Flight International

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This screenshot is from the new James Bond 007 movie Quantum of Solace teaser trailer that is to be officially launched on the internet at 1700h BST this evening. The movie is to be released worldwide on 7 November and this image shows Daniel Craig playing the British secret agent flying a Douglas DC-3 Dakota during the movie's aerial sequence. Click through to the extended portion for more images from the aerial sequence from the trailer

Continue reading "PICTURES: Dogfight screenshots from new Bond movie trailer" »

Sometimes stories come out of the press release ether that are just perfect targets for commentary and scorn. In the last week, we have had Ryanair's naughty video, and now we have the story about CelebAir, a new ITV2 show where 12 "celebrities" would have to run an airline, dealing with real customers and real routes.  

So just as I was preparing my pithy take on the situation, about how 12 idiots can handle real customers and make an airline run efficiently, and jokes on Vanessa Feltz and other likely keen candidates, I find that I have been beaten to it by colleagues (who annoyingly have done a better job than I could). So here's the scoop from Airline Business and Travolution, who were too quick on the draw for little old me!

From Stephen Andrews

Remember back in the days when technology was so basic, the thought of the "mobile phone" seemed absurd? Today the proliferation of advanced technology is so great,that even beings which do not have the brain capacity of a human can use them.

Ironically the growth of these technologies and the advancement of flying abilities has only served to increase the levels of UFO spotting, as a recent MOD report indicated. Two recent video sightings however have awoken the British public to the mystery of UFOs!

Continue reading "Video sightings galore as UK goes UFO mad!" »

Well that didn't take long. Just a couple of months after Switzerland's Sky Work Airlines took delivery of its brand-new Bombardier Q400, it looks like it's been scuffed. Swiss aircraft accident investigation bureau BFU has been notified of a tail-strike yesterday involving HB-JGA during an approach to runway 14 at Bern. I don't speak German but I'll warrant that 'Heck stark beschädigt' means it's going to need a paint job.

 

What do you do when your CEO's off-hand remark about oral sex gets caught on camera? Make a competition out of it of course!

Ryanair's press people are used to having to spin everything (as Flight's staff inboxes can testify) but their heads must have been sore from scratching over Michael O'Leary's remarks about "Beds and Blowjobs" remarks last week while trying to sell their transatlantic opportunities, until the joys of YouTube saved them.

Continue reading "Ryanair, You Tube clips, and the most bizarre competition in the world!" »

This isn't a compromise to settle the US Air Force tanker dispute but a curiosity being hosted on the booking engine of Thomas Cook Airlines. So hard to tell them apart these days.

Pictures that I can't immediately post of new company Frontline Aerospace's VTOL Swift Tactical Aerial Resource (VSTAR) unmanned air vehicle in an alleged wind tunnel (its not obvious it is) appeared in my inbox this morning along with a statement by the company's chief executive Ryan Wood regarding criticism of the project by Flight International's former Americas editor, Graham Warwick, now Aviation Week's senior editor for technology, on the said magazine's website's Ares blog

Continue reading "VSTAR fires back at its critics" »

 

Last year we revealed that an Emirates A380 would be the new advertising tenant on London Heathrow's former 'Concorde' roundabout. And so it has come to pass - at least according to the San Bernadino Sun which says the model, put together by California's Penwal Industries, is to be delivered in early July.

 

It's one-third scale, which makes it about the size of a Bombardier CRJ, and the newspaper says it'll be designed in pieces to "fit inside an Antonov An-225". Whether the Ukrainian six-engined gargantua is the designated mode of transport to Heathrow hasn't yet been confirmed.

 

These pictures (see extended portion as well) are of the first of Northrop Grumman's unmanned combat aircraft system demonstators. The first demonstrator is planned to fly in 2009 and the second vehicle will fly a year later.

Continue reading "PICTURES: Northrop's X-47B unmanned combat aircraft system demonstrator #1" »

There are only 8 Days left now in Flight's 100 Greatest vote and it is fair to say that each category is going to be an extremely close run thing. Although the obvious nominations are popular (Moon Landing, Wright Brothers etc), there is still ample opportunity for some surprises when the final list is revealed during the Farnborough Air Show.

Now here at Flight we like to think we are a fair crowd (well apart from when arguments on who makes the next cup of tea turns physical) but even we were shocked when this top ten aircraft list by Air & Space Magazine was highlighted to us (first seen by us on the Airline Biz blog), a list that doesn't include the Boeing 707, Concorde, P-51 Mustang,the DC-3, the Comet, or Airbus A380, among many more.

What has intrigued me in this list (and in our 100 Greatest survey), is the sheer range of aircraft nominated and the odd or extremely subjective choices that people have made.There has been plenty of debate about this list in the office, but i like taking the obvious figures out of the equation, and let's not forget that most of the aircraft picked in the Air & Space Magazine feature were exceptional engineering feats.

So i say (and this is by no means endorsed - by anybody in fact!!!) lets go off-piste (so to speak) and lets vote for the smaller, the oddly shaped or the less popular. Let's let the geek win the girl for once.

We have 8 days left, who's with me...