If your Mileage Plus status on United Airlines lands you in the Economy Plus section, or if you pony up some extra bucks and buy your way into the seating area that promises 5 extra inches of legroom, the airline will buy you a drink.
Free drinks in Economy Plus on United Airlines
According to the airline website, anyone sitting in the Economy Plus section August 6-16, 2010 will get a free drink.
But you may have to ask for it. According to the Terms and Conditions of the offer, the complimentary beverage is only available during the first beverage service and is “upon request.”
Flying car design gets updated
And it seems there’s news about design changes for The Transition, the “roadable aircraft” that the folks at Terrafugia claim is the world’s first flying car.
According to Adam Hadhazy’s TechNews Daily story, mild design makeovers to the car include “a more car-like front courtesy of traditional headlights and a license plate holder” and “On the engineering side of things, the next generation of the vehicle has an improved wing that folds up smoothly per a command from the cockpit, rather like a convertible.”
Besides the story about the Charlotte-bound US Airways plane that had to return to the gate in Atlanta because maggots started dropping from an overhead bin (watch video at your own risk…)
…the best aviation-related story making the rounds today was about yet another FAA-approved flying car. The Christian Science Monitor’s story about the Terrafugia Transition includes some very cool photos and a video describing the prototype of a two-seater car that can be transformed into an airplane – and purchased for $194,000.
It does seem promising but, The Jetsons aside, it’s not new. Back in 1949, Vancouver, Washington resident Moulton Taylor created a car that did the same thing.
As part of its Liberty Weekend festivities, the Orlando International Airport (MCO) will present a free concert by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert will take place at 8 pm, on Saturday June 26, 2010 in the atrium of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, which doubles as the public lobby area for gates 60 to 129. All attendees will get three hours of complimentary airport parking.
Saturday June 26th and Sunday June 27th, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, unticketed visitors are invited into Silicon Valley’s Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) for a sneak peek at the new high-tech Terminal B. The new building includes seating areas with built-in power ports and public art that includes German multi-media artist’s Bjoern Schuelke’s Space Observer, an interactive, two-story tall robot-like structure with three legs and propeller-equipped arms.
Registered visitors will be able to walk through the terminal, see the art, buy a souvenir and enter drawings for prizes that will include airline tickets and travel packages.
If you plan on visiting the terminal, you’ll need to register in advance on the SJC website by Wednesday, June 23rd and pick the day and time you want to stop by.
I had a chance to tag along with 8-year old Harry Winsor, his brother Charlie and their parents today on a VIP visit to the Future of Flight Aviation Center and the Boeing Factory Tour in Mukilteo,Wa.
Harry and his family were getting the royal treatment in part to make up for the fact that, back in March, Boeing sent young Harry a terse form letter in response to his letter containing a picture of a jet airplane he’d designed.
The form letter, which Harry’s dad, John, posted on his blog, said the giant aerospace company does not accept unsolicited ideas and so disposed of his “message” and “retained no copies.” Word got out and the universal response of aviation geeks, bloggers and aerospace engineers who’d once been kids was “Not cool. Not cool at all.”
Luckily for Harry – and for Boeing – just a few weeks before Harry got his “Thanks, but no thanks” letter from Boeing, the corporate communications folks at Boeing got their Twitter accounts. And Todd Blecher, Boeing’s Corporate Communications Director, was paying attention. As documented on the Airline Reporter blog and elsewhere, Blecher Tweeted a response that said, “….For kids we can do better. We’ll work on it.”
And it certainly appears that they are. Blecher flew to Seattle this week to be on hand while Harry and his family got a VIP tour of the Boeing Factory and the non-profit Future of Flight center next door. And Blecher explained that the company is working on a better letter to send out to enthusiastic kids like Harry who send in letters and pictures. The first letter they drafted was too dry and formal. The next version they wrote up read too much like a recruitment letter, “It said, ‘Study science and come work for Boeing,’ ” says Blecher, “So we tried again. My boss took the letter home and had his five kids take a look at it.”
In the meantime, today Harry and Charlie got to see where their favorite airplanes get made. They got a bagful of cool Boeing airplane swag. And they got to to see their drawings exhibited alongside a few dozen other imaginative airplane drawings by children and adults from around the world in the Future of Flight’s Harry Winsor Design Your Own Aircraft Show .
And, already a Well-Mannered Traveler, Harry didn’t come empty handed. He presented Boeing and the Future of Flight with a framed drawing he’d made especially for the occasion.
I’ll post a gallery of some of the airplane artwork tomorrow, but in the meantime, see aerospace reporter Aubrey Cohen’s great photo gallery and article about Harry and Charlie’s day.
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.
