Friday Fun – Flying Wing Experiment

I have recently found this video on YouTube. It’s not really a joke, more of an interesting experimental flight from more than 10 years ago. I just thought I’d share it with you as it looks kind of funny that a wing can fly on its own! 🙂

by balint01

Two FedEx Planes Almost Collided

Two FedEx jets got too close to each other on takeoff from Memphis Airport (MEM) because of confusion over flight numbers for the planes.

On Feb. 21, two aircraft flying in the same direction on takeoff came within 200 feet vertically and 3/4 of a mile horizontally to each other, an FAA spokesperson said. Separation should have been at least 1,000 feet vertically and 3 miles horizontally.

The incident began with the pilot of one plane getting on the wrong radio frequency “and accepting instructions intended for another aircraft. The flights had similar numbers – FDX527 (an MD-10 to Boston) and FDX257 (a DC-10 bound for Aguadilla, Puerto Rico (BQN).

The incident, which the FAA classified as serious air traffic control error, remained under investigation.

The air traffic controllers union blamed the incident and other recent mistakes by controllers at Memphis on short staffing and forced overtime.

By Szafi 

Ryanair’s New Booking Engine – Now What?

The media was loud about Ryanair’s new booking engine to be launched this Monday. I even read it in the news that they managed to migrate and the turned their site back on even before deadline.

I tried to test it yesterday evening, but I ran into errors all the time. Then I gave it up and tried it again this morning.

I was surprised to find out that nothing has changed. I tried to book a flight between Budapest and Glasgow for 2 persons. First I received a price of HUF 7990 for the outbound flight and the same price for the return flight. Then I selected them and on the next page I found 14 990 for both ways because of the 2 persons. Besides that on both ways they showed me taxes and fees and in the end the total cost was HUF 54 160 (1 Eur = 260 HUF). So nothing is true about showing gross prices. (See screenshot for details)

I am wondering if they failed the upgrade and this is still the old version of their online booking engine or if this is the new engine and the managed to slap the whole worldwide media on the face.

There is only one more thing to mention about the whole story. I tried to find a media contact to them. It is not available on their website or anywhere else. Although I am a kind of a fan of Mr O’Leary, I don’t get this. it is absolutely not professional.

By Szafi

Russian Authorities Blocked Lufthansa’s Accounts

According to local media, Russian taxation authorities closed down the accounts of Lufthansa in Russia. The radical step was necessary, because Lufthansa accumulated an EUR 5-7 million tax debt – Russian taxation office said.

They added there was a debate between the company and the authority about the understanding and adaptation of local tax regulations. The amount of money blocked on the accounts of Lufthansa is not known.

There had been conflicts between Lufthansa and Russian authorities earlier as well. Last October Lufthansa’s cargo company (Lufthansa Cargo) was not allowed to fly in to Russian aerospace due to a debate about the usage of aerospace over the country and the authority banned Lufthansa Cargo from entering Russia without any preliminary notification on 28 October 2007.

(Source: dpa) 

 By Szafi

A380 Grounded With Fuel Problems

Singapore Airlines said Tuesday an A380 superjumbo flight was canceled due to a fuel pump defect, the first major technical glitch to ground the world’s largest passenger jet.

The carrier said the fuel pump problem was detected when the plane’s engine was started ahead of departure Monday night on a flight from Singapore to Sydney.

“Airbus and our own engineers have dedicated teams to try to address these issues quickly, but last night’s fuel pump defect took much longer to fix,” Singapore Airlines said in an e-mailed statement to The Associated Press.

The airline said it had to switch to using a Boeing 747-400, which seats fewer people than the Airbus jet, because a replacement of the fuel pump failed to solve the problem. The company’s second A380 could not be used as it was undergoing maintenance.

Source: AP

By Szafi

 

Friday fun – Now With Extra Headroom

The following commercial is really funny. Although we hardly know the airline itself, this commercial will make it a little bit more famous.

Enjoy your weekend!

By Szafi

No Booking At Ryanair For 3 Days

Ryanair is temporarily closing down both its online and call center booking office between 10 pm on 22 February and 11 pm on 25 February. This painful step is necessary, because the airline migrates to a new booking engine that will comply with EU’s regulation to include all taxes and extra fees into the ticket price.

As AirlineWorld wrote about it earlier, the European Commission decided to be very strict about airlines communiating prices that do not include taxes or other extra fees. Although the initiation may sound good for the customer, there are several circumstances that makes it impossible to intorduce such a business model in the aviation industry. See our earlier article about the topic.

According to Ryanair’s spokesperson, the airline has already missed a January 31 deadline, but got an extension of the deadline until the end of February.

I am personally doubtful if Ryanair will be able to make it – not the upgrade, but to include all taxes and extra fares into the prices – because to fully comply with the regulation the low-cost airline will need to change their policy about the extra charge in checked in baggage and so on. Once the new software will be up and running, we will definately test it.

By Szafi 

Belavia Airlines Accident In Yerevan, 21 Injured

 A Belavia airlines plane has crashed and burst into flames shortly after taking off from Yerevan airport in Armenia with 21 passengers on board.

The jet, operated by the Belarussian airline Belavia, hit its left wing on the runway during takeoff and erupted into flames, the state civil aviation agency’s spokeswoman Gayan Davtian said.

There were no fatalities, but four people were taken to hospital with serious burns, a local official said. “Nearly everyone on board received burns of various degrees,” said Gayane Davtyan, a spokeswoman for Armenia’s civil aviation authority.

There were 18 passengers and three crew on flight 1834. The cause of the crash is still unknown.

Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport was temporarily closed after the crash, which took place at 4:15 am local time.

Belavia Belarusian Airlines is the national airline company of the Republic of Belarus. It is the flag carrier and state owned. Belavia is serving a network of routes between European cities and the CIS. Its main base is in Minsk International Airport. Its fleet consists of 2 Antonov AN23s, 2 Boeing 737-500s, 2 CRJ 200s, 3 Tupolev TU 134s and 7 TU 154s.

The CR 100 that was involved in the accident is leased by the airline and it was delivered in February 2008, so it was a new member of the fleet.

By Szafi 

Friday Fun – A Perfect Way To Start Your Holiday?

My friend Attila pointed out a funny video, which is actually an advertising, but features a plane crash. So those of you who are afraid of ever landing on water, please be careful, you may also laugh! 🙂

by balint01

Airbus A380 Flies On Alternative Fuel

As AirlineWorld has reported last year, Boeing had earlier announced two test flights with alternative fuel to be conducted together with Air New Zealand sometime through 2008 (later a similar plan was announced in cooperation with Virgin Atlantic) . As a slap in the face, Airbus earlier this week announced that they have successfully carried out a similar test one week ago, on Friday, 01FEB2008, becoming the first ever commercial flight using such fuel.

As ATW and Airbus have reported, Airbus operated this test flight using a liquid fuel processed from gas on its new, supposedly currently most eco-friendly super-jumbo, the A380 (test aircraft A380 MSN004). The commercial aircraft was partially powered by an alternative fuel. The Gas to Liquids (GTL) test flight between two of Aribus’s operational bases from Filton, UK to Toulouse, France lasted 3 hr. During the flight, engine number one of four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines was fed with a blend of GTL and jet fuel while the remaining three consumed regular standard jet fuel. Shell International Petroleum provided the GTL. During the test flight, they have tested maximum throttle, maximum flight altitude, and maximum speed as well.

The test, which the manufacturer said was the first of several of its kind that it will conduct, was in accordance with the agreement it signed in November 2007 with the Qatar GTL consortium partners, which include Qatar Airways, Rolls-Royce, Qatar Petroleum, Shell, Qatar Science & Technology Park and Woqod Qatar Fuel Co. “This is the first step of a long-term Airbus testing phase to evaluate viable and sustainable alternative fuels for the future,” the company said. “GTL could be available at certain locations to make it a practical and viable drop-in alternative fuel for commercial aviation in the short term. GTL has attractive characteristics for local air quality, as well as some benefits in terms of aircraft fuel burn relative to existing jet fuel.” GTL is virtually free of sulphur, it noted. Qatar Airways has a target to become the first airline in the world to use such a synthetic fuel in their everyday operations.

Airbus President and CEO Tom Enders called the flight “a great achievement,” adding: “Fuel and environment are key challenges aviation is facing and for which technology and international research collaboration open up new horizons. Our alternative fuels roadmap requires innovation, diversity of ideas and options that need to be explored.”

The official video of the test flight by Airbus can be viewed here. 

by balint01