Airplane Geeks Podcast
I sat down with the guys over at the Airplane Geeks last week to record a podcast and we covered a ton of ground including 787, A350, CSeries, the future of Southwest’s fleet, NextGen ATC and much more. I had a great time chatting with Max and Court and can’t wait to do it again soon. There’s just something so wonderful about sitting down and talking about aviation. When you boil it all down, I’m just an airplane geek. Also, they asked for a prediction for 787 first flight: June 26, 2009 12:04 PM. That’s a made up guess, but you heard it here first. :-p
Defense Budget
The Obama Administration and Department of Defense will release the annual budget today. The D.E.W. Line will be covering the announcement live at 1:30 PM ET. The announcement will provide some answers to long standing questions regarding ABL, F-22, F-35, VH-71 and possibly even the tanker battle.
A380 White Tails?
Bloomberg News raised the spectre of Airbus only delivering 15 of 18 planned A380s for 2009. A survey conducted of the 15 airlines and 1 lessor yielded surprising results. Only 15 of the aircraft were locked in for deliveries this year. Bloomberg points to the results as a shortfall in production, but Aviation Week reporter Robert Wall suggests that it’s more a function of too much supply coupled with limited demand.
Speaking of A380s, MSN027 (QF no. 5) was flown to XFW on April 2nd followed by MSN029 (QF no. 6) the following day. Next to fly will be MSN023 (EK) then MSN040 (AFR no. 2). MSN051 (SQ no. 11) showed up in TLS last week by convoy as well for final assembly.
Scoreboard
Looks like between the two manufacturers, the score is Airbus 22, Boeing 23 in gross orders for 2009. Though the net totals tell a different story. Airbus is currently a 8 and Boeing at -4 when cancellations are counted into the net total. Worth nothing, the CSeries has had a total of 50 order this year so far, more than both Airbus and Boeing combined. Yes, the orders were expected in 2008, but it’s still an important figure.
Future Proof
Flight journalist Aimee Turner has begun blogging about the future of
aviation. We’re not talking 2020 here, we’re talk 2120. She’s got some
really neat stuff brewing over at Future Proof. Take a look.
This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.
This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.