Good day all

Klerksdorp is the place to be this weekend if you enjoy Hi-energy aerobatics.

The Sports Aerobatic Club are currently hosting the SA National Aerobatics Championships, this will continue until Saturday and will be followed by an Airshow all this is happening at the P.C. Pelser Aerodrome. With the proposed Mafikeng Airshow being cancelled this Klerksdorp Airshow promises to be Bigger and Better. Gates open at 7:00 and the show will get underway at 11:00 the show will also incorporate the Unlimited Freestyle competition.

On Saturday 22 June Grasslands Flying Club will be hosting a Harvard and V-Dub drive in the form of a Breakfast fly-in, Harvard Flights are up for grabs as well a display of classic cars and of course lots of visiting aircraft are expected.

South African Hot Air Balloon Championships will be taking place from Sunday 23 June to Friday 28 June at Bill Harrop’s field in Skeerpoort in the Hartbeespoort area.

KLM and TU Delft aim to make aviation more sustainable with “V” shaped aircraft

Dutch airline KLM has teamed up with TU Delft to create the Flying-V aircraft concept, which is designed to consume 20 per cent less fuel than Airbus' A350.

KLM has signed an agreement to financially support Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in its research and development of the V-shaped aircraft, in a bid to make aviation more sustainable. The aircraft's V-shaped design will integrate the passenger cabin, the cargo hold and the fuel tanks into the wing structure.

Compared to the Airbus A350, one of the most advanced aircrafts of today, the long-distance Flying-V aircraft concept is smaller, giving it less aerodynamic drag and a reduced weight. According to KLM and TU Delft, this means the aircraft will use 20 per cent less fuel than the Airbus A350. While the Flying-V concept is shorter than the A350 at 55 metres, it has the same wingspan of 65 metres, meaning it will be able to use existing infrastructure at airports like gates and runways, and will fit into the same hangar as the A350. It will also be able to carry the same number of passengers – 314 in the standard configuration – and the same 160 cubic metres of cargo volume.

"We are incredibly pleased to be able to cooperate with our trusted partner KLM on our combined mission to make aviation more sustainable," said Henri Werij, dean of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at TU Delft. "Radically new and highly energy-efficient aircraft designs such as the Flying-V are important in this respect, as are new forms of propulsion," he continued. "Our ultimate aim is one of emission free flight. Our cooperation with KLM offers a tremendous opportunity to bring about real change."

"Aviation can be more sustainable than road and rail" says head of Norway's switch to electric planes According to TU Delft, global aviation is responsible for around 2.5 per cent of total CO2 emissions, and this percentage is set to rapidly increase as passengers travel more often and further.

As a result of this, last October the Dutch aviation sector presented its Smart and Sustainable action plan to make air travel more environmentally friendly. Its aim is to decrease Dutch aviation's CO2 emissions by 35 per cent by the end of 2030. The Flying-V is propelled by the most fuel-efficient turbofan engines currently available and has the potential to be adapted to make use of innovations in the propulsion system, such as using electrically-boosted turbofans.

In addition to supporting a more sustainable long-distance flight option in the future, the Flying-V also provides researchers with the opportunity to improve passenger experience in aircraft. From the seating layout in the wings to the design of the seats and bathrooms, each element has to be as lightweight as possible in order to maximise the efficiency gain provided in the unusual shape of the new aircraft.

"The new shape of the aircraft means we have exciting opportunities to design the interior, making flying more comfortable for passengers," said Peter Vink, Professor of Applied Ergonomics and Design at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. "For instance, as part of the Flying-V research, we're looking into new options to having a rest or taking meals on a plane," he added. "Offering food from a buffet is one of the options we're sinking our teeth in."

Researchers plan to reveal a flying scale model of the Flying-V and a full-size section of its interior in October 2019 to test whether it can remain stable when being flown at low speeds. A number of other aircraft makers are also heading towards a more sustainable future by focusing their efforts on electric technologies.

Among those companies is German start-up Lilium, which recently unveiled a five-seater jet-powered electric air taxi prototype that it plans to have operational in a number of cities around the world in the next six years. Similarly, Uber shared the designs for its electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOL) in May last year, which will make up the "world's first urban aviation rideshare network" and will be fully operational by 2023.

The Cirrus Vision SF50 arrives in South Africa

The Cirrus Vision Jet arrived at Lanseria Airport Yesterday 19 June and created quite a stir it is reported that she will be registered as ZS-CVJ.

The Vision SF50 is the realization of a vision to reimagine and reinvent the jet airplane in order to create a whole new category of aircraft —The Personal Jet. It’s a jet that’s designed to be flown by the owner. Not requiring a full-time professional pilot or a full-blown flight department, the Vision SF50 fills the untapped void between high performance pistons and the Very Light Jet. Simpler to fly and easier to operate and own, the Vision SF50 is truly a revolution in personal transportation. It makes jet performance accessible to pilots and aircraft owners who, up until now, could only dream. Of course, with the exclusive Cirrus Airframe Parachute System™ (CAPS™) the Vision SF50 also sets a new standard in jet aircraft safety.

Faith in the B737 Max confirmed by IAG announcement

Airbus demands a chance to compete for a blockbuster plane order by British Airways owner IAG which stunned industry executives at this week’s Paris Airshow by ordering 200 of Boeing’s grounded 737 MAX. Airbus launched a long-range version of its successful A321 jet with 226 orders and commitments in Paris, only to see its short-haul position among IAG brands eroded by the huge deal which shores up the embattled 737 MAX.

Boeing’s top-selling aircraft has been taken out of service worldwide since an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crashed in March, five months after a Lion Air 737 MAX plunged into the sea off Indonesia. A total of 346 people died in the two disasters.

The blockbuster order, worth more than $24 billion at list prices, was partly seen as an effort to preserve competition between planemakers, damaged by the three-month-old grounding crisis, but it rattled Airbus which was caught unawares after signing a smaller order for A321XLRs with IAG. Wrapping up the world’s largest air show on Thursday, Airbus publicly voiced its frustration over the deal and urged IAG to run a competition for the planes, which would be deployed at Vueling, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Level and part of BA.

“We would like a chance to compete for that business,” commercial head Christian Scherer told reporters, adding that IAG had not issued a formal tender for the narrow-body order.

IAG was not immediately available for comment but said earlier in the week that it did not comment on negotiations.

The shock announcement of a tentative order for 200 737 MAX jets from IAG dominated the aerospace jamboree and frayed an unusual PR truce between the world’s largest planemakers after Airbus publicly refrained from capitalizing on the crisis.

Commercial rivalry remains fierce, with Airbus launching its A321XLR - a longer-range version of its hot-selling A321 - to eat into a market that Boeing plans to target with a possible new 220-270-seater, whose launch is already later than expected. Airbus said it had won 363 orders and commitments including 226 for the A321XLR, and later reported another 10 XLR orders.

Boeing said it was in talks with other airlines for sales of its 737 MAX after the IAG deal. Sales chief Ihssane Mounir dismissed the A321XLR as suitable for only a “sliver” of the market that Boeing hopes to address with its proposed all-new mid-market plane.

The two sides also traded blows over competition for wide-body jets, with each scoring key wins in Asia.

Boeing had opened the show on a sombre note and suffered a further setback when General Electric disclosed a delay of months in supplying engines for the new 777X wide-body aircraft at the start of the show due to a component flaw. Mounir still expected the world’s largest twin-engine plane to fly this year and to be delivered in 2020.