suite of aviation training and flight services," said Lou Mancini, vice president and general manager of Commercial Aviation Services in a statement issued in Seattle yesterday. "This is yet another way that Boeing is helping to ensure our airline customers operate more efficiently."

The new organisation takes advantage of both Commercial Airplanes and Alteon resources to provide customers with a single integrated business that encompasses all development, deployment and delivery of aviation training and flight services.

It also supports both customers who need courseware and instructor-led training as well as those who need only to rent simulator time. In addition, for those customers who have invested in their own simulators, Alteon can provide Boeing data and hardware to operate the simulators as well as updates and upgrades.

"With the new organisation, we will be able to present a single face to the customer across our global network and a consistent level of excellence in aviation services," said Sherry Carbary, president of Alteon. "This consolidation reinforces our commitment to pursuing innovative solutions to meet our customers' needs by providing a comprehensive portfolio of capabilities in training and flight services delivered by our skilled and impassioned work force."

The new organization includes 1,400 training professionals. Alteon serves more than 400 customers around the world, delivering 330 training programs accepted by more than 100 regulatory authorities. It has more than 100 full-flight simulators in 20 locations on six continents.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 -- Community airline, Firefly, aims to become profitable by the next financial year ending Dec 31, 2009, its managing director Eddy Leong said Friday.

He said Firefly's new generation turboprop aircraft would help it save cost, increase seat capacity and help it turn around in the long run.

"Firefly is also targeting 1.5 million passengers next year," he told reporters at the company's buka puasa here Friday.

Leong said the airline has taken delivery of two aircraft and expected another three this year with five more in 2009.

He said the ten new-generation turboprop aircraft cost the company US$186 million (US$1=RM3.42).

Leong said the airline, which faced trying times this year, had no plan to revamp its fare structure.

"We have been maintaining the same fare structure even with the recent fuel increase. There is no need for drastic changes," he said.

He said even with the higher fuel prices, people still preferred travelling by air.

Leong said Firefly would also be adding new routes -- between Subang-Johor Baharu, Subang-Pekan Baru, Subang-Medan, and Subang-Koh Samui -- effective Oct 26.

How to book your tickets:
1. Via its website www.fireflyz.com.my
2. Via its call center at +603 7845 4543 (opens daily 8 am - 9 pm)
3. Via Penang Sales Office
4. Via appointed Malaysia Airlines Ticketing Offices in KLIA and KL Sentral in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Langkawi, Kota Bharu, Kuala Terengganu and Kuantan
5. Via appointed Airline Marketing Representatives in Phuket and Koh Samui
6. Via any travel agents registered with Firefly

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This slide gives technical definitions of a wing's geometry, which is one of the chief factors affecting airplane lift and drag. Actual aircraft wings are complex three-dimensional objects, but we will start with some simple definitions. The figure shows the wing viewed from three directions; the upper left shows the view from the top looking down on the wing, the lower right shows the view from the front looking at the wing leading edge, and the lower left shows a side view from the left looking in towards the centerline. The side view shows an airfoil shape with the leading edge to the left.

Top View

The top view shows a simple wing geometry, like that found on a light general aviation aircraft. The front of the wing (at the bottom) is called the leading edge; the back of the wing (at the top) is called the trailing edge. The distance from the leading edge to the trailing edge is called the chord, denoted by the symbol c. The ends of the wing are called the wing tips, and the distance from one wing tip to the other is called the span, given the symbol s. The shape of the wing, when viewed from above looking down onto the wing, is called a planform. In this figure, the planform is a rectangle. For a rectangular wing, the chord length at every location along the span is the same. For most other planforms, the chord length varies along the span. The wing area, A, is the projected area of the planform and is bounded by the leading and trailing edges and the wing tips. Note: The wing area is NOT the total surface area of the wing. The total surface area includes both upper and lower surfaces. The wing area is a projected area and is almost half of the total surface area.

Aspect ratio is a measure of how long and slender a wing is from tip to tip. The Aspect Ratio of a wing is defined to be the square of the span divided by the wing area and is given the symbol AR. For a rectangular wing, this reduces to the ratio of the span to the chord length as shown at the upper right of the figure.

AR = s^2 / A = s^2 / (s * c) = s / c

High aspect ratio wings have long spans (like high performance gliders), while low aspect ratio wings have either short spans (like the F-16 fighter) or thick chords (like the Space Shuttle). There is a component of the drag of an aircraft called induced drag which depends inversely on the aspect ratio. A higher aspect ratio wing has a lower drag and a slightly higher lift than a lower aspect ratio wing. Because the glide angle of a glider depends on the ratio of the lift to the drag, a glider is usually designed with a very high aspect ratio. The Space Shuttle has a low aspect ratio because of high speed effects, and therefore is a very poor glider. The F-14 and F-111 have the best of both worlds. They can change the aspect ratio in flight by pivoting the wings--large span for low speed, small span for high speed.

Front View

The front view of this wing shows that the left and right wing do not lie in the same plane but meet at an angle. The angle that the wing makes with the local horizontal is called the dihedral angle. Dihedral is added to the wings for roll stability; a wing with some dihedral will naturally return to its original position if it encounters a slight roll displacement. You may have noticed that most large airliner wings are designed with diherdral. The wing tips are farther off the ground than the wing root. Highly maneuverable fighter planes, on the other hand do not have dihedral. In fact, some fighter aircraft have the wing tips lower than the roots giving the aircraft a high roll rate. A negative dihedral angle is called anhedral . Historical Note: The Wright brothers designed their 1903 flyer with a slight anhedral to enhance the aircraft roll performance.

Side View

A cut through the wing perpendicular to the leading and trailing edges will show the cross-section of the wing. This side view is called an airfoil, and it has some geometry definitions of its own as shown at the lower left. The straight line drawn from the leading to trailing edges of the airfoil is called the chord line. The chord line cuts the airfoil into an upper surface and a lower surface. If we plot the points that lie halfway between the upper and lower surfaces, we obtain a curve called the mean camber line. For a symmetric airfoil (upper surface the same shape as the lower surface) the mean camber line will fall on top of the chord line. But in most cases, these are two separate lines. The maximum distance between the two lines is called the camber, which is a measure of the curvature of the airfoil (high camber means high curvature). The maximum distance between the upper and lower surfaces is called the thickness. Often you will see these values divided by the chord length to produce a non-dimensional or "percent" type of number. Airfoils can come with all kinds of combinations of camber and thickness distributions.

CAA International offer JAR FCL & Part 66 exams from our UKCAA question banks, to aviation authorities and to candidates direct worldwide.

	Examination Services CAA International provides exam centres in global venues enabling candidates to sit JAR FCL and EASA Part 66 exams which will credit towards a UK CAA/EASA licence in conjunction with UK CAA approved training where required. We have access to extensive question banks, which are continuously updated to ensure a vast databank of questions. This not only meets the demand from industry, but also produces well motivated, professional, and above all, safe pilots and engineers graduating with the well-recognised training standards associated with JAR-FCL and EASA Part 66. Malaysia Venue Our Malaysian venue is available from December 2008. The centre is based at the British Council offices and will offer identical exams to those sat in the UK following the UK exam timetable. Kuala Lumpur Centre British Council Ground Floor, West Block Wisma Selangor Dredging 142C Jalan Ampang 50450 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Telephone +60 (0)3 2723 7900 Car Park There is a car park in Wisma Selangor Dredging and an open air parking area between Wisma Selangor Dredging and Hotel Maya. Plan your Bus Route RapidKL – 105, 106 Metrobus – 28, 78, 79 (Alight at the bus stop located right in front of Wisma Selangor Dredging or Bangunan Angkasaraya). Nearest LRT Station Kuala Lumpur centre is just a 5-minute walk from Bukit Nanas How to find our Kuala Lumpur Venue Downloadable Examination Timetable Candidates that have already booked exams in the UK may transfer to the Malaysian venue. Kuala Lumpur Prices Part 66 engineering exam - £67 per paper JAR FCL ATPL exam - £91 per paper Application forms Please complete an application form and payment form as appropriate and fax the form to +44 (0) 1293 573992. JAR FCL Examination Application Form (Aeroplanes) JAR FCL Examination Application Form (Helicopters) EASA Part 66 Examination Application Form EASA Part 66 Guidance Notes for Exam Applications Payment Form Examination services to Departments of Civil Aviation CAA International also offers an exams service to Departments of Civil Aviation who need to issue their own professional licenses and ratings but don’t have the required resources or expertise to develop their own question bank and exams system. The task of developing a national flight crew licensing system can be both costly and time consuming. The examination service offered by CAA International is designed to assist states with the operation of their own national licensing system, removing the need for pilots and engineers to rely on foreign licences. Contact us for further information. Email: exams@caainternational.com

MIRI: A light passenger aircraft crashed after overshooting the runway while landing at the Ba?Kelalan airport, about 120 miles east of here, on Saturday. All 14 people onboard are safe.

The DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, belonging to Malaysia Airlines? subsidiary MASWings, crashed at the end of the runway at the short take-off and landing airport (STOLport) as it came in to land at 9.34am, said Ba?Kelalan state assemblyman Nelson Balang Rining who was briefed by officers of the Lawas Department of Civil Aviation.

The pilot, co-pilot and all 12 passengers were unhurt in the incident, which badly damaged the aircraft, he said when contacted by Bernama.

Nelson, who is now in Lawas, said the weather was ?considerably fine? when the aircraft took off from Lawas STOLport at 8.45am.

In KUCHING, MASWings managing director Dr Amin Khan, when contacted by Bernama, said the aircraft, on a Miri-Lawas-Ba?Kelalan flight, skidded about 10 metres from the runway.

?There were no casualties or serious injury. It is the standard procedure to ensure flight safety. We took all the safety measures,? he said.

He said an investigation would be made on the cause of the accident and that MASWings engineers based in Miri would be flown to Ba?Kelalan to assist in the probe.

Dr Amin said the accident did not affect MASWings schedule of flights and that the runway at Ba?Kelalan airport remained open.

MASWings makes three flights a week to BA?Kelalan, which is reached easily by air. The land route requires the use of a timber track from Lawas town.

The 19-seater Twin Otter aircraft was one of the five operated by MASWings for its rural air services (RAS) in Sarawak.


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Airplanes are transportation devices which are designed to move people and cargo from one place to another. Airplanes come in many different shapes and sizes depending on the mission of the aircraft. The airplane shown on this slide is a turbine-powered airliner which has been chosen as a representative aircraft.

The fuselage, or body of the airplane, is a long hollow tube which holds all the pieces of an airplane together. The fuselage is hollow to reduce weight. As with most other parts of the airplane, the shape of the fuselage is normally determined by the mission of the aircraft. A supersonic fighter plane has a very slender, streamlined fuselage to reduce the drag associated with high speed flight. An airliner has a wider fuselage to carry the maximum number of passengers. On an airliner, the pilots sit in a cockpit at the front of the fuselage. Passengers and cargo are carried in the rear of the fuselage and the fuel is usually stored in the wings. For a fighter plane, the cockpit is normally on top of the fuselage, weapons are carried on the wings, and the engines and fuel are placed at the rear of the fuselage.

The weight of an aircraft is distributed all along the aircraft. The fuselage, along with the passengers and cargo, contribute a significant portion of the weight of an aircraft. The center of gravity of the aircraft is the average location of the weight and it is usually located inside the fuselage. In flight, the aircraft rotates around the center of gravity because of torques generated by the elevator, rudder, and ailerons. The fuselage must be designed with enough strength to withstand these torques.

This page shows the parts of an airplane and their functions. Airplanes are transportation devices which are designed to move people and cargo from one place to another. Airplanes come in many different shapes and sizes depending on the mission of the aircraft. The airplane shown on this slide is a turbine-powered airliner which has been chosen as a representative aircraft.

For any airplane to fly, you must lift the weight of the airplane itself, the fuel, the passengers, and the cargo. The wings generate most of the lift to hold the plane in the air. To generate lift, the airplane must be pushed through the air. The jet engines, which are located beneath the wings, provide the thrust to push the airplane forward through the air. The air resists the motion in the form of aerodynamic drag. Some airplanes use propellers for the propulsion system instead of jets.

To control and maneuver the aircraft, smaller wings are located at the tail of the plane. The tail usually has a fixed horizontal piece (called the horizontal stabilizer) and a fixed vertical piece (called the vertical stabilizer). The stabilizers' job is to provide stability for the aircraft, to keep it flying straight. The vertical stabilizer keeps the nose of the plane from swinging from side to side, while the horizontal stabilizer prevents an up-and-down motion of the nose. (On the Wright brother's first aircraft, the horizontal stabilizer was placed in front of the wings. Such a configuration is called a canard after the French word for "duck").

At the rear of the wings and stabilizers are small moving sections that are attached to the fixed sections by hinges. In the figure, these moving sections are colored brown. Changing the rear portion of a wing will change the amount of force that the wing produces. The ability to change forces gives us a means of controlling and maneuvering the airplane. The hinged part of the vertical stabilizer is called the rudder; it is used to deflect the tail to the left and right as viewed from the front of the fuselage. The hinged part of the horizontal stabilizer is called the elevator; it is used to deflect the tail up and down. The outboard hinged part of the wing is called the aileron; it is used to roll the wings from side to side. Most airliners can also be rolled from side to side by using the spoilers. Spoilers are small plates that are used to disrupt the flow over the wing and to change the amount of force by decreasing the lift when the spoiler is deployed.

The wings have additional hinged, rear sections near the body that are called flaps. Flaps are deployed downward on takeoff and landing to increase the amount of force produced by the wing. On some aircraft, the front part of the wing will also deflect. Slats are used at takeoff and landing to produce additional force. The spoilers are also used during landing to slow the plane down and to counteract the flaps when the aircraft is on the ground. The next time you fly on an airplane, notice how the wing shape changes during takeoff and landing.

The fuselage or body of the airplane, holds all the pieces together. The pilots sit in the cockpit at the front of the fuselage. Passengers and cargo are carried in the rear of the fuselage. Some aircraft carry fuel in the fuselage; others carry the fuel in the wings.
As mentioned above, the aircraft configuration in the figure was chosen only as an example. Individual aircraft may be configured quite differently from this airliner. The Wright Brothers 1903 Flyer had pusher propellers and the elevators at the front of the aircraft. Fighter aircraft often have the jet engines buried inside the fuselage instead of in pods hung beneath the wings. Many fighter aircraft also combine the horizontal stabilizer and elevator into a single stabilator surface. There are many possible aircraft configurations, but any configuration must provide for the four forces needed for flight.

The ‘Red Bull Air Race’ was conceived in the Red Bull sports think-tank and came from an idea to merge flying with the most exciting elements of motor racing. The aim was to develop a brand new aviation race that would challenge the ability of the world’s best pilots, creating a race in the sky that was not simply about speed, but also precision and skill. The answer was to build a specially designed obstacle course which the pilots would navigate at high speeds.

You're paying more to travel, and not just for your plane ticket. Every pound counts as the number of carriers charging for all pieces of checked luggage racks up. So it stands to reason that the public might wonder why airlines don't charge extra for passengers with significant overages of a more, uh, personal nature.

Southwest Airlines calls them "customers of size." Medical professionals would use the term "clinically obese." Bloggers and message board habitués use names that are less polite, but all imply that the passengers in question are overweight.

Many people assume that obese people are getting something of a free ride. But are they? Nearly all airlines keep it very quiet, but many have policies — informal or formal — in place to make sure that passengers of size carry their own weight.

It's a tricky business, Airfarewatchdog.com has found. In some places — Canada, for instance — it just got trickier. A winter ruling barred Canadian airlines from discriminating against "clinically obese" customers. Southwest was successfully sued by a passenger who was told she needed to purchase a second seat after she had already boarded — too late, the ruling found. An ample Air France passenger won a case after citing humiliation at the hands of staff who wrapped packing tape around him in public to prove that he was too fat to sit one seat, forcing him to purchase another.

Here's the funny part about those lawsuits: At the time, both Southwest and Air France had official policies in place for dealing with overweight passengers. Southwest's policy has been around for years. It states that if staff members determine that the passenger will not fit in one seat, the passenger must purchase a second, a cost which will be reimbursed if the flight is not full.

Air France's policy was looser, urging passengers who knew that not having an empty seat next to them would be a problem, to handle it on their own in advance. (As of this writing, Air France passengers "with a high body mass" are warned that if they do not purchase an extra seat, they may not be allowed to board.) In the end, both airlines were punished for being up-front with their customers, even if the execution of the policy perhaps needed work. This is, after all, a terrifically sensitive matter.

Different airlines, different policies

Perhaps that is why, for many airlines, the topic tends to be along the lines of 'That Which We Don't Speak Of.' Ask United Airlines what rules it has in place for dealing with the situation, and you'll hear a pregnant pause, followed by a terse "We have no policy."

American Airlines is more forthcoming, but hastens to emphasize that in no way does it require its passengers to purchase two seats. Spokesman Tim Wagner said passengers whose weight exceeds 250 pounds should know that there are "possible limitations that could result in American not being able to accommodate them." He also said that the airline urges passengers to "recognize ahead of time that they may need to purchase two seats." Wagner also cited an FAA regulation to which all airlines adhere: If you can't snap the seatbelt (after the extension is added, that is) you can't fly.

JetBlue Airways doesn't mind taking a more straightforward stance. Spokesperson Alison Eshelman said its policy "requires" larger customers who need an additional seat for their own comfort to buy one in advance. If they do not, and the crew cannot accommodate them, they will be required to buy the seat in any case, with no refunds. (However, Eshelman noted, truthfully, that JetBlue does offer its passengers a little more wiggle room with its larger-than-average seat width on board the airline's A320 aircraft.)

Does size matter?

But what of the growing awareness among the traveling public that it costs the airline more to transport an obese passenger than a passenger of average weight? Those hoping for any type of joy in that department should sit on their hands. Delta's Susan Elliott said that the airline "has no plans to implement any policy that discriminates against any of our passengers." Translation: This is one hot potato nobody is going to touch.

Here's a look at how different airlines deal with the "customer of size."

Southwest Airlines

Passengers should plan on purchasing an extra seat or risk being asked to do so at the airport by staff. If the flight is not sold out, the passenger may claim a refund.

American Airlines

The airline states that passengers over 250 pounds should recognize that there may be limitations to the service that the airline can provide. However, it does not require that you purchase an extra seat automatically.

United Airlines

The airline has no policy whatsoever.

Midwest Airlines

As with Southwest, passengers are encouraged to know their needs in advance. If staff members determine that two seats are required, the seat will be sold at the lowest possible fare, with a refund available if there is one or more open seats on the flight.

Air France

Passengers with "high body mass" may receive a 25 percent discount on an extra seat, knowing that if they choose not to buy the seat, they may risk not being able to fly.

JetBlue Airways

You are required to buy a second seat, and there are no refunds.

Delta Air Lines

The airline "works to accommodate" passengers with special needs. Upon request and availability, it will try to make sure the next seat is unoccupied. However, if the plane is full, you will most likely be asked to leave the flight and buy a second seat on the next available flight. (You can actually count on this being a fairly typical practice on most airlines.)

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