April 2011 Archives

As the UK gears up for the pomp and pageantry of the royal nuptials tomorrow, there have been two very important rehearsals being performed.

Catherine Middleton and William Wales have been busy rehearsing their vows in Westminster Abbey, while pilots of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight have been rehearsing the aerial salute which will be seen and heard by millions around the globe when the bride, groom and their families appear on the balcony at Buckingham Palace.

See the BBC footage of the BBMF rehearsal

Timetable:

13:25: The queen and the newlyweds, together with their families, appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. William and Kate are expected to kiss.

13:30: Flypast by Royal Air Force (RAF) jets and World War II aircraft from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

 

This image is a heatmapped collection of some of Flight Magazine's iconic front covers. 

As you will no doubt already be aware, Flightglobal has scanned in every issue, with a few exceptions, published since 2 January 1909 amounting to some 210,000 pdf pages.

However, there are some pages are missing. But, thankfully with your help, Flightglobal has been able to identify which pages and issues had not been scanned, and these will appear soon which will complete our valuable historic section.

There are three front covers in this heatmapped image that will not take you to the front cover page. But below we've provided links below so you can browse through the rest of the issue. See more on Flightglobal's dedicated page of iconic front covers...

  

See the rest of the first ever issue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 See the rest of this issue which features an in-service report for the Boeing 757  

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the rest of this issue which highlights the countdown to SpaceLab 

 

 

 

 

When you click on each front covers there will be thumbnails appearing on the lefthand side of each page allowing you to browse the whole issue.

You can purchase the any of these front cover images, which are available as prints from the Flightglobal Image Store.

If you would like to suggest other iconic front cover images from the Flightglobal pdf archive, send links to Barbara Cockburn, Flightglobal's content editor at barbara.cockburn@flightglobal.com 

• Buy prints at the Flightglobal Image Store
• FEATURE: Iconic Front Covers 

This collection of front cover images (above) was compiled by Flightglobal senior editorial artist Tim Bicheno-Brown.  

 

Special livery power to the people! That is what KLM is offering with its Tile & Inspire campaign in which its fans turn a photo of themselves into a Dutch delft tile used to cover the baby blue fuselage section on a KLM Boeing 777-200.

Airlines have before called on the public for special liveries, such as Alaska Airlines calling for a sport-themed livery design and British Airways in 2005 covering a 747-400 with over 100,000 signatures supporting London's bid for the 2012 Olympics.

Missed out on those two opportunities? To get your face on KLM's 777, visit the airline's Facebook page.

See below for a mock-up of the completed aircraft, as well as a video from KLM explaining the significance of delft tiles.

NASA has chosen 150 Twitter users to watch the final launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on Friday 29 April, following a competition that took place last month.

 

The winners come from all around the US, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Venezuela, Switzerland and the UK.

Collectively the winners will share informative tweets about what is happening during the launch with their 3.7 million followers, along with NASA's one million followers.

In return, they will receive a tour of NASA's press centre, watch a space suit demonstration and have the opportunity to speak with NASA's chief scientist Waleed Abdalatiand astronaut Clay Anderson.

 

This entry was written by Danielle Richardson (@danielle_r) our intern for this week

Picture credit Matthew Simantov

The World Free Flight Championships, a model aircraft event, is taking place in Argentina, South America next month is an international competition testing the best of homemade free flight models. Britain's entrant, Mike Woodhouse, 68, from Eaton, Norwich, will be taking six of his aircraft to the competition.

 

Woodhouse has been in the British team a number of times since he first entered the competition in Czechoslovakia in 1967. He explained to Norwich Evening News 24 that there are three classes in the championships defined by how the models are launched into the air.

His models are made of carbon fibre and have wingspans of up to two metres. The propellers are powered by elastic bands and can reach heights of 300 metres.

There will be a total of nine competitors from around the country representing Britain, with between 300 to 400 people taking part in total.

 

This entry was written by Danielle Richardson (@danielle_r) our intern for the week

Picture credit G Crouch 

A vintage Shackleton WR963 aircraft has been restored to its natural colours for display at Coventry Airport's new Airbase Museum, and will be the top attraction when the museum opens on April 22.

 

It has taken a team of 15 vintage aircraft enthusiasts 18 months to restore the marine patrol aircraft to the original coastal command white colour scheme from 1954. This original colour scheme sets the aircraft apart from all other Shackletons in the UK.

Visitors to the Airbase Museum will be able to see more than 30 aircraft which have been prevalent in the last 80 years.

Airbase director, Clive Dickin told The Coventry Telegraph, "Not only do we have a fantastic range of static planes to view - both outside and inside - but we can also give visitors a real aviation experience from experiencing the aircraft starting their engines, through to taking a taxi ride or pleasure flight in one of our iconic vintage aircraft."

This entry was written by Danielle Richardson (@danielle_r) our intern for this week

Photo credit calflier001: The Shackleton WR963 before restoration

British Ed Diment has successfully completed building a 22ft long Lego replica of the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier.

 

The model weighs a huge 550lbs and has been made using over 250, 000 bricks. Ed based the replica on the carrier's blueprint plans, and due to its accuracy the model has been valued at $50, 000.

The model is now on display in the real life USS Intrepid in New York, which has now been turned into a museum.

ITN news has footage of the replica, and also spoke to Ed Diment himself, feel free to have a watch.

 

This has been written by Danielle Richardson (@danielle_r) our intern for the week

Picture credit Sean Dreilinger

 

In a fundraising effort to help Japan since the country was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami recently, Hawaiian Airlines', pilot Capt. Rick Baldwin raised $9,500, with the airline's union topping the amount up by $5,000.

The money, which was raised in just two weeks, will be used to help those in Japan affected by last month's disaster.

This follows past fund raising endeavours by airline members who raised $15,000 in 2009 for victims of the typhoons which hit the Philippines and Indonesia.

 

This post was written by Danielle Richardson (@danielle_r) our intern for the week

Picture credit John Hyun

Passengers travelling with Norwegian airline have reacted positively to the option of being able to take advantage of free wi-fi during their flight.

 

Some flights saw more than half of passengers logging on, the most during an Oslo to Alicante flight on April 14, when 87 passengers were connected at 30, 000 feet.

The high-speed broadband service was launched by the airline in February, and Norwegian is the only airline offering passengers this service on European routes, which is hoped to give a competitive advantage.

The airline plans to have installed a wifi service on its whole fleet of aircraft by the end of 2012, and will remain free of charge for the time being.

This entry was written by Danielle Richardson (@danielle_r) our intern for the week

Picture credit Jonatan Ortega

The RAF museum in Hendon, London, will be hosting special events for children to celebrate St George's Day and ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day on the weekend of April 23 to 24.

 

Children will be able to make their own dragon, which they can take home at the end of the day, as well as learning about the RAF. There will be English RAF personnel to explain the history to them, as well as a display of RAF heroes.

An additional display of notable pilots from Australia and New Zealand who contributed to the development of aviation will also be a feature for the weekend.

Session times are 11-1 and 2-4.

This entry was written by Danielle Richardson (@danielle_r) our intern for this week

Picture credit tataquax

San Francisco International Airport's Terminal Two is host to a new social media scheme, being piloted by Virgin America and social marketing company, Context Optional.

 

They have installed a large leader board which aggregates and displays mobile phone log-ins from sites such as Facebook, Foursqaure and Gowalla, as well as streaming tweets from @VirginAmerica next to them.

In addition to giving passengers a more interactive experience, Virgin America is aiming to give regular customers rewards when they log-in via social networks to their associated airports and hotels.

This is an addition to Virgin America's already existing loyalty programme with TopGuest, which gives perks for social travellers.

This entry was written by Danielle Richardson (@danielle_r) our intern for this week

Picture credit Archangeli

Hong Kong Airlines has invited all staff to undergo kung fu training to better equip them to deal with drunk and unruly customers.

This action was decided following reports that the airline had to deal with an average of three cases a week involving disruptive passengers, according to Eva Chan, the carrier's deputy general manager of corporate communication.

To make staff feel more able to cope with difficult situations, they are being taught 'wing chun', a type of kung fu to be used in close-range combat.

New Hong Kong Airlines cabin crew member, Lumpy Tang told the Sunday Morning Post:

"We were surprised in the beginning, but after a few lessons we really liked wing chun. You cannot predict what will happen on the plane, so wing chun is good because it's so fast," she said. "I feel safer because I can defend myself."

While open to all staff, the training has been made compulsory to cabin crew members.

This entry was written by Danielle Richardson (@danielle_r), our intern for this week

Picture credit Rex Features

The US Navy has given a collection of military aircraft some decorative retro designs in honour of the 2011 Centennial of Naval Aviation celebration next month.

Each squadron has adorned their aircraft with logos and symbols inspired by an historical aircraft or helicopter.

Some examples of the new paint work include a TC-12B Huron from Training Squadron 35, Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in Texas.

With red and white stripes and a star on the tail, it has been painted in the design of a Douglas SBD Dauntlesses, as used in the 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea.

There is also a MH-60S Knighthawk used by Helicopter Sea Combat Support Squadron 2, Norfolk Naval Station, which features a star flanked by red and white stripes as used on the Korean War-era Sikorsky HO3S helicopter.

In total, 27 aircraft will be decorated with vintage paintwork, and will then be showcased at various air shows throughout the year as a tribute to a bygone military era.

This entry was written by Danielle Richardson (@danielle_r), our intern for this week...

A collection of over 200 air sickness bags--unused, mind you--has gone on display at the Fully Sick! exhibition at Australia's Museum of the Riverina in Wagga Wagga.

Collector and devout aviation geek Danny Cahalan started collecting the bags 20 years ago on a Paraguayan Airlines flight from Asuncion to Miami. Each of his 200 bags comes from a different airline, making him a bit of an expert on air sickness bags.

He tells News.com.au that the worst design is the so-called "sic-sac" in which the bag is placed inside an envelope, requiring more time to gain access to it. Thick paper bags meanwhile are the best for "quick access".

Yours truly has been known to collect the occasional air sickness bag, such as the one on your right from Nepalese carrier Yeti Airlines. Not only is it one of those thick paper bags giving "quick access", it also displays instructions in pictorial form.

Not in Wagga Wagga? Have a look at another collector's online museum of air sickness bags.

What's the most unique, or strange, aviation item you have?

Redbull skydiver Paul Steiner has pulled off this amazing feat, captured on video, in which at 2100m he climbs out of his glider's cockpit (don't worry: the pilot stays), climbs to the outer edge of the wing, hangs down underneath it, transfers to a second glider, and then stands up as the first glider makes an upside down rendezvous, enabling him to stand up and grab the first glider's rudder as the two aircraft fly at 100mph. He then parachutes to the ground. And oh, this is all captured against stunning Austrian mountains.

It is one heck of a connecting flight.

People are suddenly getting very interested in the views outside of their aircraft window. (Personally, I blame Boeing for dropping eye-catching winglets for "blended" winglets.)

Buzz Feed has selected 100 incredible views from aircraft windows. A passenger on an Air France flight from San Fransisco to Paris snapped 2,459 photos during the flight and put them together in a two minute video, below.

The views from both are great, but have you ever found yourself on a flight wondering what's below you? Well if you happen to be on a wifi-enabled flight, MondoWindow will tell you what you are overflying.

The system uses tracking information to calculate where you are and then display your aircraft on a Google map with pins indicating Wikipedia entries on nearby sights or geo-tagged Flickr photos. Try it out here on your next flight.

Rex Pemberton's forthcoming documentary 'The Calling' (screenshot above) features Medicine on the Move, a non-profit organisation based in Ghana that uses aviation as a vehicle to provide medical assistance in Ghana and soon, it hopes, in neighboring countries. In that regards it is much like a royal flying doctors service, but Medicine on the Move goes further.

It also aims to teach rural communities about health care, such as by flying in or dropping medical supplies and information.

Although started by Westerners, Medicine on the Move is working towards creating a local aviation industry in Ghana. It has partnered with WAASPS and Aviation Technology Academy to train Ghanaians, and females in particular, how to fly aircraft and perform maintenance.

One young female undergoing flight training says, "I want to fly the plane so that one day I can go to villages and tell them how to use medicine."

It is that sentiment that manifests Medicine on the Move's statement that with aviation they can "change the future of an entire generation".

The trailer is below.

During your 13 hour flight from London to Kuala Lumpur on AirAsia would you like to have Sir Richard Branson as your flight attendant, resplendent in a skinny red skirt and blouse, serving you drinks and cleaning the lavatory?

If so, it can happen on 1 May--but it will cost you $7,355.

AirAsia is selling 130 tickets on the AirAsia X charity flight for £4,500, or approximately $7,355. Mind you, that is only for the London-Kuala Lumpur flight. There is no return ticket. If you would like to attend the cocktail evening and have a hotel room, it's an additional £700.

Cash poor? You could attend the charity cocktail evening in KL on 2 May for £350, although that's what a return ticket from London to Kuala Lumpur can cost on a good day.

The prices may seem high, but they are for a good cause. Branson and AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes were looking to promote their respective Formula One racing teams--Virgin Racing for Branson, Team Lotus for Fernandes--and agreed the owner of the team that performed worst in the F1 season would have to be a flight attendant on the other owner's airline. After Branson lost last November, Fernandes gave Branson an AirAsia uniform.

Proceeds from the flight will go to Virgin Unite, the Virgin Group's non-profit charity arm.

"Branson will have to serve and even clean the toilets throughout the flight while wearing the high heels and the red AirAsia stewardess uniform," AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes says.

He adds Branson will also have to wear makeup and shave his legs as AirAsia does not permit "hairy stewardesses". But don't worry: Fernandes says Branson can keep his beard.

Branson, never one to miss a savvy business opportunity, remarked on the Virgin Group owning a portion in Fernandes's AirAsia X: "The only positive thing is we own 20 per cent of his company so I'll be able to get some promotion for a company I have a stake in."

Should you feel any remorse for Branson, do consider that he perhaps had this coming. In 2003 he offered a similar bet to then-Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon over if Virgin Atlantic could start flights to Australia within a given time period. Virgin Atlantic did start the flights, but the Qantas boss didn't take Branson up on the offer, saying "We are running an airline, not a circus."

New York City's John F. Kennedy airport carries the slogan "Where America greets the world." How, exactly, does America do this?

By clipping winglets.

An Air France A380 became the latest victim on Monday night as F-HPJD was taxiing from terminal one for takeoff. En route it passed Delta's terminal complex and clipped the tail of a Delta Connection Bombardier CRJ-700, N641CA, to be exact, NYC Aviation says (they also have pictures). That impact managed to rotate the CRJ a full 90 degrees, as captured in the above photos and video below. The upper half of the A380's edge of wing device, which for all you winglet connoisseurs is technically a wingtip, was lodged in the CRJ's left horizontal stabilizer.

LiveATC.net captured the recording of the flight deck and ground control communications before and after the incident (free registration required). We hear controllers give taxi instructions to Air France 7 Super and then later the controller calling for emergency personnel to the intersection of taxiways alpha and mike. We hear the controller say the CRJ conducted an evacuation while requesting the A380 to shut down its engines.

The Air France pilot was very suave, responding to the controller's offer of assistance by saying, "No, we are just waiting for someone from the company from the ground."

In 2006 a Qantas 747-400 hit the blast fence at JFK, damaging its wing. After a trip to the hangar, VH-OEE emerged sans-starboard winglet. The aircraft was patched up by Boeing and returned to Australia three weeks after the incident. (Click here for photos.)

Another 747-400, this time belonging to Air China, had a winglet incident with a Delta aircraft in 2007, also at JFK.

After escaping New York's mobsters, you thought your aircraft could leave the Big Apple without a scrape? Fuhgeddaboudit.

Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth in 108-minute flight on this day in 1961. This is how Flight recorded the event. 

But he never made a second spaceflight, the world-wide impact of his pioneer achievement was so great that he retired there and then... Gagarin died in a training flight in March 1968.

Flight reporter Maurice Smith wrote: "When I had the pleasure of meeting him I had an immediate impression of warmth and humour... I think a great many people everywhere will feel a personal loss, rather as they did for President Kennedy..."

The British Council (@BritishCouncil) is currently tweeting updates sent, in real time, 50 years after they were first recorded. At the time few details were divulged.

Some biographical details of Yuri Gagarin and why he was chosen to perform the first human spaceflight 

The details of the spacecraft Vostok were revealed in April 1965 for an exhibit in the Soviet Economic Achievement Exhibition.

Earls Court Cosmos - see pictures of the blackened Vostok I capsule, from an exhibit in August 1968. 

Celebrity tour brings him to the UK: Yuri Gagarin comes to Britain

The Year of the Astronauts including a profile on Yuri Gagarin.

Missing cosmonauts named (3 May 1986)

Where were you on this day 50 years ago? Share your memories of this pioneering achievement.  

 

The Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum has a waterpark, Wings and Waves, and new for this summer the park is filling a Boeing 747 with 91,703 gallons of water into its wave pool in time for its june opening.

The waterpark will feature 10 waterslides, a wave pool and a museum that will teach children about the power and necessity of water.

See images of the jet's water slides

New images of the Dornier 17 that was recently found off the Kent coast in Goodwin Sands reveal that the warplane is still intact.

'The flying pencil', as it was known, was designed in 1934 to carry passengers, but was instead used as a warplane during the Second World War.

Although 1,700 Dornier's were built before the war, today it is thought the one discovered at Goodwin Sands is the last of its kind. There are already plans to raise the aircraft and put it on display at the RAF Museum in Hendon, London. 

Experts believe that two of the four passengers onboard the aircraft died upon impact when the aircraft was forced to crash land into the sea while the remaining survives were taken as prisoners of war.

RAF page on Dornier 17

Flightglobal's Battle of Britain dedicated page (celebrating 70 years in 2010)

Flightglobal Archive: Wing construction diagram and general arrangement drawing of Do.17

RAF Museum, Hendon - Dornier 17 Underwater Survey Now Available to View

This blog entry was written by Laura Ombelet, this week's Flightglobal intern. She attends St Bedes in Redhill, Surrey.

Daybreak presenter Christine Bleakley recently took up wingwalking to promote the release of the 3D animated film Rio.

She described the experience as 'completely insane and exhilarating' adding it was like being in a Duran Duran music video.

The film Rio follows a young bird called Blu who isn't capable of flying. Christine after wingwalking thousands of feet above the ground sympathised with Blu and said: "No wonder Blu doesn't want to fly."

 

She explained the reason she did the stunt saying: "When the Daybreak office called me and said do you want to find out more about the big new animated film Rio, I said yes, of course, I'll go!"

Although Christine knew she was in safe hands she has admitted that she's isn't sure if she'd like to do it again saying "I don't know if I could do it again, but it was absolutely fantastic, I've never ever felt anything like it." 

Christine was fastened on top of a 1930 Boeing Stearman plane for and was fortunate to have clear blue skies and mild wind for the stunt.
 

This blog entry was written by Laura Ombelet, this week's Flightglobal intern. She attends St Bedes in Redhill, Surrey.

From Flightglobal intern Laura Ombelet

Our world famous 'Guess the Airport' challenge has returned to test your airport knowledge and aviation credentials. Every week an image taken from Google maps will be submitted below with no clues as to where it is.

If you think you know the answer, simply post the airport name and IATA code in the comments below, or reply to us on Airspace, Facebook or Twitter.

Although there isn't a real prize, whoever guesses the airport correctly the quickest, will earn the endless respect of their peers.

From Flightglobal intern Laura Ombelet



It is predicted that by 2035 more than 12 billion people will be flying. Authors John D Kasarda and Greg Lindsay have explored this ever-increasing need to cater for more passengers flying abroad in their book "Aerotropolis", which proposes that airports are built in the centre of cities rather than on the outskirts. 



Traditionally, large cities were built around ports or train stations, but "Aerotropolis" argues that new cities will be built around the airport hub, citing Dubai as an example of what a new-look city development will look like. An aerotropolis consists of an airport city and outlying corridors and clusters of aviation-linked businesses and associated residential development.

As well as planning, airports will need to consider the aircraft of the future; for example Dubai is in the process of building another international airport with five runways and a terminal specifically designed for the Airbus A380.

You can find out more about the future of airports on the BBC Fast Track report.

Six pilots from the Air France Lognes flying club are to take part in a challenge to land at 100 aerodromes in 24 hours as part of the Breitling 100/24 Cup challenge in June in a bid to promote general, light and business aviation and regional accessibility.

The Air France 100/24 crew consists of three private pilots, two airline pilots and a fighter pilot and they will relay each other in a Cirrus SR22.

The four-seat single engined aircraft has been chosen because of "excellent fuel consumption",performance and has the latest aviation technology and "glass cockpit" avionics".

Five touchdowns an hour must be performed along the route for refuelling and crew chageovers at speeds similar to that of Formula 1 Grand Prix pit stops.  The winning crew will be awarded the Cup on 22 June at the Paris Air Show .

We had good fun covering how aviation celebrated April Fools' and thought we were done, but this last prank was too good to pass up.

Airlines this year got into the full swing of celebrating April Fools', announcing, err "announcing", initiatives ranging from charging passenger tickets based on weight to child-free flights to time travel. While airlines tried to have a laugh, some readers took the ruse seriously and were disappointed when they found out the truth.

At first glance there's nothing unusual about this newly-listed advertisement, on an aircraft marketing site, offering an Embraer Legacy business jet for sale.

But this particular aircraft, N965LL, comes with a dark history.

It's the Legacy which, under its previous registration N600XL and having logged only 19 flight hours, was involved in the mid-air collision which destroyed a Boeing 737-800 over the Amazon.

Despite the head-on closing speed of 860kt, a few inches' grace allowed the Legacy to escape the impact with minor winglet and elevator damage, clearly seen in this video of the aircraft parked on a Brazilian apron.

 

The carrier tells BTN the herbs will be used in drinks and cocktails, including thyme for Bloody Mary's and fresh mint for Mojitos, Pimms and tea.

The specific veggies served on board will depend on the destination of the flight, Virgin Atlantic says. Carrots, baby new potatoes and spinach will be available on flights returning to the UK. Miniature pumpkins and sweet potatoes will be grown on transatlantic flights to the USA, while Tokyo routes will have the choice of okura (okra) or shiitake mushrooms.