# The Great Ongoing Aviation Thread (general and other) (Part 1)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 23, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499 "2011-10-23T02:17:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 362
### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7223 "2025-01-26T22:41:07Z")
Did it take the Blue Spruce route and stop in Greenland and Iceland?
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### Author:  [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2025, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7224 "2025-01-27T01:42:13Z")
Portland, ME to Azores then on to Valencia, Spain. They also do trips from Texas to Brazil and Spain to Brazil. Long flights solo so the pay should be pretty good.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7225 "2025-01-28T15:12:02Z")
And here is some fresh evidence the whole E-VTOL pyramid might be about to come crashing down. This Aviation Week article is free to any/everyone until Feb 4th:
> **[Airbus Helicopters To Pause CityAirbus NextGen Development | Aviation Week...](https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/advanced-air-mobility/airbus-helicopters-pause-cityairbus-nextgen-development)**
>
> Even said a strategic review of the program concluded that battery technology had not yet evolved to meet the minimum level of performance.
When no less an authority than Airbus says the energy density of battery tech won’t support E-VTOL development for a long time, if ever, I tend to believe them.
The various small start-up operators are mostly operating on the basis of not yet knowing all that they don’t know. Plus some of that famous techbro/IPO hype. Airbus has neither of those motivations / handicaps.
Airbus is also sorta famous for pursuing engineering do-able tech well past the point the business case works. A380, their role in Ariane, a couple of their helicopters over the years, A400M, etc. If they’re folding their cards now, that’s IMO a strong vote of non-confidence.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7226 "2025-01-28T16:04:47Z")
Late edit. For better clarity, this
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Airbus is also sorta famous for pursuing engineering do-able tech well past the point the business case works.
should have read
> Airbus is also sorta famous for pursuing engineering do-able tech well past the point the business case still works.
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### Author:  [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7227 "2025-01-28T16:37:59Z")
Boom XB-1 has just broken the sound barrier over mojave.
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7228 "2025-01-28T17:31:25Z")
On purpose? And in one piece?
I kid, of course.
Linky.
> **[Boom Supersonic XB-1 jet breaks sound barrier on historic test flight (video)](https://www.space.com/space-exploration/tech/boom-supersonic-xb-1-jet-breaks-sound-barrier-on-historic-test-flight)**
>
> The XB-1 just became the first civil aircraft to go supersonic over the continental United States.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7229 "2025-01-28T17:45:17Z")
I _believe_ with less than full confidence that the lede isn’t quite true. Boom did exceed Mach 1 but they are not the first such deliberate reusable civil flight. OTOH, the events I’m thinking of may have occurred out over the ocean, albeit still under US jurisdiction. That may be the quibble that keeps the lede strictly true.
In any case it is indeed a significant accomplishment in aviation history and deserves its spot in the record books. And Boom & their people deservs a lot of attaboys for getting this far despite several major configuration & powerplant iterations. Lotta wannabes have died of cash shortages long before getting even this far.
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7230 "2025-01-28T18:26:27Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> but they are not the first such deliberate reusable civil flight
If “civil” isn’t being given a special definition, the Concorde was a supersonic cruise civil aircraft. As would have been the Concordski, if you allow that “civil” aviation is still civil aviation even if the developing and operating agency is an organ of the state, in true Socialist fashion.
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7231 "2025-01-28T19:01:23Z")
> **[Busan airport: South Korea plane fire causes mass evacuation](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9qy122wwyo)**
>
> All 176 people are evacuated from the burning plane at Busan's airport, with four injuries reported.
What might cause a fire in the tail?
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7232 "2025-01-28T19:07:31Z")
[Too many peppers with dinner?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trope-hot-chilli-peppers-burning-twice/1013428)
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7233 "2025-01-28T19:30:36Z")
In other less than happy news:
> **[American Airlines employee fatally struck by airport ramp vehicle](https://abcnews.go.com/US/american-airlines-employee-fatally-struck-airport-ramp-vehicle/story?id=118153831)**
>
> An American Airlines employee was fatally struck by an airport ramp vehicle on Monday morning, according to officials.
Oops. Poor bastard.
It is inherently very dangerous out there and it only remains as safe as it is if everyone is playing heads-up ball all day every day.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7234 "2025-01-28T19:39:45Z")
> [@PastTense](#):
>
> What might cause a fire in the tail?
The APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) is back there aft of the pressure bulkhead. So a small jet engine with an attached electrical generator and a (very) hot bleed air tap-off. And a fuel supply and a fuel pump. On a typical flight it’s shut down after the second engine start, and left off until a minute or two before parking. But there are legit use cases to leave it running gate to gate and throughout the flight. So depending on where they were in the post-pushback, pre-takeoff process odds favor it having been off. OTOH, if it was the fire origin, it’d have had to be on.
The other plausible sources of fire “near the tail” are the aft galley or lavatories. Either electrical problems or an oven or trash fire.
We can see the fuselage roof is heavily damaged and there’s a fire raging inside the _forward_ cabin. Which to me suggests the origin was inside the pressure hull and inside the cabin, not outside the pressure hull where the APU lives.
A fire in the cargo compartments is another possibility. But we don’t see those doors open, nor do we see evidence of damage below the waistline.
Based on noting beyond that picture and the terse bit of maybe-reliable article text, I’m going to say a cabin interior fire with so-far indeterminate origins. And I have low confidence it actually started “near the tail”.
I’m a doctor, not a magician, Jim! This one’s a write-off.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7235 "2025-01-28T19:43:51Z")
> [@gnoitall](#):
>
> If “civil” isn’t being given a special definition, the Concorde was a supersonic cruise civil aircraft.
Granted. But the claim was this was the first civil supersonic flight _over the US landmass_. Concorde was certainly capable of that feat decades ago. But it wasn’t legal and they didn’t ever actually do it. Boom had the waiver to do it as a test flight, and did it.
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### Author:  [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7236 "2025-01-28T21:02:58Z")
From the ABC News story about the ramp worker fatally struck by a vehicle:
> The employee was working on the apron, or ramp
Is it weird that I’m kind of impressed that the reporter didn’t use “tarmac”?
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7237 "2025-01-28T21:04:38Z")
I was impressed too. Perhaps the reporter was simply plagiarizing whatever the airline’s or airport’s press spokesman had said. The fact they quoted the official FAA definition of “apron” suggest the reporter didn’t know what it meant and so looked it up. IOW, the reporter expected “tarmac” and when they didn’t get it, they were confused.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7238 "2025-01-29T01:33:51Z")
Let’s just call it the rampromac to satisfy everyone.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7239 "2025-01-29T01:37:48Z")
Somehow I can’t picture myself telling someone, ‘Listen. This doesn’t go beyond the apron.’
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7240 "2025-01-29T01:44:48Z")
IME “ramp” is pretty much the standard US term within the industry. “Apron” is a legit official US ICAO term but has a decidedly foreign feel here. You do see & hear it used in non-US countries a bunch.
“This doesn’t go beyond the [whatever]” doesn’t ring a bell no matter what we stick in there. Other than maybe “bar tonight”. That fits great in _any_ context involving secrecy amongst goof-ups.
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### Author:  [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7241 "2025-01-29T02:14:30Z")
Likely true for “landmass”, though the Global 7500 FTV5 was probably still in US territory, off the coast of California when it broke the sound barrier.
Given as this plane wasn’t at all designed for supersonic flight (and it still won’t be when upgrades rebrand it to 8000) that’s a pretty cool feat for a civil aircraft.
It’s pretty neat for Boom, too. Curious to see how successful that program will be.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/7242 "2025-01-29T02:14:51Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> “This doesn’t go beyond the [whatever]” doesn’t ring a bell no matter what we stick in there.
‘This doesn’t go beyond the flight line.’
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