Model Airplanes

Norwegian Airlines’s bid to gain more access to airports in the U.S. and European Union was the talk of the aviation industry in 2014, but it appears to have stalled this year.

The company is attempting to gain access to airports covered under the U.S. and EU’s open skies agreement by establishing a subsidiary company that would be based in Ireland, a member of the EU. 

The Scandinavian company has said it will be able to offer transatlantic flights for as low as $150 each way if its effort is approved by the Department of Transportation, where it has been pending since last year.

But the agency has been quiet on the issue this year, and attention in Washington has turned to a fight over international flight subsidies between U.S. and Middle Eastern airlines. 

Transportation department officials say the Norwegian Air application is still under review, but airline industry observers say the company may be experiencing the equivalent of a pocket veto by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. 

“I have no inside info, but the possibility exists that this could sit for quite awhile longer,” AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Ed Wytkind, who has opposed Norwegian Air’s application, told The Hill in an interview Tuesday. 

Wytkind said the transportation department should still to weigh in on the fight over Norwegian Air’s open skies bid, even if the attention of the aviation industry has seemingly moved onto the battle between U.S. and Gulf carriers.  

“We still think it’s important to reject this thing, as it’s a

Article source: http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/251954-what-ever-happened-to-norwegian-airs-open-skies-bid

The boarding procedure has barely started at Chicago O’Hare airport and Ben Schlappig has already taken over the first-class cabin. It’s Valentine’s Day and, on Cathay Pacific Flight 807 bound for Hong Kong from the United States, he’s passing out designer chocolates to a small swarm of giggling flight attendants. The six suites in this leather-bound playpen of faux mahogany and fresh-cut flowers comprise the inner sanctum of commercial flight that few ever witness. They’re mostly empty now, save for two men in their 20s who seem even giddier than the flight attendants. The two stand to greet him. “This is so cool!” exclaims one, and soon Schlappig is ordering champagne for everyone.

This sort of thing happens to Schlappig nearly everywhere he goes. On this trip, his fans will witness Schlappig’s latest mission: a weekend jaunt that will slingshoot him across East Asia – Hong Kong, Jakarta, Tokyo – and back to New York, in 69 hours. He’ll rarely leave the airports and when he does he’ll rest his head only in luxury hotels. With wide ears, Buddy Holly glasses and a shock of strawberry-blond hair, Schlappig resembles Ralphie from A Christmas Story, if he’d grown up to become a J.Crew model. Back beyond the curtain, in business class, a dozen jowly faces cast a stony gaze on the crescendos of laughter and spilled champagne – another spoiled trust-fund kid, they’ve judged, living off his parents’

Article source: http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1851035/travel-hacking-game-how-fly-first-class-every-trip

(CNN)Off the California coast lies the sunken wreckage of the U.S. Navy’s last flying aircraft carrier.

The idea that the Navy had flying aircraft carriers is probably new to a lot of people. Imagine a nearly 800-foot “blimp” where five military airplanes can land and take off in midair.

Last week, a team of oceanographers got a close look at the airship USS Macon. More than 1,400 feet under the sea, robots from the exploration ship E/V Nautilus examined the Macon with cameras and other equipment.

The Macon — technically not a blimp, but a rigid airship — crashed into the water off Point Sur during a storm in 1935, killing two of its 83 crewmen. Outfitted with four deployable Sparrowhawk biplanes, it was the last of its kind in the U.S. military.

The crash spelled the end of the U.S. military’s flying aircraft carrier program.

Nonetheless, magnificent floating airships have “remained in the collective consciousness partially because of the popularity of sci-fi and things like the ‘steam punk’ revival,” said aviation archaeologist Megan Lickliter-Mundon, who took part in the underwater mission from the surface.

“When we first got down to the site — about 900 meters away — I can’t really describe the excitement of watching the screen and waiting to see what’s going to come out of the blue at you.”

Soon the wreckage came into view, including parts of the airplanes. “It

Article source: http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/24/us/last-navy-flying-aircraft-carrier/

Boeing Co (NYSE:BA.N) said that it is well on its way to meet the production targets it has set for its 737 MAX aircrafts. The assurance was given in a statement by spokesman Doug Alder after concerns that a slow output by supplier GKN PLC (LSE:GKN.L) could affect production.

GKN is reportedly having problems producing the engine thrust reversers of the 737 MAX. The supplier has not commented on the issue.

Industry insiders have expressed concern over the ability of the supplier to produce the thrust reverser’s inner wall. While Boeing acknowledges that they are facing challenges with the said component, they assured that GKN is using its necessary expertise on the matter.

Boeing intends to have the first 737 MAX model ready before the year ends. It plans to fly the airplane early in 2016 and deliver it to clients starting in the third quarter of 2017.

Reports of the delays have caused Boeing’s shares to go down 2.8 percent in the New York Stock Exchange. Should there be delays, the planemaker is bound to suffer by paying fines to clients which would significantly affect profits.

Boeing plans to ramp up the monthly production of its single-aisle planes from 42 jets today to 52 in 2018. Before that, it intends to increase its monthly production to 47 in 2017. It currently has 2,839 orders for its MAX jets, with its first delivery set to be made to Southwest Airlines

Article source: http://www.starminenews.com/boeing-assures-it-will-meet-production-targets-for-737-max/5937/

Today, it needs Bodine more than ever, says Daly, a onetime General Motors manager who ran Toyota’s big West Virginia powertrain assembly plant before moving upstream to mission-critical Bodine.

Step 1 under the TNGA rollout is to ship the new heads and blocks to Toyota’s truck-engine plant in Huntsville, Ala., where they will be turned into Tacoma pickup engines. Next will come the new V-6 blocks and heads for the Lexus RX, built in Ontario, and the Toyota Highlander, assembled in Indiana, and then for the Toyota Camry and Avalon made in Kentucky. Following that will come the blocks and heads for newly designed global four-cylinder engines, and then for a new V-8.

None of which was on Bob Lloyd’s mind when those first phone calls came in from the Wall Street banker.

Lloyd joined the St. Louis job shop in 1977 at age 23 and worked his way up through positions on the foundry floor and in sales. When Toyota appeared at the door, Bodine was already more than 75 years old.

Toyota was unaccustomed to the practice of buying out existing companies. And it was particularly unaccustomed to taking over American businesses.

Lloyd’s young management team was asked to remain with the acquisition and given a new mission: to construct an all-new Bodine plant in Troy, Mo., 40 miles outside St. Louis, that would exclusively serve Toyota’s needs.

But the group felt strongly that it should remain being called “Bodine” to avoid confusing its hundreds of Midwestern customers

Article source: http://www.autonews.com/article/20150823/OEM01/308249959/the-missouri-job-shop-behind-toyotas-makeover

The boarding procedure has barely started at Chicago O’Hare airport and Ben Schlappig has already taken over the first-class cabin. It’s Valentine’s Day and, on Cathay Pacific Flight 807 bound for Hong Kong from the United States, he’s passing out designer chocolates to a small swarm of giggling flight attendants. The six suites in this leather-bound playpen of faux mahogany and fresh-cut flowers comprise the inner sanctum of commercial flight that few ever witness. They’re mostly empty now, save for two men in their 20s who seem even giddier than the flight attendants. The two stand to greet him. “This is so cool!” exclaims one, and soon Schlappig is ordering champagne for everyone.

This sort of thing happens to Schlappig nearly everywhere he goes. On this trip, his fans will witness Schlappig’s latest mission: a weekend jaunt that will slingshoot him across East Asia – Hong Kong, Jakarta, Tokyo – and back to New York, in 69 hours. He’ll rarely leave the airports and when he does he’ll rest his head only in luxury hotels. With wide ears, Buddy Holly glasses and a shock of strawberry-blond hair, Schlappig resembles Ralphie from A Christmas Story, if he’d grown up to become a J.Crew model. Back beyond the curtain, in business class, a dozen jowly faces cast a stony gaze on the crescendos of laughter and spilled champagne – another spoiled trust-fund kid, they’ve judged, living off his parents’

Article source: http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1851035/travel-hacking-game-how-fly-first-class-every-trip