Norwegian Air International is one of the lowest priced airlines in Europe. NAI is licensed out of Dublin, Ireland but uses Scandinavian countries as their hubs. The pilots are hired from Asian countries mostly Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, as well as, Europe and the US. They are classified as an international air carrier, but operate around the world including the United States.
US carriers are worried due to the fact that this low-budget airline may not be operating under the high standards of the FAA. The Airline is licensed through Ireland to avoid paying higher taxes but operates out of Scandinavian countries while hiring cheaper staff from Asian countries. What about this sounds ethical? None of it...
ALPA along with the DOT tried to stop the airline from flying to the US, but unfortunately were not able to succeed. It seems they are now flying out of JFK non-stop to European destinations for CHEAP.
JFK-->LHR for next month cost a whopping $500.16 round trip. That is pretty much unheard of with any other airline.
Since NAI is now able to operate within the US, I would hope that NAI has to abide by all the rules and regulations of the FAA. Another ramification would be that this airline will take away revenue from other domestic carriers.
References:
http://www.norwegian.com/us/
http://www.alpa.org/Portals/Alpa/deptpages/govtaffairs/issues/nai/NAISchemeInfoGr.htm
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
UAV's
UAV's are used for many different civilian purposes world-wide. Some of these include hurricane hunting, 3D mapping, Wildlife protection, agriculture, and search and rescue just to name a few. Within the NAS (National Airspace System) UAV's operate under strict guidelines. They typically operate from ground level all the way up to FL500. However one major restriction with UAV's are that they may NOT operate in class B airspace.
As said by Vision-systems, UAV's are already integrated in to the NAS. As far as problems with this, I do not foresee any immediate issues. These Unmanned vehicles are very technologically advanced and I believe that they would be equipped with technology to scan for traffic as well as terrain. This hopefully would eliminate any sort of collision issues. A potential problem would be not having that live human in the cockpit if an emergency arrises. If an engine failure occurs over a populated area, will the machine know to guide the UAV away from the populated area? It is small things like this that you can't teach a machine.
As for military, UAV's dramatically transformed military operations. An example would be that they have limited American casualties from hostile areas. They have helped in recon missions as well as areal photography and eliminating targets without putting American lives in danger. They have also reduced the budget for the military as well. As far as it being ethical... well that depends on who you are asking. In my own opinion, I do believe it is ethical because you are not putting an American life at risk. When a fighter jet enters hostile territory, they run the risk of being shot down. Using a UAV to do that while having the operator safely placed somewhere else will eliminate the risk of one more casualty.
I have found a few UAV operator jobs. Most of them are in Palmdale, CA and Falls Church, VA. The job listings are as described, deployable, non-deployable, and test pilot. Most of these positions are for government contracting. I have yet to come across one civilian operating job posting. The source I used did show some UAV engineering position, but one requirement is that he/she has flying experience and ratings to operate a UAV.
References:
http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/2013/06/five-ways-uavs-are-being-used-by-civilians.html
http://www.simplyhired.com/k-uav-pilot-jobs.html
https://www.faa.gov/uas/
As said by Vision-systems, UAV's are already integrated in to the NAS. As far as problems with this, I do not foresee any immediate issues. These Unmanned vehicles are very technologically advanced and I believe that they would be equipped with technology to scan for traffic as well as terrain. This hopefully would eliminate any sort of collision issues. A potential problem would be not having that live human in the cockpit if an emergency arrises. If an engine failure occurs over a populated area, will the machine know to guide the UAV away from the populated area? It is small things like this that you can't teach a machine.
As for military, UAV's dramatically transformed military operations. An example would be that they have limited American casualties from hostile areas. They have helped in recon missions as well as areal photography and eliminating targets without putting American lives in danger. They have also reduced the budget for the military as well. As far as it being ethical... well that depends on who you are asking. In my own opinion, I do believe it is ethical because you are not putting an American life at risk. When a fighter jet enters hostile territory, they run the risk of being shot down. Using a UAV to do that while having the operator safely placed somewhere else will eliminate the risk of one more casualty.
I have found a few UAV operator jobs. Most of them are in Palmdale, CA and Falls Church, VA. The job listings are as described, deployable, non-deployable, and test pilot. Most of these positions are for government contracting. I have yet to come across one civilian operating job posting. The source I used did show some UAV engineering position, but one requirement is that he/she has flying experience and ratings to operate a UAV.
References:
http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/2013/06/five-ways-uavs-are-being-used-by-civilians.html
http://www.simplyhired.com/k-uav-pilot-jobs.html
https://www.faa.gov/uas/
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