Private Celebrity Jet Planes

It seems like today the latest craze is to travel by private jet charter. Most celebrities do it, in fact a lot of them even own their own planes. People typically assume that ‘normal’ people can’t afford it but it can actually work out cheaper than normal flying, especially for businesses.

Tom Cruise reportedly owns three private jets so it’s unlikely he will ever be stuck for a lift. Perhaps this is a bit over the top and unnecessary but many businesses choose to send their employees by private jet charter because it actually saves them money in the long term. If you take into consideration the cost of a taxi to the airport, the flight prices, food at the airport and the time you have to pay the employee for, this all adds up. Flying by private jet charter saves so much time which means that employers aren’t paying for so much of their employees’ time.

Stars such as John Travolta have even taken it a step further and have learnt how to fly their own planes. Not content with a Boeing 707, he also has four other jets in his front garden. Whilst not everyone can afford this type of extravagance, a flight on a private jet charter can be a great way to impress potential customers and work colleagues. Being picked up in your very own aeroplane is likely to score points with anyone which means that they are more likely to use your company in the future.

Flying by private jet charter can have many advantages. For example, Simon Cowell prefers this method because he can smoke on his own planes whereas he can’t if he flies on a standard aircraft. Other advantages include the fact that if it is for travel purposes you can even conduct meetings on the planes so you save time when you get to the other side. You are also guaranteed complete privacy which means that all passengers can relax and feel comfortable.

It’s hardly surprising that so many celebrities opt to travel by private jet charter. With such busy schedules waiting around an airport or being stuck in traffic for hours can cause massive problems. However, when flying by a private plane all you need to do is simply tell your chosen company what time you need to be somewhere and the rest will be done for you. Perhaps this is the reason why so many companies now choose to send their employees to meetings and conferences by this method of transport.

I’m An Alien, Let Me Fly The Plane

‘I’m an alien, let me fly the plane’
A passenger was arrested lately for banging on the cockpit door of a flight claiming to be an alien and requesting to fly the plane. The flight was diverted to the nearest airport where the man was arrested. Even after testing, it was discovered that the person was not under the influence to anything, very odd!

Read more on News.com.au Travel

Airport Arrivals Palma

If you are looking for a perfect European travel vacation spot, consider Palma, the capital of the Spanish Island Majorca. Extremely affordable and easy to get to, airport arrivals Palma style feature incoming planes from all over Europe; loads of transportation services and some of the best lodging available at any vacation spot.

Airport arrivals Palma style will immediately notice these great features about this sought-after destination including:

• A quant old-town atmosphere rich in historic flare including cobbled streets, a Gothic cathedral, and authentic piazzas
• Some of the most beautiful beaches found in Europe
• An assortment of swanky bars and restaurants
• Fantastic shopping
• Unbelievable lodging options. Stay in an historic European island mansion complete with majestic architectural design or a sleek modern hotel, depending on your needs and style.
• Astronomical art museums and offerings throughout the city

The one thing that new airport arrivals in Palma do not anticipate is falling in love with the city, say those who’ve been there. For most tourists, one visit is not enough and they find themselves drawn to the city again and again.

Northwest Airlines Flight Timetable

Have you ever rushed to get to the airport only to discover that your flight had been delayed? How annoying! Don’t get stuck waiting around at the airport due to those inevitable delays. Make your next trip less hectic and stressful by using Northwest Airline timetable to avoid unnecessary delays at the airport. There are, of course, several ways to obtain the Northwest Airlines Flight Timetable information you need. Here are the most common:

• Email: Northwest Airlines will email everything you need to know about your upcoming flight to your laptop, cell phone or Blackberry simply by sending them a request to do so at flights@nwa.com.
• Downloadable Timetables: in the event you know you will not have access to the internet while travelling, be sure to download at the Northwest Airlines Flight Timetable onto you laptop or other handheld devise via their website to have access to all of the information needed regarding your flight.
• Flight Alerts: one of the fastest and easiest ways to keep up with changes in your flight’s schedule is to sign up for email or text flight alerts when buying your tickets. That way, you will be sure to get the message when your flight is delayed via your phone, computer or other electronic device.

Getting stuck at the airport doesn’t have to ruin an otherwise good trip. Be sure to avoid annoying delays by keeping up to date with your flight’s status using one of the tracking options listed above.

China Facing The Skies With Many Hurdles

As it has tried to do with almost everything, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) wants to put its finger print in the buoying field of wide-body aircraft development. During the summer of 2006, Chinese aerospace officials expressed their intentions of producing a big body, commercial airplane within a fifteen year range. The project, which is interimly known as Program ‘Jumbo’, is an integral part of China’s Five Year Economic Developing Plan.

Jumbo’s profile calls for an air platform with 150 passenger seats and a weight of more than 220,000 pounds at time of takeoff, which will make it bigger then Boeing’s 757 and in the same class of the Seattle-based companys highly successful Boeing 767 type. Plans are in the works to complete the first model and have it flying by the end of the decade.

At the same time, a parallel program designed to deliver the Jumbo’s massive engines is well underway. With full backing of the PRC, a domestic aerospace group named Avic I is developing a revolutionary turbofan engine with greater thrust than the best know western one, the CFM-56 and V-2500. But despite full monetary and an all out technical support from the government, Avic I is still a few years away from completing its first testing model. Thus, the possibility that Jumbo will be initially fitted with western-provided engines is all but assured.

China is also working on a cargo version of the Jumbo, which, according to government insiders, will come out first. The new plane will have roughly the same dimensions as Boeing’s 787.

While both programs are showing signs of promise, there are still problems associated with both projects. Although China’s two main aerospace bureaus, Avic I and II, already have long lasting experiences building parts for western planes, both companies failed to put together a commercially-successful domestic assembly line for their western-demanded products. Their main attempt, the MD-90, in which most of the newly produced ARJ-21 regional jet’s technology has derived, can be considered a monumental failure.

The only source of encouragement is China’s ability to reproduce 787 parts, which had allowed the firms currently doing the work to gain valuable experience in the handling of carbon-fiber products. Still, as good as the Chinese have become at duplicating western technologies, they, are far from the development of a reliable and efficient wide-body aircraft that can attract international interest.

Time has shown that without massive government subsidies, the nascent Chinese aerospace industry simply can not produce the much advertised Jumbo. Unfortunately for the industry, no huge government investment is on the horizon as China needs to keep up with the World Trade Organization’s strict free trade rules. There’s also another factor to consider. One that could jeopardize the entire project: technology.

For years, aluminum airframes offered a slow-moving target for aircraft development startups, which knew that even if the design was conservative, the key to their efficiency laid on their ability to buy off the shelf engines. But dramatic advances in structural design and systems done for the 787 and Airbus A350, means that no conservative design will be profitable, no matter how efficient it turns out to be.

To add more, current state-assured funding will run out before the second stage of the Jumbo program is completed. In 2009, the PRC began slashing the budgets of several, non essential projects and although no Jumbo money was touched, chances are history will not repeat itself come next July. Industry experts believe that budgetary availability for the entire cycle needs to be maintained until the production line for the Jumbo, now a few years away, is up, running and profitable. Yet another challenge for the entire enterprise is to earn a reputation as a reliable supplier.

An article by Raul Colon: rcolonfrias@yahoo.com

Cheaper Days to Fly

Before you plan your next trip, you may want to consider what day of the week you fly. Believe it or not, there are actually cheaper days to fly. There are three things that drive airline pricing: competition, demand and inventory. When it comes to finding cheaper days to fly, you will want to concentrate on demand. The less demand there is for airline seats, the less expensive they will be. Here are some tips to consider when looking for cheap flight seats:

• Book flights on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Saturdays for the best deals. Be sure to book a Saturday night stay-over for the absolute cheapest tickets.
• Always fly in the early morning.
• Look to see which days are the least travelled days in and out of specific areas. Stay away from busy days when everyone else wants to book their flight.
• The cheapest airfares are found in the spring and summer months when business travel is down and more seats are available.

Finding the absolute best deals on airfare requires doing a little research to determine cheaper days to fly which means figuring out when everyone else wants to get out of town, and book your flight on another day.

Air Asia Flight Booking

Air Asia flight booking is now easier than ever. There is no need to call a travel agent every time you want to travel within Air Asia’s long haul destination routes. Use AirAsia X to get the best deal on longer flights, plus, by using their new AirAsia X online service you can time when booking your next flight. This innovative online service allows those travelling longer journeys to:

• Keep up with all of the airline’s newest destination offerings
• Take advantage of all of Air Asia’s promotions (even those that are generally left unadvertised)
• Book your next flight online without the hassle of using an agent
• Book your next flight without re-entering your details every time you want to purchase online tickets
• Book flights longer than four hours at the least expense using Air Asia’s newest cost-cutting service, AirAsiaX

Traveling within the Asian corridor doesn’t have to be a hassle any longer. Air Asia flight booking just got a whole lot easier, thanks to this new online service that offers fast and easy access to all of your booking needs. For more information about Air Asia flight booking options click onto www.airasia.com.

Buffalo Flight 3407

It was a normal Thursday morning, until a plane spun out of control from the sky in near Niagara Falls, crashing into a home killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground. Called the worst aviation accident in Western New York history, ice was ultimately blamed for the crash. Some of the reasons why ice buildup is being blamed for the Buffalo Flight 3407 crash include:

• poor weather conditions reported in the area prior to the crash
• recordings of the pilot and co-pilot recovered from the crash site indicated a discussion between the two of significant ice accumulation noticed on the plane’s wings
• after the wing flaps were lowered for an impending landing the plane experienced severe pitch and roll which can be caused by icing
• no mayday call was sent out by the pilot indicating an unanticipated crash

Buffalo Flight 3407 is just one of many aircraft over the years which have experienced devastating results of improper deicing procedures or a build-up of ice on the plane’s wings and/or engines during the flight. While new mandatory deicing procedures are being investigated why the airline industry, none have been implemented thus far following this or any other accident.

Flight 1549 Tapes

Anyone who watched the fateful landing of Flight 1549 into the Hudson River last January knew that the Flight 1549 tapes would be just as dramatic as the landing itself.

Those who listened to the exchange between Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger III and the control tower after their release by the FAA couldn’t help but feel their own heart race as the exhilaration of the moment became even more real through the voices they heard.

If you were not lucky enough to hear the Flight 1549 tapes yourself, here are a few of the highlights:

• The Captain alerted the tower at LaGuardia just 2 minutes and 32 seconds after take-off that the plane was in trouble
• While the Captain’s voice remained strong and calm he did give the wrong flight number to the tower during his transmission, indicating at least some level of stress
• Busy conducting an engine restart checklist, the First officer left all radio control to the Captain
• Making two runways available to the plane for an emergency landing, the Captain declined both, opting instead for an emergency water landing in the Hudson River
• All 155 passengers aboard the airbus survived the crash

Nothing less than a miraculous landing, the flight 1549 tapes indicate an extremely well-handled landing by all involved including tower personnel; flight crew and emergency services personnel on the ground and water.

The Tempest: Finland’s Myrsky II 26

During the Second World War, many countries in Europe designed and produced combat aircraft. Chief among them was Nazi Germany, but there were also a number of small, industrial-based countries, such as Romania, Poland and others; that developed and eventually fielded military airplanes. One of them was the Nordic country of Finland. As relationships with the Soviet Union commenced to deteriorate in the early part of 1941, Finland launched a crash program to develop a fighter aircraft capable of defending the country vast airspace in the spring of that year. Spearheading the effort was E. Wageluis of the Valtion Lentokonetehdas, a state-owned aeronautical industry established in the autumn of 1928. The program produced immediate results when in 1942 it rolled-out the prototype of what would become the Myrsky fighter airplane. The original version was a low wing, single seated monoplane design. It was built out of wood and metal sections and was fitted with a tricycle, re-tractable landing gear. A Swedish licensed version of the popular Pratt & Whitney SCg-3 Twin Wasp, 14-cylinder, radial cooled engine capable of generating 1,650hp powered the Myrsky (Tempest). The aircraft possessed four heavy machine guns installed on the frontend of the fuselage and synchronized to fire through the engine propeller disc. An in depth testing of the new fighter commenced immediately. Although the aircraft incorporated many modern features, its handling performance was sluggish at best. Three improved prototypes followed the original model. These units were designed Tempest I. As with the first unit, these prototypes were submitted to rigorous testing which showed many structural and technical problems associated with the design. The most problematic situation expose by the extensive testing was that the wing composite covering tended to detach from the wing skeleton under high pressure. Adding to this was the relative easy of which the landing gear tended to collapse. In fact, the four original aircrafts were destroyed during the test phase of the program by these same conditions, thus delaying the deployment of the aircraft. The next version of the Tempest incorporated all of its predecessors systems plus the added modifications to the coverings and the landing gear structure. What came out of this integration would be the last operational-ready variant of the Tempest, the II.

SPECIFICATIONS

Wingspan 36′-4″
Length 27′-5″
Height 9′-10″
Maximum Take off Weight 7,088lb
Top Speed 328 mph
Service Ceiling 29,572′
Operational Range 579 miles

Forty six units of the Tempest II were eventually produced. There were plans to mass produce the next Myrsky version, the number III. Developed during the early part of 1944, the III would had incorporated the same fuselage of the II, but would had have an improve engine and a more sophisticated defensive arm mechanism. Ten aircraft were produced of this version, none of them were completed. The whole Tempest program was halted when hostilities with the Soviet Union was over. The operational Tempest saw limited action at the beginning of 1944, but by this time the outcome of the war against the Soviet was already determinate. Finland was forced to sign a peace treaty with the Soviets in September 1944, and shortly after, the Finnish turned what remained of its military against their formed allies, Germany and Italy. The aircraft performed poorly against the best German fighters and was removed from front line service in December. What remained of the Tempest II fighter force was relegated to ground support and reconnaissance duties, which they were nearly, shoot out of the air by the Axis. After the war, the few remained Myrsky were transferred by Finland to France where they served as target tugs until they were decommissioned on 1947.

References:
1 Air Power, Stephen Budiansky, Penguin Books 2004
2 The Myth of The Great War: A New Military History of WW I, John Mosier, Perennial 2001
4 The Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft, Edt Paul Eden, Amber Books 2007

An article by Raul Colon: rcolonfrias@yahoo.com

Next Page »