Aircraft

Tag Archives for Aircraft.

18+ hours – the new normal for extra long-haul flights

June 30, 2017 by unroadwarrior 4 Comments

There seems to be a war amongst airlines to show whose is longer than the others – whether it is the longest flight by ‘great circle’ distance (Qatar’s DOH-AKL) or by actual miles flown (Air India’s SFO-DEL). United is in the mix too but not for the longest flight in the world, but for the…

United’s 787 International Flights

March 24, 2015 by unroadwarrior 2 Comments

I recently got a chance to fly on the Airbus 380. It was on a Lufthansa operated flight from Johannesburg to Frankfurt (JNB-FRA). Flying the Boeing 787 is next on my list, and has been there for a long time. I missed a chance last year to fly one from London to Newark (LHR-EWR), as…

Riding in Coach: Why I prefer United 767 over 777

March 23, 2015 by unroadwarrior 7 Comments

I fly a lot of international flights in coach. My employer only buys me coach tickets. I upgrade a lot of my long haul flights using upgrade instruments (GPUs for United). But GPUs are limited, so I use them only on really long haul flights (10+ hours) or on overnight flights for shorter ones. For…

My first A380 flight

February 17, 2015 by unroadwarrior Leave A Comment

I took my first flight on an Airbus A380 a few weeks ago. It was a Lufthansa operated flight – and a long one – from Johannesburg (JNB) to Frankfurt (FRA). The flight was 5,380 miles long and pretty much goes across the length of the entire continent of Africa, over the Mediterranean and then…

787-9 in Washington Dulles (IAD)

February 10, 2015 by unroadwarrior Leave A Comment

The new ’stretch’ version of Boeing’s 787 ‘Dreamliner’ (787-9) are now being put into service. I happened to see my first 787-9 at Dulles airport (IAD) last week, operated by Virgin Atlantic. Virgin replaced it’s aging A340 that it used to fly to to Washington Dulles from London Heathrow (LHR). The schedule of operations is:…

Emirates’ $1 WiFi

December 22, 2014 by unroadwarrior Leave A Comment

Airlines are getting on the WiFi bandwagon in droves. I remember Lufthansa testing WiFi in their long haul planes over a decade ago . Most airlines in the US have WiFi now – however, most of them have terrestrial (ground based) WiFi. The challenge with that is that it only works when over the mainland.…

ATC, we have a wingman…

August 15, 2014 by unroadwarrior 2 Comments

On a recent flight back from UK to the US, there was a sudden hubbub on the flight as people started looking out the widows and taking pictures. (After a few seconds of panic) when I looked out the window I found that we had picked up a wingman. A Swiss Air aircraft was flying…

Turkish Air Force F-16 coming in way too low!

July 7, 2014 by unroadwarrior Leave A Comment

At a recent air show in UK, this Turkish Air Force F-16 jet came in way too low for some spectators. Free haircuts anyone? Like Airplanes?: Check out: Cockpit view from an F-16 Big Birds – Aircraft at London Heathrow Airport Space Shuttle landing piggyback on a 747

Did a US Air Force U2 spy plane cause the FAA outage last week?

May 5, 2014 by unroadwarrior 3 Comments

There is speculation by Reuters and other new agencies that a US Air Force U2 spy plane caused the massive outage at FAA’s LA Central facility last week. The outage, positioned as a ‘computer glitch’ in FAA radar system, caused massive delays all around the US, spawned by ground by almost every airport in Southern…

United adding non-stop Los Angeles – Melbourne with 787-9

February 23, 2014 by unroadwarrior Leave A Comment

United is adding a new non-stop route to Australia – Los Angeles (LAX) to Melbourne (MEL). It will be using a 787-9 aircraft. United already flies to Melbourne, but it is via a stopover in Sydney (SYD). The current route is LAX – SYD – MEL. Or the alternate SFO – SYD – MEL. Once…