AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2021 - 52

BRIEFING
INDUSTRY NEWS /
Sullenberger
in at ICAO
PR E S I DENT JOE BI DEN tapped retired airline
captain Chesley " Sully " Sullenberger,
best known for his starring role in a real-life
ditching later made into a movie, to lead the
U.S. Mission to the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO).
Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles
ditched US Airways Flight 1549 in New York's
Hudson River in 2009, notably with no loss of
life, after geese knocked out both engines of their
Airbus A320 shortly after takeoff. The events of
that day made " Sully " a household name, and he
has put his star power to work as an advocate
for aviation safety and aviation overall. In 2017,
Sullenberger spoke out against air traffic control
privatization, helping to kill a proposal that
would have endangered the future of aviation.
Upon Senate confirmation, Sullenberger will
be the eighteenth representative of the United
States to serve on ICAO, the international body
created by the United Nations in 1947 to harmonize
aviation standards and regulations
worldwide.
" Captain Sullenberger certainly understands
aviation and its global reach, and the United
States and ICAO would benefit greatly from his
experience, knowledge, and leadership, " said
AOPA Senior Vice President of Government
Affairs and Advocacy Jim Coon.
SQUAWKS
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the rest of the story
Wally Funk has a ticket to space
More than 60 years after longtime flight instructor and aspiring
astronaut Wally Funk joined a group of women who submitted to a
battery of medical tests designed to assess their fitness for space, the
82-year-old realized a lifelong mission when she joined Jeff Bezos and
two others aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard July 20.
Branson touches space
Richard Branson reached the edge of space and safely returned to
Earth on July 11, a trip that marks a turning point in the billionaire
entrepreneur's multidecade effort to help create a space-tourism
industry. Virgin Galactic plans to initiate commercial service next year,
charging passengers hundreds of thousands of dollars each for such
flights. The test flight was aimed at evaluating systems and the passenger
experience, as well as providing additional validation of its safety.
AirCar flies in Slovakia
Professor Stefan Klein's curious creation, an AirCar that sprouts
wings with the push of a button, used those foils to fly between two
Slovakian cities, then complete the journey downtown by road in
about half the time the trip would typically take. The AirCar prototype
has surpassed 40 hours of flight test time with a BMW engine rated at
160 horsepower. The AirCar transforms from aircraft to automobile by
folding the wings (in 2 minutes and 15 seconds).
aopa.org
AV I AT ION HISTORY / 100 YEARS AGO
September 17, 1921
Ballooning
PAUL ARMBRUSTER, Swiss aeronaut, wins the International Gordon Bennett Balloon Race, from
Brussels to Lamby Island, Ireland, traveling 515.14 miles. Ballooning began in 1783 with the first
ascent of a balloon in France. Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and his brother Jacques-Étienne
Montgolfier were paper manufacturers who constructed a taffeta envelope from which a basket
was suspended. In the basket were a sheep, a duck, and a rooster. The flight lasted eight minutes.
Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and Francois Laurent were the first humans to fly in a balloon.
Sport ballooning began in 1906, when American publisher James Gordon Bennett offered an international
trophy for annual long-distance flights. The sport was discontinued in 1939 and revived
52
AOPA PILOT / September 2021

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2021

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