Posts Tagged ‘aircraft’
If you're thinking to yourself, "that's sort of a small window for a luxury hotel suite," well, you're right. But it's only because this room occupies the entirety of a repurposed Cold War-era East German aircraft.
OK, the view isn't anything special: the plane stays grounded outside the Teuge airport in the Netherlands. But the room itself, dubbed the Vliegtuigsuite, is spectacular, including three flat screen TVs, a Blu-ray player, a sauna, and a jacuzzi. Guests have access to the entire plane, from your king-size bed in the back all the way up to the cockpit.
My Dutch isn't quite what it should be, but from the looks of things a night in the aircraft will put you back €350. A bit steep, sure, but totally worth it if you've always wanted to get it on in an airplane without worrying about a foot ending up in that weird blue toiletjuice. [Hotelsuites.nl via WeHeart]
Accommodations, aircraft, Airports, flying, Hotels, travel, Vliegtuigsuite
It's not every day a a major new aircraft takes the skies for the first time, but today's special: Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is currently taking its very first test flight over the skies of Everett, Washington. Over 55 airlines including Continental and Northwest have already purchased some 840 of the next-gen planes, with All Nippon Airways scheduled to take the first delivery. The test flight is scheduled to land in a couple hours -- we're assuming work to mount
Boeing's airborne laser system on the nose in order to
defeat hackers will begin shortly thereafter.
Boeing's 787 Dreamliner takes flight for the first time originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It's not every day a a major new aircraft takes the skies for the first time, but today's special: Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is currently taking its very first test flight over the skies of Everett, Washington. Over 55 airlines including Continental and Northwest have already purchased some 840 of the next-gen planes, with All Nippon Airways scheduled to take the first delivery. The test flight is scheduled to land in a couple hours -- we're assuming work to mount
Boeing's airborne laser system on the nose in order to
defeat hackers will begin shortly thereafter.
Boeing's 787 Dreamliner takes flight for the first time originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We've been waiting
an awful long time for this day to come, and now we're doing our darndest to rush away 2010. Today, Sir Richard Branson officially took the wraps off of a spacecraft that we initially peeked back
in June of 2008: the SpaceShipTwo. Designed to hold six passengers and two pilots, this magnificent craft will reportedly be ready to ship wealthy tourists into space as early as 2011. Reportedly, the craft will be taken up to launch altitude by the
WhiteKnightTwo, after which the 2.5 hour tour will take patrons high enough to experience around 5 minutes of weightlessness. Of course, the ship still has an awful lot of regulatory passing to do, and the Spaceport America in New Mexico still has to be built, but it's nothing short of fantastic to see the wheels turning in the right direction. Just think -- you can finally tell you kid that an aeronautical engineering degree
isn't required to leave the atmosphere. Future, we heart thee.
P.S. - Peek that MSNBC link for the unveiling shots!Virgin Galactic reveals SpaceShipTwo, plans commercial space flights in 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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They said it couldn't be done. They laughed and questioned what would happen when the sun sets, but the man whose passport reads Piccard, Bertrand, and whose
bold will and bald helm match a similarly named
Capitaine, has now overseen the first solar-powered flight on the Solar Impulse HB-SIA. Okay, so it was 1,150 feet flown at a meter above ground level, but that's just
classic Swiss caution for you, no reason not to celebrate the fact that there's now a flying tub powered purely by solar energy and promising a future of aircraft operating indefinitely -- so long as the sun doesn't forget to rise every morning. This comes mere days after the
first runway tests were carried out, leading us to believe that this is one mission with a glorious chance of success.
Captain Piccard's Solar Impulse takes flight originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Good news, kids -- the
solar-powered jet with globetrotting ambitions has started sneaking out of the hangar and onto the runway for some mild exercise in the form of landing gear and taxi testing. Captained by Bertrand Piccard -- a real person -- the Solar Impulse project is still on track for a 2012 globe circumnavigation attempt powered only by the sun's rays from above and the well-wishes from below. The humongous bird is described as having "the wingspan of an Airbus and the weight of a car," and its recent outdoorsy jaunts have done nothing to dampen spirits, making that roadmap for its first flight early next year seem entirely viable. We've got no less than three videos for you after the break, but we won't mind if you only watch one.
Continue reading Captain Piccard's Solar Impulse starts runway testing
Captain Piccard's Solar Impulse starts runway testing originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You may bang on the legacy airlines, but
American Airlines has a good thing going here with
Gogo. The outfit has just completed installation of in-flight WiFi on 150 of its MD-80 aircraft, and in order to give you a better idea of how to prepare, it's now launching an online widget that'll let you know if your bird will enable web surfing when you get on. The tool is completely web-based, so any PC or smartphone can access it; the only real knock is that it only informs you of a "yes" or "no" 24 hours prior to departure, so it's still impossible to book a flight 3 months out and know for certain if you'll be able to hop online. This is definitely something that should be adopted by the other airlines (pronto!), but we can't help but dream of the day when something like this is unnecessary due to in-flight internet becoming completely ubiquitous. Ah, the future -- how you tease us so. Demonstration vid is after the break.
Continue reading American Airlines launches online widget to sniff out WiFi-equipped flights
American Airlines launches online widget to sniff out WiFi-equipped flights originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Pilots looking for the hardest-core portable nav unit available tend to flock to Garmin's GPSMAP 696 these days, but there's a problem: the big, bulky tablet doesn't do much good once you're wheels-down and you've got to find your way to the hotel. Enter the new aera series, which you can sorta think of as "
nuvi for pilots" with 4.3-inch touchscreens, user-friendly prompts, and dedicated car modes across the board that'll keep casual observers from realizing that your little buddy doubles as a $2,000 beast capable of safely guiding you cross-country at flight level 250. The 696 is still being regarded as Garmin's premier aviation portable, while the four aera models -- the 500, 510, 550, and 560 -- are called "entry or mid-level" with prices ranging from $799 to $1,999 and should finally sunset the aging lower-end GPSMAP models that look like they're straight out of Garmin's GPS III days. The 510 and 560 throw in XM WX weather support while the 550 and 560 feature Garmin's SafeTaxi interactive airport diagrams, integrated AOPA Airport Directory, and high-end car features pulled from the nuvi line like lane assist and speed limit data. All four models are technically launching on the 5th, but appear to be in stock with online retailers now if you're in a rush.
Filed under: GPS
Garmin's new aera series gets you there by air or by land originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Southwest Airlines may not own a plane with a headrest infotainment system, but it's still far and away the most enjoyable commercial flight you'll find in the US of A (save for
Virgin America, naturally). Granted, we'd like to see
in-flight WiFi offered on a few more of its flights (read: 100 percent of them), but hey, we'll take free checked bags and friendly employees any day of the week. We'll also take fuel savings and environment stewardship, both of which Southwest is aiming to give us by creating the planet's first "green plane." By utilizing recyclable InterfaceFLOR carpet, weight-saving seat covers and life vest pouches, a lighter foam fill in the seats and aluminum (as opposed to plastic) seat rub strips, the newfangled Boeing 737-700 ends up some 472 pounds lighter than a conventional one. The savings? 9,500 gallons of jet fuel per year. We're not sure when the bird is expected to take her first voyage, but here's hoping a few others are hatched in the near future.
[Via
DailyFinance]
Read - Southwest press release
Read - China View's fuel calculations
Filed under: Transportation
Southwest builds first 'green plane,' Ma Earth shows her gratitude originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Here's something you don't see every day: a Mi-24 helicopter firing off dozens of rockets at once. This one is Macedonian, and is from a "training exercise." All bow before the might of the Macedonian army! [Big Picture]
