When Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down at the Kennedy Space Centre on May 26, 2010, it marked the end of 25 years of service for the space vehicle, traveling more than 120 million miles in it’s lifetime.

Despite the loss of lives and damage to property following aviation accidents, air transport remains one of the safest modes of transportation. The catastrophic Air India crash on May 22, 2010 was the worst aviation accident in the last decade for India. Was this the result of human error?

In his autobiography, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger writes about US Air Flight 1549 landing in the Hudson River and what prepared him for that moment. According to Sully, his journey to the Hudson River on January 15th 2009 began decades ago in rural Texas where he first learned to fly at the age of sixteen.

As Air Safety Support International (ASSI) conducts Safety Culture Workshops in the Turks and Caicos Islands, I’m eager to learn from the experiences of others, share my own stories and get a great insight into how we behave as humans. The air traffic volume into the islands has grown and so is the propensity for things to go wrong, unless, a proactive approach to managing safety is adopted.

One year following the start-up of Wayne Farley’s Aviation Blog, I pause to say thank you to the contributors, faithful followers and readers of my posts. In the course of the year, my posts were read more than 12,000 times with about half this number in the preceding two months. Here’s how it all went down:

On May 2, 2010, the Gulfstream G650 achieved mach .925 during its high speed testing at 42,500 feet. When certified, it will make this new business jet the world’s fastest civil aircraft. Gulfstream achieved buffet-free banking up to 45 degrees at high speed cruise.

The age of very-light jets is upon us. You can call them microjets, entry-level jets or very light personal jets; but these aircraft are small, single-pilot operated and designed to seat 4-8 people, with a maximum take-off weight of under 10,000 pounds. As an aviation professional and an artist, I’m intrigued by these lean, aesthetically crafted machines which sometimes look like they are from another world.