Model Airplanes

Seating

Each airline decides how much front-to-rear space, or seat pitch, to provide, regardless of the plane model; that can vary from a generous 33-34 inch pitch on JetBlue to a very tight 28-inch pitch on Spirit. The standard on most other mainline planes is 30-32 inches; regionals can be a tad tighter. The industry likes to call this “legroom,” but many travelers suffer more from tight seating at the working level, where the seat in front is too close to allow them to read a tablet or Kindle or work on a laptop. Most economy seats recline only a few inches, and a few airlines provide no recline at all—an advantage when rows are closely spaced.

Related: Fliers Aren’t Getting Any Smaller. Is It Time to Widen Airplane Seats?

Unlike front-to-rear space, side-to side seat spacing on most planes does depend on airplane model. In general, economy seats come in two nominal widths: 18 inch and 17 inch. Planes with 18-inch seats include most A318/319/320/321, most A330/340, A380, many 767, and Embraer 170/175/190/195. These large Embraers are especially comfortable in that they are configured with two-by-two rows, with no middle seats. Planes with 17-inch seats include 737, 747, 757, and most regional jets and turboprops.

It’s important to note that there are airline-to-airline differences in the number of seats per row, and therefore width, on two wide-body planes:

• Favor: 18-inch (or better) nine-across seats on 777 and eight-across seats

  Article source: https://www.yahoo.com/travel/you-should-always-know-the-kind-of-plane-youre-on-117062212637.html

A citizen walks past a screen at the Zhangjiang Hi-tech District Management Committee in Shanghai, east China, April 20, 2015. China on Monday announced master plans for pilot free trade zones (FTZ) in Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian and a plan for deepening reform and opening up in the Shanghai FTZ. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe)

BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua) — China released more details regarding pilot free trade zones (FTZ) in Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian as well as plans to further reform and open up the Shanghai FTZ on Monday.

The plan is a crucial step for the country to promote reform and opening up as well as boost trade and facilitate investment, according to a statement released by the State Council, or the cabinet.

Each of the three new FTZs will make full use of its geographic location. According to Wang Shouwen, assistant minister of commerce, the Guangdong FTZ aims to deepen economic cooperation between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao, the Tianjin FTZ is part of a push to coordinate development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, while the Fujian FTZ is focused on deepening economic cooperation between the mainland and Taiwan.

According to the plan, the Guangdong FTZ will consist of three parts in the cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai while the Fujian FTZ will cover three areas in Xiamen, Fuzhou and Pingtan, a new industrial park targeting investment from Taiwan.

The country plans to spend three to five years in developing the three FTZs.

Wang said the three FTZs will be launched soon, but

Article source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-04/20/c_134167136.htm

I was invited to tour the Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems campus in Los Angeles this spring and it was fantastic! The Northrop Grumman lists themselves as “a leading global security company” but the project that stole my heart is their work on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) for NASA. On the one hand, I don’t see how it could possibly be pulled off as the telescope seems to cram every hard engineering challenge you can think of into one project. On the other hand, Northrop (plus NASA and all of their subcontractors) has been doing tough stuff for a very long time.

How Do You Tour Northrop Grumman?

This opportunity fell in my lap since [Tony Long] is a Hackaday reader and an engineer at Northrop. He’s the founder of their FabLab (which I’ll talk about a bit later) and was so bold as to send an email asking if one of the crew would like to stop by. Yes Please!

I was already headed out to the Supplyframe offices (Hackaday’s parent company) in Pasadena. [Tony] offered to pick me up at LAX and away we went to Redondo Beach, California for an afternoon adventure.

James Webb Space Telescope: Everything Hard About Engineering

I had heard of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) but had never looked closely at the particulars of the project. Above you can see a scale model which Northrop built. I didn’t actually see this on my

Article source: http://hackaday.com/2015/04/20/hackaday-tours-northrop-space-telescopes-and-jet-planes/

For the past decade, Allegiant Air has built a thriving business buying secondhand jets and connecting small cities to leisure destinations like Las Vegas and Honolulu.

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By keeping costs low, offering cheap fares and flying from places that other carriers have neglected, like Fort Wayne, Ind., or Allentown, Pa., Allegiant has grown rapidly. Today, the airline has one of the highest profit margins in the business and among the lowest costs.

It has also become the dominant carrier at St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport, accounting for more than 90 percent of its total flights and propelling the airport to a projected record passenger year in 2015.

But Allegiant’s scrappy success is now being questioned by its pilots, who say they are worried about repeated mechanical problems with the airline’s fleet of older planes, poor maintenance operations and a culture in which profits come before safety.

The conflict between the pilots and the airline’s chairman and chief executive, Maurice Gallagher, has become increasingly tense over the past two years, with both sides locked in negotiations over a new contract.

It is not unusual for pilots to bring up safety and maintenance issues in the middle of labor talks. To the airline, the complaints represent scare tactics by the pilots union, driven by demands

Article source: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/airlines/pilots-point-to-mechanical-problems-with-allegiant-planes-amid-labor/2226301