Brazil and Chile airlines merge

 

For Brazil being a BRIC doesn't seem to mean that you will have your own flag carrier airline.  First Varig went leaving TAM which has now been taken over by Chile’s LAN Airlines to form Latam, now apparently the Wold’s second largest carrier.

Imagine if that happened in the UK it might be BAD

Brazil and Chile airlines merge
Fri, 22 Jun 2012 20:25:57 GMT

BBC News - Air France jet clips small plane at New York airport

This why you need to keep your seatbelt fastened on the ground in a passenger aircraft.  How often have you undone your seatbelt before the captain “switches off the fasten seatbelt sign”  Well don’t!

Watch the video.

BBC News - Air France jet clips small plane at New York airport

Boeing's biggest jet takes flight

Boeing has flown its new big’un at last, the 747-8.  Bigger than the B747-400 and even more graceful the airliner will offer the lowest seat-mile cost of any commercial airliner.

The Airbus A380 might be bigger but the 747 is still Queen of the Skies.  Which do you think is more beautiful?

This:

or this:

  Get the full story at Engadget   Boeing's biggest jet takes flight, promises lowest 'seat mile' cost of any commercial airliner -- Engadget

The Connie: Beauty was not Enough

Of all the airliners that have graced the sky I think one of the most beautiful, ranking with Concorde, is the Lockheed Constellation the last and greatest of the piston-engined airliners.  First flown in 1943 for TWA the Connie served for many years in both civil and military forms.  Powered by four immensely powerful but fiendishly complicated Wright Turbo Compound Cyclones it was boss of the walk, despite the aspirations of its competitors, the Douglas DC -7C and Boeing Stratocruiser.
With its characteristic triple fins and gracefully swooping lines it was gut-achingly beautiful and made its competitors look,well, dowdy.  But beauty wasn't enough.  The advent of jet airliners, like the de Haviland Comet and Boeing 707, killed it stone dead as an airliner although it soldiered on in the military until the '70s, and several restored aircraft still fly today.
Sic transit gloria mundi 

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The Elephant at the Airport

The unusual sighting of a Jumbo Jet at Edinburgh Airport (Jumbos don't usually come to Edinburgh) has prompted a lot of comment, not least between my mate Jim and me.  The aircraft is a Boeing 747SP, registration number N747A, and is owned by Fry's Electronics Inc. of San Jose, California.  So what's it doing in Edinburgh apart from creating interest? That's for them to know and us to guess!


The 747SP (for Special Performance) is a shorter, longer range version of the classic Jumbo and is easy to recognise because it is obviously shorter and has a higher and narrower fin for aerodynamic reasons.  Only 45 were made and are now sought after as the ultimate corporate jet.


As you can see from the photo below of a 747SP similar to the Fry's one, they look a bit more squashed up than the  normal Jumbo.


The Sheiks love'em.

BOAC Flying Boats - not always British

The Beeb has posted a set of pictures about airline travel with some quite interesting ones including a flying boat at Lagos, interesting because it’s a Boeing 314 Clipper, still in wartime livery, not a type one normally associates with BOAC. I guess they were used because the more usual ones, Solents and Sandringhams didn’t have enough range to get to Nigeria across the Sahara and had to stop at Gibraltar, Freetown and Accra.

Whilst I revere the Sunderland (from which the Sandringham sprang) I have always had a soft spot for the Clipper and it's 3,500 mile range.