Misc - HL 283 (2)

From: dbina@comcast.net
To: DWSkjerven@aol.com
Sent: 12/14/2017 6:13:32 PM Central Standard Time
Subject: Deltas new jets

--Those old traditional Boeing guys are going to be squealing if they have to fly an airbus, they did at United.   They will be afraid of it.

--that is a nice buy of airplanes….a 100 machines.

Delta orders 100 Airbus jets valued at over $12.7 billion

By DAVID KOENIG Published December 14, 2017 Markets Associated Press

Delta Air Lines has picked Europe's Airbus over Boeing for a huge order of new jets.

Delta said Thursday that it will order 100 Airbus A321neo jets with a sticker price of $12.7 billion and take an option to buy another 100 jets, a deal that Chicago-based Boeing had hoped to land.

Financial terms of the order were not disclosed so it isn't known how much Delta will actually pay Airbus. Airlines typically get huge discounts off the sticker price of new planes.

Atlanta-based Delta announced the order just before beginning its annual meeting with investors.

CEO Ed Bastian told investors that travel demand remains strong both on international and U.S. routes. He said Delta expects fourth-quarter revenue for every seat flown one mile — a measure of ticket demand and average fares — to rise about 4 percent from a year ago, up from Delta's previous forecast of 2 to 4 percent.

But costs for fuel and labor are rising, too. Bastian said Delta's fourth-quarter operating margin will be around 11 percent, at the low end of the company's previous prediction.

Shares of Delta Air Lines Inc. rose $1.62, or 3 percent, to close Thursday at $55.25. Despite the setback, Boeing Co.'s shares also rose, adding $2.04 to $293.88.

Delta's selection of Airbus jets comes after Boeing challenged a smaller Delta order of planes from Canada's Bombardier. Boeing charged that the sale price was artificially low and amounted to dumping. The U.S. Commerce Department sided with Boeing and proposed stiff duties on Bombardier jets.

Airbus CEO Tom Enders said the win strengthens a relationship with Delta that his company has built over many years. He said most of the planes would be assembled in Mobile, Alabama.

Boeing said it made a "strong but disciplined offer" to Delta.

"Delta remains a valued customer, and we'll continue exploring ways to best meet their needs in the future," Boeing spokesman Doug Alder said in an email.

The Airbus A321neo is a single-aisle, mid-range plane that competes with Boeing's 737 Max. Delta said it will begin getting the 197-seat jets in early 2020 to replace smaller planes.

Boeing's bid was hurt by the trade fight and a perception that the A321neo could be better than the comparably sized planes in Boeing's Max lineup, said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with aviation consulting firm Teal Group.

"Boeing had little chance here," he said.

More than three-fourths of Delta's planes are Boeing or McDonnell Douglas and include the planes most likely to be replaced by new Airbus jets. Delta's 178 MD-80-series planes average 21 years in age.

Airlines have been ordering bigger planes to carry more passengers and earn more revenue without adding flights. That is especially important at busy East Coast airports where it can be hard to squeeze in more flights.

Delta also announced that it will get a large amount of maintenance and repair work for Pratt & Whitney engines used on Airbus A321neo and Bombardier C Series jets flown by Delta and other airlines. Delta said the deal will create new jobs in its maintenance business. It did not disclose financial terms.

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From: dbina@comcast.net
To: DWSkjerven@aol.com
Sent: 12/12/2017 5:32:57 AM Central Standard Time
Subject: pilots

A return of flying sergeants? Air Force says no despite too few pilots


The Air Force will launch a high-tech training experiment testing both officers and enlisted airmen to prepare pilots for the cockpit faster.

But, despite a growing shortage of aviators, it won't be a return to the wartime days of flying sergeants - at least for now, according to the Air Force.

The six-month initiative at a military reserve center in Austin, Texas will reportedly include 15 commissioned officers, and five enlisted airmen who have recently graduated boot camp.

The initiative, dubbed "Pilot Training Next," will use virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, bio-metrics and data analytics to determine if aviators can be trained faster and cheaper using technology, an Air Force spokeswoman said in an interview.

The Air Education and Training Command's latest training experiment, set to begin next February, is meant to find out if technology can help airmen of different educational backgrounds learn faster in the pilot-training pipeline, the Air Force said.

"We are going to use immersive technology to see how we can help people learn more effectively," Lt. Col. Robert Vicars, Pilot Training Next director said in a statement. "This is an initiative to explore whether or not these technologies can help us learn deeper and faster."

The Air Force, the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve, confront a shortage of about 2,000 aviators - and of that about 1,300 were fighter pilots. Many have been drawn out of the cockpit by an airline industry hiring binge or may have tired of a high number of deployments overseas.

Training military pilots takes time and money: Two years of undergraduate fighter pilot training costs taxpayers more than $1 million for each aviator.

Still, despite the unusual move of including enlisted airmen in the experiment, they will not advance to undergraduate pilot training, according to Air Force spokeswoman Erika Yepsen.

For decades, the Air Force has reserved jobs for pilots to fly aircraft to commissioned officers who are college graduates.

However, to fill a gap of a shortage of aviators in wartime, enlisted pilots flew in World War I and World War II, historical documents show. Thousands flew in World War II alone, but still made up only about 1 percent of pilots, documents show.

The Air Force has opened the door for enlisted troops in one area: Flying drones, which the service branch calls remotely piloted aircraft.

Since last year, the Air Force has trained enlisted airmen to fly the RQ-4 Global Hawk, a high-flying spy drone.

So far, 11 enlisted airmen have earned their wings as drone pilots, and that number could reach 100 by 2020, Yepsen said.

Kenneth E. Curell, 65, a former Air Force and Air National Guard fighter pilot who became an airline and corporate pilot, said in an email he did not believe enlisted airmen should be pilots of manned aircraft yet.

"If the objective is to proactively address pilot shortages, then the Air Force needs to experiment with and implement other options to entice prospective pilot candidates into the (Air Force) and promote initiatives that directly address areas pilots have identified as retention barriers," the Centerville resident said. "Air Force leadership has not institutionally affected areas pilots perennially identify as retention barriers."

Consequently, he added, pilots have "lost confidence" initiatives put in place to address the pilot shortage will stay beyond the next round of senior level leadership.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local-military/return-flying-sergeants-air-force-says-despite-too-few-pilots/HKcAqxJ9rDwGL91SEH7uSI/

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