Aero Digital Life

Olso based, Norwegian Air Shuttle, one of the largest operators of the Boeing 737, has given the US airframer its first European order for the new 737 MAX airplane.

Norwegian and Boeing have announced a firm order for 100 fuel-efficient 737 MAX airplanes and 22 Next-Generation 737-800s. The total order is valued at $11.4 billion at list prices and represents the largest-ever Boeing order from a European airline.

At 16 million passengers, Norwegian has grown to become the third-largest low-cost airline in Europe today. The carrier currently operates a fleet of 48 737-800s and 14 737-300s. With today’s announcement, the carrier’s order backlog with Boeing increases to 184 airplanes, including 100 737 MAX, 78 737-800, and six 787 Dreamliners.

Norwegian Air Shuttle, has close relations with Boeing. It was one of the launch customers for the Boeing Sky Interior (pictured left) and has been receiving landmark deliveries of 737 aircraft. It received the 6000th Boeing 737 built, the 200th SkyInterior fitted 737, and more recently the first aircraft from the increased rate (35 a month) production line.

flight tracking is here:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ANA203

A380 … cracks found in the wings. Photo: Reuters

Engineers inspecting Airbus A380 aircraft for cracks on a part inside the wings have found similar flaws on at least one aircraft, industry sources said on Tuesday.

European safety authorities ordered urgent inspections on just under a third of the superjumbo fleet last week after two types of cracks were discovered on a bracket inside the wings of the world’s largest jetliner.

Cracks have been found inside the 9100-square-foot wing of at least one of the superjumbos examined under last week’s directive, industry sources said.

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They also said cracks on another part of the wing were discovered two years ago. The problem was documented at the time but attention has not focused on that incident until now.

Airbus insisted on Tuesday this was a different issue from the latest flaws and had been resolved. European safety inspectors reacted to the earlier problem by ordering checks in October 2010, a month before an engine blowout severely damaged a Qantas A380 and triggered global headlines.

It was during $US130 million repairs - lasting more than a year - to that plane in Singapore that the latest type of crack was discovered. This in turn has led to the discovery of another and potentially more significant type on the same part.

Airbus and safety authorities are stressing the 525-seat plane is safe to fly as engineers check wings for more tiny cracks in a type of wing bracket known as rib feet.

Constant evaluation

The checks affect some 20 aircraft operated by Singapore Airlines, Dubai’s Emirates and Air France, making up just under a third of the current A380 fleet.

Airlines have until Friday to complete a first phase of tests after which Airbus or European safety authorities are expected to give an update on any new findings.

Airbus declined to comment on any interim results while airlines carry out checks under the timetable established by regulators.

But a spokesman said recent events showed the industry’s process of continuous evaluation, designed to catch and repair any faults before they become a hazard, was working smoothly.

“We have clear evidence that the airworthiness process is working,” a spokesman for the EADS subsidiary said.

“An issue has been found, we reported it, we made a recommendation to our customers, EASA made it mandatory and the and the inspection and fix if necessary are both under way”.

Both Airbus and Boeing are subject to a stringent safety regime that involves a continuous process of inspection and repair, governed by airworthiness directives from EASA or the US Federal Aviation Administration and usually both.

In practice the directives frequently formalise actions already recommended by the manufacturers’ service bulletins.

Safety experts can chart the number of directives to tell whether an aircraft is affected by more glitches than normal. A new aircraft will tend to develop more directives as a result of teething problems and an older type of aircraft will attract extra attention due to metal fatigue, with a plateau in between.

An EASA spokesman said the A380 was producing fewer safety issues than a normal aircraft of its age.

Airbus is however keen to avoid any further embarrassment and to allay concerns over its flagship aircraft. The UK-designed and -manufactured wings are the largest ever developed for a civilian passenger jet.

The A380 was developed in France, Germany, Britain and Spain at an estimated cost of 12 billion euro to compete with the Boeing 747 and establish Airbus as a challenger at the top end of the market but has hit a series of production delays.

Airbus has sold 253 of the aircraft and 68 are in service.

Facebook announced in a blog post Tuesday that Timeline will be coming to all users in the next few weeks.

According to a Facebook blog post Tuesday — or rather, an update to the post published when Timeline became available to all users — you will have seven days to preview your Timeline and hide content you don’t want out in the open.

Facebook says you’ll receive a notification at the top of your home page when Timeline has landed in your account. That seven-day preview period is the same for users who activate Timeline and those whose accounts are activated automatically.

The new interface and features have been opt-in, and will continue to be until the roll out becomes universal. Beginning in December 2011, users could enable the new look with one click, and then publish their Timelines for their friends to see.

Those particularly eager for the new Facebook could first access Timeline in September 2011 by creating developer accounts.

If you’re confused by the new look, Facebook describes its new product, “Timeline gives you an easy way to rediscover the things you shared, and collect your most important moments. It also lets you share new experiences, like the music you listen to or the miles you run.” Facebook’s Introducing Timeline page walks new users through the new features, such as covers, stories and app integration.

Once you’ve gotten the new interface, here’s how you can fill in your Timeline.

More:

http://mashable.com/2012/01/24/facebook-timeline-everyone-2/

Virgin America tried to do a cool thing when the company named an airplane “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.” The name was a tribute to Steve Jobs who used the quote in his renowned 2005 Stanford University commencement speech. It’s a nice gesture, but, unfortunately, it’s not 100% correct.

You see, that quote, “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” is attributed to Jobs, but he was not the source. Yes, he used the quote in his Stanford commencement, but it was originally from The Whole Earth Catalog. The catalog was produced by Stewart Brand who used it to educate people and give them the tools to “find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested.”

The pages of the catalog were filled with useful reviews and vendor contact information for everything from shelter and land use to communications. Jobs talked about this Catalog and compared it to Google, which arrived online over 30 years later. The catalog ran from 1968 to 1974 when it wrapped up its last edition with the now famous quote on the back cover.

Though the attribution may be wrong, the sentiment is still genuine. The name was entered into an internal plane naming competition by a Virgin America employee who wanted to remember Steve Jobs. Even though it didn’t originate from Jobs, he is the one who made it a household phrase and should get some credit.

But if you ever see the “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” plane in real life, don’t forget about Stewart Brand, who’s still alive and fighting for the environment and technology from his home in California.

In January 2011, researchers from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif. tested a future aircraft concept model. The model, called AMELIA (Advanced Model for Extreme Lift and Improved Aeroacoustics), has a 10-foot wing span and is 1/13th scale. It was tested in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamic Complex. AMELIA was designed as a 100-passenger regional cruise efficient, short takeoff and landing airliner.

Leading Edge Aviation Services’ new plant at Fort Worth Meacham Airport is gearing up to handle all the painting on new 787 Dreamliner airplanes that Boeing builds in South Carolina.

Boeing’s South Carolina factory is producing 30 percent of the planes; its factory in Everett, Wash., is building the rest.

At one time last year, Leading Edge indicated that it would paint the South Carolina 787s in Amarillo. But the California-based company secured a 20-year lease on the Fort Worth facility last summer.

Leading Edge spokeswoman Alicia Castle confirmed by e-mail that the Meacham facility will handle all of the Boeing contract. Leading Edge said it chose Fort Worth because of the region’s skilled employment base, central U.S. location, and the existing Meacham plant.

Castle said the Meacham center has fewer than 50 employees. But the Boeing work will start in late March, she said, and Leading Edge will then increase the work force to more than 100. The city, in announcing the lease, which was effective Aug. 1, said it expected the plant to employ 150 at full production.

Castle declined to say when Leading Edge expects full production to start in Fort Worth.

“The Boeing production schedule is confidential, but we begin operations in late March 2012,” she said.

And the Fort Worth center has other work, she said.

“Leading Edge is currently painting wide-body aircraft for United Airlines, and has other major airlines under contract that may utilize the FTW facility,” she wrote.

Megaupload, one of the internet’s largest file-sharing sites, has been shut down by officials in the US.

The site’s founders have been charged with violating piracy laws.

Federal prosecutors have accused it of costing copyright holders more than $500m (£320m) in lost revenue. The firm says it was diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material.

In response, the hackers group Anonymous has targeted the FBI and US Department of Justice websites.

The news came a day after anti-piracy law protests, but investigators said they were ordered two weeks ago.

The US Justice Department said that Megaupload’s two co-founders Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and Mathias Ortmann were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand along with two other employees of the business at the request of US officials. It added that three other defendants were still at large.

“This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime,” said a statement posted on its website.

The FBI website was intermittently unavailable on Thursday evening due to what officials said was being “treated as a malicious act”.

The hackers’ group Anonymous said it was carrying out the attacks.

The Motion Picture Association of America’s website also suffered disruption.
Third-party sites

The charges included, conspiracies to commit racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering.

A federal court in Virginia ordered that 18 domain names associated with the Hong Kong-based firm be seized.

The Justice Department said that more than 20 search warrants had been executed in nine countries, and that approximately $50m (£32m) in assets had been seized.

It claimed that the accused had pursued a business model designed to promote the uploading of copyrighted works.

“The conspirators allegedly paid users whom they specifically knew uploaded infringing content, and publicised their links to users throughout the world,” a statement said.

“By actively supporting the use of third-party linking sites to publicise infringing content, the conspirators did not need to publicise such content on the Megaupload site.

“Instead, the indictment alleges that the conspirators manipulated the perception of content available on their servers by not providing a public search function on the Megaupload site and by not including popular infringing content on the publicly available lists of top content downloaded by its users.”

Before it was shut down the site posted a statement saying the allegations against it were “grotesquely overblown”.

“The fact is that the vast majority of Mega’s internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay,” it added.

“If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have some good ideas. Please get in touch.”
Blackouts

The announcement came a day after thousands of websites took part in a “blackout” to protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa).

The US Chamber of Commerce has defended the proposed laws saying that enforcement agencies “lack the tools” to effectively apply existing intellectual property laws to the digital world.

Industry watchers suggest this latest move may feed into the wider debate.

“Neither of the bills are close to being passed - they need further revision. But it appears that officials are able to use existing tools to go after a business alleged to be inducing piracy,” said Gartner’s media distribution expert Mike McGuire.

“It begs the question that if you can find and arrest people who are suspected to be involved in piracy using existing laws, then why introduce further regulations which are US-only and potentially damaging?”