Emil Jeyaratnam, The Conversation and Tim Dean, The Conversation
In light of another tragic airline crash, it’s natural to ask whether air travel is becoming less safe. In fact, air travel is safer than at almost any point in history.
The European Alps where Flight 4U 9525 crashed – killing 150 onboard – are known by pilots to be a hazardous place. Just one of many things a pilot must consider during any air emergency.
A major change is coming to our skies. From next March, pilots will be able to determine their own routes and plan to fly direct from point to point. Currently, flights must plan to follow explicitly defined…
Tragically, the experimental spaceplane SpaceShipTwo crashed in the Mojave desert during a test flight on Friday, killing one pilot and injuring another. It is not clear what went wrong, and the coming…
Australia is playing catch up by allowing plane passengers to keep their mobile phone switched on – albeit in flight mode only – during take off and landing. But many have probably already done this. A…
The introduction of constant tracking of commercial aircraft during the whole journey has been raised by Malaysian authorities in a preliminary report into missing flight MH370. It’s been two months now…
Any conversation about Australia’s commitment to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter refers to it as a fifth-generation fighter aircraft. But what exactly is a fifth-generation aircraft, and why is it important…
Now the Australian Government has committed to a further 58 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft it is time to ask whether this is a good idea, will we be getting value for money – and will the JSF…
The Australian Government’s mission to upgrade the defence force fleet of ageing aircraft with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been controversial since it began more than a decade ago. Australia formally…
The missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has some similarities to the disappearance of Pan Am flight 944, which disappeared into the Pacific Ocean almost 50 years ago. Late in the afternoon of November…
The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 – with 239 people on board – is unusual in that two days after the plane lost communication there is no reliable evidence of debris. No radio calls were…
For Malaysia Airlines, every hour counts as it deals with the loss of flight MH370 with 227 passengers and 12 crew on-board. The first 48 hours of a crisis are the most critical for an organisation as…
It is estimated that by 2050 there will be a six-fold increase in the number of flights there are today. This is going to be an environmental problem, and it will need radical change in aircraft design…