5 year anniversary on 27 April 2005 After many decades of being the biggest passenger aircraft on the planet, the 747 had to cede its unique position to the Airbus A380 who took to the air for the first time at 10:28:23 on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse Blagnac Airport, Airbus’ home base. Development of… Continue reading Anniversary – Airbus A380 first flight
Tag: Boeing
Aircraft based tools in the fight against runway incursions
Aircraft-based airport surface traffic indications and alerting systems This is an edited version of the presentation made at the recent ESAVS 2010 conference by Doug Arbuckle of the FAA. Coauthors of the paper were David E. Gray of FAA, Peter Moertl of Mitre Corporation and Jim Duke of SAIC. You can download the original text of… Continue reading Aircraft based tools in the fight against runway incursions
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
Interesting people, unusual flight plans…
Christophe Hamel – Always listen to the inner voice! After many years in aviation, Christophe is also an entrepreneur in the wellness and lighting industries. What were you dreaming of becoming when you were a kid? I was thinking of becoming a pilot and at age 15 or so, of being the owner of a… Continue reading Interesting people, unusual flight plans…
Northrop will not bid for US Air Force tanker contract
It has just been announced that Northrop/Airbus will not bid for the multi-million dollar Air Force new tanker contract quoting the USAF’s latest selection criteria which clearly favours Boeing’s smaller offering. Originally, Northrop/Airbus were offering a tanker based on the Airbus 330 and Boeing on the 767. The new tanker is to replace the current… Continue reading Northrop will not bid for US Air Force tanker contract
A kid in the tower, a pilot without license and other things
The unprecedented success of the air transport industry is due mainly to the spectacular improvements in safety booked overt the years. True, the convenience of being able to travel to the other end of Europe for a meeting and back the same day count for a lot, but without the safety factor, few passengers would… Continue reading A kid in the tower, a pilot without license and other things
8.33 kHz Channel spacing – what is this?
The radio spectrum, a scarce resort One of the most basic activities in a cockpit is tuning the radio to the assigned frequency of whoever we want to talk to. Contacting ground control, the tower or one’s own company is done by turning a few knobs until the right numbers show in the radio control… Continue reading 8.33 kHz Channel spacing – what is this?
KLM and Aeroflot take-off from taxi-ways
Strange as it may seem one of the more difficult things that pilots have to deal with is finding their way around airports. Despite ICAO standardisation many obvious things like airport signage are not always the same at every airport, and even if they were, airport layouts will always differ. Surprisingly, navigating the aircraft down… Continue reading KLM and Aeroflot take-off from taxi-ways
Flying the Boeing 747
I came relatively late to the Boeing 747, first flying it in 1981 long after all the early teething problems with the PW JT9D-3 engines had been solved. We had two versions of the aircraft in British Airways, the 747-100 series with the more powerful PW JT9D-7 engines and the 747-200 with RR RB211-524 engines.… Continue reading Flying the Boeing 747
747
By Joe Sutter with Jay Spenser Publisher: Smithsonian Books ISBN-13: 978-0-06-088241-9 For some time now we could read a lot about the development problems afflicting the latest big aircraft types. Just think of the Airbus A380, the 787 or the A400M military transport. Proud projects yet they started life with what appears to be more… Continue reading 747