May 2011 Archives

The Paris Air Show is nearly here and to coincide with the fun that is to be had at the show, Flightglobal has devised a "create-your-own-unique-Paris-air-show" web page.

Using the MyParis service, you can elect to see Paris your way by deciding on the content that you want to see, filling it with your favourite content. Configure the industry sector that most appeals to you or receive it all. Sign up now.

Read RunwayGirl's blog post where she gives US Airways a ticking off for a number of crimes to passengers including poor IFE and inadequate seat pitch, for which "all the mood lighting in the world isn't going to make any better".

At 5ft 11", she admitted in an earlier post that she's tall for a woman, and you can see how uncomfortable she was from the picture she posted. 

She goes on to say that the airline is "asking for trouble, especially now that travellers are Facebooking and Tweeting every little thing they do/see/feel".

See a great image from BAE Systems of the 100th Eurofighter Typhoon which is the 35th to be delivered to the RAF and compare our coverage of the Grimsvotn ash cloud  to last year's eruption of Eyjafjallajökull to see what the industry has learned.

Have a browse in the Flightglobal Shop and let us know if there's anything that we currently don't stock that you'd like to see.

In the meantime, you can purchase the first Flightglobal forecast report, the Fleet Forecast, which provides an independent view of fleet development within the world's main regions to seat category and model level.

There's also the Flightglobal Image Store where you can buy a huge range of images as prints, including the newest gallery of iconic front cover images as well as cutaway posters.

The Flightglobal team went to #EBACE11 in Geneva to cover the business aviation market from small to midsize to the larger jets including the new Comlux ACJ320 modelled on an Airbus A320 aircraft.

Check out the video of Fly Comlux's CEO Andrea Zanetto about the new cabin interior, filmed on an hours demo flight over the Alps and Vistajet's Thomas Flohr about a $1.3 billion order with Bombardier.

And see one of the images from the Image of the Day blog featuring a zany cabin interior design concept for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner by Gore Design.

Elsewhere on Flightglobal see the picture story of New Zealand's the first of its upgraded Orions and see a picture of a model of a C-295 prototype's dummy rotodome installed above its fuselage which Airbus Military intends to perform a three-month test campaign aimed at demonstrating the aircraft's suitability as an airborne early warning aircraft.

A post on The Networker Blog imparts knowledge about "equipment" when talking about an airline route. The equipment refers to the equipment type - or vehicle - that is used to operate a particular flight. Equipment codes are used to identify different equipment types used, for example, IATA equipment codes refer to an Airbus A380-800 as a 388 and an Avro RJ100 as AR1. Subscribe to the Networker blog feed using RSS for more news and information on airline routes and networks.

Check out the latest gallery in the Flightglobal Image Store showcasing iconic front covers.

You can buy any of the images from the store as prints, on canvas, on a t-shirt, a mug or as a jigsaw puzzle and make great presents for the aviation enthusiast.

The RAF recently celebrated its 10th anniversary of Boeing C-17 Globemaster III operations so why not treat yourself to a copy of the cutaway, and see the picture story of the first of six recently delivered transport aircraft to the UAE from Boeing's Long Beach final assembly site in California.

Mary Kirby, aka Runway Girl is precisely 5ft, 11.75in (and a solid 6ft, 3in in heels) and is suitably unimpressed with EADS Sogerma bringing a high-density full-flat business class seat to market.

She says in her post that airlines want to be able to maintain the capacity of a modern business class cabin while offering a full-flat solution, which has become the cost of doing business in business class.

See the video of her trying out the Equinox business class seat.

In light of the Flightglobal team travelling to EBACE 2011 in Geneva at the weekend, see Flightglobal's business aircraft cutaway gallery on AirSpace and you can also buy them as posters and print from the Image Store.

The DEW Line ponders the identification of a new aircraft seen in airspace near Beale AFB, Calif, with an "unmistakably Burt Rutan-ish design". 

To author Stephen Trimble "it looks like the Scaled Composites Proteus and the Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) Heron TP decided to have a baby."

But this mysterious aircraft's existence raises some interesting questions. What do you think?

Runway Girl author Mary Kirby whipped out her video camera to film her seat mate's opinion of Aircell's Gogo in-flight Internet service while on a flight in business class on a Delta Air Lines flight from Newark to Atlanta.

Her victim "Tim" is a monthly subscriber to the service and a lover of the Gogo app. He uses the connection to access his personal music server at home.

See more of their conversation. Kirby also warns future seat-mates: "I tend to break out the camera after a glass of wine. Or two." Could you be next?

And FlightBlogger wrote a post about a lecture he attended where the CEO of the merged airlines United and Continental, Jeff Smisek spoke about how vulnerable the industry is from external shocks such as like 9/11, volcanoes, fuel or attempted bombers.

Smisek says these are just the nature of the industry, but "it is long-term sustainable organisational stability is found from within by transparently understanding the state of your business and creating a work environment where people develop trust."

Take a look at AirSpace's Duxford gallery to see some images of the first engine being removed from a B-17.

The UK's Imperial War Museum at Duxford's Conservation Department is involved in a project to undertake conservation work on B-17 Flying Fortress Mary Alice, currently on display in the American Air Museum.