AA’s first Airbus A319 departs from Hamburg on its delivery flight. All of American’s A319s will be delivered with the new sharklets. Image: American Airlines
Reported from Fort Worth by: Jack Harty, Senior Correspondent Archive.com and re-printed with permission.
The ’œNew American’ is arriving along with a new aircraft almost every week. With each delivery, American is slowly introducing a brand-new onboard product that first debuted on their Boeing 777-300ERs and continues to make its way into the fleet with the delivery of their first A319 aircraft. In February, American Airlines and US Airways announced plans to merge which would help form the ’œNew American.’
However, the Department of Justice filed a motion to stop the merger last week, citing that competition would be decreased. At this time, it’s not clear if a merger with US Airways will be part of the ’œNew American’, though many in the industry feel that the merger will happen after AA agrees to concessions, such as surrendering significant slots at Washington Reagan National Airport.
At a minimum, the merger closing will be pushed back from the 3rd to 4th quarter of 2013. Even if American and US Airways do not complete their merger, it is evident that American Airlines is going through a transformation as they build the ’œNew American.’
On August 14th, American Airlines unveiled their first A319 in the United States to employees and press; we were invited.
N799AL parked on the ramp in Sacramento
On May 26, 2012, my dream came true.
As adamant as you can be when you’re a child, convincing your family to fly to Hawaii on United Airlines just so you can say goodbye to the last of the narrowbody four-holers is a long shot. Especially when there were fewer-stop options available through Vancouver. I tried, though.
Until February of 2012, I was pretty sure that I’d never get to fly on a DC-8. Then my fortunes changed.
A company called Classic Jet Tours had managed to organize a passenger flight on a DC-8-62CF belonging to Air Transport International. After seeing my friends posting their boarding passes on Facebook, I jumped on it; I paid my fee, booked travel to Sacramento, and began counting the days.
The Honor Flight Veterans gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial – Photo: Mal Muir | AirlineReporter.com
Early in the morning, men were arriving at Wisconsin’s Oshkosh Wittman Regional Airport. They all had one thing in common; they were heading to Washington D.C. on a very special charter flight.
Each one had been selected by the Northeast Wisconsin Old Glory Honor Flight & Experimental Aviation Association due to their service during the Vietnam War. The four main armed services (Navy, Army, Air Force, and Marines) were represented by the 110 veterans taking the flight.
I was invited to accompany them in order to experience the Honor Flight and to tell their story.
For most AvGeeks, this whole video will probably be quite interesting. But to get to the good stuff, try fast forwarding until about the 2:45 mark. Here you are able to watch the experimental Bradley Aerobat BA-100 (reg N27BD) lose power and come to an almost instant stop when crashing into some trees.
The crash occurred on August 10th, shortly after the aircraft took off from Skylark Airfield (ILE) in Killeen, TX. According to the Killeen Daily Herald, the aircraft experience engine failure (which can be heard in the video) and struck a group of trees. The pilot was okay and called 911 for help. It took a while for officials to find the plane and pilot which were stuck 6′ above the ground.
The 56 yr old pilot, Brian Douglas, stated that the crash has not deterred him from flying, but his wife has told him he is not doing any more experimental flying.
Bombardier CS100 FTV1 is rolling!
Photo: Bombardier
Bombardier Commercial Aircraft announced today that CSeries Flight Test Vehicle 1 (FTV1) has started slow-speed taxi tests at Mirabel Airport.
’œWe checked off yet another great series of accomplishments on the first CSeries aircraft. It was thrilling to see FTV1 move under its own power on the tarmac during the low-speed taxi runs this week,” said Robert Dewar, Vice President and General Manager, CSeries Program. He added, “I’m also pleased to share that FTV1 completed the high-powered engine runs while the aircraft was stationary. When full thrust was applied, we were able to run full vibration checks ’“ but most telling, the flight test team was extremely impressed with how quiet the engines were at full power.’
In addition to other final tests, FTV1 will soon head into the paint shop for a new “look”. FTV1’s first flight is still scheduled to take place “in the coming weeks.”
Click HERE to read Bombardier’s press release, and HERE to watch a video of the taxi tests.
Stay tuned!
