The Wall Street Journal is reporting (subscription) that the safety certification of the Boeing 737 MAX will be reviewed by an international committee, a large group of representatives from most of the major aviation regulators in the world. The panel, which is led by former NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart and includes delegates from Canada, China, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union and Brazil, will also do a detailed examination of the software fix proposed by Boeing and the FAA to address issues with the MCAS automatic stall prevention system that is implicated in two fatal crashes. The group’s first meeting is planned for later this month.

The international involvement is unprecedented. Normally, the FAA would have sole control over the process and the resulting certification would be accepted by other jurisdictions under bilateral agreements between the U.S. and those entities. The Journal says the FAA hasn’t given the other agencies veto power but agreed with Boeing that the process needs buy-in from all of them if public confidence is to be restored in Boeing and the FAA’s certification system. “We both invite and welcome scrutiny as a necessary element of continuous improvement,” an FAA spokesman said. “Our recent and planned outreach efforts are a demonstration of this commitment to enhance the safety of the flying public.”

What’s not clear is whether the committee approach will speed up or slow down the return to service of the MAX. All of the regulatory agency reps will come with an army of tech experts who will do the analysis of the mountains of data that will be generated. The FAA and Boeing seem to have accepted the inevitability of consensus as part of the return to service and if they didn’t the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has reminded them. It has said it will end its grounding “only once there is complete reassurance that it is safe.”

At Aero in Friedrichshafen, Germany, a French company called Elixir was showing a unique two-seat airplane built of molded carbon fiber using technology to build racing boats. The idea is the airplane is both cheaper to manufacture and much cheaper to maintain because it has vastly fewer parts. AVweb's Paul Bertorelli shot this video summary of the project.

By about the fifth day of the big U.S. air/trade shows—AirVenture and Sun ‘n Fun—a certain hollow-eyed exhaustion sets in. Vendors at the show can be heard to wonder if the thing will ever end and for us pixel-addled wretches covering the spectacle, we feel as run down as the batteries in our cameras and recorders. I’d have tried for a dried-up ink metaphor, but we don’t use pens anymore.

At Aero, it’s the reverse. It’s a four-day show—Wednesday to Saturday. This creates an odd kind of catch-up for both vendors and multi-day attendees. If you haven’t seen it all by Saturday mid-morning, you’d better get busy because at 3:45 p.m., the 15-minute warning sounds.

I didn’t see or do it all either and I went wall to wall for all four days. When I was shooting a video round-up on electric airplanes, I kept running into stuff I hadn’t seen. It will have to wait until next year because I’m pretty sure none of this stuff is gonna show at AirVenture or Sun ‘n Fun. If the mark of success for a show is to leave them wanting more, Aero is a smash hit.

The TBM March

Although they announced it at Sun ‘n Fun, Daher waited until Aero to show off the new TBM 940. Daher’s U.K. sales rep, David Fabry, kindly gave me a tour. Well, sure, I’m impressed with the airplane, the autothrottles, the new interior and the ice detection system. Who wouldn’t be?

But I’m more impressed with the clip Daher maintains in incremental introduction of new products, which I’ve always thought is the secret to business success in any field, but especially aviation. Too bad it’s not so easy as that. A clean-sheet Part 23 airplane costs multiple millions to develop and certify and no matter how slick and sophisticated it is, even us nimrods in the press can pull up the GAMA figures and predict how many units an airplane of a particular ilk might sell.

If you do the back-of-napkin math on a $25 million cert project—and that’s probably cheap—you’ll have to sell the hell out of it to return the investment, much less eke out profits. That’s why you see so few entirely new airframe introductions. And it’s also why Piper’s idea to essentially market on price with the new Pilot 100 trainer may seem uninspired. But if it meets demand and makes a few bucks, I’d take that over soaring eye candy that fails disastrously in the market and rattles the entire industry.

Mooney dodged that bullet when it shelved the M10 trainer project. It was a great idea, a good-looking airplane and was truly a fresh design. But it was never going to carve a market that didn’t already exist and would have simply competed with Piper and Cessna in the already cutthroat trainer business. Mooney’s smart decision wasn’t proposing the airplane in the first place, but killing it after the fact. That’s the airplane biz for ya.

By the way, people sometimes ask me what airplane I’d buy if money were no object. I believe they do this out of conversational curiosity for given my chosen profession, I clearly have questionable judgment at the least and a warped value system at worst. But good judgment and good taste aren’t the same thing. If you must know, I’d buy a TBM. It’s a thrill how that big-ass prop drags that thing through the air.

Are Electrics Finally Real?

Real compared to what? To a busy flight school relying on Skyhawks or Cherokees to train students eight to 10 hours a day? No. We haven’t turned that corner yet and even though Pipistrel will announce the second generation of its Alpha Electro and Bye Aerospace announced a 60-airplane order from a Norwegian flight training group, I’m not willing to step off the train in Valhalla, if I may coin a cheap Norse metaphor while simultaneously mixing transportation modes.

I have coming a video roundup of some of the electric airplanes on display at Aero and another video on the Bye Aerospace eFlyer. So what’s the problem? It’s not the certification basis. The revised CS23 and ASTM consensus standards are in place to certify these airplanes. The electric motors are there, the batteries are getting there—maybe.

What I want to see is actual flight and economic data from the schools proposing to use these airplanes in real training. For me personally, gauzy green intentions are laudable, but I want to see them working in the real world. Pipistrel got out there early with commercial sales of electric airplanes, but even it admits the 50 it has sold are mostly technology demonstrators.

Battery energy density is still iffy, in my view. I polled some of the experts on this at Aero by asking what they’re using for typical what-if scenarios. These ranged from 150 Wh/kg to a little under 200. George Bye told me the batteries in the eFlyer are about 250 Wh/kg effective, not cell level.

You can see why I’m noncommittal.

Is Unleaded Fuel Real?

Real compared to what? As in about to emerge fully market ready, heralding the bright, shiny environmental Valhalla (sorry) of the future. No.

I had a real Rolaids moment at the Aero fuels briefing when Lycoming’s Mike Kraft and Tim Shea of Shell conceded that regulatory forces are no longer driving the replacement of TEL in avgas. That’s because the current administration’s environmental policies are unlikely to encourage EPA to issue a finding of endangerment. No endangerment, no regulatory pressure.

Just to jolly things along here without pissing off either tribe too much, let’s assume the current administration remains in play until 2025. Let’s further pretend that a new president makes lead a hot campaign issue. It could easily be 2026 or even 2027 before this imaginary president gets anything done.

Meanwhile, the companies investing in this new fuel will … well, hell, I don’t know what they’ll do. That’s a long time to defer return on an investment. Kraft said the industry will have to sell pilots and owners on the benefits of unleaded fuel, but I’m not sure enough of them will resonate with that to justify refiners making the leap. And if they don’t do that somewhat in unison, the specter of a balkanized piston aviation fuel market becomes more than just a talking point.

I’m sure there are other industries who have suffered through such a comic opera. I just can’t think of any.

Boeing has begun demonstrating software updates for the 737 MAX, according to remarks made by CEO Dennis Muilenburg on Thursday at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Forum on Leadership in Dallas, Texas. Muilenburg said the company has made 96 flights totaling a little over 159 hours with the updated software, which aims to prevent “erroneous angle of attack sensor readings from triggering the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS.” MCAS activation in response to faulty angle of attack sensors has been spotlighted in the fatal accidents of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 last March and Lion Air Flight 610 in October 2018.

“I joined our Boeing test pilots last week aboard a 737 MAX flight for a demonstration of this updated software,” said Muilenburg. “During the flight, the crew performed different scenarios that exercised the software changes in multiple flight conditions. The software update functioned as designed.” He also stated that 67 percent of MAX operators worldwide have now participated simulator sessions that included the software update.

A date has not yet been given for when the new software will be approved and rolled out. The FAA met with three U.S. airlines that operate MAXs on Friday in Washington, D.C., to review the “anticipated software enhancements” along with the preliminary findings of the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines accident investigations and MAX pilot training. According to FAA Acting Administrator Dan Elwell, he “wanted to know what operators and pilots of the 737 MAX think as the agency evaluates what needs to be done before the FAA makes a decision to return the aircraft to service.”

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket successfully completed its second launch and first operational mission on Thursday. After a 24-hour delay due to weather, the rocket launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 6:35 p.m. local time. The Falcon Heavy’s payload was the Arabsat-6A, a telecommunications satellite that will deliver television, radio, internet and mobile communications to the Middle East, Africa and Europe. The satellite was deployed approximately 34 minutes after liftoff.

As shown in the video below, the rocket’s two side boosters landed successfully at SpaceX’s Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Falcon Heavy’s center core landed on the droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, an improvement on the first launch in February 2018, in which the rocket’s center core missed the droneship and crashed into the ocean. That flight deployed a Tesla Roadster manned by a spacesuit-clad dummy called “Starman.”

The Falcon Heavy generates more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff and is capable of carrying payloads of approximately 141,000 pounds into low Earth orbit. The price tag on a Falcon Heavy launch is around $90 million.

Another win for SpaceX on Thursday came when NASA announced that it had chosen the company as the launch provider for its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. DART seeks to “demonstrate the capability to deflect an asteroid by colliding a spacecraft with it at high speed.” The mission is currently scheduled to launch in June 2021 on a Falcon 9 rocket.

Falcon Heavy’s side boosters land on Landing Zones 1 and 2 pic.twitter.com/nJCCaVHOeo

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 12, 2019

As the 2020 ADS-B mandate pumpkin looms on the horizon, say this is about the system: Once you’ve ponied up for the installation cost, it does provide free weather and traffic. But in Europe and the UK, no deal. And a recent experiment to see if pilots across the pond would pay for these services produced an unsurprising result. They won’t.

At its own expense, ADS-B maker uAvionix set up a small seven-station ADS-B network in southern England broadcasting FIS-B, the weather side of the data stream. In this podcast recorded at Aero, Mike Tetlow, uAvionix’s representative in the U.K., said the experiment was successful in getting real-time weather into GA cockpits, but is not likely to continue much longer. “The broad-brush assessment is that people liked to have the weather information, they did use it. The majority like it, but didn’t want to pay for it,” Tetlow said.

In the U.S., ADS-B is both mandated and part of the FAA’s NextGen air traffic system, so TIS-B and FIS-B are required components and free to users who equip. TIS-B doesn’t exist in the U.K., although FIS-B data is available. “The CAA have looked into putting in something similar as used in the states, but always, finances are an issue. At the moment, it’s up to pilots to carry in their own aircraft some form of traffic receiver and of course, not everyone carries a traffic transmitter. It’s not a requirement in the U.K. at the moment,” Tetlow added. He’s not sure how much longer uAvionix will maintain the ground stations now that the survey is complete.

While Cirrus’ sales success with the SR line and now the VisionJet is obvious, less well known is that the company is becoming a force in the aviation training market. At Aero this week, Cirrus revealed that it’s staffed up and is investing in significant in-house training resources and video and that all of this information is available to all comers, not just Cirrus owners. In this podcast, Ben Kowalski explains the programs.

Formula 1 racing is a popular event at the Reno Air Races, among other sites, and beginning late next year, it will evolve into something new: electric airplane racing. As AVweb covers Aero this year, Jeff Zaltman, CEO of AirRaceE, says airplanes are being designed and constructed for the first scheduled air race late next year. No venue has been selected yet, but Zaltman says discussions are underway with several countries—all warm-weather climes—to host the first race.

In this podcast recorded at Aero this week, Zaltman told us electric airplanes will be constructed along similar lines as Formula 1 aircraft, meaning a 66-square foot wing area, 500-pound minimum weight and fixed gear. But while piston Formula 1 aircraft are restricted to the Continental O-200 engine, e-racers will be opened up to all manufacturers. “It’s very much geared toward accelerating innovation and accelerating the technology that will eventually find its way into the airplanes we fly as passengers 30 years from now,” Zaltman said.

Power will be supplied by a 150-KW motor which, as electric airplanes go, is quite powerful, about the equivalent of 230 to 240 HP race ready, but with neck-snapping torque delivery. While batteries still limit electric aircraft endurance. Zaltman said the races will last about five minutes, compared to eight minutes for piston F1 races. “Right now in Formula 1, they get about 250 MPH. We expect it to go above that, but I’m hesitant to give a number,” Zaltman said.

But is it going to be any fun watching airplanes quietly whir around a closed course? Zaltman says much of the noise airplanes make is from props and electric airplanes will have those. “The noise is going to be there in terms of the spectator understanding the racing, but it will be quieter,” he said. For more, see AirRaceE site here.

Formula 1 racing is a popular event at the Reno Air Races, among other sites, and beginning late next year, it will evolve into something new: electric airplane racing. As AVweb covers Aero this year, Jeff Zaltman, CEO of AirRaceE, says in this podcast that airplanes are being designed and constructed for the first scheduled air race late next year.

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Multiple investigations into two accidents of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft will inevitably focus on a much misunderstood FAA program called ODA for organization designation authorization. And Pete Bunce, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, says that may ultimately be a good thing for both the aerospace industry and general aviation manufacturing specifically.

"We were concerned that the political apparatus would react before they have the facts," Bunce said in this exclusive podcast recorded at the Aero exhibition in Friedrichshafen, Germany, this week. "What I'm sensing, at least over the last week, is that everyone is calming down. We've had preliminary accident investigations and we're going to get more data in and let Secretary Chao's process work," Bunce added. (Elaine Chao is U.S. Secretary of Transportation.)

ODA is under scrutiny because some political leaders and even aerospace industry veterans are asking if Boeing's use of the program allowed flaws in the MAX 8's design to slip through the certification process. ODA allows manufacturers to designate in-house staff to serve as FAA oversight. In GA, designated engineering and airworthiness representatives are common, given that the FAA is short-staffed, both on expertise and budget.

"The expertise for modern aerospace resides with the industry primarily. We use designees for operations all the time. I had my folks do the numbers. Last year, 48,000 certifications were given on the ops side; the FAA did 2700 of those. Government has to rely on that expertise, otherwise the industry would stop," Bunce said. With electric propulsion and air mobility on the horizon, the FAA will rely on designees more than ever, Bunce said.

Although no major delays have been reported, we learned at the Aircraft Electronics Association show last month that at least one manufacturer, TruTrak, experienced a minor hitch in a certification review apparently sparked by the Boeing certification mess. The FAA wanted to review the paperwork before issuing approvals.

This week, AVweb’s news roundup uncovered reports on a message from the National Agricultural Aviation Association to drone operators, a training infrastructure expansion for Lufthansa Aviation Training, a new partnership for The DAES Group, an upcoming flight simulation expo and a convention attendance announcement from Click Aviation Network. As the growing season gets underway, the National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA) is asking Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operators to look out for agricultural aircraft. The association would like UAS operators to be aware that agricultural operations peak during the summer months and agricultural pilots may fly as low as 10 feet off the ground when making an application.

Lufthansa Aviation Training is investing approximately €89 million (about $101 million) to purchase simulators and expand infrastructure in its training locations. The company will be adding a total of six new simulators and expanding facilities in Munich and Vienna. Aerospace service provider The DAES Group has announced a strategic partnership with Czech Republic engineering company ATG. The DAES Group will now act as a representative and distributor for ATG, which specializes in Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) solutions.

The second-annual FlightSimExpo Aviation and Simulation Conference will take place June 7-9 in Orlando, Florida. Exhibitors include EAA, Prepar3D, X-Plane, PilotEdge and Redbird. Registration costs $70 and includes two-day trade show floor access, panels and seminars, drinks and appetizers, and a six-month EAA membership. Also on the expo scene, aviation service provider Click Aviation Network will be exhibiting at the Asian Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (ABACE) for the first time this year. The company also announced the opening of its newest office in China.

Recently during the government shutdown, Atlanta Center had a hard time communicating with a Citation who seemed to be out of range. They asked me to call up the Citation and tell him that he needed to go to another frequency. We reached the Citation and relayed the message. We reported this back to the Center controller who was grateful for the help. I replied, “Happy to help. We’ll send you a bill.”

Without missing a beat, the controller came back and said, “Can’t send us a bill. Government is shut down.”