Airline & Holiday Information

Archive for August, 2009

This has been prompted after a fatal crash which has reduced its fleet that original was 30 when the aircraft where purchased in the 1980’s to just 11.

In the latest crash the Sea Harrier FRS51 crashed into the sea killing its pilot, the Sea Harrier FRS51 was on a routine training flight close to Goa on the 21st August.

The Indian Ministry of defence stated “Checks are being conducted on the navy’s remaining Harriers, which are likely to resume operations within days.”

In 1997 the Sea Harrier’s underwent a mid life upgrade which expected to see them in service for an extra 15 years until 2023. Some of the upgrades included Elta Systems EL/M-2032 Multi-Mode fire control radars and Rafael Derby beyond visual-range air-to-air missiles.

The majority of Sea Harrier’s where expected to be replaced in 2004 with 16 RSK MiG-29K/KUBs Russian aircraft. But there has been numerous delays with this order which see’s only the first aircraft been delivered later this year

Spanair are set to replace 11 McDonnell Douglas aircraft, with some new Airbus aircraft next year when the current contracts run out on their MD-82’s and MD-87’s

McDonnell Douglas MD-82

Spanair is hoping to eventually move to an entire Airbus fleet which are manufactured in France.

This news has come days after a report has been released about an aviation accident that happened one year ago involving a Spanair MD-82 at Madrid Airport where 154 people were killed out of the 174 on board. The accident was caused due to incorrect wing flap settings on takeoff.

The McDonnell Douglas M8 series have been in flight since 1980, and they were produced until 1999, costing between $41.5 and $48.5 million.

Most people have been on Airbus A330, they are designed as a medium to long haul plane. The Airbus A330 was designed specifically to compete with the Boeing 767.

The A330 comes with a choice of 3 engines, Rolls-Royce Trent 700, General Electric’s CF6-80E or the Pratt & Whitney PW4000.

The Airbus A330 was first launched in 1987 and entered service in 1993 with Air Frances Subsidiary Company Air Inter. The A300’s are built at Toulouse in France at the AirBus factory. Around 600 planes have been delivered to various air carriers.

There are 3 major different variants off the A300, A300-200, A300-300 and the A300-200F.

The A300-20oF is the latest from Airbus and is mainly a freighter capable of carrying 69 tonnes a distance of 5,930KM

A300-300 is a wide body plane and is the largest of the A300 series, capable of carrying 335 passengers when utilising 2 classes.

Freight A300 Airbus

The most famous Concorde aircraft was more than likely the plane with the registration G-BOAD.

Its maiden flights was made on the 25th August 1976 at Filton in the UK, it was delivered to its new owner British Airways on 6th December 1976.

When it was first registered back on 9th May 1975 it was known as G-BOAD, in 1979 it was re registered as G-N94AD / N94AD.  During this period Braniff Airways leased 10 Concordes 5 from British Airways and 5 from Air France.

 G-BOAD was also leased to Singapore Airlines and it ran both liveries on the plane, cabin crews were mixed between the two carriers.

Concorde G-BOAD flew a total of 23,397hours and 25 minutes making 8406 landings and going supersonic 7010 times.

G-BOAD was also used in the fly past for the Queens Golden Jubilee on 4th June 2002.

G-BOAD is made its last flight to JFK where it now resides at the USS Intrepid Museum in New York. The Concorde is only there on loan and acts as a big advertisement for British Airways.

Concorde G-BOAD

Air China has just paid $808m for small 12.5% share hold of Cathay Pacific. But since they already owned 17.49% there total stake of Cathay Pacific to 29.99%. This total is marginally short of the mark which would see Air China make a compulsory takeover bid.

Air China bought its extra shares from CITIC, who are a Chinese investment group, who unfortunately lost $2bn in foreign exchange deals and sold their share in Cathay Pacific to raise capital.

Cathay Pacific largest share holder is now Swires who have 41.97%.

Airbus A340-300 Cathay Pacific (B-HXE)

Only a handful of airports actually qualify to have enough traffic to have an Air Traffic Control Tower.

Traffic Control Towers usually tower above other airport buildings so that staff located inside can see aircraft moving around the airport and have a unrestricted view of arriving and departing aircraft.

Air Traffic Control Towers usually have a Aerodrome Traffic Monitor which is a small screen display which runs a radar system and allows the air traffic controls to see aircraft that are flying within the area.

A Light Gun will also usually have a place within the tower, this is used for communicating with aircraft in case of and electrical problems.

Most towers will have either a computer that manages arriving and departing aircraft of they will use a older style strip board.

Sydney Airport Control Tower

A commonly asked question is how long will it take for me to fly to my destination.

So we have compiled a few common flights made very day. Our times are based on a commonly used aircraft such as the Boeing 747 or the Airbus A340.

Iberia Airbus A340

London Heathrow To John F Kennedy Airport will take around 6.5 hours and is 3461 miles in trip distance

London Gatwick to Frank Pais, Holguin, Cuba is 4550 miles in a trip distance and it will take around 8 hours

Manchester Airport to Melbourne Airport is a Very long haul and is 10592 miles apart and would take you just under 19 hours.
You will commonly find that aircraft will stop at Singapore Changi (SIN), Dubai (DXB) or even Hong Kong International (HKG).  Perth International on the Western coast of Australia will be first stop before Melbourne Airport in most circumstances.

Flights from the UK to Spain usualy take between 1 ½ hours to 2 hours dependent on where your flying to.

Rome To London carries a flight time of just under 3 hours.

Microsofts Flight Simulator has been around since 1982 when it was first released for a PC and it was named Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.00.

Microsoft Flight Simulator or MSFS / FS as it is often shortened too has seen 12 versions released with the latest been Flight Simulator X which was released back in 2006.

With Microsoft Flight Simulator you can fly various routes from London Heathrow to JFK over in the states, you can also do real time flying, why not try your one of Bmi’s flights to Tel Aviv and see who wins.

Microsoft Flight Simulator really does have a large outreach to its user base, which can include replacement airports which include more detail and often photo realistic buildings. Ultimate Terrain X offers the best terrains, and these are all available to down loads in continents and are priced around £40 on DVD also available to download.

Flight 1 Software the producers of Ultimate Terrain X, also do other Flight Simulator X add-ons such as Ultimate Traffic II . which has 550,00 real-time scheduled flights ranging from regional to international, over 1600 aircraft are all liveried correctly so if you’re flying a FlyBmi route then you can fly in Flybmi liveried aircraft.

What happens when a aircraft over runs the end of the runway, well you can always hope that the airport your landing at has Engineered materials arrestor system or EMAS at the end of the runway.

Engineered materials arrestor system is an area of lightweight collapsible concrete at the end of the airports runways. EMAS is aimed to slowdown and stop aircraft that over shoot runways with no human injury and minimal damage to the aircraft.

EMAS is a similar idea to run off areas that you see on steep hills for trucks if there brakes fail or lose control, except that on run off areas for trucks sand or gravel is used.

New York’s JFK airport has a Engineered materials arrestor system installed and this has potentially saved 3 fatal accidents in 1999 alone, it has even stopped a Boeing 747.

In the USA EMAS is currently installed at 41 runways ends and at 28 airports.

None of them have an airport.

Monaco is rather small and very compact so naturally there’s no room for an airport, the nearest one is Cote d’Azur in Nice France which is a short 40 minute drive away.
However Monaco does have a helipad which is in the Monagasque district of Fontvieille.

Liechtenstein is located between Switzerland and Austria.
The 35,000 population of Liechtenstein only have access to a heliport which is located in the southern town of Balzers. Things don’t get much better as the 2 nearest airports aren’t major ones so they only have few scheduled flights.

The nearest major airport is Zurich in Switzerland, by car this is a 1 ½ hour drive.

Liechtenstein

Vatican City the Popes home doesn’t have an airport either, mainly because it would be impossible to the area which isn’t even 1km2.
Although there is a small heliport in the Western corner which is for official use only.

St. Peters Vatican City

Andorra is the largest country to not have an airport. Toulouse is the closest airport to Andorra with a 2 ½ drive, but Barcelona and Girona airports are also within driving distance.

Andorra

San Marino doesn’t have an airport and the nearest is Federico Fellini International Airport located at Miramare close to Rimini, which is 9.9 miles away from San Marino itself. Again a heliport is available at Borgo Maggiore which is the second largest town of San Marino.

San Marino Flag