For those who like Aircraft pictures

[Sidecar Racer]

 

 Who will get this ?????

 

[KeithMacdonald]

6 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 Who will get this ?????

 

 

It used to be a picture of a tractor driver (on the ground) watching a pilot ejecting (in the air)

[KeithMacdonald]

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-story-behind-a-famous-photo-of-an-ejection-from-a-raf-lightning-interceptor/

 

[jjb1970]

https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/aviation/2024/05/22/saudi-arabia-china-airlines-saudia/

 

I wonder if Boeing are opening up an unexpected opportunity for COMAC. Airlines need an alternative choice and although the A320 family is excellent I wonder if China may be able to promote the C919 as the alternative choice to keep Airbus honest? 

[rob D2]

I don’t think many western companies would touch it with a barge pole.

Youd be ordered an aircraft, basically from an enemy manufacturer who doesn’t like you and can stop spares and product support in a heartbeat .

 

i remember the sukhoi jet lasting about 10 mins in service with city jet , and that was before the Ukraine palava 

[jjb1970]

What could possibly go wrong?

 

https://www.thedailystar.net/nrb/departure-arrival/airlines-more/news/biman-u-turns-buy-airbus-planes-3621326

[jjb1970]

On 24/05/2024 at 18:17, rob D2 said:

I don’t think many western companies would touch it with a barge pole.

Youd be ordered an aircraft, basically from an enemy manufacturer who doesn’t like you and can stop spares and product support in a heartbeat .

 

i remember the sukhoi jet lasting about 10 mins in service with city jet , and that was before the Ukraine palava 

 

That's also why many might consider COMAC. Outside of the western aligned bubble China is no more an enemy than we are and there is a lot of unease at the readiness of the US and Europe to impose sanctions. Not just the 'awkward countries', non-aligned countries with good relations with Europe and the US are looking at increasing trade in local currencies, reducing exposure to sanctions etc. Two examples near here are Indonesia and Malaysia, even Singapore doesn't see China as an enemy the way we might and maintains good relationships. China is also increasingly influential in the Middle East. The countries which don't have a problem with China represent an awful lot of airliners as well as the huge domestic market.

[PMP]

6 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

 

That's also why many might consider COMAC. Outside of the western aligned bubble China is no more an enemy than we are and there is a lot of unease at the readiness of the US and Europe to impose sanctions. Not just the 'awkward countries', non-aligned countries with good relations with Europe and the US are looking at increasing trade in local currencies, reducing exposure to sanctions etc. Two examples near here are Indonesia and Malaysia, even Singapore doesn't see China as an enemy the way we might and maintains good relationships. China is also increasingly influential in the Middle East. The countries which don't have a problem with China represent an awful lot of airliners as well as the huge domestic market.

That’s an interesting perspective. Another element will be the ME countries wanting to diversify away from Oil based manufacturing, so if they can get a foothold into high tech without the years of home grown development that would be needed, this makes sense.
I can see that production could be started with (in effect), Chinese produced kits, initially part assembled, a bit like BAe used to do with 146’s in the early days at Woodford.

[Jeff Smith]

9 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

 

That's also why many might consider COMAC. Outside of the western aligned bubble China is no more an enemy than we are and there is a lot of unease at the readiness of the US and Europe to impose sanctions. Not just the 'awkward countries', non-aligned countries with good relations with Europe and the US are looking at increasing trade in local currencies, reducing exposure to sanctions etc. Two examples near here are Indonesia and Malaysia, even Singapore doesn't see China as an enemy the way we might and maintains good relationships. China is also increasingly influential in the Middle East. The countries which don't have a problem with China represent an awful lot of airliners as well as the huge domestic market.

The COMAC C919 does have CFM engines although China is developing a replacement engine.

[rob D2]

1 hour ago, Jeff Smith said:

The COMAC C919 does have CFM engines although China is developing a replacement engine.

Well that’s one thing that might work then 

[rob D2]

11 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

What could possibly go wrong?

 

https://www.thedailystar.net/nrb/departure-arrival/airlines-more/news/biman-u-turns-buy-airbus-planes-3621326

That’s hilarious .

so they need a 92% load factor, the price of fuel to drop, to fly two routes profitably , one of which they are banned from , for being a bit sh#*e.

 

Is their accountant one of the muppets ?

[newbryford]

It's been a bit breezy at DFW

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c2xxzx61005o

[britishcolumbian]

On 24/05/2024 at 10:17, rob D2 said:

i remember the sukhoi jet lasting about 10 mins in service with city jet , and that was before the Ukraine palava 

Interjet of Mexico flew the Sukhois into Vancouver for a while. From what I'd heard, they were fairly satisfied with the aircraft itself, but the absolute lack of post-purchase support meant that their service lives were pretty short in North America, too.

[jjb1970]

4 hours ago, rob D2 said:

That’s hilarious .

so they need a 92% load factor, the price of fuel to drop, to fly two routes profitably , one of which they are banned from , for being a bit sh#*e.

 

Is their accountant one of the muppets ?

 

It's an egregious example of quite a common ploy in government and business. Appoint someone or a panel which has at least some relevant expertise to review something and make recommendations, if they give the 'wrong' answer parachute someone else in who'll give the 'right' answer. Obviously seeking a second opinion is always a valid thing to do, but often it isn't so much a second opinion as just finding someone who knows the answer they want.

[jjb1970]

6 hours ago, Jeff Smith said:

The COMAC C919 does have CFM engines although China is developing a replacement engine.

 

China is doing what most would do if deciding to enter a high tech segmentwith huge barriers to entry, following an incremental pathway from a modest start which relies on buying in a lot of the more expensive and difficult bits while developing the capability to build a genuine indigenous product.  The MA60 was pretty much a warmed up An24 with new engines, the ARJ21 evolved from the MD8X/9X with a Ukrainian designed wing and new avionics and engines. The C919 is a clean sheet aircraft but it relies on imported systems while they develop expertise. 

[Ozexpatriate]

4 hours ago, newbryford said:

It's been a bit breezy at DFW

Article makes a point of "straight line winds". This is meant to make clear that the winds there were "not tornadic".

 

24 people died from 70 tornadoes in the last week in 15 states in the central US - mostly over the holiday long weekend.

[jjb1970]

Yet another Air Asia special livery. Some days it seems like there's more special livery Air Asia A320's than regular livery. A nice development (well, for me as a geek) is the lunchtime China Southern arrival from Guangzhou has gone from an A321 to an A350.

 

[Johann Marsbar]

19 hours ago, newbryford said:

It's been a bit breezy at DFW

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c2xxzx61005o

 

I've never seen weather like it in the Dallas area on Tuesday.  I'd left my hotel early, hoping to beat the storm front,  but it hit when I was waiting at the DART Light Rail station and I got absoloutely soaked!  I got on a train and we proceeded towards DFW, coming to a halt at Belt Line Station, where we sat for 70 minutes as it was deemed too dangerous to proceed.  Traction power was lost for about 20 mins during that time as the train defaulted to backup batteries for reduced lighting and a/c. During the time we sat at the station, a local transformer a couple of hundered yards from the train got hit by lightning and we then had a 15 minute firework display as all the local electric supplies shorted out!

Not an experience I'd want to repeat........

 

Flights out of DFW yesterday were stll subject to delay/cancellation, as my LHR service was an hour late.

[Ozexpatriate]

9 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

I got absoloutely soaked!

There are few rains like a 'Texas frog choker'. (You can see similar rain in the tropics, but it is remarkable just how hard it can rain in the Gulf states.)

[jjb1970]

In Singapore the big problem is lightning strike. It's not that unusual for staff to be pulled into shelter because of lightning strike risk. The rain is also a problem, they get cloudburst type rain which can be incredibly violent but tends to be brief and as with most places where there is a known environmental issue the airport is designed and built to manage it and even when they do stop operations it tends to be a short interruption with minimal impact.

[Ozexpatriate]

16 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

In Singapore the big problem is lightning strike. It's not that unusual for staff to be pulled into shelter because of lightning strike risk. 

At DFW it is standard operating procedure for all ground crew to leave the apron when there is visible* lightning. They do not return until 15 minutes after the last lightning.

 

* Possibly one detected by Doppler RADAR as well.

Quote

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says to issue lightning alerts at 5 miles (8 km) and stop operations at 3 miles (5 km).

 

I've landed at DFW and sat in a closed aircraft next to the gate for what felt like <a very long time> while there was a thunderstorm with lightning. All ground operations ceased until the lightning stopped.

[jjb1970]

I had a look at the weather forecast to see if it's worth thinking about taking the camera out and the below is the BBC forecast, which seems to be constant. In a funny old way it's probably the most accurate of the forecasts as most days will indeed see rain and cloud, the difficult bit is figuring out when it'll be bright and sunny.

 

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

I had a look at the weather forecast to see if it's worth thinking about taking the camera out and the below is the BBC forecast, which seems to be constant. In a funny old way it's probably the most accurate of the forecasts as most days will indeed see rain and cloud, the difficult bit is figuring out when it'll be bright and sunny.

 

As you will have realised, the weather forecast in Singapore is the same every day - indeed, we used to joke that the masthead of the Straits Times had the forecast embedded permanently into it:

 

"24-32, partly cloudy, sunny spells, possible thunderstorms later."

Edited June 1 by St Enodoc

[jjb1970]

People here joke semi-seriously about why they have a met office, it must be the easiest job in the world.🤣

[jjb1970]

Some more special liveries. I'm not sure if Juneyao even have a standard livery for their 787 fleet as each one I've seen has had a different livery (the standard livery for their other aircraft is quite attractive). The Garuda A330 is a throwback to troubled times, still in the mask up livery they deployed during the pandemic.