Last autumn the political class chose to demagogue the unfortunate decision of senior auto executives to travel to DC in corporate jets to discuss federally-funded rescue efforts for GM and Chrysler. One of the second order effects of all that podium thumping was a slackening of orders in business jets, which in turn caused the lay-offs of thousand of air industry workers, including over half the production line employees at Wichita-based Cessna Aircraft Company. Now, Congress is trying to make it right:
Congress is not philosophically averse to private air travel: At the end of July, the House approved nearly $200 million for the Air Force to buy three elite Gulfstream jets for ferrying top government officials and Members of Congress. The Air Force had asked for one Gulfstream 550 jet (price tag: about $65 million) as part of an ongoing upgrade of its passenger air service. But the House Appropriations Committee, at its own initiative, added to the 2010 Defense appropriations bill another $132 million for two more airplanes and specified that they be assigned to the D.C.-area units that carry Members of Congress, military brass and top government officials.
Earmarks: You’ve got to love ‘em. Well, if you’re a congressman you do. In other, probably unrelated news, a private citizen in Oz is doing some backyard innovation in the UAV domain:
A light aircraft has taken off at Coober Pedy in outback South Australia without the pilot. The man was unable to start the Cessna from the cockpit, so got out to spin the propeller by hand. When the plane started it became airborne without him and travelled about 300 metres before it crashed in a ditch and rolled over.
Yes, there are some kinks to work out.
I’m Shocked! that they bought Gulfstreams. The Botox Baroness from the Bay declared just two years ago–upon her ascension to the throne, that a Gulfstream just didn’t have the range to haul Ms. Botox home without a refueling stop.
My experience in Gulfstreams (as a mid level corporate manager occasionally entitled to ride along with the heavy hitters) was that a Gulfstream can carry a buncha people from Los Angeles to British Columbia. It can also carry a few people from Los Angeles to New York or even London non stop.
Ms. Botox however demanded a US Air Force Boeing 757 to haul her hautiness from D.C. to San Francisco to insure that she never had to come down from her broomstick at 35,000 feet to refuel twixt DC and SFO. Those headwinds can be a bitch flying east to west–a topic on which she’s had much experience (not the east to west part). And besides her predecessor Denny Hastert had been perfectly happy using a Gulfstream to go from DC to Chicago. What was good enough for Denny Hastert definitely wasn’t good enough for this bozo.
So my question to Congress is this—Why are you wasting money on these short legged birds? Go for the whole enchilada.
I seem to recall a tale of a hapless fellow who, upon hand-propping his Aeronca Champ (which reminds me about a certain aviator’s travails getting a tail-wheel endorsement, but I digress)lost his footing or such and managed to have the aircraft take off without him. My memory is fuzzy but I think the thing came down some 60 or so miles away more or less intact.
Moral of the story: tie down the tale when hand-propping without someone inside sitting on the brakes. I know this from personal experience but that is another story for another time that gets better when beer is served and I’m not buying so I’ll save it for sometime when those two conditions are met.
On the Gulfstream thing we should commission an people’s hearing and haul the members before it for a televised grilling on par with that given the haples auto executives (who would have fired their staff for not seeing the irony of using the jets for that trip in any event).
Would make a good You-tube clip playing Q&A side by side the auto guys then the congress hypocrites. The laid off Cessna workers, however, might fail to see the humor in it.
I don’t know why they needed those planes. Not a single Gulfstream 550 flew a combat sortie over Iraq or Afghanistan in the current conflicts. Superfluous to current needs.
One Navy Gulfstream has been flying in Centcom on an RFF-for CENTCOM missions only- for the last five years. More than a couple of their missions have been flying 3 and 4 stars into Baghdad.
Never under estimate the hazards of hand-propping. Never ever become complacent around an aircraft that has to be hand-propped. If there is the remotest possibility of something stupid happening, it will. OT6P- you ain’t alone.
Humourous Oz Ad video take on a similar ‘hand prop’ issue. ‘XXXX beer – not for air version’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Ir9pKL5zY
Those of us that live in the barn should never question those that live in the farmhouse…
I am sure that SECDEF Gates will be in high dudgeon tomorrow about all this wasteful spending on aircraft he did not request and that has not been in combat in Iraq or Af/Pak theaters.
The biz jet community will keep the Gulfstream production line open for a while longer, and then we can buy more whenever USAF and Congress agree they are mission essential.
Not so the F-22 line. Once closed, we are screwed.
And then the Botox (W)itch demands that they be based at Andrews instead of where the USAF might actually need them. Hutzpah, from the hauty elites we elected. Every single idiot who voted for this should be thrown out of office in 2010.
You are forgetting the power of the reserve mafia in these decisions. They get deeply in bed with Congress to support these types of procurement decisions-because it gives them more airplanes to fly. Hell, I’d be curious to see if the Navy got a couple of more Gulfstreams out of the deal too-which is the last thing they need, They need more C-40′s. Oh, I forgot, N88 threw them on the wood pile.