Flight attendant's, as a group, get certain cancers more than the general population, according to a new study. Scientists have long found that flight attendants get more breast cancer and melanoma. The new study, published Monday in the journal Environmental Health, saw the same trend and detected a higher prevalence of every other cancer the researchers examined: Non-melanoma skin cancer, uterine, gastrointestinal, cervical and thyroid cancers were all seen at a higher rate in flight attendants. The research does not answer why flight attendants report higher cancer numbers, but the authors have some ideas, based on earlier research. Flight attendants are often exposed to possible or probable carcinogens more frequently than the general population. They are also exposed to higher levels of cosmic ionising radiation. <br/>
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Boeing unveiled a new concept for its first passenger-carrying hypersonic airplane at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference in Atlanta. One of several hypersonic vehicle concepts spanning a wide range of potential applications under study by company engineers, the passenger vehicle could involve military or commercial applications. Engineers companywide are working to develop so-called “enabling technologies” aimed at preparing Boeing for a time markets show a readiness for hypersonic flight. Although Kevin Bowcutt, a senior technical fellow and chief scientist of hypersonics, wouldn’t speculate on a time frame for introduction of hypersonic flight for global travel, a hypersonic passenger vehicle could fly in 20 to 30 years, he estimated. <br/>
The US Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 vote June 26, upheld US president Donald Trump’s Sept 2017 directive temporarily banning nationals from 7 countries from traveling to the US. The ban, justified on national security grounds, restricts most forms of travel to the US for nationals from Libya, Yemen, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and North Korea. The court's ruling could pose a headache for US airlines, which depend heavily on international tourism, argued Teal Group VP of analysis Richard Aboulafia. An A4A spokesperson said the directive has not caused any operational impact among the major commercial carriers as it pertains to the visa issuance process. The A4A spokesperson clarified that none of the major US airlines serve any of the 7 countries listed in the directive. <br/>
China's regional jet market is struggling to get off the ground as Beijing slows approvals for new airlines, industry executives say, dashing hopes that recent policy changes would drive aircraft sales. Foreign companies such as Bombardier, Embraer and ATR had cheered a 2016 policy that required passenger carriers to operate at least 25 city-hopper jets before graduating to bigger aircraft. It appeared to all but assure sales of such small planes in the world's fastest-growing aircraft market, currently dominated by wide-body jets, as the regulator tried to boost flights into China's smaller cities. But there is a problem, executives say: the CAAC has only approved 2 new airlines since the "Rule 96" policy went into effect. <br/>
Russia's top investigative agency has blamed human error for a plane crash that killed all of the 71 people on board earlier this year. The Investigative Committee said Tuesday that an official probe concluded that the Saratov Airlines' An-148 crashed Feb 11 when the captain took the plane into a steep dive after getting flawed air speed readings. The committee said the incorrect information resulted from the pilots' failure to turn on the heating unit for the plane's pressure measurement equipment prior to take-off. Investigators had said earlier that the pilots placed the An-148 on autopilot after taking off from Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, but resumed manual control when they heard alarm signals warning of conflicting speed data. One indicator showed the plane's speed at zero. <br/>