Boeing 737 Stuck on Busy Mumbai Road

by Justin Glow on

Just when you thought Mumbai couldn’t get any more hectic, someone comes along and leaves a Boeing 737 sitting in the middle of a busy road. BBC reports, “The decommissioned aircraft was being driven through the city at the weekend when the driver got lost and then abandoned the plane.”

Is this for real? Seriously, how can you put one person in charge of transporting a 737? Never mind the fact that he didn’t know his way around the city very well. It’s no wonder Road Junky listed Bombay as one of the 10 worst cities to visit (even though I completely disagree, Bombay is great — even with the lost plane). Bizarre, but true.

[Via WorldHum]

China to Compete With Boeing and Airbus

by Jonathon Morgan on

By announcing plans to build a plane that can carry more than 150 people, China has officially become a competitor of Boeing and Airbus. The larger jets won’t be finished until 2020 at the earliest, but the China Aviation Industry Corporation has already started building a smaller, regional plane that can carry up to 105 people.

Increased wealth in China has made flying a more viable means of travel for it’s citizens. In light of the air travel boom, the country will need to purchase an estimated 2,230 planes before 2025. Thus, according to the State Council, China’s firms are committed to constructing an “internationally competitive product” that can take a share of the market.

With mass production on the mid-size ARJ-21 regional jet set to begin later this year, it sounds like it won’t be long before you’ll be flying on Chinese-built planes when you travel within the country.

Interior of Boeing’s New 747-8 Intercontinental Airplane

by Dave Luna on

Last Thursday, Boeing introduced the look of their new Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental airplane to the public. The company built a two-story, full-scale model of the plane’s interior at their Customer Experience Center in Renton, Washington. The cabin is shown here with the overhead dramatically reflecting off of a concierge table.

This is the Door 2 entryway with Boeing’s “sweeping staircase” to the second level. Boeing adds that this space will “facilitate improved passenger flow during boarding and deplaning.” I don’t know about that. I get a feeling that it’s going to take longer to board/deplane since a lot of first-time fliers will probably just stand around staring at the cool decor.

Right now, the plane looks like something out of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but we all know it’s going to end up looking like every other trash-filled, luggage-scuffed plane after a few hops between the States and Europe.