"Made in China" Takes On A Whole New Meaning

For years, commercial aircraft has mainly been dominated in the Western world by Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, and recently Embraer.  There are other companies, such as Tupolev and Antonov, but you only see these planes in Russia, other countries formally under the Soviet Union, and other poorer countries.  So, would there ever be a chance for a country outside of the Western world that could become a potential competitor?  If you would have asked me about a month ago, I would have never imagined any other country would be given a chance.  So, when I watched a video on flightglobal.com that went over all of the highlights of the Paris Air Show, you can imagined how surprised I was.

Yes, it's a little corny and even a little awkward at the end (sigh...), but they do mention one thing that blew me away:  Ryanair and COMAC are teaming forces to create a 200 person airliner.  A chinese company is going to make an airliner for a Western company?!  And, just in case you need a little more evidence, here's Ryanair's formal announcement on their website:

http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-and-comac-commercial-aircraft-corp-of-china-sign-c-919-mou-in-paris

Now, if you've ever flown on Ryanair, this may make a little sense.  I only had one experience with them, flying from Paris to Stockholm, but all you really need is one flight to live what can be argued to be an adventure.

At Beauvais Airport (notice how the stepladder is installed into the aircraft to load passengers quickly and virtually anywhere)

A few years back, my brother and I were touring Europe and wanted to visit our relatives in Sweden for the first time.  From Paris, we had to take the subway to a bus station outside of the city, and then took a bus for 45 minutes... just to get to the airport called Beauvais, which exclusively caters to low cost airlines.  Our plane arrived and as people were exiting the craft, they announced that we were to start boarding the plane.  After some controlled chaos, we finally got in our seats and noticed that we were surrounded by advertisements for Ryanair, the airline we were flying on...  As we lined up on the runway, I also noticed the farmers working with hay almost next to the plane.  Finally, we landed at Skavsta airport, which is in Nykoping, about 66 miles outside of Stockholm.

As bizarre as that experience was, it only cost my brother and I $30 total.  For everything.  Not a penny more.  So, when Ryanair and China's COMAC make an announcement that they're going to work together, it doesn't seem so bizarre in the end.

So, is this a good idea to bring this type of competition into the mix?  My answer, I don't know for sure.  Although opinion can differ when it comes to Ryanair, it's safe to say that it is a very unique airline that has certain customers they cater to.  So, if there's a dependable and cheaper aircraft out there, who's to say that it's that big of a deal?  Plus, if you're worried about the competition between COMAC and the other players, I'm not sure how big of a deal it will play.  It will depend on the low cost market and where they want to go.  This could prove to be an issue if airlines like Air Asia, a low cost career based in Southeast Asia, would want some new C-919's.  When it comes down to it, with a changing market you need to have solutions that mold with the current demand; all Ryanair seems to be doing is taking a risk that will help them progress.  In the end, I'm mostly interested in what will happen in the future, and hope that it progresses better air travel... kind of like how I feel all the time :D

Negative Space: A Brief Look at NASA's Recent Spending Cuts

Yes, I know, this post is not about regular airplane shenanigans, but to me if it flies, it flies.  So here it goes; an extraterrestrial post, where no "A Plane Blog" has gone before...


Recently, I went on to my favorite airplane news site flightglobal.com to look up some stories on the recent Paris Air Show, held at the end of last June. I instead found some surprising yet unfortunately unsurprising news: the United States House Appropriations Committee approved for a $1.9 billion spending cut for NASA.  Here's the article posted on Flight Global's site:


http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2011/07/06/359215/us-house-appropriations-cuts-nasa-budget.html



Although this will affect a number of areas at NASA, it will mainly affect these three areas:


1. NASA science - $431 million
2. Exploration - $152 million
3. Operations - $1.4 billion


You may be wondering how this affects NASA on the whole... which is exactly what I wondered as well.  Being a plane nut, I also love and heavily admire space programs world wide, but unfortunately don't pay much attention to what's currently going on with them.  Without delving to much into the problem, one specific program that will be affected is the James Webb Space Telescope program, the replacement for the aging Hubble Space Telescope.  

On NASA's website, it says that this telescope "will find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way Galaxy".  Now, I'm not sure if the program will be completely cut, but DAMN, that's kind of important, right?  This is a plausible and safe way to continue to search into the great beyond, like we did when we searched our own planet in search of new discoveries.  We have the brain power, lets use it!  However, there may be some support behind the termination of the project.

Originally, the JWST was scheduled to launch sometime in 2014, when the project was announced in 2007.  Back then, the economy was a little better and the idea of replacing the Hubble with a much more powerful telescope was very appealing.  However, it was announced last month that it would not be able to be launched until maybe 2017, most likely 2018... and it's price tag was raised to $6.8 billion, which raised concerns throughout the NASA community worried that other programs would financially suffer if they couldn't control their latest endeavor.  Well, as projected, a draft was made and the cuts are real, laying to waste another great idea.

Is this going to kill NASA's drive to explore the our existence by understanding the cosmos more clearly?  Absolutely not!  It's their job, damn it.  But, with the economy as it is and various political pressures all over, the exact path is undetermined.  However, there is one exciting and historical moment that's going to hopefully happen tomorrow: the last shuttle launch.

Here's a recent picture of Atlantis, the last space shuttle to leave the planet Earth (epic!).  First, I'm super bummed I can't make it... however, it could be delayed due to recent thunderstorms (should have launched them in California!).  Whether or not I may blow good money to see the launch if it's delayed, it's both sad that the program is ending and is a proud moment, having served NASA for almost 30 years.  In most major airlines, there's not a chance you see a plane in their fleet flying for nearly as long, and this hard-ass flying machine goes frequently and only to freakin' space!  

In the end, I'm 100% positive that will continue to explore, and, who knows, maybe we'll all get a chance to fly into the unknown ourselves.  So, I have no clear answer for you, but I do have a clip for you to watch.  In case you're not familiar, this is the famous ending of Bill Hick's stand up routine that I find to be moving and provocative... and pertinent to the topic at hand :D

Yes, like outer space, this clip is a little out there and is easily seen as being unrealistic, but it doesn't hurt to wonder about the possibilities we possess and how to use them to further ourselves and our understand of why we're here and what to do with the time we have.  Because, in the end, we'll continue to look up at the stars and wonder for years and years to come.