As 2011 dawns, our warmest wishes for your new year to be filled with joy, success, and prosperity. My deepest, sincerest and heart-felt thanks for your support and continuing patronage. Devesh Agarwal

An Egypt Air Boeing 737-800 registration SU-GCR performing flight MS-968 from Cairo, Egypt to Mumbai CSIA, India, with 121 passengers and 7 crew, was on approach to land. At 07:25 (01:55Z) the pilots declared a full emergency after receiving a fire warning in the cargo hold. The flight landed normally two minutes later and taxied to the gate. Passengers disembarked …

Plane photography is one of the most misunderstood hobbies in India. Take out a camera and point it at an aircraft, and you will invite suspicious views from people around you, including the security personnel. These suspicions are however misplaced due to a complete ignorance of the law, both by the general populace as well as security personnel. Just two …

Continuing with the trend of air cargo, this week’s picture is of the MD-11F freighter N524FE of global shipping giant FedEx Express. Click on the image for a larger view The MD-11 was the update to the venerable McDonnell Douglas DC-10. After a long career with many an airline, the last MD-11 passenger flight was performed on February 20, 2010 …

On the back of strong economic growth in the region, Bangalore has grown its passenger traffic 23% to 11.24 million for calendar 2010 surpassing Chennai to become the third largest airport in the country. For the last five years, Bangalore had been leading Chennai as the third largest in domestic passenger and freight traffic, but this year in May the …

India’s Ministry of Defence controlled Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) and Russia’s Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi signed a contract todday for the preliminary design of the Indo-Russian Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA). The FGFA aircraft to be jointly developed is termed Perspective Multi-role Fighter (PMF). The PMF draws upon the basic structural and system design of the Russian FGFA Technology Demonstrator PAK-FA …

Buoyed by a backlog of over 250 orders, US airframe manufacturer Boeing has announced its production rate for the 777 program will increase to 8.3 airplanes per month in the first quarter 2013. Earlier in March this year, the company had already announced a production increase from five to seven airplanes per month beginning in mid-2011. The 777 has a …

The Indian Air Force (IAF) took delivery of the first of its stretched fuselage C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft from Lockheed Martin at a ceremony in Marietta, Georgia, USA. The Indian Air Force has ordered six C-130Js under a $1.2 billion order under the United States’ Foreign Military Sale program, in late 2008. This order was the first of several …

This week’s plane spotting photo comes from the tarmac at the Bengaluru International Airport. I was shocked at how fast the fog rolled in an obscured visibility. Click on image for a larger view. In the dead of night around 3am, Singapore Airlines Cargo Boeing 747-400F 9V-SFQ freighter was towed out to and started up on the taxiway (thanks to …

German carrier Lufthansa has unveiled a new cabin for its short and medium haul flights within Europe featuring the Recaro BL35xx slim-line seats which will provide the carrier both weight saving and increased seating capacity while still maintaining superior seating comfort and leg room. Click on image for a larger view The new Recaro seats are fitted with a special …

A special hooray for Indian civil aviation regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation who has notified and incorporated two new rules in to the Indian Aircraft Rules, 1937 meant to control unruly, drunk and abusive passengers on board domestic flights and all international flights destined for India. Vide GSR 766(E) rules 22 and 23 have been added in to …

An unusual incident has resulted in the grounding of a new, front line, Airbus A319 aircraft of national carrier Air India, for almost three weeks in Bangalore which is conservatively expected to cost the airline more than Rs. 5 Crore ($1.2 million). A damaged VT-SCL sits on the ramp at Bengaluru International Airport. On November 27, 2010 at 00:05 IST …

India′s order for six C-130J stretch Super Hercules transports is fast approaching completion. KC-3804, KC-3805, and KC-3806 the final three C-130Js have now reached their final production positions at the Lockheed Martin Marietta facility. India’s C-130J Super Hercules on the Lockheed Martin production line This news comes as the Business Standard newspaper reports a growing controversy at India’s Ministry of …

Boeing has commenced fabrication of the P-8I the long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft destined for the Indian Navy. India is the first international customer of this variant of the P-8A Poseidon that Boeing is developing for the U.S. Navy, which in turn is based on the popular Boeing 737 passenger aircraft. This is part of of an eight …

From tomorrow, December 8, 2010, Qatar Airways moves its operations at London Heathrow, its biggest European destination, to Terminal 4 which also houses most of SkyTeam alliance members. T4 has undergone a massive multi-million pound facelift, and the airline’s passengers will benefit from a dedicated spacious check-in area in the terminal’s Zone A. Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300ER A7-BAC Qatar Airways …

A neat time-lapse video of how a Boeing 777 in the old United Airlines livery being re-painted in the new United-Continental livery. While I don’t particularly like the new livery, the video does show the enormous effort involved.

Lufthansa FlyNet service now available on board Introductory offer: Free surfing until the end of January 2011 German carrier Lufthansa which operated the world’s first scheduled flight with broadband Internet access on January 15, 2003, and operated on board net access till the end of 2006, is re-introducing FlyNet its on-board Internet access service. FlyNet, is currently available on the …

It is official Airbus has decided to offer the neo (new engine option) for its single aisle A320 Family aircraft. Airlines have the choice between CFM International’s LEAP-X engine and Pratt & Whitney’s PurePower PW1100G geared turbo-fan engine. As indicated in our earlier report, this leaves current engine provider International Aero Engines out in the cold. A320neo with CFMI LeapX …