I have in our svn by the way a OpenOffice.org spreadsheet about historical data about the basic design parameters for aircraft. There are just couple of aircraft currently in the list, but I will add more later and also you can help, you can send me more lines to the sheet, just take the sheet as a template and fill your lines and send it to me karoliina dot t dot salminen at gmail dot com. I will copy-paste your additions to the table. I am particularly interested in fast composite aircraft and not so interested in the parameters of tube and fabric aircraft or metal aircraft (except interesting ones, like RV). All data even for fabric and tube, is welcome of course, but I wanted to let you know what I am interested in the most.

Here is the spreadsheet in OpenOffice.org format:
WeightAndBasicParametersHistoricalStatistics.ods

Here is the current version of the spreadsheet in PDF-format for quick viewing:
WeightAndBasicParametersHistoricalStatistics.pdf

MAT’s CRJ900 – currently stored in Ljubljana

Despite MAT recently being grounded by aviation authorities in Macedonia, Jat’s CEO has confirmed that the Serbian carrier will take over shares and revive the national Macedonian carrier. Jat’s team of legal experts are currently in Skopje where they are checking MAT’s legal and financial documentation. These checks should be complete within a week. The findings will be presented to Jat’s management board, after which, the Serbian carrier will send MAT a proposal whether it will take over a majority of shares (over 50%) or less than 50% of shares. The documentation checks have taken longer than expected because MAT did not immediately provide all the necessary paperwork. Also, Jat’s legal team requested more information regarding MAT’s financial reports. Jat’s CEO confirmed that MAT has extreme debt but declined to comment further. He stated that Jat is primarily interested in the Macedonian aviation market which is covered 35% by MAT, while Jat has a share of 10% in the market. “We are also interested in commencing flights from Belgrade and Skopje to Priština through MAT”, Saša Vlaisavljević, the airline’s CEO says. Jat is currently banned from flying to Priština due to the unresolved status of Kosovo in which Priština is located.

Meanwhile, the airline’s inaugural flight to Abu Dhabi on May 5 was a great success with Jat’s Boeing B737-300 awaited by water cannons and Abu Dhabi Airport CEO upon landing. Vlaisavljević confirmed that one of Jat Airways’ Boeing B737-300s has returned to the carrier after a 5 month lease to Air Ivorie. The aircraft registered YU-ANV, has returned after serving in the Ivory Coast and is still wearing the Air Ivorie livery (titles). The Serbian Government has also said it will speed up the restructuring of the airline after it passes a major economic stimulus package, which should combat against the global financial crisis in Serbia, later tonight.

Spotted by Wayne Grant positioned outside the Helipro facility at Palmerston North 02May was this BK117, previously operated Shands Hospital's Medivac team, TRAUMA ONE. Anyone have an idea of its identity? Perhaps N117SJ which later became N118LL?

I decided to do svn up for QFLR5 and was delighted that it has progressed further. I decided to try out fuselage shapes this time because it turned out that QFLR5 now allows larger airfoil thicknesses than 20%. Therefore here is a 26% fuselage shape I created today.

Here is how I started it:
1. I took NLF414F airfoil which I know to have very low drag value at 10 million reynolds number.
2. I decambered to it to zero camber
3. I changed thickness to 26%
4. I changed leading edge radius: 30% from leading edge, 0.8 ratio.



The simulation result gives very low Cd-value. The problem in reality is that because of all intersections, and a hatch where one has to enter the craft, the transition point is not that great as predicted by the program most likely.

Here is another simulation, transition forced at 40% chord. The Reynolds number is the same, 41 million with mach 0.29:



I further adjusted the leading edge radius, from the above, I reduced it to 0.8 again.

Here is the result KSNLFFUSELAGE3:



The simulated polar for the NLFFUSELAGE3:



Obviously the fuselage is supposed to be flown at zero angle of attack on cruise flight, but for slight side slip situations it is good to know how the drag rises on the fuselage. It also affects to the stability negatively (for example because the lift slope is not at all linear).

Potential improvement idea for use in non-steady flight: widen the low drag bucket a bit.

The airfoil shape as a axisymmetric fuselage (or as a generic pod, this works also as a engine pod), 3D illustration:



And this is how it looks from inside:



Structurally the pod requires thicker boom than the optimum and unfortunately the drag will be larger than the simulated one for the pod alone.

Kiev

Croatia Airlines will consider opening services from Zagreb to Kiev after Croatia’s minister for tourism and the Ukrainian ambassador to Croatia met in Zagreb. The two discussed about the major profit Croatia’s tourism industry could make from potential Ukrainian tourists. It is expected that Croatia could see 5000 to 6000 more Ukrainian tourists when compared to last year especially during the week of June 6 when the two countries play a FIFA World Cup qualifying match against each other in Zagreb. The meeting was also attended by members of various Croatian tour operators. Croatia Airlines will go ahead with its planned new scheduled destinations this summer despite earlier announcements that they may be cancelled due to the global financial crisis. The new services include flights from Zagreb to Barcelona and Gothenburg as well as to London and Paris from Pula.

Meanwhile, the German low cost airline Intersky began flights from Friedrichshafen to Pula during the weekend while Pula also welcomed some 130 passengers from Moscow which arrived on the Russian Transaero Airlines. It is expected that Croatia will see an increase in passengers from Russia and Ukraine after the country lifted visa requirements for passengers arriving from these countries. Yesterday, the low cost Germanwings began seasonal flights from Berlin to Pula.

Arriving today for a couple of weeks is the Tecnam P2002 Sierra RG demonstrator ZK-SRG2. c/n 364 , of Ardmore Aviation Services Ltd.

In for a bit of titivating is this Cessna A188B Agwagon C , ZK-EJL c/n 188-02859 , listed to Neville Somerville of Cheviot. For sale I believe.

Jat Airways flights to Abu Dhabi begin tonight

Nearly 20 years after Jat Airways, then know as Yugoslav Airlines, ended services to Abu Dhabi, tonight the airline will restart the route. The flight departs tonight at 22.05, local time, and will operate via Larnaca (Cyprus) for a short technical stop. Passengers continuing to Abu Dhabi do not leave the aircraft. The aircraft will arrive in the capital of the United Arab Emirates in the early morning with passengers being able to connect to flights to Australia using Etihad Airways. Jat’s new service was approved after it made an agreement with Etihad Airways to transport Serbian passengers onwards to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. This service has been mainly implemented for the Serbian Diaspora in Australia which will now have the quickest connection to their homeland by using this combination. Jat had a similar agreement with Emirates Airlines which fell apart late last year when Emirates heavily increased its prices for Jat passengers from Australia and New Zealand continuing to Serbia (similarly it did this to Croatia Airlines). The new agreement with Etihad will also be the cheapest for passengers and has generated great interest amongst the Serbian Diaspora in Australia. For those that will not be able to connect to Belgrade via Abu Dhabi they will be able to do so via Frankfurt, Paris, Istanbul and Athens also using Etihad and Jat. Jat has 2 offices in Australia – one in Sydney and the other in Melbourne. Interest has also been high in Serbia with travel agencies and tour operators promoting Abu Dhabi as the new destination to be.

Jat Airways will operate the service with their Boeing B737-300. The seat capacity will be 123 with 9 seats in business class and 114 in economy. Jat will offer its full meal service on the flight with a total of 2 meals served onboard (one hot from Belgrade to Larnaca and on the return from Abu Dhabi to Larnaca and one cold from Larnaca to Abu Dhabi and on the return from Larnaca to Belgrade). Passengers will also be issued with pillows and blankets while all alcoholic drinks will be free, unlike on Jat’s European services where alcoholic beverages are priced. Jat Airways has also received full rights to sell tickets from Larnaca to Abu Dhabi and vice versa.

Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates and unlike its rival Dubai it has been largely unaffected by the global financial crisis. The national airline of the UAE, Etihad Airways, is considered one of the best in the world and is in the process of major expansion with services already operating to Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. Jat will operate 2 times per week to Abu Dhabi although this is expected to increase by at least one flight during the winter season.