Korean Air took delivery of its first A380. The only 380 in the world to feature all business class upstairs, a duty free lounge and an in-flight luxury lounge for business and First customers with bar, sofas and TV. Their pilots are getting assessed. The Korean government aviation authority will approve the massive plane and then the sixth airline in the world will start flying between Seoul-Incheon and Tokyo-Narita on June 17. Flights to USA and Europe will follow. I hope to fly Korean’s A380 in October. That will be my fourth airline A380 experience. I have flown Emirates,…
Aeroplane News (Saturday)
Category Archives for Aeroplane News (Saturday).
787 finally here?
I want to fly on it! Three years after their they were promised their 787, ANA may finally get it in August/September, 2011. ANA is the launch customer for the Boeing 787 and has ordered 55 of the Dreamliners. In July, Boeing and All Nippon Airways (ANA) will be using plane ZA002, a test 787 to simulate normal operations including maintenance, towing and refueling. It is anticipated that the plane will fly between Tokyo Haneda Airport and Osaka, Okayama and Hiroshima. ANA has had pilots in a training program run by Boeing Training & Flight Services learning how to fly the plane with “some…
What happened to the Airbus A330 that went down in 2009?
As a very frequent flyer with 752 take offs and 752 landings now, I am particularly keen to keep the number of my landings the same as the number of take offs. Any investigations, therefore, into plane crashes interest me. Call me morbid or possessing an active self preservation interest? You may remember Air France 447 that was en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on 31 May 2009 (exactly two years ago). It plunged into the ocean off the coast of Brazil. After an almost two year search, the black boxes belonging to the A330 have been found and investigated by France’s…
A380 Bang
Here’s a great reason to ALWAYS wear a seat belt on a plane even when its stationery on the ground. I cant believe how many seat belts I hear being opened seconds after a plane lands. Have you seen the video where the Air France A380 jet at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport hits the tail section of a Bombardier CRJ 700 Regional Jet? The smaller plane spins a quarter turn on the taxiway! The A380 was operating Air France Flight 7 to Paris and was taxing to take off. It had 495 passengers and 25 crew members…
Qantas A380- 75% useless
The bad news for the Qantas A380s continues. This blog post by Brett Snyder describes why the A380s are almost useless to them.Qantas cannot use the existing engines on their route between Australia and the USA. They need engines with as much thrust as possible to get the plane up in the air with very full fuel tanks. They need that fuel to make it across the Pacific. There is a way out – operate the plane with 80 passengers instead of 450…not an economic proposition. Brett outlines the issues and dilemmas well.
What happened to Qantas QF32
For me it was a double grief: My much loved airline (Qantas) and my all time favourite plane: the Super Jumbo A380 – both tainted. Worse my favourite engine type, the Rolls Royce is in disgrace. Up to now, I had always felt safer flying with the best of British engineering. A Qantas flight powered by Rolls Royce? Mythically in my mind this meant creme de la creme! On November 4, this all changed. In a highly publicised incident, on that day, aircraft VH-OQA called Nancy Bird Walton, (which was in fact the first of…
Is Qantas now unsafe?
Charlie: Ray, all airlines have crashed at one time or another, that doesn’t mean that they are not safe. Raymond: QANTAS. QANTAS never crashed. Charlie: QANTAS? Raymond: Never crashed. Charlie: Oh that’s gonna do me a lot of good because QANTAS doesn’t fly to Los Angeles out of Cincinnati, you have to get to Melbourne! Melbourne, Australia in order to get the plane that flies to Los Angeles! In those words from the movie “Rain Man”, Qantas was immortalised as the world’s safest airline. What was not strictly true was the “never crashed” statement. Qantas, which…
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