The time has come. In April 2010, after watching movies of the Beechcraft Starship online, I set myself on a quest to try and get a ride in one. I figured the chances of a flight happening were pretty small, but why not go for it? I was very happy to hear from Robert Scherer, who not only owns one of the five flying Starships, but also all the left over parts to keep those five flying for a long time.
Scherer and I had the opportunity to meet at Oshkosh 2010 and he was kind enough to give me a tour of his Starship. Even though I often see the one hanging up in the Future of Flight, Scherer’s had an energy about her, almost a life about her, that the static display just doesn’t possess.
The beginning of next week, I will be flying down to Aspen (via Denver on Frontier) and meeting Scherer. We will be taking a VFR flight low, over the mountains to Meeker (EEO) for fuel, then a high altitude flight to John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Orange, CA. To say I am excited would be a total understatement.
As we celebrate Boeing, Airbus and Bombardier building airplanes made out of composites, Burt Rutan started the trend long ago with the Starship. To think that the Starship was developed in the early 1980’s and first flew in 1986 just blows me away. Seeing the aircraft in person and getting inside was one thing, but taking a flight on her will be totally different. What a way to start out 2011!
I hope everyone had a great holiday. I know many of you have enjoyed some much needed. In case you weren’t able to read the blog for the last week, I wanted to quickly catch you up on what you might have missed:
The dawn of the commercial jet-age had to be an exciting time to be an airline nerd. From slow props to larger jet aircraft like the Boeing 707 and DC-8 had to be an incredible transition. Even though they sell the aircraft on no vibrations and not much noise, I am sure it is a more rough ride than what we get to enjoy today.
I find it interesting this video sells the mood lighting of the aircraft, being able to change the cabin, “pink of dawn to all variations to the dark blue of night.” That is some of the selling point of the new Boeing Sky Interior and Boeing 787 Dreamliner interior.
China Airlines Boeing 747-400 (B-18210) with blue Boeing livery.
The new full Boeing livery is one of my favorites. Even though I understand why Boeing is not painting all their test Boeing 747-8’s and 787’s with the full livery (cost, time, weight), I wish it was different. At least we have been able to enjoy the livery on the Dreamliner.
All the way back in 2004, Boeing delivered a Boeing 747-400 with a special livery to China Airlines. It has the blue-Boeing livery with the China Airlines tail. It was the first 747 to offer the new Boeing Signature Interior.
Today the aircraft (B-18210) still flies with the same livery. Check out photos of the aircraft on Airliners.net.
I am not a huge fan of “Top ___” lists nor “Year in Review” stuff, but I was curious how the year went for the blog overall and decided to share. Looking back at my Flickr photos, I am amazed at all the wonderful opportunities I have been able to share in 2010. It seems you enjoy seeing and learning, since traffic in December 2010 compared to December 2009 was up almost 200% and traffic from all of 2009 compared to 2010 is up almost 900% — that is very exciting. As I go through the yearly stats here are some interesting ones I wanted to share:
Top 5 Experiences Sometimes I have great experiences that might not turn into the most read blogs. Picking only five wasn’t easy. This year, I got to ride in helicopters, see the inside of a Starship, tour Delta, trained with AirTran flight attendants, flew up to the San Juans and much more. I chose these five based on giving me the biggest smile when thinking about the experiences. Here are they are (not in any particular order): 1) Hanging Out at Oshkosh AirVenture 2010 with Southwest Airlines: Being able to fly in on a Southwest Boeing 737 in the middle of Oshkosh was quite the experience. Not to mention all the marvelous airplanes and people I got to meet there as well.
2) Touring Haneda Airport’s New International Terminal: Who doesn’t like a trip to Japan with All Nippon Airways to look at a new terminal, tour some lounges and eat wonderful food?
3) Video: Pushing Back a United Airlines Boeing 757: This was not planned at all and just sort of happened, but it was a unique experience and one I will not quickly forget. Hard to believe some people get to do this every day.
4) The Boeing Archives PART 1: Touring the Archives: What an awesome experience to be able to tour the Boeing archives and talk with the Boeing Historian.
5) My Interior Tour of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner: Being one of the first people to check out the interior of the Boeing 787 was surreal. It also opened my eyes to how being a blogger is different than being a member of legacy media.
Top 5 Cities Reading the Blog Being based in Seattle, I definitely have a lot of great readers here. But there are also readers from other places in the world. Some of these surprised me (this is just based on my website, not other feeds): 1) Seattle, WA
2) New York, NY
3) London, England
4) Los Angeles
5) San Fransisco
I also want to give a shout out to Sydney, since they are #6. Readership in Australia and New Zealand has grown a lot over the year and is highly appreciated — G’day and Kia Ora. The blog is truly world wide. I have gotten at least one visitor from each country of the world, except from North Korea.
Honestly, I can’t believe how great this year has been. I flew almost 50,000 miles for the blog, which is a good thing — hope it to be higher for next year.It has been challenging working an almost full-time job (30hrs/week) on top of the blog, but it is all worth it.
A huge thank you to all the readers, because without eyeballs reading what I write, airlines wouldn’t be willing to work with me to provide unique content. I already have a few things planned for 2011, but I can’t wait to see what happens.
