Is this the world’s original frequent flyer, and collector of historic first flights?
Her name is Clara Adams, 1884-1971, a rich pre-war widow whose collection of aviation memorabilia is held in the McDermott Library in the University of Texas-Dallas.
And these examples of that collection have been sent to us by a reader interested in our [...]
Monthly Archives: August 2009
Clara Adams-The original frequent first flyer
August 31, 2009 – 9:01 pm
On second thoughts…
August 31, 2009 – 4:41 pm
An anonymously submitted photo of a C-17, at a guess, in Afghanistan.
Is telephoto perspective making this look even more exciting than it was? It’s a C-17 so it could have been using the unpaved part of the strip under repair repair in the foreground.
Reader photos or un-Photoshopped images are welcome.
Virgin Blue tries $9 tweets
August 31, 2009 – 12:20 pm
Virgin Blue tweeted 1000 $9 fares after 9 pm by advance notice on its Twitter website this morning.
The news value in this, which is all that matters to Plane Talking, is whether airlines, or other businesses, can or should use social media to slash the costs of advertising and distributing goods and services?
The answer may [...]
A crude reminder of where the airlines are
August 31, 2009 – 9:33 am
Almost exactly a year since fuel prices threatened to shut down some airlines, the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch State of the Industry review issued this graphic reminder of where air transport was, and now is, in terms of the crude oil benchmark price.
The review itself is entirely about US carriers and for those who [...]
Angry Flyers Lounge-The Qantas diaries
August 29, 2009 – 12:24 pm
From the latest subscriber editions of Crikey, good and bad things about the flying kangaroo.
Qantas diaries 1: Qantas Frequent Flyer disloyalty … I have a friend who had been flying Qantas almost exclusively for the past 15 or so years. Some years he got “free” Qantas Club when he flew enough, some years he didn’t [...]
Boeing: New 787 promises but critical questions not answered
August 28, 2009 – 6:31 am
Boeing confirmed this morning that the Dreamliner 787 has a new schedule for first flight by the end of the year, this year, with first deliveries to launch customer All Nippon Airways in the third quarter of next year, 2010.
The announcement means that Boeing intends to complete all of the test flights and other certification [...]
Solar dreams find substance in a Boeing laboratory
August 27, 2009 – 2:38 pm
It may not have anything to do with aircraft, but something important to the industrial future of space industries and earth bound sustainable energy has been happening in a Boeing laboratory in California.
Boeing’s Spectrolab Inc subsidiary has perfected a solar cell that converts 41.6% of concentrated sunlight into electricity.
This is a world [...]
Angry (or astonished) Flyers Lounge-Jetstar springs a leak
August 27, 2009 – 9:32 am
A Crikey reader filed this report and the photos:
Jetstar flight from Adelaide to Melbourne on Saturday 22 August ,
depature to be 3:30.
At the end of the pushback from the gate the plane
stayed put for longer than usual, then the captain advised us all that
due to a large amount of hydaulic fluid on the ground [...]
Do the airlines really understand their customers?
August 27, 2009 – 8:16 am
Some good news for Tiger this morning comes from the impartial statistics on punctuality, but a personal experience makes me wonder if they are up to speed.
First, the good news. The BITRE (Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics) annual report shows the Singapore Airlines controlled low cost entrant cancelled the lowest percentage of flights [...]
Space: Where the lunar sun don’t shine
August 26, 2009 – 10:25 am
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged the edges of one of the moon’s darkest places this week, the 10 kilometre wide Erlanger crater near its north pole.
Because the moon only tilts back and forth by 1.5 degrees the sun never shines on the floor of the deeper craters near each pole.
However NASA is already working with [...]
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