Posts in the category "Airlines":

There are close to 700 aviation & space museums around the county and in my recent msnbc.com column Aviation and Space Museums that Soar, I only had room to list six of them. The best of the rest we’ll get to know here, during Museum Mondays on StuckatTheAirport.com.

Last week, it was the New England Air Museum at Bradley International Airport in Windsor, CT.  This week, we’ll take a look at the Flight Path Learning Center and Museum, in the Imperial Terminal (once the home MGM Grand Airlines) on the south perimeter of Los Angeles International Airport.

(Photo courtesy: Kate Sedlmayr, KES Consulting.aero)

In addition to special exhibits, Flight Path features historic murals that depict the history of aviation in Southern California along with model airplanes, photographs, airline uniforms and a wide variety of artifacts and memorabilia that tell the story of Southern California-based airlines, aircraft manufacturers, and aerospace companies.

The exhibits inside the museum are great, but for many the real attraction is what passes by the museum’s windows:  the museum looks out onto LAX runways and visitors can watch airplanes take off and land.

(Photo courtesy Paul Haney)

Want to visit? The Flight Path Learning Center and Museum is located on the south perimeter of Los Angeles International Airport, a very short drive or cab ride from the airline terminals. Admission is free. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

A great time to visit the Flight Path Learning Center and Museum would be on Saturday July 17^th, 2010 at 10 a.m. when the museum presents an audiovisual salute to 50 years of jet passenger service at Los Angeles International Airport that will include are photos and archival film clips of early passenger jets and jet terminal development at LAX.

(Photo courtesy: Kate Sedlmayr, KES Consulting.aero)

Do you have a favorite aviation or space museum? If so, please tell us about it in the comments below and it may end up featured on a future edition of Museum Monday at StuckatTheAirport.com.

Thanks to Paul Haney and Kate Sedlmayr for help with this week’s Museum Monday

Categories: Airlines, Airplanes, Aviation history, Exhibits, History, Museums, aviation
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A few months back I toured Boeing’s Dreamliner Gallery.  That’s the 54,000 square foot shopping center near the company’s Everett, Wa. plant where airlines go to pick out the carpeting, the seats and the interior elements of their new 787 airplanes.

I brought along photographer Jerome Tso to take pictures, and yesterday my story about that visit – with a 17-photo slide-show of Jerome’s photos – posted on USA TODAY, on the first day of the roll-out of their re-designed on-line travel section.

I encourage you to read the full article and click through the slide-show accompanying my Build your own Dreamliner story.   But in the meantime – here are a few photos of the Dreamliner features I’m looking forward to.

First  – the windows:

As you can see in this Dreamliner Gallery display panel – which compares the size of the Dreamliner windows to the size of the windows on a competitor’s plane – the 787 is going to have windows much larger than the windows we’re used to seeing on airplanes.  These shade-less, smart (electrochromic), glass windows will be the largest in the industry – and you’ll be able to dim them with the push of a button.

I’m also looking forward to the Dreamliner bathrooms.Don’t laugh. These little lavs will have both touchless faucets and touchless flushers. The flushers also automatically close the lid before flushing the toilet. And for anyone who’s ever tried to change into fresh clothes in an airplane bathroom, the Dreamliner bathrooms will have this simple but brilliant fold down step – so you can avoid having to put your feet on the sticky floors.

To see the full article, and Jerome Tso’s photos, please see Build your own Dreamliner on USATODAY.com.

Categories: Airlines, Airplanes, Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Design, Dreamliner Gallery, aviation
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Here’s a great lemons to lemonade story.

8 year old Harry Winsor really loves to draw airplanes. So his dad, a savvy advertising executive – with a blog – sent one of Harry’s pictures to the folks at Boeing.  But rather than send Harry a thank-you note, the giant company sent Harry a form letter letting him know that – like every other idea or suggestion that comes in over the transom – they were legally required to shred the  drawing; not even look at it – lest young Harry someday accuse the company of stealing his ideas.

That didn’t sit right with his dad, who wrote about the incident on his blog and, – as this Advertising Age article explains, here’s where the lemonade started getting made.  Someone at Boeing with a new Twitter account got wind of the snafu  and:

“In no time, the brand reached out and took responsibility for its mistake. It called young Harry and invited him to visit Boeing’s facilities. On its corporate Twitter site, it wrote things such as, “This is on-the-job social-media training for us” and “We’re expert at airplanes but novices in social media. We’re learning as we go.”

Other companies and organizations jumped in as well.  Alaska Airlines sent Harry a model airplane. And now the Future of Flight Aviation Center – which is co-located with the Boeing Tour in Mukilteo, Wa. – has created a design your own aircraft show in Harry’s honor.

Kids – of all ages – are invited to submit their airplane designs to The Harry Winsor Design Your Own Aircraft Show by June 7^th, 2010.  Designs will then be on display at the Future of Flight from June 15, 2010  through July 30, 2010.

Everyone who enters will not only have their artwork put on display; they’ll receive a special badge for their efforts.

Here’s what I’m sending in.

It’s a drawing of the 787 Dreamliner I smuggled out of the factory during a tour organized by Alaska Airlines a few months back.

Got something better?  Then read the guidelines and send your drawing in to the Future of Flight’s Harry Winsor Design Your Own Aircraft Show.

Categories: Advertising, Airlines, Airplanes, Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Contests, Exhibits, Fun Stuff, Kids, aviation
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This would be fun to watch:  American Airlines is donating a 140-passenger MD-80 aircraft to the George T. Baker Aviation School in Miami. To get the plane to the school they going to lift the 39-ton plane from a ramp at Miami International Airport up over a road using a 500-ton crane equipped with a 400-foot telescoping boom.   The “big lift” is going to take place today – Monday, May 17^th – and involves closing roadways and runways, removing light poles, trees and fencing and building a temporary gravel road.

Airport officials have promised to send photos; so stay tuned.

And, over the weekend, a branch of Legal Sea Foods opened at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) in the B/C Connector.

On the menu at this full-service, sit-down restaurant: lobster, crab cakes, New England clam chowder, shrimp, salmon and a variety of sandwiches, salads and desserts.

Categories: Airlines, Airplanes, Airport shops, Aviation history, Food, Fun Stuff, aviation
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I prepared for the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day by spending the afternoon with garbage at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).

First up:  an exhibit featuring  artwork by Dorothy Rissman made from trash she found on city streets, construction sites and beaches.

Dorothy Rissman - Snack Pack Dress

Dorothy Rissman - Reflector ball

Next: an introduction to the airport’s six pair of shiny new, computer-monitored trash compactors, set out for use by airlines.

(courtesy Sea-Tac Airport)

Sea-Tac Airport is incredibly enthusiastic about reducing waste and has won awards for the amount of trash it recycles and the wide range of things it recycles. For example, unsold food goes to food banks; spent cooking grease becomes bio-diesel fuel; and organic waste – including tons of coffee grounds, of course – gets composted.

Now the airport is turning its eco-eye on all the garbage that arrives on airplanes.

Instead of letting each airline take care of its own garbage, the airport bought a dozen computer-monitored giant compactors (six for trash; six for garbage) so that it can coordinate and monitor airplane trash.   Airlines that separate magazines, newspapers, soda cans and other recyclable items can get rid of that stuff for free.  And if they do a good job of helping the airport keep trash out of the landfills, airlines can get credit to help lower their annual bill.

Happy Earth Day!

Categories: Airlines, Airplanes, Art, Energy, Recycling
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