22nd January 2008
MACH-5 A2: Fly Sydney to Brussels in 4hrs – Emissions Free!
In a hurry? Need to get from Sydney to Brussels in a dash? Not too far in the future you may be able to travel that entire distance in less than 4 hours – emissions free – thanks to an amazing hypersonic hydrogen jet project called LAPCAT. LAPCAT stands for Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologie, and is funded by the European Space Agency. This type of hypersonic jet would put the Concorde to shame with it’s speed, and the best part is that it would not be powered by the typical fossil fuels, but instead by a much greener hydrogen alternative.
Supersonic aviation as a workable model may have ended prematurely with the death of the Concord, but that hasn’t stopped other people from attempting to bring back the concept of hypersonic civil transportation. The LAPCAT project is a study, funded by Europa General R&D, that seeks to determine whether or not it is possible to create a plane that can cover long distances in a very short amount of time. The result? The A2 Mach 5 Civil Transport Concept.
The concept has been developed by Reaction Engines, which was formed by Alan Bond, John Scott-Scott and Richard Varvill. It is made out of two different pieces of technology. The First one is a hydrogen powered engine concept which can power an airplane up to speeds of Mach 5, that is, five times the speed of sound. Why hydrogen? In order to achieve Mach 5, more power is needed than what would be commonly available from the common fossil fuels. The other innovation lies in the A2 Airframe. The Airframe is designed to withstand velocities that are five times the speed of sound, and carry up to 300 passengers. That’s a pretty remarkable feat if it actually manages to do that, and the environmental zero-emissions possibilities are just icing on the cake.
Unfortunately, too good to be true sometime is just that. But this might just be a case where a green dream is pretty close to reality. Needless to say, if this project comes to fruition it will change the concept of air travel forever.
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Some photos of the futuristic plane:
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18th January 2008
S$300m new air traffic control system for Changi Airport by 2012
SINGAPORE: The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has awarded its tender for a new air traffic control system at Changi Airport to Thales.The S$300 million system called LORADS III – which stands for Long Range Radar and Display System III – replaces the current LORADS II.The CAAS said LORADS III features state-of-the-art designs and leverages on cutting edge technologies.This will enable air traffic controllers to handle safely increasing air traffic beyond the next decade.LORADS III also employs advanced surveillance and communications technologies to build in tighter safety nets and streamline air traffic management processes.CAAS Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Lim Kim Choon, said: “More efficient air traffic management will bring about greater efficiency for airlines, which in turn translates to more fuel savings.”
LORADS III is being implemented in two phases – with the first phase to be completed in 2010, and the second phase in 2012. – CNA/vm
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17th January 2008
Jet misses London runway, 13 hurt
LONDON : A British Airways jet crash landed short of the runway at London Heathrow on Thursday, injuring 13 people and causing delays at the world’s busiest international airport.The undercarriage of the Boeing 777 was wrecked with the back end and the engines touching the ground. Passengers poured out of emergency slides while firefighters sprayed safety foam around the jet. One passenger said he felt he had won the “lottery” by escaping unharmed.Television pictures showed skid marks carving up the grass ahead of the runway used by Flight BA38 from Beijing with 136 passengers and 16 crew on board. All the injuries were reported as minor.The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said an initial report on the crash would be available within 48 hours, but Chief Inspector of Air Accidents David King warned that it could take more than a month for the full report to be produced.All those on board the plane will be questioned by the AAIB, and the airliner’s “black box” and cockpit voice recorders will also be checked.Paul Venter, a passenger on the flight, said the plane hit problems just as it was about to land.
“I could hear the undercarriage come out and the next moment the plane just dropped,” he said.
“The wheels came out and went for touchdown, and the next moment we just dropped. I couldn’t tell you how far.
“When everything came to a standstill, I looked out of the window and the undercarriage was gone and the plane was on its belly.
“I didn’t speak to the pilot, but I saw him, and he looked very pale.”
Another passenger, Fernando Prado, told BBC television by telephone that all the passengers had been evacuated within two or three minutes, adding of his escape: “I won the lottery today.”
BBC television quoted the pilot as saying he had lost all power as it was landing and had to glide it in. A Heathrow spokesman said the emergency landing had happened at 12:45 pm (1242 GMT), and the plane was fully evacuated.
The incident happened shortly before Prime Minister Gordon Brown was due to take off from Heathrow for China on an official visit. His flight was briefly held up.
Brown was travelling with a party of around 30 journalists, businessmen and personalities, including Virgin chief Richard Branson and Olympic athlete Kelly Holmes.
More than 200 flights, most of which were short-haul, had to be cancelled, while a further 24 were diverted to London’s other airports, as the southern runway at Heathrow was closed.
BA chief executive Willie Walsh said: “We are very proud of the way our crew safely evacuated all 136 passengers on board.
“The crew are very experienced and are trained to deal with circumstances like this.”
He said the airline would cooperate fully with the AAIB’s investigation.
“It would be inappropriate for me to speculate as to the likely cause of this incident,” Walsh added.
According to Walsh, the aircraft in question was about six years old, and BA has 43 Boeing 777s in operation.
The nearby Hillingdon hospital reported 13 casualties, one of which would be kept overnight.
A London police spokesman said there was no suggestion that terrorism was involved. – AFP/de
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Thank god no one was killed in this incident. If I remember correctly, this is the world’s first real accident involving the Boeing 777 aircraft. Hmmm, I wonder what went wrong..
A short video about what happened:
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14th October 2007
SilkAir to Fly to Nepal from October 30
SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, is all set to operate three flights a week from October 30 direct on Singapore-Kathmandu route on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The flights depart at 9.10 am from Singapore and arrive at 12.05 pm in Kathmandu, while flights from Kathmandu will depart at 13.05 pm and arrive Singapore at 20.15 pm, states a press release.The flight is expected to cater to leisure traffic out of Singapore and facilitate easy connections for customers from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Europe, all which are important tourism source markets for Nepal.For the passengers from Kathmandu, the new service will offer direct flights to Singapore and the convenience of onward connections to more than 90 international cities with Singapore Airlines-SilkAir network.Flights will be operated on SilkAir’s Airbus A320 family aircraft.“We are thrilled by the opportunity to fly to Kathmandu,” David Lim, SilkAir’s vice-president commercial, said adding that forward bookings are already very promising.SilkAir flies to more than 28 destinations across 10 countries, mostly in South East Asia. Everest Express Tours and Travels is the GSA for Singapore Airlines and Silk Air for Nepal.
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Oh great, Singapore has been left without a connection to Nepal ever since Singapore Airlines stop serving Kathmandu sometime back, and when Royal Nepal Airlines stop cease serving Singapore. Now, since the economy has picked up, it’s time for us to resume a connection to Nepal. Good to hear that Silkair has plans to do that. Here are some pictures of Silkair:
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6th October 2007
Budget carrier eyes pot of gold
Jetstar has long planned to be the first low-cost carrier to connect Australia and Europe, but it is likely to be beaten to the punch by Asia’s biggest low-cost carrier, Air Asia. AirAsiaX, the carrier’s low-cost long-haul arm, will begin flying soon from Kuala Lumpur to its first Australian destination, the Gold Coast, promising fares of about $500 return and even lower promotional fares to launch the service.
The carrier has been cagey about its future development in Australia but its website last week unveiled two more planned destinations down under: Melbourne’s Avalon airport and Newcastle in NSW – its “Sydney” airport, which avoids Mascot’s high aviation charges.
The airline has also made no secret of its plans to begin flying the “kangaroo route” between Australia and Europe, with London’s low-cost airport, Stansted, a priority destination.
AirAsiaX’s chief executive, Azran Osman-Rani, says the route has huge potential. “We will be looking at the whole connection from Kuala Lumpur onwards to Europe.” To make it work, Osman-Rani says the airline will have regular fares as low as $1000 return from Australia to London, a fraction of the price for a discount economy seat with established carriers.
AirAsiaX and Jetstar are set to become the world’s first low-cost carriers to go head-to-head to a single international long-haul destination. Last month Jetstar launched three flights a week between Sydney and Kuala Lumpur, with connections from other east-coast cities.
Qantas, Jetstar’s parent company, abandoned the Kuala Lumpur route during Asia’s economic turmoil of the late 1990s. For a decade the route has been a monopoly operated by Malaysia Airlines. As a result, fares have remained high, with little change from $1000 for a return ticket from Australia, making it an ideal target for the low-cost carriers. Jetstar believes traffic on the route will grow slowly, and hasn’t budgeted for additional services before the end of next year. However, its hand may be forced by AirAsiaX, which plans to undercut Jetstar’s regular fares by at least $300. From Melbourne and Sydney, that makes Kuala Lumpur an attractive destination.
The other contest will be “product”. AirAsiaX is planning similar seating space to Jetstar’s, with the same 79cm for each seat row and a premium economy-budget business section up the front, with even more leg room. However, the big difference is that AirAsiaX’s seats will be narrower, with nine seats abreast compared with Jetstar’s eight in economy. This means the carrier can fit 396 people into its Airbus A330-300s, compared with Jetstar’s 303 in a smaller version of the same aircraft.
AirAsiaX has applied for permission from Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority to begin flights to the Gold Coast well before Christmas, although the authority says the timing is tight.
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Cool, new budget airline to be base in Australia! Looks like everyone is interested in getting a slice from the Australian market eh? Hope that Singapore Airlines will get it’s permit to fly to US from Australia soon. No pictures yet as Air Asia X is still in the planning stage.
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25th September 2007
Jetstar passengers fall ill on Honolulu flight
Passengers on a Jetstar flight from Australia were held in quarantine at Honolulu for more than an hour today after 10 passengers became ill from food poisoning.
One woman needed hospital treatment for dehydration.
Jetstar is investigating the incident but does not believe meals on the flight that originated in Melbourne, caused the food poisoning.
It was unclear whether the passengers were poisoned by food eaten before or during the flight, said US state Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa.
Passengers were held for more than an hour in a quarantine area at Honolulu International Airport while being checked and released by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
“All of them had symptoms of vomiting, but no symptoms of fever, which would have indicated something more serious,” Mr Ishikawa said.
“I’m not sure if the food was consumed on the plane or elsewhere. But you have to quarantine the plane to make sure it’s nothing more serious.”
Passengers on the Airbus A330-200 jet were later cleared by US public health officials to leave the plane, Mr Ishikawa said.
Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said the airline was not to blame for the food poisoning.
“We have done an audit of the flight and found no linkages to ourselves or our caterer,” he said.
“There was also no common linkage between the 10 people that got sick.”
There were 260 passengers on the plane and of the 10 who were sick, seven were in economy class and three in business class.
Two of the sick passengers did not eat anything on the plane, including the woman taken to hospital, but they were travelling with people who had eaten Jetstar’s meals and became ill.
“We’re working with officials at Melbourne Airport to find a common source and have completely disinfected the entire jet and checked the food chillers,” Mr Westaway said.
Mr Westaway said food poisoning, which included symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, took time to incubate, suggesting the food was eaten at the airport.
Melbourne Airport does not believe any of their food outlets was responsible.
“There were three other departing flights at the same time and there were no reports of any of their passengers being sick,” airport communications manager Tom Perry said.
“We have certainly investigated it and pay pretty close attention to food processing and safety.”
Mr Westaway said another Jetstar flight to Bangkok today used the same caterer without incident.
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Poor passengers. Can you imagine crook passengers being stranded in the airport? It’s quite certain that it’s not Jetstar’s fault. Could it be something else like gastric flu? A mystery waiting to be unravelled. Here are some pictures as usual:
A Jetstar’s A330-200 at KUL, similar to the one involved in HNL
Some examples of what is being served onboard Jetstar
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16th September 2007
Two Australians survive Thai crash
A budget airliner crashed while trying to land in driving rain on the Thai resort island of Phuket yesterday, bursting into flames and killing at least 88 people, officials said.
Two Australians were among the survivors.
Another 19 passengers were unaccounted for.
Phuket’s Deputy Governor Worapot Ratthaseema could not immediately say how many foreigners had died, but he said the dead included Australian, Irish, Israeli and British passengers. He said as many as 27 of the injured were foreigners.
Flight manifests at Phuket airport suggested well over half the 123 passengers and five crew on board were foreign. An Airports of Thailand official in Bangkok said most of the foreigners were European holidaymakers.
Eight Britons, seven Thais and two Australians were among 43 known survivors, hospital workers said.
“The plane looks as though it veered off the runway into the side of a hill,” said Leslie Quahe, a Singaporean pastor who arrived at the scene about an hour after the crash.
“I was coming down the hill and saw smoke coming from the plane. It had broken into several parts,” Quahe told Reuters.
Officials said the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 had broken in two on impact on landing on the Andaman Sea paradise isle, which was hit by the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
“The first part of the plane is dug into the ground. The tail section is stuck on the runway,” Chaisak Chai-arkad, a senior airport official in Bangkok, told Thai radio.
TV images showed the crumpled and smoking fuselage of the One-Two-Go flight from Bangkok surrounded by fire trucks and emergency workers. Part of the plane could be seen in trees alongside the runway.
Nong Khaonual, a Thai who survived the crash with his wife, said he believed the plane had descended too quickly.
“The airplane was landing in heavy rain. It landed too fast. I have never seen anything like this. It descended very fast,” he told Nation Television in hospital.
“Just before we touched the runway we felt the plane try to lift up, and it skidded off the runway,” he said.
“My wife was half conscious and I dragged her out of the emergency exit. There was a man behind us and he was on fire.”
Distraught relatives gathered at the airport, on the north-west coast of what is Thailand’s largest island, desperate for news of loved ones. Rain continued to lash down, hampering the efforts of rescue workers.
Foreign tour operators were also checking through passenger lists, trying to account for dead and missing.
Another survivor, an Irishman named John, described the attempts to land in atrocious conditions.
“You could tell there was a problem. The plane was flying around trying to land. It was making some noises and it was bad rain,” John, who was travelling with a friend who also survived, told Thailand’s ITV television channel.
“The plane was on fire, but I managed to get through. I might have come out on the wing,” he said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is directing inquiries from the worried relatives of Australian travellers to the Federal Government’s consular operations centre, 1300 555 135.
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Here are some pictures of the crash.
The wreckage.
Rescue team arrives.
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13th September 2007
Beijing shows off new airport terminal
Beijing showed off its new multibillion-dollar airport terminal today – a mammoth glass and steel structure with a gracefully sloping roof that the owners said is meant to impress visitors to China’s capital for the 2008 Olympics.
Terminal 3 at the Beijing Capital International Airport is a centerpiece project for the Olympics designed to relieve the overloaded airport’s other two terminals and accommodate the city’s torrid growth for the next seven years, executives with the airport’s state-run holding company said at a tour for foreign media.
The terminal, which is scheduled to open for testing in February and full operation in July, is outfitted with a state-of-the-art baggage handling system, a rail terminal to carry passengers into the city and gates and a runway capable of handling Airbus’ huge A380 superjumbo.
The terminal building alone cost 21 billion yuan ($A3.37 billion), and 35 billion yuan ($A5.53 billion) with all the related infrastructure added in, the executives said.
The terminal is an “important non-competition venue” for the August 8-24, 2008, Olympics, said Zhang Zhizhong, general manager of Capital Airport Holding Co. He said it is intended to “give an excellent impression when visitors arrive at the airport.”
A huge undertaking, the new terminal, its runway and most of the related infrastructure will have been built on a compressed timetable of four years.
Construction involved relocating 10,000 people, 50,000 people worked on the site at any one time, 500,000 tons of steel were used, and a plane is expected to take off or land about once every 30 seconds, according to statistics provided by the city government and the holding company.
“The scale was our biggest problem,” said Yuan Xuegong, deputy head for the expansion project’s headquarters.
Designed by British architect Norman Foster, the building attempts to combine traditional architectural elements with up-to-date technology. Its red columns and muted gold roof are meant to evoke Beijing’s imperial palaces and temples while the $US250 million ($A300.5 million) baggage system, made by German engineering giant Siemens AG’s China subsidiary, can handle 19,000 pieces of luggage an hour, the executives said.
Beijing desperately needs a new airport, with the double-digit economic growth of recent years outstripping city planners’ original projections and stressing the capital’s infrastructure. The capital airport’s second terminal, which opened eight years ago, quickly reached its limits, and long lines for check-in and flight delays are common.
“If you fly in and out of Terminal 2, you know what a headache that is,” said Jeff Martin, a Florida resident and project manager for Siemens’ baggage handling system. “There should not be that problem here because they’ve done a lot of studies on passenger flows.”
Passengers using the current airport have increased more than 20 per cent annually, to 48.6 million last year, from 21.7 million in 2000, and the airport has risen from being the world’s 42nd to 9th busiest by passenger numbers, according to the holding company.
When the new terminal is fully operational, the airport will be able to handle 62 million passengers, a limit the holding company expects to reach in 2015.
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YAY! Another new airport coming its way! Hmmm, till now, I still don’t understand why Singapore decides to build small terminals such as Changi Airport’s Terminal 3. Here are some pictures of the new Beijing International Airport’s Terminal 3:
New escalators
Aerial View
Artist Impression of the new terminal
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6th September 2007
Epitome of the modern woman keeps starring role
SINGAPORE Girl is alive and well and will play a starring role in the marketing of the national carrier’s new drawcard, the Airbus A380.
Contrary to reports she was to be dropped from the ads following a change in ad agency, Singapore Airlines has confirmed that she remains a big part of its marketing.
Dale Woodhouse, Singapore Airlines’ manager of passenger marketing, said that she would still be “front and centre of the campaign”, which began last week in the lead-up to the inaugural flight on October 26.
“As usual she will be a central part of the branding and the image of Singapore Airlines,” Mr Woodhouse confirmed after reports earlier this year had her permanently grounded for being too old fashioned and sexist.
When asked if she had been updated, Mr Woodhouse replied: “What’s there to update? She’s eternal, she’s the epitome of the modern image [of a woman] and the traditional style of Singapore Airlines. Why would you want to get rid of that?”
Singapore Airlines is the first to receive the new jumbo airliner, which will feature an as yet unveiled supersuite class and, at 471 seats, a lower ratio per aircraft than its competitors. The October 26 trip marks the aircraft’s worldwide debut. Emirates and Qantas will not receive their aircraft until August and September next year respectively.
Woodhouse says the real marketing push will come in late December or January when it begins flying Sydney to London via Singapore, the first carrier to fly the so-called kangaroo route with the new aircraft. “That’s going to be a real advantage for us and we plan to make a song and dance about it.”
Singapore Airlines spends $6 million a year on marketing in Australia, most of which goes in main media advertising, and the Airbus activity is expected to exceed that.
The print and online component, which Fairfax Media (publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald & The Age) won in a head to head with News Ltd, is worth $1 million alone.
The A380′s launch is the first major assignment for the TBWA group, which won the $75 million global account in April off the incumbent of 34 years, the Batey Group, a move that sparked speculation around Singapore Girl’s future.
In the lead-up to the launch the airline has been auctioning seats on the inaugural flight for charity.
It is also running a competition in schools close to Sydney Airport to find the best collage of the airline’s innovations. The winning school will receive a $10,000 prize.
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Phew, lucky SQ decides to keep the iconic Singapore Girl. Who would be so dumb to do away with something that is so emblematic to them anyway. What has this got to do with being sexist in the first place? I mean like all the while, we have been living in a sexist world. Certain jobs are more suitable to the fairer sex. Can you imagine having Tiger uncles rather than Tiger aunties? Or would you rather have a female domestic helper or have a male domestic helper? Women are known to be more meticulous and altruistic than men. This is an inarguable fact. That is why women would naturally tend to perform better in the service industry, as compared to men. I think people are just too free to link this to being sexist. Yah, can see how bored Singaporeans are. GIVE US SOMETHING TO DO GAHMEN!
Some pictures of our Singapore Girl:
SQ girls posing with the A380
SQ girls, one of them is a Taiwanese crew.
Coffee, Tea, or Me?
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2nd September 2007
Singapore Airlines, Temasek to buy major stake in China Eastern
SHANGHAI: Singapore Airlines and the Singapore’s Temasek Holdings are to buy a combined 24 per cent stake in China Eastern Airlines, the firms said Sunday amid a boom in China’s travel sector.The Singaporean national carrier and investment firm Temasek will inject a combined 7.2 billion Hong Kong dollars (923 million US) into the struggling Chinese airline to buy nearly 1.9 billion new shares in the firm.Singapore Airlines, majority-owned by Temasek, will buy 1.24 billion shares for a 15.7 per cent stake and Temasek 649 million shares for an 8.3 per cent slice, the firms said in Shanghai.“Joining with Singapore Airlines will lift the status of China Eastern in the aviation industry, enhance the brand and reputation of China Eastern, and open up a fast track for China Eastern to enhance its own brand,” the carrier said in a statement.Li Fenghua, president of China Eastern, said the proceeds will be used “to update the company’s fleet, facilities and in operations.”The airline is considered the weakest of China’s three major carriers, posting a huge loss last year while rivals Air China and China Southern Airlines were profitable.China Eastern swung back into the black with a profit of 58 million yuan (7.7 million US dollars) in the first half of 2007.For Singapore Airlines the deal represented a foothold in China’s expanding passenger aviation market, experts said. The two airlines said they would look to coordinate flight schedules and route systems.“It reflects the economic developments in Asia, and the pace at which Asia is getting increasingly interconnected within the region, as well as with the rest of the world,” said Wan Chee Foong, Temasek’s director of investment.China Eastern becomes the second major domestic carrier to bring in a foreign investor, following Air China’s alliance with Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways last year.“China Eastern will get fresh funds to build up more bases and step up expansion in hubs like Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing,” said analyst Gong Junjie of Gong Guodu Securities in Beijing.Singapore Airlines stood to gain from expected further growth in China’s passenger sector, said Sydney-based aviation analyst Peter Harbison.“Anybody who is already in China would be in a very, very strong position to profit from that when that does happen,” said Harbison, who works for the Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation.China would soon dominate Asian aviation and, within a decade or two, global aviation, the centre said.Singapore Airlines chairman Stephen Lee told reporters in Shanghai the deal marks “a long-term investment of strategic importance to us.”China Eastern Holdings, the airline’s state-owned parent company, will also buy 1.1 billion new shares worth 4.2 billion Hong Kong dollars under the deal announced Sunday.All the new shares, to be listed in Hong Kong, will be free of residency restrictions on who can trade them.The holding company’s stake in China Eastern will be cut to 51 per cent from 59.7 per cent. Singapore Airlines will be entitled to nominate two members of the carrier’s board.
Temasek Holdings is one of the largest investment firms in Asia, with a diversified portfolio worth over 100 billion US dollars. – AFP/ac
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Well, I believe the rationale behind buying shares in MU is so that SQ can coordinate MU’s flights schedule to match SQ’s. This will allow SQ to have better connectivity in China.For example, a passanger can take a SQ flight from SIN to PEK, and then carry on his journey by tansferring to MU’s domestic. Something like code sharing, but then at a higher level since SQ own’s MU partially.China has long been a lucrative market. However, due to restrictions by the Chinese government, not many international airlines has flights between Chinese cities. Thus, they do not have a say in the domestic market in China. Therefore, I think why SQ wants to buy shares in MU is to open up it’s China domestic market.It’s seldom that you’ll see SQ investing so much on an airline, so there must be something up in their mind that we do not see. Hope they do not repeat the same mistake they had while buying 49% of Virgin Atlantic Airways.
Here are some pictures of China Eastern Airlines:
MU’s A340-600, the world’s longest airliner
MU’s Check-in counters at Beijing
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10th August 2007
Bunk bed proposal for Air NZ’s jets
Air New Zealand is considering replacing cramped economy seats with sleeping pods in a bid to revolutionise air travel and stay ahead of its much bigger rivals.
Air New Zealand strategic development general manager Nathan Agnew said the airline wants to introduce an entirely new type of economy cabin when it takes delivery of its fleet of Boeing 787-9 and 777-300ER long-range jets from 2010.
Seats that recline to full-length beds have until now been the preserve of business and first class passengers.
Air New Zealand has already equipped its planes with flat-bed business class seats, and premium economy seats which give about 15cm more leg room.
Cathay Pacific was fitting economy seats that recline within a fixed shell, similar to business class seats, and giving more leg room.
“We think that if you are going to do that concept why not push it to the next level, why stop there?” Agnew said.
“We haven’t even constrained ourselves to saying that it necessarily will be a seat. The other option is to give people a sleeping pod.”
Air New Zealand engineers had been given a project to think about how the concept could work, Agnew said.
German airline Lufthansa was considering fitting economy beds in its Airbus A380 super jumbos.
One concept showed berths stacked three-high in a herringbone layout along the sides, and another row stacked down the middle of the cabin.
“We like it (the pod) as a concept. We are yet to evaluate whether practically it could be fitted out to an aircraft interior,” Agnew said.
Cabin crew already sleep in pods during long distance flights, usually hidden away at the rear plane or in the ceiling space above the passenger cabin.
“Given that a lot of our long-haul flying is overnight, it might actually be preferable for our customers simply to have something like that rather than have a seat,” Agnew said.
Because eating in a pod might be difficult, passengers may be served a meal at the airport before the flight, allowing them to immediately go to sleep once on the plane.
“We have some quite creative ways, at least conceptually, how this could work.”
There were also a myriad of other issues to consider, like the ability to sit and video entertainment. On any flight some people want to sleep and others want to remain awake.
Agnew said airfares would be similar to current economy fares.
A big issue for engineers to overcome was finding a way to make the pods as light as possible.
Agnew stressed that it was still a theoretical concept with no guarantees that Air New Zealand would ultimately provide them in its new planes.
“We have started the process and we are trying to be highly creative. I wouldn’t want to put the expectation in the public mind that that is how it going be, but it certainly is in our evaluation set.”
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Personally, I don’t think it will work. So what if meals are being served before the flight? We can’t expect the passenger to sleep right after a meal right? It’s not good for health anyway. Well, so far, only Lufthansa (click on link to see picture) has released the 3D rendered images of what the bunk beds will look it. In my opinion, it looks like the mortuary. =) If NZ is going to adapt a similar system as LH, I think there’s no need to change for the worst. However, if NZ were to adopt a similar system to the capsule hotel, then it would be a different thing all together. Here are some pictures of the capsule hotels in Japan:
At least, if the seats are modelled after the capsule hotels, passengers will still have some space to stretch out. Here are some pictures of NZ:
Air New Zealand B747-400
Air New Zealand B777-200ER
NZ’s Pacific Class (Economy)
NZ’s Premium Business Class
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21st August 2007
Australian police probe Qantas safety
SYDNEY, Australia (AP): Australian police are investigating a former Qantas employee who conducted safety checks on hundreds of international flights without a valid license, the airline said Tuesday. Qantas’ head of engineering David Cox said the employee joined the airline as an engineer in 2002, but won a promotion to a more senior role last year on the basis of forged credentials. Airline officials confronted the man last month when a manager “became suspicious” and discovered that he had not passed civil aviation exams required to work in that role, Cox said. The man had not returned to work since. Qantas said it had referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police for investigation. Cox said Qantas had checked the qualifications of its remaining safety inspectors and found that they were “all above board.” However, he said that although Qantas considered the alleged forgery a “very serious matter,” the airline was confident that the former engineer’s work had not put any passengers at risk. “Qantas has checked everything he has worked on and it checked out,” Cox said. “He was not some bloke off the street … We are comfortable that the work he did was pretty safe.”
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Oh my god, how can this even happen to the reputable Qantas? Here are some pictures of my dear QF:
Qantas new livery
Wunala Dreaming special livery
New Economy seats on the A380
New Premium Economy seats on the A380
New Business Skybeds on the A380
New First Class Suites on the A380
That’s all. Sigh, still traumatised by the news.
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20th August 2007
Dramatic escape as fire engulfs Taiwanese plane in Japan; all safe
TOKYO: A Taiwanese airliner burst into fire on Monday moments after landing in southern Japan but all 165 passengers and crew made a dramatic escape from the engulfing flames.Giant flames and plumes of black smoke erupted from the China Airlines jet just eight minutes after it had landed from Taipei at Naha airport on Okinawa island.“When we looked out the window, everything was covered with fire,” an unidentified male passenger told reporters.“It was just a few minutes after we got off that the fire swallowed the aircraft and we heard a blast.”Fire fighters sprayed hoses full of foam on the Boeing 737-800, which turned into little more than a charred skeleton that had collapsed into pieces by the time the blaze was put out an hour later.Officials said three people were taken to hospital — a 57-year-old man and seven-year-old girl who felt sick after the escape and a fire fighter who suffered heat stroke.A flight attendant was also hurt but did not go to hospital.Air traffic controllers noticed fumes after the plane landed following the flight of one hour and 20 minutes, and advised evacuation, Japanese officials said.It was later found that an oil leak had caused an engine fire, according to China Airlines.“When the fire broke out there was a huge bang and passengers were still in the midst of evacuating,” Toshimasa Yamamoto, a witness at the airport, told Tokyo Broadcasting System.“When the passengers appeared to be finishing the evacuation, the fire engulfed the entire plane. It really was a close call,” he said.All 157 passengers evacuated through emergency slides, said Akihiko Tamura, a transport ministry official in Tokyo.The two pilots and six other crew members also made it out safely, Tamura said. One witness account said the pilot climbed out of the cockpit on a rope.“It’s unfortunate that the explosion happened, but it is fortunate that everyone is safe,” Tamura told a news conference in Tokyo.In Taipei, China Airlines also confirmed the safety of all passengers. The airline put the passenger number at 155, not including two infants without tickets.“Everything was normal, including take-off and landing, until the pilots were told the airplane was on fire,” China Airlines spokesman Johnson Sun told reporters.Chang Kuo-cheng, head of Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration, grounded the airline’s 11 other 737-800s for safety checks as well as two from its Mandarin Airlines subsidiary.Japan’s transport ministry said the fire started in an engine on the left wing of the plane after the oil leak. It said there were no indications of a terrorist attack.Okinawa, a subtropical island which lies closer to Taiwan than Tokyo, is a popular tourist destination and is ordinarily packed with Japanese visitors during the ongoing summer holiday season.The incident will likely rekindle memories in Japan of a major crash by a China Airlines plane in 1994. In that incident, 264 people were killed as the Airbus A300 nosedived on landing in the central Japanese city of Nagoya. – AFP/ac
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This is a news report by a local Japanese TV station:
Look at the debris after the explosion:
All these caused by an oil leak? Oh my god, I guess aircraft engineers should be more conscientious in doing maintainence checks in future. I think staffs who are lackadaisical in their job should be fired. I hope that this would be a good lesson for all technicians and engineers alike.
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