Boeing 787 Dreamliner makes first commercial flight The first commercial flight of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner passenger jet has touched down safely and on time at Hong Kong, a little over three years after it was due to arrive. The flight from Narita Airport, Tokyo only took the passengers four and a half hours, but Boeing had originally planned to supply All Nippon Airways (ANA) …
One of the normal tests a new aircraft undergoes is that they take a wing and bend it til it breaks. With the 787 they took it to the full capacity of their hydraulic jacks and it still didn't break - so they asked special permission to skip the test, because they said if it takes that much force to break it the broken piece is going to fly around and puncture something.
Yeah. Hear that on birthdays and at Christmas from Girlie.
I was on an AA flight -JFK-DFW once. I had to ask the flight attendant - she was very impolite - if she could help me with my seatbelt. (Think she thought I was gettting 'fresh') She directed me to my seat, then saw the problem. Some extremely obese woman was occupying her seat with one 'cheek' of her ass, my seat with the other. Because there were a load of fatties on board, they had to shuffle them like a pack of cards so I could get a seat (full flight, no spare seats)
As a frequent long hail flyer I prefer rivets and metal until a few more millions of miles have been clocked up on these 'plastic' planes.
When flying the polar route between the Far East and North America, and looking out of the window at bare ice for thousands of miles or even more kilometres, it gives me a sense of comfort to have four, rather than two, engines.
Yes, it's an old pilots' dream:
The flight engineer reports to the captain - "Sir, engine number 6 is overheating, I'm shutting it down".
Captiain - "Thank you, George. That would be engine #6 on which wing?"
But seriously, 4 engines is just a higher probability of an in-flight engine failure and all new twin engine long range aircraft are certified for ETOPS of over 120 minutes.
The last thing we need is people with more carry-on luggage. On flights I've been on recently you'd think people we're moving across the globe and they are carrying every frigging thing they own in 27 carry-on bags. Maybe they should ride in the cargo hold for a flight or two so they get the idea?
Why would people want to drag everything onboard when...
...hold baggage is guaranteed to be handled with kid gloves from the point it leaves your hands at the checkin desk to the point you pick it up again on the carousel, arriving in exactly the same condition as when you last saw it
...hold baggage is guaranteed not to be opened except in your presence, and absolutely guaranteed not to be opened, have items removed, and then closed up again, except in your presence
...hold baggage is guaranteed to be always ready and waiting for you the moment you step into the terminal building at your destination
...hold baggage is carried for free on every single airline, and every single airline/airport has adopted a globally consistent set of rules regarding how many items each passenger is allowed to check in, how much each of them can weigh individually and how much their combined weight is allowed to be, and what sizes/shapes/styles of casing are able to be handled without the item being classed as oversized/oddly-shaped/special handling etc.
Why indeed... I know some people really do take the regal wee when it comes to cabin baggage, but given the increased amount of stuff carried onboard by average passengers, I feel fairly confident in suggesting there are some genuinely good reasons why people are choosing not to check stuff into the hold whenever possible.
Most of that is the Engines (by cost) assuming the customer ticks the Rolls Royce option
The British bits inside are some of the seats.
American aerospace design, Japanese heavy engineering, British upholstery!
(The wheels are the same as airbus and built by a French company in England.)
"Why would people want to drag everything onboard when...
...hold baggage is guaranteed to be handled with kid gloves from the point it leaves your hands at the checkin desk to the point you pick it up again on the carousel, arriving in exactly the same condition as when you last saw it
...hold baggage is guaranteed not to be opened except in your presence, and absolutely guaranteed not to be opened, have items removed, and then closed up again, except in your presence
...hold baggage is guaranteed to be always ready and waiting for you the moment you step into the terminal building at your destination
...hold baggage is carried for free on every single airline, and every single airline/airport has adopted a globally consistent set of rules regarding how many items each passenger is allowed to check in, how much each of them can weigh individually and how much their combined weight is allowed to be, and what sizes/shapes/styles of casing are able to be handled without the item being classed as oversized/oddly-shaped/special handling etc.
Why indeed... I know some people really do take the regal wee when it comes to cabin baggage, but given the increased amount of stuff carried onboard by average passengers, I feel fairly confident in suggesting there are some genuinely good reasons why people are choosing not to check stuff into the hold whenever possible".
So after you get off the plane with your 27 bags and go to the terminal and collect your checked baggage, how much time did you save?
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