Meet Janet, the Most Mysterious Airline in the World
"Janet" is a callsign shrouded in mystery, for an airline that really isn’t an airline, with a fleet that bears no logos, based in plain sight at Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport.
How Airlines make Big Bucks from Cargo
Airlines don’t make money just from flying passengers: air cargo is a big business. It doesn’t fly just in dedicated freighter aircraft, but also in the belly holds of passenger flights. And right now it’s booming.
Six reasons why its cool to be a pilot
The magic of flight has fascinated us for well over a century. There are those who are content to sit on the ground and watch aircraft soar overhead. Many of us are excited to be passengers, modern-day jetsetters who travel the globe. But for some, the passion for flight is overwhelming, and the need to fly becomes a lifelong obsession. CNN Travel spoke to six pilots, who told us why it's cool to be a pilot.
How a test pilot flew Lockheed Martin’s LM-100J in a ‘loop’
When in the hands of an experienced test pilot, the LM-100J can execute a beautifully choreographed flight demonstration that will leave crowds in awe. And that's exactly what happened at this year's Farnborough Airshow, which took place just outside London in July.
What it takes to get a plane ready between flights
Airplanes don’t make money sitting on the ground. That’s why the time from landing to takeoff is an efficiently choreographed dance of people and equipment. Known as a turnaround, or “turn” in industry parlance, it’s an airline’s version of a Formula One or NASCAR pit stop. The goal is to get an airliner back in the air as quickly as possible.
North Atlantic Tracks: Invisible Highways in the Sky
Captain James Basnett is at the controls of a British Airways Airbus A380 mega-jet, serenely cruising far above the stormy North Atlantic. More than 450 passengers are enjoying the inflight service, watching a movie or just sleeping away the overnight flight from Boston to London. Comfortably cocooned in the technological marvel that is a modern airliner, the passengers are blissfully unaware that their plane is just one of hundreds in a massive aerial armada heading to Europe from North America.
Reel Time
It’s been almost a century since the first, primitive experiments with in-flight film projection took place in an Aeromarine Airways Curtis F5L aircraft. It was 1921, and the 11 passengers on a sightseeing flight over Chicago were shown a silent movie promoting the city. But it wasn’t until 1961 that David Flexer’s Inflight Motion Pictures brought regular in-flight entertainment to passengers on Trans World Airlines’ early jets.
An Alpine Giant: Heli-Austria
It’s important to have the right tool for the job. Looking at Heli-Austria’s large and diverse fleet of helicopters, it’s clear that CEO and Chief Pilot Roy Knaus has a big toolbox to draw from, stuffed full of the right machines for a wide range of missions.
World’s longest nonstop flight: Airbus A350-900ULR set to enter service
Singapore to New York, nonstop. Almost 20 hours in the air. By the end of this year, passengers on Singapore Airlines' newest plane, the Airbus A350-900ULR -- for Ultra Long-Range -- will travel on a record-breaking, globe-spanning flight that will reconnect the two major metropolises.
Remote Access
Up in the air, there have been remote controls for as long as in-flight entertainment (IFE) has been in the cabin. Long before touch screens, control buttons for an IFE system were either installed in a seat’s armrest or on a tethered remote unit that retracted into a recess.