Cheers exploded as SpaceShipOne touched down after returning from space for the second time in two weeks, causing Paul Allen, Burt Rutan, and Mike Melvill to win the Ansari X prize.
This flight changed the world of space travel. Now, it was private and anybody with the money could fly up into space if they wanted to.
SpaceShipOne was built by Scaled Composite and it was funded completely by Paul Allen. After this, Richard Branson new there was a future in private space travel. He gathered up Burt Rutan and Scaled Composite to start a new airline with certain ties to Virgin Air. Except this airline would not travel on Earth, or at the same speed as normal planes. This “plane” was not even a plane. It was a spaceship, and it would be flown with the airline, of Virgin Galactic. SpaceShipTwo, and WhiteKnightTwo will be the key components to Virgin Galactic because they will carry the paying 20 million dollar passenger up into space for a sub-orbital flight.
Virgin Galatic plans its first flight for 2009, were the deposit will be around 200,000. Many people including celebrities such as the old Star Trek crew are interested in flying with Virgin Galtaic
Other competitors was the Canadian Arrow team, their idea was to have a rocket that would take off from the ground like a normal spaceship. Another idea was the da Vinci project, their idea was to have a helium balloon carry the rocket up and then release it. Both projects were Canadian.
Space travel is the future, and hopefully the price will go down, and the spectacular rockets will lead our men and woman into space.
I feel like this was my weakest post. The problem is I only got to work on it at 10:30 pm because the poer went out and I only regained internet at 10:25. Stay tuned for an excellent post next Friday. I promise, the subject is great and I am sure you will like the topic.
Special Thanks to Wikipedia for providing information
Walking around felt like being suck on a Boeing 777, frustration and anger past through me as I couldn’t find the spare, hidden key which would allow me to enter my house and start snapping pictures of the atmosphere in which the greatest plane will ever fly through. The A340-300, owned and operated by Iberia airlines, it flies from here to Madrid and back everyday. As the sun sets reflecting a beautiful orange, yellow, red light off the clouds a loud noise travels from SJO to my house over the hill, this happens at 5:35, since I am at Michael’s house, the plane goes right over the hill, comes around and soars over us. Four engines working hard while small white clouds fly off the wing tips. The plane completes its turn and veers off to the right of the setting sun, flies and flies until it has disappeared from the horizon and continues its beautiful flight to one of the greatest airline’s in the world hub.
Iberia, one of the oldest, greatest, most popular airlines in the world has extensive fleet flying composed of mostly Airbuses. It flies to four of the five continents missing out on Australia. Even though they have not had an accident in 23 years, they have still lost 555 passengers out of 619 possible deaths.
Iberia sends its wonderful airplanes around the world to beautiful countries where they are welcomed to continue their great service to please their clients. After flying an Iberia 747 from Miami to Madrid you can trust me in saying that Iberia is one of the top best airlines in the world. And believe me, as soon as they start their San Jose-Madrid-Bombay, I will be their first customer.
An A340 landing in Quito, it is very alike to the A340 that lands in Costa Rica
Boeing and Airbus. 787 and A380. Which one is better and why? Are they even comparable? What is better, distant or range? You decide.
So a remember when I was eight a concept for a double deck plane was thought of by Airbus. I was thrilled, I couldn’t believe that they were lifting 600 people into the air with four engines. Anyways a few years later Boeing came out with a much smaller plane but had a quote that caught my eyes. “This plane will connect any two cities in the world.” Both great planes but who wins, the amount of passengers or the distance. The 787’s range is from 8000-9000 nautical miles whereas the A380 is 8200. So in my opinion the A380 wins. It might fly less but it carries way more passengers. So I guess it is more efficient.
So in the end it isn’t comparable because lets say the A380 is not full most of the time then the 787 wins because the amount of passengers you are carrying is the same. Finally I would take any plane home…apart the fact that it costs a couple of million (A380 is 300 million and 787 120 million) they are both excellent planes but the A380 is better for bigger airlines whereas the 787 for smaller ones. I would prefer the 787 because that quote is beautiful.
SST: “civil aircraft for transporting passengers faster than the speed of sound.” Wikipedia
Two supersonic planes were thought of, two were built, the Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144. Multiple planes of each were built but both had crashes. Air France’s Concorde crashed in France killing all on board. While the Tupolev crashed at the Paris Airshow in 1973 killing all six on board plus eight on the ground.
The Concorde, an SST, flew for a long time satisfying BA and Air France’s customers by cutting the flight time in half. After the Air France crash, all Concorde’s were grounded until nearly a year after. On the 10 of April 2003, BA and AF got together and announced that they would be ending their Concorde program and retiring all Concorde’s. They claimed that there were not many passengers after the 2000 crash, air travel had slowed since the 9/11 attacks, and the rise in maintenance.
The Tupolev Tu-144 was another SST which was flown once by Aeroflot. A total of 16 Tu-144 were built with a seventeenth on the way when production was cancelled.
The most bought airplane, the Boeing 737, reaches a maximum speed of 943 kilometers per hour, while the speed of sound is at 1230. If you wonder why planes cannot achieve another 300 kilometers, the answer is that the plane becomes a lot harder and more expensive to maintain. Not only that, but the oil consumption rises sharply.
Nobody knows when the next commercial SST will be built but when it does, people will be expecting something big with no crashes and reliable services. Who will build it? We don’t know. When will it be built? We don’t know that either, but when it is built it will probably be very popular.
During the course of my life, I have experienced speeches and protests. This is all due to freedom of speech. With freedom of speech people are entitled to express their feeling and concerns. Freedom of speech can be good or bad in some cases. In my opinion, the Klu Klux Klan(KKK) should not have the right to speak out in favor of racism and slavery which is illegal. Where as in other cases speaking out against racism and slavery should be better and not frowned upon. The problem is, where do people draw the line. What is ok for people to speak against? Is speaking out against the war in Iraq reasonable? Some people will think that it is not, while others think that it is necessary for the United States and for Iraq. Freedom of speech applies for anyone who would like to express themselves. When somebody is speaking an opposed should respect that and not disrupt. Freedom of speech has applied to many important speeches such as Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech or Vive le Quebec Libre by Charles de Gaulle. Rumors exist where the government silences speakers or protester because they would make the government look bad.
As any travel will notice, the leg room gets smaller, the food, if any, gets worse, and the whole flying part of the trip stinks . I have especially noted this on American airlines, and many other planes. I decided, well this should be the same all over the world right?
When going from San Jose, Costa Rica to Miami on a two and a half-hour flight via American Airlines, they seem to be running a concentration camp. I recieve a small pack of too salty pretzels and a drink, but, an alcoholic drink will cost you five dollars.
When flying from San Jose to Panama City on Taca, not only do I get a decent breakfest, lunch, or dinner, but there is no limit to drinks and the airline flies brand new Airbuses. Who do you think the better airline is?
Wrong.
As soon as I searched for a video of Singapore Air economy class, i made up my mind and decided to rank it as number one. Not only that, but they fly brand new planes such as the Airbus A380, and the soon to come Boeing 777. The only problem I have with Singapore Air is the requirements needed to be a flight attendent. Here is a list taken from Wikipedia ”
The airline requires flight attendants to color their hair black or dark brown. The airline does not allow for flight attendants to use highlights. Flight attendants with long hair coif their hair into buns. Flight attendants wear short hair above their collar lines. Fringes (bangs) of flight attendants do not touch eyebrows.
No fanciful, dangling earrings allowed. Only studs or pearls. No chains and necklaces allowed. Only simple bracelets and rings can be worn. Only small and simple watches can be worn.
A spare kebaya must be brought for every flight, even short one-hour flights.
Safety shoes, or covered sandals must be worn during takeoff and landing. At other times, she should wear the batik slippers.
Toenails must be of the bright red colour prescribed by the company. If her toenails are not painted, stockings must be worn to substitute for the non red toenails.
Eyebrows must be shaped, and cannot be the fake drawn-on or tattooed types. Eye shadow must be of the color prescribed by the company – either blue or brown, depending on skin tone.
Lipstick colour must be among the few shades of bright red prescribed by the company. Pink or plum colors are not allowed.
Nail polish must be of the bright red colour prescribed by the company. Nails should not be chipped.”
After we skip all that, let’s go back to economy class and first class. Here are two videos, one of economy and one of business class of Singapore Air courtesy of Youtube.
The famous MD-80. A great plane, until American and Delta Airlines grounded all of them delaying and cancelling all flights that used MD-80’s. Unsecured wires was the problem the FAA had with the MD-80’s so most traveler’s were very unhappy. What somebody needs to explain to me is #1 Why this problems was not solved when the FAA did its overall tests? and #2 Why was this not taken care of when the plane was built? Not only that, but American’s fleet has more MD-80’s than any other aircraft.
Ok…my sincere apologies. But I think my real edublogs calling is to talk about airplanes, airlines, airports, and what ever you can think of about planes.
