Prepare for Departure
Prepare for Departure
..The end of an era: Farewell to the 747
November 11, 2017 It's been more than 40 years, but Tamula Sawyer still remembers the soft emerald green dress and stylish high heels she wore on her first trip aboard a Boeing 747 from Boston to Honolulu. Back then, said Sawyer, who lives in Worcester, Mass., people dressed to fly.
Wave goodbye to the 747, the beloved jet that took us to new heights.
WHEN THE FIRST BOEING 747 rolled from the hangar in Everett, Washington, 50 years ago, being there I can say, onlookers were stunned and rightfully so, they dubbed it the 'Jumbo Jet.' The aircraft before them, gleaming in the morning sunshine, was more than double the size and weight of any existing jetliner, at the time. An airplane of firsts and superlatives, the 747 owed its instant fame mostly to feats of size. It was the first jetliner with two aisles—two floors, even!—and enormous as it was, the 747 had gone from a literal back-of-a-restaurant-napkin drawing to a fully functional aircraft in just over two years, an astonishing achievement.
Boeing 747 - Wikipedia
The Boeing 747 is an American wide-body commercial jet airliner and cargo aircraft, often referred to by its original nickname, "Jumbo Jet". Its distinctive hump upper deck along the forward part of the aircraft has made it one of the most recognizable aircraft, and it was the first wide-body airplane produced.
A decade earlier Boeing’s 707 had ushered in the Jet Age, but with four fuel-thirsty engines and room for fewer than 200 passengers, fares were beyond the budget of most vacationers. The 747 introduced economies of scale that, for the first time, allowed millions of people to travel nonstop over great distances. It changed global air travel forever.
And it did so with a style and panache that we seldom see in aircraft design. The “Father of the 747,” Boeing engineer Joe Sutter, a former architect and his team, built an airplane that wasn’t just colossal, but also downright beautiful and elegant. “Most architects who design skyscrapers focus on two aesthetic problems,” the architecture critic Paul Goldberger once wrote. “How to meet the ground and how to meet the sky—the bottom and the top, in other words.”
What is a jetliner to the eye but a horizontal skyscraper, its beauty created (or squandered) primarily through the sculpting of the nose and tail? Sutter understood this perfectly. The 747’s most distinctive feature, the upper deck, has inspired descriptions like “bubble-topped” or “humpbacked,” which couldn’t be more mistaken. Many a passenger joined the mile high club. The deck’s design is smoothly integrated into the rest of the fuselage, tapering rearward from the cockpit windscreen to form an assertive, almost regal-looking prow.
Two hundred feet behind, the jet’s six-story tail evokes the rakishly canted sail of a tall ship. Even the name itself is such a neat little snippet of palindromic poetry.This is the aircraft that carried every president for almost three decades under the call sign Air Force One. It carried the space shuttle from place to place and it's retirement. And it was the star of any number of Hollywood disaster movies. (Who can forget Charlton Heston and Karen Black in Airport 1975?)
First Boeing 747-100 at the Museum of Flight!
Join me as I walk through the first Boeing 747 ever built, The City of Everett ( or N7470 , RA001 ) which is currently retired in Seattle’s Museum of Flight!
Boeing 747-100 First Flight 1/2
Film from Boeing Aircraft, with footage of the maiden flight of the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet on February 9, 1969. The film's full title is New Dimension: First Flight Of.... First flight of the very 1st Boeing 747 at Paine Field on February 9, 1969. I shot this 16mm technicolor film at Paine Air Field in Everett, Washington. I did the conversion. A neat vintage Boeing retro-promo, featuring events leading up to, and including the maiden flight of Ship One ( in 2 parts ). Awesome period piece music too.
Boeing 747-100 First Flight 2/2
We should mention its roles in real-life tragedies, too, from the collision at Tenerife to the explosion of TWA Flight 800. The photograph of the wreckage of Pan Am’s Maid of the Seas lying sideways in the grass at Lockerbie is among the most indelible images in aviation history.In my 28 years as a commercial pilot I have never flown a 747, but I will always remember my first time on one in 1982.
I vividly recall stepping into the entryway vestibule and glimpsing the famous spiral staircase that led to the upper deck. Seven years later, I was a passenger on the inaugural 747-400 flight from New York to Tokyo. Everyone onboard was given a commemorative sake cup. I still have mine. The numbers that made good commercial sense for airline businesses in 1968, though, are no longer in the 747’s favor.
One by one, the world’s major carriers have been sending them to the boneyard, and for the first time in almost 50 years, no U.S. carrier flies passengers on a 747. When Delta Air Lines retired the last of its fleet earlier this year, the plane took a cross-country farewell tour, including a stop at the Washington factory where it was manufactured. The 747-8, the largest and most modern 747 variant, has sold only sporadically and production has dwindled to almost nothing—though Boeing is prepping two for duty as the next Air Force One — and the assembly line is bound to go dark soon.
The fragmentation of long-distance air routes, along with the unbeatable economics of newer aircraft models, have finally dethroned the “Queen of the Skies.” At the same time, reports of the plane’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Hundreds remain in service worldwide. British Airways, Lufthansa and Korean Air have dozens apiece, and many more airlines operate 747s as freighters. They’ll be crossing oceans for years to come.
Like other American emblems of design and commerce, from the Empire State Building to the Golden Gate Bridge, the 747 endures—a little past its prime, sure, but undiminished in memory and in its power to inspire and awe. It has carried tens of millions of people to every corner of the globe, an ambassador of our technological know-how and imagination at its best. It could be a metaphor for America itself: No longer the most acclaimed or the flashiest, it remains unmistakable and graceful in ways you might not expect. And in spite of any proclamations of its demise, it carries on.
Airbus A380
Airbus A380 makes aviation history with its, first maiden flight.
Airbus A380 - Wikipedia
The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by European manufacturer Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner, and the airports at which it operates have upgraded facilities to accommodate it. It was initially named Airbus A3XX and designed to challenge Boeing's monopoly in the large-aircraft market, they dubbed it the 'Super Jumbo Jet..
An A380-800 of Emirates, the largest operator of the aircraft
The world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, completed a maiden flight that took it over the Pyrenees mountains, a milestone for aviation and for the European aircraft-maker's battle with American rival The Boeing Company.
The A380 unseats the Boeing 747 as the world's largest passenger aircraft and can accomodate up to 853 passengers in an all-economy class set up.
The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. The largest passenger airliner in the world, for it's time, the A380 made its maiden flight on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse, France, and made its first commercial flight on 25 October 2007 from Singapore to Sydney with Singapore Airlines. The aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX during much of its development phase, but the nickname Superjumbo has since become associated with it.
The A380's upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage, and its width is equivalent to that of a widebody aircraft. This allows for a cabin with 50% more floor space than the next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400, and provides seating for 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people in all-economy class configurations. The postponed freighter version, the A380-800F, is offered as one of the largest freight aircraft, with a payload capacity exceeded only by the Antonov An-225. The A380-800 has a design range of 15,200 km (8,200 nmi), sufficient to fly from New York to Hong Kong for example, and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruising altitude).
BLAGNAC, France — The world’s largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, completed a maiden flight that took it over the Pyrenees mountains, a milestone for aviation and for the European aircraft-maker’s battle with American rival The Boeing Company.
The double-decked, 308-ton plane landed successfully to applause on April 27, 2005 at 2:22 p.m (8:22 a.m. EDT) after a flight of nearly four hours. About 30,000 spectators watched the white plane with blue tail take off and touch down, 101 years after the Wright brothers achieved the first controlled, sustained flight.
Before it landed, its front lights shining, the A380 did a slow flyover above the airport in Blagnac, southwest France, where it had taken off at 10:29 a.m. (4:29 a.m. EDT).
The plane carried a crew of six and 22 tons of on-board test instruments. It can carry as many as 840 passengers on commercial flights.
About a decade earlier Boeing’s 747 had ushered in the JetSet Age, but with four fuel-thirsty engines and room for fewer than 300 passengers, fares were beyond the budget of most vacationers. The A380 introduced economies of scale that, for the first time, allowed millions of people to travel nonstop over great distances. It changed global air travel forever.
“The takeoff was absolutely perfect,” chief test pilot Jacques Rosay told reporters by radio from the A380 cockpit as he flew at 10,000 feet just north of the Pyrenees mountains, about an hour into the flight. “The weather’s wonderful.”
The pilots checked the plane’s basic handling characteristics while the on-board equipment recorded measurements for 150,000 separate parameters and beamed real-time data back to computers on the ground.
Rosay, co-pilot Claude Lelaie and four fellow crew members took no chances — donning parachutes for the first flight. A handrail inside the test plane lead from the cockpit to an escape door that could have been jettisoned had the pilots lost control.
In Paris, French Cabinet ministers broke into applause when President Jacques Chirac told them of the successful start to the flight. The head of competitor Boeing’s French division, Yves Galland, said he watched the televised takeoff and, just this once, “shared the emotion of the people of Airbus.”
The flight capped 11 years of preparation and $13 billion in spending.
Orville and Wilbur Wright, by comparison, spent an estimated $1,000 developing their skeletal flyer, which stayed airborne for 12 seconds on the sands of Kill Devil Hills, N.C., the morning of Dec. 17, 1903.
Built of spruce and ash covered with muslin, the Wright brothers’ flyer weighed 605 pounds, according to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
The A380 weighed 464 tons on takeoff, including its bulky test equipment, fittings and fuel, Airbus said. That is about 75 percent of its maximum authorized takeoff weight for commercial flights.
Spectators camped out by the airport to be there for what some said was Europe’s biggest aviation event since the first flight of the supersonic Concorde in 1969. About 30,000 people gathered around the airport to watch, police said.
Emergency services took no chances and stationed fire trucks at regular intervals along the runway, although aviation experts say modern computer modeling and wind-tunnel tests have made maiden flights safer than ever.
Problems are more likely, but still very rare, later in the test-flight program, when the pilots deliberately take the plane to its limits. An Airbus A330 prototype crashed here in July 1994, killing chief test pilot Nick Warner and six others as they conducted a simulated engine failure exercise.
Airbus says the A380 test-flight program is likely to take over a year and finish soon before the plane enters service for Singapore Airlines in mid-2006.
The A380, with a catalogue price of $282 million, represents a huge bet by Airbus that airlines will need plenty of large aircraft to transport passengers between ever-busier hub airports.
So far, Airbus has booked 154 orders for the A380, which it says will carry passengers 5 percent farther than Boeing’s longest-range 747 jumbo at a per-passenger cost up to one-fifth lower.
But Airbus has yet to prove that it can turn a profit on its investment, a third of which came from European governments. Some analysts say signs of a boom in the market for smaller, long-range jets like Boeing’s long-range 787 “Dreamliner” show that Airbus was wrong to focus resources on the superjumbo at the expense of its own mid-sized A350 — which enters service in 2010, two years after its Boeing rival.
Just that week, Air Canada and Air India announced a total of 82 new orders for Boeing jets — including 41 787s — taking Boeing’s Dreamliner order book to 237.
But Airbus CEO Noel Forgeard played down Boeing’s recent orders and the 787’s development lead, saying the battle for the market in smaller planes would be fought out over 20 years, not two.
“Our competitor Boeing has woken up and gets a wave of orders,” Forgeard told reporters attending the A380 test flight. “Good! Competition is an excellent thing.”
Forgeard, who steps down later this year to become joint CEO of Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., congratulated the A380 development and test-flight team for a “fantastic collective effort” and said the plane would enter service in the “second half of 2006” — about three months behind the previous schedule.
Part of the delay is down to the super-jumbo’s struggle with a weight problem that consumed months of engineering time and pushed the program’s cost overrun to $1.88 billion. Competitive pressure on airlines to offer plusher, heavier business-class seating tightened the squeeze and rooms to go. Talk about joining the mile high club.
Is There Trouble In Paradise For The Airbus A380?
Zurich, Switzerland – June 21, 2018: An Emirates Airbus A380 lands on runway 28 of Zurich Airport.
The Airbus A380, to put it as kindly as possible, has been a mixed success. The giant airliner has flown millions of passengers billions of miles in safety, comfort and for the elite, in luxury. Yet the 555-passenger four-engine aircraft has been a commercial failure in most corners of the world, with just 331 orders (229 delivered) some 13 years after its first flight.
But there is one market that has proved a paradise for the A380, the Persian Gulf. More than half of all A380 orders (182 of 331) have come from Qatar (10 orders, all delivered), from Etihad, the second-largest carrier of the United Arab Emirates (10 orders, all delivered) and of course from Emirates Airways. So far Emirates has ordered 162 A380 aircraft, of which 104 have been delivered. Emirates’ fleet of massive A380 aircraft has played a substantial role in the growth of international air traffic at its hub, Dubai International Airport (DXB). In 2017 DXB handled 88 million international travelers, the most of any airport.
Yet this paradise for the A380 may be lost, due to a disagreement between Emirates, Airbus and engine supplier Rolls-Royce over the most recent order, regarding engine design.
Production of the costly plane has perpetually been in danger of cancellation. When a deal for Emirates to buy 38 A380s fell apart at the Dubai Airshow past November, aviation observers feared the worst. However, in January of 2018, John Leahy, the since-retired super salesman of Airbus, managed to pull a final rabbit out of his hat. Emirates placed an order for 20 A380 aircraft, with an option for an additional 16. The order was for a reported $16 billion dollars. Emirates, which operates A380 aircraft with both Engine Alliance and Rolls-Royce engines, noted that “the airline is evaluating engine options for its latest A380 order, ” contingent upon exercising its option as it see fit, including new redesigned economic engines.
In practice, however, Emirates has more or less standardized on the Rolls-Royce power plants. Emirates had wanted new engines, but the small size of the order (only 36 planes) and the costs involved made both engine suppliers reluctant to provide completely new engines.
Now Emirates and Rolls-Royce are reportedly at odds on price and fuel burn on the upgraded engines, which is “already falling short of desired performance parameters.” A deadline to select the engine has been missed, potentially delaying the delivery or threatening the deal, outright.
Fuel economy is becoming increasingly important, even for a government-backed airline like Emirates in the oil-rich high standard of living, Gulf State. Emirates turned to Rolls-Royce hoping that the newest A380s would deliver enhanced fuel economy as well as turbo power. News that the new engine is falling short of fuel efficiency and performance metrics, on top of the well-publicized problems with Rolls-Royce engines in the new Boeing 787 'Dreamliner,' is not promising for the future of the A380 program.
Ironically, when Dreamliners for Norwegian and other airlines were pulled from service for engine inspection, a leased A380 picked up the slack.
According to Bloomberg, the original engine supplier for the A380, Engine Alliance, has offered to provide Emirates with more GP7200 engines, which a spokesperson claims offer “exceptional efficient fuel burn, long range and durability.” Whether Emirates would see this as anything better than a stop-gap solution, considering their $16 billion investment, is unknown. After a GP7200 on an Air France A380 suffered an engine failure in mid September of 2017, an enhanced inspection directive was issued for the engines.
The allegedly-firm order was set to keep the A380 production line open until about 2029. Airbus claims, 80 percent of today’s 58 megacities with more than 50,000 long-haul travelers a day have airport congestion. By 2036 there will be 95 such megacity hubs. Not surprisingly, the Airbus exec tasked with marketing the A380 says, Frank Vermiere, says the cure for such congestion is having the A380 fly to such gate-limited destinations.
The projected, doubling of the flying population by 2036 ( from 4 billion a year to 7.8+ billion ) combined with slowing growth in airports and facilities could prove a boon to jumbo jets that maximize use of existing airport gates. But even such a jumbo jet renaissance, if it really does come to pass, may come too late for the aging A380, designed more than 20 years ago. Today’s trend is toward fuel-efficient twin jets like the Boeing 787 or Airbus 350. Their smaller capacity (250 to 350 people) is also easier to fill with passengers than the 555-seat A380.
And if Emirates actually needs more A380 aircraft, there might be a surprising number of used A380s available. The closest potential source is neighbor Etihad Airways, whose poor financial performance has led to talk of a merger with stronger partner Emirates. The two UAE airlines are reportedly looking to work together in a global alliance, without an actual merger, and acquisiton, and putting Etihad’s 10 A380 aircraft under effective Emirates control for crewing, support and maintenance, might work.
Meanwhile, outside Emirates, there is little demand for the A380. A pair of A380 aircraft re-acquired by a German leasing company at the end of a Singapore Air lease will probably be broken up for parts. And Malaysia Airlines has another six A380 aircraft it doesn’t seem to know what to do with it. A former Malaysia CEO noted that only two of the six A380 aircraft Malaysia owns are fit for operations, while the other four are listed as. groinded, albeit “Aircraft on Ground” status.
Presumably, Emirates, with pilots and mechanics flying the world’s largest fleet of A380 aircraft, could take the planes off Malaysia’s hands and restore them to operating condition—or use them for spare parts.
No doubt Airbus, Emirates and Rolls-Royce are working feverishly to make what might be the last ditch effort, the requested big order for the A380 work. Perhaps the issues can be smoothed out, requirements met and the deal saved. Even so, the current kerfuffle is a troubling reminder and snafu, that the manufacturing lifespan of the world’s largest jetliner, and the thousands of jobs that go along with it, hangs by a thread.
A barge carrying a section of the fuselage of the Airbus A380 passes under the Pont de Pierre in Bordeaux, France, Tuesday, March 30, 2004.
Singapore Airlines A380 First Class Suite London to Singapore (PHENOMENAL!)
Read my review of this flight on my blog: https://theluxurytravelexpert.com/2018/09/12/review-singapore-airlines-a380-first-class/ If you like this clip, be sure to follow me on Youtube (175,000+ followers so far!). Each week, I upload one new trip report about my luxury travels around the world.
World's longest route
Singapore Airlines will introduce the world's longest commercial flights this October, with non-stop services between Singapore and New York Newark. Operated by the new Airbus A350-900ULR (ultra-long-range), the service will launch on October 11, covering a distance of some 16,700km with a travelling time of up to 18 hours 45 minutes.
The world's longest non-stop flight from Singapore to New York has landed
Source: Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines has won back the crown of the world's longest service by miles flown after it completed its direct service between Singapore and New York on Friday. An Airbus A350-900ULR took off Thursday from Changi Airport on its way to Newark Liberty International Airport, and covered the 9,000 nautical miles (9,537 miles) in 17 hours and 25 minutes.
Singapore
After more than 15 hours, the passengers in the back of the airplane are family-road-trip restless: Are we there yet?
Three more hours to go. Riding the longest airline flight in the world is a traveling ultramarathon.
You’re chasing time and outrunning the moon at 550 miles an hour, stretching human tolerance in a high-altitude, desert-dry environment. You’re challenging eating and sleeping patterns and questioning just how many episodes of “The Big Bang Theory” you can watch in one sitting. (There are 24 available.)
Singapore Airlines reclaimed the title of longest flight in the world on Friday with its nonstop between Newark, N.J., and its home at Changi Airport. It’s a 9,534-mile trip scheduled for 18 hours, 45 minutes when heading to Singapore, almost halfway around the world. It’s made possible by the newest airplane in the sky, an ultralong-range version of the new Airbus A350-900 jet.
Went nonstop from Newark, N.J., to Singapore, testing his tips on how to survive more than 18 hours on a plane to help you with your next long-haul flight.
This is the future of air travel for many. Longer flights actually shorten trips by eliminating the need to stop for connections. Without the nonstop between New York and Singapore, the trip takes at least 22 to 24 hours connecting in Frankfurt, San Francisco, Tokyo or Hong Kong.
Airlines are beginning to pump ultralong flights into schedules—a landmark change some call as big as the introduction of the Boeing 747. “New aircraft have the range and the economics to do what was not possible before,” says Campbell Wilson, Singapore’s senior vice president for sales and marketing.
Singapore’s new plane has 67 business-class seats and 94 premium-economy seats, but mercifully no standard coach. What’s clear from riding Flight 21 on Friday in premium economy is that ultralong-range travel requires a different mind-set for even the most experienced road warriors.
Staying hydrated is a bigger challenge than on a typical flight. Planning sleep to reorient yourself to the backside of the clock makes a difference. Avoiding salt and calories—typically available in high quantities in airline food—can help you arrive feeling less tired.
And what we learn in these passenger endurance trials can help on shorter flights, too.
Ultralong-range flights challenge fatigue management for crew as well as passengers, says Indranil Ray Chaudhury, Singapore’s captain on Friday. “It’ll take some time for people to get used to this,” he says.
As captain, he flies the takeoff and first part of the trip, gets rest and then returns to the cockpit to handle the final three hours. The big challenge: At 18 hours in, he needs to be his sharpest.
“Here you have to manage your physical constitution so when you arrive, you are fresh, not only for the landing but for any eventuality,” Capt. Chaudhury says. “The weather may be bad. You need to be ready for anything when it comes to the last segment of the flight.”
Passenger B. Yan of New Jersey looks at the sunset over the North Pole. The flight headed north from the New York area, passed near the North Pole and then dropped straight south over Siberia, Mongolia, China, Thailand and into Singapore.
The flight path has three options: Head east across the Atlantic, west across the Pacific or north to the North Pole and down the other side of the globe. Airline flight planners, working with pilots, choose the route with the most favorable winds. They also factor in available emergency-landing sites and storms.On Friday, the northern route was best—over Danbury, Conn., Montreal, Greenland, passing just south of the North Pole, then down over Siberia, Mongolia, China, Laos and Thailand. Actual time in the air was only 17 hours, 30 minutes thanks to favorable winds. The flight covered 9,857 miles, 3% longer than the shortest possible route. Gate to gate, the trip took 18 hours.
Each of the 12 Singapore flight attendants onboard gets five hours’ rest in crew sleeping compartments. Flight attendants, too, have learned these very long flights are more than a typical milk run with a couple of extra hours tacked on.
“Passengers get more fidgety,” flight attendant Charmaine Ang says. “We look for passengers who are restless and suggest something to eat, something to watch on the entertainment system.” For others, “18 hours is a breeze if you can sleep well,” she says.
White Knight in the Aisle Seat
Soon after Savannah Phillips got buckled into her window seat on a Singapore Airlines flight from NY to Sigapore this past October, she glanced over at her seatmate. He was in his 60s, wore bright yellow sunglasses, and was busy texting. The font was unusually large and the screen was bright, making it easy for Phillips to read what he was tapping out: “Hey Babe, I’m sitting next to a smelly fatty.”
“It was like confirmation of the negative things I think about myself on a daily basis,” the 33-year-old mother wrote in a Facebook post after the flight. Soon tears streamed down her cheeks as she hugged the cabin wall, trying to make herself as small as possible.
Sitting a row behind them and across the aisle was Chase Irwin, a 35-year-old bar manager from Nashville, Tennessee. He could see the man’s texts, too—and he could see Phillips. “I noticed [her] looking at his phone,” Irwin told wsmv.com. “I was sick to my stomach. I could not have this guy sit next to her this whole flight and her thinking he’s making fun of her,” he told NYC’s NewsChannel Fox-5.
In an instant, Irwin had unbuckled his seat belt and was hovering over the texter. “Hey, I need to talk to you,” Irwin told him. “We are switching seats—now.” When the texter asked why, Irwin said, “You’re texting about her, and I’m not putting up with that.”
The texter acceded quickly. Irwin took his place next to Phillips and was soon cheering up his new seatmate.
“He encouraged me not to let that guy get to me and that everything was going to be fine,” Phillips wrote. And he was right. She and Irwin spent the rest of the flight chatting like old friends.
With her faith in humanity restored, Phillips wrote on Facebook, “The flight attendant told him that he was her hero. He wasn’t her hero—he was mine.”
The Science of Airborne Wellness
Singapore and Australia’s Qantas Airways , another carrier stretching flight boundaries, have been studying the science of airborne wellness. Qantas is pressing Boeing and Airbus for an aircraft that can go even farther than the A350-900 ULR so it can get from Sydney to London and New York nonstop.
Singapore flew this route from 2004 to 2013 with a four-engine airplane fitted with only 100 business class seats. It couldn’t carry a full load that distance. It proved popular with corporate travelers but uneconomical when fuel prices soared.
The earlier experience convinced Singapore it had to do more about in-flight health for such a long flight. The airline worked with health-spa resort operator Canyon Ranch to create a more appropriate menu, and encourage in-seat stretches for better blood flow and ideal sleep cycles. The in-flight entertainment system got an additional 200 hours of programming beyond the standard lineup of 1,000 hours.
On this trip, Singapore suggests a pair of five-hour naps, with a single dinner meal in between. Ideally you want to eat two hours before sleeping, says Canyon Ranch chief executive Susan Docherty, so digestion is complete and you’ll fall asleep faster.
After about 15 hours in the air, passengers in the premium economy cabin grew restless. And they still had three hours to go.
Just one hour after meal service, the cabin lights turn orange and simulate sundown, even though it’s midafternoon in New York. Then they darken for the first nap. (I’ve never been able to sleep sitting up on a plane. No difference this trip, unfortunately.) Wake-up for the lucky comes five hours later, with hot towels and blue lights turning bright white before dinner. An hour later, another faux sundown with orange lights before it’s lights out. (Still no joy for me.)
The menu, which includes a light lunch after takeoff and snacks before landing, is designed for a 2,000-calorie limit—unless passengers want to indulge by asking for more. The flight lands in late afternoon, so it’s best to arrive hungry for dinner and sleep so you’re properly oriented to Singapore time. (The hungry and tired parts aren’t too hard.)
In-flight, taste is diminished by the dry air and cabin pressure, so airlines often add salt to food to boost flavor. But that leads to water retention, bloating and fatigue. For this flight, chefs tricked up dishes with flavors heavy for sea level but tasty in the air, without added salt.
Chefs seasoned beef short ribs with lots of turmeric, giving them strong taste and anti-inflammatory benefits, says Singapore’s food and beverage director Antony McNeil. To reduce carbs, cauliflower was mashed like potatoes and served with the beef. Cauliflower helps hydrate, as it is mostly water. Lentil beans served with chicken were steeped in broth full of garlic and onion. A rich tomato jam on top of the chicken was actually a conduit for lots of red wine vinegar.
Canyon Ranch developed healthy meals for the ultralong flight, such as a dinner of beef short ribs flavored with turmeric, an anti-inflammatory. Mashed cauliflower has high water content for hydration (and looks like potatoes).
The dishes proved airline food could be tasty at 39,000 feet. Even the mashed cauliflower was creamy and flavorful.
Singapore’s premium-economy seat for the ultralong flights is 19 inches wide inside the arm rests—about one inch wider than on an A320. The row is 38 inches long, about 6 inches more than a typical coach row on long flights. Extra legroom makes a huge difference, but it’s still coach.
“About 14, 15 hours in, my legs were really uncomfortable,” says Bernard Yan, who works for a New York clothing manufacturer and was flying to Singapore for his mother’s 58th birthday.
He finds the premium economy seat tight even though it was specially designed by Singapore for long-haul sitting with extra thigh, calf and foot supports. Some of the extra support and under-seat entertainment gear robbed space for his backpack and reduced room to stretch his legs.
Mr. Yan has made the trip many times, usually stopping in Frankfurt, but he was still surprised at how much more taxing the single long flight proved to be.
“This is new territory, definitely not for everybody,” he says. Still, he enjoyed the food, cabin service and time-savings. “This is a better option. I would take it again.”
Enrico Esopa, a Jersey City, N.J., maritime-labor-union official on a business trip to Singapore, enjoyed the all-business-class nonstop when Singapore ran it before. So when the airline announced the re-inauguration, he switched his ticket from United flights through San Francisco and paid about $200 more for the nonstop.
“The premium economy had plenty of room, and this saved me six or seven hours,” Mr. Esopa says. “But after 15, 14 hours, you’re kind of like, let’s get on with it.”
Horny couple joins Mile High Club in full view of passengers
Two amorous passengers were apparently so desperate to join the Mile High Club, they did so in the comfort of their seats, in full view of a stunned couple who recorded their romp -- and then sent it to their adult daughter.
The Mile-high Club
Couple who met on plane caught in bathroom having Mile High sex.
A pair of strangers caught joining the Mile High Club on a packed S'pore Air/ Virgin Atlantic jet were interrupted by a stewardess asking: “Would you jeopardize your holiday for a blowjob?” The crew opened the bathroom door and found the man standing with his pants down and the woman sitting on the toilet seat. Stunned passengers had watched as the seemingly drunk woman began chatting up her fellow flyer moments after they boarded the Airbus 380 ( Boeing 747 ) at Gatwick airport in London.
After sharing a kiss the pair darted into the adjoining suite WC/ (economy cabin bathroom) halfway through the 11-hour flight to Cancun on March 13. Soon, three stewardesses were banging on the door demanding they come out. As the man sheepishly emerged and returned to his seat, one of the cabin crew asked: “Would you jeopardize your holiday for a blowjob?”
S'pore Air/ Virgin Atlantic told The Sun they have now banned the woman from all future flights. A man who was sitting nearby told The Sun: “She turned up on the plane totally sloshed at 12:30 p.m. “She was very friendly and approached me and my pal for a chat.
“The woman then struck up a bond with a single guy who was traveling on his own and sat across the aisle from her. They were necking and kissing. “They were both in their late 20s, but were total strangers before getting on the plane. “Minutes later she disappeared into the toilet, and he followed her in.
“It was so obvious. Everyone knew what was happening because she had been so loud, voiceferous and rowdy.” Footage shows the man emerging from the bathroom first and trying to argue that the woman had taken ill. But a stewardess says in disbelief: “You’re not even traveling together. Why were you in there?”
Passengers clapped and jeered as crew escorted the pair back to separate seats. Minutes later, the woman was involved in a fight with a female pal and was accused of throwing drinks at her and around the cabin. Her blonde friend struck her and shrieked: “Don’t you f—ing ever … Do you understand me?”
The pilot radioed ahead for cops to meet the flight when it landed in Mexico. Officers boarded and marched the woman off with her bags. Flight S'pore Air / Virgin Atlantic said: “Flight SA39/ VS93 from Gatwick to Cancun on March 13 was met by the authorities on arrival due to disruptive behavior on board. “The safety and well-being of our customers and crew is our top priority, and we won’t tolerate any behavior that compromises this.
“As a result, the disruptive customer has now been banned from all future travel on S'pore Air/ Virgin Atlantic aircraft.”
Frequent Fliers
FROM COLOMBIA TO THAILAND, THE HOT SPOTS FOR AMERICANS HEADING OVERSEAS ARE ALWAYS CHANGING
DOES IT SEEM AS IF EVERYONE IN YOUR FACEBOOK FEED is climbing Machu Picchu? It’s not your imagination. Peru has been among the fastest-growing overseas destinations (a term that excludes Mexico and Canada) for American travelers for decades, on track to overtake the United Kingdom, annually the top in number of visits, by 2041, a Smithsonian analysis found. Here’s a look at how our travel habits have changed—and the forces that influence our choices.
The 1980s “Come Back to Jamaica” ad campaign was part of a major government investment in tourism. Violence caused a drop in tourism in Colombia. With the peace, visitors began returning in 2013. A devastating economic crash in Argentina in the early 2000s made the country affordable for vacationers. The end of apartheid in South Africa sparked a travel boom in the 1990s. Tourism to China rebounded quickly after the turmoil of the Tian anmen Square Massacre. Visits also rose with U.S. investment.
TRENDING DESTINATIONS
1980s Colombia Jamaica Australia Spain Peru South Korea Philippines
1990s Turkey Israel Peru South Africa India Brazil China
2000s Argentina Turkey Israel Philippines China India Greece
2010s Philippines Ireland Thailand Peru Colombia Austria Switzerland
TOP DESTINATIONS
1980s-2010s United Kingdom France Germany Italy Bahamas Jamaica Japan
How to Choose the Best Seat
ALWAYS choose the aisle seat on a flight? You might reconsider after reading this research. A leader in infectious diseases has said the aisle seat is the germiest seat on the plane, thanks to the number of people you’re exposed to as they walk by. Chuck Gerba, a microbiologist from the University of Arizona, told us that people should avoid aisle seats as you’re more likely to come in contact with, and be contaminated by, other passengers on your flight.
The Best Airline Seat
Reserving your Seats
More airlines now offer the option to pay and reserve your seats online, either at the time of booking, or when you perform online check-in. This is the safest way to try and get the seat of your choice, but please remember that this is certainly not always a guarantee that you will receive this seat on your flight!
The airline may change the aircraft type before you travel, so the seat numbers you have selected might either change, or not be in the position that you had expected. There are also many instances where the airline’s “system” may decide to re-allocate your chosen seat to another passenger – and you will be left trying to resolve this at airport check in (possibly with no success!)
Front, Middle or Rear of Cabin?
This is a matter of personal choice, but on widebody aircraft you will generally find that the front of the Economy cabin is the quietest, normally just in front of the aircraft engines. The rear of the cabin tends to be noisiest from an engine noise perspective, and this also tends to bump around more during turbulence – of course, on less than full flights, you normally find that there are more empty seats at the back of the plane where you can spread out. For the meal services, it is difficult to suggest where you are more likely to be offered the full choice of meals before they run out! Some airlines start meal services from the front of the cabin, some the middle, and a few from the back of the cabin!
Aisle, Middle or Window seat?
In most instances, the least preferred seat is the middle seat – especially on those airlines where the center section of cabin seating might provide a 5 across layout – so if you draw the middle seat, you have to ask two passengers to move each time you want to stretch your legs, use the washroom etc!
If you want to get on the flight, and sleep with as little disturbance as possible, then a window seat may be the best option – you also get the outer cabin wall to lean against, rather than falling asleep on your fellow travelers. Remember however that the cabin walls on some aircraft have more curvature than others, and the window seat can feel as if it has less shoulder-room that ordinary seats.
The aisle seat gives you easy access to walk around, but worth remembering that you might be getting up and down for your fellow passenger seated next to you. The aisle seat positions can also be prone to knocks and bumps as passengers walk past or try to squeeze past service carts in the cabin – you often find out in an aisle seat how inconsiderate some fellow travelers can really be! NOTE: As mentioned, above... A leader in infectious diseases has said the aisle seat is the germiest seat on the plane, thanks to the number of people you’re exposed to as they walk by.
An Exit Row or Bulkhead seat?
Most airlines now charge an additional fee to sit in the exit rows, others will allocate at check-in (remarkably some airlines still favour these seats for much taller passengers!). You do get a lot more legroom in an exit seat, but on the downside there are a few points to remember. You will not be allowed to keep any items of hand-luggage (even books etc sometimes) by your seat/footwell area during landing and take-off periods, and as the bins above your seat may be full by the time you realise, you will have to hope for a cooperative cabin crew that will take these items off you at these periods and return them after take-off and landing!
Also, the exit row seats will not have a PTV entertainment screen on the back of the seat in front (as most seats), but will have the video screen stored in the armrest – similar for the meal tray table which will be stored in your armrest. Because of this design layout, you might find that the actual seat width is less than ordinary seats, and it can be quite cumbersome using the PTV and tray tables – guess it is a case of measuring that against the benefit of extended leg space you will get.
Bulkhead seats are are located immediately behind a solid cabin divider (on the PLAN below, Row 30, seats D/E/F/G/H/K). This is normally the location where a Bassinet is provided for families with babies, so can be noisier. Whilst you have no seat reclining in front of you, the legroom may at first seem spacious, but you will find that stretching your legs is not possible like in an ordinary seat. Bulkhead seats also suffer the fact that your tray table will be in the seat armrest, and this be cumbersome when left with a finished meal tray for long periods of time.
Another important point with the extended space around the exit rows, is that on some flights you might find that passengers from elsewhere in the cabin decide that this is a good place to congregate and chat, do their stretching exercises etc, and it can therefore prove a rather busy place. It is also always worth watching out for those middle seat rows in the aircraft that look like there is a lot of legroom – this might be the case, but you can find that your hoped for space in front is being used as a cabin cross-over passage, as passengers go to the washrooms etc.
Avoid the Toilet and Galley areas!
Aside from the obvious fact that being seated next to or right behind the toilet can result in unpleasant odours etc wafting around you, the toilet flush is extremely noisy on most aircraft, and you will find this incessant noise interruption very annoying after several hours of constant repetition. During the darkness / sleep periods you might also tire of the light intrusion every time passengers open the washroom door – and similar to some bulkhead/exit seat positions, you will find that there are often a lot of passengers milling around your seat area as they queue for the washroom.
Being seated next to or opposite the Galley areas can also be a bad choice – you will find that the level of pedestrian traffic (cabin staff and passengers) is much higher, the curtains may not always be kept shut so you get light intrusion, and as hard as staff might try, the preparation and clearance of meals will result in the galleys being quite noisy for these periods of the flight.
Legroom Space
On many long haul aircraft, some passengers will find that their footspace (ie the area under the seat in front) is impacted by the location of the control box for the IFE (inflight entertainment). This is something that is gradually being changed and improved by seat suppliers, but don’t expect quick results. Across many airlines, this IFE control box might be located in the aisle seat footwell area, although for some it is the window or middle seat that suffers – so, no hard and fast rules here.
The Seat Pitch
Airline seat pitch guides give you an indication of how much legroom you can expect. Economy class cabins on long haul flights generally offer 31 to 32 inches seat pitch (the industry standard), with a smaller number of airlines providing 33 to 35 inches of seat pitch. The higher the seat pitch, the fewer the number of seats an airline can fit into the cabin, so in present economic times do not expect to see airlines increasing seat pitch standards! It is important to remember that newer “slimline” seats do mean that a 32 inch seat pitch can offer as much personal legroom space as an older type of seat in a 34 inch seat pitch.
With newer “slimline” seats being introduced by some airlines, the seat pitch dimension can become slightly skewed – a 32 inch seat pitch with a new, slimline seat may offer as much “personal” space as an older style seat in say 33 inch seat pitch – so the ruling is not infallible.
Referring to the Cabin Seat Chart
Rows 38 and 47 are the main exit rows, so a lot of legroom, but in line with our earlier warnings, you might find the washroom and galley areas in close proximity to be something of a nuisance.
Our team were unanimous in selecting seats A or C, H or K in Rows 31-34 on this aircraft. On the plus side, you are at the quietest end of the cabin, will be amongst the first to deplane at destination, and stand a good choice of getting the full choice of meals on offer. Toilets are all to the rear, so no odours or queuing passengers nearby. On the downside, if the bassinet seats in Row 29/30 are full occupied by families with babies, there is a chance of occasional crying etc – so a good noise-cancelling headset would be a must.
Whilst cabin air circulation is different across aircraft types and airlines, our team also find that the air quality at the front end of the cabin is generally better, and less prone to the hot/cold temperature variations further back in the cabin.
We hope that you have found this article of some assistance with your planning for an airline trip, and wish you an enjoyable flight – wherever you might be travelling or wherever you end up sitting!
Cabin Seat map
Many airlines include in their websites the cabin seat layout plans for different aircraft they operate. It might not be clearly linked from the entry page, but try looking up the FLEET or CABIN links if you can find those. Normally, that will help lead you to the most recent seat layout plans.
Comments
Post a Comment