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( For retirees of the new Air Canada family)
Number 863 Nov 28th., 2004. We first published in October 1995.
Circulation: 2700+
Chief Pilot - Vesta Stevenson - Co-pilot - Terry Baker
To get in touch with either editor/pilot our email address is
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send information to
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. Need to know.
An update on employee travel from China. Until the end of December, Air Canada
cargo will be handling a high volume of shipments from China to Canada. As a
result, employee travel from the country will be difficult due to payload
limitations. Even if flights show space available, you may not get on because
of revenue cargo shipments that affect the maximum weight or space limitations
of an aircraft. According to company policy, revenue or non-revenue passengers
must travel with checked baggage. Therefore, if your bags cannot be stored in
the cargo area due to these limitations, you will also not be able to board the
aircraft. If you still plan to travel from China, consider alternate routings
through Japan, Korea or Hong Kong, and ensure that you have the appropriate
tickets for your back-up travel choices with you before you begin your journey.
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. Nice to know.
Air Canada and Lufthansa to offer more speed and flexibility through E-Ticket
interline. Air Canada and Lufthansa have entered into a reciprocal agreement
whereby all E-Ticket-eligible flights on one airline may be issued as E-Tickets
on the other airline. The agreement also applies to both companies’ check-in
kiosks, meaning that Air Canada passengers will be able to use Lufthansa’s
Quick Check-in kiosks and Web check-in for Lufthansa flights, while Lufthansa
passengers will have access to our Express Check-in kiosks for Air Canada
flights and Web check-in for domestic flights.
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. Air Canada news.
Central Baggage Office – call centre to be transferred to India. In line
with
its continuing effort to offer customers superior service at lower costs, Air
Canada will be transferring its call centre functions from its Central Baggage
Office in Montreal to India. These functions include responding to customers
who have filed a missing luggage report. The move will result in no involuntary
layoffs of the approximately 50 affected employees, who will be reassigned to
other positions at the Montreal airport.
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. To readers of The NetLetter and the Netletter forum on
www.acfamily.net ACFamily Network
re: Donations to the ACFamily Network
ACFamily Network Portal & Forums is a not-for-profit entity and employs
non-paid personnel and volunteers for administration, moderation and technical
support. It is not funded by Air Canada in anyway. Nor does Air Canada have any
influence in its policies.
Help us keep the Forums flying! This is a vital communication tool for all
employees and retirees making Air Canada stronger and viable through dialogue.
The ACFN and its founder have incurred operating and start-up costs
over the last five years which they are endeavoring to recover.
As well, there are on-going operating costs which must be financed.
Particularly at this time of high-volume traffic, our resources are being
stretched to the limit.
We are also looking to the future with other add-on features and updating the
current software.
Our immediate needs are software upgrades and bandwidth increase.
You can make a straight donation for any amount through SPORG
(goto www.acfamily.net)
You can purchase a premium item from our Support Boutique in which a small
portion goes towards the operation of the ACFN, this helps us get our name out
to the
AIR CANADA world. Click on Support Boutique
We also have a PayPal account created for donations. You can pay by PayPal by
clicking on the PayPal Logo.
Last but not least, if you'd prefer to pay by cheque, please send a cheque made
out to: The ACFamily Network to the address which follows -
The ACFamily Network
#800 - 15355 24th Ave Suite 523
Surrey, BC
V4A 2H9
It is through the sale of advertising space and solicitation of member
donations that we are striving to reach our goal of being debt-free and
operationally viable. We invite your support.
Thank you for your support.
Without you, we wouldn't be here!
Vesta Stevenson and Terry Baker on behalf of the acfamily network.
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. Vesta, our chief pilot thought this would interest you -
Advance in commercial aviation technology
November 17, 2004
NASA's X-43A Supersonic Scramjet Breaks All-Time Speed Record...
Close To Mach 10...
At 110,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday afternoon, NASA's
scramjet-powered X-43A unmanned research vehicle flew at close to Mach 9.8,
nearly 7,000 miles per hour, breaking its own previous record of Mach 7, set in
March, for air-breathing engines. The flight is a "key milestone," said NASA
Administrator Sean O'Keefe, that will help to advance commercial aviation
technology. Supersonic combustion ramjets (scramjets) promise to make
ultra-high-speed flights within the atmosphere cheaper and safer, NASA said
Tuesday in a news release, and provide an alternative to rockets. The
technology can also be used in the first stage to Earth orbit.
...In A Flawless Test...
The 12-foot long, 5-foot-wide lifting-body scramjet vehicle, mated to a
modified Pegasus booster rocket, was launched from NASA's B-52B at about 47,000
feet, in restricted airspace northwest of Los Angeles. The booster carried it
up to 110,000 feet, where the X-43A separated and ignited its scramjet engine
for about 10 seconds. After burnout, the vehicle descended and splashed into
the ocean, as planned, and will not be recovered (fishing trip, anyone?). The
flight is the third and last of three unpiloted tests in NASA's Hyper-X
Program. The eight-year, $230-million program got off to a rough start in June
2001 when the first X-43A and its booster rocket had to be destroyed in
mid-air. The second attempt, in March of this year, successfully reached a
speed of Mach 7. Reinforced carbon-carbon composite material was added to the
leading edges of the vehicle's vertical fins for this week's flight, to handle
the higher temperatures generated by the higher speeds. The flight was
originally scheduled for Monday but was delayed due to electronics problems.
...Using A Simple, Sophisticated System
The scramjet engine design has no moving parts. The forward speed of the
aircraft itself, enhanced by the shape of the nose, compresses a stream of air
that is channeled into the engine, where it mixes with gaseous hydrogen fuel --
there are no fan blades that compress the air, as in a normal jet engine. In a
scramjet engine, the airflow through the whole engine remains supersonic. NASA
says such a design may be capable of flying at Mach 15 or more. Scramjets have
an advantage over rockets in that they use oxygen from the atmosphere, so no
heavy liquid-oxygen tanks are required. Also, scramjets can be throttled back
and flown more like an airplane, unlike rockets, which tend to produce nearly
or full thrust all the time.
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