Davinci contraption finally flies
Admit it. You saw it here first. Leonardo DaVinci’s wing-flapping flying contraption has finally flown. Leonardo sketched his designs in the late 1400s of a giant bat-shaped craft that used a pilot’s arms and legs to power the wings.
The Canadians with plenty of oil and gas reserves are inexplicitly dabbling in alternative energy platforms. This time, human-powered flight. Not only are they succeeding, they have succeeded without any of the lavish research funds being doled out via stimulus funds back here at home in the USA.
International aviation officials are expected to certify next month that the Snowbird has made the world’s first successful, sustained flight of a human-powered ornithopter, according to the University of Toronto.
The Snowbird sustained both altitude and airspeed for 19.3 seconds, in an August 2 test flight near Toronto that was witnessed by an official of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, the university announced. A video of the flight was shown on news programmes.
Others have claimed to have built machines that flew like a bird, but the Canadian group says they have the telemetry data to prove their ornithopter powered itself through the air rather than just glided after being lifted aloft.
Holiday bargains not coming from low-cost carriers
With Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Years looming the prices offered by low-cost carriers aren’t so low cost it seems when compared with legacy carrier offers.
A Los Angeles-to-Orlando fare on peak travel dates at Thanksgiving was a whopping $1,410 for non-stop flights on Virgin America, for example, while rival Delta Air Lines was only $585 round trip for non-stop service on the same dates.
Airline executives seem to think that all the Whos down in Whoville will be buying tickets regardless of price.
(We looked at more than 20 markets for Nov. 24-Nov. 28 Thanksgiving trips and Dec. 23-Dec. 30 Christmas trips, and in all but a few cases, discount airlines had higher prices than competitors, with some at eye-popping levels. As always, fares can change rapidly.)
United fined for not violating regulations
Here’s a new twist. United Airlines reported that they violated the tarmac-delay rules, but they didn’t. The reports that United forwarded to the Department of Transportation (DOT) were in error. DOT investigated the incidents and found that United did everything correctly. They they fined United for wasting their time.
The quick background is that United reported four flights as having been on the tarmac away from the gate for more than the new three-hour limit. So the DOT investigated and found out that, on all four flights, United offered passengers food, beverages, working lavatories and an opportunity to get off the planes.
This means that the airline did not, in fact, violate the new rule.
“United’s misreporting of this data wasted valuable Department resources, since only after the Enforcement Office initiated its investigation did it learn that United improperly filed the data,” the DOT said.
United and the DOT agreed to settle the issue with a $12,000 fine, half of which would only be payable if the airline messes up again within the next year.
In reality, United was fined for filing a false report and wasting the DOT’s time. It’s all well and good to say the airline was just being cautious, but I’m assuming they have some well-paid, well-educated staffers who have been briefed on just what constitutes a violation.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
