Antonov 124 Eats Airbus 380

Remember that GIANT Emirates A380 model that recently went up outside of London Heathrow? Here's a picture of that 1/3 scale model being loaded into an Antonov AN-124 freighter at the Ontario Airport in California. I doubt you'll ever see a sight like this again. Although, it's kind of what Airbus does now for assembly, but on a slightly smaller scale.

Photo Credit: Dmitry Avdeev

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World's biggest A380 model lands at Heathrow

Construction of the world's biggest model of the world's biggest commercial jetliner is nearing completion at Heathrow Airport just North of Runway 09L/27R. The Emirates Airbus A380 was built by California-based Penwal Industries and is so large it had to be transported to Heathrow on a Polet Antonov AN-124. This bulging behemoth certainly makes the Lego A380 seem a bit diminutive. Some of the finishing touches include installation of the engines and placing the 'M' and 'T' on their respective sides in the word Emirates. These were left off initially as they are in the area where the fuselage barrels were joined. The A380 will now occupy a spot that was for years home to a one third scale British Airways Concorde. When BA decided to drop their advertising budget for the model, Emirates swooped right and took their place. Doesn't quite seem right, but oh well. Now can I get one to put in Aaron's lawn?



(Flight International)

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Bush Inconvenienced Over 40,000 Passengers

In his recent Europe tour, President Bush allegedly interrupted or delayed over 40,000 passengers' flights by flying into Heathrow, according to British Airways CEO Willie Walsh. Heathrow airport operator, BAA, confirmed today that 32 arrivals and 36 departures were canceled as a result of Bush's trips into and out of Heathrow on June 15 and 16. Oops.

Ol' Willie says Bush should have flown Air Force One and the other entourage of aircraft into a local military base. Apparently a rehearsal was held to "stage" the arrival the preceding week and it also lead to delays. The BA boss blamed the delays on the size of Bush's entourage and United States security requirements.

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BA bans Naomi Campbell in a slap to unattractive black female British supermodels everywhere

Supermodel Naomi Campbell has been officially banned from flying on British Airways according to Reuters a week after she was accused of assaulting a police officer and removed from a flight at Heathrow Airport. The spoiled 37 year old was released on bond and was hoping for an amicable solution to the dispute. A spokeswoman for Campbell was quoted as saying, "Naomi has been flying with British Airways for nearly 30 years and has been a good customer." I'm sure she was a good customer, when she was 7 years old. Apparently the entire dispute was the result of Campbell's baggage being misplaced in the fiasco that is now Terminal 5 at Heathrow. Actually, I think this is the first good thing to come out of T5.

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Heathrow T5 mess to cost BA $32M, pride

We haven't really hit much on the debacle British Airways is wading through with the opening of Terminal 5 at London Heathrow, mainly because we've been waiting to see what happens. Well today, Reuters is reporting that the chaos should be winding down for BA sometime next week. Of course, that's after the entire fiasco will have cost the airline GBP 16 million or about 32 million US dollars. The highly anticipated opening of T5 came with much pomp and circumstance after a very lengthy development. But after just 2 weeks of fumbled operations, BA has had cancel nearly 300 flights in and out of T5. The PR nightmare has also left thousands of passengers wondering how T5 could have swallowed up their allegedly missing luggage.

So far, all of BA's flights out of T5 have been short-haul. The carrier intends on moving all of it's long-haul international operations to the new terminal by April 15. Deutsche Bank is forecasting that this could create problems leading into the summer months with total price tag of GBP 150 million as the result of the SNAFU that is T5. Willie Walsh, CEO of BA, has already shot down the notion of stepping down from this FUBAR mess. I guess he's never heard of the ancient Japanese ritual of seppuku.

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Terminal 5 finally opens at Heathrow

With a project that was once the largest in all of Europe, and that dates back 26 years, the British Airports Authority finally held its grand opening ceremony for Termial 5. While the official first flight out of T5 (as the Brits call it) won't take place until March 27th, today's events, with the assistance of Queen Elizabeth II, mark a triumphant end to the construction of the collosal new terminal. British Airways, T5's soon to be sole occupant, is looking forward to moving their Heathrow operations into the new facility wich will be fully capable of handling their entire flee including their Airbus A380s on order.

While the main terminal and Concourse B will be ready for use on the 27th, Concourse C will not be opened until 2010. At full operational status, the new T5 will be able to accomodate 35 million passengers annually. Is that enough? Well, BAA already plans on completly reconstructing Terminals 1 through 3 by 2020 with the hopes of having an all new airport capable of meeting the demand of what is already the busiest international airport in the world. To get there, though, they will definitely need that third runway they have recently re-proposed.

BAA has put together a really cool video of the building of T5 which you can see here.

American 777 flies transatlantic with only 5 passengers, Al Gore bursts into flames

In an apparent contest with Singapore Airlines to see who is the ultimate archenemy of the environment, American Airlines is under fire from the eco-group "Friends of Earth" for apparently flying a Boeing 777 from Chicago to London Heathrow with only 5 passengers on board. The "eco-scandal" as FOE calls it, was due to an earlier cancellation with all but the five remaining passengers being able to make other accommodations. The "obscene waste of fuel" was estimated to have created 43 tons of CO2 per passengers. American Airlines' response? "Die you miserable planet!!"

I hope they got upgraded to First Class.