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747 posts
Aborted takeoff testing of the 747-8
May 4th, 2011 at 4:00PM:
Comprehensive testing is at the core of any airframe development, and that means modeling and measuring the worst case scenario. Though likely to never happen in practice, engineers need to know how components will perform in an emergency situation -- so they test them to their limits.
The aborted takeoff is one such test that Boeing uses to gauge the performance of a vehicle's braking ...
Inside Sweden's Jumbo Hostel
Aug 2nd, 2010 at 1:30PM:
Your eyes do not deceive you, that's a bed in the cockpit of a commercial airliner. Or former commercial airliner, I should say. What you're looking at is the top front room of Stockholm's Jumbo Hostel, a converted Boeing 747 jumbo jet that's been remodeled to form one of the most unique hostels in the entire planet.
Parked just off of the tarmac outside of Stockholm's Arlanda airport, the ...Video of the week (3.12.10)
Mar 12th, 2010 at 6:00PM: Last week we kicked off our new feature, the 'Video of the Week' with a wonderful scene taken from the nose gear of a 747 that was flying freight in Africa. This week, the pilot and videographer uploaded a "How-To" video that shows just how those exceptional scenes were captured, and just how they managed to lower the nose gear without dropping the main landing gear at the same time.
While ...
Gadling TV's Travel Talk 004: Holi Festival, Travel Discouragement Act, Good & Bad Pilots, and Scuba Diving!
Mar 10th, 2010 at 4:30PM:
Gadling TV's Travel Talk, episode 4 – Click above to watch video after the jump
Ready to go subterranean? Travel Talk takes you to Monterey, California this week for a special episode under the sea!
This week we discuss India's Festival of Colors, the United States' new Travel Promotion Act, frozen ferries in the Baltic Sea, and a pilot who managed to fool authorities and fly ...Video of the week (3.05.10)
Mar 5th, 2010 at 4:00PM: Welcome to a new feature at Gadling. We've been doing the photo of the day, culled from many of the contributors to the Gadling group on Flickr, for years. But we've come across enough exceptional videos that we've now decided to share them with you each Friday.
tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.gadling.com/2010/03/05/video-of-the-week-3-05-10/'; tweetmeme_source = 'Gadling';
The video chosen for ...
Fly first-class on a A340, A380 or 747 for the price of coach - Airplane tip
Feb 18th, 2010 at 9:06PM: If you want to fly in comfort on an international flight, but don't care for the frills of first-class (or don't want to pay for them), purchase four coach seats in a row.
A row of 4 seats is long enough to lay across and is just as comfortable as a flat first-class bed. You also get to carry four times the luggage (while saving as much as 50% off the price of a first-class seat), and you can ...Boeing releases snazzy new 747-800 interiors
May 12th, 2009 at 2:00PM: Development of Boeing's 747-800, heralded as a direct competitor to the A380 has been underway for several years now. The super jumbo jet will feature many of the same engineering marvels that the 787 will, including swept wings, cut engine nacelles and similar cockpit controls, and will some day be the largest commercial airplane built in the western hemisphere. So far, however, nobody has seen ...Why you don't stand near the jet engine on the tarmac
May 12th, 2009 at 9:00AM: Ever look out the side of your airplane while on the ground and see those red semicircles painted around the jet engine? Those are there for a reason. If the engine powers up quickly and someone is nearby, someone (or something) could easily get sucked in. Those red regions are the "no walk" zone. But that's what happened at Los Angeles International Airport yesterday when a Japan Airlines 747 was ...
Panic after fighter jets escort 747 around Manhattan
Apr 27th, 2009 at 12:30PM: Several buildings in Manhattan and New Jersey were evacuated earlier today, after officials spotted a Boeing 747 jumbo jet flying over the city escorted by fighter jets. As it turns out, the jet was one of President Barack Obama's backup aircraft that was circling for a photo op. The whole operation was supposed to have been coordinated among the FAA and local officials, but apparently the ...
So long, Northwest 747's
Jan 14th, 2009 at 4:30PM: The end of an airline is upon us. While there are still a few wrinkles in th merger between Delta and Northwest Airlines to iron out, things are pretty much set in stone when they start repainting aircraft. To start, Delta, a carrier that has never had the 747 jumbo jet in its livery, will be usurping Northwest's aircraft and putting them on long haul routes. You can see the whole process of ...
Do not be scared about the burning 747 at Schiphol airport
Jan 5th, 2009 at 2:30PM: Imagine arriving at your Amsterdam airport hotel room and the first thing you see out the window is a burning Jumbo with a bunch of crash tenders on the runway. It took me about 10 seconds to remember passing the "jet' when we taxied to the terminal, and realizing that it wasn't actually a real plane, but the practice jet for the airport fire department. Jerry wrote about these practice runs ...Galley Gossip: Where did the service go?
Dec 30th, 2008 at 10:30AM:
Recently I read an interesting article in the New York Times, Up, Up, and Go Away, about an ex flight attendant who worked for TWA in the 1970's when flight attendants were known as stewardesses and stewardesses were as glamorous as movie stars and passengers were treated like royalty and flying was..well...just better - in every way possible! The stewardess featured in the article above wrote ...Spend the night in a Jumbo without leaving the ground
Sep 4th, 2008 at 5:30PM: In December, Stockholm airport will be home to the first Boeing 747 hostel in the world. This 747-200 was built in 1976 and is currently being converted into a 25 room hostel with 3 beds per room. Each room features a flat panel TV, wireless Internet access and a shared shower/toilet facility. The upper deck of this 747 has several more luxurious rooms with their own bathroom facility. For the ...Video of 747 struck by lightning
Aug 25th, 2008 at 2:00PM: It's nice to know that if your 747 gets struck with 40 kiloamperes of electricity that it can keep on trucking. Aircraft are designed to withstand lightning strikes (if not multiple lightning strikes), although various small amounts of damage can occur. As one 747-400 pilot at the Professional Pilots Rumor Network (pprune) commented, "the auto-pilot dropped out and a few minor systems were ...
Rich heiress builds California house out of scrap 747
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Jun 29th, 2008 at 4:00PM: Your house is definitely not the coolest on the block unless its made out of jumbo jet pieces. Francie Rehwald, daughter to a family owning multiple Mercedes Benz dealerships across California, just started construction on her new house made completely out of fragments of a scrapped Boeing 747. For forty thousand dollars, Rehwald purchased the pieces from an airplane junk yard in the Mojave Desert ...The biggest plane ever built
Feb 17th, 2008 at 9:00AM: I just saw The Aviator, director Martin Scorsese's 2004 blockbuster with Leonardo DiCaprio as aviation tycoon Howard Hughes. It's a pretty entertaining movie that really gives you a glimpse into the airline industry's early days--when Pan-American was pretty much the only business in town. The story does feel a little dragged out and pretty early on, you already get the picture that Hughes is a ...BA 747 narrowly escapes a mid-air collision
Nov 8th, 2007 at 1:00PM: I'm constantly extolling the virtues of flying, telling my fearful friends how safe it is -- much more so than driving, suntanning, crossing the street, etc. So I always cringe a bit when I hear stories about plane crashes or near crashes. Like this one: A British Airways 747, bound for Johannesburg, narrowly missed crashing into a Argentinian747 in the airspace over Marseilles, France, much to ...
