The rate of expansion at Dubai is just staggering. The first time I passed through was in 2005 when they had just one terminal, 3 years later they had the new Terminal and now there is the new concourse - plus while this is going on they are building a totally separate airport, Dubai World Central, which has the potential to be even bigger. In London, it takes us over 20 years to decide whether to build an extra runway at Heathrow.

In general, I like DXB, but the two biggest problems are that there are never enough toilets and the price of a pint is eye-watering.

I heard that flight times are changing because of Dubai's runway works next year.

It is a staggering airport though. Would love to see an animated version so I can visit it whenever I want.

I visited one of the terminals last year and hated it. Was just a straight line, extremely busy, nowhere really to stop and sit. Plus they were serving cheeseburgers at 9am in the morning. Yeurgh.
I already felt awful after a 6 hour night flight with no sleep.

Aer Lingus cabin crew are planning to strike: http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/1003/478207-aer-lingus/

Kinda worrying as mum and dad are flying with them to London at the end of October. I hope their trip won't be affected.

A clever advert from BA at Piccadilly Circus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtJx_pZjvzc

Did they actually strike?

We flew with them at the end of October and it was fine.
To be honest, I'd forgotten about this strike plan.

This B747 aircraft (not seen one shaped like this before) landed at the wrong airport, and now can not take off again.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world...t-8954918.html

I understand it's already been turned round and is scheduled to fly out sometime later today.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...s-airport?lite

Ah, right. I have just seen it on the news as well. Gawd knows how it ended up at the wrong airport in the first place.

They didn't in the end. They managed to fly with them. I think there was talk recently of more strikes though.

US Airways and American Airlines have completed their merger: http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...te_merger.html

In case it has not yet been reported here, the rebuilt Heathrow Terminal 2 is due to open on 4th June 2014.

http://www.heathrowairport.com/about...new-terminal-2

Recently, we saw the rescue of 52 passengers who were stranded on the ice-bound research vessel Akademik Shokalskiy in the Antarctic (see here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25573096).

That rescue was accomplished by a Chinese helicopter operating from the Chinese icebreaker, Xue Long. It was almost certainly a Russian Kamov helicopter, probably a Kamov Ka-27 or a variant thereof. That particular make of helicopter is characterised by coaxial, contra-rotating rotors thus eliminating the torque effect and the need for a balancing tail rotor.

In case anyone doesn't know, tomorrow marks five years since the Miracle on the Hudson Did anyone watch that documentary about it on Nat Geo last week?

Channel 4 showed that good documentary and repeated it a couple of times, e.g. on More 4 but it regrettably isn't on their 4OD service. However, some clips are available on Youtube.

No it wasn't that one, this one was a completely new one. It's called Miracle Landing on the Hudson and it's a live re-enactment of what happened and interviews with passengers and two of the crew members. Don't know why they only interviewed two of them as there were five crew members on the flight and they didn't even interview ol' Sully They interviewed the co-pilot and one flight attendant.

Sorry, never heard of that one, cnbcwatcher, although it might get an outing on Channel 5 in a few months' time. I thought the original documentary was good though and the now-retired Captain Chesley Sullenberger did justifiably receive a number of awards and commendations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesley..._and_publicity

If you Google it you'll find more on it. It was on Youtube but it got removed I never saw the original one. Yeah Sully got loads of awards and all, but what about the rest of the crew? It seems the co-pilots and flight attendants hardly got any recognition for the work they did. That crew was very experienced though:


* Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger, III - Age 58, joined US Airways (PSA Airlines) in 1980. He has a total of 19,663 flights hours.
* First officer Jeffrey B. Skiles - Age 49, joined US Airways (USAir) in 1986. He has a total of 15,643 flight hours.
* Flight attendant, Sheila Dail - Age 57, joined US Airways (Piedmont Airlines) in 1980 and has more than 28 years experience with the airline.
* Flight attendant, Doreen Welsh - Age 58, joined US Airways (Allegheny Airlines) in 1970 and has more than 38 years experience with the airline.
* Flight attendant, Donna Dent - Age 51, joined US Airways (Piedmont Airlines) in 1982 and has more than 26 years experience with the airline.

Wow. Time flies. I was in New York at the time and I remember the local media going crazy.

This was a classic case of the right person being in the right place at the right time. Captain Sully was one of the most experienced pilots the airline had and he flew gliders as a hobby.

Did you see all the interviews Sully and his crew did on American TV a few weeks after the incident? I wonder if any other pilot could have pulled it off?

Birmingham Airport will mark the last ever commercial flight of the Douglas DC-10 today as it carries passengers on its own farewell tour around the city's skies before retiring. More than a thousand passengers have been treated to a one-hour scenic flights on the DC-10 over the last three days, taking up the sights of northern England, up towards Glasgow before looping back down to Birmingham.
http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2...r-dc-10-plane/

I found this in today's Birmingham Express and Star and I thought it deserved a wider audience. Whilst the retirement of the last DC 10 in service is noteworthy, I will not miss this plane because of its involvement in a number of very high profile and lethal incidents. Indeed, it is the only Western plane that I would have refused to fly in.

PS On a rather unfortunate note, I see that the thread originator is 'on holiday' as it were and I think that's a shame.

Interesting about the DC-10. Still loads of cargo DC10s flying thankfully.

If anyone is interested there is a documentary about the B-747 on Thursday at 9pm on BBC2.

My works new Flight Safety Film - Virgin Atlantic.

Starts 1st. I like it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XNxZ...i0gMiygD-Go1rg

Who remembers Concorde? I visited it last year, the one at Manchester Airport, and made this video clip. I also have this video clip of a take off from inside a Concorde aircraft.

I like this video of some water condensation effects on a landing aircraft.

Very pretty.