Category: Aviation

Don’t miss the rollout of the new Boeing 787 ‘Dreamliner’: http://787premiere.newairplane.com/

I wonder how long it will take until there will be a supersonic airliner[1] again? I don’t know of anything like a “new Concorde” in the mid-term pipelines of any of the few major manufacturers of commercial jetliners (there are a couple of ongoing “low budget” studies though). Supersonic travel is not so à la mode due to its historical association with high fuel consumption, environmental pollution and high operating costs. However, supersonic commercial travel has distinct advantages from an economical point of view and I can hardly believe that the world can do without it for a long time. Further, technology has made quite some progress since the development of the Concorde (more than 40 years ago!) which may enable future supersonic airliners to overcome some of the deficiencies and disadvantages of their predecessor(s).

Some nice videos about the Concorde:

Concorde Flight to Iceland

Concorde : Thank you for 27 supersonic years

Concorde

Concorde Queen of thesk

Concorde breaking the sound barrier

Adieu supersonic, good bye Concorde!

[1] Commercial “space trips” for fun don’t count ;) They’re certainly a great personal experience, but their importance to world economy is probably negligible.

Grats to all the involved engineers, test pilots, staff and management! And a hooray on European cooperation ;)

There’s video footage available on the Airbus site:

Airbus.com: Pictures and videos of A380’s maiden flight
Airliners.net: Many pics

Randy Baseler, Vice President Marketing of Boeing (and blogger :), joins the congratulators. Obviously he knows the customs of good PR :)

Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer : Home Page:

Mission Status: HALFWAY. 07:01:33 UTC at Mission Control. Elapsed Journey time: 30 hours 15 minutes 06 seconds. Distance covered approximately 9,841 nautical miles.

Steve has made it halfway, and is pleased with the progress he has made. He is 275 miles west of Kolkatta (Culcutta) and currently traveling at 300 knots/ 345 mph (ground speed).

At 10:03 UTC (93.4°, 300.00 kts, 46,801 ft, E79.05624, N23.23235) he’s right at the border of PR China (Mission Tracking Page). I hope he will make it! I find it very remarkable that a multimillionaire like Steve Fossett is risking his own life for this great challenge. Good luck! :)

Update: He did it, after about 67 hrs in the air! Congrats!

btw, my favorite open source flight simulator, flightgear, reached v0.9.8 :) the question however is, whether it will ever reach v1.0 or rather approximate v.0.9.9.9.9… ;)

Witness the unveiling live: Airbus A380, the largest airliner in the history of civil aviation!

Hopefully, it’s not as underpowered as the A340-300.. a quick’n’dirty calculation:

A340-300: 4*15400(17000)/275000 = 0.224 (0.247)
A380-800: 4*35000/560000 = 0.25

(ratio = total maximum kg thrust per kg MTOW)

Oops :/

(Addendum: Please note that
i) The Antonov An-225 is still the largest airplane on earth: length 84.0 m, wingspan: 88.4 m, MTOW: 600’000 kg
ii) “Underpowering” an aircraft is usually done on purpose for the sake of cheaper operation and better pollution control.
)

[Update 20040118: Oh. Did live streaming work for you? For me, it didn’t. In compensation I was promoted to “A380 fleet captain” as I had 15 correct answers in a quiz of 14 questions.. I feel sooo flattered ;))

]

Cool site: Cpt. Corner :)