On August 6th, Boeing unveiled the first Boeing 787 Dreamilner to be delivered to All Nippon Airways (ANA). Invited guests and media were able to tour the interior of the aircraft and see what the future holds. This is my interior tour video with shots of the economy layout, the cockpit, some exterior shots and the new windows.
One of the first things passengers will notice, when boarding the 787, are the windows. The 787’s new composite body allowed Boeing to make the windows larger, allowing much more natural light into the cabin. Passengers will also notice a lack of sunshades, they have been replaced with a button where one can choose different levels of tinting. This means, even on the darkest tint, people can sleep or watch their in-flight entertainment, all while being able to see outside. The cabin crew have the ability to lighten or darken all the windows at the same time, which will reduce turn around time and eliminate having to ask passengers to raise or lower their shades (see photo of cabin in dim mode).
According to Jon Ostrower, Boeing has completed certification testing for the Dreamliner on August 13th. At this point, Boeing has not yet confirmed it, but an announcement is expected later today. Boeing has stated that they hope to complete FAA certification before the end of August to deliver the first aircraft (ZA101) to ANA in September. To date, seven 787 test planes have completed more than 4800 hours of flight testing.
What airline or charter company or private person does this orange livery belong to? Photo by JL Johnson. Click for larger.
I have a mystery for you. Who owns/owned this orange Boeing 737 that was sitting in Wichita Kansas on August 6th? This was taken and sent by reader JL Johnson who was hoping I could help, but I am not familiar with the livery and we didn’t get any hits via Twitter. From JL:
“What we did see was a KC-135 running touch-and-go maneuvers and these three unidentified planes. As best I can tell they are on the Spirit tarmac although it is possible they may be on Boeing or even McConnell AFB property. To be honest I’m not sure where one ends and the other begins. In any case these were on the east side of Oliver street. Google and other searches yield no results for any of the planes listed. We were particularly interested in the tan 737 because of its unique livery. It appears that it has an N-number that begins with a 2 followed by what might be 9. The pictures were taken on August 6 just before 4 PM local time as indicated by the exif.”
I am hoping you fine folks can give us a hand. Yes, the photo isn’t going to win any awards, but this was the best angle to get the shot. Any ideas or information, please leave in the comments.
If you ever run across an airline livery you are not sure of, let me know and if I am not sure what it is, we can work together to find out!
Here is N29SW in better days with a bright orange livery. Photo by Paul Kanagie.
UPDATE2: Got an email from Jim Armstrong giving a bit more information on the other two planes: “The shiny one toward the left is a Boeing B-47E model, one of a very few left in existence. The tall dark tail aircraft toward the right is a Boeing B-52, probably a “D” model. Having grown up in Wichita from 1950 to 1962, I’m pretty familiar with both aircraft.”
United Airlines Boeing 757 and Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 at SFO.
If you read my blog often, you know I try to remind people of the positive side of the airline business (sometimes it is harder than others). Each year airlines receive A LOT of complaints. Some are well deserved, while others are from people who have a warped sense of what is right and wrong.
Occasionally an airline will receive a positive letter and possibly a story of one employee who truly went out of their way. Some might think that letters like these get lost in a sea of other letters, but trust me, they do not. When touring many airline operation centers, they have a special place where they show off the positive letters and cards that they receive. Unfortunately the area is not too large, since not too many are sent. Let’s change that…
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE – LET AIRLINES KNOW WHEN THEY ROCK!
Next time you are flying and someone goes out of their way or is obviously passionate about their job, take a few moments to jot down their name and email the airline. Be sure to mention the airport, your flight, their name and any other details. It doesn’t need to be long, just enough to give some kudos. Not only will people at the airline love to hear it, but this could actually help the career of the employee.
Recently, I have experienced two such instances that I made sure to tell the airline about. The first was a United Airlines gate manager in Seattle. I was waiting to take a flight to Chicago and the early morning flight had been cancelled and my aircraft had been changed from an Airbus A320 to an A319 (smaller). This meant there were a lot of people and not enough seats. He did a great job of just being honest with people and keeping a sense of humor during the ordeal. Most people were smiling as the gentleman warmly welcomed them on the flight, even the people who didn’t make the flight seemed happy (they also for $400 on United).
The next was an Alaska Airlines gate agent in Los Angeles. I had a five hour layover and plenty of time to watch her keep her spirits up and welcome each passenger by name on each flight. She was also my gate agent and it is just nice to be welcomed by name on a plane even though I was flying economy.
If you are having difficulty finding who to send it to, it is okay to send it to me (da***@*************er.com) and I will make sure it gets to the proper people. Heck, even if you send them to the airline directly, send it to me anyhow, I love hearing positive stories and I might even post a few. If you are a Twitter user, share your stories and use the hashtag #AirlineLove (what the heck does that mean?).
Airlines and employees have to deal with a lot of crap, let’s remind them that there are still people out there who love airlines and see flying as a great experience. The ball is now in your court!
That bump on the back of the Southwest Boeing 737 gives Row44 internet to the aircraft.
Recently I got a call on my phone where I didn’t recognize the number, so I decided not to answer. Then they called again. Okay, fine — it might be something important so I answered and it turned out to be my friend Nick. Wait a second; #1 why is he calling with a number I do not know and #2 he is flying on Delta Air Lines from Minneapolis (MSP) to Seattle (SEA), how is that possible? Even though airlines and internet providers have tried to ban talking via phones on airliners, there are still pretty easy ways to get around it.
Earlier Nick and I had been talking about VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and I was explaining how you cannot have a phone conversation while flying — he was all too happy to prove me wrong. This is by no means a “how-to” story and I am not going to explain how he did it, since I am against people talking via their phone on planes. However, I can say it was nothing complicated and anyone with a smart phone could and an internet connection could replicate it.
So, it was possible to use GoGo Wi-Fi (internet provider on Delta and other airlines) to talk on the phone and I wondered what policies airlines and internet providers had in place to stop passengers from doing things they should not (phones, porn, etc).
I first spoke with Steven Nolan with GoGo Communications and he explained, “We do restrict VOIP services and at the request of our airline partners, we also restrict access to some web sites.” One of the big challengers is technology is always changing and it can be difficult to know all the “bad” sites and smart phone applications. What happens when someone, like Nick, finds a loophole? Well, talking to multiple airlines, this doesn’t seem to be a big problem.
Virgin America’s Abby Lunardini explained that they block VOIP and have not had any major issues with passengers finding their way around it. Alaska Airlines also bans VOIP for passengers on their GoGo internet. Even though they haven’t had a lot of issues, the flight crew are trained to enforce the airline’s policy. “Should a customer get around the VOIP blocking, our flight attendants would be prepared to enforce our policy which prohibits voice calls of any kind inflight,” Alaska Airline’s Bobbie Egan explained to AirlineReporter.com.
Row44, another airline internet provider, that can be found on Southwest Airlines and Norwegian Air Shuttle helps airlines in similar ways. They provide airlines software that allows them to choose what sites they want to block. “We allow our airline partners to decide whether to use this option and which sites to block,” Row 44’s chief commercial officer, Howard Lefkowitz explained over email. Row44’s airline customers are easily able to add new sites that are deemed to be a problem since new technologies are always emerging. “The back-end system supporting Row 44’s broadband entertainment platform adapts quickly and can immediately add new sites (VoIP services or other types of websites) to the list of blocked content in-flight. But this will be a decision for our airline partners.”
So does this become a game to beat the internet providers and the airlines? No, at least it shouldn’t. Public opinion in the US is pretty split on allowing in-flight conversations. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) bans cell phone usage in the US and it is still against airline policy. Nick was a good passenger and kept our conversation short, even though he supports passengers being allowed to talk on their cell phones on a plane.
What are your thoughts? Other airlines around the globe let passengers talk on their cell phones with little to no issues are Americans ready?
Kevin Scott caught this once in a lifetime shot of a Boeing 747SP (VQ-BMS) at Boeing Field with three Boeing 787 Dreamliners in the background.Click for larger.
Soak it in. This is not a photoshop — you are seeing one classic Boeing 747SP in front of three 787 Dreamliners caught while at Boeing Field in February 2011.
This 747SP first flew on May 1, 1979 and was delivered to Pan Am ten days later with the name “Clipper White Falcon” and registion N540PA. From 1979 until PanAm sold the aircraft to United Airlines in 1986, she held three other names: Clipper Flying Arrow, Clipper Star of the Union and China Clipper.
United flew this 747SP until it was leased in 1993 to Tajik Air. United regained control of the aircraft from February 1994 to August 1995 when it was sold to the Brunei government. They operated the aircraft in VIP configuration until 1997 when it was then sold to the Bahrain government. Then finally in August 2008, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation bought the 747SP and uses it to fly their VVIP (probably add a few more “Vs” to that) customers around the world.
According to 747SP.com, the aircraft has had the following registration numbers: N540PA with PanAm, N149UA for United, V8-JBB and V8-JP1 for the Brunei Government, A9C-ISA, A9C-HHH, A9C-HMH with Bahrain and VQ-BMS with Sands, which I assume will be her last registration number.
Getting a ride on one of Sand’s classic airliners is for sure on my bucket list, but unfortunately I am not much of a gambler.
