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The final days of a Boeing 747 - from king of the skies to a pile of rubbish

The final days of a Boeing 747 - from king of the skies to a pile of rubbish Apr 18th, 2010 at 2:00PM: The Daily Mail has an interesting article on the final resting place of a Boeing 747. The Jumbo had been in service for 35 years and covered over 55 million miles but took its final trip to Cotswald airport in the UK. In just two days, experts from Air Salvage International turned the mighty beast into a pile of twisted metal. The owners of the jet (Dubai Air Wing) first made sure that ...

Indonesian 737 skids off runway, breaks in half

Apr 14th, 2010 at 8:00AM: An Indonesian 737 operated by Merpati Nusantara Airlines skidded off of a runway in the eastern Paupa province early yesterday, coming to rest over a canal and subsequently breaking in two right through the fuselage. Initial reports indicate that the incident was weather related and had nothing to do with the aircraft or its operator. Miraculously, nobody was killed during the incident ...

Designing Air New Zealand's new long haul configurations

Apr 7th, 2010 at 11:00AM: Air New Zealand's marketing team is well underway promoting their new cabin configurations that we reported on earlier this year. The designs, which our very own Kent Wien covered in a series of on-the-ground dispatches, are set to vastly improve the business class and coach experiences, with redesigned business class cabins and lie-flat sections implemented in economy. The highly dramatic ...

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner finally flies

Dec 16th, 2009 at 7:30AM: After over two years of reporting on the 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's long awaited aircraft has arrived. Yesterday morning, the aircraft took off on a three hour historic flight over Washington, landing successfully in Boeing field just outside of Seattle, Washington. And now, the data analysis begins. A full year of testing as well as multiple test flights follow this first step, all towards ...

Boeing Dreamliner 787 finally ready for its maiden flight

Boeing Dreamliner 787 finally ready for its maiden flight Dec 13th, 2009 at 5:00PM: In what has become a common trend in new airplane launches, the Boeing Dreamliner 787 has suffered delay after delay. Her initial maiden flight was scheduled for the end of August 2007, with deliveries to start taking place in May 2008. When Boeing engineers discovered problems getting pieces to fit together, the launch was delayed. Then delayed again, and finally in June of this year, it ...

Ryanair threatens to "divorce" Boeing

Ryanair threatens to Nov 4th, 2009 at 3:00PM: Ryanair may start to look for its planes closer to home. Of course, saying it was thinking about a switch from Boeing to Airbus would be far too simple for CEO Michael O'Leary ... the genius behind "pay-to-pee" and many, many other stunts. O'Leary needs a bit more style, which is why his new intentions are being called "divorce." O'Leary believes that the management shakeup at Boeing has taken the ...

Is airplane air toxic?

Is airplane air toxic? Jul 31st, 2009 at 1:28PM: There's a recent CNN article about a flight attendant who became ill after working a flight back in 2007. Her illness is alarming. First, she felt as though she were coming down with a cold; then her nasal discharge was a neon green -- the color of antifreeze! Since then, she claims to have suffered chronic migraine headaches, tingling in her feet, loss of balance and vision problems. These health ...

Will passengers stand for latest Ryanair stunt?

Will passengers stand for latest Ryanair stunt? Jul 6th, 2009 at 1:30PM: Just when you think Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary can't come up with another way to mess with his passengers, he takes away the seats. The European low-cost carrier's latest way to cut costs and cram more people on planes is to stick them on stools with seatbelts. According to the Daily Mail, he's even spoken with Boeing about making this happen. The nice expression for this, used Ryanair ...

Boing 787 "Dreamliner" maiden flight delayed again

Boing 787 Jun 23rd, 2009 at 1:30PM: Poor Boeing. They are right in the middle of one of the worst economic downturns in their history, and their newest plane is creating a bit of a disaster of its own. The 787 Dreamliner was scheduled to take its first flight early last year, but they realized back then that it could be moved to September 2008. We are now in the Summer of 2009 and Boeing is on their sixth delay. The delay comes ...

Boeing releases snazzy new 747-800 interiors

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 ...

American Airlines updates fleets with new Boeing 737s

American Airlines updates fleets with new Boeing 737s Apr 21st, 2009 at 2:00PM: With the oldest fleet in the American workforce, it was about time that American Airlines got aggressive with updating their aircraft. This year they're starting the revamp with delivery of new Boeing 737-800s. While the 737-800 airframe has been around for ten years now, American is making sure to include all of the modcons to keep passengers happy. Among those tidbits will be new, numerous ...

How to destroy V Australia's $23M flight simulator

How to destroy V Australia's $23M flight simulator Apr 7th, 2009 at 9:30AM: I thought that I was the luckiest person in the world when Ken Pascoe and Marty Khoury, two pilots from V Australia invited me, a lowly blogger, out to visit them and their flight simulator out in Australia last week. Sure, I edit a travel blog and I do run Linux, but that usually can only get me so far. So I was thrilled to accept the invitation and join the crew out in Silverwater, just outside ...

Inside V Australia's Boeing 777 flight simulator

Inside V Australia's Boeing 777 flight simulator Mar 31st, 2009 at 11:00AM: When I was invited out to visit V Australia's 777 on it's maiden voyage from Seattle - Los Angeles - Sydney earlier this year, poor Amanda Bolger from public relations had no idea what she was signing up for. Sitting in the cockpit with Ken Pascoe, the pater familias of VA pilots, we took a couple of photos and he casually mentioned "Hey, if you come out to Sydney we should take out the ...

Behind the Scenes of the V Australia 777 tour

Behind the Scenes of the V Australia 777 tour Feb 11th, 2009 at 1:00PM: When any Virgin company throws a party, it's usually in your best interest to show up. Whether this is a Virgin American inaugural flight with Victoria's Secret models, a Virgin Galactic tour in the Mojave Desert or plain old marketing schlep, you're almost always guaranteed to meet a few friendly faces, have a few drinks and learn something interesting about the Virgin brand. Last week's ...

Onboard V Australia's Boeing 777

Onboard V Australia's Boeing 777 Feb 10th, 2009 at 9:00AM: This past Friday, Gadling got a special invitation to tour V Australia's new Boeing 777 jumbo jet, the aircraft that will soon fly routes between California and Australia on the world's newest airline. We'll get to into all of the hobknobbery of the event in a forthcoming post, but for now, lets take a look through the aircraft. Each Boeing 777-300 has three classes of service: Business, ...

Richard Branson christens the new V Australia 777 in LAX

Feb 7th, 2009 at 5:00PM: V Australia's new Boeing 777 aircraft arrived in Los Angeles on its way down to Sydney yesterday. Onboard were Richard Branson, the mayor of Los Angeles and a few other dignitaries, and when the aircraft rolled onto the Imperial Highway tarmac they naturally had to pop a bottle of Champagne. So after the creature came to a halt in front of the eager crowd, a red carpet was unrolled on the wing and ...

Tune in for the V Australia 777 Launch

Tune in for the V Australia 777 Launch Feb 5th, 2009 at 4:00PM: The world's newest Transpacific carrier takes delivery of their first Boeing 777 aircraft this week, as executives from V Australia and Virgin converge in Los Angeles for the ceremony. Tomorrow afternoon, Richard Branson and top brass will pick up the aircraft in Washington and shuttle it down to LAX, where a fanfare of media pawns, cocktails and schmoozing will welcome the group. On arrival, ...

First flight delivery of 787 adjusted (again)

First flight delivery of 787 adjusted (again) Dec 15th, 2008 at 1:30PM: Now that the whole strike and fastener ruckus has been sorted out at Boeing, manufacturing is back in full swing on the 787 Dreamliner. The Chicago based company is so confident in their progress that they've actually announced another first flight and delivery date for their long heralded aircraft. As of last week, the two respective events are slated for second quarter of '09 and for the first ...

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