January 2011 Archives

Airframer Boeing published its full-year financial results for 2010 and with Coveritlive, Flightglobal was able to livestream updates from its earnings conference call, along with comments and questions from users with Flightglobal journalists on hand to offer analyses.

Flight International editor Murdo Morrison has published a blog post about the cutaways schedule for 2011. "Our artists Giuseppe Picarella and Tim Hall have a packed schedule, travelling to factories around the world to peer inside the most intimate workings of the latest aircraft programmes."

Posters to look out for include Bombardier's CRJ1000, the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk in NATO AGS guise, the Cessna Citation CJ4 and the Grob G120TP.

AirSpace user Airliners_Illustrated has uploaded some great images of airliners including a close up of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner's Rolls Royce Trent 1000. Another user Niels_Boswinkel has uploaded some retro style images of Air Malta aircraft.

 

Safety & Operations Editor David Learmount hosted a live web chat to discuss safety issues arising from his Global Airline Safety and Accident Review 2010 with members of the aviation community.

Read the transcript of questions and answers and get involved by using the Twitter hashtag #safety2010 to continue the dialogue.

Learmount answered a question from user Jeff S about streaming black box data in realtime from an aircraft while it is flying. He wondered whether it would ever happen or could it be "Star Trek fantasy".

Read the live updates as they happened during Airbus' annual press conference during which Sir Richard Branson announced an order of 30 A320neos for Virgin America, the first airline to order the re-engined aircraft complete with sharklet wingtips.

See a great image of a Globemaster III at sunset which shows the transport aircraft silhouetted in a glorious light taken by AirSpace user flyvertosset.

And if you need ideas for romantic gestures as Valentines Day edges ever nearer, see a video on Runway Girl's blog showing a lovestruck passenger proposing to his flight attendant girlfriend.

The Chengdu J-20, China's fifth-generation fighter flew for the first time in public, as confirmed by numerous online reports, photos and video of the large, delta-winged aircraft getting airborne. Chinese President Hu Jintao also has confirmed the milestone.

Last week images of its first flight and video footage of it taxiing emerged but were quickly dismissed as a hoax, even by industry experts.

Flightglobal's own Greg Waldron suggested that a true Chinese combat aircraft is probably well over a decade away from readiness. He was sceptical as to why the Chinese military chose to introduce the world to its J-20 with images that emerged through plane spotters' postings on the Internet. 

The Flight Blog houses all the J-20 content including blog posts of a speculative nature and the conversation on Twitter . 

There's a great post on RunwayGirl about a campaign by social networking site Facebook aimed at convincing United Airlines to go fleet-wide with in-flight WiFi.

"United is the only major airline without WiFi. United for WiFi is a grassroots effort aimed at bringing inflight internet to United Airlines. We run the gamut from business professionals to casual flyers and we need our internet 10,000 feet up!"

See a great pic of an Ilyushin IL-96 by AirSpace user TripleDelta "after a spirited departure from Salzburg, Austria".

It's also worth mentioning that time is fast running out to enter/nominate your own or your favourite websites in the Webbies - Flightglobal's Aviation Web Awards. These awards celebrate and acknowledge the best and brightest aviation and aerospace websites and digital activities of the last 12 months.

Now in its third year with new and improved categories, Flightglobal welcomes entries and nominations from the entire online aviation and aerospace community, from established industry leaders to striving newcomers. Closing date is 15 January. Do it now.

 

 

2010 was a year which saw Flightglobal gear up its mobile offering, grow its strong offering on the Social Web and introduce Pro - a premium service offering and expert level of news and data.

2011 - will be a year building upon those foundations.

Going social

As digital social interaction gains ubiquity across the planet, we'll be plugging all activity into the Social Web.

This means you'll be able to move neatly between your favourite Flightglobal content - news, blogs, images etc ... - and your favourite social services - Twitter, Facebook, Youtube etc ... with greater ease than before.

Going Pro

Flightglobal will continue to launch new professional services this year designed to facilitate professional decision-making within the industry.

These Pro services will be integrated throughout Flightglobal as well as accessible via a personalized dashboard.

Going mobile

The lightning-fast growth of the smart phone and tablet market means that more and more of our million-strong audience want us to develop apps, updates and feeds to stay in touch with the industry while out and about.

We'll be continuing to develop in this space in order to keep pace with demand.

Going all show business

Our industry-leading event coverage has transformed the way people have been staying in touch with air show and exhibition news.

In 2011, we'll be at more shows than ever, with more reporters producing more content, publishing more iFlight magazines and more mobile updates, and producing an unrivalled digital experience for anyone who's serious about aviation ... you get the idea.

Happy New Year.

Michael Targett