Sitting up in the small hours of an English morning, with my father, watching the first moon walk on shadowy black and white TV (when the planet united in awe at the achievement, was a lifelong memory. Apparently his final words to Armstrong and Aldrin, as they made their way into the LEM to commence the powered descent to the lunar surface, were: "please come back." Definitely The Right Stuff.

(Written on 2021/04/30)(Permalink)

If it helps David, that was the new airframe list price. It will be fascinating to see, in a year or two, how many airlines can see a space for a massively-depreciated airframe for congested, slot-constrained, airports.

(Written on 2021/04/23)(Permalink)

I don't think that is the normal Helipad at Addenbrooke's, which is a large square patch on the south side of the hospital campus, in an open field. The site in the video looks like a load of PSP loose-laid on the deck. Most UK hospitals have their helipad on the roof, or in a section of a tarmac-covered car park. Anyhow, nice to see the Osprey being used in daily flying - justifying the faith which was placed in the programme during the early days when teething troubles nearly sank the programme.

(Written on 2021/04/23)(Permalink)

Nice one! But April 1st would have been better.

(Written on 2021/04/03)(Permalink)

Kyle, I am with you - you can only jerk around with a 100-seat design from the 1960s (when did the 707 fuselage first fly?) so many times before something stretches too far. The Royal Air Force has a long-standing principle for FAI proceedings - "only blame a dead pilot if you are absolutely certain that there is no other possible cause". I hope that your wife carries life assurance (I hope that I am summarising this correctly, without insulting anyone's professionalism). Boeing were desperate to get the MAX into airlines, without needing any more training than "read a manual and play a DVD". The decision-making process which enables airlines to optionally delete half of the indicators (including ones which would alert drivers to failed Pitot tubes or "MCAS is activated" will go down (sorry!) in history alongside the 1912 assessment that "it's only an iceberg". Two years later, with the FAA doing what it should have done beforehand, along with Boeing being (slightly les

(Written on 2021/04/02)(Permalink)

A happy outcome from an unplanned event. A similar event at Manchester airport here in the UK (co-incidentally also involving a B757) is a regular on YouTube; ingested a bird at rotation, proceeded onwards and upwards trailing smoke and flame from the starboard engine; happy outcome later. Compliments to the training, the aircrew - and the second engine.

(Written on 2021/04/02)(Permalink)

I remember seeing the 767-400 prototype at the SBAC Farnborough airshow, some decades ago. What always stayed in mi memory was the "EXPERIMENTAL" painted above the L1 entry door! And I think that (for once) toe early comments here may be a little harsh on Boeing. it is the ENGINE which went "bang" - and the nacelle did *almost* contain the shrapnel! Best of all, everyone lived to tell the tale to the FAA - with 4k HD full-motion video to back up the story! For once, I'd cut Boeing (a little bit of) slack on this. After all, it was only one engine!

(Written on 2021/04/02)(Permalink)

Surely, surely: Charlotte-Douglas airport announced their vaccination drive with sufficient advance warning for this little airline to look at its crew rostering? Please tell me this wasn't a last-minute thing? FFS, this is the biggest threat/crisis to hit this planet since (insert suitable analogy here...) and vaccination has been a stunning success so far - to the point where, here in the UK, we are looking on in bemused wonderment at the European Union screwing up its vaccine logistics and cheering on the USA as you gear up.

(Written on 2021/04/02)(Permalink)

Yeah - remember the Gimli Glider!

(Written on 2021/03/26)(Permalink)

Very pragmatic and practical - thanks for posting.

(Written on 2021/03/26)(Permalink)