Friday Flyer – September 29, 2023

Let’s see what’s going on in the aviation industry this week!

Interesting Aviation News

  • Normally large aircraft orders are timed around big airshows or other aircraft-centered events.  There aren’t any of those events this week, but we did see a flurry of large orders made.  Modernizing the fleet of aircraft has become very important lately so this is just drop in the bucket of orders lately.
    • Air Canada announced an order for 18 Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners, with an option to add 12 more.
    • The Air France/KLM Group has announced intentions to order 50 Airbus A350s.
    • Cathay Pacific announced that they’ve ordered 32 more Airbus A321neos.
  • Where to allocate your capacity is an important question for an airline.  Here’s an example where Emirates is swapping an A380 for a B777-300ER at Washington’s Dulles Airport.  The article talks about the change to capacity and the impact. (h/t: Larry T.)  
  • Pilot shortages are just about as prevalent as aircraft shortages (maybe even more).  United has been very active in this space with their announcement last year of a homegrown flight school.  They’re continuing in their goal of adding pilots by partnering with the US Military which will give a path for military pilots to become first officers. 
  • If you’re a regular reader of the Flyer, you know I like to report on the future of supersonic flight.  There’s experimentation going on to develop a “quiet” supersonic airplane, which is intended to reduce the volume on the resulting sonic boom.  If this can work, it’ll be a big improvement for supersonic travel.
  • Wizz Air turned 20 years old this week.  What started out as a small Hungarian airline has grown substantially into one of Europe’s premier low cost carriers.  Here’s some historyon the airline with a unique name.

Interesting Aviation Fact

A few months ago, I shared a photo and asked if the plane was taking off or landing.  A few astute readers noted that the plane was landing because of the reverse thrusters being deployed.  What are reverse thrusters?  I’m glad you asked.  Here’s an article about them.

Cool Aviation Photo

I’ve shared photos of firefighting planes before.  This 36-year-old McDonnell Douglas DC-10 conversion tanker is a massive one of those firefighting aircraft.  For those in the Houston area, this has more significance because the photo here was taken in Huntsville, just up I-45 from Houston.  Hopefully recent rains in the Houston area have alleviated the drought and the wildfire risk is reduced, because, while cool, it generally isn’t something you want to see flying around your neighborhood.