Recently in Quirky Category

Sir Richard Branson honoured his bet to serve as an AirAsia X cabin crew, by donning the low-cost carrier's red uniform - which includes a skirt - aboard a charity flight on 12 May.

The founder of Virgin Group had his legs publicly shaved at a cocktail event the evening before the flight, which operated from Perth to Kuala Lumpur, says AirAsia.

Branson and Fernandes wagered a bet on which one of their Formula One racing teams would finish in the best position in the 2010 Formula One Grand Prix season, with the loser to serve as a female cabin crew aboard the winner's airline.

Fernandes' team finished two spots ahead of Branson's team in the final rankings.

"This has been a real first for me but I have enjoyed the experience and I have nothing but respect for what our fabulous flight attendants do every day to keep us safe," says Branson.

AirAsia X will donate proceeds from the charity flight, including inflight sales and duty free merchandise, to Australian charity Starlight Children Foundation. It estimates that it will raise over Australian dollar (A$) 200,000 ($199,800) for the Foundation.

A brief ceremony also took place at the low-cost carrier terminal in Kuala Lumpur, where Branson was awarded the AirAsia cabin crew graduation certification along with the airline's crew uniform and shoes.

AirAsia X's chief executive Azran Osman-Rani also posted a video of Branson performing the inflight safety demonstration on YouTube.

Pictures credit to: AirAsia. 

Video credit to: AirAsia X chief executive Azran Osman-Rani

Received a cool email earlier today from the RAAF. They recently held a charity event to raise money for the Special Olympics where 20 teams of 20 people hauled a Lockheed Martin C-130J over 10m.

The objective was to pull the 40-tonne aircraft 10m in the fastest time possible.

The quickest time of 11.68s was recorded by a team from RAAF Richmond in the heats, but the ultimate winner were riot cops from the New South Wales Police. They won the championship trophy with a time of 12.42s.

I'd be curious to see them haul the Boeing C-17. This monster has an empty weight of 128.1 tonnes.

It's been a big few weeks for China, with the emergence of a new fighter (J-21? J-31? F-60?) and this week's christening of the Liaoning, China's first aircraft carrier. It's a good sign they didn't name it Shi Lang after the historic admiral who invaded Taiwan in 1683. Of course, they could always call their next (and certainly more capable) aircraft carrier after this grand individual.

The big question, of course, is when the Liaoning will commence flight tests. In the below Youtube interview with the ship's captain I listened carefully for a first flight date, but he kept mum on this. I guess the reporter was under orders not to ask. For my part, I would have pressed him hard on this.

With luck Beijing will give the commencement of flight ops the same heavy coverage given to the christening. Perhaps Hu Jintao or Wen Jiaobao will fly out to the ship to watch Su-33s performing arrested landings and ramp-assisted take offs.

Though the Liaoning will never be as capable as a US carrier, it sounds like it will be more fun. Buried in an article entitled "Q&A about aircraft carrier "Liaoning Ship"" on the defence ministry web site, I found this paragraph about the crew's R&R options:

"The aircraft carrier "Liaoning ship" has messes, supermarket, post office, laundry rooms, gym, rubbish disposal stations and so on. Even the bars have both the noisy type and the quiet type. Therefore, the life is relatively convenient on board."

Sadly, the US Navy has no bars - either noisy or quiet - on any of its ships. This extends back to 1914 and secretary of the navy Josephus Daniels, a rabid abolitionist.

How cool would it be to stand on the bridge of the Liaoning, beer in hand, observing Su-33s? Wow.

Red Bull Flugtag is coming to Singapore, with the event taking place on 28 October at Sentosa's Siloso Beach. Given that Flightglobal covers all the world's major air shows and aviation milestones, writing about people who build bizarre flying contraptions and run them into the sea is clearly a good fit.

Among the fixed wing aircraft we cover regularly, the Lockheed Martin F-35B would be the ideal candidate to win the event given its ability to take off vertically. Key challenges could include the fact that its Rolls Royce lift fan and swivelling thrust nozzle would blow the launch pad to shreds -  this would be fun to watch, though. The pad would also be incapable of supporting the aircraft's weight, but I'm sure something could be worked out with Red Bull.

Another challenge could be getting an actual aircraft. I was briefly inclined to write the F-35 programme office a letter asking, in total seriousness, for them to consider a loaner. It would be great public relations in Singapore, which is rumored to be interested in the F-35B. The invetibly dry wording of their rejection would have been amusing, no doubt.

Then I had an inspiration: Flugtag could represent an opportunity for the world's airframers to impose some measure of humility on us aviation journalists. 

How often have highly-skilled, richly-educated aircraft designers and engineers grimaced at the criticism trade journalists and bloggers casually heap upon development programmes? It is far easier to type phrases such as "troubled programme", "white elepnant," and "obsolescent design" than it is to actually struggle with the engineering and technical challenges involved in creating an aircraft.

I propose that the world's big airframers team up to sponsor a team of aviation journalists and bloggers to see how well we do producing a Flugtag winner. The skies of Singapore await. 

Follow me on Twitter: @AsiaJetWatch

When I first saw pictures of Eva Air's Hello Kitty jets, I wondered who came up with the brilliant marketing idea. 

After all, this is Hello Kitty we're talking about - the famous cat that has fans young and old the world over.

And boy was I surprised when told at a recent Eva Air event in Taipei that the carrier's 42-year-old president K.W. Chang is actually the brain behind its Hello Kitty jets.

Last year, the Taiwanese carrier painted three of its new Airbus A330-300s with Hello Kitty themes and they proved to be a huge hit. The aircraft has since been flying from Taipei to Tokyo, Fukuoka, Sapporo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Guam.

In fact, they are so popular that the carrier last week added another two such jets to service flights to Tokyo and Shanghai.

So when we reporters had a chance to sit down for coffee with Chang, we couldn't resist digging deeper into this topic. 

"This industry is so old, there's nothing very different you can do. In and out you just hear complaints about delays," jokes the very cheerful president.

He adds that most carriers pay big bucks to advertise their services, but that does little for its passengers.

"An airplane's image is very hard. Travel is not easy, not comfortable. So I want to make people feel like they are sitting on a sofa at home, we must make it enjoyable for them," says Chang.

"When we put the Kitty on the jets, passengers feel its very fun, very warm, very enjoyable. We must make travel like that."

And the famous kitty is not merely painted on the aircraft's exterior.

Step onto an Eva Air Hello Kitty jet and you'll be treated to the full experience. From headrest covers and seat pillows to the soap and hand lotion bottles in the lavatories, you find the famous cat printed on them on. Oh, and if that's not enough, you get Hello Kitty-shaped carrots and pasta in your meals too.

And of course passengers find it hard to resist bringing these in-flight items with them when its time to disembark, so the crew have to bring double the supply to restock the plane on every flight.

"If not, on the return leg, the Hello Kitty stuff will all be gone and it won't be a Hello Kitty flight anymore," quipped an airline staff. 

I personally haven't been on one of these flights and do not feel especially for the world-famous cat but hey, anything to make a long boring flight a tad bit more interesting right?