FAIRBORN — You can try out flight and drone simulators, experience virtual and augmented reality demonstrations, learn more about the Wright brothers and watch five aircraft flyovers at the inaugural Festival of Flight.

The free Festival of Flight will celebrate the importance of aviation in the Miami Valley 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5 in the Wright State University Nutter Center back parking area.

The festival will feature aviation-related educational experiences; flight-themed food and drinks; live band performances; a dedicated area with fun activities for children; Wright State soccer, volleyball and softball teams in action; exhibition games with a military veteran softball team and a vintage baseball game; and a haunted trail.

More information, including a schedule of activities, is available at FestivalOfFlight.org.

The festival will introduce attendees to many of the hidden gems of aviation-related resources in the Miami Valley. Much of the festival will focus on providing educational experiences for attendees, especially children.

The Dayton Regional STEM School has created a passport for school-aged kids to cover all the experiences the festival will offer. Students who complete the passport will receive prizes and potentially extra credit in their home school districts.

“What will set the Festival of Flight apart is the education component we plan to include in so many activities,” said Greg Scharer, executive director of alumni relations at Wright State. “The festival will focus on educating the community on all the resources we have in the area.”

The Aviation and Innovation Hangar will feature numerous hands-on and experiential activities. Nearly 30 Wright State, Air Force and community organizations will be on hand with innovative demonstrations and displays, giveaways, history lessons and fun activities.

Attendees can try out their flying skills on flight simulators provided by the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force and unmanned aerial systems simulators provide by Sinclair Community College.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base will have numerous demonstrations at the festival. Participants can interact with several virtual reality simulations developed by the Air Force Research Lab Gaming Research Integration for Learning Laboratory. Participants can also try on compression shirts with wearable sensor technology that senses physiologic parameters in the Air Force 711th Performance Wing’s exhibit. The Air Force Research Lab will demonstrate technology that converts video into speech for some who is blind or for surveillance purposes.

Wright State innovators will be well-represented at the festival too.

Biomedical engineering graduate student Joshua Harris will display a robotic hand he created for his senior design project. Harris’ exhibit will also demonstrate the importance of troubleshooting and prototyping.

“These problem-solving skills are not only useful to engineers but can help anyone in any field to save money, test out ideas and learn more about their project goals and constraints,” he said.

Wright State’s Sensors and Signals Exploitation Lab will showcase live radar imaging by imagining small objects and even visitors. The lab will demonstrate how electromagnetic waves interact with people and objects and how radar systems are used in automotive systems for collision avoidance, air traffic control, weather and national defense.

Mechanical and materials engineering students will demonstrate an off-road vehicle they designed and built for an international collegiate competition.

Attendees can learn about next-generation DNA sequencing at the Wright State Center for Genomics Research’s booth.

The Advanced Visual Data Analysis group in the College of Engineering and Computer Science will showcase augmented reality technology that can be used for improving different types of surgical procedures.

Attendees can learn more about the Wilbur and Orville Wright by stopping by a display set up by Wright State’s Special Collections and Archives. The archives will display an exhibit on Wright Brothers School of Aviation and the Huffman Prairie Flying Field, including original film footage from various aviation collections for visitors to watch.

The Wright State Research Institute will provide tours of its Mobile Test and Evaluation Center, a semi-trailer mobile test station for unmanned aerial vehicles.

Other displays and demonstrations will be offered by Argus Fitness, Bailey Bug, the International Women’s Air and Space Museum, Mile Two, Marxent, the Military Heritage Chapter of the League of WWI Aviation Historians and the Parachute Museum.

During the festival, the Wright State student marketing club will hold its annual Wright Brothers Day, which celebrates the anniversary of Wilbur Wright’s 39-minute flight on Huffman Prairie on Oct. 5, 1905. The flight demonstrated that the Wright brothers had advanced their design to the point of a practical airplane.

Attendees can also check out a half-scale model of the Wright “B” Flyer, a biplane designed by the Wright brothers in 1910.

Five flyovers are planned during the day:

– Fastrax Professional Skydiving Team at 10:50 a.m.

– WACO Air Museum’s YMF-5 at 12:25 p.m.

– Red Star flying team at 2:30 p.m.

– “Champaign Gal” B-25 World War II bomber at 4 p.m.

– World War I biplanes at 5:30 p.m.

One small step: Some aircraft have their own stairs and need little more than a portable step to fill the gap.

(CNN) — Sitting in the terminal building waiting to be called for our flight is a regular occurrence for most of us — but what’s really going on out there on the ramp while we’re inside staring at our phones?
The jet that will carry you to your destination has likely just arrived from somewhere else. When it lands, it’ll undergo a turnaround, changing from an arriving to a departing flight.
There are vehicles and people on the ramp, ready to get your flight back in the air quickly — after all, a plane doesn’t make money sitting on the ground.
Here are the 10 steps from arrival to take-off:

1. Parking the plane

As soon as a plane lands and clears the active runway, the pilots receive taxi instructions from ground controllers. Large airports can have complex and confusing taxiway layouts, while some airports simply have a runway and a ramp area.
Approaching the terminal, the pilots look for the flight’s assigned gate and watch for the ramp team leader to start waving illuminated, bright orange batons.
There could be a lead-in lighting system to help the pilots line up at the gate, or they might just follow the instructions from the ramp lead.
As the plane slows to a stop, the target for the nose wheel is a painted line on the ramp, matching the type of aircraft. That’ll put the plane in the right spot for the passenger boarding bridge.

2. Hooking up the plane

The plane’s engines provide thrust and electrical power while in flight, but all passenger planes have a small jet engine which generates electricity when the plane is parked — an Auxiliary Power Unit, or APU.
The APU is in the tail cone, and the pilots start it up to feed power to the plane’s systems.
But an APU uses costly fuel from the jet’s tanks, so many airports provide a ground power system, or there’s a generator cart parked at the gate. Once the plane’s access panel is opened and the connection is made with a heavy-duty cable and plug, the source of power is switched, and the engines are shut down.

3. Connecting the air-con

The APU also energizes the plane’s climate control systems, hopefully keeping the cabin at a nice temperature while parked. Like ground power, some airports provide conditioned air through large-diameter flexible ducts that plug into a port on the belly of the plane.
Or you might see a truck-mounted unit doing the job, with a duct snaking to the plane. Large, wide-body aircraft need two air connections to keep the cabin comfortable.
4. De-planing
The passengers inside the plane have jumped up, and they’re waiting impatiently in the aisle to get off — right now.
If the gate is equipped, a passenger boarding bridge is positioned by the forward left-side doors.
Otherwise, truck- or cart-mounted stairs roll up, and passengers experience the excitement of walking down the stairs and onto the ramp, being able to look back at their aircraft.
Smaller regional jets and turboprops sit close to the ground, and have stairs built into the inside of the plane’s doors, with just a couple of steps to the ramp.

5. Unloading the luggage and cargo

On the right side of the plane, the ramp team has swung into action. After opening the doors to the baggage and cargo holds, a belt-loader or a pod-loader is positioned, depending on the aircraft.
“Rampie” is the industry term for airline employees who load and unload planes.
The rampie inside the belly of a single-aisle plane places each piece of luggage onto the belt, and their partner takes it off the belt and puts it into a baggage cart.
The carts head to the baggage room, and the luggage is dropped onto a conveyor, hopefully showing up on a carousel soon after you’ve arrived.
Wide-body planes carrying hundreds of passengers needed an efficient way of handling luggage and cargo, so baggage and cargo pods were developed back when jumbo jets first appeared.
Pods are filled with passengers’ bags, and handled by a purpose-built machine. One rampie can operate it, and make the pods dance on the loader’s platform or in a plane’s holds by activating powered wheels.

6. Stocking up with food

Catering trucks join the crowd outside the plane’s fuselage. Rising on a scissor lift, the truck’s box matches the height of the plane’s galley doors.
The catering crew replaces used galley carts with newly stocked ones, each cart coded for a specific location in the galleys.
To service the double-deck Airbus A380 mega-jet, catering trucks reach way up, to the upper galley doors.

7. Cleaning the toilets

Perhaps it’s not the most desirable ramp job, but somebody’s got to empty the plane’s lavatory holding tanks, and refill the fresh water system. Just like a recreational vehicle, this doesn’t happen during every stop.
Rampies position a truck- or cart-mounted tank and pump unit, and connect hoses to do the work.

8. Refueling

Like your car, a plane’s fuel tanks aren’t necessarily filled at every stop.
An airline’s operations team will have figured out how much fuel is needed for each leg of a plane’s daily routing, and when to refuel.
Big tanker trucks connect to the plane’s fuel system under the wing, or a pumper truck will hook up to a fuel hydrant in the ramp, then to the jet’s tanks, and pump away.

9. Pushback

Pushback is when an aircraft is pushed backwards away from the airport gate by vehicles called tugs or tractors.
Closer to departure, an aircraft tug will park right in front of the nose wheel.
The tug might be directly attached to the plane’s nose gear with a tow bar, or could be a “wheel-lift” tug. These tugs cradle the nose gear, then lift it up before moving the plane. That gives the tug driver control over the plane’s direction during pushback.
New taxi technologies are appearing, like pilot-controlled tugs, and electric motors mounted to the plane’s landing gear. Both promise to save fuel, and reduce airport noise.

10. Boarding and take-off

The crew has finished all the pre-flight preparations, the cabin door is closed, and you’re settled into your seat. Your journey begins with a gentle push, in reverse, and you’re anticipating the adventures to come.

Make sure you wave goodbye to the rampies — they’ve worked hard to get you on your way.

When an aircraft passes by overhead, it sometimes leaves a trail. These white lines of cloud, marking the path of the flight, are known as contrails. But why do they leave them, what are they made of, and are they always the same? Let’s take a look.

What are contrails?

Contrails are literally tiny clouds. They are formed from water vapor which freezes around small particles from the aircraft exhaust. Some of the water vapor is from the air itself, whilst some comes from the aircraft’s own exhaust. Much like a car might make a little white cloud near its exhaust on a cold morning, a plane will often leave a trail if the conditions are right.

Exhaust from jet engines is pretty much all water vapor, although there can be trace content of sulfur oxides, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, unburnt fuel, soot and small particles of metal. These aerosols provide condensation sites for water vapor, as do any small particles in the air it is flying through.

Types of contrails

Although contrails are all made of the same things and created in the same manner, observant skywatchers will know that they don’t always behave the same. Some aircraft leave long, defined contrails that persist for several hours after the plane has passed; others leave very short trails that disappear fast. Why is this?

Well, it’s all to do with the air that the aircraft is passing through. Contrails are generally categorized into three groups; short-lived, persistent (non-spreading) and persistent (spreading).

• Short-lived: These contrails are the smallest ones in the sky. They often look like a short white line following the aircraft’s path, like the tail of a comet. However, they often disappear almost as fast as the plane moves, often lasting no more than a few minutes. This is due to the plane passing through relatively dry air, with only a small amount of water content. As such, the ice that is formed soon becomes vapor again, and the contrail vanishes.
• Persistent contrails (non-spreading): These are the long white lines that often crisscross the skies on a sunny day. They can remain for many hours after the aircraft has passed by, and generally stay fairly defined for some time. This means the plane is passing through very humid air, with lots of water vapor around.
• Persistent contrails (spreading): Contrails that persist but don’t stay in a defined form, rather billow out into fuzzy lines, are known as spreading. These are the contrails that are of most concern to environmentalists, as they create man-made clouds that cover a wider area and are thought to be contributing to climate change.

What planes don’t leave a contrail?

Sometimes, even in the same patch of sky, one plane will leave a trail and one will not. Why is this?

Planes with hotter engines are less likely to form contrails, as the heat of the exhaust prevents ice from forming. Modern planes with more efficient engines burn hotter, but use bypass air to cool the exhaust, making them more likely to leave contrails in a wider range of situations.

However, the simplest reason for whether a plane makes a contrail or not is down to the environment in which it is flying. When the plane is in wet air, it makes a contrail, when it’s not, it doesn’t. It’s really as simple as that.

You might wonder why you’re seeing two planes in the sky at the same time and one is leaving a long trail while the other is not. That’s because the planes are at different altitudes. One is flying in moist air, while the other is flying in drier conditions.

What else do you know about contrails? What else do you want to know? Let us know in the comments!

By Tech. Sgt. Christopher Carranza, 403rd Wing Public Affairs / Published August 29, 2019

A WC-130J Super Hercules from the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as Hurricane Hunters, taxis to the runway Aug. 25, 2019 at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. The Hurricane Hunters staged their aircraft in the Dutch Caribbean island, Curaçao and began flying into Hurricane Dorian Aug. 26. (U.S. Air Force photo by Jessica L. Kendziorek)

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFNS) —

Three WC-130Js and one C-130J Super Hercules aircraft from the 403rd Wing departed Keesler Air Force Base Aug. 26 for the Dutch Caribbean island Curaçao to provide weather reconnaissance support for Hurricane Dorian.

“The three weather crews, assigned to the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, have been flying missions as of last night,” said Maj. Kendall Dunn, 53rd WRS pilot. “The tactical airlift crew, assigned to the 815th Airlift Squadron, is carrying extra cargo and aircraft parts to support the weather aircraft.”

According to the National Hurricane Center website, hurricane conditions are likely over parts of the Bahamas and the southeastern U.S. over the Labor Day weekend.

The Hurricane Hunters have been flying “fixed” missions. During a fixed mission, the aircraft collects weather data such as temperature, wind speed, wind direction, humidity and surface pressure. Aircrews fly through the eye of a storm four to six times to locate the low-pressure center and circulation of the storm. During each pass through the eye, they release a dropsonde, which collects weather data on its descent to the ocean surface, specifically gathering data on the surface winds and pressure.

Due to a lack of radar and weather balloons availability over the Atlantic Ocean, the 53rd WRS flies into the storms, gathers the data and provides this data to the NHC to assist with their forecasts and storm warnings by transmitting the information gathered via satellite communication approximately every 10 minutes.

The 53rd WRS’s operations area ranges from the meridian 55 degrees longitude line in the Atlantic Ocean to the International Dateline in the Pacific Ocean. They also support 24-hour continuous operations with the ability to fly up to three storms simultaneously and with a response time of 16 hours.

“As of now we’re flying missions out of Curaçao, but will be repositioning to fly out of Homestead (Air Reserve Base, Florida) as the storm gets closer to the U.S.,” Dunn said. “It’s like chess, this is the time where experience is crucial for planning and staging our mission. This is why reservists are invaluable to our mission.”

SPACEPORT AMERICA, N.M. — Virgin Galactic’s newly refurbished home base now has a flight under its belt.

The spaceflight company, which aims to start launching paying customers to suborbital space in the near future, declared its “Gateway to Space” building here operational yesterday (Aug. 15).

During a media event, Virgin Galactic showed off the completed interiors of the structure’s first and second floors, which house communal social areas and the spaceflight-operations sector, respectively. (The third floor, which will harbor an astronaut lounge, should be done in the next few months, company representatives said.)

Related: How Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Works (Infographic)

Yesterday’s festivities included a flight by VMS Eve, the carrier aircraft that hauls the six-passenger VSS Unity space plane to an altitude of about 50,000 feet (15,000 meters). At that point, Unity drops free and engages its rocket motor, powering itself upward. (“VMS” stands for “Virgin Mother Ship,” by the way, and “VSS” for “Virgin Spaceship.”)

Eve and Unity have flown many test missions together over the past few years. The most recent two liftoffs — in December 2018 and February of this year — saw Unity reach suborbital space, earning four Virgin Galactic pilots and chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses their commercial astronaut wings.

Those flights all originated from the Mojave Air and Space Port in southern California, where Virgin Galactic’s test program was based. But after the back-to-back spaceflight successes in December and February, the company announced that the test campaign’s final phases would take place here in southern New Mexico, the site of Virgin Galactic’s future commercial operations. (More than 600 people have already booked a ride to suborbital space with the company; a ticket currently costs $250,000.)

Eve flew alone yesterday — Unity remains in Mojave, getting its cabin touched up — but the 90-minute flight was no stunt. Virgin Galactic wanted to give pilot Kelly Latimer and co-pilot Mark “Forger” Stucky more familiarity with southern New Mexico’s airspace and landscape, and to make sure there was solid data exchange between Eve and mission control, among other objectives.

And things went well, team members said.

“All of that looked really, really good today,” Virgin Galactic flight director Bill Kuhlemeier told reporters shortly after Eve touched down.

Eve has flown such solo sorties from Spaceport America before, but not since 2016, said Virgin Galactic president Mike Moses. And yesterday’s flight was the first to use the newly installed mission control center.

“Every other time, we brought a trailer of stuff with us,” Moses told Space.com, referring to the temporary mission control the team had to set up here.

“The big change is, home is here now,” he added. “That’s a big mental shift for the team.”

Eve will perform a few more flights here over the coming weeks, Moses said. Sometime in the next few months, the carrier plane will fly back to Mojave, grab Unity, and haul the spacecraft here to its new home.

VMS Eve is the first of Virgin Galactic’s carrier planes, which go by the generic name WhiteKnightTwo. VSS Unity, meanwhile, is the second of the SpaceShipTwo space planes flown by the company.

The first, VSS Enterprise, broke apart during a rocket-powered test flight in October 2014, a tragic accident that killed co-pilot Michael Alsbury and wounded pilot Peter Siebold. Investigators traced the cause to Enterprise’s “feathering” re-entry system, which was deployed too early in the flight. Virgin Galactic redesigned SpaceShipTwo to ensure the same problem would not happen with VSS Unity or any other future spaceships.

And Unity will have company, if all goes according to plan. Two additional SpaceShipTwo vehicles are currently being built, and one of them should be ready to start test flights next year, Moses said. The two in production have informal internal names, he added, but Virgin Galactic isn’t ready to tell us what they are.

“They’re Serial Nos. 3 and 4 for now,” he said.

The Gateway to Space can accommodate these planned vehicles and more. The cavernous hangar that occupies the building’s center space can fit two WhiteKnightTwos and five SpaceShipTwos simultaneously, Virgin Galactic representatives said.