ALL HAIL BREAKS LOOSE

When I think of a type of weather event that could be potentially catastrophic for an aircraft, the obvious choice I go with is Hail. It can be one of the most destructive types of weather that can happen at any given moment. "Hailstones are formed when raindrops are carried upward by thunderstorm updrafts into extremely cold areas of the atmosphere and freeze." (NOAA.gov). When the hail starts to fall down to earth's surface, it is because the updraft can no longer support the weight of the hailstones. 

Now there are certain regions that are a lot more susceptible to this type of weather, usually in places where you get hot weather from the south combining with cold fronts from the north. Places I think about when this comes to mind are the same areas that are very prone to Tornado's every year, which would be from Texas/Oklahoma, all the way up to Iowa and the majority of the Midwest U.S. 

How this can effect aviation and aircraft is because like I said before, it can happen at a moments notice, so if you have planes that are not protected or that are flying through storms like this, they can be severely affected and damaged by hail. This could be anything from dents and cracked/broken windows, to full blown engine failure because of hailstones being ingested into the intake of the engines. Most of the time you will not have planes taking off with this type of inclement weather because of the risk and lives involved if something were to happen. 

References: 

NOAA.gov, n.d. Severe Weather 101: Hail Basics. NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory. Retrieved From: https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/hail/

 ATC ENTITIES

The two entities I have chosen for this discussion are the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and NATS (National Air Traffic Service). They both are the primary aviation know it all for the United States and the United Kingdom. The FAA regulates basically all aspects of aviation as an industry and makes sure every person operating or working on aircraft are compliant with all standards and regulations. They also carry out programs that are beneficial to controlling noise and some of the other environmental effects that come with the aviation industry. The FAA has a command center that uses its advanced Air Traffic Control systems to mitigate potential hazards during flights due to inclement weather by using its Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) and Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facilities which can relay information in a matter of minutes. 

NATS on the other hand basically does the same exact thing as the FAA when it comes to civilian aviation. It only controls UK held airspace, which is a whole lot smaller than the United States, and generally only controls around 6,000 flights a day. Outside the controlled airspace, the pilots have full authority over their aircraft and are solely responsible for the safety of themselves and everyone that is onboard that flight. Outside the controlled airspace, the military works with the civilian pilots to provide any needed assistance or services that may be needed so that they can provide a fully integrated service to everyone involved. 

References: 

FAA, 2020. Facts about the FAA and Air Traffic Control. Federal Aviation Administration. Retrieved from: https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/facts-about-faa-and-air-traffic-control

NATS,  n.d. Air Traffic Control. National Air Traffic Service. Retrieved From: https://www.nats.aero/about-us/what-we-do/atc-explained/

 Aviation Emissions Problem

Aviation is one of the larger contributors to greenhouse emissions in the world, and that includes Military and Civilian sectors. The amount of fuel burned per hour on some of these military fighter jets alone is mind boggling and eye opening. Why have we not come up with a clean cut solution in a more timely manner to stop, or even rapidly slow the rate of emissions being expelled into our atmosphere? One way we can start to go about this problem, is by using more SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuels), which are fuel sources that are derived from renewable materials. SAF can include fuels of biogenic origin, fuels from hybrid feedstocks, liquid hydrogen, recycled carbon-based fuels, and electro-fuels." (Reichmann, 2021). These can be more sustainable than jet fuel in the future if we can just come together and come up with a solid plan to incorporate these fuels more and more into the scheme of things. As it stands right now, the blend ratio of fuel to SAF is 50-50, according to ASTM. Airlines in the future hope to get this blend ratio up to 100% in the near future, because when blended, these SAF's have the same characteristics as the jet fuel we normally use. But at the same time, the reason why the blend ratio is only at 50 percent right now, is because the supply of SAF is really low and takes more time to procure. 

Reference: 

Kelsey Reichmann, 2021. The Front Runner to Addessing Aviation's Emissions Problem: SAF. Retrieved from: https://www.aviationtoday.com/2021/06/01/front-runner-addressing-aviations-emissions-problem-saf/