Great new series on PBS - "City In The Sky"

[bcool]

Just found out about a cool new series on PBS called "City In The Sky". It's about commercial aviation, but it has fantastic graphics and insights about the world of flying.

It's a series in progress, but if you've missed the first 3 episodes you can stream them from the site:
http://www.pbs.org/video/2365927506/

 

[denverpilot]

I found it too simplistic for most of us in aviation, but it might be interesting to a non-flyer who hasn't been paying attention to what's in the sky and how it works, for a couple of decades.

 

[X3 Skier]

Great series for me about the ground infrastructure which I did not pay much attention to in the past. I found the segment about the on call medical operation for in flight emergencies fascinating.

Cheers

 

[denverpilot]

I found the segment about the on call medical operation for in flight emergencies fascinating.

That part was kinda neat, but I think there's more than one provider of those sorts of services. It's not a one-stop-shop kind of thing.

I also had some "insider" knowledge that made that segment not a surprise, since I used to install the telecom gear the airlines and FAA were using to connect to stuff like that via a conference call. Boeing had a conference bridge that was radio-accessible back in the late 80's, early 90's, when most of the PSTN was still analog on the last-mile, and lots of the transport/trunking still was too (but that was rapidly going away) where airlines could conference in support engineers at Boeing to talk to the flight crews during in-flight mechanical problems.

As that tech advanced, near-real-time aircraft telemetry for lots of systems was added via a separate data system unrelated to the audio patch from the radio to the PSTN for the "phone call", and the Boeing folks could see all sorts of useful data in near-real-time from the aircraft itself that was experiencing the problem.

I'm sure even all of that got even better in the almost two decades that have passed since I touched any of those systems. Neat stuff, and way more interesting than installing conferencing systems so corporate middle-management "standing meetings" could happen day in and day out, boring their poor participants to death with their uselessness.

 

[X3 Skier]

The USAF had (and likely still has) a system for inflight mechanical emergencies connected to the manufacturer. I help set up the requirements for the C-17 back in the day. There were direct links to both then McDonnell-Douglas (now Boeing) and Pratt&Whitney.

Cheers

 

[Frogs97]

I've only seen part of Ep 1, but that Dubai baggage system was amazing.

 

[Goofy]

Just started watching. Yes, they mention more than one med center. Interesting the stories on Hong Kong, the horses, and the 777 construction. Look forward to more.