Random Aviation Thoughts 12/13/06

• Hey Justin, this post is for you. You mentioned that you read my blog for the occasional airplane news so here you go.
• Some folks want to rename Kansas City's airport after Buck O'Neil. KCI would become the John "Buck" O'Neil International Airport. I assume the three letter code for Kansas City would remain "MCI" and continue to confuse travelers for years yet to come (the airport was originally named "Mid-Continent International," you couldn't use call letters starting with a K because of the FCC, and now the IATA doesn't want to change navigational charts).
  
• The Marines are thrilled with their new tilt-rotor aircraft, the V-22, which takes off like a helicopter and then flies like an airplane. The question is where do you use them first? On board a ship? In the horn of Africa or Iraq? One Marine general said, "if U.S. forces wanted to reinforce units near the Syrian border [of Iraq] with 180 troops from Al Asad air base, 70 miles away, the mission could be done in 17 minutes with eight V-22s, he said. It would take 3.5 hours to do the same mission using 12 CH-46 helicopters, which fly closer to harm’s way at lower altitudes."
• The first UH-72A Lakota has been delivered to the Army and I can't wait to see one of these things up close. It's a cool little light utility helicopter for transport and medevac situations made in Columbus, Georgia. And the name choice (Army rotorcraft are named for American Indian tribes) is excellent as well.
  

• F-35 Lightning finished taxi testing yesterday, the final step before its first flight. Taxi testing means that they raced the plane up and down the runway at 127 mph… but didn't take off. The prototype of the F-35 flew quite a bit but this is the actual modified production model, the real thing, and will fly sometime in the near future. This plane is the ultimate in sci-fi bells and whistles, even though most people will think of it as the F-22's little brother. The pilot can see "through" the body of the plane and the instruments are on one large touchscreen panel where you can slide the altimeter out of the way or move your radar screen from the left side to the right side. One version of the plane will be able to hover and then go supersonic in the same mission (never been done before). It can do everything the F-22A can do (on a smaller scale), except that there will be thousands of them. And this will probably be the eventual replacement for the Thunderbirds' F-16s coming to a airshow near you (in 15 or 20 years).
  
• Donald Rumsfeld (and hopefully his replacement Gates) appears to be done with Key West. The 1948 Key West Agreement says the Navy would be allowed to conduct air operations as necessary for a naval campaign, the Army would be allowed to retain aviation assets for reconnaissance and medical evacuation purposes, and the Air Force basically gets everything else that flies. But the truth is that Army Special Forces, Army logistics, and Army close air support and observation (like the old OV-10 Broncos and the new UAVs) need their own dedicated air assets. The Air Force, of course, doesn't want to lose control of anything with wings, yet it is rapidly expanding it's mission into outer space and cyberspace. If Rumsfeld gets his way, the Army will get to fly its own fixed wing aircraft to move supplies and troops, while the Air Force continues to fly fighter planes and bombers and spy satellites.