Eclipse Aerospace not wasting any time

Eclipse Aerospace, the new owner of the remaining assets formerly owned by Eclipse Aviation, intends to open the doors September 1, 2009. Eclipse Aerospace, which offered $40 millions for the assets, was the only bidder in the bankruptcy proceedings.

According to New Mexico Business Weekly in Hirings rise as new Eclipse feels wind under its wings, Eclipse has already started hiring. Mike Press, one of the two Eclipse Aerospace investors:

“We have more than 600 resumes from former Eclipse employees [who] want to come back to work,” Press said. “We won’t hire back any of the old executive management, but we will re-hire engineers and the people who actually built the jet. There are a lot of high-quality, highly trained workers ready to come back to work.”

Tough break for the "old executive management," or maybe not!

First order of business is to support the existing fleet of Eclipse jets, but Press isn't content with that. He says, “It will take us at least six months, but a maximum of 18 months, to re-start production.”

Re-start production? As much as I'd like to see that happen my question would be, "what's different, other than the management team?" Mainly, where is the money to fund this going to come from? There must be a plan here, right?

A buyer for Eclipse?

The bankruptcy court for Eclipse Aviation seems to have but one offer to buy the remaining assets: Eclipse Aerospace. They've put in a $40 million bid and the bankruptcy sale is now scheduled for August 20, 2009.

See: One bid for Eclipse as deadline set.

For detailed analysis, see the Eclipse Aviation Critic NG.

AirTran 100% Internet equipped

AirTran promised in May that 100% of their fleet would be equipped for inflight Internet, and it seems they have delivered. Gogo Inflight Internet is now on all 136 of AirTran's aircraft.

"Promise made, promise delivered," said Bob Fornaro, chairman, president and CEO of AirTran Airways. "When you get onboard an AirTran Airways jet, you know exactly what you're going to get -- an assigned seat on a full-sized, new Boeing jet with Business Class, a friendly crew, complimentary XM Satellite Radio and now Wi-Fi. It's that consistent, low-cost, high-quality experience that sets us apart from our competitors."

With that accomplished, the airline is rolling out an “Internetiquette” campaign to teach people how to surf the Web in-flight without offending or annoying their neighbors.  You can catch some of these tongue-in-cheek Internetiquette tips and videos by logging onto http://www.airtran.com/internetiquette/. 

Rise and Fall of Flying Boats

Author Jamie Dodson, of www.nickgrantadventures.com fame, sent the following:

All Y'all,

Experimental Aircraft Assoc (EAA) confirmed that I'll be presenting the "Rise and Fall of Flying Boats" at Oshkosh, WI, 2:30 - 3:45, July 31 and 11:30 - 12:45, August 2d. I'll also be at the author's corner for a "Flying Boats & Spies", book signing, Saturday August 1st and Sunday the 2d. OnStage publishing will release "China Clipper" in September. As with FB&S, I will donate a portion of my sales to ACS.

http://www.eaaapps.org/presenterinfo.aspx?id=982

I hope to see some friendly faces in the crowd. Please stop by if you can, I'd love to see you there.

An Airbus A380 novel

This book summary was sent in by the author of a French novel about the Airbus A380:

Koursk, a Russian billionaire, bought a highly sophisticated Airbus A380. His goal? Owning a mobile Radio/TV station, allowing it to consolidate its empire of information being the only one, when an event occurs, to send an on-site production studio. He doesn't know he is in pursuit of a commando of Spanish terrorists, former victims of some of his business and determined to destroy the aircraft and its owner. Can an autonomous commando, equipped, and motivated shoot down a giant aircraft, protected by a group of ex-KGB agents?

The rest of the story based on a police story. The readers will discover the world of modern aviation.

For more see:

http://www.editeurindependant.com/doc/5138

http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2009/04/15/592063-Le-premier-roman-policier-aeronautique.html

Airplane Geeks Come and Airplane Geeks Go

A recent press release:

Evanston, IL June 22, 2009 - A change has come to the top, the top of aviation geekdom that is. Courtney Miller, one of the daring-duo founders of the Airplane Geeks podcast (www.airplanegeeks.com) one year ago this week has produced his final show for the world famous radio program as he moves on to a new job in Canada. Airplane Geeks is the always relevant - often irreverent - look at the previous week's aviation industry news.

Replacing Courtney Miller are two bloggers and podcasters already well known to Airplane Geeks listeners. One who will valiantly attempt to fill Court's shoes is Rob Mark, CEO of CommAvia, a commercial pilot, writer and editor of the award-winning industry blog Jetwhine.com - (www.jetwhine.com). Rob was also just named an Aerospace Journalist of the Year for 2009 at the Paris Air Show. Dan Webb, a sophomore at Bryant University writes the Things in the Sky Blog at (www.thingsinthesky.com).

While listeners expressed sadness at Miller's decision to leave the podcast, co-host Max Flight said, "Courtney's leaving? Really?" Jetwhine editor Rob Mark said, "Although I learned quite a bit about being an airplane geek long before I met Court and Max, my daughter says I'll still fit right in." Webb added, "My coverage of both the shiny bits and the smudges within the airline industry should provide Rob and Max plenty to keep the discussion going."

Some industry competitors, obviously fearing for their own jobs now that Max, Rob and Dan have teamed up, piped in with their two cents. Flightblogger's Jon Ostrower said, "The world will never be the same," while Aviation Week's high priestess of the aviation world online, Benet' Wilson, said, "I am delighted to hear that my old friend Rob Mark will become the new co-host of the Airplane Geeks podcast. His segments are sure to kill the podcast giving the rest of us a chance to do our own version of the show. Just kidding. Good luck guys."

New episodes of the Airplane Geeks become available online and via RSS and iTunes each Tuesday afternoon. Airplane Geeks has also forged a new program syndication agreement with Flight Line Internet Radio - (www.flightlineinternetradio.com) - to run regular show segments.

Aviation museum articles

Thirty Thousand Feet has begun publishing a series of sponsored Aviation Museum Articles. Each article provides information about a museum, including the museum’s mission, exhibits, program offerings, location, and admission prices. There is also a link to the museum’s web site.

Three articles kick off the series:

The Frontiers of Flight Museum located in Dallas, Texas. This museum provides a fun, interactive, and thorough walk through aviation history.

The Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum at Martin State Airport in Maryland. This museum has a general aviation focus, but is more broadly dedicated to the promotion and preservation of aviation and space exploration in the State of Maryland.

The Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington has a vast collection of aircraft, exhibits, interactive displays and workshops.
More articles will be added in the near future.

Visiting and supporting these and other aviation museums helps keep our aviation heritage alive, and its a great way to introduce our youth to the field of aviation. Find a museum near you and go have a great day exploring history!

Paris Air Show 2009 video

Flightglobal has produced some great video at the 2009 Paris Air Show. The flight display highlights features the Eurofighter Typhoon, Airbus A-380, F-18 Hornet, F-16 Fighting Falcon, C-130J Hercules, LH-10 Elipse, Bobin R-2160, and a beautiful old Lockheed Constellation.

Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields

My aviation website pick of the week from Episode 50 of the Airplane Geeks podcast:

My pick is Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields, a website with descriptions and images of 1,428 airfields in all 50 U.S. states.

The author is Paul Freeman, a pilot who says he has always been interested in the abandoned airfields that are all over the country. These airfields can sometimes be critical to a pilot in an emergency, and sometimes they just have a fascinating history.

To explore the site a bit, I pretty much randomly chose Jonnycake Airport in western CT. I found t was built between 1957-60, initially with a 2,400' unpaved runway, but later with a 2,800' paved runway. There are sectional chart images, and recollections from a pilot who trained there in 1960. Other photos show private planes at the airport in the early days and aerial photos of the airport.

The airport closed in 2004 after a dispute between the airport owners and the owner of the property, who no longer wanted an airport on his property. The pilots argued about the economic benefits to the region, and the property owner responded by saying in the past 50 years that only amounted to two nearby restaurants that were popular with visiting pilots.The town made noises about grabbing the land by eminent domain, the FAA made noises about buying the airport, and so it remains.  It's fascinating local history (in a lot more detail than I just related), but imagine that repeated for over 1,400 airports and you've got an impressive collection of aviation history here.

So, have a look at this site and you'll almost certainly find at least one abandoned airfield near you. Take the opportunity to learn a little local aviation history!