December 2009 Archives

This past year saw some significant anniversaries for aviation.

It was the 100th anniversary of Louis Blériot becoming the first person to cross a 'large body of water' in a 'heavier than air' aircraft.

Also celebrating its 100th anniversary was the Paris Air Show, which Flightglobal covered in full force.

On the topic of 100th anniversaries, Flight International, now under the Flightglobal brand, celebrated its 100th year of publishing news about the aviation industry. We chronicled a century of aviation for the occasion, but you can search our 210,000 page archive.

 

 

... And rollouts....

This year saw the impressive feat of Gulfstream rolling out two aircraft its G250 and G650 in two weeks.

For more information, see how we covered the events here:

• G250
• G650
  

Virgin Galactic rolls out VSS Enterprise

Nascent suborbital space ride company Virgin Galactic unveiled its six-passenger prototype, the VSS Enterprise, at a star-studded roll-out ceremony at the Mojave Air and Space port on 7 December.http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/12/11/336043/virgin-galactic-reveals-vss-enterprise.html

FLIGHTBLOGGER: Video captures Beoing 787 roll-out in ANA colours

 

What a year it has been for first flights! Amongst other first flights we had the EC175, G250, G650, A400M (finally), and Boeing 787 (finally!)

For more information of these historical events, check out our coverage here:

• EC175
• G250
• G650
  
• A400M
• B787 

Flightglobal also reported on the second Boeing 787's first flight a few days following the first flight of the same aircraft type.

Airbus' A330-200F touched down after successful maiden flight... 

The Bombardier CRJ successfully completed its first flight in July...

A battery-powered aircraft made its first flight at the Paris Air Show...

Jet-powered Predator C's makes first flight and gains funding.

Early 2010 will see the Boeing 747-8F take to the skies for its first flight. Not long to wait now. It's getting us excited.

With the launch this year of Pet Airways and jetBlue giving frequent flyer points and other goodies to its animal customers, aviation has been kind to the animal world. (Well, perhaps except for when US Airways shipped a corpse to a pet shop.)

Now there's news of American Airlines and Virgin America providing space for a West Coast glut of abandoned Chihuahua dogs to hopefully be adopted elsewhere in the United States.

The AP reports:

Virgin America will be flying a group of Chihuahuas to New York City from San Francisco on Tuesday, said Gail Buchwald, senior vice president overseeing the ASPCA adoption center in New York City.

They will be processed and should be available for adoption on Dec. 29, she said.

Buchwald said she didn't know how many to expect, but each dog will be escorted by a volunteer and Virgin will provide travel for both dogs and humans.

The Chihuahua crisis in California developed as Hollywood featured the dogs in movies like "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" and "Legally Blonde," they became constant companions to the rich and famous, backyard breeders saw a chance to make hundreds of dollars a dog and the recession forced some dog owners to abandon their pets.

California shelters soon found that Chihuahuas made up 30 percent or more of their dog populations

Readers of the blog will have heard how GE upgraded Santa's sleigh. You may have heard Santa's flights were given more efficient air traffic routes (seriously).

But did you hear about how Gogo is installing wifi for the sleigh?

Our own Mary "Runway Girl" Kirby reports on this cheeky holiday card from in-flight wireless provider Gogo.

You may not have noticed, but this past Christmas Santa went green. No, his outfit was still red but his flights took advantage of improved air traffic routing, a token contribution to reducing CO2 emissions.

From a press release from Avinor airport group:

The annual Santa Claus flights to Rovaniemi, Finland, from the UK will be allotted "green" routes this year from Avinor when they fly through Norwegian airspace. The aim is a reduction in CO2 emissions of 12-15 tons each day.

Earlier most of the British Santa Claus flights had to fly point to point routes, which often led them outside Norwegian airspace on their way up to Finland. But international cooperation by Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the UK has now paved the way for shorter travel routes in Norwegian airspace and on to Finland. 

"At peak times 35 planes are headed in each direction daily, and by cutting 7-800 nautical miles off the trip each way, we are talking about a significant reduction in emissions from this traffic," says Jan Gunnar Pedersen from Avinor's Air Navigation Services.

No disruption to air traffic
"The Santa Claus traffic is high enough in the airspace so that it does not cause delays for ordinary passenger traffic in Norway. Most of the flights take place during the weekend. Avinor has therefore set up shift schedules so that staffing matches the times during the weekend when the traffic is the heaviest.

"So far there are no indications that we will have problems with this year's ordinary Christmas traffic. We are committed to getting people quickly and safely home for Christmas," concludes Pedersen.

Flightglobal's brilliant team of bloggers have traversed the globe this year to bring you all you need to know in the aviation world, and although the sun is quickly setting on another year, we felt it was fitting to celebrate the best stories from 2009.

From the Beast of Kandahar, to Ryanair calendar girls, 787 programme updates to a big debate sparked from a rather large passenger, our blogs have had it all.

Here's a list of the top ten stories and some other notable blogging highlights:

10. United Airlines Boeing 767 trashed by firefighting system

In February, Kieran Daly posted some extraordinary pictures of a United Airlines Boeing 767-300 which got a little damaged while in mid-refurbishment after the firefighting system went off, for the third time in three weeks.



9. First Pictures & Video: 787 taxi tests underway

Undoubtedly the biggest aviation story of 2009 was the Boeing 787 programme and whether the aircraft would make its much anticipated first flight this year.
 
In July, Flightblogger Jon Ostrower gave us a first glimpse of the 787 in action by unveiling a video of the first taxi tests in Paine Field, Seattle. This of course was to prepare us all for what happened on the 15th December, when the Dreamliner made its first flight.



8. Boeing unveils the "stealthy" F-15 Silent Eagle

Boeing's unveiling of the V-tailed F-15 Silent Eagle in March was big news for Stephen Trimble on the DEW Line, Who covered the unveiling of the "most significant refresh of the venerable air superiority fighter since the F-15E Strike Eagle".



7. Growler Power: EA-18G boasts F-22 kill (PHOTOS)

It's a David v Goliath contest, but as Stephen Trimble found out in February, an EA-18G took on the might of an F-22 and won:



According to Stephen, "the EA-18G kill was courtesy of a well-timed AIM-120 AMRAAM shot....the simulated combat exercise took place at Nellis AFB."

6 & 5.  The Road to 787 First Flight
In May, Jon gave us a first glimpse at a newly painted ZA001 as it rolled out the hanger at Everett Seattle:



After Boeing announced a postponement to the 787's first flight in June, Jon Ostrower analysed the reasons behind the delay and looked at the structural implications of the required changes on the aircraft

Flying today--Christmas day--may be the most dreaded day for airline passengers (except those on El Al), but one passenger purposefully flies on Christmas to avoid having to spend time with family. You can read his confession here at the New York Times.

The year my "fly by lie" plan became an unintentional epic was when I told everyone my flight to Los Angeles would arrive late at night, a few minutes into Boxing Day. In fact, I took off from Kennedy airport at 7 a.m. on Christmas and arrived in Los Angeles by noon, as always.

Read more...

I caught up with the team onboard the Orbis Flying Eye. Here is Orbis's medical director Dr Cherwek talking about the merits of its DC-10.

 

See also a great feature on the work of Orbis in Mary Kirby's feature which includes information about the Flying Eye Hospital's new aircraft, an MD-11.

OK, it may not yet FAA/CAA certified, but Santa's sleigh is getting some upgrades courtesy of GE.

The upgrades are similar to developments we've seen in civil aircraft over the past few years. The sleigh features LEDs and carbon composites.

Go here for the complete guide to the improvements so when you hear thumping on your roof you can dash out and check out Santa's new ride.

To promote their new Formula One racing teams, airline tycoons Sir Richard Branson of Virgin and Tony Fernandes of AirAsia have made quite the unusual bet.

They are each a principal sponsor of F1, and the loser in a stakes race will have to dress up as a flight attendant and serve passengers on the winner's airline.

That means Fernandes could play dress up on Virgin, or Branson could be a trolley dolly on AirAsia X, AirAsia's long-haul carrier. Ironically, Branson's Virgin Group has a 20% stake in AirAsia X.

You may have to see it to believe it, but AirAsia's marketing group is nearly there with this Photoshop concoction.

That photo may be funny, but the two are serious: Fernandes said in a statement AirAsia is applying for Branson's security clearance from Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation.

On the topic of women and aviation, we're reminded of two British women who broke the female world record for most time aloft in a balloon. Were they included in the calendar, or is their accomplishment something for next year?

Picture credit - Rex Features

I have it on good authority that Spandau Ballet will be the first band to perform in space on Virgin Galactic's Enterprise.

The band will perform outside the Earth's atmosphere when commercial flights begin on Sir Richard Branson's new commercial spacecraft, Enterprise, unveiled Tuesday. 

Spandau Ballet will have five minutes of weightlessness to perform one of their hits, which will include either 'I'll Fly For You', according to founding member Steve Norman, 'Gold' or 'True'.

Six passengers and two pilots are permitted on board, cameras, microphones and equipment will all be automated and operated from Earth.

Spandau Ballet are currently celebrating a reunion and 30th anniversary with a world tour.

But at Flightglobal we've thought of more topically intergalactic performers like David Bowie performing Starman and Space Oddity, or Elton John with his Rocket Man. Babylon Zoo to sing Spaceman or even Sarah Brightman singing I Lost My Heart To A Star Ship Trooper.

If you were one of the passengers on board who would you like to perform for you?

   

 

There are a lot of 2010 calendars around produced by the aviation industry and some of them with barely an aircraft in the foreground.

Ryanair's cabin crew stripped off, as have the VivaAerobus ladies, all in the name of charity. You can help Help for Heroes, a charity for those that have been badly wounded in Britain's current conflicts, when you buy its calendar which has at least 12 ladies for each month, I daren't look.

But Flightglobal isn't confused with its passion. It's serious about aviation and if it's fuselages on a calendar that float your boat, you really can't go wrong with the Flightglobal Calendar, made up of some of the best images from our own AirSpace users.

 

AirSpace user and Flightglobal Twitter-follower TangoSix has also produced a calendar.  

 

 

The Virgin Atlantic lounge at London's Gatwick Airport has unveiled a newly refurbished  "Clubhouse" with a "Sunday morning feel".

It features an internal rock garden and a Cowshed Spa offering massages or manicures and pedicures using its natural products and showering facilities.

Here's a video about the launch:

 

Virgin Atlantic also has a Clubhouse at Heathrow Airport.
 

If you need an excuse to get in the romantic mood this festive season why not head down to Heathrow Terminal 5, where the worlds largest sprig of mistletoe has been unveiled.

The ten foot by eight foot structure took three weeks to construct and weighs an impressive 43kg. For those scrooges among you that go "ah humbug" at public displays of affection please look away now: