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Hambantota Airport Fueled By Politics

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On Friday (27) President Mahinda Rajapaksa laid the foundation stone for a new USD $200 million international airport in Hambantota. The government says that the airport is necessary as a second gateway to Sri Lanka and as an alternate airport for aircraft arriving at Katunayake International Airport, but some aviation professionals see the Hambantota airport as a wasteful political gimmick rather than a well-considered infrastructure project.

This is the third attempt to build a second international  airport for the island. The UNP tried to build one in the Kuda Oya area, but lost power before the plans could come to fruition. Then the UPFA administration decided to expand the existing Weerawila airport, only to face stiff resistance from the environmental authority (the airport was close to a bird sanctuary) and opposition from area farmers (the airport would consume rich farm land used for paddy cultivation). Now the airport is scheduled to be constructed in Mattala, which will require clearing 2,000 hectares of natural forest cover and shrub land.

“Flying in Sri Lanka is an absolute nightmare,” said one Sri Lankan pilot, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.  “It’s a huge hassle to get to the airport. All the general aviation training has been shifted to small airfields south of Colombo. These airfields are not suitable for training — they do not have adequate runway lights. With all these problems I don’t know why they’re trying to build a 200 million dollar airport. The government should improve the other airfields first.”

A designated alternate airport

According to international regulatory requirements, all  airports must have a designated alternate airport in the event that a landing at the original airport is impossible due to bad weather conditions, an obstructed landing strip, or the closure of the airport. Presently, the alternate for Katunayake is Trivandrum Airport in South India, which is around 190 nautical miles and 20 minutes away. Many people do not understand that having an alternate airport close to the original destination, as in the case of Mattala, is not very practical, because the weather at the alternate airport will be similar to the original airport.

Government officials rejected these criticisms, claiming that a second international airport would be good for the aviation industry and for the Southern Province.

“The new airport is necessary for a number of reasons,  said Parakrama Dissanayake, Director of Aeronautical Services for the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka. “We don’t have an alternate airstrip for the country. We had an accident in 2004 when a cargo aircraft crashed near Katunayake airport. Had there been another airport the plane wouldn’t have crashed that day. The airport will also facilitate the airline industry because now all airplanes must carry enough fuel to go to an airport in India or Male. So if there’s a closer airport they won’t have to carry so much fuel.”

However, statistics  and historical data show that aircraft arriving at Katunayake have diverted on very few occasions due to weather. More often, planes have diverted due to LTTE attacks, which were made possible by the failure of the Sri Lanka Air Force to provide adequate security to the airfield. The poor security resulted in airport closures, including a night curfew.

Systematically destroyed

Aviation  in Sri Lanka has been systematically destroyed by the very authorities that regulate it.  The Civil Aviation Authority and the Sri Lanka Air Force have restricted general aviation so heavily that only a handful of aircraft can operate in the country. Even after winning the war the authorities have been shy to approve the import of aircraft. This has had serious and irreparable effects on the aviation industry and on career opportunities in aviation. At present, many student pilots opt to fly in the United States because they get more experience and time at a lower cost than in Sri Lanka. This represents a serious loss of foreign exchange to the country.

Sri  Lanka has 14 airfields distributed strategically around the island. These airfields were built by the British and managed by the Civil Aviation Authority in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organisational Standards. At the inception of the ethnic conflict the airfields were taken over by the Sri Lanka Air Force, which lacked the knowledge and ability to meet these civil aviation standards.

“Due to the security situation the Air Force stifled general aviation, and the country paid the price for it,” the Sri Lankan pilot said. “But even with peace they have not loosened the restrictions. Civil aviation should be handed over to the Civil Aviation Authority. Now the jurisdiction is with the Air Force and they are not a competent authority. None of the other ministries have any idea how to manage civil aviation.”

The  country’s maintenance capabilities and technical expertise are concentrated in SriLankan Airlines, which itself is limited by a shortage of trained personnel.  The pilot alleged that the aviation industry has been choked by a group of incompetent officials more focused on keeping their jobs than in providing proper policy recommendations to the government.

Refurbish existing airfields

Instead of wasting $200 million on a new airport, the pilot  said that the government should upgrade the Instrument Landing System (ILS) at Katunayake, develop and refurbish existing airfields and install proper navigational facilities. Upgrading existing airfields at Ratmalana, Weerawila, Jaffna and Trincomalee to regional airports will serve both the people and the tourism industry. An airport must have support infrastructure: roads, hotels and services. Just because Hambantota has a port does not mean that people will fly there. After all, this is one of the poorest regions of Sri Lanka with the lowest per capita income.

Civil  Aviation Authority official Dissanayake said the government chose to build the airport in Hambantota to stimulate growth in the south.

“The government has a plan to develop the southern region,” he said. “It will create jobs and growth near Hambantota,  both inside and outside the aviation industry. People want this airport; there is no doubt about it.” But why not expand the existing airport at Ratmalana? “There are a couple of constraints for expansion at Ratmalana because of the population density and the obstructions around the airport. It could be developed, but priority was given to Hambantota.”

So it seems that the government is determined to spend USD $200 million of the people’s money on a single mega project. Politicians of developing countries use these mega projects to impress their people, knowing that they will be long gone by the time people realise the damage it has caused. Although the Chinese government will fund this project, nothing comes free: have we forgotten about the destruction of 2,000 hectares of shrub land?

Despite the government’s reassurances, many Sri Lankans continue to believe that the Hambantota airport is fueled by politics, not necessity. The only people likely to benefit from this financial sinkhole are the politicians who pushed it through and the contractors hired to build it. As for the five-hour driving time between the airport and Colombo, Dissanayake has one message: Get used to it.

“When mobile phones were introduced to Sri Lanka in the 1990s, people said that nobody would buy  them,” he said. “Now, everyone owns one. It will be the same with the airport.”

Perhaps Dissanayake believes that, just as mobile phones became more affordable over time, the Hambantota airport will move closer to Colombo as it becomes more popular! With this kind of thinking, it’s no wonder that aviation experts are skeptical about the government’s intentions. The government’s logic seems to be “if you build it, they will come.” Only history can judge whether it is right or wrong.

Now you can be a confident expert on aviation, airport. OK, maybe not an expert. But you should have something to bring to the table next time you join a discussion on aviation, airport.

Pakistan Made a military air craft with the help of China, JF 17 A powerful and amazing air crafts which is totally unbeatable in his performance, timing, target and working.

DIMENSIONS
Length Overall Height Overall Wingspan	14 m 5.1 m 9 m
WEIGHTS AND FUEL
Empty Weight Normal Take-Off Weight Max Take-Off Weight Max External Store Weight Internal Fuel Weight	6,320 kg 9,100 kg 12,700 kg 3,720 kg 2,300 kg
PERFORMANCE
Max Speed Service Ceiling Operational Radius Ferry Range Take-Off Run Landing Run T/W Ratio G Limit	M 1.6-1.8 16,700 m 1,350 km 3,000 km ~500 m ~700 m 0.95 +8.5/-3

The following article covers a topic that has recently moved to center stage--at least it seems that way. If you've been thinking you need to know more about it, here's your opportunity.



If you don't have accurate details regarding JF 17, then you might make a bad choice on the subject. Don't let that happen: keep reading.

ENGINE

JF-17/FC-1 will be powered by One Russian Made Klimov RD-93 Turbofan engine.

RD-93 has been developed by Klimov Design Bureau in St. Petersburg. It is a variant of Klimov RD-33 Turbofan Engine which powers the MIG-29 Fulcrum. The most significant difference being the repositioning of the gearbox along the bottom of the engine casing.



RD-33
Thrust (Afterburner): 8300 kgf /18,260 lb
Thrust: 5040 kgf / 11,090 lb
Specific Fuel Consumption: 2.1 kg/kgf/Hr in afterburner, 0.77 military
Bypass Ratio: 0.46
Compressor Pressure Ratio: 21
Maximum Turbine Inlet Temperature: 1680 K
Service Life, hr: 4000
Length: 4.230m
Maximum Diameter: 1.040m
Mass: 1055 kg


There have been some problems. The engine was emitting black smoke, which makes it easier for the enemy pilot to spot the plane. This puts the pilot in inferior position during a dogfight. It is not clear whether the fuel or the engine was responsible for the smoke and the issue has been resolved.


Smokey nature of the engine


The contract between China and Russia over re-exporting the engines to Pakistan has ran into dispute. Russia is sending mixed signals whether the issue has been resolved or not. The issue is mainly political because Russia has never sold advanced weaponry or its components to Pakistan due to the regional politics. Russia is also saying that FC-1s fitted with RD-93 are not allowed to compete where Russian Aircraft are competing.

China is also working on an indigenous engine which has the potential to power the FC-1 in future.


Now you can be a confident expert on JF 17. OK, maybe not an expert. But you should have something to bring to the table next time you join a discussion on JF 17.

Hero pilot Hal Graham’s hard fall to earth

The following article covers a topic that has recently moved to center stage--at least it seems that way. If you've been thinking you need to know more about it, here's your opportunity.



If you base what you do on inaccurate information, you might be unpleasantly surprised by the consequences. Make sure you get the whole aviation, aircrafts, pilot story from informed sources.

On a chilly Halloween afternoon, a group of about 70 people huddled outside an aluminum hangar at Crossville Memorial Airport, a tiny airstrip some 70 miles west of Knoxville. They had come to honor the life of a 75-year-old charter pilot named Hal Graham, and to make sense of his sudden and shocking end. They stuffed their cold hands into coat pockets and looked upward, away from earth.

As they watched, three airplanes took shape against the autumn sky. As the planes came closer, the people below made note of their flight pattern: a loose, triangular formation. It's the lead-up to the missing-man formation Air Force fighter jocks use to honor a fallen comrade, a sight that gives chills when performed by F-16s screaming across a field of blue.

This, by contrast, was three small twin-prop planes on a field of gray. Their motors were less a roar than a mournful drone.

The lead aircraft made a low pass over the runway and banked into an arcing 90-degree turn to the south. The other two lagged a quarter-mile behind on parallel headings and plodded west past the crowd. But Graham's fellow pilots didn't need jet engines to convey the weight of their mission. Down below, they could see Graham's own twin-prop plane, a honey: a fire-engine red '61 Piper Apache. It sat on the tarmac with its tires blocked, anchored to earth.

Fixed on its tail, though, was an iconic image of man's urge to conquer the skies: a helmeted warrior streaking skyward, propelled by the rocket strapped to his back.

The image of rocket jockeys soaring through space with rocket belts wrapped around their ribs went hand in hand with the space-race fervor of the 1960s. It had been lodged in the public consciousness ever since Buck Rogers blasted through the heavens in comic strips in the '20s. But the people huddled at the Crossville landing strip knew something the rest of the world had forgotten: a man had worn that belt and had felt the exaltation tasted by a relative handful of people in human history—the sensation of literally watching his feet lift from earth as the ground receded.

Buck Rogers was fake. Hal Graham was real.

Graham may have looked like just another aging small-town pilot. The people assembled in Crossville knew differently. Almost 50 years ago, Graham's face had graced the front page of The New York Times, when he had embodied the farthest-out hopes of American aeronautics. He had been the original test pilot for a propulsion system—a rocket belt—that permitted man short bursts of free flight. He thrilled high-ranking Pentagon officials with his deft handling, promising the kind of troop mobility they could only dream of.

Next to the aluminum trays of barbecue at the post-memorial gathering, there were pictures of Graham lifting off, landing before President John F. Kennedy and saluting him in a Life magazine spread. The fly-by marked an era when JFK challenged the nation to claim outer space as America's next frontier. With Graham as its symbol, American ingenuity would make the flight of Icarus more than a myth—only this Icarus wouldn't fall. He couldn't fall. He was a rocket man! Even today, rocket-belt enthusiasts around the world reverently refer to Graham as "His Eminence."

But the dream of this type of free flight eventually evaporated. Graham left the public eye for private life. Eventually he made a business out of flying and launched a single-pilot, single-plane operation. Shuttling passengers to remote airfields in his antique Piper, fellow pilots say, Graham was still a man transformed by flight—at once focused and free.

Some say age and illness had blunted his long-honed flying skills, forcing the Federal Aviation Administration to clip his wings. Others, such as a former employer, are more skeptical. They say Graham saw his livelihood savaged by a federal government that makes no allowances for aging airmen, no matter how stellar their safety record or their reputation. He was forced to surrender his airman certification to the FAA in October. And with it, friends say, went the cornerstone of his very identity.

On Oct. 22, Graham drove his '87 Dodge van from his home in Crab Orchard to the FAA Flight Standards District Office in Nashville near the airport. He arrived a little before 2 p.m. A cold front was on the way, but only a dimpled sheet of cloud filled the sky. He parked near the seven-story office building on Briley Parkway, the clouds and the trees mirrored in its copper-tinted windows, and strode into the lobby. The federal agency that had taken his pilot's license only two weeks earlier is located on the seventh floor.

He walked past a group of men sitting around a table, and past Suzie's Espresso, a wood-paneled coffee stand with its security gates down for the day. Inside, 20-year-old Emily Roy saw him pass out of the corner of her eye as she closed up shop. He was carrying a leather valise and wearing his familiar brown, brimmed hat. He stood in front of the elevators and pulled a pistol from the valise. With nothing left to say, he put the gun to his head.

Now you can be a confident expert on aviation, aircrafts, pilot. OK, maybe not an expert. But you should have something to bring to the table next time you join a discussion on aviation, aircrafts, pilot.

This Aircraft will eat you! A new design of fighter air craft.. Which may eat you not by design but by its machine gun

6 army planes ready to take off. These army planes give a negative and killing disadvantage of science. If they are not the part of this world. How we feel save and easy in our homes. But these are the sour reality of science and man to capture and kill other by this powers and destruction. They consume million tons of fuels and money for there maintain and plane drivers, if the same amount is used for humanity... The World Will Be Heaven.