This image of a Chinook was uploaded by AirSpace user Berniec and can be seen in this week's Flight International in the Pic of the Week section. You can also see this image and lots of other great photographs of Chinooks in Berniec's gallery.
March 2009 Archives
This image of a Chinook was uploaded by AirSpace user Berniec and can be seen in this week's Flight International in the Pic of the Week section. You can also see this image and lots of other great photographs of Chinooks in Berniec's gallery.
We at Flightglobal aren't entirely convinced by the flying hotel called the Hotelicopter.
The aircraft is modelled on the Mil V-12 (Russian heavy-lift helicopter) and the Hotelicopter Company supposedly bought one of the prototypes from the Mikhail Leontyevich Mil helicopter plant in Panki-Tomilino, Russia in 2004 and have been engineering the world's first flying hotel ever since.
In addition to extending the helicopter's body to accommodate an extra floor, four GEnx turbofan engines ave been added, each featuring a thrust range of 75,000lbs, and energy-efficient aerodynamic modifications that cut fuel consumption over 22% on long hauls.
Once stepping inside the Hotelicopter, you're welcomed into a "plush" welcome lounge then shown you to your own cabin where you'll enjoy your "private entertainment system, full bathroom and shower, and a queen-sized bed with Egyptian cotton sheets.
If it's pampering you're after, and why wouldn't you in a flying helicopter? - you can have a deep tissue massage, a manicure and pedicure, or have your hair done, top up your tan or take a soak in the jacuzzi or indulge in our dry sauna.
Hmmm, I thought transporting water wasn't the most efficient way to travel, so I smell a rat.
David Kaminski Morrow, online news editor, says: "Looks like an elaborate prank to me (PS - April Fool's Day this week). The Mil V-12 (Russian heavy-lift helicopter) existed, but I think there were only two of them because it never went into production. Plus I doubt anyone managed to put something like this together under people's noses without something being said."
"Incidentally, I think the building behind the front-page picture is a weather monitoring station."
If you know something we don't we want to hear from you.
Ukrainian carrier AeroSvit has acquired one of the two Antonov An-148s built four years ago for the twinjet's flight-test programme and will be the first airline to put the 70-seater into commercial operations. The twinjet is due to enter service on domestic routes in April. Continue reading...
Daher Socata has launched a co-ownership programme for new TBM 850 customers in an attempt to drive up sales of the single-engined turboprop within the increasingly turbulent business aircraft market.
The venture - the first of its kind offered by Socata - is called the Fly and Share Your TBM (Fast) programme and is designed to reduce the capital outlay for a $3 million high-speed TBM 850 for those owners who are either struggling to get enough finance or do not have enough capital to acquire an aircraft outright.
Continue reading...
Pilatus Aircraft has joined the US National Transportation Safety Board-led investigation into the cause of a crash on 22 March of a PC-12 in Butte, Montana. Continue reading...
This image Pilatus PC-12/45. The picture was taken at Genk/Zwartberg airfield, Belgium EBZW last October and uploaded to AirSpace user JMJMC.OVERSTEYNS' gallery.
On this day 15 years ago the Eurofighter Typhoon performed it's first flight. Flight at the time recorded the news as a picture story.
Swissair was formed on this day 78 years ago. This is how Flight reported the news of this change in control of Swiss civil aviation:
"Swissair was "formed by the amalgamation of the two principal air navigation companies in Switzerland, namely, the Ad Astra-Aero Company' of Zurich, and the Balair, S.A. of Basle, both of which have now ceased to exist, and whose fleet of aircraft and flying and ground organisation have passed into the hands of the new company." Continue reading...
Pictured is a Swissair Douglas DC-3 / C-47 Registration: HB-ISC. Picture credit: AirTeamImages/Peter Unmuth (2006)
Two years ago, Swiss International Air Lines set about to develop a clean and simple first-class product that would have "more of an architectural" design and fall in line with the same design language of its brand.
When Swiss begins operating its new Airbus A330-300s in April, first-class passengers will be able to invite a guest for dinner as each passenger has an ottoman and a large dining/working table offering enough space for two. Individually adjustable sidewalls for privacy can be closed while sleeping or working. Continue reading....
This image of a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor was taken by AirSpace user runlikehell at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas at Aviation Nation in 2007. The 60th anniversary of the US Air Force.
Continue reading Pic of the Week (24 March) F-22 Raptor.
Japanese television has posted a video of a FedEx cargo aircraft crashing and burning after having landing troubles at the Narita International Airport Monday morning around 0700h. Continue reading...
European Union targets for cutting jet engine noise and carbon dioxide emission can only be met with some new technology breakthroughs, according to engine manufacturers.
Pictured - Cessna Citation X
Credit - Cessna
Cessna has clinched international certifications for various Citation models, (pictured - Citation X) paving the way for the airframer to expand its share of the international business jet market and boost its orderbook. Continue reading....
Dornier Seaplane has pushed back until the third quarter of the year the planned relaunch of its Seastar amphibian because of a lower than expected sales tally and lack of available and willing investors.
The Seastar first flew in 1984, and three were built in Germany before production ended in 1991. Continue reading...
Seaplanes special report - The New Wave
Put simply, I think this is a great image of an Air France Airbus A318. Flightglobal's community editor Stuart Clarke highlighted it to me in the Majestic gallery on AirSpace.
Boeing yesterday unveiled a new F-15 prototype aimed at the international market with such "fifth-generation" add-ons as radar absorbent coatings, internal weapons carriage and integrated digital avionics, plus featuring a distinctive V-tail.
Boeing is to incorporate a redesign to the landing gear on later production 787-8s to speed gate turnaround operations by improving the thermal performance of part of the braking system.
As Boeing announces it has cleared all 787 equipment for first flight, it has emerged that early 787s will be constrained in some quick turnaround operations if the gate arrival follows a high-energy landing that raises the brake temperature past a certain threshold.
Boeing emphasises that the issue lies not with the brakes themselves, but the remote data concentrator (RDC) units on the four 787 main landing gear axles. Continue reading...
Uploaded to user av8pix.com's gallery, this is Pic of the Week and will be published in tomorrow's Flight International.
The image shows a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress and Boeing B-52 Stratofortress flying in a Heavy Heritage Flight honouring 50 years of Boeing Bombers at Defenders of Liberty Airshow at Barksdale Air Force Base (KBAD).
One of the greatest engineering challenges in spaceflight is to protect a spacecraft from the searing heat of re-entry, as the fate of the Space Shuttle Columbia so tragically illustrated.
So, one of the most intriguing technical twists in NASA's planning for its return-to-the-Moon Constellation programme may come later this month when the US space agency announces its heat shield selection for the Orion crew exploration vehicle's (CEV) crew module.
- Continue reading...
- Archive: On 17 April 1970 USS Iwo Jima crewmen hoist the Apollo 13 Command Module aboard ship. The Apollo 13 spacecraft splashed down at 12:07pm on 17 April in the South Pacific Ocean. Here is how Flight reported it.
AirSpace user Runlikehell uploaded this image of the orbiter Enterprise he explains, was used for the approach and landing tests during the Shuttle test phase. The first orbiter built and now resting in the Udvar-Hazy anex to the National Air and Space Musuem just outside Washington D.C."
Abu Dhabi-based charter operator Royal Jet says the downturn in the business aviation market has brought one positive result - it has eased the capacity squeeze at specialist completion centres. Continue reading...
Embraer plans to begin retrofitting the Phenom 100s already delivered in the USA with new flap control unit logic and other upgrades from April to correct problems at the centre of a Brazilian emergency airworthiness directive levied on the twinjet last month, the first for the new design.
Jetsgo, one of Canada's three low-cost carriers, ceased operations and filed for creditor protection.
Raymond James analyst Ben Cherniavsky warned in a research note that Montreal-based Jetsgo was "the weakest link" in Canadian aviation.
"Difficult market conditions resulting from competitive pressures" was Jetsgo's explanation for why it grounded its 32 jets and laid off all 1,350 employees. Continue reading....
Plus: No go for Jetsgo and Canadians look abroad
If you liked this image you can see more images in our Voyage - General Aviation in Dramatic Locations gallery.
If Eclipse Aviation is to turn into a phoenix, the 260 owners of the 259 delivered five-seat twinjets will be the ones breathing new life into an otherwise dead bird. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/03/06/323377/eclipse-owners-aim-for-rescue-act.html
Two competitors have unveiled competing designs to produce the next major precision attack munition for the US Air Force, as the bidding draws closer to entering an intense final phase. Continue reading...
Amid an uncertain business environment in 2009, the Asia-Pacific region is one silver lining for Eurocopter despite the dark clouds that are gathering around the global helicopter market. Continue reading....
Picture credit: Boeing
Qatar Airways took delivery of its first two ultra-long-range Boeing 777-200LRs in February. Continue reading...
Picture credit: Airbus
The wings for the first of the UK Royal Air Force's 14 Airbus A330-200-based Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) were flown by Beluga from Airbus's Broughton, UK plant to Bremen in Germany on 25 February, signalling an important milestone in the project. Continue reading...
This is this current week's pic of the week in Flight International Panavia Tornado F3.
Here are three Virgin tails lined up for the first time at Los Angeles International following the launch of Virgin Blue's long-haul arm V Australia on Friday 27 February with an inaugural flight from Sydney.
Tails are (left to right) Virgin Atlantic A340-600 registered G-VWEB, V Australia Boeing 777-300ER registered VH-VOZ, Virgin America A320-200 registered N622VA.
The US Navy was the slowest and perhaps most reluctant of the armed services to embrace the potential of unmanned aircraft for the purpose of persistent surveillance.
After a false start in 2003, the USN initiated a competitive procurement process for a Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) fleet in 2006.
The multi-billion dollar contract predictably drew wide and intense interest from industry, affording the USN's selection team an unusually wide array of options. Continue reading...
ADVERTISEMENT
Recent Comments