Flight of the Day

1. Geert de Clerq on the new design for flight attendant call button on the new B737 interior at Yahoo! News. At last, here's one design passenegrs will love.

2. Give it to the birds, again. The future of UAVs might depend on how engineers copy the design of birds' wings, at ScienceDaily.

3. A new look at bolt design, at ScienceDaily. A new study suggests how to determine the optimum force to be applied considering the variations of temperature. Consider this: The A380 wing has 750,000 bolted joints.

Another Boeing Aircraft

way to go, Boeing
fWikipedia

At last Boeing has an aircraft that can ably compete with the Airbus A380, albeit late in coming. And yet the new Boeing B747-8 Intercontinental passenger plane has already accumulated 33 orders and more is expected. It can seat 467 passengers as compared to 555 for the A380, depending on the configuration. Its immediate predecessor is the B747-400 but it utilized new technologies that are incorporated in Boeing B787, another new Boeing aircraft soon to have its first delivery. The B747-8 freighter version has already 76 orders.

Way to go! for Boeing. Check out test flight of the passenger version on HeraldNet.

A380 superjumbo flies again

A380 flies again
cAssociated Press

After being grounded for three weeks, the A380 flew again. A Qantas A380 took to the skies on Saturday, November 27, after a midair engine explosion forced the airline to ground its A380s for safety checks. In fact, Qantas replaced 16 of the Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines in its four A380s. Two other airlines,  Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa, also conducted safety checks on their A380s which have Trent 900 engines.  

The blowout incident of November 4 was the most serious one involving the A380. Investigation showed that oil leaked out and caught fire, heated the surrounding area which caused parts to disintegrate. The explosion caused flying metal parts to cut the hydraulic and engine control lines in the wing. This in turn caused the loss of control of a second engine, loss of some braking power and fuel leaks. Fortunately, the pilots managed to land the plane safely back to Singapore. Modifications are now being performed by Qantas on the engines of its A380s while two A380s are now back in service.

Meanwhile, Qantas suspended A380 service from its longest-haul flights, from Australia direct to Los Angeles. In these flights, the A380 load more fuel than on other flights. The airline is testing whether extra thrust for takeoff is creating too much stress for the engines. But the Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines are certified for takeoff at those higher thrust settings. However, Qantas is conducting its own tests.

Here's the report from Yahoo! News by the Associated Press.