New President

President Bush recently nominated Bobby Sturgell as the new FAA Administrator this past Tuesday October 23. Sturgell has succeeded Marion Blakey in her five years as administrator and plans to make some changes to the organization. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) voiced concerns on the new president because he has different views user fees, labor relations, and flight oversight. However, president of AOPA Phil Boyer explained that Sturgell understands their position and has always been able to talk honestly with AOPA.

Congress is also concerned on allowing a Bush administration appointee to serve for five years and will likely vote on having Sturgell hold his position only until the end of the current administration. Bobby Sturgell previously served as senior counsel to Blakey and helped make the Washington, D.C. Air Defense Identification Zone more identifiable to pilots. He has repeatedly voiced his support of AOPA and the work they do for general aviation. The FAA has also shared the same values as AOPA on pilot safety, training, and development. A former United Airlines Pilot and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of Virginia School of Law, Sturgell will prove to be an overall improvement to the general aviation community.

Armstrong: Opened!

All week at Purdue everyone has been talking about homecoming, will we win, is this our year for a big bowl game, where are the best parties. However, there was another story on campus this week. It was admittedly less followed but the event was an amazing experience.

The event I am speaking of is the dedication/opening of the $63 million Armstrong Hall. Dedicated to Purdue alumnus and first man to walk on the moon Neil Armstrong. It will aptly be used for teaching classes on Aeronautical Engineering, and the shape of the building mimics that of wings bringing Purdue's contributions to flight back to campus.

In attendance was not only Neil Armstrong for whom the building is named, but also Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon and also a Purdue alumnus. These two greats were accompanied by their families and 12 other astronaut alumni of Purdue.

To many students on campus this is merely another building to navigate. But for the aeronautical engineers as well as Purdue's flight students this building is a monument to what a diploma from Purdue can get you. In the flight program here we are told that when we graduate we will be ready for a job as an airline pilot, but after listening to Mr. Armstrongs speech today, I am inspired to be more. This building to me is a daily reminder of why I am here. With a Purdue education not even the sky will be the limit for a student's potential.

A380- A First

Singapore Airlines comissioned its A380 fleet yesterday with its first flight from the Changi Airport in Singapore to Sydney Austrailia. For weeks there had been signs posted at Changi announcing this milestone in history. The flight has been described by BBC News as a "party".

This party started at the ticket counter where professional photographers were on hand to provide souvenirs for the occasion. The party continued at the gates with a buffet for the passengers and a stage for dignitaries to put there "two cents" in on this occasion. This was where the A380 made its debut. Not exactly sleek, but certainly impressive. The massive hulk sitting outside the window must have been an amazing site. Two rows of cabin windows stretching the length of the plane paralleling the double decker buses of London. The party ended with a final gift to all passengers. A"goody bag" like those given out at press junkets for movie premiers.

Now I don't know about you guys, but I think this is a little much. Sure this plane is huge and it is most definitely a milestone in aviation history, but it's not exactly the Wright Brothers' first flight. I'm fairly possitive the Boeing 747 didn't get this kind of attention when it was the largest plane on the market, so why should Airbus be granted this publicity. My only thought is that Singapore Airlines has sunk too much money into these planes and is now having second thoughts on how many passengers it will take for them to have per plane to turn a profit in the long run. My advice to readers is to watch Singapore Airlines they may not exist five years from now.

Lexus IS250 - Test Drive

So one day my father came up to me and told me that soon his company was going to switch his company car. So he asked me if I had any ideas on what car to buy. So I simply told him that I would get back to him on that. Our budget was about $30,000. So they very next weekend I went car shopping with my friend (more like window shopping to be honest). At that time Lexus had just released their brand new IS. So I went in there and basically told the salesperson my story.

So for five minutes the salesperson told me all about the car. He said it had a 2.5L V6 that gives a total of 200hp and about 185 ft-lb. I was not very impressed at first when he told me that. But two seconds later he asked me if I wanted to test-drive it. I'm not going to lie, I was nervous but as soon as i got into the car it went away. The leather seats are extremely soft and comfortable. The seats felt like they fit me like a clove. Everything in the car that the drive comes in contact with when he or she is driving has the best quality materials. First of all the steering wheel wrapped with leather makes you never want to drive with only one hand, but then again the stick-shift is also wrapped with smooth leather.

After sitting down in the car, the salesperson told me that the car has no key. I didn't know what he was talking about until he showed me the thing that is supposed to be the "key". This car has key-less entry and bottom start. With the little beeper you simply walk up to the car and automatically the car unlocks. So inside the car the guy told me to press the clutch and the brakes, then I noticed that the engine start bottom lite up green. I tapped the bottom the the engine was on, but the thing that amazed me that most were the gauges. After pressing the bottom they lite up with a neon blue color and both speed and rpm pointers moved all the way to max and back.


So I put the car in first gear and left the Lexus parking lot. As soon as I reached the street the guy told me to step on it, so it did. I was impressed with the acceleration with the fact that the car only had about 200 hp. Handling impressed me as well, the steering was really smooth along with the car ride overall. This car is all about luxury but it does have some sporty aspects to it. When reaching high rpm the a light around the rpm instrument will light up. Also a light around the speedometer will light up by doing speeds over 80 mi/h. The shift-light is cool, but there is not point to the other light.The exterior of the car is not one bit disappointing. It looks aggressive, stylish, and slick all at the same time and that is not easy to do. This car flows all together from the front grill, to the slick headlights, making its way back all the way to the taillights. Overall this car is great car for its price. But at the end my dad decided that he needed some more power under the hood, so we ended up getting the MazdaSpeed 6 which is not as luxurious but it does have 70 more horses and it is all-wheel-drive.

Shelby GT500 Super Snake

Well seems like Shelby was not satisfied with he extremely fast GT500, so he went on to design an upgraded version's. Shelby first releases the GT500 KR, which stands for "King 0f the Road". Now less then a month after its release, the presented the GT500 SS, which stands for "Super Snake". The original Gt500 has a 5.4L V8 supercharged engine. This engine will give you 500hp. The KR version has the same engine but it has an upgraded supercharger that gives it an extra 40hp. Now the SS version has an even bigger supercharger that gives it about 600hp. But if you are the type of person that gets top-of-the-line cars then you could ask for the upgraded version of the GT500 Super Snake. You can actually by this car with a different tuning kit that will give this car 725hp! The only setback is that Ford will not give you a warranty on the car. You can purchase this insanely fast car for about $72,000.

Ford did a great job in making this car look its best. I honestly would not know how to make it look even a bit more aggressive. Ford has defined the word muscular and aggressive into one single car. It is so hard for me to imagine a Mustang with 725 horses, I guess I'll have to got to a Ford dealer myself and makeup another story of how my dad is a millionaire so they will let me test drive it. This trick works with the BMW 325 and other cars in that range. I doubt that trick will work, but its still totally worth a shot. Wish me luck!

Aprilla RS 250

This bike is like no other. This bike first went into production when Aprila wanted to make a replica of Massimiliano "Max" Biaggi's race bike in 1994. He raced for Aprila and won many World Championships for the 250cc category. Aprila is a small Italian motorcycle company therefore they are not really able to produce a street-reliable 250cc engine. They had to get some help. This help came from Suzuki. The engine is a liquid-cooled, two stroke V-twin that has a total of 60hp. That might not seem like much but when a bike weights only about 315 lbs then yes that is more than enough.

Like I sad earlier this bike is not like other bikes, such as, the Hayabusa. The Hayabusa is more comparable to a muscle car. Meaning that it is most effective in straight aways. The Aprila is like more like a little sports car that will accelerate from 0 to 60 in about 3.7 seconds and stick to every single corner you throw at it. Sadly this sporty bike has not been under production since 2004. Hopefully one day it will come back.

Rise to the Top

Over the past decade there have been very few airlines able to keep a steady profit and not go into bankruptcy. However, recent statistics have shown that JetBlue Airways and United Airlines have both soared in earnings, especially during its third quarter. As the airline industry began to recover from the September 11 attacks, shares of both companies started steadily rising throughout each quarter. United Airlines, which is based in Chicago, overtime has lowered its costs and increased passenger revenue. The company’s earnings have gone up to around 334 million this quarter, its best quarterly profit in almost seven years. Now the nation’s #2 carrier, United has increased its stock from $1.30 per share to $2.21 in only one year.

Low cost carriers have also proven to be a success in the industry. JetBlue is an example of how an airline can quickly recover after an accident that causes the company to lose millions of dollars. The entire country watched two years ago as a JetBlue flight landed with a cockeyed front nose gear that could have caused a major crash. Fortunately the flight landed safely and no one was hurt on board, but the negative news coverage that came afterwards caused JetBlue’s stock to plummet. Now the company has almost made a complete recovery and returned to become one of the nation’s top airlines once again. JetBlue has earned more than 23 million dollars alone this quarter and expects to keep rising over the next year.

Southwest Airlines is also a great example of how discount carriers become such a huge success in the industry. A few years ago, Southwest bought millions of dollars in fuel reserves that have lasted the airline up until now. Because the company bought the fuel back when it was less than three dollars per gallon, they saved millions by powering the fleet with its own fuel, instead of paying four dollars per gallon like it cost the rest of the airlines. However, now Southwest’s reserves are almost run dry and the upcoming months will show how it will compete using public jet fuel. Overall the airline industry is getting steadily better, which is good for both the economy and anyone who seeks a job in aviation.