Guion Bluford

Guion S. Bluford Jr. is historically known as the first African American to ever go to space. Born in Philadelphia on November 22, 1942, Bluford had an impressive career not only for NASA but in the United States Air Force and the aerospace field in general. After attending pilot training and receiving his wings from William’s Air Force Base in 1966, Guion Bluford went on to serve as the pilot of an F-4C Phantom crew in the Vietnam War. He then went on to serve as a key instructor in the T-38 – the first supersonic training jet to enter service. In his career, Bluford flew as the pilot in command of many other aircraft, notably the F-5A/B, the Lockheed U-2 spy plane, and the F-15 Eagle. Bluford was selected to be an astronaut in 1979, chosen out of over 1000 other candidates.

On August 30^th, 1983, Bluford made history in becoming the first African American to journey to space (Note: While Bluford is in fact the first African American to go to space, the first person of African descendance to go space was Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez – a Cuban cosmonaut). Bluford made the journey aboard the Challenger Space Shuttle on STS-8. On this mission, Bluford and the rest of the STS-8 crew completed a number of tasks such as launching the Indian National Satellite, performing multiple experiments, collecting biophysical data, and operating the Canadian SRMS “Canadarm”. STS-8 completed 98 orbits in 145 hours before returning to Earth on September 5, 1983.

Bluford went on to complete 3 other flights aboard the STS bringing his mission total to 4 spaceflights. He retired from NASA and the USAF in July 1993. Bluford is currently the acting president of Aerospace Technology, based in Cleveland, OH. And in 2010, Guion S. Bluford Jr. was inducted to the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame.

https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/bluford-gs.html

https://twitter.com/AmericanAir/status/1092546117047328773

In short summary, American Airlines recently announced the delivery of their first Airbus A321 Neo – the newest plane in their current fleet. This information was posted via Twitter from the official American Airlines corporate Twitter account.

Players: The players in reference to this media would be American Airlines’ company corporate. American Airlines has both a high interest and power in this situation in that they now have the ability to fill a niche market with this aircraft and utilize its efficiency to maximize their profits from flights. On top of this, American can use the humor in this announcement to garner news attention and generate excitement for their new aircraft, and hopefully market it enough to convince potential passengers to fly with them.

Context setters: In this scenario, the context setters would be the crew of the new A321, and anyone involved in its operation. Given that pilots, ground crew, etc., aren’t usually directly involved in the financial aspects of a large company such as American, they would not have much interest in the marketing of a new aircraft. However, they are the ones that are directly responsible for its operation. Therefore, they would have some of the most power in this scenario with a lesser interest than American corporate. Another context setter would be Airbus – closer to a player. This is because while Airbus is the direct supplier of the new aircraft and has full control on its delivery, American Airlines is not their only customer and wouldn’t take their absolute full interest. But it is still good publicity for Airbus and is worth noting for them.

Subjects: The subjects in the case of this media would be any potential passengers looking to book a flight. As they are looking for an airline to schedule a flight with, passengers often take many things into account and look for the best experience. With American’s announcement of their new A321, they hope to spark interest with these potential customers and make them seem like the best airline to fly with. To a smaller extent, any competing airlines can be considered subjects as well; they would be interested in what their competition is doing and how the market is looking but have no power over what American Airlines does.

Crowd: The crowd in this situation would be the general, non-flying public. If the news of American’s A321 Neo gained enough buzz, it would certainly reach a significant portion of the population. Most of the people in the country, however, are not likely currently planning flights. Therefore, while the media would reach them, they would have little interest in it and no power to change anything related to it.

Over this past summer, my 2 brothers and I went to Europe on vacation for about a week or so to Dublin, London, and Amsterdam. This was especially fun for me, as I had never left the country prior to that point. I had barely even been off the east coast more than a handful of times before then, actually. The trip itself was beyond incredible; every second I spent in each city was eye opening. But the real reason this trip will always be memorable to me came when we were on the way home from our last stop of the trip in Amsterdam. Long story short, due to some error checking into the airport, we weren’t able to make it onto our plane home and had to embark on a 40+ hour journey across the European countryside to make it back home to the US. To preface, this situation was far from fun at the time and caused a lot of stress, but I think it’s far enough in the past to be funny at this point. It was a comedy of errors

To start the journey off, we woke up around 9am local time in the Netherlands to go get a quick bite to eat before heading to Schiphol Airport for our flight back to the US. When we arrived at the airport, however, we ran into a problem that we weren’t even aware was occurring. As we got to security, we were unsure of which terminal we were supposed to enter to get to our gate, so we asked a woman at the security desk which way to go. She didn’t say anything back, just pointed towards a smaller security gate to the auxiliary terminals. So, we went through, got some food, and waited for our flight. But when the time came to board, we couldn’t find our gate. Eventually, we figured out we were in the wrong terminal entirely, and that the woman we had asked either sent us to the wrong terminal or we misunderstood what she had meant. And what’s worse, our gate was 20 minutes away, but the flight left in 5. In summary, we missed it. And because we flew on the most budget airlines to save money on the trip, we couldn’t make up the flight at all. We were panicking, because the cheapest seats we could find on flights home out of Schiphol were all in the realm of ~$1000. However, we found an airline in Denmark that could get us home for only a couple hundred dollars. So, we decided to go to Denmark. Low on money already given the situation, we had to hop on the European equivalent of a Greyhound bus to get there in what culminated to be a 16+ hour bus ride across the countryside of the Netherlands and Germany. In the middle it got kind of sketchy, when we had to wait for a connecting bus in Hanover, Germany, at a local bus terminal with nowhere to stay from just after midnight to sunrise. We ended up sleeping on some benches nearby. Eventually, we made it to Copenhagen, and made sure to do everything right to get on our flight home. And when we did make it on, I realized we were flying on a 787, so I was ecstatic to say the least. 10 hours later and we’re in New York, thankfully. But we still have to drive another 5 hours back home to D.C. All in all, we were non-stop travelling for around 46-48 hours. I had to work a good few extra shifts to recoup my losses, but I was beyond happy to have gotten back regardless.

Earlier this week, a full ground stop was ordered at LA Guardia Airport in New York City. Essentially, almost all service on inbound flights was halted and delayed flights both in and out of La Guardia. The source of this delay stemmed from a lack of available workers at Washington Center – a key air traffic control center for the southern and mid-Atlantic United States. The staff shortage is painted within the context of the ongoing government shutdown, but the article goes on to point out that it is not the main source of the shortage. The FAA cites that an increase in sick leave from the operators lead to the ground stop. The article goes on to then explain how these types of delays are not uncommon and can happen for a number of different reasons. The main point of this article, however, is that this may be a sign of what’s in store if the shutdown continues. Within the shutdown, there is a strong possibility that ground stops may increase in both frequency and severity. Federal workers are soon to be without their 2^nd paycheck since the shutdown, and the still-working controllers are reaching a “breaking point” of exhaustion and stress.

In general, I think that this situation highlights the absolute necessity that communication plays within the aviation industry. Speaking under a more general scope of communication, the ability to convey and relay information for an entire airspace is of the utmost importance. Without air traffic control, the entire airline industry would come grinding to a halt. And while it’s only causing minor delays at the moment, ATC employees can only work without pay for so long. If the shutdown continues for much longer, the entire systems of aviation communication within the US will only get worse. The safety of operations relies on the effective cooperation between any given flight and the corresponding air traffic control center.

Source: Mary Schlangenstein, Alan Levin. “NYC Flight Disruptions Put Spotlight on FAA as Shutdown Drags On.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 25 Jan. 2019, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-25/laguardia-flights-halted-as-shutdown-hits-air-traffic-staffing.

My name is Connor Cragg, and I’m currently a second-year aviation engineering major from Chantilly, Virginia – just outside Washington D.C. Ultimately, it was only through a string of good luck and coincidence that I ended up pursuing aviation at Ohio State. When I was still a senior in high school deciding where to go to college, Ohio State was not even in the top 3 schools I was considering. I had only originally applied based on the fact that it was similar to the other schools I had applied to; a good engineering school with a large student population. Eventually, my decision came down to choosing whichever school was the cheapest, and I committed to Ohio State as a mechanical engineer. I had never really considered a career in aviation but have always had a passion for everything aviation related. Growing up in Chantilly, I had the privilege of living just down the road from the Udvar Hazy National Air and Space Museum – home to an incredible collection of just about every era of both air and spacecraft. Some of my personal favorites include a P-38, SR-71, FW-190, the B-29 “Enola Gay”, and the Space Shuttle Discovery. I’ve had a healthy obsession with warbirds and flying from the first time I visited onward. After learning about and reading into OSU’s aviation program, I decided to make the switch and pursue a career in the field.

As far as what I hope to do after graduation, I’m a little less certain of how I might work specifically. Right now, my goal is to become an airline captain – so right out of school my immediate need would be to find a job that I can sustain myself off of while building as many hours as I can. Thanks to the ability to get an RATP, I hopefully won’t be in this position for too much time. At the moment, the option I’m most seriously considering is becoming a certified flight instructor for OSU’s flight school, as it’s a relatively safe bet and I wouldn’t have to move too far away anywhere.