Squawk Codes Explained: 1200, 7000, 7400 and 7777
Share this story Type “what does squawk 7700 mean” into a search box and you get a correct answer in five seconds. Type “what does squawk 2303 mean” and you get a page of confident nonsense. That asymmetry is the most interesting thing about...
Flaps and Slats: How a Jet Changes the Shape of Its Own Wing
Share this story A wing optimised for cruising at 500 knots is a bad wing for landing at 140. It is too small, too flat and too efficient. The aeroplane needs a different wing for the last three minutes of the flight, and rather than carry two, it grows one. That is...
Angle of Attack and the Stall: Why Wings Stop Working
Share this story There is one sentence that, properly understood, prevents a large fraction of fatal loss-of-control accidents. The US Federal Aviation Administration puts it like this: “It is possible to exceed the critical AOA at any airspeed, at any attitude,...
How Does an Aircraft Fly? Lift, Weight, Thrust and Drag
Share this story Almost everyone who has been told how a wing works has been told something wrong. The explanation goes like this: the top of the wing is curved and the bottom is flat, so air going over the top has further to travel, so it must go faster to meet up...
FAR 91.211: How Long Can You Fly Without Oxygen?
Share this story Ask how long a pilot can fly without oxygen and you get two answers that do not resemble each other. The legal answer lives in 14 CFR 91.211, and at 12,000 feet it is remarkably relaxed: fly all day. The physiological answer comes from the FAA’s...
Fiat G.55 Centauro: Italy’s Best Fighter, Built Too Late
Share this story In February 1943 a German evaluation commission arrived at the Italian flight test centre at Guidonia with an Fw 190A-5 and a Bf 109G-4, and spent several weeks flying them against three new Italian fighters. The head of the commission, Oberst...
Su-30MKI: Why the Indian Air Force Flies With Two Crew
Share this story Line up the world’s major air forces and count the seats. The United States Air Force flies the F-22, the F-16 and the F-35 with one pilot. The F-35 has no two-seat variant in any version, for any customer. France flies mostly single-seat Rafales....
Tarom’s First 737 MAX Arrives as Its Rescue Plan Slips
Share this story At 18:51 on the evening of 8 September, a Boeing 737-8 registered YR-BGO touched down at Henri Coandă in Bucharest, having flown in directly from the United States. It is the first 737 MAX Tarom has ever operated, and the first in Romania. Boeing,...
Switzerland Is Scrapping ILS as GPS Spoofing Hits Crews Daily
Share this story Swiss crews meet GPS spoofing every day. Switzerland is nonetheless switching its airports away from the ground-based landing system that spoofing cannot touch, and doing it to save money. That plan has just started to unravel. The Tages-Anzeiger...
Fighter Jet Takeoff and Landing: The Real Numbers, F-104 to F-35
Share this story A Lockheed F-104 Starfighter came down final approach at 175 knots with full flaps, and that was the basic number. The pilot then added five knots for every 1,000 pounds of fuel still in the tanks above the first thousand. On a typical recovery that...
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