The Aviation News Blog

Friday 13 July brought my first chance to experience the world-renowned Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, albeit on the practice day. Transport was provided courtesy of BAE Systems from Farnborough using one of their corporate travel department BAe 146s. Click here to see a picture of the aircraft that we boarded at the TAG Aviation terminal.

Interestingly, this aircraft is painted in a fairly non-descript, interim scheme and the "coffee stains" corporate branding used on the other aircraft is being dropped. The 146-200 that we flew on is fitted with a single-class cabin, and was filled with media colleagues and BAE public relations staff (click here to see image).

Upon arrival at RAF Fairford it became clear that the weather - as forecast - was going to have a significant impact on the amount of flying that we were going to see.

I managed to grab the pilot's seat on my visit last week to Boeing's Dreamliner Gallery in Seattle (okay, it was a mock-up, but it looks just like the real thing).

As you can see, Boeing is sticking with the good old fashioned control yoke for its second fly-by-wire airliner, which gives the 787 cockpit a traditional feel, despite all the high technology in there.

I also got a sneak preview of the 787's overhead crew rest area mock-up (click here to see my picture).