My life as Murphy.

Airlines as penny stocks

2008-06-02T07:25:00.001-04:00

Posted Jun 1st 2008 3:40PM by Douglas McIntyre
Filed under: Forecasts, Industry, AMR Corp (AMR), Delta Air Lines (DAL)

Many institutional funds shy away from stocks that sell below the $5 mark. It is assumed that most low-priced shares are a sign of trouble. In many cases that is true.

As some airlines become small caps, driven down as the price of oil comes up, several could drop below the $5 threshold. That may hinder these stocks from rebounding by eliminating them from some fund portfolios.

It is hard to imagine that AMR's (NYSE: AMR) stock trades at $7.19 and has been as low as $6. That puts the company's market cap at $1.8 billion. Some biotech companies with almost no revenue are worth as much. Delta's (NYSE: DAL) are at $6.15 and its market cap is about the same as AMR's.

Airline stocks are now the province of speculators and day traders. Since some may face Chapter 11, the gamble on owning the stocks is high now.

The shares of these companies have been swept into the dustbin.

Microsoft revs its patent machine

2008-01-17T07:42:00.001-05:00

Posted by Ina Fried
Microsoft, which once was only a modest customer of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, has been one of its biggest customers in recent years.

In just the past two months, more than 500 applications from the Redmond, Wash., software maker have been published. (That's actually a reflection of how active the company was in mid-2006, since patent applications aren't generally published until 18 months after their filing).

But it's one particular filing that has been grabbing headlines in recent days. That patent covers a means by which a computer that can use factors such as a person's heart rate, blood pressure, and facial expression to take action. The Times newspaper of London posted a story this week noting the "Big Brother" implications such a technology could have, such as notifying an employer if a worker appears stressed or is not being productive.

However, I'm hearing that this patent is more aimed at building a more useful and relevant help system into software than it is at offering a snooping tool for bosses. Of course, you never can tell where a technology will lead, and the patent could cover either or both applications.

Microsoft, which typically does not comment on individual applications, did offer a bit of comment, in the form of a statement from Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's vice president of intellectual property and licensing.

"This particular patent application, in general, describes an innovation aimed at improving activity-monitoring systems and uses the monitoring of user heart rate as an example of the kind of physical state that could be monitored to detect when users need assistance with their activities, and to offer assistance by putting them in touch with other users who may be able to help," Gutierrez said. "It is important to keep in mind that with most organizations in the business of innovation, some of our patent applications reflect inventions that are currently present in our products, and other applications represent innovations being developed for potential future use."

Trolling through filings can offer a glimpse of where a company is headed, but as with Apple's closely watched patent filings, seeing something in a patent application is far from a guarantee of what will eventually ship.

Microsoft's patent push is stimulated by a number of factors. One is competition and trying to make sure that Microsoft's rivals don't get access to key innovations. However, the company also began a broad intellectual-property licensing push several years ago, under which it licenses technology to many companies big and small. The company has signed a slew of patent cross-licensing deals since then, the most recent being Tuesday's deal with Japan's JVC.

A number of Microsoft's recently published patent applications cover search and advertising, areas in which Microsoft is investing a lot as it tries to play catch-up with Google. There are so many of these, I'll save them for a separate post, but recent filings cover things such as creating a spot market for video ads, and creating marketing that uses a combination of video and banner advertisements.

Among the other patent filings are hardware designs such as a washable keyboard and a washable mouse. There are other washable designs on the market, including both keyboards and mice.

Another patent covers so-called managed copy, which takes something like a video file or DVD, and uses digital rights management (DRM) to enable people make a copy that can be used on their various digital devices but does not allow unlimited duplication.

http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9851948-56.html

Amazon And Pepsi To Offer Free Music

2008-01-15T07:20:00.000-05:00

Amazon.com and Pepsi have teamed up for a new free music cross promotion that will see Pepsi drinkers earn free music with Pepsi purchases.

“Pepsi Stuff” is billed as a “massive collect-and-get program” where “consumers can download the most DRM-free MP3 music available anywhere.” In layman’s terms, drink lots of Pepsi, get DRM free music for free on Amazon.

Starting February 1, Pepsi users must “bank” their points on PepsiStuff.com to redeem them for music on Amazon MP3.

Cross promotions of this kind aren’t new, but it does show the seriousness of Amazon to promote its DRM free music store to a wider audience (Pepsi has previously given away iTunes downloads). It was only 12 months ago that we wrote about the inevitable death of DRM, yet one year later in 2008 the market is now focused on which DRM free music provider comes out on top, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Hopefully the increasingly cut-throat competition will result in downwards pricing pressure as well in the coming months.

Play PC Games on Your PS3...FREE

2008-01-15T07:13:00.000-05:00

StreamMyGame Lets You Play PC Games on Your PS3, Reduces Need to Ever Leave Your Couch

We almost did not believe it, but those guys at StreamMyGame have included a video in which they are playing Crysis on their PS3, all streamed from their PC. There is no visible lag, and the resolution is user definable. In short; it looks crisp. Check out the tutorial above, but skip through to the money shot at 07:55, unless you are setting it up, in which case you will need to go through it all. The best thing about all this streaming wizardry?

It is free. That's right; by hitting up the link you are able to get your hands on all the software required. Your PS3 will need to have Linux installed (either Ubuntu or Yellow Dog), and your PC will require Windows Vista or XP. The StreamMyGame Server does the rest, converting the game's video and audio into a "Game Stream" that is then sent across your local network. The device you stream to can be a PC, laptop, PS3 or Linux device. The machine being streamed to does not need a copy of the game installed, but does need the StreamMyGame Player, which is also free.

The CEO, Richard Faria had this to say about the development:

"Playing the latest PC game on the PS3 is now a reality at HD resolution and fast frame-rates. I have a PS3 in my living room and PC in my office and my two kids both have old PCs in their bedrooms. Now we can play games anywhere around the home. StreamMyGame's technology networks the power of a main PC so it can be used to play high end games on other PCs, PS3s and Linux devices".

In the pipelines is remote streaming across high bandwidth broadband connections, as well as Windows Mobile and Android versions. If that does not get your pants wet, we'll have to send Jason in with his dildos (NSFW.) Follow the link to get streaming, and let us know how you get on. [StreamMyGame via Akihabara News]

http://gizmodo.com/344882/streammygame-lets-you-play-pc-games-on-your-ps3-reduces-need-to-ever-leave-your-couch

Car vs. Boeing 777

2008-01-14T07:32:00.000-05:00

A Boeing 777 jet and an A1 Grand Prix racer clashed at the Auckland International Airport in New Zealand to see which was the faster machine. The Boeing got a headstart down the runway for the first race, and defeated the A1 handily. When the starting points were equal, however, the A1 emerged as the victor, reaching a top speed of 285 km/h (versus 270 km/h for the Boeing). And is it just me, or does watching this news piece give you a strange urge to watch Flight of the Conchords? [TV New Zealand via Jalopnik]

http://gizmodo.com/344354/a1-racer-beats-boeing-777-in-runway-showdown

Google betting big on mobile market--and Apple

2008-01-14T07:28:00.001-05:00

January 14, 2008 3:00 AM PST
Google betting big on mobile market--and Apple
Posted by Elinor Mills

Vic Gundotra, vice president of mobile and developer at Google, shows of the new user interface of Google Web apps for the iPhone being unveiled at MacWorld on Monday.

(Credit: Google)
On Christmas Day thousands of people opened up boxes with something cool and functional inside and wasted no time logging onto Google.com through their brand new iPhones.

As a result of those gifts, the number of global queries to Google's search site from iPhones surpassed the number of queries from people using market-leading Symbian-based phones for the first time. Google calls it the "Christmas cross-over."

That is huge given the fact that the number of iPhone units shipped is tiny compared to the number of Symbian-based phones out there. The cross-over only lasted a few days or so, but it shows the impact the iPhone is having on the telecom industry and provides a glimpse into its future market potential for the Web.

"It's about usage, not just units," Vic Gundotra, vice president of mobile and developer at Google, said in a recent interview with CNET News.com. "The data proves that people are using the browser on the iPhone."

The iPhone revolutionized the industry by making it easy and affordable to use the Web on a cell phone, he says. Google is offering Web apps written for the iPhone browser that bring the PC experience to the mobile device, he says.

On Monday--the first day of MacWorld, Google plans to unveil a new user interface for its iPhone Web apps that make Gmail, search, Reader, Calendar, Picasa and other services faster to use and more customizable. It also has optimized iGoogle for the iPhone.

Now, new e-mail messages automatically show up so you don't need to hit refresh, messages can arrive in 25 seconds or less and auto-complete makes composing an e-mail faster. Calendar offers a month-at-a-glance view that isn't yet offered on the desktop. Your favorite apps are in tabs at the top of the screen and they can be switched around.

"This app will work great on Android," Google's mobile software platform launched in November, says Gundotra.

What's next? Will more Google apps join YouTube and Google Maps on the iPhone's home screen that shows up when the device is first turned on?

Gundotra smiles mischievously.

"One thing that bothers me is that (mobile) apps don't work offline," he says when prodded.

Given that Google launched Google Gears, which allows people to work on their Web apps even when they are not connected to the Internet, last May it's likely they'll have something similar for mobile soon.

Netflix to loosen restrictions on internet viewing option

2008-01-14T07:26:00.001-05:00

Netflix to loosen restrictions on internet viewing option
Posted Jan 13th 2008 10:13PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Home Entertainment

Granted, there are some out there who've been dodging the whole "limitation" aspect of Netflix's Watch Instantly feature for a good while, but for the honest, upstanding citizens abiding by the rules, things are (seemingly) about to change for the better. According to a recent report from the AP, Netflix is gearing up to banish the time limits for online streaming on all but its el cheapo $4.99 plan, meaning that subscribers to every other plan will be able to watch online content as much as they'd like. In case you haven't connected the dots quite yet, it's being suggested that the move will be made to fend off the looming competition from Cupertino, and while this would undoubtedly increase costs, it doesn't seem as if the firm plans on hiking rates (at least initially) to compensate. Now that's a change we can live with.

HD DVD fires back, slashes hardware & software prices

2008-01-14T07:25:00.001-05:00

HD DVD fires back, slashes hardware & software prices
Posted Jan 14th 2008 4:11AM by Richard Lawler
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

HD DVD's response to being unceremoniously jilted by Warner going into CES was ... nothing. A canceled press conference, downtrodden Toshiba press conference and rumors of further losses left great doubt that red had anything left in 2008, but now HD DVD is firing back. Leveraging its "approximately 50% market share in 2007" -- we're not sure where that number comes from either, we've contacted Toshiba for clarification -- indisputable lead in the notebook market and 100% compatibility with internet-enabled HDi features, Toshiba has announced it is not laying down yet. Effective yesterday, the HD-A3 MSRP has dropped to $149.99, the 1080p-capable HD-A30 to $199.99, and the top of the line HD-A35 to $299.99. Combined with an extended "perfect offer" of 5 free HD DVDs with every purchase, Toshiba's HD DVD Concierge service, and a sudden 50% off sale on Amazon, it seems this format will not go quietly into the dark. Fire sale to clear suddenly obsolete inventory or real chance to hang onto its remaining supporters? This could be the best -- or worst -- time to pick a side in the HD war.

Update: Amazon is also having a 50% off Blu-ray sale, so whatever your format of choice, pick up some discs and let the movie studios know who you rep.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/14/hd-dvd-fires-back-slashes-hardware-and-software-prices/

Nike to release 23rd Air Jordan; he's not saying whether it will be the last

2008-01-09T07:08:00.000-05:00

By SARAH SKIDMORE, Associated Press Writer
January 8, 2008

BEAVERTON, Ore. (AP) -- It's gotta be the shoes, right?

No other basketball shoe has changed the face of business, athletics and marketing like the Air Jordan. This month, Nike releases the 23rd edition, and it is expected to be just as venerated as its predecessors.

The sleek design and link to Michael Jordan's jersey number make it a touchstone in the line. It's also Nike's first basketball shoe designed under its "Considered" ethos, which aims to reduce waste and use environmentally friendly materials wherever possible.

The Air Jordan XX3 will be released in three hyped-up rounds from January to February, starting with a limited edition to be sent to only 23 retailers to be sold for $230 and concluding with the national launch at $185.

There had been talk at Nike about retiring the shoe at No. 23, because of his iconic jersey number. But company officials won't say whether this will be the last of the line. Neither will Jordan.

"You'll just have to wait and see," Jordan said in an e-mail to The Associated Press, responding to questions about the upcoming release.

Before launching the first shoe in 1985, Nike had just signed Jordan for $2.5 million over five years. Nike won't say what Jordan's current contract with the company is worth.

Jordan's deal with Nike opened the door for sneaker manufacturers to chase after athletes, signing them up -- sometimes just out of high school-- for multimillion-dollar contracts in hopes of being able to cash in on the next superstar. It sent sneaker prices to new heights, which has since generated a backlash against selling pricey shoes to basketball-loving kids.

"The Air Jordan franchise created the most coveted basketball footwear in the world and changed the basketball landscape forever," said Nike Brand President Charlie Denson.

Unlike most basketball shoes to date, which were often white and utilitarian, the Air Jordan was a shock of black and red. It was initially banned by the NBA for not conforming with other players' shoes.

Jordan continued to wear them and was fined $5,000 a game, which Nike paid.

"Nobody expected the mass hysteria created by its release," Jordan, who has been a part-owner of the Charlotte Bobcats since 2006, said in his e-mail to The AP.

A new edition was launched each year, and release dates had to be moved to the weekends to keep kids from skipping school to get a pair.

The frenzy got dangerous. People were mugged and even killed for the shoes.

The Air Jordans helped spawn a subculture of collectors, who line up at stores to buy the shoe's latest edition.

Jordan said he never expected that the shoe would become an icon.

"Like every kid growing up, I dreamed of making winning shots at the buzzer and I was fortunate to live out that dream, but never in my wildest dreams did I ever entertain the idea of the success of the Air Jordan franchise," he said.

The Air Jordans moved basketball shoes from true high-tops or low-tops to a middle range and used unheard of styles, such as patent leather toes and elephant print.

As Jordan's success grew on the courts, so did Nike's in the shoe industry.

People from the streets to the suburbs were wearing $100-plus basketball shoes, which was unheard of at the time.

That price is the norm today, but it has launched a backlash, such as the partnership between New York Knicks player Stephon Marbury and the Steve & Barry's store chain to sell basketball shoes for $14.98 -- a direct stab at pricey sneakers like Air Jordans.

At that time, the Air Jordan captured a mix of design, marketing, athleticism and player charisma that hadn't been seen before in the industry -- everyone wanted to "Be Like Mike."

"Athletes had been endorsing products for years prior to this," said Tinker Hatfield, Nike's Vice President of Innovation Design and Special Projects.

"But they were just signing their name to the shoe. I think there was a very understandable difference...Michael's personality and even the changes in the game and inspiration from other walks of life were all sort of being designed into this product and that made it more interesting."

Jordan and Hatfield work together on the design and function on many of the Air Jordan shoes. Jordan has final say on design matters.

Air Jordan was the lightning in the bottle that every company hopes for.

Advertising images of Jordan soaring across the sky were ubiquitous. Spike Lee could be heard hollering "It's gotta be the shoes" on television. And Jordan's outstretched arms with the swoosh nearby adorned walls across the country.

Nike quickly moved from a running company and newcomer to the basketball category to the market leader. Some industry estimates put Nike's current share of the basketball shoe market at about 85 percent. Far behind are Adidas and Reebok.

The idea of adding such unusual style to a product or so closely aligning with a personality was novel at the time, but it paid off.

Other companies tried to follow suit but it was like trying to come up with the next Harry Potter or iPhone for basketball.

The relationship completely changed the idea of sports marketing. Companies now make athlete sponsorships the centerpiece of their business, spending millions signing them and designing product lines and marketing platforms around them.

Jordan's original deal seems like a pittance compared to multimillion-dollar contracts inked these days, such as Nike's $90 million agreement with LeBron James.

"The beginning of the Jordan era marked a new and more sophisticated approach to leveraging an athlete," said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon.

Like any bet, athletic companies take their risks -- some pay off, like Tiger Woods or LeBron James. But some don't, a la Michael Vick. Nike terminated its contract with Vick last August after his plea agreement on dogfighting charges.

Jordan was spun off into its own division in 1997, a move that some high up in Nike questioned when Jordan retired.

But the business is a key component, with new players signing on under the brand. Nike has spun that Jordan swagger into performance and luxury apparel for men and woman.

The Air Jordan remains the pinnacle piece for shoe collectors. The original Air Jordan 1 can sell for thousands of dollars, depending on various factors.

Jordan said: "It blows my mind that even after five years removed from the game the shoe would be stronger than ever and I would still be greeted by fans as if I had just won a championship all over again."

Here Comes Yahoo Live, I Mean Yahoo Life

2008-01-08T08:38:00.000-05:00

Yahoo didn’t just announce their new open mobile platform today at CES. They also got the heavyweights - Jerry Yang, David Filo and Brad Garlinghouse - up on stage to give more details on the project they’re calling Yahoo Life! (previously dubbed “Inbox 2.0“).

Everyone wants to be more like Facebook these days, and Yahoo is no exception. Google’s strategy is Open Social, a set of open APIs that allow third parties to embed stuff on other third parties. The cornerstone of Open Social for Google is Gmail, where all the action happens for a user (and to a lesser extent Orkut and iGoogle). Yahoo’s going in much the same direction, it seems, by making Yahoo Mail the center of their new social networking strategy.

The new product is only a proof of concept at this point, Yang said. The goal is to unite services like mail, search, etc. under a social framework, with Yahoo Mail serving as the central hub. Your email and Im contacts serve as your contacts and fill out the social graph. Their closeness to you is based on how frequently you communicate with them.

An example, via Dan Farber:

He gave an example of planning a dinner for CES. You can drag the thread into a map and it will bring up the profiles of those on the mail, note preferences (for food in this case) and suggest restaurants in the area. You can also take an email message, pop up the profiles of those on the message, takes an address from email and show it a map.

And third party applications aren’t being left out. The image above clearly shows integration with MySpace, for example. This is where Yahoo’s ambitions around Zimbra, which it acquired late in 2007 for $350 million, become more clear. The new platform for developers is based in part on Zimbra’s technology.

The first pieces of this strategy were being put in place as far back as late 2006, when Yahoo began rolling out integration of Yahoo Mail and instant messaging. Messages can now seamlessly transfer back and forth between IM and email, something no other web mail application does. It’s clear that even then Yahoo was thinking long term about the future of the mail interface.

It’s unfortunate that Yahoo, which has had a muddled past at best with regard to social networking, is referring to the product as “Life.” It’s too close to Microsoft’s Live strategy of bucketing online services under a new brand. It’s gone nowhere but sideways over the last couple of years, and shows that repackaging and marketing do little to drive user adoption in today’s Internet.

But the name aside, and despite my previous criticism, Yahoo Life looks like an intelligent social architecture for Yahoo. Assuming all this social networking stuff isn’t just a fad (it isn’t), then it makes sense for Yahoo to focus their resources in this fight. Of course, developers will now have yet another platform to build to, beyond the Facebook and Google ones that exist today.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/08/here-comes-yahoo-live-i-mean-yahoo-life/

Google Enabled Televisions Coming Soon

2008-01-08T08:17:00.000-05:00

Japanese manufacturer Matsushita (Panasonic) has signed a deal with Google that will see the company launch flat panel television sets that allow users to access YouTube and other Google services such as Picasa Web Albums.

The deal is said to be non-exclusive with the first units set to be launched in the United States in Spring.

The deal isn’t the first internet enabled television to be manufactured, but it is the first time Google has signed a deal in this space. Internet in the lounge room has long been a hyped technology that despite various platforms (including Windows MCE) has failed to capture the publics imagination, particularly given the need for a computer or internet specific device to connect. TV with internet access built in, if it’s delivered without any major premium over existing television sets has the potential of finally delivering mass market convergence. Having YouTube access built into sets as a default would also be a positive for Google as it continues to work towards strengthen YouTube’s long term dominance in light of increased competition.

Deepening democracy and space policy 2.0

2008-01-07T08:42:00.000-05:00

Deepening democracy and space policy 2.0
by Kathleen M. Connell
Monday, December 31, 2007
NASA, for all of its visibility and iconic meaning to society, does not possess a large structural constituency base in the American population. It is unlike other well-known and well-funded government and quasi-government programs and agencies, such as HUD, VA, SBA, Medicare, the Department of Education, the US Postal Service, or the Defense Department. Each and every year—sometimes each month—these and other federal entities provide direct checks, subsidies, loans, or services to individual Americans, their families, and communities. These Americans are, in turn, political constituents of the elected Administration and Congress, which decide the funding level of these agencies and NASA. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that agencies that deliver direct “bread and butter” support and benefits to watchful constituents and enterprises will usually be a larger budget priority for elected officials, unless a local constituency has a significant, sustained stake in NASA.

Thus, for better or worse, NASA is generally also not a priority for the massive membership lobbies which are engaged in the business of preserving benefits via legislation for their members. These associations, along with the many clients of K Street lobbyists, hold the leverage of well-funded constituent mobilization, votes, and campaign contributions that elected officials require.

A case in point is the AARP, with a membership enrollment of 38,000,000 members, and corresponding legislative power in Washington, DC. For purposes of comparison, the well-respected AIAA, the largest aerospace professional society in the US, claims 31,000 enrolled members, or less than 1% of the AARP membership.

From this perspective, it is easy to understand why structural issues in our representative democracy continue to constrain the extremely small budget wedge of NASA, and are likely to do so in the future. NASA’s tiny fraction of the US GDP is also managed by a small group of powerful space policy actors. Many of these officials have significant space centers or institutes in their states.

Civil space is now on the cusp of a tipping point where at many structural shifts are occurring simultaneously.
Further, if perception is often reality in politics, not since the technological and knowledge-based competition at the core of the Cold War have individual Americans perceived or held a direct economic stake in the fortunes of NASA. This was not always so, for at mid-century NASA commanded a significant percentage of GDP, and a large percentage of new jobs being created in the technological battle known as the Cold War. Since the end of the Cold War, most Americans have been either structurally excluded from impacting space policy choices, or have no overriding incentive to attempt to do so.

How then, will the public space sector investment grow to meet its needs in competition with other domestic and foreign priorities, and emerging international competitors? A related question is how can NASA accomplish the development of a new crewed spacecraft capable of lunar exploration, explore Mars, provide seed grants to new space firms through the COTS program, and also maintain a portfolio of space science within the current budget wedge of less than 1%? The past seven years have demonstrated that no internal need of NASA, including the need for a new space access system, can drive the budget up to break the 1% level. NASA cannot accomplish all of these things on a sustainable basis, and there is no relief in sight, under the current status quo.

To resolve these questions means to grow the NASA slice of the budget pie, but how?

From a structural perspective a “perfect storm” of new trends must converge into a tipping point in order to increase the civil space wedge. One view is that civil space is now on the cusp of a tipping point where at many structural shifts are occurring simultaneously. This essay will touch on three of these emerging trends and how they might intersect to help create a consensus for more funds for innovative civil space initiatives.

Structural shift #1: From localized space constituent to global space consumers“The free market is the only mechanism that has ever been discovered for achieving participatory democracy.”
– Milton Friedman, economist NASA policies are proposed by each Administration, and disposed of by Congressional legislation. Beneath this constitutional architecture for decision-making is a traditional set of intermediaries with direct interest in the policy and budget outcomes at NASA. These intermediaries are generally understood to align in the categories of civil service unions, contractors, industry, academia, trade unions, technical and industry associations, NGOs, and the military. Last but not least are the powerful traditional space states. The states are the only intermediary group with elected officials in the decision-making loop of civil space. The local space worker/constituents, and their power in the traditional space states of Texas, Florida, Alabama, Maryland, and California, have an extraordinary interest in, and impact on, the NASA budget. Joining this circle are a second ring states like West Virginia and Colorado who also have a strong interest in space public affairs. A third ring of states has entered the circle of the interested, via spaceports, and includes states like New Mexico and Oklahoma.

These space influentials will soon have to move over to make room for those who do not live next door to a NASA center or space port, for space commerce is about to produce a new vested sector, in a newly empowered space consumer.

The much-anticipated arrival of profitable private space in low Earth orbit is not yet a fact, but space entrepreneurs’ desire to create markets and make profits will have a byproduct in the creation of space consumers and the projected consumption of critical goods and services from space assets. The requirements of investment dictate that this must be so, for investment requires customers in order to generate a return. Individual customer/consumers and consumer blocks are now poised to spring into being, and they will change the face of civil and private space forever.

The rise of the consumer and consumer movements in America is well established in every market segment, but only recently can the notion of space consumer be thought about in relation to the space sector. With consumption comes choice. Space consumers may soon be “voting” with their discretionary income. Choices will abound on space services and goods. Consumers are known to register stockholder initiatives (and protests). With consumer political clout they will be poised to apply pressure on firms via government regulation. And occasionally consumers use the power of the boycott to impact the marketplace.

Individual customer/consumers and consumer blocks are now poised to spring into being, and they will change the face of civil and private space forever.
Space consumer choice is a public benefit of private markets, however, it should not be confused with uncritical and wholesale privatization of all government functions. Government has a role to play in the creation of markets, and a role in consumer protection to play after the markets are created. The “withering away of the state” in space, as some wish for, is an extreme aspiration, when what is required is a public interest commitment to more effectively reform and revitalize NASA, not eliminate it. The state will also be needed as a watchdog for space consumers, and in turn watchers to keep and eye on the watchdog.

Savvy space consumers can have a broad agenda of their choosing which can include matters at NASA as well. As interested but independent players, they can also introduce a change loop back into NASA choices, in addition to impacting the space marketplace. Space consumers and the companies that serve them will likely see a long-term benefit in receiving support from government, and the NASA budget in particular, in the form of contracts, grants, loans, prizes, and research that support commercial space and consumer interests. Space consumers can legally press the Administration and Congress for these and other programs, just as the AARP impacts budgets for health and Medicare funds. It is conceivable that “silver collar” space consumers may choose to seek to increase the NASA budget—or not. NASA’s behavior will likely determine whether space consumers come to view the agency as friend or foe, or something that is a shade of grey between these two poles.

Structural shift #2: The rise of proactive citizen space hives
A digital plank has been thrown across the distance that once separated the wiki community from the rocket community.
Kevin Kelly, one of the founders of Wired magazine, captured this phenomenon in the notion of “hives”, where independent agents spontaneously form to meet group objectives. Kelly viewed this trend as a neo-biological social and economic development. Both led and leaderless hives of concerned parties are now mobilizing fast to make major impacts on space budgets and provide highly competent input into the space policy process.

Web 2.0 is also dramatically influencing 21st century space policy in a direct manner. IT tools now enable viral marketing, web fundraising, blogging, video posting, advocacy, conferencing, user-created content, instant information, texting, meet-ups, friend sites, community building and much more.

These web-empowered, HTML-fluent agents have been dubbed an “Army of Davids” by leading blogger Glenn Reynolds. That virtual crowds could help make space choices for the nation is still a bit inconceivable to those accustomed to the institutional Goliath language of space discourse, where senior experts were the only voices heard just a few years ago. What is equally interesting is not only the quantity of space opinion and direct policy action on the web, but the quality of the information publicly available. “Billions and billions” (to borrow a well known quote from Carl Sagan), no longer refers just to the firmament of stars, but to the number of global citizens now space-hip, and online 24/7.

Savvy activists and organizers are using tech tools, and more sophisticated advocacy IT platforms, to create communities that mobilize new publics, interest groups, space “prosumers” , beleaguered space scientists with dwindling budgets, and others space constituents. Several thousand of these interest organizations have been cataloged in informal databases. The list of active space networks represent official organizations, industry lobbies, professional societies, informal societies, bloggers, affinitive networks, state-based organizations, consultants, researchers, and media. What it does not fully capture is a profusion of sub-niche players with enormous reach, or those with a “long tail” of impact.

Added to this is the evolution of gaming and simulation, as Second Life and other virtual environments allow for a simulated high-definition space experience for anyone with an adequate computer system. These tools are both evolvable and, most importantly, free or very low cost. In economic terms, some simulated space expertise is looking less like an elite preoccupation, and more like an information commodity.

That virtual crowds could help make space choices for the nation is still a bit inconceivable to those accustomed to the institutional Goliath language of space discourse, where senior experts were the only voices heard just a few years ago.
In political terms, interested persons can now “opt-in” to the space policy debate, click-and-send opinions and requests to elected officials and the media, and host meet-ups in Congressional offices with their representatives. Many more are choosing to do so in increasing, influential numbers and ad hoc crowds. As theorists and practioners in space policy and political campaigns know, the impact on official legislation and Administration policy from closed to more open, is already happening.

As a result, independent and hive space actors no longer are willing to accept marginal status in decision-making around space exploration and utilization of space assets. Where the space hives want the nation’s taxpayer-funded space investment to go, and whether it should grow, will become increasingly clear in the next few years. What is clear now is that space hives are in the space game to stay.

Structural shift #3: The crisis factor: from civil space as a luxury, to space assets as a necessity in global warming mitigationBy now you would have heard that NASA intends to go to the Moon again in 2018 but why should that interest you? You already have enough concerns here in your life on earth with things like terrorism, hurricanes, wars and your own employment prospects keeping you up at night... The list is practically endless. I'm not going to sweep all these things aside and tell you that space is more important when you say, “Why is space so important to me?” or “What has space got to do with my life here and now?”
– Fred Stratford, blogger
Some in space circles have advanced a theory that the NASA budget is small because space is a luxury item compared to other budget priorities. As we have suggested, space budgeting choice is better understood as a case of structural inequality in the political and policy context. Whatever truth there is to the luxury argument, global warming has moved civil space to a position of necessity in global warming observation, and possibly, mitigation.

Global warming has become the most compelling new societal issue of the era. Space assets can now be plotted directly on the critical path of halting global warming and the potential mass extinctions and economic chaos it can bring. Both NASA and NOAA budgets contain a significant percentage of the world’s budgets dealing with climate change research and assets. Both agencies advance the state of knowledge regarding global warming, and provide crucial satellite data streams that assist during larger and longer weather crisis, such as hurricane strikes.

On the political front, almost overnight, a passionate advocate, Al Gore, and the world’s top scientists persuaded many Americans and others across the globe of the existence of global warming. As of this writing, the momentum of voter towards climate as an issue is gaining adherents, and will be felt in the 2008 Presidential election cycle.

Green opinion has already found its way to Washington, in many forms and appropriation initiatives. In space, it is also arriving in the form of NASA budget proposals by some Presidential candidates. The net effect will be to heighten the climate-related focus on the already very visible NASA. This time the issue, and the resulting demands on the civil space sector, are almost science fiction made science fact. Will NASA be expected to play a leading role in the drama of saving the planet, and us, from extinction? It is hard for this writer to imagine that NASA will not be called upon, and this surely has budget implications.

The structural walls of the old citadel that contain space policy decisions are still in place, but cracks are appearing thanks to new waves of participatory players and societal challenges.
Space is also plotted on the other points on the critical path for preservation of the planet and humanity. One opportunity is in global warming mitigation via energy delivery from solar power satellites. Another one is in the now real question of spacecraft-as-lifeboat. Will climate degradation force us to explore space? These and other topics now require more space community engagement and focus in order to fully comprehend both the issues and opportunities in space affairs. It will also be critical that space exploration advocates not be seen as ones who are willing to forsake the home planet. This will discredit space advocates in the eyes of the terrestrially attached, which is most folks. Indeed, the redirection of a significant share of the NASA portfolio towards the home planet is highly likely.

Meanwhile, the structural walls of the old citadel that contain space policy decisions are still in place, but cracks are appearing thanks to new waves of participatory players and societal challenges. These trends are pushing towards both openings and transparency in democratic institutions and entities, including in the entity called NASA. Those would-be space leaders who understand the dynamic intersection of empowered public will, interactive technology, space consumption, and global warming will best be able to guide NASA into the second decade of the 21st century. Should they also embrace these facets of the future, a future that has already arrived, they will find themselves with the credibility to also make the case for increasing budgets and increasingly robust space exploration initiatives as well.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kathleen M. Connell is a Principal of The Connell Whittaker Group LLC, and a former Policy Director of the Aerospace States Association. She is an advocate for space solutions of benefit to humanity. She lives in San Diego, California.

GM envisions driverless cars on horizon

2008-01-07T08:34:00.000-05:00

By TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer
2 hours, 33 minutes ago

DETROIT - Cars that drive themselves — even parking at their destination — could be ready for sale within a decade, General Motors Corp. executives say.

GM, parts suppliers, university engineers and other automakers all are working on vehicles that could revolutionize short- and long-distance travel. And Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will devote part of his speech to the driverless vehicles.

"This is not science fiction," Larry Burns, GM's vice president for research and development, said in a recent interview.

The most significant obstacles facing the vehicles could be human rather than technical: government regulation, liability laws, privacy concerns and people's passion for the automobile and the control it gives them.

Much of the technology already exists for vehicles to take the wheel: radar-based cruise control, motion sensors, lane-change warning devices, electronic stability control and satellite-based digital mapping. And automated vehicles could dramatically improve life on the road, reducing crashes and congestion.

If people are interested.

"Now the question is what does society want to do with it?" Burns said. "You're looking at these issues of congestion, safety, energy and emissions. Technically there should be no reason why we can't transfer to a totally different world."

GM plans to use an inexpensive computer chip and an antenna to link vehicles equipped with driverless technologies. The first use likely would be on highways; people would have the option to choose a driverless mode while they still would control the vehicle on local streets, Burns said.

He said the company plans to test driverless car technology by 2015 and have cars on the road around 2018.

Sebastian Thrun, co-leader of the Stanford University team that finished second among six teams completing a 60-mile Pentagon-sponsored race of driverless cars in November, said GM's goal is technically attainable. But he said he wasn't confident cars would appear in showrooms within a decade.

"There's some very fundamental, basic regulations in the way of that vision in many countries," said Thrun, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering.

The Defense Department contest, which initially involved 35 teams, showed the technology isn't ready for prime time. One team was eliminated after its vehicle nearly charged into a building, while another vehicle mysteriously pulled into a house's carport and parked itself.

Thrun said a key benefit of the technology eventually will be safer roads and reducing the roughly 42,000 U.S. traffic deaths that occur annually — 95 percent of which he said are caused by human mistakes.

"We might be able to cut those numbers down by a factor of 50 percent," Thrun said. "Just imagine all the funerals that won't take place."

Other challenges include updating vehicle codes and figuring out who would be liable in a crash and how to cope with blown tires or obstacles in the road. But the systems could be developed to tell motorists about road conditions, warn of crashes or stopped vehicles ahead and prevent collisions in intersections.

Later versions of driverless technology could reduce jams by directing vehicles to space themselves close together, almost as if they were cars in a train, and maximize the use of space on a freeway, he said.

"It will really change society, very much like the transition from a horse to a car," Thrun said.

The U.S. government has pushed technology to help drivers avoid crashes, most notably electronic stability controls that help prevent rollovers. The systems are required on new passenger vehicles starting with the 2012 model year.

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication and technology allowing cars to talk with highway systems could come next.

Still in debate are how to address drivers' privacy, whether current vehicles can be retrofitted and how many vehicles would be need the systems to develop an effective network.

"Where it shakes out remains to be seen but there is no question we see a lot of potential there," said Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

___

Associated Press Writer Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.

Airline passenger rights movement taking off

2008-01-04T07:25:00.000-05:00

George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, January 4, 2008

If you're still fuming from being confined in an airplane sitting on the tarmac last year, as many thousands of passengers were, some relief may be at hand. Maybe even some revenge.

There are developments on three fronts on behalf of consumers who feel antagonized for what they consider intolerable periods of time stuck for hours in airplanes.

It's possible that Congress, when it takes up a bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration, perhaps in February, will include in it protections for passengers who are inconvenienced by being stranded on airplanes for three hours or more.

New York decided it couldn't wait for Congress to act. On New Year's Day, the first-in-the-nation airline passengers' bill of rights became law, requiring airlines to provide stranded passengers at New York airports with critical supplies to make delays more tolerable.

The law was in response to numerous incidences of passengers being stranded, but primarily because thousands of passengers were kept in grounded aircraft at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York during a snow and ice storm last Valentine's Day, some for up to 10 hours.

The law requires that once airplanes leave gates in New York and have been on the tarmac for more than three hours, there must be drinking water, snacks and other refreshments, electric-generation service for fresh air and lights and removal of waste from holding tanks for on-board restrooms. It carries a penalty of $1,000 per passenger per violation.

"It became very evident that the government needed to step in and see that passengers are treated humanely on these flights," said New York Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, a co-sponsor of the bill that Gov. Eliot Spitzer signed into law. "This is home to the most delayed airports in the country," said Gianaris, whose Queens district includes LaGuardia Airport.

Lawmakers in New Jersey, Rhode Island and Connecticut are in various stages of preparing similar legislation, said Gianaris. If such a proposal is under consideration in California it hasn't surfaced yet.

The Air Transport Association of America, the trade association representing the major U.S. air carriers, is battling such legislation, on the theory that decisions need to rest in the hands of cockpit crews. The trade association challenged Gianaris' bill in U.S. District Court in Albany, arguing that commercial aviation is best regulated by one source, the federal government, not individual states.

Judge Lawrence Kahn, in dismissing the association's challenge, ruled last month that the New York law covers legitimate health and safety issues and is not pre-empted by the federal Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 as it does not affect an airline's fares, routes or service.

The trade association said it believes Kahn misinterpreted the law and it is considering an appeal.

And finally, Kate Hanni, the Napa real estate agent who gave up her day job to become a consumer advocate and form the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights to lobby for the federal legislation, took the matter of "tarmac confinement" to court last week.

She filed a lawsuit against American Airlines, alleging false imprisonment during the nine hours she sat in a plane that had been diverted from Dallas to Austin, Texas, in the midst of a 1,000-mile-long thunderstorm on Dec. 29, 2006. The suit, filed Friday in Napa County Superior Court - just under the deadline of a one-year statute of limitations - also accuses the world's largest airline of intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and breach of contract.

American Airlines, based in Fort Worth, Texas, says it does not comment on pending litigation, other than to say that it has implemented practices to better deal with inclement weather and that it was forced to divert 121 planes that day for safety reasons.

The airline, however, does specifically dispute one of Hanni's claims about her experience on Flight 1348, from San Francisco to Dallas. In the suit she alleges, "The toilets became full and would not flush and the stench of human excrement and body odor filled the plane." American said, "None of the three restroom toilets ever overflowed. In fact, the toilets were serviced at the earliest opportunity by ground crews."

A Department of Transportation Inspector General's report said the airline provided "tolerable restroom facilities on the aircraft delayed in Austin; however, some passengers felt American's efforts were inadequate in that regard."

Another passenger stranded that day in Austin, Catherine Ray of Fayetteville, Ark., has filed a suit similar to Hanni's against American Airlines in state court in Arkansas. The two were in separate airplanes, but Ray said the toilet in her airplane "could not be flushed anymore" and there was no water to wash one's hands.

Both Hanni and Ray are asking judges to certify their cases as class actions, on behalf of some 12,000 American passengers who were confined for hours in airplanes "in poor to deplorable conditions" on Dec. 29, 2006.

"It fundamentally changed my life," Hanni said of her experience, which prompted a career change - to walk away from 17 years as a real estate agent as well as the loss of relatively high income to become an unpaid consumer advocate.

"Anyone can sell real estate," said Hanni. "I don't know anyone else who would stick his or her neck out to create a coalition to take on the airlines, every day, and do it for nothing. But I have to, because passengers have no lobby. There's a callous disregard for passengers."

Hanni, who formed the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights ( www.flyersrights.com) to develop passenger-friendly legislation, added, "I miss the money" from real estate. "But I'm so excited to be involved with something forward reaching where I can leave my mark."

Hanni is lobbying in part to try to preserve a provision in the House version of the passengers' bill of rights requiring airlines to have a strategy for taking passengers off airplanes. The bill also requires airlines to provide for passengers' basic needs.

Storms can cause passengers to be held in airplanes on the tarmac, but, said Paul Hudson, a New York lawyer representing Hanni, most tarmac confinements are the result of congestion, mechanical problems with the aircraft, lack of ready flight crews, air traffic control malfunctions, diversions from other airports, airport curfews, or lack of customs and immigration or security personnel to process incoming international flights.

Hudson, who is also executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, a nonprofit group monitoring safety and security issues, negotiated a settlement on behalf of 4,000 Northwest Airlines passengers who were confined in airplanes from four to 11 hours during a snowstorm at Detroit Metro Airport in January 1999. They shared in a settlement of $7.1 million.

Hudson believes, as Hanni alleges in her lawsuit against American Airlines, that confinements are intended to avoid "expenses and lawful obligations to passengers associated with strandings, diversions and canceled flights."

Of the airlines, he added, "Their primary defense is, 'This is an act of God.' I guess we're supposed to sue God."

Know your rights
Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights: www.flyersrights.com

Aviation Consumer Action Project: www.acap1971.org

Department of Transportation Aviation Consumer Protection Division: airconsumer.ost.dot.gov

E-mail George Raine at graine@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Knight Rider Evolution

2008-01-01T13:04:00.001-05:00

Knight Rider

Knight Rider 2000

Knight Rider 2010

Team Knight Rider

Knight Rider 2008 <---would have been nice

Knight Rider 2008

This should have been the new KITT....

2008-01-01T12:23:00.000-05:00

Koenigsegg CCX

Third Generation Firebird
Production 1982–1992

Knight Rider 2.0

2008-01-01T12:16:00.000-05:00

If you were a child of the 1980s, or are just a fan of very-late-night cable television, then you've most likely seen Michael Knight (played by a pre-Baywatch David Hasselhoff) and his chatty supercar sidekick, KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand), do battle with bad guys on the small-screen action-adventure show Knight Rider.

At first glance, KITT appeared to be a sporty 1982 Pontiac Trans Am, fresh off the assembly line. But thanks to a little Hollywood razzle-dazzle, the car transformed into a virtually indestructible machine—possessed with advanced artificial intelligence that allowed it to accept voice control commands, interact with "The Hoff" and make decisions on its own. In fact, the car's AI was so advanced that KITT formed a kind of personality, which is what has endeared the "car" to millions of auto geeks in a way the Batmobile never could be. But when the show was shelved in 1986, so was KITT.

Last week, NBC unveiled an all-new, controversial KITT, which is set to star in the made-for-TV Knight Rider movie in February. Based on the still-to-be-released Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR (click here for engine-revving video), this virtual Stang comes tricked out with a supercomputer that can hack almost any system; a very capable weapons system; and a body—thanks to nanotechnology—that's able to shape-shift and change color at will. Like its predecessor, the 21st century KITT gets AI from digital effects wizards that makes it an ideal crime-fighting partner: logical, precise and infinitely smart.

Designer Harald Belker, who has created the Batmobile for Batman and Robin and a next-gen space shuttle for Armageddon, came onboard to give the new KITT. a unique look. "The goal was to make it look more aggressive without being hokey or garish," Belker says. "Maintaining as much of the original beauty of the Shelby as possible was important—and not just because of the Ford connection. It had to be simple yet believable as a superhero." Once his vision was set, Belker turned to Ted Moser from Picture Car Warehouse to make his drawings come to life. But there was one big hurdle: The GT500KR doesn't technically exist quite yet. "So we had to finish their design first," Moser says. "Then we brought in a prop maker to create side skirts and spoilers out of wood, smooth them out, and sent them to a fiberglass shop to make molds. Once the parts are formed from those molds, we finish them and attach them to the car."

One of the cooler features of the Mustang KITT is air-ride suspension, which allows its driver to lower the car's ride height when the vehicle morphs from Hero to Attack mode. "When it goes on the offensive, it gets slammed to the ground," Moser chuckles. Very aggressive, indeed. There will be three models used in filming: Hero (essentially a stock GT500KR); Attack (the tricked-out model); and Remote Control (operated via RC, obviously). "All of the ‘transforming' will be done through CGI animation like in the Transformers movie," Moser admits. (Click here for behind-the-scenes digital wizardry from this summer's blockbuster flick.)

For all you Trans Am holdouts, Mustang droolers and Hasselhoff haters, here's the very first look at all of the new KITT's gee-whiz specs and functionality, matched up to the original to determine which is better equipped for Hollywood crime-fighting.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4237588.html

Kid hits button, foams airport hangar

2007-12-11T12:41:00.001-05:00

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A curious kid just couldn't resist temptation and hit an emergency button that triggered a sea of fire suppression foam at a Philadelphia airport hangar.

The expanse of white foam not only filled the hangar Saturday but it spilled out onto the tarmac where the wind blew puffs of it into the air like a snow storm.

The incident at Northeast Airport occurred during Agusta Aerospace's family day outing. Authorities said an employee's child hit a button that said "Don't hit button unless in an emergency" WPVI-TV in Philadelphia reported.

The Philadelphia Fire Department was called out to to clean up the mess. There was no word on any damage to the helicopter inside the hangar.

New Knight Rider Gets Hoffed

2007-11-25T16:09:00.000-05:00

New Knight Rider Gets Hoffed
By Josh Grossberg
Tue Nov 20, 1:47 PM PST

The Hoff is ready to roll.

David Hasselhoff is in talks to reprise his role as Michael Knight in a TV movie sequel to his breakout 1980s hit series, Knight Rider, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

NBC is hoping the TV movie will reboot the franchise and launch a new series. This time out, however, Hasselhoff will cede the KITT-driving to Justin Bruening, who will play Michael Knight's son.

Per the Reporter, the so-called "backdoor pilot" will find Junior holed up in Vegas, where he's in big trouble for unpaid gambling debts and is bitter about his unrequited love for childhood best friend Sarah Kamen.

His luck changes, however, when Sarah (The Young & the Restless actress Deanna Russo), turns up and offers him a way out of his mess.

Little does the younger Knight know that Sarah is the daughter of KITT inventor Charles Kamen, who has gone missing. It's up to Knight to rescue him.

No word yet exactly how big a part the Hoff will have this time around or whether he'll be a regular should a new series get greenlighted.

Producers are also tight-lipped about what kind of vehicle the new KITT will be. The original talking Trans Am was known as Knight Industries Two Thousand. For the new version, the car will be updated to the Knight Industries Three Thousand. Early reports suggested the vehicle would have Transformers-like abilities and indicated producers were still seeking an auto manufacture to partner with.

The Knight Rider telepic is being produced by filmmaker Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity), who may direct the pilot if he can squeeze it into his schedule.

Hasselhoff's last ride with KITT was in the 1991 telepic Knight Rider 2000, and over the years he's made no secret about his desire to rev up a big-screen version. But with the feature film Knight Rider stalled in development, NBC decided to proceed with a new TV incarnaiton.

Meanwhile, Hasselhoff is currently gearing up to star in Tales from the Hoff, a Ryan Seacrest-produced scripted series for E! that will follow his fictionalized escapades, à la Curb Your Enthusiasm. (E! Online is a division of E! Networks.) He's also got a steady gig as a judge on the Peacock's hit reality contest America's Got Talent.

Copyright © 2007 E! Online, Inc. All rights reserved.

Is United Airlines looking for a suitor?

2007-11-23T22:45:00.000-05:00

Is United Airlines looking for a suitor?
Posted Nov 23rd 2007 12:45PM by Michael Fowlkes
Filed under: Deals, Rumors, Management, Competitive strategy, UAL Corp (UAUA), Delta Air Lines (DAL)

Earlier this month, rumors hit the market that United Airlines (NYSE: UAUA) and Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) were considering a possible merger. Shortly afterward, Delta officially denied the rumors, but not surprisingly, United Airlines CEO Glen Tilton did not deny that they were considering merger options, as many industry analysts believe that United is the perfect company for a possible merger.

The airline, which took flight in 1930, filed for bankruptcy following the 2001 terrorist attacks and has appeared to be preparing for a sale ever since emerging from its bankruptcy proceedings. United came out of bankruptcy last year, but the company is still up to its eyeballs in debt, and boasts a miserable 2% profit margin over the past year.

When looking at United a couple of factors jump out at you pointing to the notion that the company feels a merger is the best avenue to explore:

Unlike most of the other large airline companies, United has decided not to add to its fleet. Currently the company has 460 jets in its fleet and it plans to rely on this existing fleet until 2015 or 2016. By this time, the company's planes will have an average age of twenty years. According to the company's official statement, it is just waiting for the next generation of planes, but to industry insiders this is a red flag that the company is trying to make sure it remains as favorable as possible to a takeover, and a long list of plane orders will not help that goal. The company has been looking at ways to get as much debt as it possibly can off the table. It is considering the possibility of selling off its frequent flyer program, worth about $7.5 billion. Consider that United currently has a market cap of slightly under $5 billion. It is also considering the sale of its partial ownership in its maintenance operations along with a possible sale of its cargo business to private-equity investors, bringing in billions in cash and, once again, making the company more favorable to a possible buyer.
Industry insiders have estimated that after the possible spin-offs, the company's stock value could balloon up towards $80 a share. That would be right at a 100% jump from its current selling price of $40.15 a share.

What are your thoughts? Should United look for a favorable suitor?

NASA Chief: $2 Billion Would Speed Development of Shuttle Replacement

2007-11-19T20:48:00.001-05:00

By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 16 November 2007
10:08 am ET

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin told a Senate panel Thursday that the United States could field the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and its Ares I launcher within three years of the space shuttle's retirement, but meeting that earlier delivery date would require an extra $2 billion over the next couple of years.

"When I came on board it would have been possible, given the necessary budgetary resources, to retire the shuttle at the end of 2010 and deploy Orion in 2012. Time has passed and that is no longer possible. The earliest we could technically to do it today is September of 2013 ... absent crash efforts," Griffin told the Senate Commerce space and aeronautics subcommittee. The two-hour hearing was devoted to the issues facing the U.S. space program after the shuttle's retirement.

NASA is preparing to retire its three remaining space shuttle orbiters in late 2010 after completing on-orbit assembly of the International Space Station and sending up two dedicated shuttle-loads of critical spare parts. After that, the United States could lack a home-grown means of reaching the space station until Orion and Ares are brought on line in March 2015, the earliest date NASA says it reasonably can guarantee despite budgeting nearly $23 billion for the Constellation effort over the next five years on top of the roughly $5 billion it has spent so far.

Hoping to bridge that gap by buying space transportation services from U.S. firms, Griffin explained that NASA is spending $500 million over the next couple of years to subsidize development of new commercial cargo- and crew-delivery systems.

But with no guarantee that any of the commercial ventures will pan out, NASA is paying Russia to transport U.S. astronauts and their supplies to the station during the gap and is prepared to pay the European and Japanese space agencies to make additional cargo runs if needed.

Griffin also reminded the subcommittee that the only reason NASA is permitted to buy Progress and Soyuz rides from Russia is because Congress granted the space agency temporary relief from the Iran-Syria Non-Proliferation Act, which restricts NASA's purchase of space station-related goods and services from Russia. Unless Congress renews the relief it granted in 2005, NASA will not be allowed to buy Russian rides after 2011. If U.S. firms are not ready to transport astronauts to the station between 2012 and Orion's debut in 2015, Griffin said, NASA either would have to seek permission to buy more Soyuz or keep its astronauts on the ground for a few years.

The two staunch human spaceflight supporters who presided over the hearing, Sens. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) were not pleased with Griffin's assessments. Nelson called NASA's reliance on Russia especially "perilous" in light of the chilling relationship between Washington and Moscow.

"Can anybody in America predict the geopolitics of Russia in 2012 particularly given what we see are the actions of Vladimir Putin right now?" Nelson said.

"And here we have a plan set up by NASA that is going to rely on us paying for Russian vehicles at the same time that we are laying off maybe 5,000 people at the Kennedy Space Center," Nelson said, adding that there is no guarantee Russia will sell the United States Soyuz vehicles at any price in 2012 given the unpredictable and worrisome turns that nation is taking.

'I don't want to leave this committee with the impression that we are in a good position. We are not," Griffin said, adding he finds it "unseemly in the extreme" that the United States very soon could find itself dependent on another nation for putting its astronauts in orbit. But, Griffin said, NASA is doing the best it can within its existing $16.5 billion annual budget.

He also challenged Nelson's assertion that 5,000 of the roughly 15,000 civil servants and contractors that work at Florida's Kennedy Space Center would lose their jobs once the shuttle retires, calling the estimate "on the high side."

Still, he acknowledged that there would be layoffs and said NASA is identifying new roles and responsibilities for Kennedy to blunt the impact of losing the shuttle program.

Turning the topic to money, Hutchison asked how much NASA would need to reduce the gap between the last flight of the shuttle and the first flight of Orion and Ares.

Richard Gilbrech, NASA associate administrator for exploration systems, told the subcommittee that shaving 18 months off Orion and Ares' development is still technically achievable but would cost an extra $1 billion in 2009 and again in 2010. Bringing the delivery date back inside 2014, Gilbrech said, would require an extra $350 million in 2009 and $400 million in 2010 – roughly the budget of two moderately-priced space science missions.

Hutchison, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she was interested in finding NASA the extra money it would need to narrow the gap and would be willing to examine a combination of new money and cuts to other parts of the agency's budget to get the job done.

"I would like to look at that, because it's a worthy goal," Hutchinson said. "I would think this would be a priority the president and the American people would think would be a worthy goal."

But Hutchison also disclosed during the hearing how tough finding extra money can be.

Hutchison, along with Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md) and several other co-sponsors, managed to get a spending bill through the Senate this year that would increase NASA's 2008 budget by nearly $2 billion over current levels, including a one-time $1 billion cash infusion to help the agency financially recover from the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia Accident.

Hutchison, however, said the extra $1 billion does not look like it will survive legislative conference with the House, which passed its own NASA spending bill over the summer.

"You know that I along with Sen. Mikulski tried to put $1 billion into this year's appropriation, which at this point does not appear to be successful in the conference committee," Hutchison said.

US Lawmakers Grill Space Agency on Plans for Shuttle Retirement

2007-11-19T20:44:00.000-05:00

US Lawmakers Grill Space Agency on Plans for Shuttle Retirement
Mon, 11/19/2007 - 12:57 — newsdesk
15 November 2007 -- U.S. space agency officials are facing sharp questions from U.S. lawmakers over a five-year gap in American spaceflight capabilities between the planned 2010 retirement of the space shuttle fleet and the anticipated development of a successor vehicle. NASA administrators testified before Congress Thursday.

President Bush has instructed NASA to retire the primary workhorse of America's space fleet, the space shuttle, in September 2010, the target date for completing construction of the International Space Station. Years ago, it had been assumed that the United States would have a next-generation space vehicle ready to take over for the aging shuttles, which began service in 1981.

But NASA says the successor, called the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, will not be ready to go into service until 2015. In other words, there will be a five-year gap.

How will the United States fulfill its obligations to provide crew and cargo to the space station during that period? NASA Administrator Michael Griffin says the agency will, in effect, rent space on Russian spacecraft for transporting personnel and rely on Japanese and European vessels for ferrying cargo.

"I think our plan is very solid," said Griffin.

Not so, according to the Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, Bill Nelson. The Florida senator noted that space ventures often suffer delays and unforeseen complications. He said NASA is banking on finishing the International Space Station - and retiring the space shuttle - by a specific deadline that may, in the end, have to be postponed.

"All of us know those kind of things [delays] will happen," said Nelson. "What we have is a $50 billion or $60 billion asset up there in space that has got to be tended to and has got to be built. And it may not come [be completed] by 2010."

Meanwhile, the ranking Republican on the committee, Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, expressed reservations about relying on the space capabilities of a partner - Russia - with whom the United States has had somewhat-frosty relations.

"If we are not able to go into space at all in a gap period because our relations with Russia are not such that we would be able to go up, the American people are going to wake up and say, 'What happened? What happened to the leadership of our country, to the leadership in Congress, and to the leadership in NASA that we would be in a hiatus from being able to go into space at a time when other countries are emerging and able to do it?'," said Hutchison.

At a time when China and other nations are galloping ahead with their own space programs, NASA officials say they are acutely aware of the need to maintain and strengthen America's space capabilities. Administrator Michael Griffin told the subcommittee he agrees entirely with those who say that the five-year gap in U.S. space transport ability is far from ideal.

"I do not want to leave this hearing or this committee with the impression that we are in a good position," he said. "We are not. The failure to plan for a successor to the space shuttle, and to bring it online in a timely way, was a failure of U.S. strategic planning. We are not in the position I would wish the United States to be in. We are, I think, doing the best that can be done."

Why not simply retain the space shuttle program until the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle is ready for service? NASA says the shuttles require more than $2.5 billion a year to operate. Given NASA's fixed budget, sustaining the shuttle program beyond 2010 would rob funds from other ventures - including the very program to build the shuttle's successor.

Source: VOA News

Are alternate airports worth the drive?

2007-11-16T08:34:00.001-05:00

Are alternate airports worth the drive?
Posted 8d ago | Comments21 | Recommend7 E-mail | Save | Print |

Digg del.icio.us Newsvine Reddit Facebook What's this? By Ed Perkins, SmarterTravel.com
Almost all travel mavens espouse the mantra of "flexibility" when searching for good deals - airfares, cruises, hotel accommodations, whatever - especially around the holiday season when prime seats/cabins/rooms sell out early and the pickings are slim. One of the standard "flexibility" recommendations is to consider alternate airports at either or both ends of your trip. Granted, you probably know the options in your local area, but you may not have a clue whether, for example, "Rockford/Chicago" is really a feasible alternative for O'Hare or Midway.
One questioner to a call-in radio show put it this way: "If I ask it, the airfare search engine I use routinely displays options for 'nearby' airports. But how do I know how convenient those nearby airports really are?"

The short answer: I don't know of any exhaustive source. But I'm happy to provide, here, my own idiosyncratic run-down of options at major cities.

The congested airports

The most important alternative airports are those that help ease congestion and overloading at a few of the major U.S. metro areas. Some alternatives are really quite convenient; others are a stretch. Most of them provide extensive service, at least from other major hubs. Several have taken on the name of a major city as far as 50 miles away - sometimes useful, sometimes outright deceptive.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Chicago | LOS ANGELES | Boston | Universal Resource Locator | Jetblue | Rockford | Skybus | Allegiant Air
In general, all of these fields are good choices for travel to/from nearby communities within the larger metro areas, but not necessarily to/from the major city they claim to serve. My comments and recommendations reflect their suitability for travelers headed to the centers of the major cities, not nearby communities.

Boston

• Main airport: Logan: Close in, good public transportation, easy cab access to centers. Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, Manchester, New Hampshire: 58 miles from central Boston, free shuttle to Boston every 3 hours, 15 minutes; too far for cabs; closest Boston airport for Southwest, also other airlines. Use it mainly for Southwest.

•T.F. Green Airport, Warwick, Rhode Island: 59 miles from central Boston; poor public transportation (Amtrak/MBTA airport station under construction); too far for cabs. Boston option for Southwest, also other airlines. Use it mainly for Southwest.

•Pease International Airport, Portsmouth, New Hampshire: 67 miles from Boston. Poor public transportation; too far for cabs; the Boston airport for Skybus, with a history of on-and-off service from other low far lines. Use it only for Skybus.

•Worcester Regional Airport, Worcester Massachusetts: 48 miles from central Boston. Off-and-on history of airline service; currently "off."

Chicago

• Main airports: O'Hare and Midway, both with good public transit, cab, and shuttle access.

•Chicago Rockford International Airport: 86 miles from central Chicago ("Chicago" is a real stretch here). Poor public transportation; too far for cabs; service from Allegiant Air, United Express, and seasonal charters. Use it only for Allegiant. Milwaukee, about the same distance, has far more extensive air service.

•Gary Chicago International Airport, Gary Indiana: 25 miles to center. On-and-off airline service; currently "off."

Los Angeles

• Main airport: Los Angeles International (LAX), reasonably close, poor public transportation; good cab and shuttle service.

•Bob Hope Airport, Burbank: As close as LAX to central L.A. Fair public transportation, good cab and shuttle access. Service from most big airlines. A "hidden gem." A preferred field for Valley cities, Glendale, Pasadena, Altadena, and nearby communities, and easier to use than LAX for downtown L.A.

•Long Beach Airport, Long Beach: 15 miles from central L.A. Poor public transportation, good cab and shuttle access. The primary Los Angeles airport for JetBlue, with limited service from other big lines. Another convenient "hidden gem," especially for beach communities and not bad for downtown; OK but not as good as Orange County for the Anaheim entertainment complex.

•LA/Ontario International Airport, Ontario: 35 miles from central L.A. Poor public transportation, too far for cabs. Service from major airlines. For downtown L.A., use it only in a pinch.

•LA/Palmdale Regional Airport, Palmdale: 65 miles from central L.A. Poor public transportation, too far for cab. Minimal current service to San Francisco. L.A. plans to make Palmdale a major focus of expansion, which will be hugely inconvenient until proposed high-speed rail link is built (don't hold your breath).

New York

• Main airports: JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark. Good public transportation at JFK and Newark, easy cab access at LaGuardia.

•Long Island MacArthur Airport, Islip: 50 miles from Manhattan. Fair public transportation, too far for cab. New York's only option for Southwest; some service from other giant lines. Choose mainly for Southwest.

•Westchester County Airport, White Plains: 30 miles from Manhattan. Poor public transportation; too far for cab. Limited service from giant lines' proximate hubs plus AirTran and JetBlue, with future growth strictly limited by local opposition to more flights. A good choice only for travel to/from nearby communities.

•Stewart International Airport, Newburgh: 55 miles from Manhattan. Poor public transportation, too far for cabs. Stewart's lease is being taken over by the NY/NJ Port Authority, with the intent of building it into a major reliever for the three main— and overcrowded—airports. It will be a very poor choice until a direct rail link is built (several years in the future, at best). Limited service by major airlines from their proximate hubs, plus JetBlue and AirTran.

The others

Although few other main airports are as overused as those in the giant cities, alternative airports have been developed at several other big metro areas. Most provide only limited service. And, in several cases, the primary purpose of the alternative airports is not so much to relieve congestion at the prime fields as it is to entice airlines by offering lower costs.

Orlando

Some flights—especially foreign charters and some low-fare domestic services—use Orlando Sanford International Airport, because of lower costs, not convenience.

Phoenix

The main airport, Phoenix Sky Harbor, is promoting strong growth at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Mesa, formerly Williams Air Force Base.

St. Louis

MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, Mascouta, Illinois, is one of those "build it and they won't come" ventures. Airline service has been on-and-off; currently, it's limited to Allegiant.

San Francisco

Travelers to Marin County communities can avoid congested bridge traffic to/from San Francisco, Oakland, or San Joseby flying to Charles Schultz Sonoma County Airport, Santa Rosa, from Seattle or Los Angeles. Would probably warrant additional service, absent local opposition to most growth.

Allegiant and Skybus

Two low-fare lines specialize in serving underutilized airports, including some big-city alternative fields.

• Allegiant uses Bellingham (Seattle), Gulfport/Biloxi (New Orleans), Mid-America (St Louis), Rockford (Chicago), and Santa Monica (Los Angeles) for its less-than-daily non-stops to a few prime domestic vacation centers. It provides similar services from more than two dozen smaller cities around the U.S. that have either no scheduled service at all or services limited to short-haul feeder flights.

• Skybus uses Bellingham, Chicopee, Massachusetts (Hartford); Gulfport/Biloxi; Portsmouth (Boston); Punta Gorda, Florida (Ft Myers); and St. Augustine, Florida (Daytona Beach/Jacksonville) for its very cheap flights to/from Columbus. In many cases, those underused airports subsidize Skybus service.

Hedge Fund Seeks Delta Merger With United

2007-11-14T12:42:00.000-05:00

Hedge Fund Seeks Delta Merger With United
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By JEFF BAILEY
Published: November 14, 2007
Pardus Capital Management, a New York hedge fund, has sent a letter to management of Delta Air Lines asking it to seek a stock-for-stock merger with UAL, the parent of United Airlines, in a deal that would create the world’s largest airline and could prompt sweeping consolidation in the airline industry.

Gordon M. Bethune, former chief executive officer of Continental Airlines, is working with Pardus, the hedge fund said in the letter. And consultants have identified $585 million in savings the two big airlines — currently Nos. 2 and 3 in the country — could realize by combining operations.

Pardus said in its letter, sent Tuesday night, that it owns seven million Delta shares, about a 2.6 percent stake.

The proposal comes one year after a bid for Delta by US Airways that ultimately failed. That offer raised hopes among investors that airlines, long reluctant to merge because of expected labor problems and other factors, would finally consolidate and make the industry more efficient.

The US Airways bid also, however, attracted opposition from Delta workers, who feared widespread job losses, and from some who expected that the deal would reduce air service in some cities both carriers served.

The recent rise in oil prices, pushing jet fuel to record levels, threatens to snuff out the airline industry’s nascent recovery and send carriers back into the red. That has led to increased speculation in recent weeks that mergers would again be seriously discussed.

Most airlines remain heavily in debt and highly vulnerable to fuel prices or any economic downturn.

Karim Samii, president of Pardus, and Shane Larson, a principal, said in the letter to Delta’s top executives and its chairman that “we believe it is imperative that you seek to enter into a merged transaction with another carrier given the rapid rise in fuel prices and the increased risk to the business as a stand alone entity.”

Estimates of Delta having $1.5 billion in free cash flow for 2007 suggest, with higher fuel prices, that cash flow “would be more than eliminated if fuel prices remain at current levels for full year 2008,” the letter said.

The letter goes on to evaluate potential merger candidates for Delta, including Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines, but concludes that United is the best fit.

Pardus said in the letter that it had written to Delta management on Sept. 7 recommending a merger but at that time had not named a particular partner.

Since then, the hedge fund consulted with Mr. Bethune, the former Continental chief, and with consultants at Simat, Helliesen & Eichner.

It concluded that United and Delta together would offer the broadest network of routes to business travelers, and substantial savings.

A combination with Northwest would offer more savings — $1.5 billion a year, mostly from combining smaller hubs — but would not create as expansive a network, Pardus concluded. Northwest has a hub in Detroit, and Delta one in Cincinnati; Northwest has a hub in Memphis, and Delta a giant one in Atlanta.

And a combination with Continental would deliver no savings, actually raising the combined airlines’ costs by $171 million a year, and also present difficult management succession issues, the hedge fund concluded.

Pardus recommended that Delta acquire United in a no-premium stock merger. Based on recent trading prices, Delta could swap 2.395 of its shares for each United share, Pardus said. Pardus said it would back Richard H. Anderson, Delta’s chief executive, to run the combined airline, with United’s chief, Glenn Tilton, a former oil man, sticking around as chairman “for the next year or two to help facilitate integration.”

Though Delta might get a better exchange rate by waiting and hoping its stock rises, Pardus recommended seeking a merger immediately. Fuel prices are one factor. And the regulatory climate — the Bush administration may be considerably more tolerant of big mergers than a potential Democratic White House — is another.

When topflight food was standard on planes

2007-11-13T13:29:00.000-05:00

When topflight food was standard on planes
NORTHWESTERN | Old airline menus offered lobster

November 12, 2007
BY BEN GOLDBERGER Staff Reporter bgoldberger@suntimes.com
United Airlines' December 5, 1967 Baltimore-to-San Francisco flight was a good one for a hungry passenger. The in-flight meal began with the French shellfish dish Coquilles St. Jacques, followed by a choice of lobster thermidor, grilled beef tournedos or double French lamb chops with mint jelly. There was soup and salad, of course. Dessert offerings included lime tartlette, chocolate torte and almond rum bar.

Sure, that was in first class, but the economy class food of the period was nearly as extensive. Brunch for coach passengers on a 1969 United flight from San Francisco to Omaha featured a mushroom omelette, broiled ham and brandied hazelnut mousse. That same year, a Pan Am New York-to-Barbados flight treated economy flyers to stuffed Rock Cornish Hen with madeira sauce and a separate cheese course before dessert. A split of champagne? A buck, even.

The menus for those high-altitude repasts and nearly 400 others are now viewable online through a new Northwestern University Library web site: http://digital.library.northwestern.edu/tranmenus. Most of the menus, which cover 54 airlines, cruise ships and railroads from 1929 to the present, come from the personal collection of the late Northwestern alum George Foster, a globe-trotting anthropologist who saved the menus from his extensive travels.

The collection is both a nostalgic window on an era of air travel when elegant, multi-course meals were an essential part of a flight -- in any class -- and a cruel reminder of just how spartan air travel has become.

Nearly 40 years after George Foster sampled hazelnut mousse en route to Omaha, almost every American airline has stopped serving complimentary meals in their main cabins on domestic flights. Passengers on United flights longer than three hours can buy pre-made salads and wraps for $5, or a snackbox for $3. Passengers on shorter flights have to settle for peanuts -- even shrink-wrapped food is only available for purchase on longer trips. American Airlines offers similar options, as do most U.S. carriers.

Blame 9/11 and the demand for lower fares, says David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, a passenger advocacy group.

"The airlines were in such a devastated financial condition after 9/11 that there was a move to just getting back up in the air with very few amenities, and slowly they realized the public was going to accept that, and no meals became the new normal," Stempler said. "We've had a race to the bottom as to fares, [and] in the process people went for the lower fares over food, over pillows, over all kinds of amenities. They keep voting with their wallets."

But all is not lost for the airline gourmand. As carriers have gutted main cabin service, they are increasingly competing to offer the plushest amenities in business and first class. Almost every major airline now has a celebrity chef consulting on its premium class menus.

"Our chefs are really focusing on what the restaurant trends are and keeping airlines up to speed with those trends, rather than having airlines be the last to get there," said Christina Ulosevich, a spokeswoman for the international airline catering firm Gate Gourmet. The company recently paired with TV-friendly Miami chef Michelle Bernstein to design upscale, contemporary menus for Delta's international BusinessElite service. Among the offerings are of-the-moment restaurant fare like braised short ribs, grilled beef filet and shrimp scampi over lemon risotto and pomegranate glazed lamb chops.

"It's a tale of two or three classes on the airplanes," said Stempler. "In the front of the plane, in business and first, there's a race to the top. [The airlines] are all fighting each other for the best food, the best wine, the best service."

Such is the case at Chicago-based United. While George Foster had complimentary grilled spring chicken with shallots on a United flight to Des Moines in 1974, the airline's current main cabin passengers shell out for pretzels. First class flyers on select international flights, however, are served a multi-course menu designed by decorated Chicago chef Charlie Trotter.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS
These three menus were all offered on the same flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand, in March of 1980:
LIGHT MEAL

Pineapple spears

Club sandwiches

Blueberry tart

Cheese and biscuits

Coffee -- tea

BREAKFAST

Compote of fruit

Mushroom omelette

Grilled ham

Grilled tomato

Danish pastry - roll

Conserves -- butter

Coffee -- tea

DINNER

Hors d'oeuvre

Fillet steak sauce Bordelaise

Carrots vichy -- butter minted peas

Noisette potatoes

Grateau royal Hawaiian

Cheese and biscuits

Bread roll -- butter

Coffee -- tea

Glory Days, Noisy Cabins Feature in Smithsonian's Airline Show

2007-11-13T13:28:00.000-05:00

Glory Days, Noisy Cabins Feature in Smithsonian's Airline Show

By John Hughes

Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- One way to enjoy air travel without any attendant misery is on offer in Washington at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.

``America by Air,'' a new $5 million permanent exhibition, reflects a decade of planning and tells the airline industry's story in a space nearly the size of a hockey rink.

``Everything you ever wanted to know about air travel will be covered,'' says Jack Daley, the museum's director.

The most striking new perspective comes from beneath the nose of a Boeing Co. 747, for nearly four decades the largest airliner in the world until the Airbus SAS A380 surpassed it this year.

A 38-foot, 26,500-pound front section of the plane dramatically juts forth from a gallery wall, affording a view travelers rarely get. You can even touch the front tire and landing gear. Northwest Airlines Corp. donated the plane, its first 747 and the 27th ever built.

The 1970 airliner's front section arrived in 11 pieces in January, and the Air and Space Museum had to reinforce the gallery floor to support it.

A bridge high above the floor lets visitors enter the plane, peer into the cockpit and gaze down a spiral staircase.

A 1918 Curtiss JN-4D Jenny plane, built 15 years after the Wright brothers' first flight, shows the industry's roots. Jennys were training planes for World War I pilots and the first aircraft used in regular service to carry mail.

Regular Service

The mail flights showed that a regular air service could work, says Robert van der Linden, the exhibition's curator. In 1926, when the U.S. Postal Service began contracting mail delivery to outside carriers, the airline industry was born.

The first reliable passenger service began in 1930 with federal subsidies, and it wasn't pretty. Museum visitors can experience vibrations and noise similar to what early travelers felt in a Ford 5-AT Tri-Motor, one of seven complete aircraft in the exhibit.

Passenger travel grew from about 500,000 in 1931 to more than 4 million a decade later. The Smithsonian recalls this early boom with a 1936 DC-3, the nation's first plane that made money carrying passengers without a federal subsidy.

The plane flew longer ranges, cutting 8.5 hours from the 25 hours it had taken to fly coast to coast. ``It's a milestone,'' van der Linden says. ``Now you have an efficient aircraft to bring costs down.'' By 1939, DC-3s carried 90 percent of the world's airline traffic.

U.S. air travel reached its glamour days in the 1950s and 1960s. The exhibit includes a 19th-century globe that Pan American Airways founder Juan Trippe used to plan worldwide routes, as well as some provocative hot pants and miniskirt outfits that flight attendants of the era were forced to wear.

Deregulation in 1978 moved airlines toward the current state of cheaper fares and crowded skies.

Beehive of Planes

An air-traffic-control tape of a summer day shows U.S. skies over the whole country becoming a beehive of planes. Other tapes show controllers coping with bad weather and the skies being cleared after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

A simulated Airbus A320 cockpit demonstrates what modern, computerized controls look like as a plane takes off and lands at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The glamour is gone. People don't dress up to fly, and food -- that is, if you want to buy it -- doesn't come on a tray with metal silverware in coach class anymore.

Only the soda and pretzels are free.

Yet flying is safer, cheaper and more accessible than ever. U.S. airlines carried almost 750 million passengers last year.

``You can fly anywhere you want in the world and get there in less than a day,'' van der Linden says. ``That is a miracle.''

``America by Air'' is a permanent exhibit that opens Nov. 17 at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

(John Hughes writes about aviation for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the reporter on this story: John Hughes in Washington at jhughes5@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: November 13, 2007 00:04 EST

Emirates May Sell 30% Stake in Initial Public Offer

2007-11-13T13:26:00.000-05:00

Emirates May Sell 30% Stake in Initial Public Offer (Update3)

By Massoud A. Derhally and Andrea Rothman

Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Emirates, the biggest Arab airline, may seek as much as $9 billion in a share sale, provided the Dubai government approves an initial public offering that would be the largest in the Middle East.

``If we do it, it will be 20 to 30 percent'' of the company, Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said today in a telephone interview. ``I don't have a date. It's a government decision.''

Emirates President Tim Clark has said the Dubai-based airline may be worth as much as $30 billion, more than the combined market value of Air France-KLM Group and Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe's largest airlines. The carrier would follow Dubai-owned port operator DP World Ltd. in selling shares as the Persian Gulf emirate builds its reputation as a financial center.

``Emirates doesn't need the money, it needs the credibility,'' Doug McVitie, managing director of Arran Aerospace, a consultant in Dinan, France, said in a telephone interview today. ``It has to be seen as able to attract investment from people who are willing to take a risk. There is a huge difference between government dollars and investor dollars.''

Emirates, the largest customer for Airbus SAS's double-decker A380 airliner, started in 1985 with two leased planes. The carrier now operates 111 aircraft, including freighters. It placed more than $34 billion in orders and options at this week's Dubai Air Show, giving the airline firm commitments for 205 aircraft.

The carrier is at the ``peak of the industry'' and is ``the airline to match,'' McVitie said. In the fiscal year ended in March, the company's profit rose 25 percent to 3.1 billion dirhams ($844 million) from 2.48 billion dirhams, helped by rising passenger and cargo traffic.

`Hungry'

Clark said the market is enthusiastic for an IPO. ``It's hungry, it's ready,'' he said. ``If you floated this company, the funds in the region will take care of that valuation. You wouldn't need any institutional investors from the West.''

Emirates has added destinations in China and India, betting that economic growth in Asia's two most populous countries will spur demand for travel.

The company placed a firm order worth $31 billion for 70 A350s and 11 superjumbo A380s, as well as options for 50 more A350s, from Toulouse, France-based Airbus on Nov. 11, the opening day of the Dubai show. It also bought 12 of Chicago-based Boeing Co.'s 777 aircraft valued at $3.2 billion.

Dubai Show Orders

Middle Eastern carriers have posted orders and options worth about $85 billion with Airbus and Boeing this week at the Dubai show. The value of the aircraft is based on list prices and doesn't reflect discounts normally given for large purchases.

Selling shares of Dubai's ``crown jewels'' is a key step in putting the emirate on the financial map, Fahd Iqbal, senior analyst at investment bank EFG-Hermes UAE Ltd, said in an Oct. 30 interview.

Shares of Dubai-owned companies including Emirates offer ``excellent diversification opportunities for global investors and there will be good demand for the IPO, should that happen,'' he said.

Air Arabia, a low-cost airline based in the United Arab Emirates, raised 2.57 billion dirhams in an IPO earlier this year that received 50 percent more bids than shares on offer. The Sharjah-based carrier is valued at 7.98 billion dirhams.

Initial public offerings in the six Gulf Arab countries captured $5.9 billion in the first nine months of 2007, Abu Dhabi- based private-equity firm Gulf Capital said in a report last month. The 26 IPOs this year received more than six times the amount of bids than shares on offer, Gulf Capital said.

The DP World initial share sale may raise as much as $4.32 billion. The company said Nov. 5 that shares will be listed in Dubai by the end of the month.

To contact the reporters on this story: Massoud A. Derhally in Dubai at mderhally@bloomberg.net ; Andrea Rothman in Toulouse, France, at aerothman@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: November 13, 2007 11:57 EST

Record Companies Look to Sue Yahoo China

2007-11-13T08:54:00.001-05:00

Yahoo is 2nd largest search engine in China, but certainly not immune to litigation

The problems for Yahoo China are continuing to mount. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the organization that protects international music interests, is suing Yahoo China because the search engine allegedly links to sites that are hosting illegally pirated music. Unless the two sides enter negotiations and come to an agreement, the search engine company will be sued in as early as “a few weeks.” The IFPI claims that up to 90 percent of all music recordings in China are illegal. It is not publicly known how much monetary compensation the IFPI will be seeking from Yahoo China and Baidu.

Yahoo China isn't the only search engine company having problems. Baidu.com, the most used search engine in China, is being sued by EMI, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal, Go East Entertainment Co., Gold Label Entertainment, Cinepoly Records and Warner Music Group. The record companies plan to use a new law that became effective on July 1 which will fine the distributors of illegally copyrighted music and movies up to $12,500. In theory, the search engines will have to browse and confirm each video and music link is a legitimate, non-copyrighted file.

As mentioned earlier in the article, Yahoo has had problems because of censorship and what some have considered unethical practices in China. Yahoo is reportedly the biggest censor in China, according to Reporters Without Borders. However, since Yahoo is operating its business in China, the company must abide by all laws and regulations of China. The site is also being accused of taking part in getting a Chinese journalist jailed.

Alibaba: The Biggest Dot Com You've Never Heard of

2007-11-13T08:52:00.000-05:00

Alibaba is cooked up a bit of magic with its stock debut.

Asian internet firm Alibaba has been gaining significant attention since its energetic debut Tuesday on the Hong Kong stock market.

The debut generated $1.5 billion USD for 858.9 million shares. This figure seems eerily similar to Google's $1.66 billion USD debut in 2004. Investors saw stock prices triple within hours as a flurry of activity occurred.

Alibaba is an ecommerce site which connects Asian manufacturers, big and small,with people who need their products. Users of the popular site can request a certain product and Alibaba will seek out a manufacturer.

While Alibaba, the second largest internet company in Asia draws comparisons to Google, these speculations do not involve Alibaba become a competitor to Google. The pair have very different market sectors, with Google mostly focusing on search engines, advertising and free email services.

The real battle appears to be between Google and another Asian company, Baidu, which is the number one search engine in China. Google meanwhile is second and is constantly looking to boost its position. Earlier this year it was reported by DailyTech that Google was building a new center in Shanghai.

Alibaba does however have some aspirations of taking on Google according to its founder. Similar to Google, Alibaba hopes to gain general world web domination, not limited to just one market sector. Its founder, Jack Ma explains "I want to turn the company into a leading e-commerce platform for China, Asia and even the world."

Yahoo currently has a 40 percent interest in Alibaba and Alibaba owns Yahoo China, a confusing situation to say the least. Jack Ma discussed the acquisition of Yahoo China to reporters in 2005, saying challengingly toGoogle, "We will use all the resources we have to focus on search in the next two to three years in China. ...We already won (over) eBay. We already bought Yahoo! and the money is to stop Google."

Yahoo China is the third largest search engine in China currently, despite being a target of some recent lawsuits of RIAA parent organization IFPI, as reported here at DailyTech.

Rob Enderle, a principal analyst at the Enderle Group, argues that Alibaba and other regional internet firms stand a real threat to Google. "Undoubtedly, Google will be nibbled to death by turkeys because a lot of folks can come in and niche them out by region and bleed Google through that niche,” said Enderle.“They're going to have to address this at some point. For Google who's a global player, they have to try to kind of be the best at doing everything. That means that some other company will be the best at doing something."

Alibaba also owns eBay-esque Taobaba, PayPal-esque Alipay, and Chinese IT and tech software firm Alisoft.

With such a strong debut and a broad portfolio of holdings, it’s likely Alibaba won't remain unnoticed by the West for long.

Nissan Develops Color Changing Paint for Vehicles

2007-11-13T08:49:00.001-05:00

Drivers will be able to change their vehicle color at the flip of a switch

Nissan is truly doing wonderful things in the automotive arena. The company recently unveiled its highly-anticipated 2009 GT-R. The vehicle pumps out an impressive 473 HP and an equally impressive 434 lb-ft of twist from its twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V6 engine.

Now that development is winding down for what is likely Nissan's most advanced road car ever, the Japanese-based company is turning its attention to more "mundane" matters when it comes to choosing a vehicle: color.

Choosing a color when purchasing a new vehicle can be a gut-wrenching endeavor. Many cars look good in black, but the color is a pain to keep clean. Silver often best shows off the curves of a vehicle, but everyone chooses silver these days. Pick a color like beige, and you'll blend in with the rest of the anonymous Toyota Camrys darting in and out of traffic with the right blinker still on.

Nissan hopes to give car buyers the ability to choose whatever color they like for their vehicle -- at any time. Nissan has developed what it calls a "paramagnetic" paint coating -- a unique polymer layer which features iron oxide particles is applied to the vehicle body. When an electric current is applied to the polymer layer, the crystals in the polymer are then interpreted by the human eye as different colors.

Depending on the level of current and the spacing of the crystals, a wide gamut of colors can be selected by the driver. However, since a steady current is needed to maintain the color effect, the paramagnetic paint doesn't work when the vehicle is turned off -- instead, the vehicle would revert back to a default white color.

If you may recall, Ford offered a similar paint option on its mid-90s Mustang GT and Cobra (Mystic) and 2004 Mustang Cobras (Mystychrome). In both cases, the vehicle appeared to be either green or purple depending on the viewing angle.

Nissan is hard at work on the paramagnetic paint and hopes to have it on production vehicles by 2010.

Paramagnetic paint isn't the first time that Nissan had ventured into ways to improve paint technology. The company also developed a self-healing "Scratch Guard Coat" to apply vehicle paint. Thanks to the advanced coating, vehicle are nearly impervious to superficial scratches caused by carwash brushes, fingernails or other minor surface scratches.

Any scratches that are made on the vehicle are "healed" within one day to a week depending on the depth of the scratch.

Nissan's Scratch Guard Coat is currently available on the 2008 Infiniti EX35 luxury crossover utility vehicle.

2007-11-06T08:27:00.000-05:00

O.K., it’s happened: we’re officially old.

2007-11-06T07:47:00.001-05:00

O.K., it’s happened: we’re officially old.

Stuart Goldenberg
VideoMore Video » When you sheepishly tell your children that you used to have to watch TV shows by sitting down in a certain place at a certain time — well, you know you’re old.

First came the TiVo and its ilk, eliminating the bit about sitting down “at a certain time.” Then came the Slingbox from Sling Media, which obliterated the need to be “in a certain place.” Later, SlingPlayer Mobile software for cellphones even wiped out the part about “sitting down.”

Of course, the Slingbox isn’t nearly as famous as the TiVo; you may not even have heard of it. In that case, saying that the new Slingbox Solo has a lower price ($180) than its predecessors and has built-in jacks for high-definition gear probably won’t mean much to you.

In that case, a primer is in order.

The Slingbox’s purpose in life is to transmit whatever is on your TV to your laptop or smartphone (like a Treo or Windows Mobile phone) across the Internet. The point, of course, is to allow people who travel — to another room, another city or another continent — to view all the channels and recordings that they’re already paying so much money for at home.

It comes in handy when you want to watch TV upstairs, but your fancy high-definition TiVo is downstairs. It’s also great when you’re in a hotel room, bristling at paying $13 for a movie when your video recorder back home is a veritable Blockbuster. And Slingboxes are also a blessing when you are overseas and longing for the news, or the sports broadcasts, of your hometown.

There are a few other ways to perform a similar stunt, but none with the Slingbox’s high video quality, super-simple setup and ability to display both recordings and live TV.

The new Slingbox Solo is tiny; its trapezoidal shape is meant to evoke the shape of a gold ingot, and it’s now about that size, too (9 by 4 by 2 inches). That’s about half the size of its predecessor, the Slingbox Pro.

(The Pro is still available, however — for $230, plus $50 for an accessory if you want to connect to high-def equipment. The Pro lets you connect up to four video sources — TiVo, satellite box, Apple TV, DVD player and so on — and switch among them by remote control. The Solo, as its name implies, connects to only one. For most people, that’s the TiVo, satellite box or cable box.)

If you’re the kind of person who is terrified by the tangle behind your TV set, the setup is no joyride. For anyone else, though, it’s not bad. You plug your video source into the Solo’s inputs: component cables (for HDTV gear), S-video or composite cables. If a video source has only one output — a cable box, for example — you’ll be grateful that the Solo also has outputs that pass the signal on to your TV. (Another existing model, the Slingbox AV, does not.) In other words, you can wire the Solo in between your cable box and your TV.

You must also connect the Slingbox to a broadband Internet connection. For most people, that means connecting the Slingbox to a home router. This may be the stickiest part of the installation, since your router is probably in the basement, closet or office — not next to the TV. And the Slingbox isn’t wireless.

At this point, you could buy a really long Ethernet cable and thread it through the walls, from Slingbox to router. Sling reports that some people have luck with wireless transmitters, but it recommends its own SlingLink Turbo powerline transmitters ($80 a pair). They use your home’s electrical wiring to carry network signals. You just plug one SlingLink into an outlet near the TV, and the other near your router. And presto: network jacks within a foot of where they need to be.

Finally, you run the setup software on your Mac or PC. It’s supposed to be effortless and automatic, but I wasn’t so lucky; the setup software told me that my oddball router wouldn’t permit automatic configuration. (It’s a Linksys, probably the most popular brand on earth. Some oddball.)

Fortunately, the company’s Web site (slingmedia.com) offers step-by-step instructions for dozens of router models, mine among them; unfortunately, the illustrations didn’t match the hideous configuration screens that I was seeing. Nonetheless, it was enough help to guide me through changing some parameters like IP Address, Port Range Forwarding and Service Management. When it was all over — 20 minutes — I was watching live TV on my laptop over my home’s wireless network.

On your virtual TV screen, you see a perfect replica of the remote control; Sling has re-created on-screen remotes for over 5,000 pieces of video gear. Every button takes a second or two to respond, but it’s still pretty amazing to think that as you sit in Singapore, you’re controlling your TiVo in Tulsa.

The video quality depends on the network speed at both ends. When you’re in your house, connected over your home network, the picture quality is superb: clear, crisp, perfectly smooth (though never quite as good as on the TV itself). Across the Internet, the picture is a good deal softer, more like a VHS recording. It’s still eminently watchable; you just don’t want to watch special-effects blockbusters this way.

For $30, you can even buy a tiny copy of the SlingPlayer software that runs on a growing list of smartphones, including those that run Windows Mobile, PocketPC, the Palm OS (like the Treo and Centro families) and the Symbian OS (many Nokia smartphones).

BlackBerry and iPhone versions are in the works. (The iPhone’s glorious screen should make a terrific TV — while you’re connected in a Wi-Fi hot spot. Unfortunately, the AT&T data network is too slow for a satisfying video transmission when you’re beyond a hot spot.)

Now, a cellphone’s Internet connection generally isn’t fast enough to permit the kind of picture quality you would get on a laptop. But even though there aren’t nearly as many pixels in the picture, they’re shrunken down so tightly on the phone screen that they look sharp anyway.

Incidentally, don’t think that because the Solo accommodates high-def gear, you get a high-def picture on your laptop or cellphone. You don’t. You do, however, get a better picture when watching HDTV broadcasts, especially when you’re viewing on your home network (rather than across the Internet).

There’s really only one prominent drawback of the Solo, and that’s that it commandeers the whole TV setup. If you’re watching in Wilmington or changing channels from Chattanooga, whoever is at home trying to watch TV will be forced to surrender to your tastes. (The more expensive Pro version lets you split the incoming cable signal so that the homebody at least has an independent choice of basic cable channels.) In that regard, the Solo’s name takes on even more relevance; this box is best suited for singletons.

Otherwise, though, the Solo does well what the Slingbox has always done well, but now for less money, in less space and with more flexibility. Nor is Slingbox finished with its upgrading binge; in a month, the company says, it will unleash a free software update that lets you pause, rewind and then fast-forward the incoming video transmission, much the way TiVo owners can. It will also let you record short clips and post them to Sling’s Web site, legal snarls permitting.

So, you can imagine today’s young people explaining TV to their offspring. “When I was your age, we needed a box to place-shift our TV....”

Which booking sites exclude which airlines?

2007-10-22T13:37:00.000-04:00

Which booking sites exclude which airlines?
Posted by George on Monday, October 22, 2007 to Airline Industry News

Here's a partial list of airlines that are excluded from the fare listings of various online airfare booking sites. If you discover others, let us know.

Orbitz: Sun Country, Jet Blue, Southwest, SkyBus, Allegiant, USA3000

Travelocity: Southwest, SkyBus, Allegiant, Virgin America

Kayak: Southwest, SkyBus, Allegiant, USA3000

Expedia: Southwest, SkyBus, Allegiant, Virgin America, Spirit, USA3000

Sidestep: Southwest, SkyBus, Allegiant, Virgin America, USA3000

In addition to this list, it's important to note that many international, and some domestic, airlines reserve their best fares for their own web sites, even if they do list most of their fares with a third party site.

NASA won't disclose air safety survey

2007-10-22T07:35:00.001-04:00

NASA won't disclose air safety survey By RITA BEAMISH, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 5 minutes ago

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. - Anxious to avoid upsetting air travelers, NASA is withholding results from an unprecedented national survey of pilots that found safety problems like near collisions and runway interference occur far more frequently than the government previously recognized.

NASA gathered the information under an $8.5 million safety project, through telephone interviews with roughly 24,000 commercial and general aviation pilots over nearly four years. Since ending the interviews at the beginning of 2005 and shutting down the project completely more than one year ago, the space agency has refused to divulge the results publicly.

Just last week, NASA ordered the contractor that conducted the survey to purge all related data from its computers.

The Associated Press learned about the NASA results from one person familiar with the survey who spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss them.

A senior NASA official, associate administrator Thomas S. Luedtke, said revealing the findings could damage the public's confidence in airlines and affect airline profits. Luedtke acknowledged that the survey results "present a comprehensive picture of certain aspects of the U.S. commercial aviation industry."

The AP sought to obtain the survey data over 14 months under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

"Release of the requested data, which are sensitive and safety-related, could materially affect the public confidence in, and the commercial welfare of, the air carriers and general aviation companies whose pilots participated in the survey," Luedtke wrote in a final denial letter to the AP. NASA also cited pilot confidentiality as a reason, although no airlines were identified in the survey, nor were the identities of pilots, all of whom were promised anonymity.

Among other results, the pilots reported at least twice as many bird strikes, near mid-air collisions and runway incursions as other government monitoring systems show, according to a person familiar with the results who was not authorized to discuss them publicly.

The survey also revealed higher-than-expected numbers of pilots who experienced "in-close approach changes" — potentially dangerous, last-minute instructions to alter landing plans.

Officials at the NASA Ames Research Center in California have said they want to publish their own report on the project by year's end.

"If the airlines aren't safe I want to know about it," said Rep. Brad Miller, R-N.C., chairman of the House Science and Technology investigations and oversight subcommittee. "I would rather not feel a false sense of security because they don't tell us."

Discussing NASA's decision not to release the survey data, the congressman said: "There is a faint odor about it all."

Miller asked NASA last week to provide his oversight committee with information on the survey and the decision to withhold data.

"The data appears to have great value to aviation safety, but not on a shelf at NASA," he wrote to NASA's administrator Michael Griffin.

The survey's purpose was to develop a new way of tracking safety trends and problems the airline industry could address. The project was shelved when NASA cut its budget as emphasis shifted to send astronauts to the moon and Mars.

NASA said nothing it discovered in the survey warranted notifying the Federal Aviation Administration immediately. Its data showed improvements in some areas, the person who was familiar with the survey said. Survey managers occasionally briefed the FAA during the project. At a briefing in April 2003, FAA officials expressed concerns about the high numbers of incidents being described by pilots because the NASA results were dramatically different from what FAA was getting from its own monitoring systems.

An FAA spokeswoman, Laura Brown, said the agency questioned NASA's methodology. The FAA is confident it can identify safety problems before they lead to accidents, she said.

In its space program, NASA has a deadly history of playing down safety issues. Investigators blamed the 1986 and 2000 shuttle disasters on poor decision making, budget cuts and improperly minimizing risks. NASA decided to go ahead with a 2006 shuttle launch and is moving ahead with one this week despite safety concerns by NASA engineers in both cases.

Aviation experts said NASA's pilot survey results could be a valuable resource in an industry where they believe many safety problems are underreported, even while deaths from commercial air crashes are rare and the number of deadly crashes has dropped in recent years.

"It gives us an awareness of not just the extent of the problems, but probably in some cases that the problems are there at all," said William Waldock, a safety science professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Phoenix, Ariz. "If their intent is to just let it sit there, that's just a waste."

Officials involved in the survey touted the unusually high response rate among pilots, 80 percent, and said they believe it is more reliable than other reporting systems that rely on pilots to voluntarily report incidents.

"The data is strong," said Robert Dodd, an aviation safety expert hired by NASA to manage the survey. "Our process was very meticulously designed and very thorough. It was very scientific."

Pilot interviews lasted about 30 minutes, with standardized questions about how frequently they encountered equipment problems, smoke or fire, engine failure, passenger disturbances, severe turbulence, collisions with birds or inadequate tower communication, according to documents obtained by the AP.

Pilots also were asked about last-minute changes in landing instructions, flying too close to other planes, near collisions with ground vehicles or buildings, overweight takeoffs or occasions when pilots left the cockpit.

The survey, known officially as the National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service, started after a White House commission in 1997 proposed reducing fatal air crashes by 80 percent as of this year. Crashes have dropped 65 percent, with a rate of about 1 fatality in about 4.5 million departures.

NASA had begun to interview general aviation pilots and initially planned to interview flight attendants, air traffic controllers and mechanics before the survey was halted.

In earlier interviews that helped researchers design the NASA survey, pilots said airlines were unaware how frequently safety incidents occurred that could lead to serious problems or even crashes, said Jon Krosnick, a survey expert at Stanford University who helped NASA create the questionnaire. Krosnick also led a Stanford team that paid for a joint AP-Stanford poll on the environment.

"There are little things going on everyday that rarely lead to an accident but they increase the chances of an accident," said Krosnick. "It's the little things beneath the surface that cause the very infrequent crashes. You have to tackle those."

NASA directed its contractor Battelle Memorial Institute, along with subcontractors, on Thursday to return any project information and then purge it from their computers before Oct. 30

What's the delay code on this one?

2007-10-21T20:56:00.000-04:00

Tomato Juice Spill Causes Long Lines At NY Airport
Oct 21, 2007 10:57 am US/Eastern

TSA Shrugs Off Delays, Blames Technology
(AP) NEW YORK Tempers grew short at LaGuardia Airport Saturday. The American Airlines terminal was brought to a near-standstill because of an equipment malfunction, but it was the reason for the malfunction that really had people fuming.

People were welcomed to Terminal D of LaGuardia Airport with a line so long, it was difficult to tell where it began, or where it ended - all because someone spilled tomato juice on an x-ray machine.

When CBS 2 HD told one woman the reason for the delays, she asked if we were "kidding," but it was no joke. The Transportation Safety Administration confirmed the spill knocked out one of the five units that screen thousands of passengers here each day.

"That's insane," said Dallas bound passenger Pat Jones. "That shouldn't be our problem, should it?"

But it was.

The delays left many passengers stressed out. "I just want to make sure I make my flight," said one traveler. "I'm not sure that's going to happen."

Few could believe that a major airline terminal could be thrown into chaos by such a simple problem. "It makes one very sad and very worried," said Bonnie Schmitta.

The line to screen passengers started stretched down the length of several city blocks, yet a spokesman for the Transportation Safety Administration shrugged off the incident, saying: "That's the risk you take when you deal with technology."

But people here didn't see it that way. "It's the biggest crock of inefficiency," said Leonard Williams. "Things should be better."

It took all morning and much of the afternoon until things finally did get better. A TSA official said a vendor working at the airport this morning was responsible for the spill.

Do you see me......funny

2007-10-17T20:53:00.001-04:00

The Simpsons - India Outsourcing

2007-10-17T20:36:00.000-04:00

Time to Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly?

2007-10-17T07:35:00.000-04:00

Time to Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly?

By Entrepreneur.com
Click here for more stories from Entrepreneur.com
10/16/2007 7:59 AM EDT

A few weeks ago, New Yorkers -- myself included -- experienced some severe thunderstorms, as happens to most of us from time to time. The result of a lot of rain is that often our transit systems break down, leaving riders frustrated, late and at times downright angry. While I was waiting for the train during one of these extended delays I used my new smartphone to check out the schedule of the local commuter bus company.

Until recently I had been using a basic cell phone combined with a PDA. But I got tired of carrying two devices and decided to purchase a Motorola (MOT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) Q instead.

I'm not alone in this transition. Millions of consumers and business professionals are ditching their basic cell phones in favor of more advanced cell phones and smartphones that combine the functions of a PDA, cell phone and Web browser. In November 2006, Arizona technology research company In-Stat said that smartphone unit sales almost tripled from 2004 to 2005, and increased by 50% in the first half of 2006 compared to the same period in 2005. Mobile internet access is going to continue growing.

What It Means for Your Business
It's time to consider updating your Web site and making it compatible for mobile Web browsers.
Say you're a florist. With your current Web site, you probably have big, bold and beautiful pictures. Maybe a video on the front page of your Web site gives your customers a weekly tip on arranging flowers for an office environment. After a few seconds a pop-up window displays, encouraging visitors to sign up for your monthly floral e-newsletter. Your Web site works well for your corporate customers accessing it from their high-speed telecommunication lines.

But the corporate event planner who typically accesses your Web site via his computer at work might need to access it in a taxi cab using his new cell phone or smartphone with Internet-enabled connectivity. Or maybe a soon-to-be bride wants to share your flower selections with her mom while she's standing in line at a mall.

Is your Web site ready for these "new" customers wanting to access it in a mobile environment?

If it's not ready, now's the time to consider who your audience is and how they access your site. Work with your technology professional to analyze your traffic logs and see what types of browsers are accessing your site. Do you see mobile traffic? Take the time to poll some of your customers about the likelihood of them accessing your Web site and others on their smartphones. Once you've decided a mobile site is right for you, it's time to create one.

How to Create a Mobile-Optimized Site
If you have a very large Web site with thousands of pages, it might not be necessary to configure your entire site for mobile access. I would guess that many of your mobile customers visit your Web site for a specific purpose -- perhaps to check on orders or search your inventory. Find out what they want from your site and work from there.

NY to Cali 31 hours via BMW

2007-10-17T07:21:00.000-04:00

Alex Roy was just recognized as the record holder for driving from NY to Santa Monica pier in 31 hours and 4 minutes, besting the time set by David Diem and Doug Turner, who were clocked in a Ferrari 308 during the 1983 US Express run of 32 hours and seven minutes. That's a sustained 89MPH for over 31 hours. What's made me especially proud is that Alex wrote about automotive laser jammers and radio scanners for Gizmodo under a previous regime. The seven-time world rally champ avoided cops and found his way with a dash full of gadgets, including multiple scanners, jammers, detectors and other mods on his BMW M5. Equipment is documented in the video above, but one thing not emphasized is that the guy had a plane spotting police activity en route.

The actual time was verified by gas station timestamps on credit card receipts and by Jalopnik editors, who witnessed the start and finishes, but Guinness won't have anything to do with verifying illegal acts. The actual race happened a little over a year ago, but Alex couldn't tell anyone of his exploits until the statute of limitations was up in all states he drove through. Congrats to Alex for his spectacular performance. For all the details, there's more at Jalopnik [Departure, Finish, the Record and Gear]

P.S. Ray Wert, editor at Jalopnik, ends the coverage on a sober note, wondering how many more times this record can be beaten before people start dying.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cars/man-drives-from-ny-to-la-in-31-hours-and-4-minutes-gadgets-helped-311140.php

Web 2.0 - the new and improved dot com bubble

2007-10-17T07:17:00.000-04:00

Silicon Valley Start-Ups Awash in Dollars, Again

By BRAD STONE and MATT RICHTEL
Published: October 17, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 16 — Silicon Valley’s math is getting fuzzy again.

Great Expectations Internet companies with funny names, little revenue and few customers are commanding high prices. And investors, having seemingly forgotten the pain of the first dot-com bust, are displaying symptoms of the disorder known as irrational exuberance.

Consider Facebook, the popular but financially unproven social network, which is reportedly being valued by investors at up to $15 billion. That is nearly half the value of Yahoo, a company with 38 times the number of employees and, based on estimates of Facebook’s income, 32 times the revenue.

Google, which recently surged past $600 a share, is now worth more than I.B.M., a company with eight times the revenue.

More broadly, Internet start-ups are drawing investment based on their ability to build an audience, not bring in revenue — the very alchemy that many say led to the inflation and bursting of the dot-com bubble.

The surge in the perceived value of some start-ups has even surprised some entrepreneurs who are benefiting from it.

A year ago, Yahoo invested in Right Media, a New York-based company developing an online advertising network. Yahoo’s investment valued the firm at $200 million. Six months later, when Yahoo acquired Right Media outright, the purchase price had swelled to $850 million.

What changed? According to Right Media’s chief technology officer, Brian O’Kelley, very little, except that Yahoo’s rivals, Microsoft and Google, were writing billion-dollar checks to buy online advertising networks, and Yahoo thought it needed to pay any price to keep up.

“I have to say I giggled,” Mr. O’Kelley, 30, said of the deal that earned him millions. He has since left Right Media and is starting another company. “There is no way we quadrupled the value of the company in six months.”

The trend is described as a return to madness (by skeptics) or as a rational approach to unlimited opportunities presented by the Internet (by true believers). Greed, fear and a desperate rush to pick the next big winner are all adding fuel to the fire that is Silicon Valley’s resurgence.

“There’s definitely a lot of betting going on, and it’s not rational,” said Tim O’Reilly, a technology conference promoter and book publisher.

Mr. O’Reilly is credited with coining the phrase “Web 2.0,” which refers to a new generation of Web sites that encourage users to contribute material. His Web 2.0 conference, which begins Wednesday in San Francisco, has become a nexus for the optimism around the latest set of society-changing online tools. But that has not stopped Mr. O’Reilly from worrying that the industry is minting too many copycat companies, half-baked business plans and overpriced buyouts.

When the bubble inevitably pops, he said, “there are going to be a lot of people out of work again.”

Putting a value on start-ups has always been a mix of science and speculation. But as in the first dot-com boom and the recent surge in housing, seasoned financial professionals are seeming to indulge in some strange instinct to turn away from the science and lean instead on the speculation.

This time around, people indulging in that optimistic thinking are not mom-and-pop investors or day traders but venture capitalists whose coffers are overflowing with money from university endowments and hedge funds. Many of those financial professionals say that this time, everything is different.

More than 1.3 billion people around the world use the Internet, many with speedy broadband connections and a willingness to immerse themselves in digital culture. The flood of advertising dollars to the Web has become an indomitable trend and a proven way for these start-ups to make money, while the revenue models of the dot-coms of yesteryear were often little more than sleight of hand.

“The environmental factors are much different than they were eight years ago,” said Roelof Botha, a partner at Sequoia Capital and an early backer of YouTube. “The cost of doing business has declined dramatically, and traditional media companies have also woken up to the opportunities of the Web.

“That does open up the aperture for a different outcome this time,” he said.

Some trace the start of the new bubble to eBay’s $3.1 billion acquisition of the Internet telephone start-up Skype in 2005. EBay’s chief executive, Meg Whitman, reportedly outbid Google for the company. This month, eBay conceded it had grossly overpaid for Skype by about $1.43 billion, and announced that Niklas Zennstrom, a Skype co-founder, had left the company.

Google’s acquisition of YouTube last year for $1.65 billion, under similarly competitive bidding, might have accelerated the transition to loftier values. Google executives and many analysts argued that YouTube was well worth the price tag if it became the next entertainment juggernaut.

Great Expectations It still might. More than 205 million people visit YouTube each month, according to the research firm comScore. Still, Citigroup estimated that YouTube would bring in $135 million in revenue next year. At that rate, YouTube would have to grow considerably to account for just 5 percent of Google’s annual revenue of nearly $12 billion.

“We are almost going back to year 2000 types of errors,” said Aaron Kessler, an Internet analyst at Piper Jaffray. Internet companies “are buying users instead of revenue and profitability,” he said.

The Skype and YouTube windfalls helped to give the newest batch of Internet entrepreneurs dreams of improbable wealth. They also brought back practices that had seemingly been discredited during the first boom. For example, in the first dot-com gold rush, Internet companies did not have to make money to acquire serious investments dollars. Now that once again is true.

Twitter, a company in San Francisco that lets users alert friends to what they are doing at any given moment over their mobile phones, recently raised an undisclosed amount of financing. Its co-founder and creative director, Biz Stone, says that the company was not currently focused on making money and that no one in the company was even working on how to do so.

“At the moment, we’re focused on growing our network and our user experience,” he said. “When you have a lot of traffic, there’s always a clear business model.”

That is not necessarily illogical in the current climate. A European competitor, Jaiku, which is similarly devoid of a mature business model, was acquired last week by Google for an undisclosed sum. With the competitive logic that prevails at the major Internet companies, the deal might have further raised Twitter’s appeal to Google’s rivals.

The high value placed on many start-ups and minimal requirements for financial performance are raising expectations of other entrepreneurs. Sharon Wienbar, managing director of Scale Ventures Partners, an investment firm, cited the $100 million valuation that investors gave to the Internet genealogy site Geni.com, founded last year in Los Angeles by a veteran of PayPal.

“Now every entrepreneur thinks he should get that,” Ms. Wienbar said. “I have a feeling a lot of entrepreneurs are secretly meeting for beers on the Peninsula, saying, ‘Hey, look what I got.’”

Mr. O’Kelley, formerly of Right Media, said other entrepreneurs had begun to think that the financing game is best played by avoiding actual revenues — since that only limits the imagination of investors. “It’s a screwed-up incentive structure, just like you had in the first bubble,” he said.

Another company benefiting from the exuberance is Ning, which allows users to create their own MySpace-style ad-supported social networks. It was recently valued by investors at more than $200 million, mainly because its main backer and founder, Marc Andreessen, has a successful history with the Internet hits Netscape and Opsware.

Mr. Andreessen argues on his blog that there is no bubble and that the high prices represent a rational desire to stake a claim in the potentially huge markets of the future. But he acknowledges that a seemingly inexhaustible flood of capital into Silicon Valley is helping to power the boom. Venture capitalists are flush with cash from institutional investors, eager for Internet-style returns on their money.

“The upward valuations pressure is the result of decisions being made by people wearing suits in cities like New York and Boston who would never ever meet with start-ups,” Mr. Andreessen said in an interview. “If that ever goes away, it will have consequences. But it doesn’t look like they will change their minds.”

SINGAPORE AIRLINES A380 CABINS

2007-10-14T18:14:00.001-04:00

Flying Car About to Take Off?

2007-10-14T14:46:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Flying Car About to Take Off?
An aeronautic startup looks to complete a prototype of its roadworthy aircraft within a year.

By Michael Gibson

In 1918, long before George Jetson commuted to Spacely Space Sprockets, the U.S. Patent Office issued Felix Longobardi the first patent for a vehicle capable of both driving on roads and flying through the air. But given all the impractical prototypes built since Longobardi's original whimsy, history suggests that any vehicle design combining these two modes of transport will be a commercial failure: aero-auto hybrids always seem to result in a compromise that serves both functions poorly.

Now a group of MIT alums believe that they are on their way toward overcoming this problem. Founded in 2006 and called Terrafugia, their startup, based in Woburn, MA, recently produced the first automated folding wing for a light sport aircraft. (A light sport aircraft is a type of airplane deemed by the Federal Aviation Administration to be easier to fly and hence more accessible than regular private planes.) The wing, however, is just the first step toward an aero-auto hybrid that the company plans to call the Transition.

This summer, the group demonstrated its folding wing at the annual AirVenture aviation festival in Oshkosh, WI. With more than 650,000 attendees, the festival is the most important event in experimental-aircraft aviation.

"Going into this, we knew our two biggest design challenges to make it practical would be the wings and the power train," says Anna Mracek Dietrich, an engineer at Terrafugia and the company's chief operating officer. "By validating the durability of the wing's construction and engineering, we've checked one major design challenge off of the list, and now our focus is on the second."

Previous prototypes of road-drivable aircraft have featured manually folding or detachable wings. But to allow for a seamless and quick transformation from plane to car and back, the Terrafugia team has devised a system that allows the pilot to enfold or extend the wings by pushing a button in the cockpit. Dietrich says that at Oshkosh, the researchers opened and closed the wings more than 500 times--the equivalent of three to five years of typical use--and that they're more than pleased with the wings' durability.

The wing features off-the-shelf electric actuators, but Dietrich says that the team had to design from scratch the mechanical linkages between the actuators and the rest of the craft. The group also uses dual electromagnetic locks to hold the wings tightly to the fuselage when they're enfolded.

"We're building the rest of the first vehicle now," Dietrich says. "Our schedule calls for us to start flight testing by the end of 2008, and so far we're on track for that."

The technical challenge now before the team is to build a power train that uses one engine both in the air and on the ground and is capable of running on a tank of super unleaded gasoline--the kind that can be bought at any gas station. To make the transition between engine uses smooth, the team is devising a mechanism to transfer power from the propeller to the wheels and back as needed. The difficulty here, Dietrich says, is that the system has to be as simple, reliable, and lightweight as possible. (For the team, the weight of the vehicle is a constant concern, not only because the vehicle has to be relatively light in order to fly, but also because FAA regulations require it to be less than 1,320 pounds.)

"They're doing some interesting things," says Mitch LaBiche, an engineer at LaBiche Aerospace, a company based in Alvin, TX, that has assisted the military in the construction of a wide variety of flying vehicles, from the F-117 to the Apache AH-64 helicopter. LaBiche's company is now working to build a flying sports car called the FSC-1. "[The Transition] is a light sports aircraft, so they're going to have to work hard to meet the weight requirements," LaBiche says.

The greatest nontechnical challenge Terrafugia must face is meeting the regulatory requirements of both the FAA and the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). To satisfy FAA regulations for the category of light sports aircraft, the Transition must have a maximum level speed of 138 miles per hour, a one- or two-person occupancy, and fixed landing gear, among other things. For the NHTSA, the Transition must be able to pass the same requirements that a regular car would.

"There are systems in place with both organizations to make working with them as painless as possible," Dietrich says. "It is still a lot to go through, but we've made inroads with both, especially the FAA."

The company plans to build and sell between 50 and 200 Transitions a year, most likely starting in 2009, and it's marketing the vehicle to the roughly 600,000 licensed pilots in the United States. The Transition will be comparable in size to a Cadillac Escalade but won't be nearly as heavy. Terrafugia plans to charge $148,000 per vehicle.

"Very interesting! I would love to have one," says Kenny Huffine, a pilot for a major commercial airline who flies recreationally. "My one concern, though, is about having a plane parked around other cars. If it were pushed or damaged, would that make it unflyable and dangerous?"

The Airbus A380

2007-10-13T16:38:00.000-04:00

The Airbus A380

The giant on the runway
Oct 11th 2007 | TOULOUSE
From The Economist print edition

Despite its difficult birth, Airbus's new super-jumbo is about to enter service. So begins the next stage in the battle for the future of air travel
AFP
FLYING from Changi Airport to Sydney, in the blue and gold livery of Singapore Airlines, the Airbus A380 will at long last enter commercial service on October 25th. On board the giant double-decker plane will be about 470 passengers, many of whom will have bought their seats in an eBay auction, raising $1.9m for charities. For both the airline and the manufacturer, the day will be one of celebration, when delays, spiralling development costs and financial controversy can be put to one side. But it will also mark the next stage of a commercial saga in which fortunes are wagered on the way the world will fly.

Few industries are more given to self-dramatisation than the aviation business. The decision to build an important new plane invariably means “betting the company”, while the aircraft itself is usually referred to by its messianic (or blinkered) maker as a “game-changer”. Both were true of the first Boeing 747, which the A380 has been designed to replace. The original jumbo jet entered service nearly 38 years ago and the financial strain of developing it almost brought mighty Boeing to its knees. But the huge leap in capacity offered by the 375-seat 747-100 compared with the next biggest plane then available, the 250-seat McDonnell Douglas DC-8, transformed both the experience and the economics of long-haul flying.

Boeing's 747 gamble eventually reaped rich rewards. Without a direct competitor and with nearly 1,400 sold over its long life, the 747 has been a matchless earner. Apart from that beautiful flop, the Concorde, no other aircraft is as recognisable or as loved. With the A380, Airbus has now risked everything; not only to kill off its rival's greatest cash cow, but also to create a similarly enduring icon to capture the imagination of the world's travellers.

Its success will depend not only on the quality of the aircraft, but on whether there is demand for a plane that can fly more than 500 passengers in a conventional three-class configuration or more than 800 in a single-class layout. Airbus is in no doubt that there is; Boeing, explaining its decision to offer only a mildly updated jumbo—the 747-8—in competition to the A380, says that the market has changed and Airbus has got its sums wrong.

A long time coming
The design of any new airliner begins years before its first flight. Appropriately for a super-jumbo, the A380 has had a long gestation. Airbus began looking at the possibility of building a 600-800 seat aircraft in 1990. But two years later Daimler-Benz and British Aerospace, two of the partners in the Airbus consortium as it then was, pushed for co-operation with Boeing on what prosaically came to be known as a new Very Large Commercial Transport (VLCT). Both companies knew the risk of competing head-on over such a big new aircraft. An earlier battle between the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed's L-1011 had weakened both firms and pushed Lockheed out of the commercial-aviation business entirely.

Jürgen Thomas, a veteran German engineer appointed to lead the project and who became known as the father of the A380, remains convinced that Boeing was serious about the partnership. Others were less sure. The view that came to prevail within Airbus, particularly with its French chief executive at the time, Jean Pierson, was that the Americans wanted to string the talks out for as long as possible.

For one thing, Boeing was insistent on producing a plane substantially bigger than the 747, which would complement rather than replace it. For another, as long as there was no agreement on how to build the VLCT, Boeing could continue to milk its 747 monopoly. It is said to have used its estimated $30m profit per 747 to cut the price of its other jets, like the 737, which face direct competition from Airbus.

The Europeans eventually plucked up the courage to go it alone in 1995. A year later they created a self-contained Large Aircraft Division, under Mr Thomas. After a series of meetings with prospective customers, Airbus became convinced that there was indeed a large market for a modern plane capable of carrying between 550 and 650 passengers up to 9,000 miles (15,000km). Airbus forecast that if air travel continued to grow by about 5% a year (see chart), there would be a need for 1,235 such aircraft by 2020. In April 2000, seven weeks before its official launch, one of those potential customers, the fast-growing Dubai-based airline Emirates, showed its faith in the project by declaring that it would buy ten A380s. By the end of the year Airbus had five more customers: ILFC, an influential aircraft-leasing operator, Air France, Singapore Airlines, Qantas and Virgin Atlantic.

As well as offering the range the airlines said they were looking for it also had the room: by placing one cabin on top of another, the A380 has 50% more floor area than a 747-400. Airbus also promised operating costs would be at least 15% per passenger less than those of its Boeing rival. It committed itself to much lower noise levels for passengers and people living near airports and to lower emissions.

But amid the excitement stoked by Airbus and its customers—there was talk of bars, shops, casinos (from Virgin's Sir Richard Branson) and showers in first class—it intensified a furious debate between Boeing and Airbus over the future of aviation. That debate rages on even as the A380 enters service.

Boeing argues that the market for very large, long-haul planes has been fragmented by the increasing popularity and capability of so-called “heavy twins”—big, twin-aisle planes with only two engines—and that aircraft like its own 747 and the A380 are now no more than “niche products”. Boeing began the trend with the 777. Known as the “Triple Seven”, it can carry more than 350 passengers in three classes and its longest-range version can fly more than 10,000 miles. When the Triple Seven entered service in 1995, airlines were worried that passengers would not relish the idea of flying across oceans on only two engines (even though such aircraft can manage on just one in an emergency). But such is the reliability and power of modern high-bypass turbofan engines that it has ceased to be a worry.

Airbus competes in the heavy-twin market with the slightly smaller A330 and, after several false starts, is developing the A350 XWB (extra-wide body) for entry into service in 2013. But it is Boeing that has set the pace with its 787 Dreamliner, a plane with a revolutionary all-composite fuselage made out of several single-barrel sections rather than a conventional frame with panels. The 787 should have flown by now, but is running late because of a shortage of aluminium fasteners and problems with its flight-control software. On October 10th Boeing said first deliveries of the 210-330-passenger plane will be delayed by six months to late November or December 2008. It is a blow, but with more than 800 firm orders and commitments Boeing will still have the most successful launch in the history of commercial aviation.

Bypassing hubs
Boeing believes that a combination of airline deregulation and the popularity of heavy-twin aircraft have changed long-haul flying for good. Instead of the hub-and-spoke system, in which passengers flew in 747s to big hub airports and then took short-haul flights to their final destination, Boeing says that passengers now want the convenience of flying point-to-point and that smaller long-haul planes make it both possible and economical for them to do so. As evidence, Boeing points to the drying-up of orders for passenger versions of the 747.

Airbus has some equally persuasive counter-arguments. John Leahy, an American who is the top salesman at Airbus, dismisses the Boeing claims as not just wrong but irresponsible. “It's ridiculous,” he says. “Boeing's answer means burning more fuel per passenger, putting more strain on overloaded air-traffic control systems and creating more congestion at airports that are already finding it difficult to cope.”

Given the expected tripling of air-passenger traffic over the next 20 years, Airbus predicts that very large aircraft will reach some 3,400 flights a day out of 200 airports around the world. About 70% of those flights, however, will emanate from just 25 airports, many in Asia (see map). Today, 80% of 747 flights connect 37 airports. Airbus also points out that half the world's 100 fastest-growing long-haul routes connect two big hubs, such as Hong Kong-London and New York-Tokyo. The point is that many hub airports are also the origin and destination for more and more passengers.

Many of these big city airports are under enormous capacity and environmental strain. Significant expansion at London's Heathrow, for example, will be impossible without the construction of a third runway—and few believe it will ever be built because of restrictive planning rules and local political opposition. A recent order by British Airways (BA), the world's biggest 747-400 operator, for 12 A380s with options on a further seven has bolstered the Airbus case.

Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive, said that the A380's superior capacity would allow it to grow from its creaking Heathrow base, while its quietness—it spreads noise over only half the area that a 747-400 does on take-off and less than a third on landing—was also important. As one Airbus executive put it: “Willie would have had trouble explaining to the neighbours why he'd bought a noisier, dirtier aircraft [the 747-8] even if was a bit cheaper.” Likely destinations for BA's A380s include Johannesburg, Hong Kong and points in India and America's west coast, but not, for now, New York. And as Boeing quickly pointed out, at the same time as BA announced the A380 order, it also said it would buy 24 787s. Honours even.

Perhaps more worrying for Airbus, the BA order was the A380's first from a new, as opposed to existing, customer for the best part of two years. Airbus says that it is usual for orders to slow in the year or so before an aircraft enters service, as more cautious airlines wait to see how it performs. It also says that the 46 orders it has taken in the past year, bringing the total to 185, compares well with other aircraft at similar stages in their lives.

Delays on the line
The question that nobody can answer is how deeply the production problems that have assailed the A380 have affected confidence in the aircraft and its maker. The first delay was announced in June 2005, when Airbus confessed that delivery would be six months later than promised. Almost exactly a year on, another delay of up to seven months was announced.

Airbus

A greener footprintNews of the second delay knocked 26% off the value of shares in EADS, the parent company of Airbus, and led to the resignations of Noël Forgeard, its joint chief executive, Gustav Humbert, chief executive of Airbus, and Charles Champion, then in charge of the A380. The company's failure to provide more timely information about the scale of its problems also triggered investigations into the share dealings of executives and EADS board members. A report by the French stockmarket regulator has been sent to prosecutors.

The mood at Airbus's base in Toulouse is one of frustration rather than fear. But those senior managers who have so far survived both the resignations and a big overhaul of the once dysfunctional relationship between Airbus and EADS face an unwelcome distraction at the very least.

Part of the explanation for the catastrophe was the sheer complexity of the A380. The cabin wiring—more than 330 miles of it and over 40,000 connectors in each aircraft—caused problems because two incompatible versions of computer-aided design software were used. The Germans in Hamburg had one system, the French in Toulouse another. When the electrical harnesses came to be fitted in the forward and aft fuselage sections, many didn't connect with each other. Despite efforts to resolve this, it was decided in October last year that only by updating the computer-design tools would Airbus get on top of the problem. That meant a third delay.

John Leahy recalls that when airlines were told that not only would Singapore's first aircraft be delivered late, but that everyone else's orders would slip again, “they were stunned, speechless.” The reason was the need to deal with the work on two tracks. Although a new system for installing the harnesses was being developed, the first 26 aircraft would all need difficult and time-consuming rectification work. It will be another three to four years before production reaches its intended rate of four planes a month. Another consequence was that a freighter version would be delayed until at least 2014, which lost Airbus orders from both Fedex and UPS and raised its expected earnings shortfall up to 2010 to €4.8 billion ($6.8 billion).

Despite the setbacks, all due to the poor execution of industrial processes rather than design, it has not all been bad news for the A380. Despite rumours that it was overweight and struggling to meet performance targets, the indications are that Airbus has delivered a remarkable plane that, as long as they can fill it, will provide airlines with the step-change in operating economics they were hoping for. With reduced fuel burn from its Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or Engine Alliance 7200 turbofans, lower maintenance costs from its 25% composite airframe and its advanced avionics, Airbus claims the A380's cost per seat has come out at 20% below that of the 747-400.

Back at the gate
Another achievement is that despite the aircraft's size and weight, the A380 can take off and land on the same runways as the big Boeing, thanks to the efficiency of its wings. There is no need to build longer runways, although airports have had to spend heavily to make space for the plane's wingspan at departure and arrival gates—which must also be modified to allow upper-deck passengers on and off.

Above all, passengers stand to gain most. Stephen Forshaw, of Singapore Airlines, says that while meeting or exceeding noise and emissions targets was extremely important, the catalyst for ordering 19 A380s was the opportunity to provide its customers with more comfort and a better environment. “Keep it in mind that this is an aircraft—it has physical limitations and must meet economic considerations,” he says. “But we have been able to bring about a revolution in business class with four-abreast seating and much more personal space and privacy. Even in economy, there are two inches more legroom, extra seat width and larger TV screens. There will be 12 suites on the main deck which, with its straight walls, has a unique feeling of space. The plane is also remarkably quiet inside.”

Singapore believes that life for 747 operators, such as All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, faced with direct competition from airlines flying the A380 will be hard. Mr Forshaw adds: “A lot of customers are sitting back, but they'll have to move at some point. We're very confident this aircraft really is a game-changer and everybody will have to play by the new rules.”

If that is right, the prospects for the A380 may be rather brighter than either Boeing or Airbus's critics would like to think. Boeing's emotional investment in the 747 and the difficulty it has in coming to terms with the end of its long reign as the flagship of long-haul travel is understandable. But so far, Boeing has only received 20 orders for the passenger variant of its 747-8—all from Germany's Lufthansa, which is also buying 15 A380s and has options on more. Between an aircraft that is at the end of a 40-year evolution and one at the beginning of what is likely to be a similarly long career, there is no contest. The debate about hubs versus point-to-point flying is also a largely sterile one: one doesn't exclude the other and it will be horses for courses.

But it is harder to say whether the A380 will ever match the 747's commercial prowess. Its firm order tally of 185 aircraft to date from 15 airlines is respectable. But there are only seven more established 747 operators to sell to and existing A380 customers may take a long time to come back for more. Airbus now reckons the market for very large aircraft to be 1,665 by 2025, with 55% of the demand coming from the Asia Pacific region, some of it from new carriers. Cautiously, it predicts taking only 50% of the market, but it is reluctant these days to say how many aircraft it needs to sell to break even. Recently, Louis Gallois, EADS chief executive, admitted that the number is higher than a previous figure of 420 because of the slower build-up in production and the effect of a weak dollar.

However, even if the market turns out to be smaller than Airbus is hoping for, the A380 looks likely to dominate, if not monopolise, long high-density routes for years to come. And with time on its side, it might even produce a return on the money it has cost to put into service—nudging €20 billion according to some estimates. For airlines and passengers, the A380 should be nothing but good news. But for Airbus it will have been a long, bumpy and, at times, perilous ride.

Flying from a different perspective

2007-10-13T16:37:00.000-04:00

Flying from a different perspective

Travelling by plane is often seen as the quickest and easiest way for people to get to their destinations abroad, but after his trip in a Zeppelin, Anthony Smith wonders whether the humble airship may provide an alternative.

When was the last time you actually enjoyed flying?

Whether you were off to Paris, Spain or California did you settle into your seat with happiness, apart from the thought of reaching somewhere else?

Or were you cramped, almost from the start?

Restricted space on aircraft is a fact of life for most passengers
Loathing the person in front who jerks his seat back into your lap, and even resenting that lightweight girl who twists her legs into some kind of knot and actually sleeps, dammit, for most of the journey?

Ok, so I am talking about economy class, which also means I am talking about the flights most of us endure.

And queue for. And pay for, plus all the taxes. And have to go on if we wish to get practically anywhere else, such as all those places investigated for this slot by all our own correspondents.

Well, it does not have to be like that.

Flying heyday

Last week I flew in a Zeppelin.

And from the spot, Friedrichshafen by Lake Constance in southern Germany, where the very first Zeppelin ascended back in 1900.

What a flight, with meals in the dining room, cabins to sleep in

We just cruised for 40 minutes, but could open the windows, speak without effort, enjoy watching the world go by 1,000 ft (300m) below, and tell ourselves what it must have been like when far bigger airships were having their heyday. Such as the Graf Zeppelin which went around the world in 1929 in four hops, starting from the US, touching down in Germany, then in Japan, and then in California.

What a flight, with meals in the dining room, cabins to sleep in, and our beautiful planet not six miles down and invisible but usually a mere 1,500 ft (450m) below.

Think of all such trips.

Perhaps down to Rio in one hop, dancing if you felt like it, walking about, and not just to a doll's-house loo.

And then stopping above your destination, watching the sun come up, shouting at the locals and then disembarking without the used-rag feeling which modern aircraft induce but refreshed, invigorated, well-fed, well-slept and delighted to be alive, instead of merely grateful that the long-haul, as they call it, has finally been concluded.

Safer travel

The one thing everyone knows about airships is that the Hindenburg spectacularly caught fire in May 1937 when landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey after a flight from Germany.

The Hindenburg crashed along with the airship industry in 1937

What is less well known is that two-thirds of those on board, 62 out of the 97 passengers and crew, survived the disaster.

Of course hydrogen catches fire - just as petrol or aviation spirit do given the incentive of an accident, but no airship uses hydrogen these days, however much airlines use their combustible fuel.

Helium is now used as buoyancy for airships, this is sometimes called non-flammable helium as if there is another kind. There is not.

And this light gas is more inert than water. It certainly cannot catch fire.

Leisurely pace

So let us dream a bit.

Imagine taking off in an airship from Heathrow, ascending far more quietly and steeply than everything else, before setting off for, say, Rome at the entrancing height of 1,500ft .

Imagine a leisurely airship journey with time to enjoy the city sights
Watch Kent and its orchards go by, then Dover's white cliffs, and the busy English Channel.

Cruise over French chateaux, admire their vineyards, and then repair - as they say - to the dining area.

Meet France's contours towards the south, and then drop down to the famous Cote d'Azur, have a look at all those Anglais on their promenade, perhaps speaking with them through an open window after halting in mid-air with the engines no more than idling.

Then out, lower still, over the Mediterranean - say at 500ft above the waves - until it is time for supper, for a final drink at the bar, and then to bed.

That single accident 70 years ago should not blind us to the fact that airship flying is total joy from beginning to end and in between

Wake up east of Corsica and cruise down Italy's coast, past Elba, past Orbetello and Civitavecchia while you breakfast before touching down at Rome, not with a solid thump plus a flurry of brakes and reverse thrust, but gently and perhaps even unnoticeably as a ground-crew catch hold of the landing lines.

Yes, it has taken 24 hours from London rather than two or three, but the holiday and joy and wonder began at Heathrow instead of when your aircraft's wheels yelp on meeting ground again.

Glory days

On my German flight there were 14 on board, one pilot, one stewardess, and 12 punters.

Yes, it cost 250 euros (£174) per person, and London to Rome would be rather more, but what joy would be possible, perhaps only once in a lifetime.

The trip would certainly remind us that flight does not have to be foul, cramped, undignified and an easy way to get a DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis).

It could actually be glorious just as it was in the old days when, starting in 1910, airship passenger flights were frequent - and without mishap - until 27 years later when the Hindenburg caught fire.

That single accident 70 years ago should not blind us to the fact that airship flying is total joy from beginning to end and in between.

Like every other economy sardine, I long for the alternative of actually enjoying a flight.

Skies to be swept for alien life

2007-10-13T16:36:00.000-04:00

Skies to be swept for alien life

The array will be able to image large sections of the sky at once
The switch has been thrown on a telescope specifically designed to seek out alien life.
Funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the finished array will have 350 six-metre antennas and will be one of the world's largest.

The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) will be able to sweep more than one million star systems for radio signals generated by intelligent beings.

Its creators hope it will help spot definite signs of alien life by 2025.

First light

The ATA is being run by the Seti Institute and the Radio Astronomy Laboratory from the University of California, Berkeley, US

"For Seti, the ATA's technical capabilities exponentially increase our ability to search for intelligent signals, and may lead to the discovery of thinking beings elsewhere in the Universe," said Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the Seti Institute in a statement.

On 11 October, the first 42 dishes of the array started gathering data that will be analysed for signs of alien life and help with conventional radio astronomy.

The first test images produced by the array are radio maps of the Andromeda Galaxy and the Triangulum Galaxy.

Mr Allen provided the funding for the first stages of the array
The ATA is pioneering a novel design.

Rather than being hand built, each six-metre antenna is made of a mass-produced dish and off-the-shelf components. Behind the scenes, digital signal processing software is used to analyse data and clean out man-made interference that would otherwise make the captured information useless.

The layout of the array has also been carefully plotted so the instruments work in unison to take a single snapshot of huge swathes of the sky.

The ATA's creators claim that even with only 42 antennas on-stream, the instrument already rivals larger instruments in its ability to carry out brightness, temperature and point source surveys.

When all 350 dishes are gathering data, the ATA's creators say it will allow the gathering of data on an "unprecedented" scale.

The finished instrument will be able to study an area of the sky 17 times larger than that possible with the Very Large Array in New Mexico.

Mr Allen has provided Seti and Berkeley with a $25m grant to fund the initial construction work on the instrument. Other sponsors are being sought for the other $25m needed to complete the project.

It is expected to help improve understanding of such phenomena as supernovas, black holes, and exotic astronomical objects that have been predicted but never observed.

The array is situated in Hat Creek, California, and lies about 290 miles (470 km) north of San Francisco.

great band

2007-10-11T21:15:00.000-04:00

Mitsubishi Picks Pratt & Whitney Engine to Power New Japanese Built Jets

2007-10-05T11:52:00.000-04:00

October 5, 2007
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan's largest machinery maker, has picked US firm Pratt & Whitney to supply engines for the passenger jet it expects to launch in 2012, the Nikkei newspaper said on Friday.

The firm will also increase its development budget for the jet by a quarter, to JPY150 billion yen (USD$1.3 billion), the Nikkei said.

A Mitsubishi Heavy spokesman declined to comment.

The company said in June that Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies, and Rolls-Royce were possible candidates to supply the engines.

Mitsubishi Heavy plans to start taking orders for the jet next week, when it will also release a detailed business plan, the Nikkei said.

The jet, which will become the first Japanese-made passenger jet, will come in 72-seat and 92-seat versions and is part of a larger effort by Japan to develop aircraft that are more fuel efficient and make less noise.

(Reuters)

Ryanair cofounder Tony Ryan dies at age 71

2007-10-04T19:26:00.000-04:00

Ryanair cofounder Tony Ryan dies at age 71
Tony Ryan, a co-founder of European discounter Ryanair, died in his home Wednesday at the age of 71, AFP reports. His death came after a long and undisclosed illness, according to media reports. Ryan founded an aircraft sales and leasing outfit called Guiness Peat, which The Associated Press says during the 1980s "became the largest aircraft-leasing operation in the world." A Bloomberg News report in The New York Times (free registration) says "although Guinness Peat (ultimately) went on to amass debt after a failed share sale in 1992, it provided Mr. Ryan with the money to start Ryanair, replicating the low-cost model pioneered in the United States by Southwest Airlines."

As for Ryanair, its first flight came in 1985 with the company flying a single 15-seat aircraft between London Gatwick and Waterford in southeastern Ireland. Today, the airline has become one of Europe's top carriers, flying more than 500 routes with a market value of about $11.3 billion, "almost matching that of its full-service rival, British Airways," according to Bloomberg. Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, described by AP as "a Ryan protege," says "it was a privilege to work for him and to learn from him. … We are all determined that Ryanair will continue to carry his name with pride and distinction." Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern adds that Ryanair's "rise to become one of the leading carriers in Europe is one of the greatest Irish economic success stories and will be rightly regarded as perhaps his greatest legacy."

To boldly stay home

2007-10-04T19:11:00.001-04:00

To boldly stay home
Sputnik’s scary launch became the Mission to Planet Earth

Updated: 10/04/07 6:58 AM

It was no more than the size of a pumpkin and the only intelligence information it relayed was the beep, beep, beep of its own startling existence. While many Americans looked up in terror — which was the point — Sputnik, the Soviet satellite launched 50 years ago today, had no cameras for looking down at Earth.

Today, much to the benefit of all humanity, the view is reversed. Some 900 satellites look down on us, while another 5,000 or more have gone dark, fallen to Earth or slipped the bonds of terrestrial gravity for voyages into the cosmos. But most earthlings today don’t find them worth craning our necks for, and we hold no more interest in them than we do in the occasional pronouncements of how we should again fly human beings to the moon, or Mars.

All the fear and resolve that propelled the Space Race up through the moon landings from 1969 through 1972 have given way to a world in which people are less fearful of the military uses of rocketry than they are reliant on the satellites that bring us the inestimable benefits of weather forecasts, environmental data and global communications.

When films such as “2001: A Space Odyssey” come into our homes over the many movie channels now available, they are bounced off a satellite that is not, as was predicted in the wake of Sputnik, in the neighborhood of space stations run by Hilton or shuttles operated by Pan Am.

The fear at the time, of course, was that the Soviet designers who could launch Sputnik could just as easily have hurled an atomic bomb into orbit, or onto our heads. That remains a risk, perhaps. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, space has become less a garrison than a switchboard. Even the military focus is on communications and data collection — sometimes better known as spying.

Despite the initial belittling it received from some American officials — “a useless hunk of iron,” the defense secretary called it — others quickly came to see it as a great threat to national security. A sort of technological Pearl Harbor, according to atomic scientist Edward Teller.

The results, if unplanned, were mostly to the good. The United States ramped up its support for public education and, on the way to inventing moon rockets and spy satellites, created weather satellites, communications satellites, fuel cells, microcircuits and a useful little toy called the Internet.

Rather than racing off into space, we send up new generations of Sputniks to help us better understand and thrive on our home world. The Mission to Planet Earth, it’s called. And we are all the better for it.

At age 86, FAA examiner keeps new pilots in Dallas on their toes

2007-09-29T15:52:00.001-04:00

At age 86, FAA examiner keeps new pilots in Dallas on their toes

For almost six decades, FAA examiner has kept new pilots on their toes

12:00 AM CDT on Friday, September 28, 2007
By JOANNA CATTANACH / The Dallas Morning News
jcattanach@dallasnews.com

His black and white cap tilted at a rakish angle, T.M. Smith readied himself Tuesday afternoon for another test flight with a painfully nervous pilot.

At a spry 86, the World War II veteran and Federal Aviation Administration examiner has been through this routine thousands of times.

The aircrafts may have changed since he first became an examiner about 57 years ago, but the pilots haven't.

"They're all nervous," said Mr. Smith, who tests navigation, pilotage and instrument flying skills.

It's hard to imagine seasoned and rookie pilots fearing Mr. Smith, or Smitty as he's better known around Addison Airport. The fair-skinned grandfatherly figure with a patch of white hair and whisper of a mustache isn't exactly a physically intimidating presence.

But don't let the wrinkles and hearing limitations fool you. Smitty takes his flying seriously and students like Tom Hunse know it.

"His reputation is tough," said Mr. Hunse, who described his first experience in the cockpit with Smitty as "daunting."

"I was surprised, on meeting him, at his stature," Mr. Hunse said. "He carries a seat cushion with him to the airplane."

By his estimates, Mr. Smith has logged 47,000 hours in the skies in and around Dallas and examined 10,000 students. And he has no intention of quitting anytime soon, although his wife of 62 years, Joan, hopes otherwise.

"She would like for me to be home more than I am," Smitty said.

For now, the Ranger, Texas, native continues to educate himself on new aircraft and new technology.

His parents helped pay the $40 fee for ground school. Back in the 1940s, he flew missions for the Royal Canadian Air Force.

"You had to fly primarily by looking out the window," he recalled. Now, "It's easier because the airplanes are easier to fly."

His back office at Classic Aviation in Addison is a testament to 66 years in aviation. A bright yellow replica of a Piper Cub, the plane he flew to get his pilot's license, sits on a filing cabinet near black-and-white photos of cocky, young pilots from his war days.

"I did nothing very distinguished except survive," Mr. Smith said. "Three-fourths of my classmates didn't."

The veteran aviator with an airplane belt buckle and tie once dreamed of becoming a sportswriter. Retired Dallas Morning News sports columnist Blackie Sherrod is his hero.

But it's hard to imagine him doing anything else, says Cassie Green, owner of Classic Aviation.

"He probably knows more about flying any kind of airplane than anybody out there," Ms. Green said. "He just loves it. He's a natural."

Iceland Fund Puts Heat on AMR

2007-09-29T14:31:00.000-04:00

Iceland Fund Puts Heat on AMR
By DANA CIMILLUCA
September 27, 2007; Page A10

AMR Corp. has an unruly passenger on board.
FL Group, a $6 billion investment fund from Reykjavik, Iceland, sent a letter to the American Airlines parent's board on Tuesday urging the company to consider alternatives, including the spinoff of its AAdvantage frequent-flier program, to boost a stock that has fallen almost 50% since January.

FL Group said in the letter it has accumulated an 8.3% stake in the carrier. Previously, it had disclosed a stake of less than 6%.
FL Group says AAdvantage is worth about $6 billion. That is greater than the $5.4 billion market capitalization of all of AMR, based in Fort Worth, Texas, the world's biggest airline by passenger traffic.
"It's a no-brainer," said Hannes Smarason, chief executive of FL, in an interview. He also said AMR should consider offloading its aircraft-maintenance and -repair unit and its American Eagle regional airline. "It's a tough environment for the airlines now, and it's incumbent on the management and the board to find avenues where value can be created."

The fund has tried quietly engaging the company's management, but "we're not getting the response we're looking for."
An AMR spokesman said the company values input from shareholders. It declined to comment on specifics about FL, saying it typically doesn't comment on communications with holders. He added: "Our board and our senior management regularly give careful consideration to the best use of our strategic assets and the impact that those decisions might have in the long run for our shareholders."
Buffeted by surging fuel prices, AMR said late Friday that third-quarter revenue would fall short of analysts' forecasts. The stock, hurt also by fears of a slowing economy, plunged 14% to $20.77 on Monday, its worst percentage drop since April 21, 2003. In 4 p.m. composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, the shares rose 22 cents to $21.77.
If AMR were to spin off the frequent-flier program, it would follow in the footsteps of Air Canada parent ACE. ACE's former frequent-flier unit, Aeroplan, has a market value of about $4 billion, double what it was originally worth. Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd. has said it is considering spinning off its frequent-flier program, and United Airlines parent UAL Corp. has said it is considering strategic options for its frequent-flier business.
FL specializes in airline investments. It used to own Icelandair and had a 16.9% stake in easyJet, the European low-cost carrier. It now has a 23% stake in Finnair, the Finnish carrier. Based on data from FactSet Research Systems, an 8.3% stake would make FL the No. 2 AMR holder, after Tontine Management LLC.
FL began accumulating the stake in the fall of 2006. In December, Mr. Smarason called the shares, which were trading at more than $30 each after a 37% 12-month run, "quite attractive."

• Shareholder Push: FL Group, which says it holds an 8.3% stake in AMR, is asking the airline to consider alternatives.
• Eyes on Miles: FL said spinning off frequent-flier business could add value.
• Tougher Skies: The move comes as U.S. airlines face the threat of higher fuel costs with little ability to pass them on to passengers.

Here’s Why Richard Branson Should Be Delta Airlines’ Biggest Fan

2007-09-25T20:19:00.001-04:00

September 24, 2007, 9:45 am
Here’s Why Richard Branson Should Be Delta Airlines’ Biggest Fan
By Stephen J. Dubner

Last week, Passenger X arrived at the Orlando airport with a first-class e-ticket for New York City. At the airport, the ticket machine spat out a boarding pass for a seat in the back of coach. Why?
The plane, he was told, had been “downsized” from a large jet to a smaller one. There was no first-class section on the smaller plane, so all first-class passengers had been reassigned to coach.
Passenger X asked the Delta agent why the change had been made.
“Mechanical,” he was told.
Passenger X then asked when the change had been made, and wondered why Delta hadn’t phoned or e-mailed to alert passengers to the change — which would have given them time to perhaps fly first-class on a different airline.
The Delta agent responded that she did not know when the change had been made.
Passenger X flies frequently and tries to get work done on planes, so a first-class seat is far more desirable to him than a coach seat. He was disappointed with Delta’s change, but if they’d pulled a faulty jet out of the air — well, plainly, that was a good thing.
Once past security, he asked another Delta representative about the change. This agent, too, did not know when the plane swap had been made, but agreed that Delta should have alerted its first-class passengers. “You paid for the steak but you got the hamburger,” he said. This agent couldn’t have been kinder. He even offered to give Passenger X the customer service number at Delta so that he could arrange for a refund of the difference between the first-class fare and the coach fare.
To which Passenger X said: “Thank you, and no offense, but I’d be surprised — and further disappointed — if you weren’t already doing that on your own.” In other words, should the customer who pays for the steak and gets the hamburger then have to go scrambling himself to recover the price differential?
The Delta agent, still kind, acknowledged that yes, this too was not great Delta policy, but it was the best he could do.
At the gate, a third Delta agent, perhaps even kinder than the first two, looked at Passenger X’s boarding pass and offered to put an empty seat beside him. Very thoughtful! As it turned out, this was a pretty easy task, since the plane was only about 40 percent full, which made Passenger X wonder if the first Delta agent’s story — that the original plane was pulled for “mechanical” reasons — was even true. If the smaller plane was only 40 percent full, then the larger plane was probably only 20 percent full. As such, was it possible that Delta had changed planes because of an economic reason, and not a mechanical one?
Passenger X inquired as to this possibility, and was greeted with blank stares. He did learn, however, that the flight attendants had just flown down on this same plane, from New York to Orlando. At the very least, this meant that the smaller plane had been in service for quite a few hours, certainly enough time for Delta to let its first-class passengers know that their steak was now a hamburger.
In the end, the flight was fine. Two seats in coach are just as good as one seat in first class. But if it had been a jammed-to-the-roof flight, Passenger X would have been one sad puppy.
I can confirm Passenger X’s story because Passenger X is me. Let’s rehearse what happened here:
1. Delta sold a premium good to a customer, then exchanged it, unannounced, for a standard good.
2. Delta stated that it did this because the premium good was damaged, or unsafe; but the observable evidence suggests that this may not in fact have been the case.
3. Delta left the responsibility of getting a refund to the customer.
What should the customer do in this case?
I will do my best to avoid flying Delta in the short term and possibly the long term. What’s interesting to note is that the Delta employees in the airport were all as helpful as could be, but they were all hamstrung by company policy that they couldn’t control.
What does this suggest about the state of the U.S. airline industry?
It’s probably not a good idea for airline companies to alienate their few premium-paying customers, since those tickets help subsidize the very low cost of the standard ticket. I am guessing that the rush-to-the-bottom on airline ticket prices is the reason that so many people find airline travel so unappealing these days: people want cheap tickets — a coach ticket from New York to Orlando is probably cheaper than the cost of gas you’d need to make that trip by car — and they get the level of service that those tickets can buy.
Stories like this one are very good news, however, if you are in the VLJ (very light jet) business, since that is where business travelers are moving. It could also be good news for Richard Branson, who is on an all-business-class binge at the moment, and is rumored to be thinking about offering all-business-class flights in the U.S., the absence of which I have wondered about before on this blog.
For the record, let me say that as much as any of us may complain about airline travel –whether it’s sitting on a tarmac for hours or getting downgraded to coach — I still think the whole thing is a miracle.
Tags: airlines, consumer preferences, Richard Branson, travel

This has nothing to do with investments...but an interesting read!!!

2007-09-25T20:14:00.000-04:00

Boy survives two-hour flight to Moscow hanging onto plane wing
20:56 | 24/ 09/ 2007

MOSCOW, September 24 (RIA Novosti) - A 15-year-old boy from the Urals suffered acute frostbite after riding the wing of a Boeing-737 plane on a two-hour flight from Perm to Moscow, Russian radio station Mayak reported on Monday.

After clinging on for the entire 1300-kilometer (808-mile) flight to Vnukova Airport, the boy, named Andrei, collapsed onto the tarmac. His arms and legs were so severely frozen that rescuers were at first unable to remove his coat and shoes, the radio station said.

The airport did not confirm the report. "We have no information on this," the Vnukovo press service told RIA Novosti.

However, Moscow's air and water transport control department said the radio's claim was true. A department spokesman said the incident occurred on Friday, and that the boy's parents were immediately informed, and flew to the capital the same day.

Doctors said it was nothing short of a miracle that Andrei survived the flight, with temperatures hitting minus 50 degrees Celsius (-58 Fahrenheit), the radio station said. The Boeing-737 has a cruising speed of 900 kmh (560 mph).

The boy reportedly made the journey after a commonplace domestic dispute. Angry with his father, who reportedly has a drinking problem, and with his mother for siding with her husband in family rows, Andrei ran away to the neighboring village, where his grandmother lives. On reaching the village, he decided to go on, and hitched a 220-km (137-mile) ride to the regional center, Perm, where he was dropped off at the airport.

It remains unclear how Andrei was able to climb on a plane wing un-noticed, and the Perm Airport security service is being asked some serious questions, the radio station said.

Andrei is now being treated in a Moscow hospital, Radio Mayak said.

Canada preparing ports for NAFTA Superhighway

2007-09-18T20:08:00.000-04:00

PREMEDITATED MERGER
Canada preparing ports for NAFTA Superhighway
Building 'free trade gateway' between Asia, North America

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: September 11, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Canada is developing Pacific ports to compete with the U.S. ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, as well as with the Mexican ports of Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas, in an attempt to draw a substantial market share of the millions of containers expected to flow into North America in the coming decades from China and the Far East.

To attract Chinese container traffic, the Canadian government has launched a major ports-rail-truck-airport transportation infrastructure designed to build its version of the emerging NAFTA Superhighway.

In October 2006, the Canadian minority government under the direction of Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper launched the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative, or APGCI, as a key component of Canada's national transportation policy.

The idea is to prepare deep-water Pacific Ocean ports on Canada's West Coast to facilitate the import of millions of multi-modal containers from China as a "free trade gateway" between Asia and North America.

WND reported Mexico plans to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor south in what government officials in Mexico are calling a "Trans North America Corridor."

(Story continues below)

According to Transport Canada, Canada's equivalent to the U.S. Department of Transportation, rail and road connections through Prince Rupert and Vancouver in British Columbia will carry the Asian containers into Canada through Edmonton and Calgary in Alberta.

From there, the planned rail-truck-passenger superhighways will head toward Winnipeg, where cross-border connections south will direct the containers from China and the Far East onto the Interstate 35 corridor in the U.S., establishing a major link in the emerging continental NAFTA Superhighway.

Canada Asia-Pacific Gateway conceptual map (Canadian government)

The plan is clearly explained in Canada's National Policy for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors, a policy that includes development of the Ontario-Quebec Continental Gateway and Trade Corridor, as WND reported.

The National Policy for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors specifies the Canadian federal government has committed $1 billion to develop transportation infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative, identified as "a network of transportation infrastructure including British Columbia's Lower Mainland and Prince Rupert ports, their principal road and rail connections stretching across Western Canada and south (to) the United States, key border crossings and major Canadian airports."

Canada Transport states clearly a major purpose of the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative is to increase Canada's share of North America-bound container imports from Asia.

"Canada's Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor offers world class marine, rail, road and air infrastructure closer to Asia than all its North American competitors," the Transport Canada website announces.

In January, David Emerson, minister of international trade and minister for the Pacific Gateway, led a trade delegation of Canadian transportation and logistics senior executives on a mission to Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai.

During the trip, Emerson and the Chinese minister of communications signed an updated agreement "to foster cooperation on intermodal transportation gateways to support international trade."

Transport Canada articulates how the vision of a North American economy has driven the development of Canadian national transportation policy.

"The integrated North American economy provides the 'platform' for Canada's successful global engagement," a brochure on the Transport Canada website proclaims in the process of explaining Canada's National Policy for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors.

According to Transport Canada, between 1995 and 2005, Canada's exports more than doubled, from $3.5 billion to $7.1 billion, in Canadian dollars.

Yet, imports from China dwarfed the numbers.

Between 1995 and 2005, Canada's imports from China grew almost 550 percent, jumping from $3.6 billion to $29.6 billion, in Canadian dollars.

Transport Canada confidently announces "China's recent dramatic growth (in imports to Canada) is expected to continue."

"Canada's Asia-Pacific Gateway is a burgeoning national strategy that is responding to the rise of Asian economies and the challenges and opportunities Asia now poses for Canada," the official website of the Asia-Pacific Gateway states.

The province of British Columbia has devoted $12 billion for new transportation infrastructure and has established the Asia Pacific Trade Council to build marketing links with China and the Far East.

Canada's Prince Rupert and Vancouver are both deep-water ports suited to accommodate the post-Panamax class of container Megaships China is building.

Top 10 Potential Short-Squeeze Airline Stocks

2007-09-15T12:42:00.000-04:00

Top 10 Potential Short-Squeeze Airline Stocks

By James Altucher
RealMoney.com Contributor
9/12/2007 6:01 AM EDT
Click here for more stories by James Altucher

With earnings and summer travel results fast approaching and the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday travel season soon upon us, many investors are starting to look at the airlines. However, many short-sellers have taken a negative stance on these stocks and bet heavily against them.

But such a scenario creates some opportunities, because investors may be able to take advantage of these heavily shorted stocks. On any good news, strong numbers or, say, a sharp drop in gasoline prices, these stocks could rise, and rise big, as short-sellers are forced to cover their bets.
With that in mind, Stockpickr combed through the stocks in the sector with the highest short ratios and compiled the Top 10 Airline Short Squeezes portfolio.

As a reminder, the short ratio is the number of days it would take the short-sellers to cover their position, based on the stock's recent average daily volume. Let's take a look at some of the names on the list.

One of the airlines with the highest short ratio is AirTran Holdings (AAI - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), the holding company for AirTran Airways, which serves the eastern part of the U.S. from its hub in Atlanta. The stock has a short ratio of 10.7 with more than 27% of the float shorted.

The airline just reported that its capacity and occupancy reached an all-time record in August. The stock has a price-to-earnings ratio of 26 and a P/E-to-growth ratio of 0.8.

AirTran shares are owned by the five-star Morningstar-rated Gartmore Small-Cap fund (GSXAX), which has generated an outstanding average annual return of 27% over the last three years. Gartmore also owns Regal Entertainment Group (RGC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), an operator of more than 500 theaters throughout the U.S. that has a short ratio of 7.1.

Another high short-ratio airline stock is Republic Airways Holdings (RJET - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating), which has a short ratio of 8.6 with 9% of the float shorted. The airline operates in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Republic has an existing $100 million buyback program, and it just announced that it would buy back 2 million shares from WexAir LLC, a former majority stockholder. Republic's P/E is 10.5, and its PEG is 0.7.

It is interesting to note that Republic also shows up in the Off Wall Street's Picks & Pans portfolio, a listing of both short and long recommendations from Off Wall Street Consulting Group, an independent research firm that specializes in short-selling.

However, the firm recommended Republic as a buy, along with SAIC (SAI - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), the federal information technology services company, which has a short ratio of 6.1.

SkyWest (SKYW - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) is another airline with a high short ratio -- 7.2, with 13.7% of the float shorted. The Utah-based airline operates flights to destinations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. It has a P/E of 10.6 and a PEG of 0.9. It even pays a small dividend of 0.5%.

SkyWest was one of Kiplinger's 10 Stocks for 2007, picks James Glassman considers the best buys of the year. This list also includes Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating), Lockheed Martin (LMT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) and ConocoPhillips (COP - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating).

For the rest of the potential short-squeeze plays in this sector, check out the Top 10 Airline Short Squeezes at Stockpickr.com.

Stock prices of International Carriers

2007-09-08T19:20:00.000-04:00

stock prices of some other aviation companies

2007-09-08T19:15:00.000-04:00

Nice video and music

2007-09-08T19:07:00.000-04:00

Here are 7 stocks for traders for Monday from TradingMarkets.com

2007-09-08T12:32:00.000-04:00

TradingMarkets.com
7 Stocks You Need to Know for Monday
Friday September 7, 3:41 pm ET
By TradingMarkets Research

Here are 7 stocks for traders for Monday from TradingMarkets.com:
Shuffle Master (NasdaqGS:SHFL - News) reports earnings on Monday after the close; watch for $0.13 EPS. SHFL's PowerRating (for Traders) is 4.

Take-Two Interactive Software (NasdaqGS:TTWO - News) is expected to report -$0.69 EPS after the market closes on Monday. TTWO's PowerRating (for Traders) is 4.

TXU (NYSE:TXU - News) said it had agreed to a $45 billion leveraged buyout by private-equity investors. TXU's PowerRating (for Traders) is 5.

InterDigital (NasdaqGS:IDCC - News) gained over 10% after the company adjusted Q3 forecasts upwards by about $1 million to $55.5 million. IDCC's PowerRating (for Traders) is 4.

JetBlue Airways (NasdaqGS:JBLU - News) rose over 1% after the company announced that traffic increased over 13% from August last year. JBLU's PowerRating (for Traders) is 4.

3M (NYSE:MMM - News) fell on Friday after announcing plans to buy a tape-manufacturer, Venture Tape, for undisclosed terms. MMM's PowerRating (for Traders) is 6.

Beazer Homes (NYSE:BZH - News) fell 10% after announcing that the U.S. Bank National Association had served Beazer with default notices. BZH's PowerRating (for Traders) is 5.

PowerRatings (for Traders) are courtesy of TradingMarkets.com