Boeing, the unions and your commercial jets

by Grant Martin on

Like many of you waiting for your 777 or 787 to arrive, I’ve been closely watching the progress of Boeing against their rival unions for the last two months.

As the manufacturing woes go, the International Association of Machinists (IAM) has been striking against the airframe manufacturer since early September, primarily citing worries about their jobs going overseas. For, Boeing, who has a long queue for 777s and 737s let alone the roll out of their new 787 Dreamliner to worry over, this strike can’t come at a worse time. Already the company is falling drastically behind on its production schedule, and with every day of delay, airlines cancel orders, demand repercussions and become more agitated.

V Australia is a prime example. The new long haul carrier was originally slated to receive six 777s from Boeing, with three to begin service in this quarter. Planning for launch, the airline sold a deluge of cheap fall and winter tickets, riling up passengers and building up the buzz — only to have their aircraft delayed by the manufacturer. To make commitments, the airline booked passengers on other carriers at what must have been an immense loss. And they’re not even operating yet.

As the strike winds down this week and the two opponents finally come into agreement (hopefully), lets all be thankful that this bickering is over and that we can get back to fulfilling orders, making passengers happy, earning money and most of all, making damn good airplanes.

You can read more about the strike at fleetbuzzeditorial.

How does your presidential candidate get around?

by Grant Martin on

With all of the cavorting around the country on the campaign trail, John McCain and Barack Obama need some pretty quick, reliable transportation — after all, you can’t get from Nevada to Ohio to Florida in two days on the bus version of the Straight Talk Express.

To that end, each candidate has chosen and retrofitted an aircraft of their own for campaign purposes, Obama with a larger, 757-28A and McCain with a smaller (though still large) 737-4B7. I suppose it would be unamerican to fly in an Airbus, wouldn’t it.

So how is riding around in one of these birds? Have they been retrofitted with hot tubs, massaging chairs and laser beams? Gadling went through and took a look at the aircraft to see just what it’s like in and around the Obama and McCain aircraft and compiled the gallery below.

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You can see that both aircraft are outfitted with standard coach seats in the back for the flock of media that follow the candidates around the globe. Both have 3 x 3 leather seats, although McCain’s seats all have TVs in the seatbacks. I wonder what they play?

Another neat thing is that Obama’s overhead bins and interior are plastered with photos — presumably from the campaign trail. It’s an interesting way to remember the voters that Obama met along the way.

Take a look at the rest of the photos and tell us what you think.

Video of 747 struck by lightning

by Grant Martin on

It’s nice to know that if your 747 gets struck with 40 kiloamperes of electricity that it can keep on trucking. Aircraft are designed to withstand lightning strikes (if not multiple lightning strikes), although various small amounts of damage can occur. As one 747-400 pilot at the Professional Pilots Rumor Network (pprune) commented, “the auto-pilot dropped out and a few minor systems were temporarily lost” after a lightning strike on his aircraft, but shortly after that everything resumed.

Lightning strikes happen fairly often on commercial aircraft, but rarely is the event caught on film. This ANA 747 was hit just after take off, which can be a critical time during operation, but everyone and the aircraft survived just fine.

WestJet Offers a Blast from the Past

by Josh Lew on

Passengers on Canada’s low cost carrier WestJet might be in for a bit of a surprise if they are traveling to Prince George in northern British Columbia. During September, the airline will not be relying on their fleet of Boeing 737s to make the trip. Instead, passengers will find themselves boarding one of two Bombardier Dash-8 turboprop planes that have been leased by the airline.

WestJet’s fleet is made up of 737s. So why the change?

In the days of airline budget cuts, you might be surprised to know that the turboprop flights are not the beginning of a new cost-cutting strategy.

Construction on the main runway at Prince George’s airport will necessitate the use of a shorter runway, which is not long enough to accommodate the Boeing 737. The airline chose to continue service with the prop planes rather than taking Prince George out of the picture for a month. The Dash-8 will be able to safely land on the shorter runway.

Flights to Prince George might take a little longer during the month of September, but passengers will be able to use prop plane experience as a conversation starter at happy hour.

Emirates A380 arrives in New York!

by Grant Martin on

Dubai’s Emirates Airlines made its inaugural Airbus A380 flight into New York‘s John F Kennedy airport this past Friday, on what will now become America’s first regularly scheduled service with the the new two story jumbo jet.
Gadling was on hand to capture some sweet photos in and around the aircraft, as well as through a press conference detailing the coming Emirates events.

The airline plans to augment the current service (now on a Boeing 773) between JFK and Dubai with this aircraft in order to carry higher volumes to the booming Middle Eastern country. Eventually, they also plan on integrating A380 service to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Emirates is the second customer of the A380, following nearly two years of manufacturing delays and an initial round of deliveries to Singapore Airlines.

In a series of test flights out on the West Coast, the airline will be trumpeting their new expanded service over the next few days, so if you’re in California keep your eyes peeled for the behemoth overhead. While Gadling wont be able to make it out for the test flights, check in with The Cranky Flier at some point next week for the full scoop on in flight performance.

Meantime, check out Gadling’s photos of the aircraft and of the inaugural event and start saving your change for a ticket!

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