Purcellville 2014 annual 4th of July Parade

The Purcellville Volunteer Fire Department and the Town of Purcellville held their annual 4th of July Parade on Friday.







































The parade started at 12:30 p.m. EDT at Emerick Elementary (continued up Orchard Avenue, right onto Main Street, left onto Maple Avenue) and ended at Loudoun Valley High School.

F-35 fleet grounding

The technical air worthiness authorities of the Department of the Air Force and Department of the Navy have issued a directive to ground the F-35 fleet based on initial findings from the runway fire incident that occurred at Eglin Air Force Base on June 23, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby announced on Thursday.

“The root cause of the incident remains under investigation,” Kirby said. “Additional inspections of F-35 engines have been ordered, and return to flight will be determined based on inspection results and analysis of engineering data. Defense Department leadership supports this prudent approach. Preparations continue for F-35 participation in international air shows in the United Kingdom, however a final decision will come early next week.”

Orbital-2 mission to space station

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo ship is scheduled to launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on July 11 at 1:40 p.m. EDT.

The Cygnus will be filled with more than 3,000 pounds of supplies for the International Space Station, including science experiments to expand the research capability of the Expedition 40 crew members aboard the orbiting laboratory, crew provisions, spare parts and experiment hardware.

Among the research investigations headed to the space station aboard the flight, known as Orbital-2, are a flock of nanosatellites that are designed to take images of Earth, developed by Planet Labs of San Francisco; and a satellite-related investigation called TechEdSat-4 built by NASA's Ames Research Center in California, which aims to develop technology that will eventually enable small samples to be returned to Earth from the space station. In addition, a host of student experiments are being flown in association with the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program, an initiative of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education and NanoRacks.

If Cygnus launches as scheduled, the spacecraft will arrive at the space station on July 15. Station commander Steven Swanson of NASA and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency will be standing by in the station's cupola to capture the resupply craft with the station's robotic arm and install it on the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module.

Aircraft converge over Denver to support air quality study

Two NASA aircraft are participating in field campaigns beginning this month in Colorado that will probe the factors leading to unhealthy air quality conditions and improve the ability to diagnose air quality conditions from space.

The NASA aircraft will be joined by a research aircraft from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for flights July 16 to Aug. 16 from the Research Aviation Facility maintained by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo.

The main study area extends from Denver to Fort Collins and as far as Greeley. This area contains a diverse mixture of air pollution sources that include transportation, power generation, oil and gas extraction, agriculture, natural vegetation and episodic wildfires. The region being studied often experiences ozone levels in summer that exceed national health standards.

NASA's contribution to the effort is called DISCOVER-AQ, which stands for Deriving Information on Surface Conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality. The Colorado study is the final stop in a series of four field studies by the DISCOVER-AQ team focused on areas across the United States that routinely experience poor air quality. Previous flights focused on the Baltimore-Washington area (2011), California's San Joaquin Valley (2013), and Houston (2013).

These detailed observations of air pollution from the surface up into the atmosphere will help improve the capability of future satellites to monitor air quality around the world. The combined studies will produce an unprecedented level of detail for understanding air quality over a metropolitan area.

NASA's twin-engine King Air from Langley Research Center will fly at 27,000 feet, looking downward with remote sensors to measure the amount of gaseous and particulate pollution below the aircraft. A P-3B Orion from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility will sample the vertical distribution of gaseous and particulate pollution by profiling from 1,000 and 15,000 feet above the surface over selected monitoring sites on the ground.

For the Colorado flights, the DISCOVER-AQ mission is collaborating with a second study, the Front Range Air Pollution and Photochemistry Experiment, or FRAPPE. Jointly sponsored by the state of Colorado and NSF, FRAPPE will include the NCAR/NSF C-130 research aircraft, as well as additional activities on the ground.

While the DISCOVER-AQ aircraft will be dedicated to sampling over ground sites, FRAPPE will have much more freedom to direct the C-130 to different locations as conditions warrant.

Qatar Airways launches non-stop service at Dallas/Fort Worth

Qatar Airways commenced daily non-stop service between Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and the newly unveiled Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday. The new route increases Qatar Airways' extensive global network to seven gateways within the United States and 144 destinations worldwide.

Dallas/Fort Worth becomes Qatar Airways second destination in Texas. Along with Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth will serve as a crucial junction between Qatar Airways' global network, via Doha, and other key destinations across the Southwestern USA, including Austin, San Antonio and Oklahoma City.

Dallas/Fort Worth is a world centre for major American corporations, including Justin Boots, Texas Instruments, Frito Lay and AT&T. The region is also home to major oil and gas companies, including Exxon Mobil.

"DFW is an integral economic driver to the region and this new nonstop service will add approximately $200 million annually to our economy," said Sean Donohue, DFW Airport's chief executive officer.

The new route flies daily between Dallas/Fort Worth and Doha, departing from Doha at 8:10 a.m. and arriving into Dallas/Fort Worth at 3:35 p.m. the same day. Overnight service to Doha departs Dallas/Fort Worth at 8:00 p.m. and lands in Doha at 6:20 p.m. the following day. The route is operated with a Boeing 777-200LR configured with 217 Economy Class seats and 42 Business Class seats.

Outbound passengers to Doha will enjoy fast, convenient connections to key destinations throughout the world, including Delhi, Beijing, Tokyo, Bangkok and Perth, via the world's newest international hub, Hamad International Airport.

Officially commencing full operations on May 1, Hamad International Airport is capable of handling over 360,000 flights and 30 million passengers annually, with a fluid capacity of 50 million passengers after full completion.

As one of the fastest growing airlines in the world, Dallas/Fort Worth represents Qatar Airways' tenth new destination of 2014. Now in its 17th year of operations, Qatar Airways has a modern fleet of 134 aircraft flying to 144 key business and leisure destinations across six continents. The airline will be adding the highly anticipated Airbus A380s and A350s in the near future.

Southwest Airlines goes international

U.S.-based Southwest Airlines launched international service on Tuesday by inaugurating flights to Caribbean destinations from three of its U.S. gateway cities.

Southwest Airlines' first international departure, Flight 1804 from Baltimore/Washington to Oranjestad, Aruba, departed ontime at 8:30 a.m. EDT, closely followed by Southwest Flight 906 to Montego Bay, Jamaica, where its first-ever scheduled international arrival was planned for just after 11 a.m. EDT. A midday flight from Baltimore/Washington to Nassau/Paradise Island also brings Southwest Airlines' legendary customer service to The Bahamas.

Customers on the carrier's inaugural international flights from Baltimore/Washington joined those in two other gateway cities of Atlanta, and Orlando who celebrated alongside employees with commemorative beach balls, snorkels and masks.

Southwest operates the largest fleet of Boeing aircraft in the world to serve 93 destinations in 40 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and five near-international countries. Some flights are operated by wholly owned subsidiary AirTran Airways.

DCNewsroom most popular posts June 2014

1.) Critical heat shield installed on NASA's new Orion spacecraft - NASA and Lockheed Martin engineers have installed the largest heat shield ever constructed on the crew module of the agency's new Orion spacecraft. [Full story]

2.) First scheduled transatlantic flight for WestJet - WestJet marks a key milestone in its 18-year history Sunday night with the launch of its first scheduled transatlantic service between Toronto and Dublin, Ireland, with a brief stop in St. John's, Newfoundland. [Full story]

3.) Lufthansa receives milestone Boeing 747 jet - Boeing has delivered the 1,500th 747 to come off the production line to Frankfurt, Germany-based Lufthansa. The milestone airplane is a 747-8 Intercontinental, the 14th one that Lufthansa will incorporate into its long-haul fleet. [Full story]

4.) St Louis FD find body after plane crash in Lake Superior - Shortly after midnight Sunday, the St. Louis County Fire Department (FD) reported that they had found the fuselage of an aircraft that crashed into Lake Superior on Saturday. [Full story]

5.) Virginia-based Navy fighter jet crashes into sea - A U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 81 based at Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana, Va., impacted the water during an approach to the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier Wednesday night. [Full story]