Tag Archives: United

AirplaneGeeks 334 The NACA Centennial

NACA hangar

A symposium celebrating the formation of NACA 100 years ago, an AirAsia Flight 8501 update, slimline seats and passenger comfort, how to deboard quickly, and a Mars rover equipped with a drone.

Guest

Dr. Bill Barry is NASA’s sixth Chief Historian. Prior to his appointment in September 2010, Bill served as the NASA European Representative at the United States Embassy in Paris and at NASA Headquarters as a Senior International Programs Specialist and leader of the Russia Team in the Office of External Relations.

Bill is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, he also holds a Masters Degree from Stanford University and a Doctorate from Oxford University. He’s a pilot who holds a commercial, instrument ticket for multi-engine land and glider and is (oddly enough) currently working on his single engine rating.

Bill is one of the organizers of The NACA Centenary: A Symposium on 100 Years of Aerospace Research and Development to be held at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C.  on March 3-4, 2015.

Congress established the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) on March 3, 1915. In 1958, NACA was transitioned and become NASA.

Find the NASA History Program Office at history.nasa.gov, and lots of great photos on Flickr.

News

AirAsia Flight 8501 update:

Divers have retrieved some bodies from a section of fuselage that sits about 100 feet down in the Java Sea. Efforts to raise the fuselage have failed. Reports attribute the difficulty to deflating lifting balloons, snapped ropes around the fuselage, and even breakup of the fuselage.

United just built 14 new planes using your extra legroom

United Airlines plans to grow capacity by 1.5% to 2.5% across its entire fleet, through a combination of new planes and new seats on old planes. The new seats are slimline seats. Installation on 300 aircraft gives United the equivalent capacity of 14 additional aircraft. Thinner seats mean you can fit more in with the same seat pitch. Or even more rows with slightly less seat pitch.

The way we get off airplanes makes absolutely no sense

Airlines try different boarding strategies. Sometimes to minimize total boarding time. Sometimes to support a passenger differentiation strategy. But what about at the other end of the trip? The 2014 study “Structured deplaning via simulation and optimization” showed that deboarding by aisle rather than row could cut time by up to 35%.

NASA planning Mars Helicopter to assist future rovers

These days two things are red hot: Mars rovers and drones. The rovers are accomplishing great science and sending us amazing photographs. Drones seem to be showing up everywhere, and are also creating fantastic images. So what if you had a Mars rover that came with its own drone?

The Australia News Desk

Steve and Grant

It’s Australia Day and the boys are taking a few minutes out from a BBQ to record a quick OzDesk with mentions of special Australia Day items, including:

  • The Royal Australian Navy had their new Landing Helicopter Dock HMAS Canberra on Sydney Harbour while Qantas flew an A380 over the harbour.
  • Meanwhile, in the USA, SQNLDR .Andrew “Jacko” Jackson starts his F35 training on Australia Day.
  • Finally, Steve gives some information about Positive Train Control after Max asked for his input last week.

Airplane Geeks on Ice

Report 5 by Juan Fernandez from McMurdo Bay in Antarctica. More at AirplaneGeeks.com.ice.

Listener Recording

Tony Morley on the 1993 Royal International Air Tattoo.

Credit

Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at brotherloverocks.com.

 

Episode 254 – Simple Flight

A350XWB First Flight

At Simple Flight, Al and Marc produce a aviation radio show that goes live Sunday nights from 8:00pm to 10:00pm Central Time (U.S.) You can also listen to the audio archive anytime, or subscribe as a podcast in iTunes. Since the Simple Flight show is live, Al and Marc get a lot of listener interaction in real time.

The website offers other content for pilots, including an aviation blog, aviation photography, flight instruction. We talk about the live show, the next great flying club – delivering new pilots to aviation, and even Rod Rakic’s new Open Airplane project.

Find the guys and the site on Twitter as: @Al_H2Oloo (clever, eh?), @mepner, and @SimpleFlightNet.

The week’s aviation news:

David Vanderhoof’s Aircraft of the Week is Sue’s Bird, the Piper PA-24 Comanche.

Embraer KC-390

In this week’s Australia Desk:

Winter weather has been causing trouble in for flights Australia’s south east this week, especially with fog causing many diversions. Mid week, two B737s, one Qantas & one Virgin Australia, diverted to the rural city of Mildura in Victoria; an airport normally accustomed to regional turboprop aircraft, and one that lacks an ILS. As the fog began to envelop Mildura as well, the Virgin 737, after two missed approaches, declared a fuel emergency and landed in what has been described as below minima for the airport. This has lead to an ATSB investigation which is due to report by March 2014.

Virgin Australia flight makes emergency landing in Victoria

Low fuel diversion involving Boeing 737-8FE, VH-YIR, Mildura Airport, Victoria on 18 June 2013

RAAF KC-30A tankers now operational and recently participated in Exercise Aces North, the culmination of the Fighter Combat Instructor course, in the skies over the Northern Territory.

KC-30As participate in Aces North

GippsAero rolls out GA8 Airvan number 200

Australia’s entrant in the Airbus Fly Your Ideas contest, from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, places second overall. A great result!

Melbourne’s RMIT comes second in Airbus Fly Your Ideas global competition

Grant talks about his balloon flying over the weekend with PCDU team member, Kathy Mexted

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. Australia Desk archives can be found at www.australiadesk.net.

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.

Episode 79 – Aviation Photos by Skippyscage

Photo by Paul Filmer

Guest Paul Filmer joins the Airplane Geeks to talk about current aviation news. Paul is Stateside Editor and Database Administrator for Global Aviation Resource, he contributes to Combat Aircraft Magazine, and you can find his personal page at skippyscage.com/. Paul is an accomplished aviation photographer and you can find his work at those sites.

David Vanderhoof gives us This Week in Aviation, and Steve Visscher and Grant McHerron from the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast have their Australia Desk report.

Follow the @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line: (361) GEEKS01.

This episode’s opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. Visit his site at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

Episode 73 – News Fit to Print

Europrop

Benet Wilson, Aviation Week’s Online Managing Editor for Business Aviation, again joins Max, Rob, and David to talk about the week’s aviation news. We also discuss how aviation journalists keep current with the news (or ahead of it) and we have some tips and resources that help you stay current with aviation news.

David Vanderhoof has another This Week in Aviation, and Steve Visscher and Grant McHerron from the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast have their Australia Desk report. We also have some listener mail.

For aviation news:

Follow the @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave us voice mail on our listener line at (361) GEEKS01.

This episode’s opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. Visit his site at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

Episode 51 – Farewell Courtney

a380

This is Court’s last episode as he leaves the podcast to head North in search of employment.  Rob Mark from JetWhine.com and Dan Webb from ThingsintheSky.com replace Courtney as Max’s co-hosts and, as usual with these two, things get funny quickly.

Max’s pick of the week is AerHub.

Don’t forget to send us your ideas for Airplane Geeks T-Shirts!

The Airplane Geeks are now on Twitter! You can follow us @AirplaneGeeks.

Make sure to sign up for our new newsletter, “Airplane Geeks Week in Aviation.”
We’ll be bringing you these show notes, as well as some of the week’s news we didn’t have time to cover.
You can sign up at AirplaneGeeks.com.

Brother Love is responsible for this episode’s opening and closing
music, and you can visit his site at brotherloverocks.com.

If you have a question or a comment for the Airplane Geeks, you
can send it to thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com.

You can also leave us voice mail at (812) 757-4252. If you have
a question or comment you’d like mentioned on the podcast, this is the best
way to go about it.

Episode 45 – Rob Mark’s Back from Brazil

alaska

In case you were worried that we weren’t going to bring Rob Mark back, worry no more.  He’s back from the JetWhine blog and in no short supply of opinion as we talk the latest and not-so-greatest in aviation news.

Max’s pick of the week is AirTran’s everyflight.com.

Don’t forget to send us your ideas for Airplane Geeks T-Shirts!

The Airplane Geeks are now on Twitter! You can follow us @AirplaneGeeks.

Make sure to sign up for our new newsletter, “Airplane Geeks Week in Aviation.”
We’ll be bringing you these show notes, as well as some of the week’s news we didn’t have time to cover.
You can sign up at AirplaneGeeks.com.

Brother Love is responsible for this episode’s opening and closing
music, and you can visit his site at brotherloverocks.com.

If you have a question or a comment for the Airplane Geeks, you
can send it to thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com.

You can also leave us voice mail at (812) 757-4252. If you have
a question or comment you’d like mentioned on the podcast, this is the best
way to go about it.

Episode 44 – RunwayGirl

snakes

We had a great time talking with Mary Kirby, or perhaps better known as RunwayGirl from the Runway Girl Blog.  She takes the time to talk earnings (or lack of), bad PR, and snakes.  Yes, snakes.

Max’s pick of the week is aircraft.factualtv.com

Don’t forget to send us your ideas for Airplane Geeks T-Shirts!

The Airplane Geeks are now on Twitter! You can follow us @AirplaneGeeks.

Make sure to sign up for our new newsletter, “Airplane Geeks Week in Aviation.”
We’ll be bringing you these show notes, as well as some of the week’s news we didn’t have time to cover.
You can sign up at AirplaneGeeks.com.

Brother Love is responsible for this episode’s opening and closing
music, and you can visit his site at brotherloverocks.com.

If you have a question or a comment for the Airplane Geeks, you
can send it to thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com.

You can also leave us voice mail at (812) 757-4252. If you have
a question or comment you’d like mentioned on the podcast, this is the best
way to go about it.

Episode 19 – Fees, Oil, and Stocks with Dan Webb

Wall Street

Max and Court welcome back Dan Webb from the Things in The Sky Blog.  The topic of discussion is the airlines, and there’s no shortage of news after last week:

AOPA Interviews the Candidates on GA

New Japanese airport will be cooled with snow

Boeing Strike May Be Good News for Airlines

American Airlines orders up to 100 Boeing 787 jets

Airbus forecast sends EADS shares plunging

Airline shares jump on recent oil price decline

Southwest Has First Loss in 17 Years

Max has a “special” pick this week.  You can visit it at Air$&#*.com

Make sure to sign up for our new newsletter, “Airplane Geeks Week in Aviation.”
We’ll be bringing you these show notes, as well as some of the week’s news we didn’t have time to cover.
You can sign up at AirplaneGeeks.com.

We’re also happy to announce our partnership with Flightline Internet Radio.
You’ll be able to hear excerpts of The Airplane Geeks weekly.

Brother Love is responsible for this episode’s opening and closing
music, and you can visit his site at brotherloverocks.com.

If you have a question or a comment for the Airplane Geeks, you
can send it to thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com.

You can also leave us voice mail at (812) 757-4252. If you have
a question you’d like mentioned on the podcast, this is the best
way to go about it.

Not Even a Cincinnati Blackout can Stop Airplane Geeks…

…Well, kinda.

Max and I had this great episode lined up for this week…Then Ike hit.  Actually it took more than Ike to produce the 80mph winds that hit Cincinnati Sunday.  Apparently a cold front, combined with the remnants of Ike are the culprits of my lack of electricity for the past 3 days and counting.

So, after a 1.5 hour drive to electricity and internet this morning, all I can offer to all of you loyal airplane geeks is a self portrait of myself during the blackout (above), and a list of news we would have covered if I’d have had power.  I promise we’ll be back next week (assuming my power will be back up by then), and Max and I will bring you great aviation discussion with another great guest.  Until then, here’s the news:

See you next week!

Court

Episode 14 – Interview with the Airfare Watchdog





Max and Court are excited to bring you an interview with George Hobica of AirFareWatchDog.com.  George gives us some history about the site, as well as some great tips for finding the lowest fare.

News:

The intro music is once again produced by Bruno Misonne.  Check out Bruno’s aviation music at http://www.brunomisonne.com.   Brother Love is responsible for the closing music, and you can visit his site at http://www.brotherloverocks.com.

If you have a question or a comment for the Airplane Geeks, you can send it to thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com.

You can also leave us voice mail at (812) 757-4252. If you have a question you’d like mentioned on the podcast, this is the best way to go about it.