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Freelance aviation journalist Jason Rabinowitz joins us to talk about FAA deadlines, passenger behaviour on charter flights, and the state of U.S. airport infrastructure. Also, the best aviation museums, Jetblue’s new FlyFi system, travel technology, and analyzing travel data.
Jason is @AirlineFlyer on Twitter and also see his Facebook page. Find Jason’s writing at Airchive, AirlineReporter, and the Runway Girl Network.
The week’s aviation news:
From CNN, the World’s 14 best aviation museums:
14. Palm Springs Air Museum (California, United States)
13. Central Museum of the Air Forces (Monino, Russia)
12. Royal Flying Doctor Service Museum (Alice Springs, Australia)
11. Red Bull Hangar-7 (Salzburg, Austria)
10. Canada Aviation and Space Museum (Ottawa, Canada)
9. China Aviation Museum (Beijing)
8. Polish Aviation Museum (Krakow, Poland)
7. Pima Air & Space Museum (Arizona, United States)
6. State Aviation Museum of Ukraine (Kiev, Ukraine)
5. French Air and Space Museum (Le Bourget, France) – Jason
4. Future of Flight Aviation Center and Boeing Tour (Washington, United States)
3. National Museum of the United States Air Force (Ohio, United States)
2. Imperial War Museum Duxford (Duxford, UK)
1. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (Washington, D.C.)
David Vanderhoof’s segment: Suzie the Cirrus and her adventure with Mr. Alex.
In this week’s Australia Desk:
This week we have a recent interview with Matt Hall, talking about his preparations for the upcoming Red Bull Air Race season. For US listeners, there are two races this year – one in Forth Worth and the other in Las Vegas.
Find more from Grant and Steve at the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and follow the show on Twitter at @pcdu. Steve’s at @stevevisscher and Grant at @falcon124.
In this week’s Across the Pond segment:
Pieter talks to Krzysztof Kuska Editor-in-Chief of Infolotnicze about the decision by the Polish military to proceed with buying the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 twin-engined jet trainer as its Lead-in Fighter Trainer (LIFT) aircraft to replace its aged fleet of over 100 PZL Mielec TS-11 Iskra jets; significantly under cutting BAE and Korea Aerospace/Lockheed Martin in the process. Pieter learns the M346 and Yak 130 share the same development stable, but this does not fit comfortably with some in Poland.
They also discuss the current pressure on the national airline LOT to look for both internal and external investment and its recent bad luck with the Boeing 787 service.
Follow Infolotnicze on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Find Pieter on Twitter as @Nascothornet, on Facebook at XTPMedia, and at the Aviation Xtended podcast.
Mentioned:
Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at www.brotherloverocks.com.
Hi Geeks,
Greetings from Fairfax Virginia.
I just listened to episode 286. With respect to the list of good aviation museums, I suggest the National Naval Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola. They have an enormous collection of naval and Marine Corps aircraft. My personal favorites were: a Sopwith Camel (assembled from spare parts, complete with Snoopy in the cockpit), a presidential/Marine 1 helicopter, and a Curtiss NC-4 (a huge flying boat biplane).
Last summer, my son and I stayed in the beachfront campground on base and watched naval aviator trainees flying overhead until we fell asleep to the sound of jet engines (fortunately they weren’t too loud to sleep). We spent the next day in the museum. My son, who never cared about airplanes until that trip, enjoyed the camping and airplanes so much that this year we’re going to EAA Airventure. We hope to see you there.
We have a very nice Museum here at Brazil. It is a private one, belonging to the TAM Airlines. Located in the Sao Carlos Airport (SDSC), about 160 miles from Sao Paulo city. I have already been there twice, it´s been always a “good excuse” for a cross country flying ( I am a Private Pilot , member of Sao Paulo Flying Club).Among all the aircrafts displayed there, my preferred one is, for sure, the Lockheed Constellation.
Some references:
http://www.museutam.com.br/aeronaves.php (only in Portuguese)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAM_Museum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2EoKW8mGNA
Regards
I liked the segment on CNN’s 14 best aviation museums, as I really like finding new ones. (I have been to several on CNN’s list, including the Royal Flying doctors Museum in Alice Springs).
Here are three that probably won’t make anyone’s top 14 list, but are definitely worth visiting:
The Hiller Aviation Museum (http://www.hiller.org/index.shtml) in San Carlos, CA features a wide-ranging collection, including many Hiller helicopters. One of my favorites was the Hiller Rotorcycle, a collapsible one-man helicopter designed to be dropped to downed airmen behind the enemy lines. http://www.hiller.org/rotorcycle.shtml
The Golden Wings Flying Museum (http://www.goldenwingsmuseum.com/) in Blaine, MN is a hidden gem. It’s privately owned, and only open a few days a year, usually in conjunction with another event at the Anoka county Airport, where the museum is located. Golden Wings concentrates on aircraft from the 1930’s and probably has the world’s largest collection of beautifully-restored tri-motor aircraft (most still airworthy).
Lastly, another Minnesota museum worth a visit is the Fagen Fighters WWII Museum in Granite Falls, MN (http://www.fagenfighterswwiimuseum.org/). It boasts a very nice collection of WWII aircraft, some still airworthy. There’s even a replica control tower open to visitors, equipped with vintage comm. Gear.
Keep up the great work!
2nd the museum at NAS Pensacola. The airplanes are not roped off like at other museums – you can get up close and personal with them. Although they are works of art IMO, the curators are not so fussy…