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Dubai 2009
I head east bound Thursday night for a leisurely 13-hour jaunt to Doha, then on to Dubai. This should prove to be a fascinating show with the Middle East expected to barrel its way out of the recession before the rest of the planet, so all eyes will be on Dubai as a barometer of global economic health. I'll have much more on this topic heading into the weekend. Anyone making the trip over?

Don't forget, the Twitter hashtag for the Dubai Air Show is #dxb09.

A380 In-Service Report
After just over two years of service with three airlines, Flightglobal reporter Max Kingsley-Jones (just back from A330-200F first flight) has authored an eight-page report that delivers an early verdict on the A380. Max traveled to to Dubai and Singapore to assemble the incredibly comprehensive report. We've put together an online package for the A380 in-service report that features additional interviews with Emirates President Tim Clark and tours of the flight deck and cabin. It is a must read for those who love airline operations and aircraft development.

787s to the Flight Line
Over the weekend, another 787 Dreamliner departed the paint hangar in full ANA colors. The more time that goes on, the more I realize how many different ways you can classify each 787. The most recent flight line arrival is: Airplane 8, Production aircraft 2, ZA101 (fmr. ZA008), JA804A and S/N 34488. The fully painted fuselage is also another indication that ZA100 (JA801A) will wear a special paint scheme upon delivery to ANA at the end of next year.

Next up will be Airplane 9: ZA101, JA803A and S/N 34486.

I feel like this is a short week ahead post. What's on your minds for the week ahead?

Continental Star Alliance
In a decidedly seismic shift in the airline alliance world, Continental has officially departed SkyTeam and joined up with Star Alliance. The move fills a long-time hole in the alliance around NYC. Continental and United opted against a formal merger in June 2008, instead creating a comprehensive link up agreement throughout their route network. Continental will introduce a Star Alliance logojet on a wingletted Boeing 757-200 (N14120) and will be unveiled today.

UAL Retires its 737s
United will fly its final 737-300 flight on Wednesday when it flies IAD-ORD-DEN-LAX-SFO as United Flight 737. The aircraft will spend some time at SFO for decomissioning then on to Victorville for a desert retirement. This aircraft is the last of 94 737-300s and -500s to leave United's fleet, leaving A320s, A319s and 757s as airline's narrowbody workhorses.

A380 for Air France
Air France will take delivery of its first of 12 A380s on Friday in a handover ceremony in Hamburg. The 538-seat superjumbo will fly its first commercial service between CDG and JFK on November 23rd. The airline is the fourth to take delivery of the A380 and the first in Europe. In addition, F-HPJA (MSN033) will be the first A380 delivered with the new Brake-to-Vacate (BTV) and Runway Overrun Warning & Prevention (ROW/ROP) systems that were certified by EASA yesterday. Flight's David Learmount was given an up-close demonstration of both systems last spring. His account of the new technology in action is well worth the read.

Sitting Still
Believe it or not, I'm actually on the ground for the next two and a half weeks or so, which is a long time for me. Next trip will be to the UAE for the Dubai Air Show. It'll be my first flight on Qatar Airways and it's going to be a long one! Twelve hours and 40 minutes after departing Dulles (777-300ER) I will arrive in Doha for a quick stop over, then on to Dubai (A321). When it's all said and done, it will take a full day (time zones included) to get to the Dubai Air Show from DC. A lot has changed since 2007, so needless to say, it's going to be an interesting show.

787 Goings On
Second production 787 (ZA101/#8) is now in the paint hangar making way for Dreamliner 12 to begin final assembly, just as soon as the aft fuselage arrives from Charleston. That section 47/48 certainly may have an interesting story to tell.

Lijit Search
You may have noticed the new search bar on the left side of the page. The new dynamic search is enabled by a sevice called Lijit that I was introduced to at BlogWorldExpo. Lijit takes the average blog search and expands it to the universe of content available beyond the blog. For example, Lijit will now search FlightBlogger, my Flickr feed, LinkedIn Profile, Twitter updates, Twitpic uploads and YouTube videos to provide the broadest possible results for your searches.

Searches will pop-up inside FlightBlogger and provide four tabs of results: 1) Results from the blog. 2) Results from extended content. 3) Results from sites in my blogroll. 4) Google results.

New JetBlue Livery
Rumor has it that the airline is about to unveil a new livery for its fleet to celebrate its 10th birthday. I can't believe the airline is 10 years old already! I'm sure I still have my copy of Airways Magazine lying around somewhere with their first A320 on the cover. How time flies!

Blog World Expo
The 30,000 mile quest continues, as I find my way to Sin City this Wednesday for 2009 Blog World Expo. Nothing directly aviation related there, but it's a great chance to see some of the emerging technologies that will help enhance Flightglobal's industry coverage online. After finding Apture last year, I'm a true believer.

From Vegas I'll be flying directly to Orlando for...

NBAA
Perhaps no one subject in the aerospace industry has generated more world wide discussion more than business aviation over the last year of the global recession. Starting on Saturday, I'll be in Orlando for the National Business Aviation Association conference. It will be packed full of BizAv events, interviews and plenty of news. A small band of rebels (AKA Flight journalists) will be covering the event top to bottom. It should make for an interesting opportunity to assess the state of US and global business aviation.

Kelly Johnson's 14 Rules
A veteran aerospace engineer suggested I post Clarence 'Kelly' Johnson's 14 Rules of aerospace project management. They were originally intended for SkunkWorks projects and were created in 1943 with the XP-80 program. They still hold true for aerospace today...even on the commercial side.

1. The Skunk Works manager must be delegated practically complete control of his program in all aspects. He should report to a division president or higher.
2. Strong but small project offices must be provided both by the military and industry.
3. The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner. Use a small number of good people (10% to 25% compared to the so-called normal systems).
4. A very simple drawing and drawing release system with great flexibility for making changes must be provided.
5. There must be a minimum number of reports required, but important work must be recorded thoroughly.
6. There must be a monthly cost review covering not only what has been spent and committed but also projected costs to the conclusion of the program. Don't have the books 90 days late, and don't surprise the customer with sudden overruns.
7. The contractor must be delegated and must assume more than normal responsibility to get good vendor bids for subcontract on the project. Commercial bid procedures are very often better than military ones.
8. The inspection system as currently used by the Skunk Works, which has been approved by both the Air Force and Navy, meets the intent of existing military requirements and should be used on new projects. Push more basic inspection responsibility back to subcontractors and vendors. Don't duplicate so much inspection.
9. The contractor must be delegated the authority to test his final product in flight. He can and must test it in the initial stages. If he doesn't, he rapidly loses his competency to design other vehicles.
10. The specifications applying to the hardware must be agreed to well in advance of contracting. The Skunk Works practice of having a specification section stating clearly which important military specification items will not knowingly be complied with and reasons therefore is highly recommended.
11. Funding a program must be timely so that the contractor doesn't have to keep running to the bank to support government projects.
12. There must be mutual trust between the military project organization and the contractor with very close cooperation and liaison on a day-to-day basis. This cuts down misunderstanding and correspondence to an absolute minimum.
13. Access by outsiders to the project and its personnel must be strictly controlled by appropriate security measures.
14. Because only a few people will be used in engineering and most other areas, ways must be provided to reward good performance by pay not based on the number of personnel supervised.

Air France A380 Flies...Again
Last Friday in Hamburg, Air France's first freshly painted A380 (MSN033) took to the skies for a five-hour cabin test flight. The aircraft lifted off without the new Premium Voyageur economy class aboard which will be first introduced in October aboard the airline's 777 fleet. The Wall Street Journal detailed the spat between Airbus and Air France on the A380 cabin modifications. Air France should take delivery of F-HPJA in late October, with two more expected to follow before the end of the year (MSN040 & 043).

G650 Rollout
Tomorrow morning, I'll be hopping a quick flight down to Savannah, Georgia for Gulfstream's roll-out of the new large-cabin G650. It feels like just yesterday that Gulfstrean announced the program. How quickly they grow up. Word on the street is that the aircraft has already has first engine start. Perhaps Gulfstream has a treat for us tomorrow with a surprise first flight too? I'll be tweeting live all morning tomorrow.

WAEA
Starting early next week, I'll be heading west for a week of In-Flight Entertainment and Connectivity at the World Airline Entertainment Association conference in lovely Palm Springs. Mary Kirby (Runway Girl) and I will have the show covered wall to wall bringing you the latest innovations on what we may see in the cabin of the not-so-distant future.

McConnell Air Force Base - Wichita, Kansas - June 2008

Fall Begins
The surprisingly busy Summer has now come to a close with Labor Day here in the United States, and based on the week ahead, things are really picking up speed quickly. Starting tomorrow, I begin two months of on-the-road reporting starting with Wichita on Tuesday (see below) and at least 36,000 miles to fly before it's all said and done.

British Airways E-170
Last week British Airways took delivery of its first Embraer E-170 (G-LCYD) aircraft, the second new type for BA along side its first Airbus A318 (G-EUNA). Each aircraft are certified for the steep 5.5 degree approach to London City airport where they will be frequent visitors for significantly different missions. The E-170 will fly on UK regional routes, while the A318 will cross the Atlantic to JFK with an all-business configuration.  The E-170's UK arrival was postponed last week after an alleged bird strike following the climb out from Recife in Brazil. The aircraft has since returned to Sao Jose dos Campos for minor repairs. Embraer undertook steep approach trials at London City during the Summer with a specially painted E-190 aircraft.

COMAC & Asian Aerospace
On just about the other side of the planet from where I sit, a small and dedicated team of Flight journalist is covering Asian Aerospace 2009 in Hong Kong. (Make sure you check out Day One's digital daily) While not the largest of shows, Asian Aerospace will certainly make headlines this year with the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) unveiling preliminary details about its model C919 aircraft, the first major mid-market narrowbody to enter the fray since the A320.

Boeing Charleston De-certification Vote
On Thursday, Boeing Charleston machinists and aerospace workers will vote to continue their affiliation with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The vote, which may not even take place this week due to a complaint by the IAM, is being watched closely from all corners of the country. It is widely believed that if Boeing Charleston goes fully non-union, the South Carolina facility will garner a significant leg-up over its Pacific Northwestern competition for the second 787 assembly line. It's more than a little bit worth noting that one year ago last week both the IAM voted to strike, halting jetliner production at Boeing for 57-days. What a difference a year makes.

Lufthansa A380
The first A380 for the fifth of sixteen customers has taken shape outside the aircraft's final assembly line in Toulouse, France. The aircraft, which is bound for Lufthansa and will be delivered early early next year, has received its engines and is approaching its first flight. MSN038 (F-WWSH) will be flown to Hamburg for painting and cabin outfitting. As is the Airbus custom, European and Middle Eastern A380 customers receive their aircraft by way of the Hamburg Delivery Center. Lufthansa will be the second European operator of the type after Air France takes delivery of MSN033 later this year, and the German flag carrier is expected to configure its A380 fleet with around 550 seats, the largest operator to do so.

In addition, the first Wave 2 A380 - MSN026 - entered service with QANTAS yesterday, the first superjumbo to be outfitted with production standard wiring harnesses, and the fourth for the Australian airline. Previously A380s had been wired and re-wired by hand after it was found that CATIA V4 and V5 wiring definitions were incompatible, creating gaps in the extensive wiring throughout the A380. 

No more AA300s
Two weeks ago, and with little fanfare, American Airlines completed retirement of its Airbus A300 fleet. The last day of scheduled operations took place on August 24th with a flight Guatemala City to Miami, a flight to Port-au-Prince with another return to Miami, followed by its last revenue flight from Miami to JFK as Flight 1908 with Ship 070 (N90070). The retirement marks the end of the type's usage in North America. Discussion of a new twin-aisle medium haul has been reignited in recent weeks with reports that both Boeing and Airbus are actively looking at a twin-aisle offering as part of its 737 and A320 replacement studies.

Top Aviation Tweeters
Shashank Nigam over at Simpliflying has put together a great list of aviation tweeters and it's a must read. I was honored to be included on the list along side 10 other must-follow industry tweeters that include: Benet Wilson, Steve Frischling, Dan Webb, Ron Callari, Addison Schonland, Devesh Agarwal, Mary Kirby, Brett Snyder, Rob Mark and Scott McCartney. 

Flickr Cleanup
Some do Spring cleaning, others do Fall cleaning. That being said, I've more or less cleaned up my Flickr account, which now contains more than 2,300 photographs. I added a handful of new ones last week, but the real change is a more organized tagging that is much more easily searched. For example, a query for Dreamlifter, British Airways or 737 yields a much more polished result than before. Feel free to go exploring. May I recommend a search through the 787 archives?

Why Wichita?
In February, I penned a business analysis on the rapidly changing fortunes of Wichita, Kansas, one of the United States' biggest aerospace clusters. The city, which is home to Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft, Boeing, Bombardier (Learjet) and Spirit Aerosystems, has found itself at the center of a worldwide economic downturn and a political environment openly disdainful of its chief export, business aircraft. I'm in Wichita all week to expand on that original article for a feature for NBAA in October that will provide an up-close look at where things stand for the city and the prospects for the future.

A350 funding from UK, Germany
On virtually the eve of the preliminary decision by the WTO on Boeing's protest to Airbus launch aid, the Governments of Germany and the UK have committed $1.548B and $555m, respectively for the development of the A350. Needless to say, this has not quelled Boeing's ire about how Airbus funds its new aircraft programs. Permit me to ask an open question, would Airbus be able to secure the same amount of funding from traditional commercial sources with more latitude in how it lays out its workshare?

ZA002 Taxi Testing
All indications point to N787EX taxiing under its own power as early as today in Everett. Today's tests, which should mimic ZA001's July testing, will likely mark one of the last public events before Dreamliner Two goes under the knife for the wing fix. Program progress will again be difficult to gauge outwardly. ZA002 will either remain on the flight line covered by a tent or moved north to the ATS hangars to undergo structural reinforcement.

SWA@BOS
Southwest Airlines completed its first flight to Boston's Logan International Airport yesterday, expanding its New England service into Massachusetts. The move is another step forward in Southwest's slow and steady expansion into first tier major metropolitan airports like Denver, La Guardia and Dulles. The airline of the suburbs is moving to the big city. Can't wait to see the DOT data going up against JetBlue.

Reviving FriendFeed
As you can see, I've added a big old "FlightBlogger by E-Mail" button to the left side of the page to receive the blog by email. To the right is FriendFeed which, in it's current form on this page, is quite static. Over the last year or so, FriendFeed (now owned by Facebook) has evolved significantly to better foster and integrate discussion and sharing. I've also found myself using it A LOT more to share stories of note and start discussions. They aren't necessarily items of original content of my own, but it allows me to highlight and comment on interesting things, while using this page for breaking news, analysis and commentary.

I've been able to hone the pace of content sharing: FlightBlogger features medium and extended posts, FriendFeed enables short posting and multimedia sharing and Twitter allows for microblogging. All of these tools are FlightBlogger, it's just a matter of finding the right content for the right platform. No piece exists on its own, and each piece supports the others.

To the Edge of Space
Gizmodo beat me to the punch on this one, but I promise that I found it before they did. I was saving it for a mini-movie monday. I, of course, have now way to prove that, but the beautiful video above (that should be watched in HD) is 11 minutes of what it's like to fly to the edge of space in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane.

UAVs come to DC!
AUVSI is in full swing this week in DC and The D.E.W Line and As the Cro(ft) Flies will be all over the unmanned systems show. I most likely will pop over one or two days this week to shudder at all those jockeying to replace manned aircraft. Man...can't a pilot can't get a break? 

Southwest and Republic Fight for Frontier
In the ongoing battle for the future of Frontier, SWA has upped its bid for the Denver based carrier to $170m against Republic's $108m. If Southwest wins the bidding, which based on a $62m advantage, appears more than likely, SWA will transition Frontier's Airbus fleet to about 40 737-700s, replacing the 51 A320 family aircraft in the fleet. Southwest says it is also entertaining options for what to do with the remaining 10 Bombardier Q400s flying for Lynx.

Seattle pol takes jab at SC
Hat tip to the Boeing employee who sent this my way. Larry Phillips (D), who's running for King County Executive, takes a shot at South Carolina. It's almost like he knows how to get the attention of the tens of thousands of Boeing employees who live in King County.

Spotters Delight
The Seattle Times penned a great article about airplane nuts in the Pacific Northwest. Yes, that might be redundant, but the article captures the passion that enthusiasts bring to following things that fly. Also, Liz Matzelle, a good friend of this blog is prominently featured in the article.

Email Subscriptions
I've gotten requests over the last several months to set up formal email subscriptions for FlightBlogger and all the solutions I had come up with were rather inartful. With the help of FeedBurner, I'm able to offer a daily email with a digest of the previous day's posts. I want to keep the email in your inbox to a minimum, so this is probably the best way to do it.

Sitting still...for now.
I'm back in DC after two weeks on the road and I am beyond happy to be back home with a chance to sit still until next month. All told, I flew seven different legs and 7673 nm between DC, Oshkosh, New York City, London and back again. I'm going to savor every minute of being back in 100 degree nasty sweaty gross swampy DC.

Oshkosh is underway!
The 2009 EAA AirVenture is in full swing! Yesterday thousands of aircraft descended on Wittman Regional Airport in a truly incredible display of precision air traffic control. By some estimates there are about 7000 aircraft on site with an additional 3000 or so at airports in the Oshkosh area.

The State of General Aviation
Companies like Cessna, Piper, Cirrus and Hawker Beechcraft will all be giving updates on their latest product offerings and even possibly announcing new ones. However, the updates will also be a good chance to get a sense of how these companies are fairing in the recession. Cessna and Hawker both have been hit by major cutbacks in recent months and Cessna's workforce just returned from a major furlough. 

A380 Goes Regional
MSN001 will touch down in Milwaukee (KMKE) on Monday for a quick stop for some crew rest and a tour for airport officials. The superjumbo will make a quick flight to Oshkosh on Tuesday around 2:30 PM CT. The logistical details of getting such a large aircraft into a regional airport are nothing short of monumental. More on those later.

WhiteKnightTwo
The Virgin Galactic mothership will arrive on Monday afternoon here in Oshkosh. This will be the 16th test flight of N348MS and the farthest the twin cockpit composite aircraft has traveled from its base in the Mojave desert in Southern California. Sir Richard Branson will also be here this week promoting his space tourism venture. WKII will serve as the launch platform for the VMS Eve (SpaceShipTwo) for suborbital flights. 

Embraer Exec Jets Update
The Brazilian airframer will update the media on Wednesday about the production status on the Phenom 100 and flight test developments for the larger Phenom 300. This may also provide an opportunity to hear a bit more about the company's thinking about its new narrowbody concept it is considering.

ZA101 Assembly
The last parts for ZA008 arrived in Everett over the weekend and final assembly may not be far off. One thing to watch for with this airframe is how quickly the second production 787 actually goes into the final body join as it is likely paced by the wing fix. Boeing is still yet to provide a timeline on the details of the implementation or an updated program schedule.

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.

Iceland to Seattle
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.

787 Taxi Testing
ZA001 could roll out of Stall 105 as early as this evening in Everett under its own power for a slow lap around Paine Field. However, another source indicates that if you're around KPAE first thing tomorrow, you may see something special. I'll keep you posted as more information becomes available.

Backlogs Shmacklogs
Richard Aboulafia has this nasty habit of making a heck of a lot of sense. Richard weighs in on the importance, or lack thereof, of the backlogs held by Airbus and Boeing. His monthly newsletter, which can typically be found on his website, is particularly illuminating. Here's his  June edition. It's absolutely worth a thorough read. Here's the key quote:

If the backlog mattered at all, how would new orders be even remotely consequential? Instead of orders, we need traffic, and aside from show attendees, you weren't going to find it at Le Bourget. It's a simple and timeless equation. When airlines make money, they order planes. If they keep making money, they take delivery of those planes.

Hello Australian Open Skies
Delta's 777-200LR touched down in Sydney this morning from Los Angeles after flying across the pacific as DL17. The airline's inaugural US-Australian service marks the second US carrier to enter the market in AGES and the fourth overall after following V Australia. I'm exceedingly curious to see what the DOT Form 41 data shows later this year with United's 747-400 against Delta's 777-200LR. Unfortunately, it only covers US airlines, because throwing the QANTAS A380 and the V Australia 777-300ER data would make for one heck of a comparison.

Methinks it will might be time for REAL a fleet renewal, United.

New 787 Tally
In case you were keeping count, Boeing holds 850 orders from 56 customers for 787. That includes the starting tally of 865, minus the 15 787-9s canceled by QANTAS. That number also includes the five previously unidentified 787-8s from ANA.

Facebook
I'm on Facebook! I've actually been on since 2004, but now I have a FlightBlogger-specific account. You can find me at: http://www.facebook.com/flightblogger. I need to get the profile up and running completely, but feel free to drop me a message over there if you're so inclined.