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Dec 18, 2008 | 1
Although the Federal Aviation Administration (mercifully) still won't let passengers yap on their mobile phones while in flight, there's nothing to keep airlines from letting their customers connect wirelessly to the Web. And that's exactly what Delta and several other major carriers have begun to do.
Delta Air Lines this week began offering Gogo Inflight Internet service from Aircell, LLC, an Itasca, Ill., wireless technology company, on five MD-88 aircraft flying Delta Shuttle routes between New York's LaGuardia Airport and Boston's Logan and Washington's Reagan National airports, plus one Boeing 757 flying domestic routes. Delta says that the service will be offered on five more flights by the end of the month and that it will be available on as many as 300 planes by the end of 2009. Northwest Airlines (a Delta subsidiary) will begin offering Gogo late next year, according to the Delta Web site.
Nov 13, 2008 | 1
Making a few stops along the way, BioJet 1 went 1,776 miles of a 2,486-mile journey from Reno, Nev., to Leesburg, Fla., exclusively on biodiesel. The fuel in question, made by Lake Erie Biofuels, was a blend of soy and animal fats turned to diesel.
The Aero L-29 jet kept the biodiesel from congealing at high altitude by continuously heating it—and landing every 300 miles or so to refuel. The flight is a proof of principle, according to Green Flight International CEO Doug Rodante, and is aimed at addressing the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from burning jet fuel -- roughly 3 percent of total worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but released in a very bad spot—high in the atmosphere.
Jul 17, 2008
Nineteen years ago today, the U.S. Air Force flew a B-2 Spirit bomber—better known as the Stealth Bomber—for the first time. The flight came at a cost of billions of dollars, as the sophisticated technology that allows the bomber to evade radar detection required far more development than the Air Force had budgeted.
Two nights ago, I watched one fly over Yankee Stadium as Sheryl Crow sang the Star-Spangled Banner before the 79th MLB All-Star Game. Here's the photo I took. (And yes, I stayed until the end. The words and time on the screen in the other photo say it all.)
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