Episode 98 – George Hamlin

Octuri

Our guest this episode is George Hamlin, President of Hamlin Transportation Consulting. He’s been in the commercial aviation and aerospace industry for almost 40 years, specializing in things like transport economics, marketing and strategic planning, aircraft requirements/fleet planning, economic analysis and forecasting for both passenger and cargo operations. George has worked at Airbus, Lockheed, TWA, and a number of other companies and brings a wealth of experience to the conversation.

David provides his This Week in Aviation segment, and Steve and Grant stayed up late producing the Australia Desk report.

The news:

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Photo above from http://www.octuri.com/. Opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

5 thoughts on “Episode 98 – George Hamlin

  1. Max Flight

    [John sends in some interesting links…]

    A neat story of community/aviation appreciation:
    http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/article/20100523/NEWS01/5230318/1002/Even-on-the-ground—-airplanes-draw-aviation-fans

    When Flight Diverted, Crew Ordered Pizza For Passengers:
    http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/23620842/detail.html

    PETA “body scan” ad rejected by Southwest Airlines – too sexy.
    http://adland.tv/content/peta-body-scan-ad-rejected-southwest-airlines-too-sexy

  2. Pingback: Tweets that mention Airplane Geeks - Episode 98 - George Hamlin | Airplane Geeks Podcast -- Topsy.com

  3. Bill Kempthorne

    Come’on guys – the ‘buy American’ (tanker) is okay but to say ‘when was the last time we bought something that wasn’t?’ and going back to the Canberra bomber is a little weak.
    C-27J, T-6A, T-45 are all more recent examples of off-shore designs (with US production), the Harrier is the fighter example, likely the replacement for the T-38 will have to come from somewhere else.
    The point that was accurate is US industry has a number of ‘blind spots’ where they simply don’t play – anything turboprop between a Cessna Caravan and a C-130 is a little hard to find. Likewise small jet trainers and light attack are non-existant in US production.
    You only have to look at the inventory of regional carriers to see the lack of US designs. Yes, there are a few King Airs and Beech 1900s out there but there are probably more Swedish (Saab) airplanes than either of those – let alone Canadian or Brazilian.

  4. Max Flight

    [Christopher sent in some good points and material to discuss…]

    Hi Max Flight and gang,

    I am writing to suggest a new topic for an upcoming episode and comment about the Concord/Richard Branson comment in Episode 98.

    Episode 98:
    Just to set the record straight – Richard Branson offered the British Government one pound sterling for the Concords, because that is what the British Government charged BA for the plane. The Concord or ‘Concorde’ was designed, developed, and built by a concord between the British and French governments. The British Industry and Trade Commission funded Rolls Royce (the engine manufacturer) and British Aerospace (the airframe manufacturer) until 1984. It was only then that British Airways took financial responsibility for the Concorde Program and ran it as a for profit route.

    Sir Branson was mocking British Airways’ history of government aid by offering to buy and continue to run the Concord Program. BA had refused to sell him the planes and instead put them in a museum, refusing to let them be operated by any other airlines. (Talk about wasting residual value!) As a result, super-sonic flight was lost for us all.

    http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/04/11/biz.trav.concorde/index.html

    Future Topic:
    The Transportation Security Administration –

    I think its hard now to talk about either GA or the airlines without discussing TSA. TSA appears to be growing its influence over the aviation community with each passing week. The latest news this week of TSA compiling a list of people who make comments or cause trouble while passing through security is frankly frightening. (See attached news article)

    http://www.11alive.com/news/national/story.aspx?storyid=144457&catid=40

    For the Airlines – you may explore the possibility of TSA’s authority at airports hampering the airline’s ability to effectively compete on services. With TSA heckling passengers, no wonder people would rather drive 6 hours than take a commuter flight.

    For GA – after the failed Times Square bombing, TSA is cracking down on Private Charter security (aka Twelve-Five Standard Security Program). Why? I have no idea. See attached article from aviation week. Also at larger airports such as John Wayne in Orange County, CA – they are making access to the field for GA pilots more difficult and hurting flight schools such as Sunrise Aviation.

    http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=busav&id=news/awx/2010/05/24/awx_05_24_2010_p0-229131.xml

    For the taxpayers – TSA has deployed a whole team of people that compare your driver’s license or passport with a a paper ticket that most air-travelers print off of their computers these days. That ticket has your name and a bar code on it. It also is a very easy document to tamper with; it doesn’t take a computer graphic designer to change the name on the ticket before you print it out. Someone could easily do it with the paint program on most windows machine.

    Imagine the scenario: Someone not on the no-fly list could first buy a ticket, then someone else working with the ticket buyer could change the name on the ticket to match their driver’s license or passport. Then that same person could board the flight. The TSA security checker wouldn’t know the difference and once the guy had his ticket scanned on the jet-way, the airline would think the original ticket buyer was on the flight. TSA wouldn’t know the difference! Why is TSA paying these people’s salaries to stand their and check tickets?

    Thanks,

    I am 23 years old and a GA instrument pilot. I very much enjoy your podcast each week – thanks for putting it on!

  5. diego

    Hi there,

    I’m Diego from Spain (aeropodcast). Listening to episode 99 talking about Ryanair coming to Barcelona I just would like to note some points on the analysis:

    Ryanair is talking about bringing 3 MM extra passengers to BCN next year. I’ve analyzed the data of number of passengers transported on 2009 and out of the 19.500.000 that Ryanar transported in Spain (is the second busiest airline in Spain) 6.200.00 where transported from Girona and Reus Airports.

    Girona Airport was been called “Barcelona Noth” on Ryanair from the beginning and is a 40 minute drive from Barcelona. So my point is that Ryanair will not create more traffic on the area but basically will shift the outgoing airport. Anyhow I’m sure it’s great news for BCN airport as Ryanair will probably bring much more tourist from outside Spain, so the incoming traffic will be increased.

    We will wait and see.

    Congratulations for the show and go for number 200.

    Diego

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