13 years after the crash, the trial of flight AF447 has opened
By Corentin Fontoura
Monday the 10th of October, the trial of the flight AF447 has started in Paris. This lawsuit puts two of the European and French giants on the stand. This case is the continuation of a crash that happened in flight the 1st of June 2009 between Rio and Paris and where all the 228 people onboard disappeared. This lawsuit happens 13 years after the accident to which vast research of the aircraft and passengers, and a long investigation took place.
The article that I chose for this press review is only a recap and an introduction to this story; that is why I encourage you to read some more articles on the matter in order to have a better understanding of the current situation. As of today, the BEA’s (Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile – NTSB’s equivalent in France) report concludes on a pilot error.
Maladresse, imprudence, inattention, négligence ou manquement à une obligation de prudence imposée par la loi ou le règlement, a involontairement causé la mort de l’ensemble des passagers et de l’équipage de l’appareil effectuant le vol AF447
Malpractice, carelessness, inattention, negligence or failure to comply with a duty of care imposed by law or regulation, unintentionally caused the death of all the passengers and crew of the aircraft carrying out flight AF447
It opens the debate of the training of pilots and more specifically to doubtful IAS (Indicated Airspeed) and avoid misdetection of wrong data leading to bad interpretation and dangerous actions.
This kind of breach in pilot trainings linked with false data transmitted by the airplane is one of the main points to be improved for the schooling of future pilots. Other occurrences of pilot misunderstandings leading to crash have unfortunately arisen many times since the AF447 disaster. One of those has been the 737 MAX’s crashes where erroneous data led pilots to be incapable of properly reacting in time and addressing the situation to put back the plane on the correct trajectory.
This trial will be very mediatized in France and its output could be devastating for the industry because of the sorrow the accident created in the country.
Source:
Beniada, F. (2022, 14 October). Le procès du vol AF447 et le besoin de trouver des coupables. Journal de l’Aviation. Retrieved from https://www.journal-aviation.com/actualites/46742-le-proces-du-vol-af447-et-le-besoin-de-trouver-des-coupables
The future of eVTOL aircraft taxis according to Wisk
By Sébastien Van Crombrugge
Silicon Valley-based company Wisk has recently unveiled the design of its new generation of autonomous electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Through this, the firm aims at being the first one to have certified autonomous air taxis by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); an ambitious move coupled with an ambitious vision of the urban air mobility (UAM) of tomorrow.
If plans are running as forecasted, the Boeing-backed corporation would transport 300 million passengers across cities by 2035 with a fleet of 5000 4-seater self-flying cabs (CNET, 2022). For the company and the sector, the opportunity is huge as they could help to address the problem of hyper-congested cities by allowing ground traffic to be uplifted and passengers to find a strong alternative to commute.
In order to achieve this, the American enterprise is currently working on three main undertakings.
First of all, the firm is working on the design of the plane and the technology embarked. This new generation of aircraft has better shaped engines with 12 propellers whose performance has been dramatically enhanced compared to Wisk’s 5th generation. This progress enables the company’s eVTOLs to operate flights more energy-efficiently (Wisk Aero, 2022). Also, the organisation has worked on the improvement of systems with the aim of making flights safer and breakdowns faster detected as well as less frequently occurring. On this point, the US enterprise seeks to reach a standard where accidents have one chance out of a billion of happening.
Secondly, Wisk is working with several aviation partners to help draw down guidelines and roadmaps for the introduction of UAM in civilian airspace (Aviation Today, 2022). The company is acting alongside Boeing, FAA, NASA and Skyports – just to name a few – in order to smoothly integrate new generation aircrafts to the market by making them safer – Wisk’s CEO says that currently 80% of flight accidents are due to human errors (CNET, 2022). Its technology and collaboration with major public and private actors can sharply contribute to make aviation safer in the future by jointly developing more accurate and capable systems.
Thirdly and finally, the organisation is committed to make flying affordable. In fact, Wisk wants to offer tickets at $3 per passenger, per mile flown. This very low price should result in a high competitiveness of the firm on the market and contribute to the creation of an efficient strategy to attract new customers to adopt its services. However, this relies on the hypothesis that the business will be able to realise economies of scale to cut down on costs.
Although very ambitious, the Mountain View enterprise still needs to convince stakeholders. Knowing that this 6th generation of aircraft has only been designed and not yet built nor been able to fly, that competition in this segment is fierce and that one of its parent companies i.e., Kittyhawk has recently left the board, doubts can be raised regarding the feasibility of the project (CNET, 2022).
One encouraging note to conclude is the good ranking of the company on the SMG Consulting’s Reality Index (AAM Reality Index, 2022). The latter is a major mobility consulting firm which classifies project feasibility of UAM’s companies and the likeliness of the EIS (Entry into Service) of their product. As of October 2022, Wisk ranks 6th. Let us hope that the US company will successfully stay in line with its plan and contribute to the large democratisation of autonomous eVTOL aircraft taxis.
Sources:
Reed, J. (2022, 7 October). Wisk Unveils Its 6th-Generation Autonomous eVTOL Aircraft. Aviation Today. Retrieved from https://www.aviationtoday.com/2022/10/07/wisk-unveils-6th-generation-autonomous-evtol-aircraft/
Reilly, C. (2022, 16 October). Millions of Passengers for $3 a Mile: Inside Wisk’s Vision for Autonomous Aviation. CNET. Retrieved from https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/inside-wisk-gen-6-millions-of-passengers-for-3-dollars-a-mile/
SMG Consulting LLC. (2022). Advanced Air Mobility Reality Index. Retrieved on 16 October 2022 from https://smg-consulting.com/news/f/smg-consulting-announces-the-aam-reality-index
Wisk Aero LLC. (2022). Wisk Unveils World’s First Self-Flying, Four-Seat, All-Electric, Vertical Takeoff and Landing Air Taxi. Retrieved on 16 October 2022 from https://wisk.aero/news/press-release/generation6/
