Recently in Asia-Pacific Category

At the Singapore air show this weekend the country's flag carrier is giving one of aviation's iconic airliners a worthy send-off.

For SIA will retire the Boeing 747 from its passenger fleet on 6 April after almost four decades of faithful service. Although the Jumbo will continue to haul freight for SIA's cargo arm for some time to come, it is game over for the "Mega Top" at the passenger division.

To celebrate, SIA has brought the last 747-412 it received, back in 2001, to the static park at the Singapore air show this weekend (after a 7min positioning flight from nearby Changi Int'l) to celebrate its massive contribution to the airline's development since it arrived in September 1973.

"The 747 has been the flagship for so many years in the SIA fleet. We're sad that we're having to say goodbye to it, SIA's VP public affairs (and former Flightglobal hack) Nick Ionides told Interactive Flight Daily News.

"The 747 enabled us to pioneer non-stop flying across the Pacific and from Singapore to London. It's only fitting that we involve the public, so we've brought the last 747 passenger aircraft we received to the show and opened it up to visitors."

When the big jet arrived in Singapore 39 years ago it immediately transformed the airline, which until then had been relying largely on the 747's little sister, the 707. Indeed there were many who wondered what the tiny island state was doing ordering such a huge aeroplane in large numbers (sound familiar?).

The jumbo quickly went on to help SIA establish itself as the world's leading international network carrier with a reputation for fine service delivered by troupes of attentive (and attractive!) "Singapore Girls".

The airline's original 747-200Bs were joined by the stretched upper deck 747-300 "Big Tops" from 1983 and the -400 "Mega Tops" in 1989.

But the airline has called time as it transitions to the 777-300ER and A380 for its long-haul network. The Jumbo's last scheduled service will be on 25 March from Melbourne and the type will retire after a SIN-HKG-SIN commemorative flight on 6 April.

The Jumbo is open to tours at the show and has been decked out with an exhibition displaying the history of the airline's 747 operations over the four decades of service. The piece de resistance is the display in the forward cabin which features the original 1993 waxwork (above) from Madame Tussaud's of real Singapore Girl Lim Suet Kwee, who looks as beautiful as ever. Kwee, who has been with SIA since 1986, only stopped flying last year and now a cabin crew executive.

Farewell Singapore Jumbo...

Watch the feature about SIA's 747 farewell at the Singapore air show here

And here's a link to the story from Flight International in August 1972, when newly created SIA placed orders for two 747s and took options on two more. It said at the time it may have a requirement for up to 12 Jumbos over the next 10 years.

SIA has also set up a dedicated website to mark the 747 retirement, with history and info about the type's service with the airline.

This time last year Europe awoke to images of a rather second-hand looking Qantas Airbus A380 on the runway at Singapore's Changi airport. The big jet, operating Flight QF32 from London to Sidney via Singapore on 4 November 2010 with 469 souls on board, had made an emergency landing back at Changi after suffering a dramatic uncontained failure of its No 2 Rolls-Royce Trent 900.

The A380's captain, Capt Richard Champion de Crespigny, described the effect of the engine explosion (caused by the failure of the intermediate pressure turbine (IPT) following an oil fire) to Flightglobal's David Learmount as follows: "The wing was cluster-bombed. The aircraft had phenomenal damage to all systems. But it didn't just recover, it performed brilliantly."

As David explains in his recent blog, while Airbus should be applauded for the fact that the A380 was able to land safely after such a destructive failure, the manufacturer has had to address the overbearing way in which the warning system responded to the problem.
Immediately following the engine failure, Capt de Crespigny and his crew (there were five pilots up front on that eventful day) faced an excessive number of ECAM alerts - more than 60.

Interestingly, the over-talkative nature of the A380's warning system came up as a criticism of the double-decker in Flight International's award-winning in-service report Judging A Giant, which was published two years ago.

In the report, Airbus's executive vice president programmes, Tom Williams, admitted that the A380 crews "have a feeling that the aircraft is talking to them too much - telling them things that are interesting but not really essential".

SIA's then senior vice president flight operations, Capt Gerard Yeap, told Flight International that with aircraft systems now able to provide such a raft of data "we have to be careful we don't have information overload - that we don't fall into the trap of wanting to know so much you end up not knowing anything".

Faced with exactly that situation, QF32's Capt de Crespigny says that he realised, that instead of dealing with the failures, his crew had to determine what was still working.

The collateral damage caused by the accident was huge. Rolls was widely criticised for the way it hunkered down in the wake of the accident and ensuing grounding of the Trent-powered A380 fleet. Indeed it was intriguing - and somewhat unusual - to see the way the airframer swivelled the media spotlight on to its engine supplier which ended up bearing the brunt of the media storm.

The engine problem has had a knock-on effect on A380 deliveries this year, due to the restricted supply of modified Trents. Meanwhile the damaged A380 (VH-OQA) remains in Changi undergoing extensive repairs after a three-digit ($ million) insurance pay-out. The latest estimate is that it will be ready to return to service early in 2012 with what amounts to be a new port wing installed.

But after reading the fir

sthand account of Capt de Crespigny, the industry should definitely be grateful that the "QF32" incident wasn't a far more serious event.

If Singapore Airlines isn't naming some new airline company 'Scoot' then a lot of effort is going into throwing nosey hacks off the scent.

Not only is there apparently a Scoot-related website domain registration linked to SIA, but a trawl through the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore's trademark database turns up the following entry, listed on 20 June, under 'transport':

The application has been put forward on behalf of a company named 'New Aviation' but which gives an address which matches the location of Singapore Airlines' headquarters at Changi International Airport.

As Red Bull Racing Formula 1 racer Mark Webber prepares to repeat his feat of a year ago by winning this weekend's British Grand Prix at Silverstone, he's swapped his 200mph RB7 for a 600mph Airbus A380.

Australian Webber, a "Qantas Ambassador", is to study for his pilot's license and has hooked up with his national airline to help him achieve his dream. He took the opportunity to get up close and personal to one of the airline's 450-seat A380s at London Heathrow, where he was shown around the cockpit by a Qantas training captain.

Qantas is providing "mentoring support" with one of its training pilots and will give Webber some valuable time in a flight simulator. It will also recommend an approved pilot training organisation for his tuition.

Webber is of course no stranger to "low flying", having famously become airborne in a high-speed barrel-rolling accident at last year's European Grand Prix in Valencia after colliding with the back of Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus (below). Here's hoping that Mark's next take-off is a less spectacular affair!

We've all been there. One misheard quote and suddenly your journalistic creativity runs riot while your common-sense filter is out on a tea-break. Even on a publication as venerable as The Times of India.

Can't say I was at the press conference, but a quick check of other Indian papers suggests minister Ashwani Kumar actually said those second- and third-tier cities would be served by a "70- to 100-seat" aircraft...

Korean Air might want to pick up a couple of tips from Emirates on the art of creating a polished Airbus A380 advertisement.

The Seoul-based airline, which took delivery of its first A380 in May, has its own promotional video showing the aircraft being put together in time-lapse footage.

But wait a second...

Korean Air's A380s are powered by Engine Alliance GP7200 engines; in fact, the handover ceremony in Toulouse included a speech by Engine Alliance president Mary Ellen Jones, who said she was "delighted" that the airline would be the first Asian carrier to use the powerplant.

So what's being bolted onto the wing of that A380 about seven seconds into the Korean Air video? The orange engine cover clearly says, er, Trent 900...

Our video team has been out and about here at the annual general meeting in Singapore and we have video interviews with a number of Asian airline and airport leaders:

• Thai Airways president Piyasvasti Amranand on the carrier's to establish a new regional airline
• Malaysia Airlines chief  Azmil Zahruddin on the airline's decision to join Oneworld
• Japan Airlines boss Masaru Onishi on the airline's recovery efforts
• Philippine Airlines president Jaime Bautista on the airline's US ambitions
• Changi Airport's EVP hub development Yam Kum Weng on its aim to hit 50 million

Watch them all here

This weekend there will again be the puzzling sight for non-Formula 1 fans of four cars circulating in a Grand Prix carrying the name Lotus.

Thanks to AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes' success in the High Court, his F1 team has been cleared to keep using the name "Team Lotus" after a challenge from Lotus Cars, which is a sponsor of the Renault F1 team (and Lotus parent Proton is a part owner of the team).
Fernandes bought the rights to the name "Team Lotus" from David Hunt - brother of world champion James - but Lotus Cars has tried to prevent him using it in F1 as they have their own Grand Prix aspirations (through sponsorship of an front-running existing team) as part of a major relaunch and attempt to return to high-end road car production.

But why tie up with another team when there was already a perfectly good one running under the name Lotus and one which the car division had initially sanctioned? The fact is that the Fernandes outfit, starting in 2010 with a cleansheet, is simply not going to be competitive quickly enough in the eyes of Lotus Cars. It's all very well having the kudos of a name in F1, but not much of a brand-strengthening exercise if the cars are rattling around at the back of the grid being lapped by road-car rivals like Ferrari. 

But Fernandes means business, and if he can repeat the success that his AirAsia empire has achieved in the low-cost airline sector, then the F1 big guns - and Lotus Cars - need to look out.

I'm sure Lotus founder Colin Chapman would be delighted to see his racing team's name being employed by an entrepreneur with the same go-ahead spirit he showed back in the 1960s when his green and yellow Lotus F1 cars were dominating Grand Prix racing with the legendary Jim Clark at the wheel (pictured above). As Chapman used to say: "if you're not winning, you're not trying hard enough."