#avgeek Archives - Tagging Miles

Watch the Royal Air Force mark their 100th birthday.

July 10, 2018 By Trevor Leave a Comment

10 July 1918, the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force came into existence. And you may ask, how did the Royal Air Force mark their 100th birthday? With one of the most spectacular flyover parade in memory.

I’m sure you’re imagining a simple flyover like the Superbowl (like this perhaps):

Cut to 1:05 or so (and yes, I realize that is Notre Dame vs Navy rather than the pro’s!)

No, no, no, this was far more spectacular!

Royal Air Force mark their 100th birthday

This was a pretty big event in London, I dare say it might have even been bigger than the World Cup games thus far. The event had the Queen in attendance, and included more aircraft than I could identify. Some old, some new, some trainers, some cargo, some fighters, including helicopters as well! In total there were 100 aircraft. Perhaps most spectacular was what I think were the Typhoons flying in “100” formation.

A picture of what I think were Typhoons flying in formation. Photo from @Conor_Chaplin

The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund put together a nice time lapsed video highlighting how big a deal this was in England. Its a quick well done video worth a watch:

If you’d like to watch a slightly longer one with BBC commentary, then this may be more to your liking, it certainly includes more #avgeek shots.

The Royal Air Force went all in!

Surprisingly, I only happened to notice this in the wee hours of the morning on Twitter, but when I looked closer, it was completely apparent to me that the UK went all in. There’s an entire page and an app to follow the Royal Air Force mark their 100th birthday! They even put out this rather fantastic graphic identifying all of the aircraft that they had planned for the event!

All the aircraft for the Royal Air Force’s 100th birthday. (Courtesy of the RAF).

Bottom Line

This was perhaps an air parade that won’t be topped in our life times. It was truly phenomenal to watch fixed wing, rotor, jet, and propeller aircraft in the sky over London. It was also a great reminder of how impressive and far the world’s aviation experience has come in the last 100 years. The RAF has aircraft from the US, UK, and Europe, which does make it an impressive variety.

What was your favorite aircraft?

To Fly to the Edge of Space

May 9, 2016 By Trevor Leave a Comment

The Daily Mail reports a plan to do something crazy. To do something perhaps even more crazy than what Solar Impulse set out to do. Fly to the edge of space!

Goal: To Fly to the Edge of Space

The Perlan Project, supported previously by pioneer Steve Fossett, before his untimely passing, and now supported by Airbus, is seeking to fly a glider to 90,000 feet. On the edge of space.

I want to include photos in this post, partially because photos are helpful, but more because I view this as quite exciting, but candidly, I’m not sure of the rights to those photos, so I have not. Instead, I’m including a video of course it is circa 2013, but it still shares the goal and vision:

Overall this probably doesn’t impact your day to day life, or mine, but its pretty exciting. We still haven’t explored space. In fact, albeit 4 years later, it’s interesting to read a review of the 2012 political candidates, P.J O’Rourke (one of the few political satirists I read) shares an interesting perspective. While I can’t find the particular video, from the 28th National Space Symposium that I attended, where P.J. O’Rourke did speak, he cited a figure, something like it costing $5-8k per kilogram for space launch. To quote the article I found that data on (vs. the speech):

At this price, sending your 110-pound daughter into orbit would cost $50,000, which is what you’d otherwise spend on a year of her majoring in Politico-Cultural Stereotype Studies at Swarthmore. (Source)

I think this sends a particular message, that being, We haven’t figured out an economical way to get people into space. The Perlan Glider Project has an opportunity to change that!

I have no skin in the game. Perhaps that’s something I need to change, but, I am excited to see private industry pushing the limits. Pushing toward better understanding not just our planet, but more than that. While John F. Kennedy set out that we would put a Man on the Moon in 1961, it really seems like we haven’t pushed a whole lot further since than.

Wrapping Up

Perhaps it is not ground breaking, but it is pretty darn cool that even Airbus CEO Tom Enders is pushing toward getting a glider up to 90,000 feet. Perhaps space travel isn’t all that far fetched. It kind’ve reminds me of the Bajoran Lightship from Star Trek Deep Space Nine.

What are your thoughts? Is an environmentally sustainable path to fly to the edge of space a big deal to you?

Jet Airways Crew Suspended for allowing in flight Concert

February 4, 2016 By Trevor 1 Comment

Courtesy of the Times of India, a Jet Airways crew of 5 “airhostesses” (I’m not sure what that really means), were suspended, after allowing Bollywood Artist Sonu Nigam to serenade passengers on a chartered flight from Jodhpur to Mumbai on Jan 4.

Apparently the suspension comes at the request of India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), who took issue with a passenger using an in-flight announcement system. Apparently, even on a charter, some frown on this.

It’s a shame, really. So far as I can tell from the video, there was nothing unsafe about it.

Pope Francis gets a cockpit tour on @AmericanAir 777-200

September 26, 2015 By Trevor Leave a Comment

Earlier today (Saturday), Pope Francis received a short tour of the cockpit of his American Airlines 777-200 aircraft, enroute from JFK to PHL. It’s a short video, but, pretty cool none-the-less, considering so few folks get to actually see the cockpit nowadays (let alone in flight).

If you’re curious about the route they took, you can see that here:

Pope Francis’ flight JFK-PHL courtesy of Flightaware.com

Interestingly enough, the Pope’s flight from JFK to PHL took 8 minutes longer than his flight from Joint Base Andrews (just outside of Washington DC) to JFK.

Pope Francis’ flight Joint Base Andrews to JFK, courtesy of Flightaware.com

All in all, its interesting to follow Pope Francis’ travel. Personally speaking, I find it pretty cool that he was interested enough to visit the cockpit of his American Airlines’ 777-200 on the short flight from JFK to PHL!

You don’t see this every day

June 13, 2015 By Trevor 5 Comments

On an idle Saturday, I happened to be scanning twitter, and I saw this from @AirlineReporter:

Allegiant Air passengers on a wing, Courtesy of The Boise Airport

From the Idaho Statesman – and believe me, the title of their article is poorly done, but here it is –

Passengers evacuate plane at Boise Airport after fuel leak sparks fire fear

It appears that the reason they decided to have a party on the wing, was due to a fuel leak that looked like it might be vaporous (this the “spark” comment in the title). Apparently many felt it was better to be out, standing on the wing, in the event the fuel spill turned into something, rather than in the aircraft. I don’t see the fuel spill, bu the fact that the fuel truck is in the background doesn’t make me feel like that was good idea.

Oh, and check out how many bags are on that wing… looks like there is in fact room for a rollerboard on the wing, because, why not?

Singapore Airlines’ newest special livery

May 28, 2015 By Trevor Leave a Comment

Courtesy of Singapore Airlines / Business Traveller

Courtesy of Business Traveller, Singapore Airlines has unveiled a very cool and colorful looking livery (on not one, but two A380s!), meant to celebrate Singapore’s “Golden Jubilee” (which, if like me, you didn’t know off hand, celebrates the country’s 50th anniversary).

It’s not a surprise when you think of how tied Singapore Airlines is to its home country of Singapore — if you’ve ever flown on them, you may recall that your boarding pass got you a few discounts and other benefits.

Of course, I suppose no livery will match ANA’s R2-D2 livery for me.

What do you think? What are your thoughts of the new livery?

The Blue Angel’s Show at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland

May 25, 2015 By Trevor Leave a Comment

A good friend of mine will use any excuse to get out on the water, and the Blue Angels show over the US Naval Academy is a better reason than most. So, rather than watching from land, a few friends, along with, what seemed like every other boat in Maryland, anchored out just off of the Naval Academy for what proved to be an amazing show, just a few days before the US Naval Academy’s graduation ceremony. The show itself took place on 20 May, 2015, however there is also a practice day, usually the day before.

All photos were taken with a Canon Rebel T1i, with an EFS 18-55mm Lens. I’m looking for a better lens for these types of events, but my telephoto lens seemed to big given how close we were to some of the action, so if you have any suggestions, please do share.

Rather than a lot of words, I think I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

Just a few folks decided to watch from the water.

Breitling Jet Team Fly Over

Fat Albert, Landing Gear Down, heading for the Naval Academy.

Fat AIncoming…..

American Pride?

Blue Angels join the show!

Gear Down.

Nose to tail

Who’s on First?!?

Missing Man Formation

A close Fly-over

Happy Memorial Day!

The Most Awesome Aircraft Livery EVER!

April 16, 2015 By Trevor 3 Comments

Star Wars R2-D2 Livery courtesy of ANA

H/T to World Airline News

In what is, perhaps the coolest livery ever known to Jedi, Wookie, or Man. ANA has announced that they will be flying a Star Wars R2-D2 livery on its newest 787-9 Dreamliner. This begins a 5 year project/agreement between ANA and Walt Disney (who now own Star Wars.. still trying to wrap my head around that, I’m thinking Mickey Mouse is trading in his magic wand for a Yoda sized lightsaber).

Here’s a pretty kickass video too:

So the only thing that is left, is figuring out how to fly it.

Squeezing more economy seats into less space

April 16, 2015 By Trevor 4 Comments

I’m not at the Aircraft Interior’s Expo (#AIX15), but I’m certainly following Twitter on it. For those of you who may not be familiar with #AIX15, its the largest aircraft interiors trade show of the year. So for a lot of folks, its kind’ve a big deal.

I probably should’ve lowered my expectations for the show’s new products (there’s usually a cool new seat someone’s pushing), when I saw Seth Miller aka Wandering Aramean write Have they all given up hope for the economy cabin? In the post (a quick read I might add), he notes how the Passenger Experience Conference (a pre-cursor to AIX), had speakers who spoke more of “distract[ing] your customers” rather than actually making them comfortable. Give them In Flight Entertainment (IFE), give them in flight connectivity, do whatever you can to distract them from the fact that they’re sitting in a 27-31″ pitch, 17-18″ wide (or narrow as is more the case) seat, with someone reclining in their lap. Seth finishes the post off in saying that he could just be a curmudgeon (which, I suppose sometimes we all can be), but I don’t think that’s the case here.

Cut to the Aircraft Interior’s Expo, and a post by John Walton written for the Runway Girl Network (RGN), asserting that “Choice” has become the new Passenger Experience euphemism. If you hadn’t heard, Airbus, which formerly proposed an 18″ minimum economy seat width for all has backed off that and gone even better! They are:

cutting seat width by between 1 and 0.5 inches, slashing armrest widths by just over 2cm (nearly an inch), angling window armrests outwards, trimming aisles and — in perhaps the worst case of foot space restriction for window passengers since Bombardier’s Q400 turboprop — jamming window seats up against the wall so far that they overhang six inches above the start of the curved sidewall. – John Walton for the Runway Girl Network

What all this results in, is a 3-5-3 A380 Economy cabin, that I suspect no one will enjoy flying in. You can find photos of this via one of the above RGN links, I just couldn’t bring myself to upload a photo of the 11-abreast, 3-5-3 A380 mock-up.

But in comes that euphemism: “Choice”

Walton cites Airbus (I think VP of Marketing, but not entirely sure), as saying:

“Well, passengers who don’t want 3-5-3 can buy premium economy.”

using this as an argument for providing more choices; e.g. the beyond emerging “Premium Economy” as a class of service, and not just a few extra inches of room.

I don’t buy it. I look at some of the airlines currently flying a 4-cabin aircraft (that would be, First, Business, Premium Economy, and Economy), like, British Airways. In fact, British Airways’ impending devaluation calls out Premium Economy quite clearly as a distinct cabin–one that is 2x the avios cost of “regular” Economy. But is all this choice a good thing? It’s not clear to me. On a flight last year on British Airways, I was surprised with how far back Club World went back – just look at the size of British Airways’ Economy cabin on the 777-200 :

British Airways 772 Seatmap, via SeatGuru

As you can see, all this talk of “choice” is ultimately squeezing Economy into a smaller space.

The question that comes to mind when looking at such seating charts is: does that ultimately result in lower premium cabin fares (even “premium economy”) or higher “regular” economy fares? Sounds like the “Choice” approach is much better for the airlines, than for flyers.

Saying goodbye to US Airways “Cactus” Callsign

April 7, 2015 By Trevor 2 Comments

Avgeeks throughout the twittersphere have offered photos and remembrance for US Airways “Cactus” Callsign. Why is today the last day for Cactus? Because its been widely reported that American Airlines anticipates getting a Single Operating Certificate on 8 April. With that, all American Airlines planes — whether former US Airways or American Airlines) will sport the “American” callsign.

In that spirit, I thought I’d highlight some other “cool” callsigns:

US Airways “Cactus” callsign is actually from its America West days.
Republic Airways callsign is “Brickyard” – not something I’d expect for an airline
Tiger Airways Australia’s is “Go Cat” — if only they went with ThunderCat
British Airways Ltd.’s London City (LCY) to New York’s John F. Kennedy (JFK) flight operated by an A318 use the callsign of “Gherkin” – which apparently pays homage to the pickle skyscraper in London’s business district.
Singapore’s low cost carrier, Scoot Airlines, goes by Scooter – not terribly out of the ordinary, but fun, much like the airline looks (until you look at the seatmap)
Delta Connection Kenya (now called “D-Connection”) uses the callsign of “Nilecat”

You can check out a bunch more via Airodyssey.net (my source for most of the above).

H/T @AirlineFlyer