Author: Gareth

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The world’s first jet airliner answers

Here are the answers to last Friday’s video, enjoy!

Suggested ICAO level for video: 5+

1. The de Havilland Comet.
2. Summer 1949.
3. The speed of air travel doubled.
4. They were extremely proud of their achievement. (‘I can’t tell you how pround we all were, and what it meant to us and our families’)
5. January 1954.
6. A Comet disintegrated in-flight and 35 people died.
7. April 1954.
8. The world fleet of Comets was grounded.
9. They put it in a tank filled with water.
10. They discovered a fuselage failure at a point of high stress.
11. They redesigned the structure with thicker skin, more frames, better joints and better fastenings.
12. Yes, the new plane performed flawlessly.

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The world’s first jet airliner

Here’s an interesting video that describes the rise of the world’s first jet airliner.

Try to answer the following questions about the video and come back on Monday for the answers.

Suggested ICAO level: 5+

Have a great weekend!!

1. According to the video, what was the world’s first jet airliner?
2. When did it make its maiden flight?
3. How much did the speed of air travel increase when the plane entered service?
4. How did the people involved in building the plane feel?
5. When did the problems start with the plane?
6. What happened?
7. When did a very similar event happen?
8. What happened to the fleet after the second event?
9. How did they replicate the plane’s in-flight strain for testing?
10. What did they discover?
11. What did the team do to overcome this discovery?
12. Was the team successful in its efforts?

To read more about the Comet, click here.

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Unexpected crosswind

Here’s the text to the listening from yesterday.

Enjoy!!

A young pilot was in command of a Embraer 175 on final approach to land. There was a light wind as the plane passed its decision altitude and prepared to land. Moments before the plane touched down, a strong crosswind caused the plane to veer to one side and the left wingtip made contact with the ground. The wing flexed and the winglet was scratched, but didn’t break, and the plane continued its rollout without any further problems. Mechanics later examined the plane and decided that it needed maintenance work.

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Unexpected crosswind

Listen to this recording and try to write what your understand. You don’t need to understand every word, just the most important ideas. Use your own words to write what happened.

You can listen as many times as you like.

Check below the recording for some of the difficult words and come back and check the full text from this recording tomorrow.

Suggested ICAO level: 3+

Have a great day!

Difficult words: decision altitude (n.), veer (v.), flex (v.),

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Tracking planes answers

Here are the answers to last Friday’s video, enjoy!

Suggested ICAO level for video: 5+

1. The 70th annual general meeting of IATA.
2. To discuss the future of aviation.
3. When a plane is 250 nautical miles from land, radar coverage starts to fade, and planes are alone.
4. By using high frequency radio.
5. They changed to a satellite system called AICARS, which has an automatic tracking system which sends data (on Air France planes) every ten minutes.
6. Cost, and the fact that it’s not an obligation.
7. Free satellite tracking of planes every 15 minutes via its satellite system.
8. Up to $10,000 a plane and then extra for the cost of sending data to the satellite.

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Tracking planes

Here’s a video that discusses the changes that need to be made to ensure that an MH370 event never happens again.

Suggested ICAO level: 5+

Have a great weekend!!

1. What event did Doha recently host?
2. What did the many executives there discuss?
3. When are planes ‘alone’ in the skies?
4. How is contact maintained in these situations?
5. What changes did Air France make after the crash of one of their planes in 2009?
6. What is preventing more airlines from implementing this system?
7. What is Inmarsat offering?
8. How much can these systems cost to install?

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/business/2014/06/12/spc-business-traveller-mh370-task-force-a.cnn.html