March 2011 Archives

The configuration of China Southern's A380 has reportedly been leaked on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter. A seating diagram (below) shows the carrier will operate its A380 with 8 first class seats, 70 in business, and 428 in economy for a total of 506.

Of the eight carriers whose seating plans we know (see above chart), the average number of seats is 487, so China Southern's runs on the slightly more cramped side.

For details on the cabin, both first class and business class will be a in 1-2-1 configuration with first on the lower deck and business on the upper deck. Economy will primarily be located on the lower deck in a standard 3-4-3 configuration save for 9/10 rows (the last row only has the 4 middle block of seats) in the rear of the upper deck in a 2-4-2 configuration, like on Singapore Airlines.

China Southern's first A380 flew on 3 March from Toulouse to Hamburg. As of last year's Zhuhai airshow, the aircraft is due to enter service in the middle of this year.

For those of you who do not read Mandarin and are looking to translate the original mini-blog entry, my online translator of choice tells me the configuration is 8 "bold heads", 70 "prime", and 428 "economics".

There are also, reportedly, 19 lavatories as well as 14 galleys fitting 87 meal carts.

One of the individuals I met was Matteo Bulletti of Delta Interior Design, an Italian firm that specializes in installing interiors for both private and commercial jets, aircraft maintenance, record keeping, and other services.

All good and well, but at the end of the meeting as we shook hands Bulletti mentioned something else, almost as an afterthought.

"By the way, this is one more thing I'm involved with," said Bulletti, passing me a brochure for another company he runs, Delta Art Design.

Delta Art Design takes old aircraft parts and converts them to furniture. Parts used in the series come from a range of classic aircraft including the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, Vought A-7 Corsair II, Lockheed Martin C-130, Boeing KC-97 Stratotanker, B-52, and Grumman OV-1 Mohawk.

Something to think about when moving into the new flat.

During a quick glance at the exhibition halls under construction (still--as is the norm for airshows) for this week's Asian Aerospace show, two models quickly caught my attention.

First, Asian Aerospace marks the premiere of a large-scale model of the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental in the Sunrise livery.



Second is a model of the Boeing 747-400 Boeing Converted Freighter (BCF) sporting a silver paint coat with 777-300ER-style wavy lines in 747-8F blue colours. The model's showing at cargo-heavy Hong Kong & Asian Aerospace (Turkish Airlines and China Southern have stands, but only for their cargo services) is appropriate, especially given last week's retirement of passenger 747-400 models from JAL.

Apologies for the poor picture quality. Once we're back on site tomorrow we'll get you proper pics.

For more on Asian Aerospace, check out our dedicated show site.

Though the airshow at Avalon will continue until Sunday, it's over for me: I'm in Melbourne Airport, waiting to board an SIA 747-400 back to Singapore. SIA is gradually phasing out the 747, so will this be the last time I fly the type on SIA?

Anyway, my last day at Avalon was excellent. Aside from a fascinating briefing on the F-35, I had my first opportunity to explore the cavernous C-17. The highlight of the day from a plane watching perspective was watching the B-1B take off. Truly awesome.

 All the American kit at the show drove home to me how close Australia and the United States truly are. For the show America sent two F-22s (sadly they didn't perform), F-16s, two B-1s, tankers, a C-17, and the MH-60R Romeo. American officers were everywhere, and the Romeo briefing included a talk by a serving US admiral.

 Shall be boarding soon. Look forward to my next trip here in two years.

Before coming here somebody told me that Avalon is a terrific show for people who love planes. He was right, hanging out in the chalet row over lunch we were treated to a close up of a Qantas 747-400 taking off just 100 meters away. Not part of the show, but it was fun to watch this baby lift off. Best of all, the grass was recently cut, so the engines blew grass over the entire crowd.

Big disappointment is the F-22s. Yes, it's cool they are here on static, but I would much prefer to see them in the air. Much better to bring down one Raptor and have it do a demo, rather than two Raptors cooped up and surrounded by guards and attack dogs. Come on, USAF, give the people what they want. 

Hope for tomorrow? A B-1B takeoff. My colleague said it would happen today at 16:40, but no luck.