Something Fun
The clip above is nothing short of gratuitous airplane porn...in French. I confess to not knowing where it comes from or even what is being said in the clip, however the airplane geek eye candy of three Mirage 2000s intercepting a poorly disguised Qatar Airways A340-600 is nothing short of awesome.
Second 747-8I customer?
The grapevine hums... Order for 8? Let the speculation begin. JAL? Arik? Korean? Cathay?
3000th 737 NG
Somewhere inside the Renton, WA factory is the 3000th Next Generation 737 aircraft. The fuselage of the aircraft departed Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita, KS a few weeks ago. The aircraft will eventually end up as a 737-800 for Jet Lite of India with a delivery sometime around the middle of August or so.
Oshkosh 2009
This coming weekend I'll be heading to Wisconsin for the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture at Whitman Regional Field in Oshkosh. It promises to be quite a week (like last year!) with the largest gathering of aircraft anywhere in the world. Show highlights will include the A380 and White Knight Two. It will also mark the beginning of two weeks on the road that will take me to London as well. Spotting at Heathrow, anyone?
Iceland to SeattleThis coming weekend I'll be heading to Wisconsin for the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture at Whitman Regional Field in Oshkosh. It promises to be quite a week (like last year!) with the largest gathering of aircraft anywhere in the world. Show highlights will include the A380 and White Knight Two. It will also mark the beginning of two weeks on the road that will take me to London as well. Spotting at Heathrow, anyone?
An Icelandair Boeing 757-200 (TF-FIA) touched down in Seattle yesterday on the airline's inaugural flight between Keflavik and the Pacific Northwest. The airline takes advantage of Iceland's geography by flying an almost polar route through Greenland and Canada to arrive in Seattle 7-8 hours after departure. Icelandair announced the new service very shortly after SAS decided to cancel its Seattle-Copenhagen flight.
Facebook Take 2
My attempt a few weeks ago to set up a Facebook page was summarily thwarted by the always clever Terms of Service agreement that says you can't have two Facebook profiles. I've accepted my fate on this one and set up a decidedly awkward "Fan" page for FlightBlogger. Not too much of a fan myself of the idea, but it's a good way to extend the reach of this blog and make sure you can get the lastest via Facebook.
On 787...
There are a bunch of different items I'm working on. More later.
There are a bunch of different items I'm working on. More later.
on July 23, 2009 4:02 PM | Reply
This video comes from a french movie based on a comics called "Les Chevaliers du Ciel" (Litteraly "The knights of the sky"). The scenario is quite poor but what's interesting about this movie is that the aerial scenes where shot with a camera fitted in a Dassaut's specially modified fuel tank, giving a deeper sensation of a "immersion".
Here is the Wikipedia link.
Thanks for keeping us updated by the way,
Alex
on July 23, 2009 4:27 PM | Reply
Hi Jon,
about the video:
the two military Mirage 2000s are actually looking for the third Mirage 2000, supposedly coming from Farnborough, which they have been asked to intercept. Except it's hiding under the belly of an A340... which doesn't look like it's disguised at all to me.
on July 23, 2009 5:03 PM | Reply
Wow...that's some of the best eye candy from real film I've seen. All the close-up contrail shots were phenomenal. I kept thinking as I watched that it had to be CG, but ultimately decided it was probably from a major motion picture with the budget to hire all those aircraft.
The realism of the dogfighting leaves something to be desired, of course, but the same goes for Top Gun.
on July 23, 2009 9:09 PM | Reply
If its true that Atlas Air are to start passenger charters next year, my money is on them to either convert some of their 748F to 748I or just perhaps increase their 748 overall commitment
on July 24, 2009 3:33 AM | Reply
No, Cathay isn't considering any new orders until 2012, when its last B777-300ER will have been delivered.
Cathay is still looking to defer A330-300, B747-8F and B777-300ERs deliveries.
Moreover, Cathay has internally announced to remove 4 A340-300s and 3 B747-400s; although it isn't in a position to publicly announce it and neither can the spokesperson confirm or deny this.
But this is a well-known fact within the carrier.
http://www.airwaysaviationnews.com/1/post/2009/07/cathay-withdraw-a340-300s-b747-400s.html
on July 24, 2009 4:25 AM | Reply
As the Qatar A346 is in old colors (and I believe they wore the new colors already when delivered), I wonder how much of this scene is real or computer-generated.
on July 24, 2009 7:51 AM | Reply
If you like Chevaliers du Ciel, then check out this one by the Swiss Air Force
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb4K10UUPq0
on July 24, 2009 12:06 PM | Reply
The 3000th 737NG already? I remember when Boeing rolled out the 3000th 737 "Classic" in 1998 - it went to Alaska Airlines. It took Boeing 31 years to reach 3000 "Classics" and only 11 reach 3000 NG's, impressive.
on July 24, 2009 12:12 PM | Reply
Indeed a great video. I've seen the one posted by Guru Josh a couple times. However my favorite is still Mirage View (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=4521010). I love how the Mirage creates a wake when he pulls up at the end.
on July 24, 2009 1:43 PM | Reply
I think the Atlas Air passenger service is becuase SonAir of Angola has picked them to operate 747-400 pax aircraft on the Houston Express from IAH to LAD. Wolrd Airways currently operates this route and contract with SonAir, but will lose the contract in May of 2010. SonAir recently purchaesd some used 747-400s and Atlas may operate them with integrated flight crews, all pending approvals of course.
on July 26, 2009 4:42 AM | Reply
I found a trailer from "Les Chevaliers du Ciel",
in english to movie is called "Sky Fighters".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9p7KdkOP4s
on August 9, 2009 3:39 PM | Reply
Just a little correction: Cathay is to withdraw 4 A340-300s, and 2 Boeing 747-400s instead of 3.