Harry and his brother Charlie watch as a Boeing Dreamlifter takes off from Paine Field
A while back I wrote a blog talking about how Boeing is making a real effort to connect more with the general public. In that post I talked about how eight year old Harry Winsor submitted a drawing of a new Boeing plane. Unfortunately, Boeing sent a canned letter saying they accept no outside ideas and will be shredding his photo.
This didn’t sit well for Harry or his father, John. Bloggers and some other media picked up on the story and Boeing sprung into action admitting this is not how the new Boeing wants to do things.
To celebrate the spirit of flight, The Future of Flight, located in Everett, WA set up a drawing event where people can submit their crazy airplane designs (mine was an awesome cube-plane).
For Father’s Day, John, Harry, his mother and brother made their way to Seattle from Colorado to see the art he had inspired and get a tour from the Future of Flight and Boeing.
Since I was out of town, I was not able to join in the festivities. However Aubrey Cohen with the Seattle PI and Harriet Baskas were there to cover his adventures.
Even though Harry and his family got VIP treatment and a special tour of the Boeing facility, the pinnacle was meeting Boeing aircraft design engineer, Cam Carnegie. Carnegie had written to Harry after he got his form letter and now really wanted to help him dream. “I just kind of wanted to show him that progression from dreamer to being an engineer,” Carnegie told Aubry with the Seattle PI.
Todd Blecher, Media Communications Director for Boeing, flew out from Chicago to meet the Windsors (I hope he got to fly on a Boeing). He spoke about the fumble and said that for legal reasons Boeing has to send out the form letter to people submitting ideas, but says they have a new and special letter for kids.
“If it’s a letter from an adult pitching an idea, we know exactly what to do. When it’s a child, there’s a difference,” he said. “They uncovered a flaw in our process that needed to be fixed.”
Blecher told Harriet Baskas that they are still working on the letter. The first version was too dry and formal and the second sounded too much like a recruitment letter. Blecher said his boss took the third version home to his five kids for some real-world feedback.
As Blecher told me previously, Boeing’s transition won’t happen over night, but they are making a real effort. There is still talk about a Facebook page and even a Tweetup for Boeing fans in the Seattle area. I hope to see those outreach efforts and others soon!
* Photos from the Seattle PI
* A write up from Harriet Baskas
You can see a woman being scanned. The TSA agent who yelled at me is standing in the metal detector.
I have made my opinion on body scanners quite clear. If you have missed it, bottom line is I don’t like them. They violate our privacy and passengers are able to avoid them and request a pat-down, making them pointless.
On Sunday I flew from Tampa to Seattle via Denver and got my first view of the body scanners in action at Tampa International Airport. The scanner is not too imposing, but it is obviously something different. There are a few body images by the scanner that show you what it does, but they are small and people are rushed by them.
The whole time I was waiting in the security line, the body scanner wasn’t being used. By the time I was taking off my shoes, they had started pushing passengers into the scanner versus the metal detector.
I started to get excited. Not to try it out, but to respectfully decline going through the body scanner and get a pat-down instead. Well maybe excited is not the right word. The thought of having some stranger feel around my body isn’t great, but I wanted to take a little stand against the privacy invading machines.
I was flying with my girlfriend, Amy, and even though she knew about the scanners (or had heard me rant about them from time to time), she really didn’t understand my true dislike of them. The two people before us were told to go in the scanners. Then I was next, but I started going to the metal detector instead. I was waiting to be told I had to do the scanner or pulled aside to get a pat-down, but I was not. I just walked through the metal detector while the people in front of me and behind me were all forced into the body scanner. Now that is a big hole in security.
From what I have read, a passenger who does not do the body scanner, must be patted down. However it seemed unorganized and I don’t think the TSA agent at the metal detector realized people were being pushed into the body scanner.
Amy wasn’t so lucky. She felt rushed and not really sure what was going on and didn’t decline being scanned. They made sure she had no foreign items on her, she had to raise her hands and the scanner went around her and then she had to stand outside of the scanner with a TSA agent holding her in a roped off area (everyone had to do this). He was waiting for someone in another area to view her body images and confirm she was clean. He was talking to them via radio, but they didn’t seem to be working. It took about a minute for him to get a response that the two females could go (Amy was one of them). I trust it was a radio error and those images weren’t on the screen any longer than they needed to be.
After I was done and Amy was waiting to hear she was clear to go, I was taking some photos of her and the scanner. This is when the TSA sprung into action. From the metal detector I heard, “sir, you cannot do that.” I confirmed he was talking to me and that I wasn’t allowed to take photos of the body scanner. I am not exactly sure if there are rules against taking photos. I guess someone might take photos and learn how to beat the system? Well I don’t need to take photos to see how the system doesn’t really work, you just had to ask for a pat-down or in my case, just go through the metal detector. They never came over to take my photos or talk to me, so obviously it couldn’t have been that big of a deal to them.
What doesn’t make sense is they took action against me for taking photos, but no one noticed I didn’t go through the body scanner nor get a pat-down. It is so inconsistent. By no means was I trying to do this on purpose, but I imagine similar experiences are happening like this all around the world.
I know I talk negatively about these scanners, but I feel there is some hope in the near future. There are body scanners with Automated Target Recognition that have the ability where no human actually sees your image. The computer looks at your body scan and if there are any foreign items, it will flag you and the TSA will inspect you. There is a display of a stick figure only. If they had this version, which didn’t violate privacy, and it was required, not optional, I could get behind the body scanners. But until then, I will continue to voice my strong opinion against them and about the inconsistencies of their usage. However, the TSA says there is no system they feel meets their security needs yet.
Air China Airbus A330-200 (B-6075) with new livery
China is joining the majority of the world and letting their airlines set their own prices. On June 1st the Chinese government is now letting airlines set prices based on the fluctuating market versus set prices. Previously first class tickets had to be set 1.5 times normal fares and business class had to be set 1.3 times normal fare.
The de-regulation also means that airlines can now start offering discounted tickets. Chinese airlines have already taken advantage of the new rules and are offering cheaper tickets in the coming weeks.
This move is great for passengers flying on airlines in China. Now with open competition, airlines will be able to compete for lower fares and more passengers.
Source: Xinhuanet.com Image: Peng Chen
That's me as a little kid about to go for a ride in a Bonanza V-tail
A very happy father’s day to my father and all those other fathers out there. My dad really introduced me to aviation and spawned my love for it!
American Airlines Boeing 737-800 with its retro Astrojet livery. Photo from Boeing.
I am currently in Tampa, FL and while driving around I spotted a silver plane with a red logo on the tail. I could tell it was most likely a retro livery, but couldn’t place it. Luckily a few fine Twitter folk (@vivekmayasandra and @Shokikuchi) suggested it might be American Airlines Astrojet livery and sure enough it was!
This special livery comemerated American Airline’s 50th next generation Boeing 737. The airplane was delived to American at the end of 2000. The Astrojet livery was seen on American’s first Boeing 727s in 1964.