In our discussion forums is an interesting thread about two different flights. One, operated by Delta, flew through some decent moderate turbulence. Another, operated by Northwest, stayed low and dodged most of the turbulence. Which flying personality will prevail in a Delta/Northwest merger? Will it be Northwest’s turbulence adverse strategy, or will that die with the Northwest name? See the thread for details.
Merger details.
Written by tb_neg on October 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Airlines and Delta Airlines and News and Northwest Airlines and Turbulence.
Article
A fascinating article about upcoming improvements in turbulence prediction and information. In the meantime, rely on Turbulence Forecast to give you the information you need!
New turbulence analysis software designed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) maps patches of rough air and compares the maps against the real-time flight paths of airliners. Alerts are sent to pilots giving them advance notice and presenting alternative routes that enable pilots to thread paths between turbulent regions without changing their arrival times. This should not only result in smoother flights but also save fuel and reduce delays on the ground.
“Last summer when we started testing the current system, we estimated that we could detect 80 percent of moderate-or-greater regions of turbulence,” said NCAR scientist John Williams. “Since then we have improved the system further, so we expect to get even better results when we analyze the data next month.”
If the results are as good as expected, the program will be expanded to other United flights and, eventually, to other airlines. 2011 is slated as the first year for nationwide turbulence “nowcasts” to all airliners flying over the United States.
Written by tb_neg on October 1st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on News and Turbulence.
