Planes

The Little Twin Engine That Can’t

Strong headwinds have led to sharp increase in the number of transatlantic Continental Airlines flights forced to make unscheduled stops to refuel, the Wall Street Journal reports.  The airline, owned by United Continental Holdings, has pushed the envelope by aggressively…

Southwest Does the Right Thing and Grounds Airplanes

On Friday, a Southwest Airlines flight lost cabin pressure after the fuselage ruptured. This is not the first time that this has happened, of course. There was an unrelated incident last year where a Southwest plane made an emergency landing after decompression, and Southwest has even grounded some of its fleet before.

Boeing Rolling Out the New 747

While the 787 Dreamliner is still experiencing serious delays, the latest iteration of the Boeing 747, the 747-8, is set to roll out today. The 747-8 Intercontinental boasts new wings, a new tail, a sharper nose, state of the art…

2nd Anniversary of the Miracle on the Hudson

Two years ago, US Airways Flight 1549, outbound from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte’s Douglas Airport, suffered a bird strike, which disabled its engines. The flight, operated by an Airbus A320, was piloted by now legendary Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, and first officer Jeffrey B. Skiles.

The ATR Turboprop

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Earlier today, September 13th, an ATR-42 turboprop crashed in Venezuela(More on that here). It seemed like a good time to share a few facts about the aircraft.

Airlines Finally Figure Out People Hate 50-seater Regional Jets

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We’ve never been particularly fond of fifty seater regional jets. They don’t have the comfort that we desire in an airline experience. It is not that we object to a smaller aircraft, but merely the idea that a smaller aircraft has to be a significantly less pleasant experience than a larger one.

Flight Wisdom Briefing 22

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Our editor is back from his trip. Check out his review on the Auto Train. Meanwhile, back into the swing of things. Lots of business to take care of.

Flight Wisdom Briefing 18

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This is Briefing 18. We’re still eager to get guest editorials. Those of you interested, please contact us. A guest editorial would be a 1-3 minute opinion on a relevant topic of your choice. It can be recorded over Skype or alternate digital means. We’re sure, while you aren’t tired of the Flight Wisdom Guru, you’d welcome additional variety.

Flight Wisdom Briefing 14

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:25 — 3.1MB) This is the Flight Wisdom Guru with Briefing #14, once again reporting in from Flight Wisdom HQ…We ran a little long today, and will try to have a second…

Flight Wisdom Briefing 13

Helper Monkeys, new site developments, and a Fly Girls editorial….this time on the Flight Wisdom Briefing

Flight Wisdom Briefing 10

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After this Briefing, our editor will be heading on the road for a few days. Lots of interesting things going on, but we’re bringing along our portable recording equipment to report on it.

Flight Wisdom Briefing 7

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Lots of exciting new service in this briefing. We have tried a few different variations of our opening and closing. We’ll continue to mix it up a bit, but if you have any suggestions on how to improve the Briefing, please contact us.

Flight Wisdom Briefing 5

We wanted to get a special release of the briefing in commemoration of Peter Graves.

Flight Wisdom Briefing 3

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:55 — 1.9MB) Image by Dave Sizer via Flickr As we continue to perfect the Brief, we offer a new opener, as well as a tribute to this Day in Aviation History.…

The 787 Dreamliner Takes to the Skies

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Today is a historic day in the history of flight, one of many, but one we are happy to share with our fellow aviation enthusiasts. We couldn’t be there, so we have sourced some of these pictures from David Parker Brown at AirlineReporter.com.

Air France A380 Arrives in New York

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The first Air France flight to New York using the Airbus A380 landed today. The flight included the 380 winning bidders in an auction that raised 300,000 euros for five humanitarian projects for children in need. The plane will begin daily service on the route from New York-JFK to Paris-Charles de Gaulle on Monday.

Lufthansa to Bring Back In Flight WiFi

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Image via Wikipedia Lufthansa is bringing back in-flight wi-fi. As reported by Upgrade Travel, Lufthansa will be the first transatlantic carrier to put out a comprehensive plan for wi-fi connectivity after Boeing discontinued its in-flight wi-fi offering. Lufthansa’s system, called…

Another JetBlue E190 Smokes

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Image via Wikipedia On Friday, we posted about two JetBlue Embraer 190s that made emergency landings due to smoke and fire situations. In addition to Flight 654, which last Monday made an emergency landing at Kennedy after taking off for…

Two JetBlue Flights Make Emergency Landing

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Image by E-Mans av8pix.com via Flickr We waited for JetBlue‘s response to this incident, which occurred yesterday. Flight 1781, with 89 passengers onboard, departed Orlando at 12:34, scheduled to arrive at 1:35. A fire broke out in the left-hand side…

Yemenia Black Boxes Found

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Image via Wikipedia The Flight Data and Voice Recorders from the Yemenia flight that crashed off the Comoros islands have been recovered. Only one person survived the crash of the Airbus aircraft, and hopefully, the information gained from them will…

New Schedule Up for the 787 Dreamliner

Boeing Delays First Test Flight Of New 787 Again

Image by Getty Images via Daylife Boeing expects to fly the 787 Dreamliner by the end of this year, and deliver the first one in the last quarter of next year. Once the last bugs are worked out, and the…