October 2008 Archives

University of Maryland researchers have performed flight tests to prove that a bird-like micro air vehicle can achieve additional lift by folding its wings on the upstroke, similar to the motions of large birds in nature

It's nice to get a bit of publicity so whenever flightglobal.com gets a mention in the national and international media it's worth shouting about.

It's good to be recognised for our expertise and in the Chicago Tribune today there's a glowing profile our own blogger Jon Ostrower with his blog, FlightBlogger.  

I won't regurgitate the information about him because the article can tell you all you need to know. And he's done a good job acknowledging his recognition too...

But over the last year Jon will no doubt have felt he'd been whisked around in a whirlwind as he jetted off far and wide twittering, live blogging and hosting video footage of aircraft interiors at some of the world's most exciting aviation shows including EAA at Oshkosh where he brought you the first exclusive image of the Martin Jetpack.

And he has even been called upon as an industry expert to discuss aviation safety issues in news programmes like this one.....

He started out writing about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and now he has access to so much more. He brought you news that the Airbus A350 not only had a new nose but also a new wing. 

If you need to know all the latest information on the Boeing strike, the 787 delay and design of the A350 XWB, and more, FlightBlogger's your man.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

American-born kite developer and aviator Samuel Franklin Cody, built the British Army Aeroplane No.1 in 1908 and with it, on this day (16 October) 100 years ago Cody performed the first powered flight in Britain. The flight lasted only 27 seconds and it crashed on landing.

Unfortunately Flight's archives began in 1909 but Flight is marking this centenary by picking out some notable entries of the great man in our 210,000 page pdf archive. And we have a picture of the man himself on our Image of the Day Blog.

The Cody Flyer otherwise known as the British Army Flyer machine was the result of a commission from the government.

Cody was on the front cover of Flight on 4 September 1909 in his Flyer. Happy up in the air, the caption reads: "In order to demonstrate the easy control of his flyer, Mr. Cody at times throws his hands up over his head," presumably saying: "look Mum, no hands". 

 

Mr. Cody opened the proceedings on the second day of Doncaster Flying Week, but as flight reported, he was unfortunate.

We wrote: "After flying down the course, he was returning along the ground when the front wheel sank in a hole which had been filled in with soft sand--described by Cody as a veritable "deathtrap"--and the sudden stop caused the machine to tip over on to its elevating gear.

"With good luck, Mr. Cody was thrown clear of his machine, and so he sustained nothing worse than the re-opening of the old wound on his forehead, the result of his sudden descent on Laffan's Plain a week or so ago."

Take a look at the fantastic picture of the upturned aircraft.

In 1910 he won the Michelin Cup for the first completed flight of over 4.5hrs hours.

He was killed in an air crash in August 1913. Here's his obituary.

Cody's legacy is remembered with a working replica of the British Army Aircraft Number 1A, which was assembled by a team of more than 50 from the Farnborough Air Science Trust Museum.

Next time you're sullenly sipping departure-lounge coffee and griping because your flight's been put back an hour, you might want to be thankful you're not travelling on Russian domestic carrier Interavia whose live departure board currently looks like this:

Of particular interest are the third and fourth columns, respectively displaying scheduled and estimated departure times. You probably don't need to know Russian to work out that, if you're heading for Blagoveshchensk, you'd better make it an extra-large cappuccino.

I am not sure whether you have noticed, but here on the Flight blog we have become a tiny bit excited about the new James Bond film; Quantum of Solace.

First we offered you the entree of pictures from the DC-3 dog fight from the movie, then we salivated your appetite with the Ocean Sky Business jets that will be featured, and now for dessert we have a selection of pictures from Virgin Atlantic and picselect.com, as intriguingly a Virgin Atlantic 747-400 is going to be used in an "emotional scene".

From the Virgin Atlantic website:

Virgin Atlantic is once again featured in the latest James Bond 007 movie. After two of the airline's aircraft appeared in the 2006 film Casino Royale, a Boeing 747-400 will carry the British secret agent across the Atlantic in the new film, Quantum of Solace, opening in UK cinemas on 31 October. The 747 is the setting for what Virgin Atlantic describes as a "very emotional scene". Filmed in a day in January in Virgin Atlantic's cabin crew training facility Bond sits at the Upper Class cabin's bar and drinks Vesper cocktails in the presence of the returning character Mathis. Virgin Atlantic was later used by the Bond film company Eon Productions to fly the movie's cast, crew and equipment to Panama

Here are the images, there are more below the fold

Bond (Daniel Craig) and Camille arrive at an airfield in Bolivia. Quantum Of Solace © 2008 Danjaq, United Artists, CPII. 007 TM and related James Bond Trademarks, TM Danjaq

CIA Section Chief Gregg Beam (David Harbour) takes a call while M. Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) looks on.
Quantum Of Solace © 2008 Danjaq, United Artists, CPII. 007 TM and related
James Bond Trademarks, TM Danjaq

Just to show there's no sacred ground on which budget airlines aren't prepared to draw battle lines, Ryanair is about to bid for pop-chart glory by backing a single based on its on-board 'trolley song'.

 

I'd like to tell you that Mr Superfly is a theme inspired by classical giants, interwoven with delicate harmonies and filtered through the vocal chords of angels, but it's actually a sackful of hoppy-boppy squeakiness not unlike the sort you hear when you hold down and repeatedly punch a chipmunk.

 

It's not due to be released until 10 November but, if you think you can stand it, you can watch a preview here.

 

Ryanair has a fair bit of competition, though, because German rival Air Berlin's telephone hold-music - another hellish piece of cheesy Europop - has also become something of an Internet hit:

 

 

Listen out for that fabulous chorus: Flugzeuge im Bauch, im Blut Kerosin - 'Aircraft in our belly, kerosene in our blood' - and ham-fisted anglo-lyrics like 'Shopping und Business' and 'die City Highlights' crammed into the verse. Class.