Civil Air Patrol Cessna 182T Skylane. Photo by Dan Landson.
This story was written by Dan Landson for AirlineReporter.com.
Inside an unassuming building at the North Las Vegas Airport (VGT) there is a buzz of activity. Radios are busy with communications between ground crews and air crews. Teams are being dispatched to check potential threats, others being sent to search for missing aircraft. Reports of explosions, a possible terror cell spotted in a rural part of the state and the potential to save lives has the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) in Nevada and California on high alert. These are just some of real-world scenarios that the Air Force’s Auxiliary responds to on a daily basis and today is no different; except it’s all a drill.
AirlineReporter.com was recently invited to get a behind the scenes look at a two-state, multi-agency training drill. The entire drill was being watched by Air Force officials who graded the CAP’s response. The actual mission started on May 10th and concluded on May 18th.
This video, by SpeedbirdHD, highlights multiple Airbus A380s landing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The video shows Qantas, Air France, Singapore Airlines, Korean Air and China Southern all touching down. So which one landed the best?
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A big thank you to each and every one of you for your continued support. So far in 2013, we have flown over 162,000 miles to bring you some pretty amazing stories and we are excited to keep going.
A United Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Photo by Jack Harty / Airchive.com.
An excerpt from Jack Harty’s story on Airchive.com:
More than one hundred days after the FAA grounded the 787, United Airlines flew their first post-grounding 787 flight from Houston to Chicago on May 20. More than 200 passengers, including executives from both Boeing and United, made history as they spent part of their day cruising at 41,000 feet and at a Mach speed of 0.85 on United flight 1 to mark the return of United’s Dreamliners.
On September 22, 2012, United Airlines quietly took delivery of their first Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and, six days later, they ferried it to Houston, Texas where a large crowd of employees and local journalists joined to celebrate United’s dream come true.
However, United still had to receive certification from the FAA to fly passengers. It was a long five weeks for United as they conducted safety drills, practiced aircraft servicing, and flew several proving runs to Amsterdam, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, and Tokyo. United’s second 787 was delivered on October 31 which was several days late as Boeing experienced delays. United had to scrub several 787 flights due to the delay.
An Air Koryo Ilyushin IL-18. Photo by Bernie Leighton.
I was lucky enough recently to visit the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). In retrospect, I went to DPRK for this aircraft. It is such a wonderful aircraft that I periodically investigate how to buy one. That plane would be the Ilyushin IL-18.
Modern aircraft, even modern turboprops, have one glaring flaw. They are not loud enough.
While I love the first and business products aboard A380s, one person snoring can ruin the entire flight. I admit most people probably are not like me and don’t consider the risk of permanent hearing damage to be something they’d want out of a regular passenger transport flight. I will, forever, consider them wrong.
