Boeing 787 Dreamliner ZA005 at Paine Field. I took this photo earlier today from the Future of Flight
I have received word that the fifth Boeing 787 Dreamliner (ZA005) will be conducting taxi tests early next week and hearing first flight maybe mid-week. Being the fifth 787 to take flight, it might just seem like another day for most people, but the ZA005 is significant. It will be the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner to lift off using General Electric GEnx engines. The first four (ZA001, ZA002, ZA003, ZA004) have all flow with Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines.
You can be sure I will be there to cover the lift off. I am interested to see how the GEnx engines sound versus the RR ones.
I was looking around for some photos of ZA005 with the GEnx engines, but wasn’t finding any. It is such a beautiful day, I decided to head to Paine Field and get some of my own. While getting ZA005 photos, I also got quite a few other ones. One of the benefits of living in the Seattle area!
I was also playing with streaming live video and got it to work, so I am hoping to offer this during first flight of ZA005 as well. If you want to be notified anytime I am doing a live feed, make sure to create a QIK account and add me as a friend.
MEDIA:
* All photos of trip to KPAE today
* Test videos from today
* Photos I Tweeted
* Aerial shot of ZA005 from a Cessna by Liz Matzelle
An aerial photo of Atlanta International Airport in the 1930s.
On this date in 1930, Delta Air Lines started service with a Travel Air S-6000-B with five passengers to Atlanta International Airport (ATL) from Birmingham, Alabama. At the time, the ticket would only cost your $9.80 (which is about $150 in today’s dollars). Delta moved their headquarters to Atlanta in 1941 and has been there since. During their time in Atlanta, they have met a lot of milestones:
* Early pioneer of the hub-and-spoke air traffic system, starting in Atlanta.
* First jet service in Atlanta (to New York on September 18, 1959).* First service to Europe from Atlanta in 1964, in interchange operations with Pan Am. (Pan Am crews flew the international segments).
* First nonstop service from Atlanta to California (1961).
* First nonstop trans-Atlantic service from Atlanta (to London-Gatwick in April 1978).
* First airline in the world to board one million passengers in one city in one month (in Atlanta in August 1979).
* First airline to board 2 million passengers in one city in one month (in Atlanta in 1997).
* First commercial flight to land on the new fifth runway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, hailed as ’œThe Most Important Runway in America’ when it opened (May 27, 2006).
Spending 80 years flying passengers around the world from Atlanta is pretty impressive. When flying into Atlanta, it is quite obvious the impact that Delta has there. Cheers to another 80+ years of Delta flying out of Atlanta!
Interesting Stuff:
* Photo of the “Fly Delta Jets” sign I took last time I was in Atlanta
* Review of Delta flight from ATL to SEA
* Additional Travel Air photos
* Photos of ATL through the years
Source: Delta Air Lines Blog Image: ATL airport Flickr
Mandala Airlines Airbus A319-100 PK-RMF
Mandala Airlines is a low cost carrier based at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakart, Indonesia. It has a fleet of only Airbus A320’s and A319’s. The airline was founded in 1969 at a time that Indonesia was re-building a devastated economy.
In 2006 the airline sold 49% stake to Indigo Partners [they also have stakes in Spirit Airlines (USA), Wizz (Europe), Tiger (Singapore), and Abnanova Airlines (Russia)]. With the change, the airline replaced its aging fleet with new Airbus aircraft. The airline currently have 30 additional aircraft on order and hope to grow at a rate of 25% per year.
The airline’s logo is a golden eight-pointed mandala showing the eight characters of humanity and the eight elements of Javanese tradition. The five-petaled lotus in the center represents Indonesia’s state ideology, Pancasila.
Thank you @racingwinds for this livery idea! If you have a mostly unknown, current airline livery you like, let me know and I might use it (da***@ai*************.com).
Mandala Airlines Website
Image: Achdiyatma Reza
Logos of different South African airlines. Image made by Kyle Hwang.
GUEST BLOG (By Kyle Hwang, intro by David): From time to time I will have guest bloggers talk about something they specialize in. Recently I was connected with Kyle who is an 18 year old student living in Pretoria, South Africa and attending University of Pretoria studying BSc Actuarial and Financial Mathematics.
He enjoys plane spotting, even though the closest major airport is OR Tambo, which is a 45 minute drive. When he has free time, he loves designing airline liveries and has quite the collection. Here are his thoughts on airlines in South Africa, in his own words:
So you might think that South Africa is a rainbow nation and not ready to host a World Cup. But either way, it has a rather rich and diverse aviation world. Here’s a quick look at the airlines
SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS (SAA):
South African Airways is the national flag carrier of South Africa. SAA is one of six airlines in the world to fly to all continents of the world. Clearly the dominant airline at OR Tambo International Airport, their fortress. SAA has a 4 star Skytrax rating and is also a member of Star Alliance.
Besides the multi coloured Ndizani livery that bought the national Olympic team to Atlanta in 1996, the airline has not had a single special livery except the Star Alliance planes. Oddly enough, SAA is also not the official airline of the FIFA World Cup.
SAA is however pretty infamous on their home turf. Rivals Kulula.com have made SAA pay several anti-competitive fines. SAA was also blamed for the shut down of Nationwide Airlines.
SAA CEO’s have also not had one of the best rides. Andre Viljoen is generally a nuisance in the public’s eye, receiving many letters to retire. Viljoen was however the pioneer of SAA’s Airbus fleet refurbishment program. Khaya Ngqula, Viljoen’s predecessor had to retire because of mismanagement (fraud in my opinion!). He has also been the one taking credit for Viljoen’s Airbus program which proved to be quite successful.
Current CEO Siza Mzimela seems to bring the airline some hope. Former CEO of South African Express (SAA’s strategic partner) may restore the airline to their former glory (SAA won the best Business class seat award in 2004 and 2nd best Business class in 2005).
SOUTH AFRICAN EXPRESS (SAX)
Having revamped their logo recently, SAX is having a much better independent-from-Mother-SAA feel. You can consider SAX as a Southwest/Frontier African equivalent. SAX offers their passengers meal boxes on their domestic flights but here comes the catch- your paying sky rocket fees for a LCC…
SOUTH AFRICAN AIRLINK
The Hummingbirds is what I call them. They literally crashed into a school ground last year and had 3 accidents in a time span of 4 months. With the possibility of the airline closing down, Airlink employees quickly wrote some comments on Facebook hoping that it would save their airline. As a result, more journalists pointed fingers to Airlink’s then rapidly shrinking reputation. Will The Hummingbirds ever be successful? If the day arrives when SAA brings SAX and Airlink back under their wing.
MANGO
You cannot miss Mango’s B737-800 from the ground. They are mango coloured! Mango is SAA’s response to the flood of low cost carriers (LCC) in South Africa. Mango took SAA’s cabin and put Mango logos all over it, like a real cheap LCC.
Also, their inflight magazine is called “Juice.”
1TIME.CO.ZA
If it wasn’t for their sponsor planes, you could also spot 1time from the ground. The are red, hot red! The first time I flew 1time (1time.aero back then) I flew the Nando’s plane. It was red and decorated with Nando’s chicken catch phrases. (“This plane flies at 30,000 feet and 60,000 chicken feet”). 1time’s planes now consists of the Avis, Pushkin Vodka (not for sale to persons under 18!), the Smiley Plane and Go Zanzibar. “More nice, less price,” is their slogan.
KULULA AIRLINES
Definitely one of the success stories of South African Aviation. Flying 101 has caught international attention and even on Airline Reporter. Kulula is actually a British Airways Comair initiative that has bought the spark back into the LCC industry. Kulula has also been voted best LCC to Africa.
Their liveries include Flying 101 of course, Jetsetter, Camoplane, Zippy plane, da udder plane, THIS WAY UP and 3 World cup celebrating planes sponsored by Europcar.
Kulula was asked by FIFA to remove the “Unofficial National carrier of the You-know-what” titles because for copyright infringements.
BRITISH AIRWAYS
What?! An European carrier in the midst of South African unknowns? Comair operates plenty of domestic flights for BA. The only catch is that your are bound to be flying some old 737 that makes a lot of noise.
So hopefully when you watch the soccer on TV you will remember that South Africa also has a pretty rich aviation industry!
I keep seeing some creative ads out there and almost blog about them, but haven’t gotten around to blog about them. Well slacking off works in my favor this time, since there have been quite a few and I can talk about them all in one blog. Here are my favorites:
* Southwest Airlines is advertising their “Bags Fly Free” on their baggage carts. This is cool in two ways. #1 they spent good money to produce these ads and are really pushing the concept. It is a good sign they won’t be charging for bags anytime soon.
* American Airlines has some new ads celebrating those in the armed services. I think American did a nice classy job with this ad just in time for Veteran’s Day.
* Jetstar has its first 3D ad for a soccer game. They said they did the ad, yet I cannot find any video of the ad. Sad.
* Southwest Airlines said no to a PETA ad that shows a revealing body in a body scan with the tagline, “Be Proud of Your Body Scan: Go Vegan.”
The airlines don’t get all the fun. Recently Oddee.com looked at some pretty creative airport advertisements:
Careful! That is hot.
Visa ad on a luggage carousel in New Zealand for the Pompeii exhibit at the National Museum. I love this idea. When the belt starts move, it looks like hot lava is coming your way. This definitely has to get your attention! (bigger version)
Time to cool down
If the lava ad is too hot, cool down. This ad showed up in Gulfport Biloxi International Airport in Mississippi and is for Beau Rivage Resort & Casino. It is supposed to let travelers feel relaxed while watching the swimmers go in circles. (bigger version)
If you like those, check out 11 other creative airport advertisements!
Thanks @bernichacra & @indigocat for finding the 13 airport ads.