NBC seems to have learned that. In reporting on today’s engine mishap, they mentioned (twice!) that Boeing didn’t make the engine.
But who made the cowling?
I believe it’s the engine manufacturer since it’s design is integral with the engine.
Nope. The 737 nacelle and cowling is pure Boeing. Some parts are made by contractors but Boeing owns the design.
That’s not true on every modern airliner but the 737 is not exactly “modern”.
The conventional wisdom is that dressing smartly conveys a certain respect for your fellow passengers. It says that you care what they think of you, whereas someone who shows up looking like a homeless bum and perhaps with similar hygiene habits clearly does not. And that tends to be the kind of person whose lack of social graces causes trouble.
I’m not suggesting that men must dress formally in a suit and tie, or women in equivalent business attire, but for heaven’s sake people, you’re out in very public places – show some small modicum of respect for your fellow humans. The lack of civility and downright fisticuffs that tend to happen on flights these days are part and parcel of the same thing.
I agree.
That makes sense due to the squashed bottom version for the newer models. But the engine maker has to be in the conversation somewhere because it involves air flow through the engine. Granted it’s probably all high bypass airflow at this point but crap happens at mach .8.
At first read, I thought this was a joke – but when I read your post carefully, I realized you were serious. (Is it true, though, that even SWA pilots have to do a pilot preflight walk-around for an aircraft’s first flight of each day?).
Yes, the engine maker has a lot to say about nacelle design. It’s a joint effort to get the outer mold lines right for good airflow into the engine and also around the engine to the wing. But the guts, at least on the 737s are Boeing’s work.
My understanding is that yes, pilots do one preflight on an aircraft on the first flight of its day (not theirs) and that airplane is presumed good until the next day.
Similar logic applies to some of the systems tests in the cockpit. We always had 3 levels of cockpit preflight: airplane’s first flight of the day, our first flight on this airplane that had already flown today, and our 2nd or subsequent flight on this airplane on this day.
The first one involves a few more self-tests of systems not used on a normal flight, while the latter is pretty much “resest all the switches and systems to be ready for departure” with no testing stuff. And the one in the middle, was a bit of each.
AFAIK Southwest is the only one who’s gotten an FAA exemption to skip the exterior preflight. Which frankly is where a lot a of stuff happens, from FOD embedded in tires to birdstrikes to leaks.
That seems like an amazingly bad idea. 550 mph is not a wind speed to be ignored.
Any of you into flight tracking aps and sites? If I wanted to figure out which aircraft I got in a photo during the eclipse, how could I do that?
Almost certainly an A340 (4 engines) traveling eastward over Montreal at 3:35pm today.
Not necessarily, if my business class flights on Air Canada last October were anything to go by. Complimentary alcohol, a choice of two or three entrees (one vegetarian), always a salad, rolls and butter, and a dessert of some sort. Stainless steel flatware (yep, I got a couple of spoons, as per my name), a linen napkin, real glasses, not plastic cups. Kosher, Halal, and Vegan meals were available, if you ordered one when making your booking.
On one of the legs of my trip (four legs in all), I had to go in tourist class. It got me to where I needed to go; that’s the best I can say about it. They did have food offerings, but it looked to be the equivalent of “gas station sandwiches and sushi” for about twice the price. At least you got complimentary soft drinks and coffee.
You’ve very neatly described the current state of play for US mainline carriers’ domestic first class (more properly “business class”) and coach class. Likewise for the regional international flights up to about 5 hours duration.
The situation on widebody long haul three-class is about the same in coach & biz class, but the upper-crust truly first class is fancier yet. It’s a darn nice experience if you can get it.
Hmm, most flight tracking apps either assume you already know the flight number or origin and/or destination airports, or they’ll show you whatever flights are airborne right now. I don’t know an easy way to figure out what flight was in a specific place yesterday, at least not for free. Maybe if you signed up for a premium account.
There may be a way to figure it out, but it will take some work. Flightaware has a mode where you can view, say every A340-300 currently in the air. Then you can assume that if a flight is on an A340 today, it was probably an A340 yesterday as well. And then track the history of that flight to confirm it. IIRC they will give you the history of a flight going back 7 days for free, longer if you pay for a premium account.
Note, Flightaware expects you to use the official IACO code for the aircraft type you want to search for; you won’t get any results if you just search for “A340”.
A343 = A340-300
A346 = A340-600
A388 = A380-800
B744 = 747-400
B748 = 747-800
ETA: There is also the slight chance that you actually caught a military aircraft like a KC-135; those don’t show up on flight tracking apps for reasons that should be obvious.
Sorry for the double post, but it’s too late to edit my previous one.
I’ve always felt the quality of the food in economy actually improved somewhat since airlines started charging for it. I mean yeah, they’re mostly cold offerings like sandwiches and wraps and such, but they’re not bad.
And they’ve made long haul international business class so fancy, they created such a huge gap between economy and business class, so they had to create “premium economy” to fill it.
Thanks! I might try and figure it out with that approach.
I’m thinking it’s less likely to be military, given the local geography. I’m also thinking an A380 was not probable as they don’t land here and this looked a little low for overlying en route.
I’m trying to put it in context with regards to whether the route makes sense as a take off from YUL but it’s possible.
It’s probably an Air Canada or Air Transat.
I just really like this photo and would be fun to know more!
Oh yeah, I forgot to ask, did it look like it was in cruise or did it look like is was landing at or departing from YUL? If it’s the latter, the task is a little easier – you can just list all the flight that departed from YUL yesterday, and filter by aircraft type.
There’s also the possibility that it took of from say Toronto, and wasn’t quite at it’s cruise altitude yet. I’m not sure exactly how low the plane you photographed was.
I don’t think either of them fly A340s anymore, or anything else with 4 engines. I’m thinking Lufthansa is the most likely candidate, since they’re one of the few airlines that still flies the A340 (and A380 and 747).
It could be a 747. plenty of those still flying. As to the military aircraft I’m not sure what is and is not tracking. There were sensitive aircraft still tracking last year at the base near me. I can generally tell what a plane is by the sound of the engines. They then put a screen over the base which was interesting because you could see them flying under the screen and then disappearing. They then widened the area around the base and finally most military aircraft stopped tracking. It makes sense given the way things are going with the World.
The site adsbexchange.com is crowd-sourced, unfiltered data (shows blocked aircraft including military) and has a replay function. From my first look dragging the sliders around I think you saw an A380, going from southwest to northeast, crossing over the downtown area right at 3:35 pm. Assuming I got that right, it was an Emirates flight from from Toronto to Dubai.
Amazing! I think you’re right! That direction lines up really well with where I was.
One of the two pictures I took is a teenist bit more in focus and while the plane is super tiny the proportions of the fuselage and wings make a 380 possible.
It’s funny how much I assumed here - that it must have been local (in and out of Montreal and a 340), that it was maybe still on take off (it really was rather small and high up). At least I got the overall direction right; Montreal north and reality don’t align.
Thank you so much!
This is why I love the Dope.
I suppose they’re not—with the exception of that leg of the trip I took last October, I haven’t flown Coach in years. (Except for short commuter hops on small aircraft, where neither business class nor meals are an option.)
I recall when Air Canada cut off meal service in Coach. It instead sold popular offerings from Canadian fast food and family restaurant chains. So Tim Hortons sandwiches, Swiss Chalet chicken, something-or-other from Montana’s, and so on.
Problem was, the stuff didn’t travel. Oh, it travelled from restaurant to home just fine, if you got a take-out order and got home in twenty minutes or less. What it couldn’t do was to survive the trip from restaurant to airport, waiting at the airport for who knows how long, then put on a flight where it may not be served for a couple of hours.
They may have served “gas station sandwiches” on that flight I took last October, but they looked a lot better than the restaurant offerings I recall from years ago. I would guess that Air Canada got so many complaints that they figured it was better to have cooks make sandwiches in the flight kitchen at or near the airport, from which they’d be fresher, than try calling an order into a local restaurant.