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FG Trade

by David Lanzas

One of the key causes of anxiety and stress for fearful flyers is their perceived lack of control. This in turn can make them avoid air travel – limiting their lives considerably – and if they do get on a plane, cause them suffering.

While it’s true that as passengers we have no control over the flight itself (fortunately), this doesn’t mean that there’s nothing anxious flyers can do to feel that they do have some control over the situation. And here are five simple way

ASMR

The cockpits of old – with a bewildering multiplicity of levers, buttons and analogue displays – are long gone, phased out beginning in the 1980s in favour of digitised systems known as EFIS, comprising a bewildering multiplicity of liquid-crystal displays along with and joysticks and soft keys to manipulate them.

The EFIS Revolution in Aerial Navigation

This revolution was essentially threefold. First was cockpit design, of course. Second, it changed the way pilots and co-pilots worked

Rathke


A few of you may have had the privilege of visiting the flight deck of a commercial airliner, and found yourself fascinated by the myriad levers, buttons, and other mechanisms surrounding the captain and co-pilot. After seeing that instrument panel, have you ever wondered what kind of training a pilot has? Of course, they must have a flight license, but how do you study for it? How long does it take? Are there other requirements along with flight training itself? Here's a quick explanat

by guest blogger Puri Ruiz

Much has been written about this small device that all commercial aircraft have been incorporating for more than half a century. And little wonder: "black box" flight recorders are essential in order to identify the causes of an accident.

We know, thanks to ironclad statistics, that the airplane is the safest means of transportation, but several decades ago there was a model of aircraft, the Comet, whose accident rate was well outside of normal range. It was the earl

Admittedly, inflight dining has not gotten a lot of love over much of the course of commercial aviation's history. Actually, early in that history, in the 1930s, multi-course meals were cooked onboard. However, as the postwar demand for flights took off in the 1950’s and 60’s and aircraft sizes (and therefore passenger numbers on each flight) grew, this soon proved impractical, and the complexity of cooking for hundreds of passengers in a tight space within a limited time frame prompted airl

by Jorge de Luis Sierra

In recent times we've seen a flood of news related to air transport safety, especially in regards protective actions against the spread of COVID: terms like HEPA filters and other sanitary measurements in cabin such as ultraviolet lighting radiation or the use of products that neutralise the coronavirus - hydroalcoholic gels or other disinfectants -, have now become familiar to everyone.Considering the health and hygiene on board we can find some materials with antibac

Airline flights in much of the world are organised through a system called "hub-and-spoke," invented by U.S. airline Delta in 1955; made widespread in the USA after that country's deregulation of the airline industry in 1978; and commonplace in Europe as well since the European Union finally eliminated the last of its own air-industry restrictions in 1997. The model is named after the basic design of a traditional wheel, where the "hub" is a central airport and the spokes are the flights comin

In today’s commercial passenger aviation, understandably it’s the aircraft that get top billing and most of the attention. But the airport systems that make their operation possible include a complex array of equipment, much of which is unglamorous and goes largely unnoticed by the flying public. And one of the key contraptions along these lines is a low-slung vehicle called a pushback tug or tractor.

As the name implies, this doughty workhorse of the tarmac goes into action when it’s time to

At some point when you're approaching your plane you've surely wondered to yourself why the wings are curved, no? This design feature is called a winglet (also known as a wingtip device), and it's there not just to look cool but for an important purpose: to maximise aerodynamic efficiency. Interested in learning more? Read on!

If you're an aviation geek, you know that airplanes stay in the air thanks to the interaction of four types of physical phenomena:

Thrust - that related to the tractio

by José Miguel Rodriguez

Not long ago, this video went viral on YouTube, racking up more than 10 million views. Apart from the fact that the 1,200-millimetre telephoto lens thoroughly flattens both the foreground and background, making the airplanes seem suspended in midair, what on earth are these pilots up to? Specifically, what’s up with the bizarre landing technique

Believe it or not this technique is standard, by-the-book practice when there are strong lateral winds present during landing

On February 20, as crews were still struggling to raise the fuselage AirAsia flight QZ8501, Indonesia's top transportation official said the aircraft climbed at an extreme rate just before it crashed. The accident investigators have had time to study the flight recorder; we can assume they now know what went wrong on the doomed Airbus A320.

After being initially candid, why have Indonesian officials now decided that the preliminary report, due by the end of the January, will not be made publi

I think I have remembered all the planes I have flown on since I started traveling in the 1960′s. That was tough. I started traveling as a child in the Midwest, then to South America, and then, well all over.

Douglass

The first plane I remember flying on was  a North Central Airlines DC- 3 My father worked for North Central so we flew non-rev, meaning free. We called these planes puddle jumpers.

There are still small operators with DC-3s in revenue service and as cargo aircraft. The common sayi

The FAA gets it wrong again.

When Virgin Atlantic announced recently that passengers could make calls on their cell phones on VA’s Airbus A330 and Boeing 747 between London and New York, it was another wake up call to the Federal Aviation Administration to face reality.

Although cellphones can not be used during take off and landing, and the price per call is still steep (about a $1.60 per minute and twenty cents per text),  the point is, as we have reported, about 100 other airlines allow an