aviation

How you, too, can ID that airliner

I live in a place that a lot of big airplanes fly over just after taking off from San Francisco International Airport. While I'm by no means perfect at it, I can often tell you what kind of jet is overhead, and even where it's going. There's a lot of people like me.

But there's also people who don't know anything about planes, and who can't tell the difference between very distinct behemoths like Boeing's 747 and Airbus' A380, let alone jets that on quick inspection look very similar, like Boeing's 737 … Read more

See Boeing's Etch A Sketch flight path

It's fair to say the planners at Boeing Test & Evaluation spiced up a recent extended operation test of the Boeing 787.

Spanning 9,000 nautical miles over 12 states, the 787's impressive route spells out "787" and the Boeing logo like a giant Etch A Sketch in the sky. The next-generation commercial airplane took off on February 9 at 1:33 p.m. from Boeing's airfield in Washington state, and landed this morning at 8:45 a.m. Some of the turns needed to create the numbers and logo seem like they'd send a stomach into a spin, but the zoomed-out map exaggerates the sharpness of the turns. … Read more

Vintage military planes fly high in art exhibit

If there's one medium that you wouldn't expect to see get taken on by graffiti and other contemporary artists, it's military airplanes.

But thanks to the folks behind the Round Trip: Art from the Boneyard Project exhibition, now on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Ariz., visitors can see just that.

Although only five full airplanes have been painted--out of dozens in the museum's full collection--the show also includes two cockpits and a large group of airplane sections, all reimagined with an artist's flair. The exhibition, which runs through May 31, &… Read more

U.S. Cellular launching 4G LTE in March with Galaxy Tab, Aviator

U.S. Cellular is getting into the 4G LTE network game, launching a tablet and a smartphone as its first LTE devices in March.

The nation's sixth-largest wireless provider will inaugurate its LTE network with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE tablet, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S Aviator smartphone.

Samsung's Galaxy S Aviator features a 4.3-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus touch screen, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a front-facing camera for video chats. It runs Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread. For its part, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (reviewed) runs off the Android 3.… Read more

Don't fly this at home: Video of scary landings goes viral

When you're a passenger onboard an airplane, you have no choice but to put all your faith and trust in the pilots. And most of the time, there's nothing to worry about. But sometimes, it's probably better that you don't know exactly what those in the cockpit are dealing with.

For those flying into Dusseldorf, Germany during strong crosswinds, that seems especially true. A video (see below) put together by YouTube user Cargospotter that's making the rounds right now would seem likely to terrify anyone thinking of flying there: the video, a compilation of landings … Read more

World's largest passenger plane may be unsafe, some say

The world's largest passenger plane may not be sky-worthy, some aircraft engineers in Australia are saying.

The BBC reports that the engineers are concerned about small cracks that have appeared on the wing ribs of some Airbus A380 airplanes, and that they're calling for the whole fleet to be grounded for investigation.

The cracks were found on A380s operated by Singapore Airlines and Qantas Airways, the BBC reports, and Singapore Airlines says it has repaired the wings of two of its A380s.

Airbus recommends that airlines check for cracks but says they present no real danger. The BBC … Read more

With FAA's blessing, Boeing's next-gen 747 nears delivery

Boeing said today that it has received FAA certification for its flagship 747-8 Intercontinental, putting the plane on course for first delivery to its launch partner Lufthansa "early next year."

The company said the certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration "validates that the design of the 747-8 Intercontinental is compliant with all aviation regulatory requirements and the production system can produce a safe and reliable airplane, conforming to the airplane's design."

The aviation giant first unveiled the Intercontinental last February, and the plane made its first flight last March 20.

The new 747 … Read more

FAA gives nod to iPads in cockpits for American Airlines

Starting this Friday, American Airlines is expected to start using iPads in all phases of flight operation, replacing hefty paper charts and manuals.

That's according to a report today from CNET sister site ZDNet, which says that American has received U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approval to use Apple's tablets at any time during a flight.

According to a ZDNet source:

On Friday, American Airlines is the first airline in the world to be fully FAA approved to use iPads during all phases of flight. Pilots will use iPads as electronic chart and digital flight manual readers. The … Read more

LightSquared network still harms GPS, says draft report

LightSquared's planned 4G wireless network caused "harmful interference" to the majority of GPS receivers used in recent government testing of the network, according to reports citing a draft version of the test results.

LightSquared plans to offer network services like wholesale Internet access to companies such as Best Buy, but concerns about the network knocking out personal or military GPS devices have been raised by the Defense Department, the Federal Aviation Administration, and GPS companies and users. The LightSquared network uses frequencies that are near to those used by GPS devices.

In response to earlier tests, the … Read more

Alaska Airlines flies planes fueled by cooking oil

The Alaska Air Group is joining the commercial aviation biofuel movement.

The airline launched two flights yesterday running on a blend consisting of 20 percent biofuel and 80 percent petroleum-based fuel. The sustainable biofuel used for the blend was made from cooking oil.

One flight was via a Boeing 737-800 plane from Seattle to Washington, D.C., and the other a Bombardier Q400 plane headed from Seattle to Portland, Ore. Both planes were flown as part of a program to fly more than 75 flights on a cooking oil-based biofuel blend within the coming weeks on Alaska Air's Alaskan … Read more