News from the world of N-Registration

The idea of getting into an aeroplane powered purely by electricity is really quite exciting and probably extraordinary.

Traditionally probably we do not have sympathy with airlines; they somehow usually manage to fall on their feet and generally at the expense of the flying public.

Here we are at the end of August and basically the end of the summer holiday season.

As July reaches its end, the August holiday season starts this weekend.

Covid-19 has wreaked havoc across the world with economies and businesses, literally on a global scale. Indeed, who knows what further damage will follow in its wake?

Breaking the sound barrier was originally almost a thing of science fiction, indeed it was questioned as to whether it was even possible.

Back in January we reported on how airships might become a transport of the future after the disastrous Hindenburg incident 84 years ago.

There will come a day when someone will sit down and try and record all the changes that coronavirus has brought about to our daily lives.

In that once the word “hoover” was synonymous with vacuum cleaner, to many at one time any business jet was known as a Learjet.

Going back centuries, the country’s wealth was more or less all held by the Crown and the aristocracy. The ordinary people by and large had nothing.

When the word “airship” is used, no doubt it conjures up in our minds that dreadful accident in 1937 in New Jersey when the Hindenberg caught fire. It was probably the most famous aviation disaster ever caught on camera and basically brought about the end of airships as a realistic form of transport. Airships, also known as “blimps” have continued to exist but are a relative rarity.

Wednesday 3^rd December marked the beginning of the end of the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company’s 19-month nightmare that is the model 737 MAX. It began a series of passenger carrying flights with its hitherto grounded and recently re-certified fleet aimed at restoring public confidence in the type.

We have been keeping an eye on Norwegian Air this year because it has looked like tottering quite a lot. Norwegian Air in fact became Europe’s third largest low cost airline, carrying out many of its flights from the UK and one of its main bases has been at Gatwick.

Heathrow Airport is seldom out of the news for long and has certainly been making a lot of noise in the past nine months, although not so much of that noise has been made by aeroplanes.

It is no doubt a surprise to many that Flybe, the airline which went into administration back in March has been bought and is expected to get started up again. The purchaser is Thyme Opco who are linked to Cyrus Capital, a company which was part of a Virgin-led rescue attempt for the airline last year.

I’ve just watched a very moving BBC documentary called “The Virus That Killed The Jumbo Jet”, and concede to being somewhat surprised by the affection that the British public appear to have towards this so called “Queen of the Skies”.

The reign of both British Airways’ & Virgin’s “Queen of the Skies” having come to an abrupt end, it may be a good time to stand back and examine how present day long haul flying has changed, even before the advent of SARS.CoV.2., which has merely hastened the 747’s inevitable fall from grace. The years of the Jumbo Jet as a huge people carrier are well and truly over, to the cost of both Airbus, and to a lesser extent, Boeing. Why?

We floated the issue of safety while flying a week ago and now some of the measures which have been introduced at London Heathrow have been made public.

In order to try to allay the fear of air travel which a lot of people seem to have at the moment, a few innovations are emerging.

Time for retirement – British Airways has brought forward the withdrawal of its entire fleet of 31 jumbo jets. This was originally scheduled for 2024 but the reduction in business due to the pandemic has caused the decision to be taken now, according to announcements made by BA. 747s first flew with British Overseas Airways Corporation in 1971, before that company amalgamated with British European Airways to form British Airways.

Moving on, how much do you like flying? Well, how would you feel if you discovered that the pilot flying you was not actually licensed to fly the aircraft in the specific conditions?

Today is the day that Ryanair has started its 1000 flights a day. That plan suffered a minor blow when Greece said not yet please but nevertheless Mr O’Leary claims that their flights to other destinations are 70% full. By clicking on this link you can see what flights are in the air and the Ryanair flights have RYR at the beginning of the ID.

As the world’s airlines gird their loins in preparation to get flying again it may be worth considering the measures being proposed by the carriers to mitigate possible viral cross-infection between passengers. At one point during the lockdown the suggestion of blocking middle seats was mooted. easyJet at first suggested they might adopt such a measure, but then seemed to talk themselves out of it.