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Serial Activities The Invention Problem Solving Flying Machines In The News Online Explorations |
ERAU trains on the edge
By AARON LONDONNEWS-JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
PALM COAST — When Orville and Wilbur Wright launched their Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, N.C., 100 years ago today, they were on the cutting edge of aviation technology.
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As trainees in the school´s Commercial Airline Pilot Training program, VanWagoner and Pottage are among the first students to test some of aviation´s newest technology. Built by Diamond Aircraft, the fleet of 10 DA-40 four-seat, single-engine trainers that Embry-Riddle uses are next-generation propeller-driven airplanes and the school is one of the Austrian company´s biggest customers.
“I feel like this plane is the sports car of planes,” VanWagoner said. “Our program is one of the only programs to use these planes.”
The planes, known as the Diamond Star, range in cost from $186,000 to more than $224,000 depending on options and equipment packages. Production of the planes began in 2001 at the company´s plant in London, Ontario.
The distinct shape of the airframe and the large bubble cockpit give the plane a futuristic look, leading one airplane critic to say that flying in a DA-40 was like being on the bridge of the fictitious Starship Enterprise from the Star Trek television and film franchise.
The plane gets noticed by other fliers, too.
“Any time we fly this plane someplace, people just want to check it out,” VanWagoner said. “There´s a lot of curiosity.”
The use of composite materials puts the plane in an elite class, said Paul Woessner, director of the Commercial Airline Pilot Training program. The use of composites -- a mixture of plastics, graphite and other materials -- allows the company to design the plane with higher visibility from the cockpit and no need for structural supports to hold the windshield.
“The composite-built aircraft are all built to withstand high G load landings, otherwise known as crashes,” Woessner said.
The ability to withstand a mishap -- through its composite body and roll cage -- has made the Diamond plane a very safe aircraft for flight training and for general aviation use. There are 115 of the planes registered for use in the United States, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The use of composites is a big step forward from the materials used by the Wright Brothers 100 years ago.
Orville and Wilbur´s plane was made of spruce and ash covered with muslin. And while the wingspan of the Wright Flyer at 40.3 feet was longer than the Diamond´s 39.4 feet, the power plant in the Flyer was a 12 horsepower engine of the Wrights´ own design. The DA-40 uses a 180 horsepower Lycoming engine that gives it a range of 600 miles. The longest flight by the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk was 852 feet.
The school is planning to buy a twin-engine variant of the plane -- known as the DA-42 -- for use in the training program some time next year and will be the first to use the plane.
For now, the single-engine model is getting plenty of use in the program, which is slated to move to the Flagler County Airport next year.
Having the program and planes based at the airport is an exciting prospect, said Jim Jarrell, airport manager.
“The planes are safer, cleaner, quieter and easier to maintain,” he said. “We´ll be the first airport to have them permanently based out of here.”
Woessner said the planes are built to European noise standards, which are more stringent than in the United States.
“We actually have mufflers on these aircraft,” he said.
Jarrell said the planes illustrate how far aviation has come since the Wright brothers´ day. Comparing 2003 technology to the 1903 version is pretty simple, he said.
“It would be like somebody who spent their entire life driving a covered wagon and a team of mules across the country to wake up one morning and climb into a BMW and jump on the interstate to complete their journey,” Jarrell said.
Serial Story: UP IN THE AIR -- The 18-part serial story ran in the Daytona Beach News-Journal each Monday from January 13 through May 19 (except for April 14). Text and illustrations for the serial copyright © 2003 by Brian Floca. Sponsored in part by Inventing Flight, Dayton, Ohio. Reprinted by permission of Breakfast Serials, Inc. www.breakfastserials.com.
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