That's me before boarding ANA's second 787 Dreamliner for my excursion flight.
As previously posted, I recently was lucky enough to be able to make a trip over to Tokyo, Japan to fly on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for the first time. I was asked by APEX (Airline Passenger Experience Association) to write about my experience. Since the story is quite a bit different from the story I posted on the blog I wanted to share…
TAKE A LOOK AT MY BOEING 787 DREAMLINER FLIGHT STORY ON APEX
Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 with Mount Rainier in the background. Photo by Brandon Farris.
Alaska Airlines announced yesterday that they will operate 75 regularly schedule flights, using renewable bio-fuels starting tomorrow, November 9th. The maiden flight will leave from Seattle (SEA) to Washington, DC (DCA) and also Portland (PDX). The airline will fuel the aircraft using a 20% blend of biofuel made from used cooking oil.
Alaska is hoping that these flights will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 10%, which is equal to removing 26 cars from the road for a year. The impact of these few flights might seem minor, but if Alaska were to use the 20% biofuel mixture on all their flights, it would be the equivalent of removing 64,000 cars off of the road.
’œThis is a historic week for U.S. aviation.’ Alaska Air Group Chairman and CEO Bill Ayer stated. ’œCommercial airplanes are equipped and ready for biofuels. They will enable us to fly cleaner, foster job growth in a new industry, and can insulate airlines from the volatile price swings of conventional fuel to help make air travel more economical. To the biofuels industry, we say: If you build it, we will buy it.’
The fuel mixture is being supplied by SkyNRG and made by Dynamic Fuels (who is in a partnership with Tyson Foods). These flights by Alaska are part of the Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest (SAFN) initiative, which was launched in July 2010 by Alaska Airlines, Boeing, Portland International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Spokane International Airport and Washington State University to promote aviation biofuel development.
United Airlines's first commercial advanced biofuel flight using a Boeing 737-800 (N76516) takes off from Houston yesterday. Photo by United.
Although there is a lot of excitement in the northwest for Alaska’s first flight on Wednesday, United Airlines operated a scheduled flight using biofuels yesterday, the 7th of November. Flight 1403, a Boeing 737-800, left from Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Aiport (IAH) at about 10:30am local time for Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD).
’œUnited is taking a significant step forward to advance the use of environmentally responsible and cost-efficient alternative fuels,’ said Pete McDonald, United’s executive vice president and chief operations officer. ’œSustainable biofuels, produced on a large scale at an economically viable price, can one day play a meaningful role in powering everyone’s trip on an airline.’
United also announced that they have signed a letter of intent to negotiate the purchase of 20 million gallons of biofuel per year, starting as early as 2014
United beat Alaska for a revenue biofuel flight by two days, but it is not clear when or if United will continue the biofuel flights. An email to United to get clarification on their future biofuel flights has not been returned by the time of posting this story.
Alrosa Mirny Air Enterprise Tupolev TU-154M (RA-85684) sits in the mud outside a small, closed, regional airport.
On September 7, 2010 a Alrosa Mirny Air Enterprise Tupolev TU-154M (registration number RA-85684), took off from Udachny Russia, heading to Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow. While cruising at about 35,000 feet, it experienced an electrical failure, causing the loss of their navigational systems and fuel pumps, leaving the pilots only 30 minutes worth of fuel.
The TU-154M sits about 520 feet past the end of the runway at Izhma Airport.
To make matters worse, the pilots also lost control their flaps, slats and radio system. Luckily they found that Izhma Airport was close to attempt an emergency landing, but there was a bit of bad news. First of all the runway was closed and no longer in use, plus it was only 4,347 feet long. Typically, the TU-154M needs a runway over 7,200 feet long to stop safely. Since they were short on options, they made the attempt to land anyhow.
The Alrosa TU-154M took quite a beating, running off the end of the runway.
The pilots made two attempts to land before finally putting the aircraft down on the third try. The odds were against the plane, as it did not have control of flaps to slow down and it ended up running about 520 feet off the end of the runway, through trees, bushes and mud.
Airliners were not made to hit trees and bushes. They did a number of the body of the TU-154M.
Amazingly, after the aircraft came to a complete stop, all 81 passengers and crew were able to safely evacuate the aircraft and no injuries were reported. It was determined that the batteries overheated causing a thermal runaway, affecting the failed components of the aircraft.
The two pilots of Flight 514: Andrei Lamanov and Yevgeny Novoselov stand in front of TA-85684
The two pilots of Flight 514: Andrei Lamanov and Yevgeny Novoselov were regarded as heros for their successful landing of the stricken aircraft. They were made Heros of the Russian Federation, which is the highest honorary title that a Russian Federation citizen can received. The other seven crew members were rewarded with Orders of Courage. Passengers were rewarded with their lives and an incredible story to tell for the rest of their lives.
After minimum repairs, Alrosa’s TU-154M took off from Izhma Airport – Photo: Aleksey Nagaev
So now what? Alrosa had this “Lucky TU-154M” that was damaged at an airport that doesn’t have a runway long enough for it to properly take off. Well, if there is a will, there is a way and the airline decided to make needed repairs to get the aircraft back in the air.
About six and a half months after the Tupelov crash landed, enough repairs were completed to get it airborne again. After reducing its weight as much as possible, on March 23, 2011 the TU-154M successfully took off from Izhma Airport and flew to Ukhta, Komi Republic for additional inspections. Finally it was sent to Samara where final repairs were completed before the aircraft was placed back into service.
The TU-154M was designed to successfully operate in Russian’s tough climate and air infrastructure and it seemed to pay off. I am not quite sure how other aircraft might have fared during the same situation.
More good Alrosa TU-154M Flight 514 stuff:
* More photos of the TU-154M
* Photos of the airplane on Airliners.net
* More on The Moscow Times
I do not know what is cooler: the classic flight attendant uniform or the Boeing 737-200 flying overhead. I wonder how many takes this took to get it right and if she had any hearing left. Enjoy this Southwest Airlines commercial from 1972.
UPDATE:
Brian Lunsk, Southwest Airlines Corporate Historian and Nuts About Southwest Blogger, left a comment with a bit more information on the video: “This commercial was filmed at the former Connally Air Force Base in Waco. I’m not sure how many takes were involved, but Southwest wouldn’t let our own Employees stand there. The woman in the Hot Pants is a model. It was produced by the former Bloom Agency of Dallas and one of the production crew involved on the shoot was Donald Bellisario, the creator of Magnum, PI, Quantum Leap, JAG, and currently NCIS.” — Thanks Brian!
Cebu Pacific Airbus A320
Cebu Pacific Air is based at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in the Philippines. It is a low cost carrier that started operations in 1996, originally as “Cebu Air.” The airline flies to 34 domestic and 16 international destinations.
Cebu currently operates a fleet of 10 Airbus A319s, 18 A320s and eight ATR 72-500s. They also have an additional 56 Airbus A320-family aircraft on order, including the A321neo.
Even with the new fleet and many changes in safety, the airline, along with every other Philippines airline, is banned from flying to the European Union. Too bad having a slick livery doesn’t help an airline become unbanned.
The original livery, seen on a DC-9, was a bit more plain, but still had the “bird head.” The newer one keeps the bird, but also incorporates yellow and orange, with the website down the fuselage. The colors go very well together and the shape in the front makes it look like the aircraft is smiling, which reminds me of the good ‘ol PSA livery.
Thanks Allen for the suggestion.
Image: propfreak