Today’s post is a guest post courtesy of Bangalore Aviation regular Rupam Singh – a performance engineer. Follow Rupam on Twitter. Despite the tremendous advances in navigational technology incidents of pilots landing at the wrong airport continue to occur – most often when two airfields are located in close proximity. Similar wind patterns and airspace safety dictates that the two …

Air France has released it’s first official photos of it’s Airbus A380 superjumbo MSN033 registration F-HPJA. The aircraft is expected to be delivered in late October 2009 and will be deployed on the Paris Charles De Gaulle (CDG) to New York John F Kennedy (JFK) route. Click on the images for a larger view Air France will seat 538 passengers …

Defence minister A.K. Antony informed the Rajya Sabha that the Indian Air Force (IAF) is extremely happy with its front line air superiority fight, the Sukhoi Su-30MKI, and will increase its fleet to 230 aircraft by 2015, notwithstanding the recent crash of one. China has been increasing it’s belligerence over the north eastern state of Arunachal Pradhesh and has a …

Boeing has the best video of the taxi tests of their new Dreamliner ZA001. Why should we not be surprised that they knew EXACTLY where to get the best shot. Randy Tinseth, vice president, marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Seattle has a blog with more details.

American Airlines has entered into a frequent flyer agreement with GOL Airlines that will provide benefits to members of both American’s AAdvantage(R) and GOL’s Smiles programs. Additionally, the two airlines intend to enter into a codeshare agreement in the near future. Beginning Aug. 1, 2009, AAdvantage and Smiles members will be able to earn miles on all eligible GOL and …

In recent years, we have heard about a number fires and subsequent safety recalls on cell phone and laptop batteries most notably of Dell and Apple, but also of Toshiba, Hewlett Packard. Sony, Lenovo/IBM, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Sharp, and Nokia. On February 7, 2006, about 23:59 eastern standard time (06:59Z), a United Parcel ServiceCompany (UPS) McDonnell Douglas DC-8-71F, registration N748UP, performing …

It is official now. Boeing announced today that it has agreed to acquire the business and operations conducted by Vought Aircraft Industries at its South Carolina facility, where Vought builds a key structure for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner airplane. The transaction is expected to close by the third quarter of this year. The Vought facility, located in North Charleston, performs fabrication …

A lot has been interpreted over France’s Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA) initial findings in to the crash of Air France AF-447 from Rio to Paris. I do not want to add to the interpretation. Two good starting points for Bangalore Aviation readers. The official initial report of the BEA which can be downloaded in PDF format here. Simon Hradeck’s …

As per media reports, civil aviation minister Mr. Praful Patel announced in Chennai yesterday, there would be no job cuts despite the hugely over-bloated workforce at Air India. This is precisely the political meddling and easy options approach that I had warned about in my earlier article. Mr. Patel, if you are unable to help Air India management, at least …

A Saudi Arabian Boeing 747-300 registration HZ-AIT performing flight SV-744 from Jeddah via Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to Mumbai, India, burst the number 2 and 3 tyres of the left hand main gear while landing on runway 27 at 18:24 (12:54Z) in heavy monsoon rains. Since the aircraft was heavily loaded, it was stopped on taxiway N8 and passengers were disembarked …

The Joint Investigation team constituted on February 19, 2009 to investigate the serious incident of a near miss between the Presidential Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter and a Air India flight IC-866 on February 9, 2009 at Mumbai airport has submitted it report to the Ministry of Civil Aviation. To translate the official findings (shown below), the Presidential formation called …

With great anticipation I was waiting for my birthday gift to come to India. A Nikkor AFS VR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF lens. Considered one of the finest lenses made by Nikon. Thanks to FedEx, I will not have it. My brother in law was leaving the US for India on Tuesday afternoon, and having saved up some money, I somehow …

Go Air increases Bangalore flights. GoAir recently inducted it’s eighth Airbus A320-214, most likely VT-WAK. (Despite follow up the airline’s media partner could not give me the information.) After a complete withdrawal from Bangalore, GoAir has re-focussed on Bangalore with two new connections to Mumbai and New Delhi, taking the airline’s total number of weekly flights to 377. With the …

Hopefully the start of the week was not as maniacal as these couple of videos showing crazy take-offs of the venerable Boeing 727 in the wonderful continent of Africa. I do not know what this Yemeni aircraft was frightened of in Eritrea, but that is some fancy flying. This overloaded CAA cargo 727 just ran out of runway.

New Delhi based low cost carrier SpiceJet reported it’s fiscal 2009 fourth quarter (ending March 31, 2009) and annual results. Despite a 13% increase in operating income to Rs. 16.894 billion ($344.77 million) annual net losses for the year grew by 165% to Rs. 3.53 billion ($73.4 million). Operating expenses excluding interest, depreciation and taxes, grew 42.3% to Rs. 21.127 …

A Kingfisher Airlines Airbus A320-232 registration VT-ADR performing flight IT-3334 from Badogra, West Bengal, India to New Delhi, India, was taxiing for take-off, and executing a 180 turn at the end of the runway to line up, when the right wing tip of the aircraft hit the wall of a grass-camouflaged bunker located in the proximity of the runway. The …

Air India has been in the news this week for all the wrong reasons. I would like to finish the work week on a positive note and present pictures of Air India’s latest Airbus A319-112 VT-SCQ which entered service just a few days before this picture was taken on June 14th at Bengaluru International Airport. Reversing thrust after touchdown on …

In a simple statement Air France said the remains of the Captain of Air France AF-447 which crashed on a flight from Rio De Janeiro to Paris Charles De Gaulle on June 1, has been identified. Among the victims found in the sea search, two members of the Air France crew have been identified: the flight captain and a steward. …

Back in April I had speculated While Jet Airways is adamant that they prefer to sign bi-laterals, I feel they should strongly consider joining the Oneworld alliance. Oneworld has a major gap in South Asia. It’s rival SkyTeam has recently signed up Vietnam Airlines. While the delay Air India entering the Star Alliance with support of Lufthansa may open up …