Employees of American stand around a Boeing 777-300ER in new AA livery.
A while back, I was invited to fly on a 777-300ER (77W) delivery flight for American Airlines. In a previous story, I talked about all of the events leading up to the delivery ceremony and flight and now I will continue with sharing my experience.
I was pulling a very long night after the dinner event, working on photos and the writing up the first part of my story. I was up late when I got a tip about a second American Airlines 77W that arrived at Boeing Field in the cover of darkness from Dallas. This was surely not usual and I began researching and found that the aircraft N719AN was flown up, but why?
CS100 FTV1 on a beautiful summer day at Mirabel Airport, during engine tests. Photo: Bombardier Aero
Well, it isn’t up in the air — at least, not yet.
Engine and Auxilliary Power Unit (APU) testing has started, but so far, we don’t think CS100 Flight Test Vehicle 1 (FTV1) has yet moved under it’s own power.
FTV1 was supposed to be flying by the end of July. That was the date given by Bombardier after the previous first flight date at the end of June slipped by a month. Last Wednesday was one week before the end of July, and Mike Arcamone, President, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft, made the announcement about the further delay.
Now, FTV1’s first flight is “to take place in the coming weeks.”
This could be the last Boeing 777-200 built. Reg #HL8284.
This Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-200ER took off from Paine Field on Friday a little bit before 10:00am heading to South Korea. Typically a 777 being delivered is not a huge deal, but this could turn out to be the very last Boeing 777-200ER ever built.
“At the present time, there are no 777-200ERs in the production system,” Boeing spokesperson Elizabeth Fischtziur confirmed to AirlineReporter.com. However, Boeing is still offering the model to airlines and the 777-200LR still have deliveries set until 2014.
The first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner rolls out of the paint hangar late last night. Photo from Boeing.
Last night Boeing completed the painting of the first 787-9 Dreamliner with the new Boeing Commercial Airplanes livery. According to Boeing, “This refreshed look for the Boeing family began with the 747-8 and evolved with the 737 MAX. The new livery retains many of the features of the original 787-8 livery, adding a prominent number on the tail to help distinguish among models within the same product family.”
Air travel is expensive, that is a well known fact of life. While the cost has indeed dropped dramatically over time, flying is still fairly expensive once you add up the taxes, miscellaneous fees, and everything else that goes along with flying. Last week, however, JetBlue offered a deal that was simply too good to pass up. 90% off any flight out of New York City? Sign me up!
After three frustrating days of trying to book a trip to literally anywhere JetBlue flies, I was finally able to book a round trip flight to West Palm Beach, FL for a whopping $66.99, $24.95 of which was taxes. That fare, booked the day before travel, was already incredible. At over $400 off the normal price, I was extremely happy. What came next, however, brought the fare down to less than the cost of a Big Mac.
