Hot answers tagged aircraft
19
I always have one or two plastic bottles with me. I empty them before I go through security and then re-fill them from a tap in the restroom in the waiting area.
I've done this many times, and security never asked about the empty bottles, and even if they do you can explain what they are for.
17
The problem of airplanes is the sheer number of ways in which it differs from your normal sleeping routine:
Noise (silence is pretty much impossible)
Light (they're never totally off even in "sleep mode")
Comfort (unless you sleep on a rock-hard mattress, not the same)
Temperature (the cabin tends to be cold on long flights)
Peace (interruption from other ...
17
This question is hard to answer, there are many types of crashes. If the plane stalled most likely it will fall down on its aft side. If the plane spins then god knows! and if the plane splits into pieces while air borne then no one is safe!
Let's talk about normal crash landing where the pilot is forced to land the plane in a desert or a field or any ...
16
An important factor is that seats closer to an exit improve your chances after a crash landing, in case the plane catches fire (very common) or sinks underwater.
Contradicting the Popular Mechanics study, the University of Greenwich found that
A seat up to five rows from an exit offers a better than even chance
of escaping if there's a fire, ...
15
This is a very difficult question to answer in general, because different airlines have different seating configurations, seat pitches, etc. The best thing to do is to check out sites dedicated to airline seating plans, such as:
SeatGuru (by far one of the most popular ones)
SeatExpert
SeatPlans
All of these sites are built on a user-submitted database + ...
13
Yes, you can have that experience in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (JED). The new airport is still under construction and most of the old airport uses stairs to board until now! Anyway, Two daily A380 flights operated by Emirates depart from JED to Dubai (DXB), one in the morning and one in the evening and passengers board these flights using stairs.
This is an A380 ...
12
Personally I've given up, and in some ways, since I did that, I've actually ended up sleeping more - quite the paradox!
Don't go onboard PLANNING to sleep. My view is that I'll be settling in for 20-something hours of movies (CHC to LON). I can stay awake pretty well, but find it very difficult to get to sleep sitting up. Anywhere.
What I've found as a ...
10
While there is plenty of good advice in the other answers, I feel I have some more to offer that is a little less spontaneous. Sleeping on a plane is a learned skill and it is improved by planning, preparation, and practice. You can change the likelihood of sleep from nearly nil to nearly guaranteed, but not if the first time you start to think about it is ...
10
This is going to vary strongly from carrier to carrier because as far as I can tell what really matters is how long it's been since the interiors were refurbished (a process airlines do one plane model at a time) and whether the route is considered important by the airline. Sure, you can make some overall opinions about narrowbody (one aisle) vs widebody ...
10
I think you are confusing aircraft tail number with flight number - the former is a unique registration number for each plane, while the latter simply describes a unique route operated. When airlines operate flights on a codeshare basis, one physical aircraft could be flying the same physical route sold under different flight numbers too!
10
Right, firstly according to Airliners.net forums, each airline has different chime meanings.
However, on Yahoo, we have a list of all of the chimes - but presumably it's for a specific plane, and it doesn't say which:
Generally they are as follows:-
1 x chime for a passenger call bell
2 x chimes if the crew are calling each other
2 x chimes ...
10
Yes you can, portable electronic devices (PEDS) are divided into few categories, some of them are:
PEDs allowed all the times: such as some medical devices. They are allowed during all phases of the flight, for example some medical oxygen devices.
PEDs allowed during cruise: Most of the electronic devices are in this category, you can use them during the ...
9
Getting a ride in an ex-military jet is totally doable; pilots love to fly, and it's even better when someone else is footing the bill. Ex-military aircraft in private ownership are often called "warbirds", and searching for that term will provide many leads. Here's one:
http://www.warbirdalley.com/fly.htm
Take a ride in a warbird! Here are links ...
8
There are a few companies in South Africa and I think the USA that offer rides in old military jets to wealthy tourists. Same can be had in Russia and maybe some other former Soviet republics. South African prices for supersonic flights start at 11000 Euro.
In central Europe, laws typically prohibit supersonic flight except over open water, and even there ...
8
They are simply advertising, just the same as an airline may paint the logo of a sports team on an aircraft, or name it after a city. There is no other difference whatsoever, either in facilities or services, compared to the rest of the airline's fleet.
There are several different Star Alliance livery schemes around, as a common design was not published ...
8
In history, there have only been two SSTs (Supersonic transports) around for passengers - the TU-144 and the Concorde.
Sadly, neither is available any longer with access to fly on them.
So then we look to the two major manufacturers with almost supersonic capabilities.
Long considered the fastest passenger plane, the Boeing 747 has several variants, each ...
7
One position I find comfortable is to put my backpack on the tray table, put a pillow or blanket on it, and sleep slouched forward on my backpack-pillow. It's often more stable than "reclining" back as much as I can and hoping my head doesn't roll around. It's also a bit closer to horizontal, and puts that much less vertical pressure on your spine.
Of ...
7
I've known some friends of mine to take a Gravol (motion sickness & relaxant pill also known as Dramamine or Dimenhydrinate) and they can fall asleep quite easily on the plane. This doesn't work for me but I've known it to work for others and felt it was worth mentioning.
7
Fly a Russian MiG-29
There is a company MigFlug that offers flights in Russian MiG-29 fighter jets. They offer five locations within Europe, but with the prevention of supersonic flights in Europe, you may have to go for their central Russia location.
They actually only advertise near-supersonic speeds, but maybe a few rubels more get you over the ...
7
Interestingly, earlier this year a 'study' by Skyscanner came up with seat 6A as the best seat on the plane. They polled visitors to their website:
It polled more than 1000 passengers from around the world on seat
preferences, including whether they chose window, middle or aisle
seats. It also delved deeper to find out if passengers' choices were
...
6
In my experience it is very rare for there to be a period at the end of boarding where the gate is still open, but no or few passengers are in the process of 'settling in'. This usually only happens if the flight is delayed at the last minute or if they keep it open for a passenger who is late to the gate (don't be that passenger!) who has checked in luggage ...
6
I would personally recommend taking the train - it means you can see the landscape change as you travel south, rather than bypassing it in the plane (also taking the train is lower carbon so better for the environment).
You can take a train from London to Paris, Paris to Milan, and then a night train from Milan to Naples, arriving at Naples in the morning:
...
6
The Philippine Airlines 777-300ER has some of the better seats in Economy of any airline.
Excluding bulk-head/exit row, the economy seats have a pitch of between 33-34", a width of 18.5", and a 6 degree recline in a 3-4-3 configuration. Whilst that's hardly luxurious, it's at least as good as the majority of airlines, and better than most!
As with many ...
6
Comparing aeroplanes and trains shows that aeroplanes are very much the least ecologically friendly mode of transport. As an example from http://www.seat61.com/CO2flights.htm:
A site which has some limited data comparing plane, train and car+ferry gives us the following data, but I would assume that the car emissions skew the numbers somewhat, which leads ...
6
At this stage the only close-to-sensible 787 routes to Oceania (ie, excluding those that go via Europe/Africa!) are to go via Tokyo or (from April) Shanghai.
ANA currently flies between Seattle and Tokyo Narita, and will start flying from San Jose (California) to Tokyo Narita this Friday (Jan 11, 2013).
United Airlines currently flies between Los Angeles ...
6
Depends on your notebook model and your traveling class. If you have an economy ticket and your traveling in one of those cheap airlines with very limited seat pitch and you have the luck of a friendly traveler in the next seat who decides to recline his seat during the journey, it get tough to use your notebook.
If you are unlucky to travel with ryanair ...
5
FlightAware provides an estimated take-off and landing time. It might be useful as an estimate, but Airliners.net will definitely help with identifying an aircraft type and airline. Destinations will be much more difficult to come by, unless you match up the arrival times with the timetables for a particular airline.
For Zurich: ...
5
A good resource for checking train connections is http://www.bahn.de/. There are often good deals on Europe's high speed trains, though you might only get a good deal to the south of France, not all the way into Italy.
It will be hard to beat a budget flight. Obviously on journey time but also on cost. Book in time and your return journey can be as little ...
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