Free Republic

NEW YORK — Boeing has locked in its biggest order ever. The Chicago airplane manufacturer said Tuesday that it has finalized an order from Indonesian carrier Lion Air for 230 planes — worth a combined $22.4 billion. Lion Air also has the rights to buy 150 more. The deal is the largest commercial airplane order ever for Boeing Co. by both dollar value and number of airplanes.

As United Airlines retires its last Boeing 737, the Tribune looks back at some of the aircraft the carrier has used from its start as the nation's first coast-to-coast mail and passenger service.

Australian aircraft engineers have called for Airbus A380 - the world's biggest passenger aircraft - to be grounded, after Singapore Airlines and Qantas found cracks in the wings of their super-jumbos. 'We can't continue to gamble with people's lives and allow those aircraft to fly around and hope that they make it until their four-yearly inspection,' said Steve Purvinas, secretary of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Boeing Co. said Thursday that it was about to receive its largest order in company history by dollar value, just three days after breaking its previous record. The Chicago-based manufacturer said Jakarta-based Lion Air intends to sign a commitment to purchase 201 737 jets and 29 737-900 extended range planes valued at $21.7 billion.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai's fast-growing airline Emirates kicked off the Middle East's biggest airshow Sunday with a huge order for 50 Boeing 777s, marking the U.S. aircraft maker's biggest-ever single order in dollar terms.

After a delay of more than three years, Boeing's much-hyped newest jet, the 787, made its first commercial flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong -- and landed on-time. The All Nippon Airways flight was packed mostly with aviation reporters and enthusiasts, some of whom paid thousands of dollars for the privilege and treated the experience like a rock concert, clapping after lift-off and snapping photos for posterity.

"Both general aviation and commercial aircraft use the public airspace and air traffic control facilities, and the public has a right to information about their activities." Oh, please. We all use public streets and sidewalks, which doesn't mean the police have a right to monitor our movements and let the world know where we go.

Partial shutdown stalls aviation construction projects across the country Work stoppages are spreading among aviation construction projects across the country and construction workers are being sent home, due to a continuing fight in Washington over funding the Federal Aviation Administration. The stoppages come after nearly 4,000 FAA employees were furloughed on Saturday because the U.S. House failed to reauthorize the FAA the day before. The halting of work will increase the cost of the projects and could delay their completion, but it won’t affect air service, the FAA said. “People are out of work and the FAA cannot conduct necessary...

(CBS/AP) FORT WORTH, Texas - American Airlines is buying at least 460 new planes over the next five years and splitting the order between aerospace giants Boeing and Airbus. American's parent, AMR Corp., said Wednesday it will buy 260 planes from Airbus and 200 from Boeing. It will also take options and purchase rights for up to 465 additional planes through 2025.

Two Delta jets have collided on a runway at Logan International Airport tonight while they were taxing for takeoff, a Massport official tells the Herald. No injuries are being reported.

A Jumbo jet, with 286 passengers on board, had a terrifying near miss when it was forced to screech to a halt to avoid colliding with another plane that had turned into its path. The Lufthansa Boeing 747 was accelerating along a runway as it prepared to take off at Kennedy Airport, New York, when it narrowly avoided slamming into an EgyptAir Boeing 777.

If you're afraid of flying, reading this post may or may not make it worse. On one hand it describes a story about the smell of a burning plane engine, the expressions of encumbered panic and the experience of coming to terms with death. On the other hand, everybody lives! Reuters photographer Beiwharta had just started to fall asleep on a flight with his family from Singapore to Jakarta when two loud bangs jolted him into a frightening reality. Based on Beiwharta's account of what came next, the activity on a crashing plane is just like you might imagine. The...

As violent drug cartels take over Mexico and expand their criminal enterprises north, the United States has signed a “trusted traveler” agreement that allows pre-screened Mexican airline passengers to bypass lengthy airport security checkpoints. The foreigners will get “trusted traveler cards” with fingerprints and other biometric data and they must answer customs declarations questions on touch-screen kiosks before leaving airport inspection areas. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claims it’s a way to enhance information sharing and mutual security in the face of “ever-evolving, multinational threats.” About 84 million Mexicans are expected to qualify for the trusted traveler program, according to...

NEW YORK — The Federal Aviation Administration's aircraft registry is missing key information on who owns one-third of the 357,000 private and commercial planes in the U.S. — a gap the agency fears could be exploited by terrorists and drug traffickers. The records are in such disarray that the FAA says it is worried that criminals could buy planes without the government's knowledge, or use the registration numbers of other aircraft to evade new computer systems designed to track suspicious flights. It has ordered all aircraft owners to re-register their planes in an effort to clean up its files. About...

In the wake of yet another Muslim terror plot, we can't ignore the threat profile any longer—or the solution. Asra Q. Nomani argues the case for religious and racial profiling. For all those holiday travelers negotiating the Transportation Security Administration’s new cop-a-feel strategy, there is a difficult solution we need to consider: racial and religious profiling. As an American Muslim, I’ve come to recognize, sadly, that there is one common denominator defining those who’ve got their eyes trained on U.S. targets: MANY of them are Muslim—like the Somali-born teenager arrested Friday night for a reported plot to detonate a car...

Russian and Chinese weapons manufacturers are clashing head on within the international arms market as China’s new fighter jet seems to be a cheaper imitation of the Russian original. The deal is facing opposition from Russian aircraft manufacturers, such as Mikhail Pogosyan, the head of the MiG and Sukhoi aviation holding, who said that the FC-1 is extremely close, if not the same, as the Russian-made MiG-29. Pogosyan claimed that FC-1 is a direct competitor to Russia's MiG-29 and the deal would incur losses for the Russian manufacturers. A source quoted by the Kommersant newspaper said there are significant price...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-and-president-medvedev-russia-us-russia-business-summit Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 24, 2010 Remarks by President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia at the U.S.-Russia Business Summit U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 3:08 P.M. EDT PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, good afternoon, everybody. It is a pleasure to be here with my friend and partner, President Medvedev, and I want to thank him again for his leadership, especially his vision for an innovative Russia that’s modernizing its economy, including deeper economic ties between our...

NOTE The following text is a quote: DHS performs 100 percent watchlist matching for domestic flights Washington, D.C.—Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced that 100 percent of passengers traveling within the United States and its territories are now being checked against terrorist watchlists through the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Secure Flight program—a major step in fulfilling a key 9/11 Commission recommendation. Before Secure Flight, airlines conducted passenger watchlist checking. “Secure Flight fulfills a key recommendation of the of the 9/11 Commission Report, enabling TSA to screen passengers directly against government watchlists using passenger name, date of...

LONDON—A British Airways computer expert was charged Thursday with plotting suicide bombings—including one he allegedly planned to carry out himself. Prosecutor Colin Gibbs alleged that Bangladesh-born Rajib Karim deliberately sought a job with the airline in order to further an unspecified terrorist conspiracy. Mr. Gibbs told the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court that the 30-year-old plotted with unidentified contacts in his home country, Pakistan, and Yemen over the past four years. He said that Mr. Karim shared information about his work, including British Airways' security measures. Mr. Gibbs also said that Mr. Karim had offered to join the airline's cabin...

22 February 2010 "JIHADIS REFLECT ON THE AUSTIN, TX ATTACK*" SNIPPET: "They seem to have confused the IRS and the CIA - nevertheless, you may be sure they learned the important lesson, namely that even a small aircraft loaded with fuel can destroy a reasonably large building."

"UP cops nab IM terrorist planning aerial strike" Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui, TNN, 2 February 2010, 01:48am IST SNIPPET: "LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: The arrest of Shehzad alias Pappu — one of the key accused in the September 2008 serial blasts in Delhi and the Batla House encounter — by the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) of UP Police from Azamgarh on Monday evening is being seen as a major breakthrough in exposing a module that was planning to unleash air strikes. Shehzad, intelligence agencies had recently discovered, had undergone a training to fly planes from an institute in Bangalore and had surfaced as a...

Those of us in flight test at California’s Edwards Air Force Base in 1959 accused the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter production engineers of turning the designer’s drawings upside down. The wings of most aircraft employed dihedral—they were set at a slightly upward angle—but the F-104’s wings angled in the opposite direction; the horizontal stabilizer and elevator sat atop the vertical stabilizer instead of below it; and the ejection seat fired down instead of up.We could recover from the spin that resulted from the aircraft pitching up uncontrollably when it stalled,which was due to the T-tail configuration, but most pilots who used...

The next time there is a terror event on an airplane, does the perpetrator get interrogated or Mirandized, given the right to remain silent the right to lawyer up? It is important for safety that we know ahead of time.

SNIPPET: "A Sun Express Boeing 737-800, registration TC-SUO performing flight XQ-973 from Stuttgart (Germany) to Izmir (Turkey) with 62 passengers and 6 crew, was enroute overhead Skopje (Macedonia), when a crew member found a note in one of the lavatories saying "Today we will die, boom"." SNIPPET: "Greek police detained a man carrying a marker pen of the same color as the note written on the lavatory's mirror, but later permitted him to continue the journey. After the airplane arrived in Izmir, Turkish police detained the man again and interviewed him. The man was released without charges after the interview."

We now know the Russian planes were blown up by 1) women 2) from the toilets. This dovetails ominously with a six month old report from US intelligence that Al Qaeda was recruiting female terrorists to smuggle 8-12 ounces of explosives inside their vaginas, then extract them and assemble the bomb and detonate it from toilet. More here, including the likely effect on the racial profiling debate.

Note: The following text is a quote: TSA Guidance for Passengers on Heightened Security Measures in Place Following Dec. 25 Incident News & Happenings January 3, 2010 Today, the Transportation Security Administration issued new security directives to all United States and international air carriers with inbound flights to the U.S. effective January 4, 2010. The new directive includes long-term, sustainable security measures developed in consultation with law enforcement officials and our domestic and international partners. Because effective aviation security must begin beyond our borders, and as a result of extraordinary cooperation from our global aviation partners, TSA is mandating that...

Western Hemisphere Jay Bergman, DEA director for the Andean region of South America, said that most of the planes used for drug traffickers to get cocaine to West Africa have departed from Venezuela. This was the situation in a dozen cases in which there have been seizures, Bergman told Reuters. "Geography is the key reason why Venezuela has become a springboard location," Bergman added. "If you look at the range and refueling requirements, that is the place you have to fly from," the official of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said.

Bombs on the plane! I’ve been reading discussions concerning the type of explosives terrorists like Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab could bring onto an airliner. Investigators have indicated it was a powder/liquid mix that failed to ignite. The Jawa Report speculates; directing us to a video on making a small, but powerful improvised explosive device. I’m no explosive expert, but the video Jawa Report posted earlier today is an eye opener. Hat tip to Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit who also notes al-Qaida had a big press conference and rally four days ago in a remote area of Yemen where they declared...

COPS fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners. The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen. It was there London-educated Umar Abdulmutallab, 23, prepared for his Christmas Day bid to blow up a US jet. The British extremists in Yemen are in their early 20s and from Bradford, Luton and Leytonstone, East London. They are due to return to the UK early in 2010 and will then await internet instructions from al-Qaeda on when to strike. A Scotland Yard source said: "The great fear is Abdulmutallab is the first of...

Alittle late in making those Thanksgiving flight plans? Wondering how you could possibly afford your ticket -- that is, without putting a kidney up for sale on Craigslist? Good news! You can get a free flight home on Southwest plus a $300 travel voucher. Just do what I plan to -- get on a Southwest flight in the next few days, and when it's taking off, shout over and over, "Go, plane, go!" and "I want Daddy! I want Daddy!" Pamela Root got the free flight and the voucher, plus an apology from Southwest, after her 2-year-old kept screaming those...

The colourful model of a new passenger jet displayed at the Hong Kong air show was a show-stopping crowd pleaser. Not for its looks - though sleek, it was hardly ground breaking - but for what it represents: a new direction for China's fledgling aerospace industry. Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (Comac) surprised industry experts at last month's Asian Aerospace show by unveiling details of its large-body C919 jetliner, including plans to have it in the air by 2014.

SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are both traveling to Copenhagen this week to promote Chicago's bid to host to the 2016 Olympic Games--and they will be making the 3,979-mile trip on separate airplanes." SNIPPET: "As reported earlier by CNSNews.com, a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report cited two cost estimates for an hour of air travel by the president, vice president and first lady. One estimate comes from the White House Military Office, the other from the U.S. Air Force. Using the CRS cost estimates and the inflation adjuster from the Bureau of Labor Statisitcs,...

SNIPPET: "SPOKANE -- Authorities in North Idaho are reporting that sometime early Tuesday morning a small airplane was stolen from the Boundary County Airport. The Boundary County Sheriff confirms they received a report regarding the theft of a 2005 Cessna T182T aircraft around 7 AM Tuesday morning. The aircraft, with tail number N2183P, is a white and blue fixed wing single engine aircraft. It is believed the aircraft was taken from the airport around 5:45 Tuesday. They're not sure in what direction the plane was flown from the airport." SNIPPET: "Authorities are working to confirm if the theft is related...

(CAMANO ISLAND)— SNIPPET: "Experts say if 18-year-old Harris-Moore really did fly two stolen airplanes, he probably had some informal training. San Juan County sheriff believes Harris-Moore took a Cessna 182 and flew to Yakima last year, and stole a plane this month from Friday Harbor and flew to Orcas Island. The proof to link Harris-Moore with the latest flight may be found in DNA evidence recovered from the stolen plane."

Iraq to fetch MiG fighter planes from Serbia (AFP) – 11 hours ago BAGHDAD — An Iraqi military delegation has gone to Serbia to bring back 19 MiG fighter planes that Saddam Hussein's regime sent for servicing 20 years ago, the defence ministry said on Saturday. "General Othman al-Fredji, a defence ministry adviser, and Anwar Mohammed Amin, head of the air force, are in Serbia negotiating the return (of the planes) at the earliest possible date," spokesman General Mohammed al-Askari said. The Soviet-built MiG-21 and 23 aircraft, whose existence has just been discovered, "were sent by Saddam's government in 1989...

Surely House leadership didn't think the prospect of buying an additional four new corporate jets would fly with the American public? But they did. House leaders backed down only after news reports last week, most prominently from the Wall Street Journal, revealed the full details of this purchase. It appeared so routine. Before heading out on summer recess, lawmakers voted to add four more aircraft to an earlier request for four other new planes by the Air Force and Defense Department. The planes were to be added to a fleet of about 24 aircraft that the Air Force maintains for...

"If at first you don't succeed ... wait two decades for a new Congress, and then try again."If that credo isn't matted, framed, and hanging on the office wall of Rep. John P. Murtha, it should be.On July 22, Murtha's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee reported out a $636 billion appropriations bill that included funding for new airplanes in which the Air Force could ferry Members of Congress around the world. The eight new airplanes in the bill were precisely twice as many as the Obama Administration had requested -- but, for some reason, the price tag had more than doubled,...

This Sunday, June 28, National Geographic TV airs Hitler's Stealth Fighter. Set your TiVos or just kick the rest of the family off the TV, because this one should be good. Back when stealth was very, very secret, a few people quietly advised me to take a look at the Horten Ho229, one of WW2 Germany's most advanced designs - a jet-powered flying wing made of wood. In a German book, a British documentary producer had found something even more interesting: the Horten brothers, Walter and Reimar, had planned to use a primitive radar absorbent structure (RAS) in the leading...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- United Airlines operator UAL Corp. said Thursday that it has sent a proposal request to Boeing Co. and Airbus, as the carrier plans to begin replacing its wide-body fleet. In a letter to employees, Chairman and Chief Executive Glenn Tilton said the request could result in a "significant" number of new planes. At the end of 2008, UAL owned 80 wide-body jets and leased an additional 34.

Joe Biden just told people not to ride the subway or ride airplanes. He also called Matt "Sam".

LOS ANGELES, CA—A resident of Orange has been found guilty of willfully interfering with aircraft pilots for intentionally shooting a laser at two commercial airliners that were on approach to John Wayne Airport. Dana Christian Welch, 37, was convicted yesterday afternoon of two felony counts, each of which carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. The evidence presented at trial showed that Welch intentionally aimed a handheld laser at two Boeing 7-series jet airplanes that were preparing to land at John Wayne Airport on the night of May 21, 2008. The first plane, a United Airlines...

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said the world's poor people should not be forced to pay for the global financial crisis. President Lula said white, blue-eyed people - not Indians, nor black, nor poor people - had created and spread the crisis throughout the world.

SNIPPET: "Fourteen years ago today Aum Shinrikyo released sarin gas on the Tokyo subway." SNIPPET: "A final note - Aum Shinrikyo operatives, on the order of the cult's leader, underwent flight training in Florida. There is no evidence that they made any attempts to use this training. It is just an odd, disturbing coincidence."

To add to the continual increase in the number of vanity postings I have a question. We are thinking of doing a week or two in England next spring. I checked Orbitz for air fare and found something very interesting. I verified the topic with two different air lines (Continental and Lufthansa) and then again with Virgin Air. Same results. To fly from Newark, USA, to Bristol, UK, and back cost $917 + taxes. But to fly from Bristol, UK to Newark, USA, and back only cost $487. Both prices were in dollars, no Euros or Pounds involved. And the...

Flights at Stansted were today grounded after at least 50 climate change protesters broke into the airport and occupied a runway.Activists cut through fencing and once on the landing strip chained themselves together and surrounded themselves with their security fencing to create a ‘fort’.Members of the Plane Stupid organisation, who are protesting against the proposed second runway, grounded flights after achieving their aim of closing the airstrip. The occupied runway had been due to reopen at 5am. Airlines were told to divert their planes in the skies and, although the airport terminal has been opened to passengers, no aircraft...

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - December 4, 2008 (OWSweather.com) The invisible killer. People believe global warming exists. People believe in a thing called chemtrails. But are chemtrails what people think? What if chemtrails are poisoning us. What if normal contrails are the visible elements of which are poisoning us? Planes have been known to produce contrails. When the humidity is high in the upper levels, with sub-freezing temperatures, lines in the sky form behind planes. These are known as contrails. Many planes take the skies daily, and many atmospheric conditions can form these trails. What is in them? The chemtrail theory states...

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Armed men stole five small planes from a private airstrip in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa on Tuesday by overpowering a police officer and flying away, security forces said. The group of around 20 men stormed the small airstrip at dawn, seized the officer's gun, tied him up, filled the planes with fuel and flew off, said Emma Quiroz, spokeswoman for the government's anti-organized crime operations in Sinaloa. It was not clear if there was a link to drug gangs who use small aircraft to spirit cocaine through northern Mexico toward the United States. Quiroz's...

Fox Field Air Fair 2008 is scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, so drive there, ride there, walk there, fly there. If you like flying and aircraft, you'll like the opportunity to see numerous aircraft up close. It's not an air show, mind you. The last air show at Gen. William J. Fox Airfield was in 1995. "We want people to know that Fox Field is here in the Antelope Valley and want people to see aircraft up close and personal," said pilot and aviation instructor Bob "Stambo" Stambovsky, spokesman for the event sponsored by the...

The security measures on aircraft belonging to Israeli airlines and around them during takeoffs and arrivals abroad have been significantly boosted over the past few days for fear that Hizbullah would act on its promise to avenge the February assassination of its top commander Imad Mugniyah. The number of armed security guards on some of the flights to several destinations has been increased, as was the number of guards surrounding the plane after the landing and before the takeoff. "The threat is extremely concrete, and there is no choice but to do everything possible," a source involved in aviation security...