I have never particularly liked Airbus. For decades, a political football parading as a real company, they were always just a tad too aggressive and self-important for my liking. Some of our airline colleagues related just how different it was to accept new aircraft in Seattle and in Toulouse. The Airbus personnel always acted like… Continue reading Shame on you Airbus
Tag: 320
Spreading my wings
Airport Blagnac (LFBO), Toulouse, France. A historic place. This is where the first Concorde took off on 2 March 1969 commanded by Andre Turcat. The biggest passenger plane, the Airbus A380 flew for the first time also from here on 27 April 2005. These days, Blagnac is Airbus’ main base, all new-born aircraft built in… Continue reading Spreading my wings
737 successor is coming!
Although officially Boeing maintains that they are still only evaluating their options concerning the future of the 737 (re-engining versus an all new aircraft), CEO Jim McNerney, speaking at the Cowen and Company Aerospace and Defense Conference in New York, basically confirmed that they will build an all new narrowbody to counter Airbus’s A320NEO. Well,… Continue reading 737 successor is coming!
Night run – impressions from a charter flight
It is 8.30 in the evening but the briefing room is not empty. We are getting ready for a long trip. Destination: Palma de Mallorca, the capital city of the Balearic Islands. We are the opening flight of the season for Ecotours, the Polish travel agency. We discuss the weather… convection thunderstorm cells have risen… Continue reading Night run – impressions from a charter flight
The Airbus NEO is coming
It is definite now, the Airbus 320 family will get new engines, proper winglets and other enhancements so that it may stand on its own in the face of competition from, among others, the Bombardier CSeries and the Boeing 737NG. NEO stands for New Engine Option and one of the new engines will of course… Continue reading The Airbus NEO is coming
NTSB publishes final report on 2009 Hudson river ditching
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary. The NTSB has published the final report into the Jan 2009 ditching of an A320 onto the Hudson River, NY, following loss of thrust in both engines caused by multiple bird strikes. The report makes numerous safety recommendations. You can read the full report here.
The communications related aspects of runway incursions
More than two incursions a day… Few other incidents return with the grim and persistent regularity of runway incursions. A lot of effort by all concerned has resulted in a reduction of the total number of incidents but there are still, on average, more than two runway incursions in Europe per day. Clearly, there remains… Continue reading The communications related aspects of runway incursions
What is nanotechnology’s equivalent in air traffic management?
It has been all over the trade press recently. 10 billion extra euros to go into French aeronautics research, the money coming from a planned public bond issue. Some of the fruits of this dough will come in the form of ground and flight demonstrations in the 2011-2014 time-frame and the primary aim of the… Continue reading What is nanotechnology’s equivalent in air traffic management?