October 2008 Archives

As the historic Berlin-Tempelhof Airport closes its doors today(Friday 31st Oct) it's only right to dip into the Flight Archives and pick out a few highlights from its rich history.

The early years saw Templehof used as trialling grounds for such prototype aircraft as the Hoffmann, Zipfel's Voisin Aeroplane, and even Orville Wright who made a "spectacular flight before the Kaiser" in a visit in 1909.

The massive Tempelhof terminal building as we know today was built during the Second World War during which the airport played an important role for the Nazis.

In 1949 the airport was thown into the global spot light as it played the leading role in The Berlin Airlift.

For those of you who wish to reminisce further there's a great image gallery on the Berlin Airport website ...

The competition is back again for 2008 ...

The judges are looking for something exceptional. The front cover of Flight International is prestigious podium for any budding photographer to say the least, so understandably the bar is set pretty high.

In order to give anybody entering a shove in the right direction, I've listed a few suggestions below:

The magazine has a rich heritage of striking front covers stretching right back to 1909 so for any image to be included for consideration it has to be:

It's got to be striking

Any front Flight International cover image has to do the job of helping the publication stand out among other magazines

Be unique or out of the ordinary in someway

This is a competition so there will be plenty of other punters entering their images. To stand the best chance yours should have something that makes it stick in the judges' minds

Get the composition right

Remember this is going to appear on the front cover of a magazine which has a predefined size and shape. You may have an unbelievable extra-wide panorama photo of LAX but that's not going to work for the magazine so try something else instead.

Make sure it's the right size and dpi

Simple logistics of the matter. Unless you image is minimum resolution of 300 DPI and 22cms high or wide it is not going to be of a high enough quality to run on the cover. 

Flight International issue 28 Oct - 3rd Nov

Flightglobal's shop has now opened it's doors and you can add the latest JP Airline Fleets Directory, AirSpace t-shirts and baseball caps to your basket of Flightglobal merchandise.

AirSpace launches its second annual photo competition on Monday and the winner will have their photograph on the cover of the last issue of Flight International for 2008. And there's another photo competition where chosen images will be used on the cover of next year's JP Fleets Airline Directory.

Join in the discussion on what to call the Alenia Aermacchie M-346 jet trainer and win a free ride in it. Also there's a discussion on AirSpace about the Dambusters remake, said to be out in cinemas soon.

See a video of a special performance version of the 747 shot at the MCAS Miramar air show this year. It shows several passes of the jet in clean configuration getting lower and lower.

See FlightBlogger's post on the human cost of the Boeing strike. He says: "Having watched the strike unfold, it has become easy to lose sight of those at the centre of the debate. The story of the strike at its heart is about outsourcing, the 787 programme and the future of jetliner production. Though if these issues speak to its heart, its soul is found in the 27,000 people, customers and supplier held in limbo, unsure of what's next."

Flight International issue - 21-27 October

See images of the Airbus-owned A340-600 testing Pratt and Whitney's Geared Turbofan in the new GTF gallery on AirSpace. The aircraft embarked on a 75 flight hour test programme for the Pratt & Whitney PurePower PW1000G geared turbofan (GTF) engine to "evaluate the performance of the new engine architecture".

Take a look at a video of an aborted takeoff involving an Ilyushin IL18 somewhere in Africa. Few details are available but join other users in the AirSpace discussion about how, what and where it happened.

The MA600 took off on its first flight last week and Flight has some images of the aircraft in a growing gallery.

User Runlikehell has posted a gallery of impressive aircraft images predominantly made up of the F-22 Raptor but there are others including one he took showing Blue Angels formating above a car park at the bottom of a runway.

FlightBlogger wonders whether the 787's first flight will slip into 2009. He says in his blog: "Key ground vibration tests need to be completed on Dreamliner Two before Dreamliner One can fly as well. With a 36-day slip in assembly completion and 39-day strike, the October 29 first flight now finds itself in January."

Last week we finally got our new look Flightglobal shop up and running.

And with it comes a much improved user interface for our electronic transactional endeavours.

Flight produces a wealth of material that helps inform various business and organisations and allow them to make effective decisions in a competitive marketplace.

So now we're pleased to have a decent shop for those of you that need to buy a copy of JP Fleets, a business jet handbook or one of Flight Insight's high value reports.

But the fun doesn't stop there. We've also got DVDs, AirSpace t-shirts, caps and laptop bags so our members can kit themselves out.

And in the coming months we'll be adding a selection of cutaway posters and other merchandise - all in time for Christmas. So if you son, dad or colleague is an aviation nut and you're stuck for gift ideas then we might be able to help you out.

Flight International - issue 14 - 21 October

Flightglobal went to Orlando to cover the 61st NBAA show in Orlando last week and got video footage of a range of Bombardier aircraft at the static display including the Learjet 85 which was unveiled there.

Our own FlightBlogger has taken some pictures of the flightdeck and added them to his blog.

See also a video of Amanda Wright Lane, the great grandniece of the Wright Brothers, introducing a replica of the Wright "B" Flyer. She talked about the relevance of the aircraft in today's modern world and she marvelled at how the industry has progressed since the Wright B Flyer first took to the skies.

Flight caught up with old friend Harrison Ford who we recently caught up with in Oshkosh. See also a video of the press conference complete with slides as Presse Henne, Gulfstream president introduces the new G250.

FlightBlogger wrote a post "Pimp my Dreamliner" showing a picture of a model Boeing Business Jet's VIP model of the 787 Dreamliner. The model had video screens that were actually playing The Matrix. See a video of a model with a suggested VIP interior for the A350 XWB Prestige.

Flight's Jeff Decker grabs an exclusive interview with movie legend Harrison Ford, who was visiting the NBAA air show in Orlando:

If you are having problems playing the clip, see it on YouTube

There's always something good to find in the 100 year Archive and today is no exception:

50 years ago today saw the first transatlantic passenger jet flight take place.

The landmark achievment was actually the culmination of a frantic race between BOAC and PAA to be the airline to make the history books.

In the end it was BOAC and the Comet 4 that took the honours.

Here's Flight's interesting account of the events as they happened ...