Commercial Aviation News

Airbus has successfully powered up the flight deck of the A350 XWB for the first time in order to start testing the systems.

Airbus has successfully powered-up the flight-deck of A350 XWB “MSN1” for the first time, following the initial application of electrical power to the aircraft’s front fuselage. This significant milestone was passed only two weeks after this section was delivered to the Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Toulouse. Moreover, it gives a promising indication of the A350 XWB’s progress in pre-FAL and the readiness of the aircraft’s systems.

Flight-deck power-on is an important step on the route to complete aircraft power-on and first flight, because it enables most systems functional checking to be undertaken. Having achieved this nearly a year before first flight will allow early identification and resolution of potential issues and thus help to protect the aircraft’s development schedule. Testing of the front fuselage section will proceed during this summer. This will be followed by the power-on of the entire fuselage later this year.

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Well the A350 XWB is an interesting aircraft this first one has seen so many delays but that is as expected with a brand new aircraft model. Boeing themselves had problems initially with the 787 model. I think the latest problems for the A350XWB project is something to do with the wings which throws the schedule behind by an extra month. I mean I am a Boeing fan, love their aircraft but let's see where Airbus goes with this one. The 350 program had seen many cancellations on initial orders?

EcoDemonstrator Takes Flight​

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Alaska Airlines have announced a big order in Boeing 737 aircraft. The firm order covers TWENTY 737 MAX 8s, SEVENTEEN 737 MAX 9s and THIRTEEN Next Generation 737-900s ER. The 5-billion dollar price tag is the largest in Alaska Airlines' history.

Austrian base jumper Felix Baumgartner became the first person to ever go faster than the speed of sound without the benefit of a craft. Of course everyone knows about this event especially after some 8 million people watched the event. Commercial Jet News? maybe not, but a Commercial/private venture, theatrics and science at work. New space suits, maybe soon we will see people base jumping from private jets in the future!

Celebrations for Boeing's new HEAVY (747-8 Cargo)

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An Air Canada Boeing 777 was redirected to help search for a missing yacht. The yacht was spotted by crew and passengers of an Air Canada flight that was going from Sydney to Vancouver. The yacht apparently go into trouble and an emergency beacon onboard notified the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which then relayed the GPS position to the Air Canada jet. The Air Canada 777 arrived in the search area and decended to about 4,000 ft above the ocean while passenger and the pilots looked for the drifting boat. Passengers allegedly loaned the pilots binoculars to help in the search. Eventually those onboard the Boeing aircraft found the missing yacht and relayed the information to rescue teams.

Thai gets new A380...

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The Airbus 350 XWB's tail (vertical stabilizer) is ready!

The A350-900 XWB is catching back up to it's schedule and is expected to enter service in 2nd quarter 2014, of course without any further delays. The first carrier to have an A350-900 is expected to be Qatar Airways.

Singapore Airlines have made firm orders for twenty (20) Airbus 350-900s aircraft. Additionally they placed orders for five more A380s. If everything goes well, Singapore Airlines will start having their A350-900s from 2015.

Furthermore, in a related move, Singapore Airline's low-cost longhaul subsidiary 'Scoot' will take over the parent carrier's existing order for 20 Boeing 787s.

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The A380 to date has carried more than 27-million passengers & made more than 75,000 commercial flights.

Here's a little fun fact from Airbus today.

Now Boeing is talking about more fuel efficient aircraft...

Interested in the A320 Neo? You can check it out on Twitter for those who are on there.

With more and more persons and companies becoming further conscious about the environment. There is a cooperation between Boeing and China’s Commercial Aircraft Corp (Comac) to explore the possibility of utilizing waste cooking oil to create jet fuel. Indeed this could be very feasible considering that China generates 29-million tons of waste cooking oil per year.