In the 1940s, most planes had straight wings. Even the Bell X-1 that broke the sound barrier for the first time had straight wings. But a straight-winged aircraft can run into major stability issues when it gets flying at transonic speeds. In 1941, a Lockheed test pilot named Ralph Virden lost control of his P-38 Lightning in a dive and died in a crash. This prompted an engineer named John Stac...
A passenger delayed a flight by an hour by opening an emergency exit of a Boeing 737 just before take-off. He was on a domestic flight with China Southern Airlines when the incident occurred, the People's Daily Online reports. The plane had to stay at Chengdu Shuangliu airport while the issue was resolved. The flight, bound for Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in north-west Ch...
Air New Zealand and United plan to expand their partnership to include revenue sharing on New Zealand-US routes. The move to deepen cooperation comes as United counts down to its return to NZ for the first time since 2003, with nonstop San Francisco-Auckland flights with Boeing 787s due to begin in July. United vice chairman and chief revenue officer Jim Compton said: “This joint ventu...
The contract for the sale of 36 Rafale fighters to India has not yet been signed, manufacturer Dassault Aviation said March 10. Four weeks was thought to be enough time to conclude the transaction when the heads of state of France and India reached agreement on the sale in late January. “We are getting closer; we are trying to finalize the price,” CEO Eric Trappier said during Dassa...
Dubai-based flydubai announced receiving its membership certificate from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), becoming the latest airline to join from the Middle East and North Africa. flydubai successfully completed its IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) last year. The audit, which is a pre-requisite for an IATA membership, examined all the operational depa...
Lufthansa Technik AG has further extended its market presence in Taiwan by entering into a new long-term agreement with Taiwan-based low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan. According to the new contract, the Hamburg-based maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider is now responsible for providing maintenance services including LRU (line-replaceable unit) services for t...
The PACAVI Group is moving forward with the supplemental type certificate (STC) development for their first-to-market Airbus A320/A321 passenger-to-freighter conversion. PACAVI Group CEO Dr. Stephan Hollmann commented on the program’s status: “Our STC program, started in January 2015, is progressing on schedule, as well as the conversion of our pro...
Abu Dhabi Air Expo, being held at Al Bateen Executive Airport, reopened today at 10am after being forced to suspend activities on Wednesday because of extreme weather conditions in the city. Today is the final day of the air expo. The event was closed at around 11.25am on Wednesday when a thunderstorm hit, with strong winds blowing through the chalets, chairs, tables, and banners placed arou...
How often aviation professionals see the information about new startups? Pretty often. Mostly they are in business aviation. That made us wondering, how are doing companies, who are newcomers on the market and represents different aviation fields.We had an opportunity to talk with CargoFeeder team. Discuss results, more important points, future vision. Q.How the idea of Cargofeeded came up?...
Everyone knows the Golden Rule of air travel: Always arrive at least an hour or two before your flight. But what if I told you there's a way to cut that time down to just 15 minutes and never break a sweat? No security lines, no hidden fees, no penalties for missing your flights. It sounds like some sort of airline-food induced fever dream, but this is the reality of flying in a private jet....
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Asia’s largest international airline by passengers, will soon start using Airbus Group SE’s most fuel-efficient plane as it tries to trim costs in the face of mounting competition. Cathay will receive 12 new A350 aircraft this year, with the first one due in May, Chief Executive Officer Ivan Chu said after a briefing Wednesday af...
Amazon is about to lease 20 Boeing 767 aircraft, according to Reuters, confirming months of speculation that the online retail giant is building up an air-delivery service. The planes are being leased by a company called Air Transport Services Group Inc. Rumors of Amazon's involvement with ATSG date to late last year, when Motherboard uncovered that the aviation lessor was shipping goods fo...
