This would make me stir crazy for sure. But Mark Malkoff has made it halfway through a 30-day adventure to live on-board one of AirTran Airways aircraft.
Every night, he sleeps on the aircraft, and every morning, he welcomes passengers aboard, AirTran said.
His trip coincides with AirTran’s rolling out its on-board Wi-Fi service. In addition, he’s trying to overcome his fear of flying.
Malkoff boarded the plane on June 1. As of Monday, he completed 56 flights covering 51,673 miles. He attained the airline’s A+ Elite status quicker than any other passenger in the program’s history, the airline says.
Malkoff has been posting his videos and updates to www.markonairtran.com.
Labor talks continue between Spirit AeroSystems and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.
On Tuesday, Spirit management presented the company’s position on employee benefits, SPEEA said in an update.
The presentation made it clear that there are “difficult talks” ahead, it said. But “our team now has a starting point for benefits negotiations.”
Main table negotiations began last week.
Talks on benefits, including compensation, and the use of contract labor, still lie ahead.
SPEEA deemed today “Solidarity Day,” and asked all SPEEA-represented employees to wear red T-shirts to show their support.
The union represents about 700 engineers at Spirit AeroSystems. The current contract expires July 11.
As the Paris Air Show got under way Monday, I had my own little Parisian soiree planned for some of us who, sniff, couldn’t be at the show.
Since I’m monitoring it from my desk here in Wichita, I had a small gathering at Oeno with some French wine, a jaunty beret that we passed around and party favors from the Aviator’s Attic at Yingling.
Well, just as it was pouring at the Paris Air Show, so too did it storm in Wichita. We hear that put a bit of a damper on the fun in Paris, but it didn’t stop our small band of merrymakers in Old Town — even when Oeno ran out of its $5 Monday-night special French wine.
Turns out California grapes do nicely in a pinch.
Cessna Aircraft received an order for 30 Grand Caravan turboprops from Indonesia’s Susi Air and an order for 46 182 Turbo Skylanes from the Turkish SSM (Undersecretariat for Defence Industries of the Ministry of National Defence).
Cessna will deliver eight Caravans to Susi Air in 2009 and the remainder by the end of 2011, the company said. Susi Air began operations in 2006 with two Caravans. The company provides scheduled and charter passenger and cargo service throughout Indonesia and humanitarian airlift support.
The 182 Skylanes will be used by the Turkish Land Forces and will replace its existing fleet of Cessna T41s. The T41 is the military designation for a variant of the Cessna 172 Skyhawk.
AirTran Airways CEO Bob Fornaro is the keynote speaker for the Wichita Aero Club’s monthly luncheon next week.
Fornaro joined AirTran in 1999. He’s held senior management positions at US Airways, Northwest Airlines and Trans World Airlines.
Fornaro will speak at the noon meeting on Tuesday, June 23 at the Wichita Airport Hilton. Tickets may be purchased online at www.wichitaaeroclub.org or by calling 641-5962.
The Air Force’s newest acquisition — military versions of the Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350 — flew its first combat sortie, according to Air Force magazine.
The aircraft, dubbed the MC-12W by the Air Force, is an intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance aircraft that provides support to ground troops. Its first mission took four hours and left from Joint Base Balad, Iraq.
It is equipped to collect intelligence signals and provide overhead live-streaming video in support of ground troops.
The Air Force is buying 37 of the aircraft, in what it calls the “Liberty Project.”
Bombardier Learjet tapped into Wichita State University’s Walter H. Beech Wind Tunnel for low-speed testing of its new Learjet 85 mid-size business jet now under development.
The wind tunnel is operated by WSU’s National Institute for Aviation Research.
The low-speed wind tunnel has a 7×10x12 foot test section capable of reaching speeds of up to 240 mph.
The Learjet 85 will carry eight passengers, have a high-speed cruise of Mach. 082 with a range of up to 3,000 nautical miles.
Germany and France have agreed in principle to finance Airbus‘ new A350XWB airliner and expect to make a final decision by the end of June, government ministers told Reuters.
German would provide $1.53 billion and France would contribute $1.4 billion, the report said.
Britain’s minister for business and defense, Lord Drayson, said he wasn’t prepared to disclose how much Britain could contribute, Reuters said. A Spanish counterpart was missing from a meeting during the Paris Air Show on Monday, according to the Gaea News. The three countries said they were looking forward to funding arrangements being finalized soon.
The widebody airliner is expected to compete with Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.
WICHITA — Brian FitzGerald of FitzGerald Video spent 18 months producing his latest documentary, Ultralight Flying Millennium 2, or UFM2 for short.
FitzGerald made the film to chronicle the current state of ultralight flying in the U.S., he said. He’s added music he’s written and recorded.
The film features the five areas of flying an ultralight — fixed wings, trikes, powered parachutes, powered powergliders and helicopters, he said. FitzGerald completed extensive interviews with flyers in each of the areas.
Music video segments are sprinkled throughout the video to provide what he calls the “romance of flying.”
The film is three hours and 15 minutes long. For information on the video, visit his website www.fitzvideo.com.
WICHITA– Flint Solutions in Wichita received authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration for its Aerosonde unmanned aerial vehicle to fly over Crisis City.
The Certificate of Authorization (COA) is a major step in supporting unmanned aerial systems project at Kansas State University and will help applying UAV technology in emergency response situations, Dennis Kuhlman, dean of K-State College of Technology and Aviation said in a statement.
Crisis City is part of the Great Plains Joint Training Center next to the National Guard’s Smoky Hill Weapons Range.
Until now, the Aerosonde has been limited to flying in restricted airspace over the Smoky Hills Weapons Range. The ability to fly over Crisis City will allow it to be involved in more extensive search and rescue operations through the use of training sites.
The COA is a waiver that represents a procedural interim mechanism that authorizes UAV flight as the FAA evolves regulatory airworthiness, collision avoidance standards and certification requirements to be implemented through Special Federal Aviation Regulations, Kulhman said.
