Embry Riddle READ Program

I have been honored recently!  I was chosen to be a part of the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University “READ Campaign.”  In the library’s own words:

The READ poster program was initiated to highlight the library while also honoring students, faculty, staff, and departments. The Library’s goal is to choose nominees who are a fair representation of campus life, strong library supporters, and exceptional members of the ERAU community, such as the student employee of the year, staff member of the year, and outstanding faculty of the year. Nominees are reviewed by the library management team with these guidelines in mind.

Here is close-up picture of my poster and the poster as it hangs in ERAU!

Single Malt Scotch Review – Ardbeg 10-year-old Islay Malt

Well, it’s time time to take a break from ranting and presenting scholarly research, and discuss one of my passions, single malt Scotch.  Tonight, we return to the barren island of Islay (pronounced EYE-la in the event you’ve forgotten) and review the Ardbeg 10-year-old Islay Malt.  The Ardbeg distillery has had a tumultuous history since its establishment in 1815.  It’s been through several owners and has even been closed on two occasions.  But in the year 1997, after the distillery was purchased by the Glen Morangie company, it appears to have hit its stride, launching several new whiskeys and winning the highly-coveted  World Whiskey of the Year award in 2008, 2009, and 2019.

But the proof, as they say, is in the whiskey itself, so let’s put our noses and taste buds there.

Tasting Notes

Once again, you’ll have to bear with my somewhat limited olfactory and taste glands.  I don’t seem to smell or taste the same things the experts do.  According to its website, www.ardbeg.com, ”Ardbeg Ten Years Old is revered around the world as the peatiest, smokiest, most complex single malt of them all.  Yet it does not flaunt the peat; rather it gives way to the natural sweetness of the malt to produce a whisky of perfect balance.”  While I enjoy the whiskey immensely, I’m not sure it’s the smokiest or peatiest.  I think that title goes to Laphroaig.   But Ardbeg may indeed be among the most complex of the Islay malts.

CASS, Opinions, and Feelings – Has the Whole World Gone Soft?

This last week, I had the honor of speaking at the 57th Annual Corporate Aviation Safety Seminar (CASS) in San Antonio, presented by the world-renowned Flight Safety Foundation.   I presented a paper entitled “CRM and SMS: Directing the Evolution of Aviation Organizational Culture,”  written by my fellow Embry-Riddle PhD student, David Freiwald and me, but unfortunately David was unable to attend and I had to present solo.

The presentation was extremely well-received by about 99 and 44/100ths percent of the audience, but apparently I offended someone.  After receiving multiple congratulatory handshakes as I left the auditorium and during the ensuing lunch, I was later cornered by an attendee who apparently was highly offended by an introductory joke I used which made fun of a particular aviation publication.  Now I won’t recount the details of the joke other than to say that it was a throwaway line at the very beginning of my presentation, but I did highlight a specific article in the publication that I ridiculed because the  article superbly illustrated a lack of understanding of Safety Management Systems and provided an excellent set-up for the context of my discussion.  When I was accosted later by the offended party, he proceeded to tell me that he wrote for the publication in question and took my remarks personally.  He went on to lambaste me for even using the article I had quoted, accusing me of insensitivity and deliberately insulting the gentleman who authored the article.   While many retorts came to my mind (and they were superbly-worded – trust me), I remained polite and courteously told him I appreciated his feedback.

Well apparently that wasn’t enough.

Why the Supersonic Business Jet is Inevitable – Part 3 (Final Installment)

The Case for the Value of Time: Why the Supersonic Business Jet is Inevitable for the Future

(So here’s a little change of pace.  If you’ve ever wondered what an article for a scholarly journal looks like, here’s an example. )

Part III – The Demand for Time Savings

            The answer lies in the following question: why would a wealthy individual or corporation who could easily pay between $1700 and $3200 to fly first class between New York and Los Angeles[1] choose instead to pay approximately $35,000[2] to fly the same route in a Gulfstream G-550?   The main reason is the opportunity cost for lost productivity during travel, a real economic cost that economists have been studying for several decades.  Gronau (1970) laid the foundation for this argument with his contention that increased travel time was about more than discomfort because time itself is a scarce resource and as such commands a positive price: “A firm equates the value of its employees’ time with their marginal productivity. The employees, in turn, value their own working time at prices that equal their marginal remuneration-their marginal wage rates” (1970, p, 378).  De Vany (1974) went further and concluded that travelers value their time in direct proportion to their wage rate and his findings directly support the contention that time cost is a critical parameter for consideration when comparing modes of travel.  Zamparini and Reggiani (2007) provided a meta-analysis of ninety different studies on the subject of travel time valuation.  They defined a dependent variable they call the value of travel time saved or VTTS and provide the formula for calculating VTTS which includes the independent variables of the cost of travel and the utility cost of travel time from the perspective of the individual traveler (Zamparini & Reggiani, 2007).  So the real opportunity cost of lost travel time for larger earners or wealthy individuals has real value from an economic perspective and that value is tied directly to the earnings of the person doing the traveling.

Why the Supersonic Business Jet is Inevitable – Part 2

The Case for the Value of Time: Why the Supersonic Business Jet is Inevitable for the Future

(So here’s a little change of pace.  If you’ve ever wondered what an article for a scholarly journal looks like, here’s an example.   I’ll provide several excepts from the paper over the next few days – stay tuned!)

Part II: Technology – Extant or Within Reach

The world’s first attempt into civilian supersonic flight was obviously the British-French Concorde, a miracle of 1960’s era technology that flew for 27 years and transported thousands of passengers back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean (Candel, 2004).  The Concorde was retired in late 2003, ostensibly due to its poor economic performance, but its design and the designs which followed it highlighted the three main technological issues that face any supersonic aircraft, namely the mitigation or elimination of the sonic boom, compliance with ever more restrictive airport noise abatement policies and the minimization of emissions into the atmosphere (Candel, 2004).  With advances in noise reduction and emission control now common in the design of modern jet engines, the mitigation of the sonic boom is probably the most important technological issue facing a civilian supersonic aircraft.

Dealing with the Sonic Boom          

Sonic booms are created by the shock waves produced at altitude by an aircraft traveling at supersonic speeds.  These waves then propagate to the ground, creating a change in pressure and generating a considerable disturbance (Candel, 2004). A graph of the pressure wave over time resembles the letter “N” with a nearly instantaneous initial shock, spiking pressure upward above ambient pressure, followed by a nearly linear decrease to less than ambient pressure over the next several milliseconds, followed by a tail shock that recovers to ambient pressure (Aronstein & Schueler, 2005).  The noise level generated by the Concorde’s boom was 105 PLdb (perceived loudness in decibels), louder than a jack hammer (Warwick, 2011b). Industry is aiming for a reduction to about 70 PLdb which is closer to a conversational noise level (Warwick, 2011b).   The most prevalent design theory to mitigate sonic booms was originated in a series of papers in the 1960’s and 1970’s and hypothesizes that the upward and lower spikes on a supersonic shock wave can be significantly reduced merely by shaping the fuselage and lift-producing surfaces on a supersonic aircraft  to do just that (Morgenstern, Arslan, Lyman, & Vadyak, 2005).  In 2003, the theory was conclusively proven through a series of tests funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency which used two F-5 aircraft, one left in production configuration and the other specially designed to soften the N-wave and reduce the impact at ground level (Morgenstern et al., 2005).  The tests showed that the shaped aircraft produced a consistent and significant reduction in the propagation of overpressure and sound to ground level, even in a turbulent atmosphere (Morgenstern et al., 2005).  Gulfstream and other aircraft manufacturers performed wind tunnel tests that also confirmed that shaped aircraft designs can reduce the sonic boom to lower levels (Henne, 2005).  Researchers at NASA have produced feasible designs which reduce the sonic boom to the range of 65-75 PLdb  (Welge, Nelson, & Bonet, 2010).  NASA’s N+3 studies have indicated a low boom supersonic business jet could be technologically viable as early as 2015 (Warwick, 2010).   In May of 2012, researchers from Japan further confirmed the theory when they dropped two asymmetric aerodynamic bodies from high-altitude over Sweden and noted that the specially shaped body reduced the sonic boom by 50% (Warwick, 2011b).

Why the Supersonic Business Jet is Inevitable – Part 1

The Case for the Value of Time: Why the Supersonic Business Jet is Inevitable for the Future

(So here’s a little change of pace.  If you’ve ever wondered what an article for a scholarly journal looks like, here’s an example.   I’ll provide several excepts from the paper over the next few days – stay tuned!)

Background

The business aviation industry seems to be exhibiting a form of schizophrenia where the subject of supersonic business jets (SSBJs) is concerned these days.  Expressing skepticism in the January 2012 issue of Aviation International News, aviation commentator Matt Thurber pronounces a near death sentence on the SSBJ when he writes “(I)s there enough development money to support any supersonic business jet program? Will we ever see a production supersonic business jet? We believe that it’s highly unlikely…” (Thurber, 2012).  Yet only two months prior, at the Dubai Airshow in November 2011, the United Kingdom’s Hypermach Corporation proudly announced that their planned 20-seat SSBJ SonicStar, would be capable of speeds approaching Mach 4.0 by the time it reached certification in 2025 (Trautvetter, 2011).  Hypermach went on to boast that SonicStar’s speed and range would allow it to fly from New York to Dubai in 2 hours and 20 minutes and the aircraft would feature an electromagnetically-induced plasma wave that would absorb the shock wave responsible for the dreaded sonic boom – all for about $180 million per aircraft (Trauvetter, 2011).  In contrast to Hypermach’s optimistic announcement, Joe Lombardo, then president of Gulfstream Aerospace, downplayed his company’s interest in the SSBJ in an interview in late 2010, voicing uncertainty about the regulatory and environmental obstacles to the aircraft’s development and expressing his own skepticism that a market for the aircraft even existed (Garvey & Anselmo, 2010).  But Reno, Nevada-based Aerion would seem to disagree with Lombardo’s pronouncement.  The company unveiled its SSBJ design in 2004 at the National Business Aviation Association convention after conducting a market survey of more than 1,100 operators of large business aircraft and determining there was demand for at least 250-300 supersonic jets (Phillips, 2005).  As of the completion of the initial NASA testing on its patented natural laminar flow technology in late 2010, about the same time Lombardo was interviewed, the company held approximately 50 letters of intent with accompanying deposits for the $80 million-aircraft, comprising an order book worth over $4 billion (Norris, 2010).

The Sound of Breathing . . .

Spring Break here in Overland Park took place from March 8th-March 16th and I took the opportunity to take my kids on a driving trip all over the southwestern United States.  Due to a certain obsession with the East Coast of the US that certain member of our family has, eastern Kansas is probably as far west as we’ll ever live and I thought I should take this opportunity to show my kids some of the sights in this great country of ours.  So I made room reservations using a ton of Marriott points, rented a big SUV from Hertz and at 0500 hours on March the 8th, I hit the road with my daughter (and two of her friends to keep her company) and my twin sons.  We spent the first night in Glenwood Springs, CO, a place I hadn’t been to since I was a senior at the USAF Academy long, long ago.  It was a 12-hour drive to get there and as I had hoped, as we hit the mountains of Colorado just west of Denver, the kids’ jaws dropped and their eyes were agape.  They swam in the hot springs at Glenwood that night and the next morning we hit the road to Las Vegas, ending the day with a tour of Nellis Air Force Base where I attended Fighter Weapons School in 1989.  There were airplanes on pedestals everywhere that the kids could see and touch.  They saw the Hoover Dam the next morning and the Pacific Ocean the next night and in the course of the next several days we did the USS Midway and Coronado Beach at San Diego, Santa Monica, the Grand Canyon, Durango, CO and finally back to Kansas via Colorado Springs.  There was no whining in the car, no “are we there yet,” just wonder, laughter and companionship.

So, would you like to know that part of the trip I liked the best?

Single Malt Scotch Review – Lagavulin 16-Year-Old Islay Malt

Rather than rant, pontificate or hypothesize tonight, I thought I’d write about something for which Colin Pearce and I have a keen appreciation: single malt Scotch.  Today I made a stop at my local liquor boutique and replaced a bottle in my collection that has been missing far too long – a bottle of The Lagavulin, a highly complex, aristocratic and refined Islay (pronounced “eye-la”) single malt.   Tonight as I sit at my desk to write this, I have a glass of the amber nectar at my side and as I sip it, I feel like I am being reacquainted with an old friend.  It is one of my absolute favorites.  Before I discuss the taste though, let’s get through a few preliminaries.

Terminology / Geography  

1) Scotch – or Scotch Whisky, is as you would expect, whisky that is made in Scotland.  This sounds obvious but it is, in fact, law in the United Kingdom according to Scotch Whisky Regulations of 2009 which made it illegal for anything to be called “Scotch Whisky” unless it is produced in Scotland.  You can read more than you can stand about the regulations here.

2) Single-malt Scotch is whisky that is produced at a single distillery from only malted barley and water via the process of batch distillation.   Most Scotch is blended Scotch and as such features a somewhat generic taste. The fascinating thing about single malt is that each variety has its own unique flavor and character – one of the things I truly love about it.  As I write this I have 27 bottles of single malt in my collection, ranging from a cheap bottle of Finlaggan that I picked up in Costco a few months ago to a bottle of 25-Year-Old Macallan  that I’ve had for years and is probably worth several hundred dollars.

3) There are several distinct regions in Scotland where single malt is produced.  It’s easier to provide a visual depiction than to explain it so I’ve included the map here which you can see in greater detail at http://www.malts.com/index.php/en_us/Choosing-Whisky/Whisky-Regions-of-Scotland#0.  Each region lends its own traits to the whisky it produces.  Rather than discuss each region and risk boring you, we’ll just focus on Islay for now since that’s where Lagavulin is produced.

Islay Malts

Instead of trying to describe the region and its unique characteristics in my own words, allow me to let other, more literate, whisky writers speak for me:

“Located on the southern coast of Scotland in view of Northern Ireland, Islay produces whiskies that are easily identified by their specific flavor profile.  These whiskies are commonly described as briny, peaty, seaweedy and medicinal.  For some, their intensity may be a bit too much, but for those serious about their whisky, at least one favorite is likely to come from this region” (Lerner, 1997, p. 28).

“Island malts tend to be fuller in body and stronger in peat than the Highland and Lowland malts.  Islay malts, in particular, are well known for their heavy, almost oily body, and strong peaty flavor.  Some people claim to taste hints of seaweed and iodine….What makes the Island whiskies so special is hard to say.   Perhaps it is the island peat.  Perhaps it is the moist sea air, perpetually blowing across these islands, which imparts something to the whisky as it ages for years in its porous casks.  Perhaps it is the island water, filtered through the fibrous peat” (Harris & Waymack, 1992, p. 123).

Hiring and Cronyism – How to Ensure a Flight Department’s Downfall

I haven’t blogged in awhile, so it’s a shame that something like this would drive my fingers to the keyboard.

Someone I know very well recently applied to be the Chief Pilot for the flight department of a Fortune 100 company in the northeast.  This flight department has been plagued by strife and issues in the last several years.  A new vice-president for flight operations and director were installed about two years ago to bring some necessary changes to the place, but while they had some great ideas for reform, they replaced too many of the “old guard” with new hires who came from backgrounds outside of corporate aviation and had no experience with international operations.  The resulting strife led the CEO to fire the leadership of the department and look to hire replacements.  The search for a new director lasted several months and oddly enough, the director chosen (after several people refused the job) had virtually no international experience and came from a fractional background.   One of his first acts was to replace one of his management personnel, in this case the manager of flight operations/dispatch, with one his cronies from his former place of employment.  In his first few months of employment this new director has inspired dissension in the ranks of his people to the point that a pool currently exists among the pilots as to how long he will remain in the job.

So enter my friend and his application for the Chief Pilot position.  The ad is placed and is responded to by a whopping 7 applicants, one of whom is my friend.   In addition to his resume (which is extensive – he probably has a better range of leadership and Chief Pilot experience than 99% of the candidates out there), he submits a cover letter that is blunt about his leadership skills and his philosophy.  ”If you want to unite your people and inspire them to change, I’m your guy,” my friend says.  ”If you’re looking for a ‘yes man’ to maintain the status quo, I’m definitely not your guy.”  He never receives a phone screening  and is directly emailed an invitation to interview.  Naively thinking he might actually have a shot at the position, my friend flies to the company’s corporate headquarters, interviews with the recruiter, the executive who has oversight responsibility for the department, the HR liaison for the department and finally with the director himself.  The interview seems to go well and he is told that he’ll be given the results in approximately a week’s time.

“When Thunder Rolled” – Another Great Book on the Air War over Vietnam

Books on the Vietnam War can be tedious reading.  As a professional military officer for over twenty years and as someone who owns a rather extensive library of military history, I’ve read my fair share of books on Vietnam and have often found that it was only my interest in the subject matter that kept me reading rather than any enjoyment of the writing itself.  Ed Rasimus’ excellent book When Thunder Rolled has been a notable exception to that experience.

Rasimus’ book is a memoir of his experience flying the F-105 Thunderchief during operation “Rolling Thunder,” the first real air campaign over North Vietnam.  Beginning with Rasimus’ transition training in the F-105 in the spring of 1966, the book focuses on his experiences flying his 100 combat missions over North Vietnam from May to November 1966.  It is written from a first person perspective and not only details the events Rasimus endured but also presents the way he saw them through the eyes of a “green” lieutenant flying his first fighter and engaging in the bloodiest conflict in which the US has participated since the end of the Second World War.  It was a fast-moving, interesting read that kept me engaged from the beginning to the end and didn’t read like it was history at all.   On a personal note, as a young lieutenant entering the USAF in the early 1980′s, I heard many of the “old guys” in my OV-10 FAC squadron talk about the F-105 or “Thud” in terms of reverence and endearment.   After reading When Thunder rolled, I understand that reverence and endearment much better – even all these years later.