The idea of space tourism has been around for a while, the date that is most synonymous with space tourism would probably be April 28, 2001 when Dennis Tito became the first person to pay for space travel. The two companies who have been the leaders of innovation with regard to space tourism have been Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace. Im sure the idea of space tourism has been around a lot longer than these two companies but the reason you most likely never heard of them is obvious, the amount of money and technical ability required is exponentially large. Most people could not imagine owning a cabin class airplane because of the amount of money necessary just for the airplane, not including maintenance, fuel, or a place to store it, we are talking about $200 million. Well any craft with a space prefix is going to be so much more many than that most people aren't crazy enough to even dream of such a feat, we are now talking a multi billion dollar endeavor.
As far as training required for the space traveler goes, it is pretty non existent. The regulations governing space tourism are found in 14 CFR Part 415 - 440 and they state that any space traveler must give written consent that they understand the risks involved with space flight and they give their consent to proceed with the flight (Federal Register). While the FAA recommends that a pre flight physical be preformed on the passenger there is no regulation that requires it. The flight crew regs are by far the most interesting, the FAA has mandated that the pilots be qualified as a pilot with the FAA and have a current medical within the last year. This is extremely surprising because the only stipulation the FAA has placed upon space flight is that a student or sport pilot cannot be at the controls of the vehicle, which qualifies a surprisingly large amount of people (Superville, D).In my opinion the regulations need to be quite a bit more restrictive, it seems as if its common sense that they would require anyone at the controls of a space vehicle to undergo specific intensive training on the physics of space flight which are very different from terrestrial flight.
The future of human space travel looks good in my opinion. While I do believe that it is going to be another 50 years before the average middle class working man can experience space, I do believe that maybe in the next 100 years it will be almost the same as commercial air travel. If you think back to the invention of the airplane that dates back almost 100 years, but was not until 50 years after that that it was considered a reliable means of transportation. The space shuttle has been around since the 1970's and we are approaching the 50 year mark. I am hesitant to put space travel on the same time frame as commercial aviation experienced because it is obviously a lot more involved but i think if we double those figures given the complexity of space travel it will be almost consistent with commercial air travel.
Like I said earlier, it is shocking to me that the requirements for flight crew be so minimal. While i'm sure that companies like Virgin Galactic would never dream of hiring a pilot with such a minimal amount of experience it still should be worth noting that if they didnt want to and their goal was to keep costs back they could hire a pilot with the same amount of experience or less than myself, which would be awesome and a dream come true for myself, it could spell a nightmare for the industry with regard to safety and experience (Superville, D). From my understanding, with regard to management of a space tourism operation the only stipulation is that the person or persons have the ability and knowledge to know how to operate a income based business (Levin, A). This regulation is somewhat shocking because you would think it would require more restrictions with regard to space tourism but it still is not as shocking to me as the fact that a private pilot legally could pilot a spacecraft.
Federal Register. (2006, December 15). Retrieved September 29, 2015, from http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2006-12-15/pdf/E6-21193.pdf
Levin, A. (2014, November 16). Space tourism industry may soon face federal regulation - The Boston Globe. Retrieved September 29, 2015, from https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/11/16/space-tourism-industry-may-soon-face-federal-regulation/AAoFHJAeg9ll0EPlJBCESI/story.html
Superville, D. (2005, December 30). Gov't issues proposed space tourism rules. Associated Press. Retrieved from http://www.space.com/1904-gov-issues-proposed-space-tourism-rules.html
Monday, September 28, 2015
Friday, September 18, 2015
Pilots and Depression
Prior to the Germanwings accident, many people had known of Copilot Lubitz depression and some, such as his girlfriend had even spoken up about it. The spotlight of the investigation is not so much on the fact that Lubitz smashed the aircraft into the side of a mountain but on the airline or airlines in general for not spotting this depression and implementing safeguards. The pilots mental illness was documented and he was at the time taking injections to diminish the effects of depression. Lubitz had given hints at his mental illness starting from the time of his initial training. A very odd behavior for a training pilot would be to take a leave of absence midterm, exactly what the pilot did, someone in the flight department theoretically should have seen it.
In addition to the Germanwings accident, Japan Airlines Flight 350 was also found to be attributed to a pilot mental illness condition. The Japan Airlines captain forced the engine controls of his DC-8 into reverse over a bay where the plane eventually crashed resulting in 24 deaths. The pilot was never found guilty however due to reasons of insanity. This brings up multiple questions for me, primarily however though, if this pilot was able to avoid prosecution due to insanity he must have shown signs of his mental illness prior to the incident.
Currently to operate an aircraft at the airline level, it requires that the pilot undergo a medical evaluation every 6 or 12 months depending on age. A mental evaluation is part of the medical however most pilots will attest that there is really no mental health check in place. The inspection is complected typically by the doctor being able to hold a normal conversation with the pilot. I believe that there is a need for reform to avoid another potentially catastrophic disaster. The medical examiners should be required to engage a pilot through a psychiatric method to evaluate their mental state, rather than being able to check a box based on whatever the particular examiner feels is necessary enough.
It is worth noting that if airline pilot mental illness was more accepted and pilots felt as if they could condition their problem with a treatment, that could spell disaster for the FAA and american air carriers. The liberal approach in allowing pilots to work as a professional pilot with known mental illness problems is just a problem waiting to happen, there are restrictions on who or who cannot qualify for a pilots license for this very reason. If a pilot with a mental problem was allowed to fly on a condition that he treats his illness in a sense to me that is similar to just putting a band aid on the problem and not actually fixing it, a potential ticking time-bomb.
Abend, L. (2015, April 25). Germanwings co-pilot -- an accident waiting to happen? - CNN.com. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
Almendrala, A. (2015, March 27). U.S. Pilots Expose Major Holes In Mental Health Screening Process. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
Seiji Katagiri | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2015, from http://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/katagiri-seiji.htm
In addition to the Germanwings accident, Japan Airlines Flight 350 was also found to be attributed to a pilot mental illness condition. The Japan Airlines captain forced the engine controls of his DC-8 into reverse over a bay where the plane eventually crashed resulting in 24 deaths. The pilot was never found guilty however due to reasons of insanity. This brings up multiple questions for me, primarily however though, if this pilot was able to avoid prosecution due to insanity he must have shown signs of his mental illness prior to the incident.
Currently to operate an aircraft at the airline level, it requires that the pilot undergo a medical evaluation every 6 or 12 months depending on age. A mental evaluation is part of the medical however most pilots will attest that there is really no mental health check in place. The inspection is complected typically by the doctor being able to hold a normal conversation with the pilot. I believe that there is a need for reform to avoid another potentially catastrophic disaster. The medical examiners should be required to engage a pilot through a psychiatric method to evaluate their mental state, rather than being able to check a box based on whatever the particular examiner feels is necessary enough.
It is worth noting that if airline pilot mental illness was more accepted and pilots felt as if they could condition their problem with a treatment, that could spell disaster for the FAA and american air carriers. The liberal approach in allowing pilots to work as a professional pilot with known mental illness problems is just a problem waiting to happen, there are restrictions on who or who cannot qualify for a pilots license for this very reason. If a pilot with a mental problem was allowed to fly on a condition that he treats his illness in a sense to me that is similar to just putting a band aid on the problem and not actually fixing it, a potential ticking time-bomb.
Abend, L. (2015, April 25). Germanwings co-pilot -- an accident waiting to happen? - CNN.com. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
Almendrala, A. (2015, March 27). U.S. Pilots Expose Major Holes In Mental Health Screening Process. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
Seiji Katagiri | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2015, from http://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/katagiri-seiji.htm
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Personal Introduction
I got started in aviation as a little kid, my parents used to take me down one of the service drives by Detroit Metro to watch planes land from the time I could walk and talk I was hooked. I am a Aviation Flight Technology major expecting to graduate in the winter of 2015 pending the fact that I can enroll in a art class to fulfill my general education requirement. My future plans are to flight instruct at Eagle Flight Center until reaching the FAA minimum requirements for a 121 carrier then ideally I would like to work for the regional airline that is offering the best incentives at the time. After building flight hours at a regional airline I would like to work for a major airline, such as Southwest or Delta then down the road if space tourism takes off like I hope it will I would like to somehow venture my way into commercial space operations as a pilot, that is really my long term end goal. I would like to have a chance to talk with a aerobatic pilot and possibly a military pilot in effort to pick their brain and compare their career progression and how they would have done things differently. The fact that first year pay at a regional airline is so disproportional to the amount of student loan debt that most pilots accrue over their time in school and while training I believe is a topic for huge debate and would really like to look over this further.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)