Boeing Boys Don't Want New Toys

The world's largest commercial planemakers disagree about 'black boxes' that eject in the event of a crash.
Airbus is nearly ready to equip airliners with recorders that eject, so that they float to the ocean's

surface instead of being trapped in wreckage. But Boeing reckons such recorders are prone to ejecting accidentally and creating a safety risk.
Black boxes are equipped with an emergency locator transmitter that would be easier to detect if floating on the water's surface.
Questions about deployable black boxes arose after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in March 2014 (although I blogged about this very issue back in June 2009, after Air France 447 went down over the Atlantic).
Airbus plans to put deployable recorders in its A350 and A380 airliners, which are designed for long-haul flights over ocean. But Boeing says there'll statistically be only one accident every 10 years where a commercial jet crashes into the ocean and can't be found for more than a year, whereas 5-6 accidental ejections are likely each year.
Surely if the issue is whether or not a black box may self-eject (and that's a highly speculative may, given that these have not yet been introduced), the answer is to have a duplicate box installed in the usual place. If one is lost, the other continues to operate!
...or, as I said 5yrs ago, military-grade nano-burst technology (readily available now) that negates the need for a 'black box'!
For every problem, there's a solution...and the travelling public's peace-of-mind requires a solution.

OMG! The All Blacks Are Human!

Meads and McCaw:
mighty...but still human!

Rugby legend Sir Colin Meads played a record 133 games for the All Blacks from 1957-1971.
ABs captain Richie McCaw broke that record when playing against South Africa recently. Pretty bloody impressive, wouldn't you think? But hardly a word was actually said.
The All Blacks just ended a 22-test unbeaten run stretching back to 2012. Prior that, their longest unbeaten streak was 23 games without loss: 1987-1990. Again, rather impressive. And again, "mum" was pretty much the word. Why...? Because the All Blacks LOST.
Yeup, all good things must come to an end - as they did on Ellis Park in Jo'burg last week, when the 'boks beat the ABs 27-25.
But AB rugby, wallowing in its over-glorified status, can't POSSIBLY be criticised or spoken ill of. Oh, no!
I've listened all week, but the kiwi press hacks were conspicuous by their relative silence over the mighty All Blacks' defeat. Far be it from them to spread the word that the ABs are after all...*whisper* human!
Jeeeez!!! Get a grip!!!
As I've often written, rugby - is - just - a - game!
If its elevated to unsustainable lofty heights, sooner or later it'll suffer altitude sickness! And then, humble pie doesn't taste too good, eh.

Parking Up With Alice

To paraphrase Pete Seeger: "Where do all the old planes go, long time passin'..."
They either fall out of the sky due to crap maintenance; are cut up for scrap; rot in a far corner of an airport somewhere... or are stored in an aircraft boneyard. These so-called boneyards are mainly in the SW US, where the dry desert conditions inhibit corrosion.

unwanted Top Guns, Tucson

The largest of these is a US Air Force aircraft and missile storage facility in Tucson, Arizona, which takes care of more than 4,400 military aircraft (at 1000 hectares, it's the largest aircraft storage and preservation facility in the world). The nearby Pinal Airpark provides storage for civilian aircraft.
Now, Alice Springs in Australia has been selected to be the first aircraft "boneyard" outside the US. Traveller.com reports it'll take planes being decommissioned from service, which will be stripped of parts like engines, electronics and wiring to be re-cycled.

excesses in the sandpit, Mojave Desert

Dry climates are best for the storage and preservation of aircraft, so Alice Springs in the arid centre of Australia is ideally suited. It's big market will be the Asia-Pacific carriers, because of the proximity. Airlines will also be able to store aircraft as big as the A380 when not in use: the airport has a runway large enough to take big planes and plenty of room to expand.
Initially the site will cover 110 hectares. Work on a taxiway begins later this year with the first planes expected to arrive early next year.
Wonder if there's a similar type of facility for past-best-date air stewardesses...?