The giant of the skies

Posted by Tihomir Rangelov - 11/11/09 at 09:11:32 am

Just over two years ago, at the end of October 2007 the brand new Airbus A380 made its maiden commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney. The flight was operated by one of the biggest airlines in the world, Singapore Airlines, and the aircraft was produced by the biggest airplane maker in the world, Airbus. That flight was a cornerstone in aviation history.

A380 is by far the largest passenger airliner that the world has ever seen. It is a wide body aircraft and has two decks, the total take-off weight being 560 tonnes and its wingspan – 80 metres. If you have seen it up close and personal, you will know what that means. It is so gigantic that you cannot stop wondering how on earth it can get in the air. But it does and it has been doing it very well in the past two years with an excellent safety record.
One of the best things about the A380 is that it is extremely fuel efficient and the fuel consumption per seat is by up to 20% lower than that of its main “rival”, the former record holder Boeing 747. This has been achieved by the use of the latest technologies and lightweight materials for building the aircraft. Besides, it has a capacity of carrying 853 passengers, which is 50% more than the capacity of a Boeing 747.

Because of its size, the A380 is also able to introduce the earth´s greatest luxuries to the skies. First class passengers on Emirate´s A380 aircraft already enjoy private suites, bars and lounges as well as “shower spas”. Virgin Atlantic plans to have casinos, double beds and gyms on its A380s. These might come in useful during the long hours on the plane. The A380 is namely capable of flying 15,200 km or directly between Hong Kong and New York.
So far only 20 of these aircraft have been delivered to Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Emirates and Air France. Lufthansa and Korean Air expect their first A380s in 2010. So if you are an airliner freak (like me) or just curious and want to experience the giant in the skies, you should look for a flight on those airlines on your favourite search engine, www.dohop.com.

Air New Zealand Boeing 747 likes fruit

Posted by Marcus - 04/01/09 at 09:01:04 pm

More specifically, it likes the oil extracted from the seeds of the Jathropa plant.
The Air New Zealand Jumbo Jet was munching on a 50-50 mix of regular jet fuel and Jathropa oil during a 2 hour long flight in December 2008, which perhaps makes the test more interesting than the Virgin Atlantic test in February 2008, where only 1 out of 4 engines on a 747 was fed a 20% babassu/coconut oil mix.

Airbus latest task – make the A380 MORE noisy

Posted by Marcus - 12/12/08 at 08:12:34 am

No, it’s not a joke. It turns out pilots on Emirates A380s can’t sleep due to passenger noise penetrating to their resting area. In any other aircraft, engine noise will drown most of this out, but a new A380 is much more quiet – which apparently isn’t always a good thing.

So, what do you do? You can’t insulate the doors and walls, as that would weigh too much. A possible option is to install ambient noise generators. One wonders what ambient noise would work best, probably revving A340 engines.

In hindsight, perhaps telling Airbus to place the resting area in the aft instead of immediately behind the cockpit, wasn’t a great idea from Emirates.

Dohop Connection Platform for Airlines Unveiled

Posted by Kristinn Thorleifsson - 26/09/07 at 02:09:20 pm

Last week, at the Low Cost Airlines Congress in London, Dohop unveiled the Dohop Connection Platform for airlines. This is a new technology platform that allows any group of airlines to cross-sell flights with other carriers without the cost and complexities of legacy interline and code share, and passengers to book connected flights with two or more carriers in a seamless process.The Dohop Connection Platform meets the needs of airlines that want to benefit from being able to connect to other airlines, and retain customers that are traveling outside of the airline’s network, without the having to deal with the complexities that traditional flight connections present.Dohop’s technology provides airlines with a powerful connection search engine that calculates the best flight connections that connect with the airline’s route network, and facilitates the booking of two or more tickets in a process that is seamless to the passenger. Providing the information, and then facilitating the booking of tickets through the Dohop Connection Platform doesn’t cost the airline much, but is highly valued by travelers.See the Dohop Press Release here.

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