Flight International Blog featured this great story from the first A380 visit to the US. This also explains why the JFK flight arrived 19 minutes earlier than the LAX flight. The rivalry is real.

Boeing has never knowingly oversold the rival A340’s slowness in its own marketing presentations for the 747 and 777. The slowness of the A340-200/300 is indeed legendary – there’s even a painting of a 747-400 in flight where the caption reads: “…and just below can be seen an A340 that is being overtaken”. Imagine Airbus’s unbridled glee therefore when on the first ever commercial route proving flight of the A380 to New York last week the opportunity came to settle some very high profile public relations scores.

The flight operated in collaboration with future A380 customer Lufthansa was cruising over the Atlantic at M0.85 and was about to slow down to coordinate with the LAX-bound A380 sister flight when the crew spotted one of BA’s 747s plying its own lonely furrow to the New World. Never slow to acknowledge the broader irony of the encounter, the Airbus-Lufthansa flight crew accelerated to M0.87 and overtook it. The 747, not to be outdone, responded in kind and crept up to M0.87 as well.

The A380 soon had to drop back to M0.83 for the rest of the way however in an effort to co-ordinate its arrival with the LAX flight. It was still early ahead of schedule – landing at 12.10 at New York Kennedy and slightly ahead of the tandem LAX flight whose distinctly imaginative landing repertoire caused several raised eyebrows on either side of the continent.
By Aimee Turner

Along with occasional commentary on aviation matters, this page will feature flight plans of interesting scheduled airline flights. Today’s flight, one I’ve taken several dozen times, is a jetBlue Airways flight from BOS to IAD. jetBlue began flying this route when it received the first of their Embraer ERJ-190s. The 190 has been rather buggy in its first years of service with airlines. This has led to many flights being delayed and has reduced dispatch reliability. jetBlue contracted four ERJ-145s from ExpressJet to maintain capacity as the 190s are taken out of service for the software upgrade.

Whatever problems jetBlue has encountered with the 190, I, as a passenger love the experience. The windows are massive, giving a great view of the Boston skyline on climb out and if you happen to be sitting on the left side of the airplane, an excellent view of Manhattan and the five boroughs. The approach to Dulles on a clear day provides beautiful views of the Blue Ridge mountains. If you’re really lucky you’ll be able to catch a glimpse of downtown DC about 30 miles away from Dulles.

GLYDE BAF J77 SAX J6 LRP HYPER1

All E190 flights over North America.

Popular Science magazine got one of the coveted spots on the A380 for it’s maiden visit to the United States. Here the footage, which includes a cockpit visit and a full walk-through of the lower deck. I’m not sure we’ll ever see an A380 wearing the colors of an American airline, like the 777-300, we’ll only be able to see it in foreign paint. Forget Airbus and Boeing rivalries, I don’t think any aviation enthusiast isn’t excited about seeing this plane.

The birth of any blog reminds me of an eternal question, “If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” The answer, especially when you’re a blogger, is yes. It’s almost like talking to yourself.

Now that I have my undivided attention, it brings me to the theme of this blog. Aviation. I’m pretty sure I’ve loved flying since I was born. I can’t quite remember the first time I fell in love with flying, it was always a passion of mine. If it laughs in the face of gravity I love it.

Aviation has had a transformative effect on society over the last 103 and a half years. Flight, has had an enormous impact on how peoples communicate with one another. Aviation in the 21st century had fomented the creation of complex networks, linking people in distant points who would otherwise be separated. For example, the impact of the 747 on global public diplomacy from Air Force One to its flagship status for the airlines of many nations has brought a nation’s ideas and values to the rest of the world. New aircraft are connecting the world in ways never thought possible.

Andreas Lowenfeld commented in a 1975 issue of Foreign Affairs in an article titled A New Takeoff for International Air Transport captured the role of global aviation precisely:

“International aviation is thus not just another problem in a changing economic system, though it is that; international civil aviation is a serious problem in international relations, affecting the way governments view one another, the way individual citizens view their own foreign countries, and in a variety of direct and indirect connections and the security arrangements by which we live.” – Andreas Lowenfeld

This blog will explore all that global aviation has to offer and its impact whether technologically, politically, scientifically, economically, militarily or even artistically. To all those who aren’t paying attention to this blog yet, I say welcome. Stay tuned.