News
First UK SAR AW189s to be delivered next year
AgustaWestland will deliver the first of 11 search and rescue-configured AW189s in the first half of 2014 to Bristow Helicopters to operate under the UK's newly awarded Long SAR contract. The rotorcraft will all be designed and produced at the airframer's Yeovil, UK site as it adds a SAR helicopter manufacturing capability to its existing UK and international military programs. Including training and sustainment, the deal is worth £235 million ($355 million) to AgustaWestland, but the real value for the business is in securing its UK industrial footprint.
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Emirates A380 makes Gatwick appearance
Emirates will take delivery of 17 Airbus A380s in its financial year beginning 1 April leading to a fleet of 48 of the double-deck type by this time next year. Laurie Berryman, vice-president UK & Ireland for the Gulf carrier, speaking at Gatwick airport on 26 March ahead of the arrival of a one-off A380 service, says the super jumbo is "key to its operations."
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IAG Raises Vueling Offer By A Third
International Airlines Group on Wednesday raised its takeover offer for Spanish budget airline Vueling by almost one third after the Barcelona-based carrier rejected a previous bid. IAG, which owns British Airways and Spanish flag carrier Iberia and already holds a 45.85 percent stake in Vueling, upped the offer to EUR€9.25 (USD$11.89) per share from €7 previously. It also said it would extend the acceptance period for the offer to 48 days from 39 days and drop to 4 percent from 90 percent the shareholders acceptance level for the bid.
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Etihad Could Become JAT Strategic Partner
Etihad Airways could become a strategic partner of Belgrade’s loss making JAT Airways, according to the Serbian finance minister Mladjan Dinkic who was on a visit to Abu Dhabi. The comments came as it was announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has approved a USD$400 million loan to Serbia, boosting the Balkan country's drive to find investors from outside the crisis-hit eurozone to help pull it out of recession. The finance ministry said fast-growing Abu Dhabi-based carrier Etihad could take a 49 percent stake in Serbia's indebted JAT Airways and become its long-term strategic partner.
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American-US Air Merger Gets Court Approval
A judge on Wednesday approved AMR's plan to merge with US Airways, a step toward creating the world's largest airline. AMR, parent of American Airlines and in bankruptcy since November 2011, must still construct a formal restructuring plan incorporating the merger that meets court and creditor approval before the airline can emerge from bankruptcy. American Airlines announced the plan to combine with US Airways last month, a deal that also requires regulatory approval. In a crowded Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday, US Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane declined to approve, for now, a planned USD$19.9 million severance package for Tom Horton, AMR's outgoing chief executive.
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United, Priceline reach direct-connect deal
Priceline has signed an agreement with United Airlines to use the carrier's direct-connect system. The online travel agency will sell ancillary products from United through direct-connect, which will serve "as the primary connectivity" between Priceline and the carrier.
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Consumers say Southwest has top airline travel app
The mobile application for Southwest Airlines was ranked the best airline app by consumers, according to a ForeSee travel mobile study. The study also found that more than 70% of users are accessing their mobile apps from home.
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U.S. customs wait time is "unacceptable," Lufthansa says
Lufthansa and German officials have criticized the U.S. for plans to cut customs staff at U.S. airports. "Everybody is working hard to give the passenger a superior experience and at the point of arrival, after a wonderful flight, you are stuck for three or four hours," said Nils Haupt, a Lufthansa spokesman. "This is really unacceptable."
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U.S. aircraft had 82.8% load factor in 2012
Airlines for America said the average load factor for U.S. airplanes was 82.8% in 2012, the highest percentage of filled seats since 1945. Last year, U.S. airlines carried 736.6 million scheduled passengers.
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Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport serves most passengers globally
The Airports Council International says Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta is the world's busiest airport. In total, 95.5 million people used the airport last year.
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Former USN chief suggests DOD should cancel F-35A in favour of C-model
Former US Navy chief of naval operations Adm Gary Roughead says the US Department of Defense (DoD) should consider eliminating the F-35A version of the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) in favour of the carrier-based F-35C. In recent weeks, the idea has gathered momentum with current and former defence officials saying the Pentagon's office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) is studying the idea even though the DoD officially denies those claims. Roughead says the question must be asked as to whether it is better to reduce the number of F-35 variants to a short take-off and vertical landing variant and one version that can take-off and land conventionally. "My simple logic says it probably is, but there are a lot of factors that go into it," he says.
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Aviation Quote
Nothing is more optimistic than a dispatcher's estimated time of departure.
Anonymous
On This Date
---In 1843... William Samuel Henson (1805-1888) receives the patent and publishes in London his design for an Aerial Steam Carriage. This is the first reasoned, formulated, and detailed design for a propeller-driven aircraft.
---In 1908... Leon Delagrange makes the first passenger flight, taking Farman aboard his Voisin biplane at Issy-les-Moulieaux.
--In 1910... The first flight of Henri Fabre’s Hydroavion, the first powered seaplane in the world, takes place at La Mède harbor, Martigues, France. The hydroplane flies for about 1,600 ft. at the maximum height of 7 ft.
--- In 1936... National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) commences operational use of the newly constructed 8-ft.-high speed tunnel (8-Foot HST) at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, Langley, Virginia. Built as a companion to the full scale tunnel capable of simulated speeds of up to 118 mph, the new facility can test models and components to 577 mph (Mach 0.75).
---In 1948…United States Air Force B-29 Superfortresses undergo aerial refueling tests, demonstrating the viability of this technique to extend the range of strategic bombers.
---In 1961… Air Afrique is formed.
---In 1980… The 1,000th production Learjet is delivered.
---In 1981…First flight of the Dornier 228 D-IFNS.
---In 1985… International Cometary Explorer measures solar wind ahead of Halley.
---In 1985… STS-51-D vehicle moves to launch pad.
---In 1993… Type II supernova detected in M81 (NGC 3031).
---In 2005… Chicago Express Airlines, also known as ATA Connection, ceased operations.
---In 2010…Air One becomes a separate “Low Fare” carrier, from Alitialia.
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Humor
Flying Truths
It's better to be down here wishing you were up there, than up there
wishing you were down here, and If you're ever faced with a forced
landing at night, turn on the landing lights to see the landing area. If you don't like what you see, turn'em back off.
A check ride ought to be like a skirt, short enough to be interesting but still be long enough to cover everything. Speed is life, altitude is life insurance. No one has ever collided with the sky.
Always remember you fly an airplane with your head, not your hands, and
never let an airplane take you somewhere your brain didn't get to five
minutes earlier.
Don't drop the aircraft in order to fly the microphone. An airplane flies because of a principle discovered by Bernoulli, not Marconi.
"Unskilled" pilots are always found in the wreckage with their hand
around the microphone.
If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger; if you pull the
stick back, they get smaller. (Unless you keep pulling the stick
back-then they get bigger again.)
Hovering is for pilots who love to fly but have no place to go; the only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire; flying is the second greatest thrill known to man, landing is the first!
Everyone already knows the definition of a 'good' landing is one from
which you can walk away. But very few know the definition of a 'great'
landing. It's one after which you can use the airplane another time.
The probability of survival is opposite to the angle of arrival.
IFR: I Follow Roads.
You know you've landed with the wheels up when it takes full power to
taxi.
Those who hoot with the owls by night, should not fly with the eagles by day.
A helicopter is a collection of rotating parts going round and round and reciprocating parts going up and down - all of them trying to become random in motion.
Helicopters can't really fly - they're just so ugly that the earth
immediately repels them.
Pilots believe in clean living. They never drink whiskey from a dirty
glass.
Things which do you no good in aviation: Altitude above you; Runways
behind you; Fuel in the truck; Half a second ago; Approach plates in the car; and Airspeed you don't have.
If God meant man to fly, He'd have given him more money.
Flying is not dangerous; crashing is very dangerous.
A good simulator check ride is like successful surgery on a corpse.
Asking what a pilot thinks about the FAA is like asking a tree what it
thinks about dogs.
Trust your captain but keep your seat belt securely fastened.
An airplane may disappoint a good pilot, but it won't surprise him.
Any pilot who relies on a terminal forecast can be sold the Brooklyn
Bridge. If he relies on winds-aloft reports he can be sold Niagara Falls.
The friendliest flight attendants are those on the trip home.
Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad
judgment.
Being an airline pilot would be great if you didn't have to go on all
those trips.
Aviation is not so much a profession as it is a disease.
The nicer an airplane looks, the better it flies.
There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are, but it's always a good landing if you can still get the doors open.
Passengers prefer old captains and young flight attendants.
One thing worse than a captain who never flew as a copilot is a copilot
who once was a captain. No matter which, it’s best to keep the pointed
end going forward as much as possible.
If an earthquake suddenly opened a fissure in a runway that caused an
accident, the FAA would find a way to blame it on pilot error.
Any attempt to stretch fuel is guaranteed to increase headwind.
A thunderstorm is never as bad on the inside as it appears on the
outside. It's much worse.
It's easy to make a small fortune in aviation. You have to start with a
large fortune.
A male pilot is a confused soul who talks about women when he's flying,
and about flying when he's with a woman.
A fool and his money are soon flying more airplane than he can handle.
The last thing every pilot does before leaving the aircraft after making a gear up landing is to put the gear selection lever in the 'down' position.
Try to keep the number of your landings equal to the number of your
takeoffs, and remember takeoff's are optional, but landings are
mandatory.
You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.
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