FlightBlogger Archive 2007-2012

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  • Travel Night and Day: Around the world the wrong way – LHR-SFO

    Booking a last minute flight to Seattle has landed me in seat 24D on
    board this United 777-200ER (N294UA) to Seattle on flight 955. Going
    to be 11 hours to the west coast from here and the Grassy Knoll in
    Everett cannot come soon enough. Catch you Stateside. FlightBlogger out.

    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.

  • Travel Night and Day: Around the world the wrong way – SIN-LHR

    Greetings from seat 75K on the upper deck of Singapore Airlines A380
    9V-SKC! With the massive disruption about to befall Washington, DC
    with the arrival of two feet of snow, my route back to the US has
    changed considerably. More importantly, with 747-8F first flight as
    little as four days away, I’m bound for Seattle! My routing takes me
    to London first (as was part of my original itinerary) and then to San
    Francisco aboard a United 777-200ER, followed by a final leg to
    Seattle on a 757-200. Yes, I know that’s 12,000 miles of flying the
    wrong way to the west coast from southeast Asia, but the disruption
    caused by the weather in DC only allowed me to alter my UA flight as
    my SQ leg was booked separately and there was no change
    fee…etc…etc. Either way, I should be in Seattle by Saturday
    evening. It’s going to be a long ride. Next stop London…in 15 hours
    and 30 min.

    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.

  • #SIN10: Flightglobal brings you day two with iFDN

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    The Flightglobal iFDN team has the Singapore air show covered with the second edition of our interactive daily. Also, check out a video wrap up Siva Govindasamy and I did a the end of day two (below the fold). There were no commercial orders through day two in Singapore, as the discussion turned once again to the re-engining of the A320 and 737, while on the defense side, Joint Strike Fighter was making headlines.

    iFDN-day2cover.jpg

    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.

  • IT’S OFFICIAL: 747-8F First Flight window opens Feb. 8, 10 AM

    One day before the forty-first anniversary of the first flight of the 747-100, the latest iteration of Boeing’s jumbo jet is set to take to the skies for the first time on its maiden sortie.

    The first flight window opens on February 8, 2009 at 1000 AM PT (1800 GMT) and will see the aircraft – designated RC501 – take off from runway 34L at Paine Field at Boeing’s Everett, Washington facility.
    The flight, unlike the 787, will return to Everett after Mark Feuerstein and Tom Imrich spend three to five hours flying over Washington. During the initial airworthiness trials, the aircraft will be based at Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, then will transfer to Palmdale, California when RC521 and RC522 start flying.

    That being said, as I write this I’m still in Southeast Asia due to be back in Washington, DC (via London) on Saturday afternoon. Though Mother Nature could not care less about my travel arrangements and plans to deliver 12-20 inches of snow to the DC area on Friday and Saturday making my East Coast return a pretty big open question. I’m currently trying to establish the best (time and cost effective) route to Seattle that may have to bypass DC altogether. Needless to say, it’s a question that needs to be answered shortly.

    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.

  • Bombardier says “watch this space” on future G650 competitor

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    At the Dubai air show in November we got a first glimpse at Bombardier’s M170 product, its answer to the Gulfstream G650 in the long-range large-cabin business jet market. The aircraft is widely rumored to be set for its public debut at EBACE in Geneva in May. During Bombardier’s briefing today I had an opportunity to ask David Dixon, head of Asia-Pacific for Bombardier business aircraft about what the future holds for this mystery aircraft. Mr. Dixon didn’t show his company’s hand, but certainly stirred the pot.

    Jon Ostrower: Can you talk about the future potential for the M170 product you’re looking at to take on the G650 as a clean sheet design and where that stands and when we can hope to hear more about it?

    David Dixon:     There isn’t a new program launched at this point. That said, Bombardier has launched 25 airplanes since 1989, so we’re always watching the market and responding to what the market needs.

    I put it to you this way, take a look at what that product is [G650] it’s actually playing catch up, it’s not a bigger fuselage cabin, it has other features, it goes a bit further but it is just coming up to the Global Express so I think they’re [Gulfstream] is trying to come along side, rather than overtake.

    But watch this space, we’re always looking at the market and we’ve maintained our investments historically, so I would say there will be new airplanes whether it’s going to be competing with the 650 or any others, I don’t know.

    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.

  • #SIN10: Flightglobal covers day one with the premier of iFDN

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    Never content to rest on our laurels, the Flightglobal team has stepped out on the edge of digital publishing once again bringing you a perspective of the Singapore air show never before seen. Our first issue of iFDN, or interactive Flight Daily News, is the collaboration of a small team here in Singapore and in London at the Flightglobal headquarters. Our premier issue has just been published and I invite you to explore its interactive pages seeing all the multimedia resources we’ve brought to bear. We’d love to get your feedback on the final product.

    iFDN-day1cover.jpg

    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.

  • Boeing places 757 replacement under purview of future 737 planning

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    SINGAPORE — During his Asia Pacific market briefing, I asked Boeing vice president of marketing, Randy Tinseth, about the future of an oft–discussed mid-range 787 and it’s potential for the future. The exchange yielded an interesting answer:

    Jon Ostrower: Looking beyond the 787-3, your customers have indicated a need for a medium range 787, somewhere in the trans-continetnal 3,000 to 4,000 mile range, do you see an opportunity now take the 787 to adapt it to that market?

    Randy Tinseth:     So the question is are we going to design a 787 with the range of a 757?I’ll tell you, it’s not in the plans today, but over the last week we did some changes at Boeing and one of those changes is we brought Mike Bair, who was my boss, to now lead our single aisle development efforts.

    That type of airplane, whatever it might be, would fall under the Mike Bair regime as we go forward.     No plans at this date, do we have customers that our interested in an airplane that has the same capacity and range as a 757? Yes. We sold 1000 of them. There is some need out there, the question is when do we build that, can we build that, does it make economic sense for us and for our customers?

    The last 757 rolled off the Renton line in 2004 and was “replaced” by the 737-900ER which has a 700nm and 21 seat shortfall in a two class configuration compared to the 757-200. Boeing classifies the single aisle 757 nominally as a 201-seat aircraft in a two class configuration with a range of 3,900nm. 

    Will the replacement for the venerable narrow-bodies take the form of a two model solution spanning the 125 to 200 seat range? Or will Boeing surrender the sub-150-seat market to its Canadian, Brazilian, Japanese and Russian competitors, building a single type optimized to ~180-seats stretched to meet the demands of today’s 737-800 through to the 757-200?

    The game just got interesting.

    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.

  • Video & Photos: Airbus A330-200F makes air show debut in Singapore

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    SINGAPORE — On Monday morning, Airbus invited journalists on-board the A330-200F here in Singapore. The aircraft on display here at the show is one of two -200Fs taking part in the flight test campaign that will culminate in first delivery to Etihad Crystal Cargo around July. Didier Lenormand, head of freighter marketing for Airbus, took us through the Pratt & Whitney powered aircraft.

    I had a chance to talk to him about the prospects for an A330-300F and its market potential. He shared with me that a launch decision on the -330F would come later this year and would see retiring A330-300 passenger aircraft converted to medium-haul freighters around 2013 or 2014. Lenormand says that a cargo integrator has already expressed great interest in a conversion program. That quickly narrows down the possibilities for a customer: UPS, FedEx, TNT and/or DLH. 
    We also discussed the prospects of an A350 freighter, which he said is currently in the concept phase for a 2017/2018 entry into service, but made a specific point of discussing the challenges of mounting a cargo door on a composite fuselage compared to an aluminum fuselage. He was unsure whether or not both 787 or A350 has the potential of becoming a new-build or a converted freighter later in its life. He specifically cited managing the load paths of the composite material as the primary challenge for designing a new-build freighter out of a composite fuselage.

    “It will be interesting to see how 787 gets a door on a purely composite structure. Because first, it’s a major change to an airplane even to design a door on a new build airplane. It’s a big change because you have all these openings there where you need to reallocate all the stress to the structure, because you generate in the structure of the plane, and in the integrity of the aircraft, a weakness. So, we have see how those are going to do for new build.”

    Boeing said in May 2008 that it is “ready for a 787 freighter” and requirements for such an aircraft were placed into the initial design of the aircraft. Lenormand’s comment certainly illuminates what Airbus believes its own challenges are for developing an composite fuselage freighter sometime in the next decade.
    MANY PHOTOS BELOW THE FOLD

    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.

  • #SIN10: Day Zero Round-Up – “My shoes are melting” Edition

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    It’s 82 F degrees here with 89% humidity and I think my shoes started melting while walking the static display this morning. I’ve posted about 142 photos from the show so far, so feel free to take a look at those. We’ve got another busy day ahead here with briefings from Boeing, Mitsubishi, Piper, Cessna and Gulfsteam coming up. Keep an eye on our Singapore air show portal page for all the Flightglobal coverage from here at Changi.

    There are a lot of us here at #SIN10, so keep an eye on these Twitter feeds: @flightblogger, @sivag, @flightglobal, @flightdoyle and @cockburnb. There’s even more coverage on Tumblr too.

    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.

  • The FAA might have a few questions about the ARJ21

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    SINGAPORE — Roaming the display floor while it’s still being set up one of my perennial air show rituals. Walking amongst the organized chaos as the show is set up often yields interesting observations on the products on display for the week. At China’s Comac stand, the ARJ21 and C919 are prominently displayed in company colors. The ARJ21 even includes a cutaway fuselage to reveal the interior arrangement of the five-abreast economy seating and four-abreast first class.

    As you look to the back of the aircraft, you’ll notice the gray outline of the rear exit. Curiously, it sits directly next to the inlet of the aircraft’s General Electric CF34 engines. I’m no expert on aircraft safety, but common sense tells me that in the event of an emergency evacuation, waiting until the engines have sufficiently spooled down might not be the most realistic option. Comac said just last week that it wants to see FAA approval for the ARJ21. I would have to believe that emergency evacuation is going to be close to the top of the list of items the FAA wants to discuss with Comac.

    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.