wings

Hooters Air Goes Charter Only

Filed under: Wings

It has been announced that Hooters Air will be ending regularly scheduled passenger flights as of April 17. High fuel prices are suspected to be one of the reasons for the airline's problems. Hooters only flew a limited number of passengers to a few airports but for the some markets like Myrtle Beach, SC they brought in many much-needed tourists. The airline will still offer charter flights for sports teams and tour groups so if you want to fly with the lovely ladies of Hooters you are going to have to gather a group of people to fly with you.

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Tags: airlines, flight, hooters air, HootersAir, wings

BMW Interiors For The Airbus A350 Jet

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

The picture shown above is part of the design from BMW for the Airbus A350 twinjet that will be shown off at the Aircraft Interiors Expo 2006 in Germany next month. One of the cabin's most interesting features is lighting that can project a night sky or clouds on the ceiling. The design also has a bar area and a dome in the entrance to make the cabin appear less cramped. The overhead bins are also larger to take in more rolling bags, two roller cases per passenger for those in business class and one per passenger for those in economy (a big bonus for anyone who has ever had to wrestle their bag into the bin). New Launches has more pictures of the interior.

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Tags: airbus, aircraft interiors, bmw, flight, jet, plane, wings

Jet- Alliance Fractional Eclipse 500 Ownership

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

We've mentioned fractional options for the Eclipse 500 Jet before but Jet-Alliance offers a cheaper way to get your piece of a new Eclipse. They offer something called a “fractional alliance” where the owners share in the costs of ownership and operations of the aircraft plus an administrative fee to Jet-Alliance. For a 1/16th slice of the plane, the cost is $81,000 plus ownership fees starting at $15,000 per year and usage fees of $650 per occupied hour to cover fuel and engine reserves.

[via Very Light Jets Blog]

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Tags: eclipse 500, eclipse jet, Eclipse500, flight, fractional ownership, private plane, very light jet, wings

Global Flyer Lands, Breaks Record

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

Steve Fossett has touched down at Bournemouth Airport putting a successful end to the Ultimate Flight. Fossett, who broke the world record for the longest flight ever at 26.389.3 miles and a duration of 76 hours and 45 minutes. Fossett was supposed to land at Kent International Airport, but had to make an emergency landing when his generator failed. It was a rough landing, two tires burst and his windscreen was iced up but he is now on land and in need of a nap.

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Tags: air, flight, global flyer, GlobalFlyer, richard branson, steve fossett, virgin, wings, world record

The Global Flyer Takes Off

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

Although it was predicted that it might be a few days delayed, the Global Flyer took off this morning after all. Steve Fossett left NASA Kennedy Space Center at 7:22am and is currently zooming around the world. He has spent the day flying over the Atlantic and is currently approaching the African Coast. The takeoff was a bit bumpy as it took the aircraft a while to lift off and two birds hit the aircraft. All seems to be going well currently but weather patterns could cause a bit of a concern.

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Tags: flight, global flyer, GlobalFlyer, steve fossett, virgin, wings, world record

Eclipse Ramps Up Production

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

Aero-News Network reports on the latest plans from Eclipse Aviation. In order to handle the heavy demand for the Eclipse 500 jet they have created Sunport 11, their new primary assembly building at the west end of the Albuquerque International Airport. The new space will enable Eclipse to create four planes per day and help them burn through the huge backlog of orders. By June 2006, Eclipse plans to have six buildings for a total of more than 350,000 square feet of space.

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Tags: airplanes, eclipse aviation, EclipseAviation, flight, planes, wings

Luxist Crystal Ball: Wings 2006

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

It's been an exciting year for aviation and 2006 looks to be a break-out year. The aviation market seems to be moving in two opposite directions. First of all there are the megaplanes, led by the behemoth doubledecker Airbus A380 and the Boeing 777. These larger planes lead to the need for increased runway size. In fact several airports have had to lengthen runways in order to accommodate the A380. And while they are making the runways larger they are also making the airports more luxurious as well, adding additional features like better restaurants, spas, luxury shopping and lounges worthy of wiling away a few hours.

On the flip side are the little planes: the Eclipse, the Mustang, the Adam A700, and the Javelin are just some of the planes we have been tracking and which should end up taking to the skies in large numbers in 2006. Because many of these planes are geared for short distances we could see a rise in air taxi services and private ownership. There has already been an increase in private plane clubs. Fractional ownership, which we noticed was big last year, has increased even more and we have also seen the rise of fractional clubs for those who are interested in being pilots instead of passengers (a trend born out by celebrities likeAngelina Jolie taking to the skies). All this small jet activity has also led to the rise of more and more private airports, posh private hangars with amenities that resemble boutique hotels and even homes which are designed so that you can park your plane in the driveway.

What's in the future? As we've seen by the latest moves from Richard Branson and Virgin Galatic space flight is definitely on tap for the next few years. "Space tourism" is currently still pricey but it is expected that the prices will fall eventually. And with the creation of the Rocket Racing League, we may well have NASCAR in the skies. But what I am really excited about for next year is the VTOL, that is the Vertical Take Off and Landing vehicles. The most-talked about is the Moller Skycar which made the pages of the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book this season but there are other vehicles such as the Bell/Augusta "impossicopter" and the Carter Copter that offer the advantages of a plane and a helicopter. And NASA is still offering that $250,000 prize for a flying car. Could this be the year of the flying car? Let me know your predictions for 2006 in the skies.

Tags: airplane, airport, eclipse, fractional ownership, nasa, private planes, sky car, space, trends, vtol, wings