Singapore Airlines farewells last 747
An extract of an article published on 18 Feb 2012 by Ben Sandilands
On 6 April the last commercial flights operated by a Singapore Airlines 747-400 will be to and from Hong Kong, with the passengers gifted with memorabilia of their historic flight.
Qantas introduced its first 747, a classic -200 model, in September 1971, two years before Singapore Airlines introduced its first jumbo, even before the Singapore girl was born as its thematic figure.
For those of us who knew the early 747s, those were the best years in terms of passenger comfort. Because of less powerful engines, and less range, the 747-100s (flown here for a while by Pan Am and B.O.A.C among others) and the 747-200s had a spacious economy class arranged nine across, not a tight pitch 10 across like today.
And while first class didn’t come with sleeper seats in the front of the jet, which were instead wide recliners with only 38 inches pitch, some carriers, like Singapore Airlines and Japan Airlines put full length bunks upstairs in the ‘bubble’ reached by a spiral staircase that was located just forward of the line between the two most forward main doors.
Qantas had a very pleasant Captain Cook lounge upstairs, where people mostly slept on the long stages with as many blankets and pillows as they could assemble depending on whether the flight services director, the generally benign flight gestapo leader in the Jaffa orange jacket, was happy for this to happen.
When the extended upper deck arrived with the 747-300 the staircase was straightened out and shifted to a location forward of the second set of main doors, the lounges vanished, and upstairs was variously used for the newly arrived business class products, extra economy seats, or in the case of Lufthansa at least, first class seating.
However the bubble lounge area remained on the 747-SP, the shortened fuselage longer range version of the jet, when Pan Am, the first airline to use it to Australia, put in a (from memory) 16 place dining room, arranged into four tables with four places each for first class passengers who could choose between early or late sittings.
In the early 70s the Qantas 747 was of such novelty status that Trans Australia Airlines or TAA, the government owned domestic carrier, would run them as holiday season scheduled charters operated by Qantas between the newly opened Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne and Sydney, where the baggage claim process was managed by spreading the bags on the ground beside the jet, which dwarfed the old TAA and East-West terminal, allowing the fastest hassle free collection ever! I think the fare was about $50 return, as single fares were almost unheard of then, and nearly as much as the round-trip fare.
After the retirement of the Qantas DC-4 Skymaster service to Norfolk Island and its last 707 services it became for some years the only large network carrier operating a fleet solely comprising 747s.
By this time economy class had almost universally been converted to high density seating, a fate likely to overtake the A380 since it can fit 11 seats across on the main deck of similar size to those that are found 10 across on a 747-400.
Microsoft Flight Launches February 29, 2012
Prepare for takeoff! On the heels of a successful beta, we’re excited to announce that “Microsoft Flight” will be available to download worldwide for free starting February 29, 2012, right here at www.microsoftflight.com. In addition, the Hawaiian Adventure Pack – which includes the remaining Hawaiian Islands, a new plane and 20 new missions – will be available to purchase the same day through Games for Windows—LIVE.
Microsoft Flight lets players jump into the fun, freedom, and adventure of flight with no special hardware or past experience. If you have a mouse and a PC, you can fly!
 Please visit the Pilot's Lounge in our forum to get the full story behind this article.
Chrome Covers Your Tracks with new ‘Flash Cookie’ Killer
By Scott Gilbertson
Google has updated the dev channel of its Chrome web browser, adding a new option to delete so-called Flash Cookies. Technically known as “local shared objects” (LSO), Flash Cookies don’t go away when you clear your browser-based cookies. Unless, that is, you happen to be using the dev channel of Google Chrome.
Chrome’s new feature adds Flash LSOs to the list of items you can delete when you clear your browser data. To try out the new tool, grab the latest copy of the Chrome dev channel and head to the wrench menu. Look for the “tools” menu item and then select Clear Browsing Data.
Chrome’s new Flash Cookie cleaning tool works because of the new ClearSiteData API, which wasdeveloped by Adobe, Google and Mozilla. The goal is to make deleting plugin-based cookies as simple as normal, browser-based cookies. In Flash’s case the new API will make its official debut when Flash Player 10.3 arrives (it’s currently in the release candidate stage). Prior to the API deleting Flash cookies required navigating through the Flash Player settings dialog and visiting Adobe’s website.
Unfortunately most users are not aware of LSOs, let alone the labyrinthian process required to delete them. The new API turns over the task of managing plugin-based cookies to the web browser, meaning you can control everything from one place. At the moment only the Flash plugin supports the new API, but hopefully other plugins will follow suit.
Since Mozilla has been a part of the API development process, look for Firefox nightlies and Aurora to offer similar options in the coming months.
One thing to keep in mind, unless you have Flash 10.3 installed, the new API won’t work, which is part of the reason you’ll find the new features in Chrome — which ships with Flash built in — and not in Chromium, which does not bundle Flash. Once Flash 10.3 is a final release, look for other browsers to begin offering LSO delete tools as well.
 Boeing Jet Deliveries Trail Assembly Rates Amid 787 Changes
By Susanna Ray
Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. delivered two new 787 Dreamliners in January, half a plane below the monthly production rate, as progress is slowed by changes after assembly to make sure the composite-plastic jets conform to regulations.
Boeing has promised to be building 10 Dreamliners a month by the end of next year to work through a backlog of more than 800 orders for the jet, which entered service at the end of 2011 after more than three years of delays.
The planemaker delivered a total of 38 aircraft last month, according to the monthly update on its website. That included five 777s, its most profitable jetliners, of which Boeing builds seven a month.
The planemaker delivered 28 single-aisle 737s, below the assembly rate of 35 a month.
The first quarter of a year is generally Boeing’s weakest, and the company delievered just 26 jets in January 2011.
The planemaker delivered 477 planes last year, an average of 40 a month, and said last week it would lift that figure to 585 to 600 this year. The Chicago-based company is boosting production by more than 60 percent in four years through 2014 to work off a record backlog.
You wouldn’t believe how long my flight was!
No, I wouldn't. And you probably didn't climb at 45 degrees or drop hundreds of feet either. We love to exaggerate
By Patrick Smith
People love embellishing the sensations of flight. They can’t help it perhaps — nervous fliers especially — but the altitudes, speeds and angles they perceive often aren’t close to the real thing.
During turbulence, for example, people believe that an airplane is dropping hundreds of feet at a time, when in reality the displacement is seldom more than 20 feet or so — barely a twitch on the altimeter.
It’s similar with angles of bank and climb. A typical turn is around 15 degrees, and a steep one might be 25. The sharpest climb is about 20 degrees nose-up, and even a rapid descent is no more severe than 10 degrees nose-down.
I can hear your letters already: You will tell me that I’m lying, and how your flight, was definitely climbing at 45 degrees and banking at 60.
And you’re definitely wrong. I wish that I could take you into a cockpit and demonstrate. I’d show you what a 45-degree climb would actually look like, turning you green in the face. In a 60-degree turn, the G forces would be so strong that you’d hardly be able to lift your legs off the floor.
Also routinely exaggerated are the flight times between cities.
“Oh my god, when I flew from New York to Sydney it took, like, 35 hours.”
Actually it takes about 20 hours. Six hours to the West Coast, then another 14 or so from there. Maybe less, depending on winds and weather.
In his book “The Second Plane,” Martin Amis claims that it takes 10 hours to fly nonstop from Washington, D.C., to London-Heathrow. It does not. Neither does it require another 10 to reach Kuwait City from there. Those legs are about seven hours and five hours, respectively.
In the January 2012 issue of Harper’s magazine, a memoir by Alexandra Fuller describes it taking 12 hours to fly from Wyoming to Mexico City, via Dallas. “Having flown twelve hours through the Christmas midnight.” Really? Twelve hours to go 1,500 nautical miles? That’s an average of 125 miles per hour. Even a four-seat Cessna can beat that.
(Somewhat offsetting this gaffe, in the same issue of Harper’s, as part of his “Easy Chair” essay, the great Thomas Frank gives a rare shout-out to the ’80s punk-pop band the Dickies.)
Of course, maybe it depends how we define a flight. Is it merely the time spent in the cabin, or the journey in full, curbside to curbside: the time checking in, waiting in the security line, connecting between flights, and so forth? Some people obviously include the whole shebang, but I don’t think that’s fair. Too many variables. A 10-hour layover at the airport in Dubai might add to your travel time, but that’s not flying.
At least by my definition, no flight anywhere lasts longer than approximately 18 hours. That being the length of Singapore Airlines’ nonstop between Singapore and Newark, the longest scheduled flight in the world. They use an Airbus A340 decked out in an all-business class configuration.
On one hand 18 hours sounds excruciating, but knowing that airline’s reputation for service and the over-the-top amenities found on its planes, I suspect many passengers are sad when it’s time to land.
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