It’s been fun this week to learn about and, better yet, experience, the plush seats and top notch service offered to business and first class passengers on board Singapore Airlines’ new A380 service from JFK to Frankfurt and Singapore.

Demo of bed in First Class suite on Singapore AIrlines A380

But there’s also a serious side to these giant airplanes: safety.

That’s why I was so interested – and so attentive – on a tour of the Singapore Airlines Training Center.

A mock-up of the A380 is set up here and, on a tour of the facilities, we learned that not only is the drop from the door to the floor exactly the same height as it would be out in the ‘real ‘ world, but that every member of the Singapore Airline’s crew must return here each year for a training ‘check-up’ that includes deploying and going down these slides.

That way, if there’s an emergency, crew members “don’t think; they respond,” the trainer on duty told us.

I wondered what the famously polite Singapore Airlines crew members are taught to do in an emergency with a passenger who might balk at going down a slide.

“Those passengers would feel a gentle, but firm, push,” the trainer told us.

I would have liked to try out that evacuation slide, but thought twice about even asking to jump into the cold, choppy waves outside the water evacuation pod used for practice in the next room:

Noticing the heels and the outfits some members of our tour group were wearing, the trainer also offered some “dress for success” tips in case of a flying emergency: Thumbs up on loose slacks and low heels. Thumbs down on pantyhose, high heels and clothing apt to be flammable.

I’d heard those tips before – and mostly ignored them – but after getting a close look at these evacuation paths – and heights – I’m going shopping for new, safer, travel outfits.

Next up: Transforming flight attendant trainees into crew-worthy gems.

Note: I’m in Singapore as a guest of Singapore Airlines.

Categories: Air Travel, Airlines, Airplanes, Safety
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Looking for an ecological, aviation-themed gift for your favorite airplane geek or road warrior?

Then consider placing some of these items under the tree.

Tierra Ideas of Raleigh, N.C., turns decommissioned (and thoroughly dry-cleaned) aircraft seat back covers and curtains from Delta Air Lines airplanes into business card holders, wallets, laptop covers and a wide variety of travel bags that sell for $15 to $175.

About once a year, company founder Matt Mahler flies down to Delta’s Reclamation Center in Atlanta and drives home in a rented 24-foot U-Haul truck filled with worn fabrics consisting of blue wool blends, navy wool blends, and blue and gray leather.

“I store the fabric in our warehouse and sew the bags using a 1970s-era Singer industrial sewing machine I bought used from the factory floor of a furniture manufacturing company that went out of business near High Point, North Carolina,” said Mahler.

In addition to wallets, the line includes an overnight duffle bag, a laptop bag, a messenger bag, a small shoulder bag (The Concourse) and the Aero Drawstring Bag, all made with an average of 85 percent recycled materials and many sporting fabric patterns that will be familiar to Delta Air Lines frequent fliers. As part of a fundraising Kickstarter Project, Tierra Ideas is also making the Air Bag, which has 90 percent recycled content and is based on a bag commissioned by Recycle Runway for their Environmental Stewardess Exhibition. Cost: $150.

For something flashier and more obviously once part of an airplane, consider the large and shiny objects that MotoArt makes out of recycled commercial and vintage airplane parts in El Segundo, Calif.

MotoArt managing partner Dave Hall haunts airplane boneyards for materials he and his crew transform into lighting fixtures, beds, bars, desks, lamps, conference tables and other furniture for prices that start at $250 and soar to more than $30,000.

“We turn large cowlings into reception desks, rear stabilizers into executive desks and fuselage into office dividers. For those that like that stuff, it’s an expensive hobby, but we also take airplane windows frames and turn them into picture frames.”

(This article originally appeared on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin)

Categories: Air Travel, Airplanes, Fun Stuff, Shopping
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“AirCraft: The Jet as Art,” an exhibition featuring 33 super-sized, high-resolution images of aircraft, opens Nov. 25 at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

The images, many as large as 6 feet by 6 feet, are courtesy of photographer, graphic designer, architect and licensed pilot Jeffrey Milstein, who captured many of the images by standing at the end of a runway at Los Angeles International Airport and photographing planes from underneath as they came in to land.

Southwest-Airlines-Boeing-737-300

“It’s like shooting a moving duck,” said Milstein. “The planes are moving so fast, and I have only a hundredth of a second to get my shot. I have to keep the camera moving with the plane and then fire the shot exactly at the top dead center. It took a lot of practice.”

At times, it also took some negotiation.

“One of the problems if you’re hanging around an airport with a camera a lot of times is that the authorities get a bit antsy,” said Milstein. “Especially since 9/11. When I first started going out to the airport, the police would sometimes converge on me with up to six cars at once. Now they know me because I’ve been out there so much.”

Beech-18-SNB-2

Milstein’s practice and perseverance have paid off.  Using a high-end professional camera that Milstein said costs “as much as an SUV,” the photographer was able to get images that reveal the mechanics, rivets and other details of an airplane’s underbelly. “With Photoshop, I remove the sky background so that the airplanes become just floating objects. As far as the colors, I don’t fake anything, but I might clarify to increase the contrast or bring out the detail,” said Milstein.

“There are a lot of amateurs out there photographing planes,” said exhibition curator Carolyn Russo, a museum specialist and photographer. “But what Milstein ends up with are really crisp, clean, beautiful color images that transform the planes into art and are unlike any other photographs of aircraft. We’ve compared them to an array of pinned butterflies.”

Alaska Airlines Salmon Thirty Salmon Boeing 737-400

Among the images on display, Milstein has a few favorites, including a red Southwest Airlines Boeing 737, an American Airlines Boeing 777-200 that’s “just silver, and just really beautiful,” the helicopters and some of the planes he’s photographed from the side that sport pictures, such as Alaska Airline’s Boeing 737-400 Salmon-Thirty-Salmon plane.

Alaska Airlines Disney Boeing 737-400

“AirCraft: The Jet as Art” will remain on display until Nov. 25, 2012, at the National Air and Space Museum.

(A slightly different version of this story appeared on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin)

Photographs courtesy Jeffrey Milstein/Smithsonian Museum

Categories: Air Travel, Airplanes, Photos, Planespotting
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Each Friday on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin blog, my assignment is to get an answer to a reader’s question.

This week’s question came from Lori Hewitt, a business analyst based in Columbus, Ohio, who made airline reservations online with Expedia last May for a trip she and her husband were taking to Charleston, S.C., in October.

Hewitt says she wasn’t given the opportunity to select seats when booking, but didn’t worry about it or contact anyone since it was so far in advance of her travel. She and her husband were eventually assigned seats, at check-in, which Hewitt said she went online to complete “at 23hrs 58mins prior to flight.”

There was one problem. “We spent $1,200 for flights and didn’t get to sit together,” said Hewitt. “My husband was in row 13 and I was in row 31!”

At the airport, the couple was able to get seats next to each other for the shortest leg of trip. But Hewitt says, “We should have had an opportunity to get our seats at the time of purchase. I don’t think it should be incumbent upon the traveler to beg other travelers to change seats or to have to go to the counter to do so.”

Now Hewitt wants to know: “Do online travel agencies, such as Expedia, Travelocity, get the leftovers for flights? And was there something I could have done – and can do next time – to make sure I sit with my husband when we fly? Otherwise, it’s kind of like spending a lot of money for a nice dinner, but not getting to sit at the same table with each other.”

I contacted Expedia for help with this one and chatted with company spokesperson Sarah Keeling.

“No,” she said, “Expedia doesn’t get the leftovers for flights. We have the same reservation capabilities as the airlines do.”

But Keeling said when Hewitt made her initial reservation it was likely the airline hadn’t yet decided what type of plane would be used for that flight and so hadn’t yet offered a seating map. “But that would be the same situation no matter whether she’d booked with Expedia or directly with the airline,” said Keeling.

Hewitt’s options? “She could have gone back online or called Expedia or the airline at a later date to see if the seat chart was available,” said Keeling.

Here are some other tips for getting the seats you want on an airplane:

• If a seat chart is not available when you book your flight online, call the airline or the ticketing agent as soon as possible to request seating.
• If you don’t get a seating assignment — or don’t get the seats you’d like — call back again a week or two before your flight.
• As the day of the flight gets closer, check the online seating charts or call the airline to see if other seats have become available.
• Check in online as soon as you can. Some seats, especially exit and bulkhead row seats, are not released until the day of the flight.
• Get to the airport early and check the seating chart at the check-in kiosk or ask the gate agent if any better seats are available. Some airlines will offer discounted upgrades or first-class seats at good discounts at the check-in kiosks.
• And, yes, once onboard you may find another passenger willing to swap seats to allow two people to sit together. But don’t count on it.

Categories: Air Travel, Airplanes, Seating
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The Aerospace Museum of California, in Sacramento, has some might impressive airplanes on exhibit. Among them, this Curtiss-Wright Model B-14-B Speedwing, which once belonged to the president of the Curtiss-Wright Aeroplane Company.

I saw this and a few dozen other aviation treasures during a recent tour of the museum and spent some time in the gift shop in search of items to share with you for souvenir Sunday.

I liked this 38-piece 3-D Space Shuttle puzzle -

And this cute plate -

But my favorite items in the gift shop were these glasses celebrating the fact that Chicks Fly.

Categories: Airplanes, Aviation history, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs
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