Golf Hotel Whiskey: for pilots and aviation enthusiasts
Solar Impulse’s plan for a round-the-world flight by electric plane took a step forward when their aircraft made its runway debut on Friday. (Hat tip: Inhabit)
See more pictures on the company website.
Also, check out this great YouTube video.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O3IfVC8eLo[/youtube]
By Uwe Nitsche. Uwe Nitsche is founder of the software development company Xgenta Ltd. (www.Xgenta.com)
Last week I had the opportunity to fly the Avidyne R9 demonstrator aircraft (a Cirrus SR22 G3) across Europe. The route took us from Oxford to southern Germany, to Vienna then Budapest and back to Gloucester. With a total time of fourteen hours there was plenty of opportunity to get intimate with the Avidyne’s new avionics system.
Having around 500 hours experience with the Entegra 1 system, I was looking forward to see what the improvements would be like in real life. I had seen the table-top demonstrator unit on two occasions before and came away from that experience with doubts about whether the new system would really be that much better.
Let me tell you that there is a huge difference between the demonstration unit –which does not have a GPS- and the actual aircraft. Looking back on it all it is really hard to imagine the impact on your flying when sitting in front of the demonstrator.
Let me run you through our flight across Europe to give you an impression of what it’s like.
Check out these cool cockpits.
Cirrus (Avidyne)
This is my office when I go flying. (See my post: Learning to fly the Cirrus)
Cirrus Perspective
This is what I would like to fly if I could afford it.
A380
(Have a look at the panoramic version too.)
Gulfstream PlaneView
(More info: Gulfstream and the interactive version)
Dassault EASy
(More info: Dassault)
Concorde
(Hat tip: Concorde SST)
Space Shuttle
This is a picture of me flying NASA’s Space Shuttle simulator in Houston. (The highlight of my career as a freelance journalist.)
The Boston Globe has 40 pictures that really capture the spirit of flying. Highly recommended. Here are a few thumbnails to whet your appetite.
Robert Mark has posted an entry on Jetwhine about flying a Dassault Falcon 2000LX from the factory in Bordeaux France all the way to the USA for his first Atlantic crossing as a pilot. Also in the cockpit with him was Philippe Delemue, Dassault’s chief pilot in France.
Now, for those of you not familiar with the aircraft, the Dassault Falcon 2000LX is one of the newest members of France’s Dassault Aviation’s Falcon business jet line. The plane is equipped with two Pratt & Whitney Canada engines and is able to fly 4,000 nautical miles (hence, the air craft is perfect for a trans-Atlantic crossing) at Mach .80. The plane also has the capability to climb to almost 41,000 feet in just 18 minutes. Thus, the plane can fly the shortest and most direct route above the weather. As for the interior, the roomy cabin has roughly 6 ft 2 in of headroom and a seating space that measures 7 ft 8 in by 26 ft 2 in. In addition, passengers can do just about everything from making a phone call to watching a variety multimedia type presentations.
Anyway, Mark is still in the process of editing the video he took of his trip and he promises that he will have it uploaded soon.
Despite the gloomy economy and the uncertainty surrounding business aviation, Reno (Nevada) based Aerion Corporation is still pushing through with its Concord like Aerion Supersonic Business Jet and apparently already has around 50 orders. The US$80 million jet, according to the company’s website, will revolutionize business aviation:
In the near future, it will be possible to take off from Paris at 8 a.m. for a breakfast meeting in Manhattan. One will be able to fly from the East Coast of North America to Asia in just nine and a half hours.
It will be possible to traverse the United States at .98 Mach with operating costs equivalent to today’s large business jets, while still being able to access all the airports where most business jets operate now and meeting applicable noise and emissions regulations.
The SBJ cabin will allow for layouts that will comfortably seat 8 to 12 passengers in a cabin (with flat floors) that is 6’2’’ in height, 6’5’’ in width and 30’ in length (hence, enough space for up to three seating areas plus a full galley and a lavatory big enough for comfort).
Aerion still has a number of hurdles to face (development costs are estimated to be between US$1.2 to 1.4 billion) in order to bring this dream to reality – hopefully by 2014.
