On March 2, 1969, BAC’s (now BAE Systems) and Aérospatiale’s (now EADS) Concorde 001 took to the skies for the first time in Toulouse, France. This super-sonic-transport airliner later entered service in 1976 and continued commercial flights for 27 years. The aircraft was primarily flown from London-Heathrow (British Airways) and Paris-Charles de Gaulle airports to New York’s JFK.
Of course, March 2 was only a few days ago. I found this British Airways video dedicated to Concorde and thought I’d share it :
To me, the Concorde is very special. Growing up, the Boeing 747 and the Concorde were my favorite commercial airliners. One represents size and the other represents speed. Of course, one of the selling points of the Concorde was its advantages over competitor aircraft on transatlantic routes. If I remember correctly, the Concorde is all about threes (roughly): 1/3 of the time, 1/3 of the passengers, and three times the ticket cost. Yet, with rising oil prices, mixed with a fatal crash in 2000 (Air France 4590), it was decided in 2003 by both British Airways and Air France that the aircraft was to be retired.
Today, Concordes are located throughout the world at various museums. You can find a list of Concordes built with their current locations here.
Do you have a special memory of concorde? Feel free to share and comment below.
Along with members of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Airport Management Club, I had the opportunity to tour Jacksonville International Airport this past weekend. The airport is located about 9 miles north of the business district of Jacksonville, FL, a little ways away (especially from Daytona Beach), but it only took about an hour and a half to make the drive up I-95. We arrived at the terminal and were greeted by a flap-display showing off all the destinations the airport’s eight airlines (including regional affiliates) had to offer.
Jacksonville offers some 200 daily arriving and departing flights to various destinations across the continental United States and soon San Juan (on JetBlue Airways). The airport’s passenger air service market has grown significantly, but was not immune to the recession. In 2007, the number of passengers using the airport reached a record of over 6.3 million, but has slipped to 5.6 million in 2009. Yet, judging by the new destinations and forthcoming available seat mileage increases at the airport, I expect Jacksonville to return and pass 2007′s 6.3 million in the near future.
Just like our tour of Tampa International Airport about a year ago, we went downstairs to learn and observe Jacksonville’s baggage handling system (BHS). For me, it is always fascinating to see where luggage goes after it is checked. If more passengers went behind the scenes, it would certainly change the way they pack. We got up close and personal with the BHS, but my favorite part was going to the baggage handling system control room and learning how the system works in a big-picture sense.
This fairly new BHS launched in 2007 and was among the first to incorporate TSA screening into the checked system. At some airports, checked bags must be carried to a TSA screening machine by passengers and dropped off there. With this system, which is slowly being implementing at airports around the U.S., passengers can drop off their luggage at check-in; pretty easy and how it should be, right?
Have you ever wondered why the zippers on the your bag are missing or why your bag looks like it just came out of a warzone when retrieved at baggage claim? No two airports have the same identical BHS. Yet most airports’ BHSs (except most small and regional airports) use “diverters” to send your bag to the correct terminal / path. For awhile, many BHSs used the “push” diverters, which would literally slam your bag to the right path. Jacksonville’s BHS uses a different approach, the door method, which reduces wear and tear on your bags. Note, from the video below, that the door has a spinning belt to push your bag to the other belt. Your bag’s baggage tag is scanned by a scanner which alerts the diverter whether or not to open / close the door.
Throughout the whole baggage handling system, from City A to City B, major airlines can track where your bag has passed through. Asked about mishandled bags, Jacksonville told us most errors occur due to old baggage tags / bar codes on bags, which confuses the system. The BHS monitor, which allows the control center to see if the BHS is jammed / stopped / blocked at specific points, is pictured below.
Following our tour of the BHS we had the opportunity to talk to a TSA screening supervisor at the airport. Of course, to refresh our memories on how TSA works, we went through security; but we were also going through to get to the terminal. Jacksonville, like many airports in the transition to all-body scanners, offers a mix of both. Travelers who are randomly selected for additional screening go through the body-scanner. When a person is scanned, a TSA agent in another room looks at the body-image and radios the agents working at the body-scanning station where to look if there are areas of question. In the future, there will be a display with a generic figure of a person; certain areas will flash red, meaning that those are the areas needed to be checked. When asked about the number of people requesting pat-downs instead of the body-scanner, the supervisor told us it’s a regular occurrence; and for various reasons. From radiation fears to pacemaker worries, the TSA at Jacksonville told us they’ve already had about 8 or 9 (Saturday morning) request the pat-down.
After our conversation with the TSA, we headed downstairs to the “nerve center” of the airport: the operations control room. At the control room, managers have a view of everything and anything that goes on at the airport. Nearly every camera (except TSA cameras) planted around the airport feeds back the control room. Maintenance activities, security and general airport activities are coordinated and managed from this control center.
One of my favorite aspects of airport tours is interacting and talking with the airport’s rescue fire fighter (ARFF) team. Like all firefighters in the state of Florida, ARFF crews are certified Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs). Aside from having experience fighting street fires, ARFF crews have special FAA firefighting training and have experience in special ARFF vehicles. During our visit, most of the crew was studying for an important test, but we were lucky to have two ARFF crew members give us a tour of the station and a demonstration of their trucks.
I also was able to get a few great photos from the ARFF station:
A Delta Connection Bombardier CRJ-700.
An American Eagle Embraer ERJ
If you’re still reading, bravo! For the remainder of our tour, we were driven around the perimeter / insides of the airport in a Jacksonville International Airport Parking bus. We drove past the fixed base operators (FBOs) Signature Flight Support and SheltAir. Next, we had the opportunity to check out the lighting system for the airport, which allowed us to get a real understanding of how complex lighting an airport can be.
At the conclusion of our tour, we drove around the cargo area. There, we found a UPS Boeing 767 and a FedEx Cessna Caravan parked on the ramp.
Overall, I really enjoyed Jacksonville International Airport. My thanks to the fine people from the Jacksonville Aviation Authority for giving us this opportunity. It was quite a learning experience and I always enjoy going to new airports!
Just north of Seattle, WA on the northern tip of Lake Washington, you’ll probably spot quite a few seaplanes taking off and landing. This northern tip happens to be the base of one of the world’s largest and well-known seaplane operators, Kenmore Air.
Founded in 1946, Kenmore Air Harbor (the full name of the airline) traces its roots to three friends, Bob Munro, Reg Collins and Jack Mines, who founded the airline with a single airplane on that same tip of Lake Washington. The three founders, who remet after World War II, faced a variety of challenges in the beginning years, but believed that an integrity based business philosophy mixed with exceptional customer service would keep the customers coming back. Kenmore Air kept it simple: “do the right thing,” which remains the cornerstone of their business.
“Other than Jack’s ideas about a hotel we didn’t have much of a plan other than Reg and I would fix planes and Jack would give flying lessons. We just assumed it was going to work.” – Bob Munro
In those early years, Kenmore Air specialized in and dealt Seabee amphibian airplanes. By the 1950′s, the airline became an aircraft and parts dealer for Cessna and expanded their charter business with flights to a variety of hunting spots throughout the Northwest. Not long after, Kenmore expanded with a new hangar and office building. In 1963, Kenmore Air acquired their first de Havilland Beaver, which would become one of Kenmore’s workhorse airplanes.
During the next two decades, Kenmore significantly expanded through the acquisitions of Otter Air and Lake Union Air. To meet demand, Kenmore added several de Havilland Turbo Otters to the fleet.
Today, Kenmore Air currently has 25 aircraft in operations, 52 pilots on staff and more than 250 employees in peak season. The airline flies piston Beavers, turbine Otters and Cessna 208 Caravans. Their destinations map spreads throughout the northwest (Canada and U.S.), including various lakes, harbors, fjords, islands and land airports.
During my visit to Seattle this past summer, I had the opportunity to take a sightseeing tour of the city on Kenmore Air. Even though it was a sightseeing tour, I experienced a cancellation (due to weather) and experienced their top-notch customer service. I flew on a de Havilland Otter from Kenmore’s Lake Union base.
The idea of landing an airplane on water can be a bit frightening for some, but for others, including myself, it feels adventure-esque. I find that the landings feel smoother on water than landing on ground, but that can depend on your pilot. Yet, there is no need to worry about Kenmore Air’s pilots. In fact, I think you’ll find the airline boasts some of the best pilots in the industry.
If you happen to live or visit the Seattle area, Kenmore Air is the best way to see Seattle. If you’re an Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan member, you can earn miles on Kenmore Air flights. Additionally, Kenmore is a ticketing partner of Alaska’s, meaning that customers can book single-ticket itineraries between any of more than 90 Alaska Airlines cities throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico and Kenmore Air destinations in Washington and British Columbia.
Yesterday was a good day for The Boeing Company. The U.S. Air Force announced that Boeing was the winner of the tanker competition, a contract worth $35 billion, and the manufacturer’s 787 aircraft passed the 1,000th flight mark. Yet for now, I’m only going to cover the latest news with the 787 program.
Image via Wikipedia
Boeing Dreamliner ZA004, one of the seven aircraft involved in the testing stage, completed the 1,000th flight on Wednesday, just after 1:00PM local, at Yuma International Airport in southwest Arizona. According to Boeing’s 787 Test Flight website, Boeing has logged 1,006 flights and nearly 3,000 hours of test time (as of 9PM EST Feb. 24).
Yet, maybe the number of flights isn’t the best metric for success. According to Boeing Commercial Airplanes’s Randy Tinseth, Vice President for Marketing:
The Dreamliner has now racked up a total of more than one million miles to date. But the bigger deal doesn’t have anything to do with the number of flights, miles or hours logged. What’s most important is the Dreamliner has now completed about 80 percent of the flight test conditions with Rolls-Royce engines and just over 60 percent for those with GE engines. (retrieved from Randy’s Journal)
I think this is a very important milestone for Boeing; both the engine tests and the 1,000th flight mark. At this point in the game, I would be very surprising to see any further delays in the 787 program. Why? Although I’m not an expert on flight testing or the 787′s flight test schedule, I would think that any major kinks would have been noticed and ironed out by now. Yet, not all of the tests have been completed and therefore I could be speaking out of turn.
Boeing expects to deliver the first 787 to All Nippon Airways in Q3 2011.
As a Philly native, I'm happy to see that @VirginAmerica is adding service to the City of Brotherly Love :) 3 weeks ago
RT @FG_Aircraft: 787 achieves 96.3% dispatch reliability: After two and a half months of scheduled service, All Nippon Airways' (... htt ... 1 month ago
