Tag: Aviation

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Virgin America shareholders OK Alaska merger

Virgin America and Alaska Airlines jet tails
Virgin America and Alaska Air Group are getting set to merge. (Credit: Alaska Air)

California-based Virgin America said today that its shareholders have approved the air carrier’s merger with Seattle-based Alaska Air Group, clearing one of the major requirements for the $2.6 billion deal to take effect later this year.

Under the terms of April’s merger agreement, Virgin America’s investors will receive $57 a share, which would pay a nearly 50 percent premium on the stock price in effect just before the deal was announced.

Alaska Air Group, which is the corporate parent of Alaska Airlines, won out after a fierce bidding war with JetBlue. The merger will give Alaska a firmer foothold in California, particularly for high-traffic routes to New York and Washington, D.C. Alaska Air’s CEO, Brad Tilden, has said the combined company might still keep Virgin America as a brand that’s distinct from Alaska Airlines.

The Virgin brand would have to be licensed from British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, at a cost that’s likely to amount to millions of dollars.

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Solar-powered plane finishes global circuit

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The Solar Impulse 2 plane heads toward its landing in Abu Dhabi. (Credit: Solar Impulse)

Solar Impulse’s history-making 22,000-mile flight around the world ended tonight with a solar-powered landing in the dark in Abu Dhabi, where it all began more than 16 months ago.

After two straight days of flying, Swiss psychiatrist-adventurer Bertrand Piccard aced the landing at Al Bateen Executive Airport just after 4 a.m. local time Tuesday (5 p.m. PT Monday), The touchdown marked the conclusion of the first-ever round-the-world journey completed by a solar-powered airplane.

“We made it!” Piccard told the cheering crowd on the runway just after landing.

Prince Albert of Monaco, one of Solar Impulse’s biggest backers, joined other dignitaries, scores of well-wishers and a bagpipe band at the finish-line celebration.

Piccard and Solar Impulse’s other pilot and co-founder, Andre Borschberg, organized the $170 million sponsor-funded effort to show off clean technologies – and potentially blaze a trail for fuel-free solar electric aviation.

“The future is clean. The future is you. The future is now. Let’s take it further,” Piccard told the crowd.

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Boeing centennial blends the old and the new

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Boeing employees Teresa Felix and Laurie Staples check out the windows at an exhibit at Seattle’s Museum of Flight during the company’s centennial festivities. (GeekWire photo by Alan Boyle)

The Boeing Company pulled out all the stops today to celebrate its 100th birthday – from the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, to the “Boeing 100” flag flying atop Seattle’s space needle, to the old and new Boeing airplanes lined up at the Museum of Flight.

But it was the old and new people in the company’s extended family who provided some of the most touching highlights at today’s kickoff for the centennial weekend.

June Boeing, the 90-year-old widow of William Boeing Jr. and the daughter-in-law of company founder William Boeing, reminisced about her husband after receiving a gift of the company’s original incorporation papers, filed in Seattle on July 15, 1916.

“I always thought I was his first love. And soon after we were married, I found out I wasn’t,” she said. “The Boeing Company was his first love.”

Another moment came when Mawut Mayen, one of the “lost boys of Sudan” who grew up to become a manager with the 777 program, recounted how Boeing helped him find a happy ending to his refugee story. “I have a great future ahead of me,” he said.

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FAA funding measure boosts airport security

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A bomb-sniffing dog and its security team from the Transportation Safety Administration keep watch at Washington Dulles International Airport. (Credit: TSA)

The U.S. Senate today gave final congressional approval to a measure that authorizes funding for the Federal Aviation Administration through September 2017 – and also changes procedures for airport security and emergency drone operations.

“It’s a little more than a 14-month extension, but don’t let that fool you, because it is going to put into permanent law bolstering security at our airports in order to help better protect us,” Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said on the Senate floor.

Bolstering airport security was a high priority for Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., one of the bill’s sponsors. She said the measure would help head off soft-target airport attacks like the ones that hit Brussels and Istanbul earlier this year.

“By passing this bill, we’re doubling the number of terrorist deterrent teams at U.S. airports and ground transportation hubs,” Cantwell said.

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Solar Impulse heads for final layover in Egypt

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The Solar Impulse 2 airplane takes off from Seville, Spain. (Credit: Solar Impulse)techn

Sixteen months after it started, the fuel-free Solar Impulse 2 airplane took off before dawn Monday for what’s expected to be the second-last leg of its round-the-world journey, heading from Spain to Egypt for a pyramid photo op and a Cairo landing.

Solar Impulse co-founder Andre Borschberg was at the controls in the solar-powered plane’s solo cockpit for what could be his last time during the globe-girdling odyssey.

“The unknown is always there,” he said before takeoff. “So I’m crossing my fingers before crossing the Mediterranean Sea.”

The ultra-lightweight plane rose up from Seville International Airport at 6:22 a.m. local time (9:22 p.m. PT Sunday). The Solar Impulse team said Borschberg’s trip is scheduled to take about 50 hours. He’s on track to cross through the airspace of seven countries during the flight.

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Alaska wins OK to fly Seattle-L.A.-Havana route

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A woman in Miami flies Cuban and U.S. flags. (Credit: U.S. State Dept.)

The U.S. Department of Transportation today gave its tentative go-ahead for Alaska Airlines to fly between Los Angeles and Havana, the capital of Cuba, with extended service between L.A. and Seattle, the airline’s hometown.

Alaska said the Cuba-bound flights would be operated with a Boeing 737-900ER aircraft, capable of carrying 181 passengers. Each daily flight would begin in Seattle, then stop over in Los Angeles, with same-plane service continuing to Havana. The return flight would retrace that route.

The route is among 20 slots in Havana that were made available to U.S. carriers this year when the federal government signed an agreement with Cuba to restore regular commercial air travel between the two countries, after a gap of more than 50 years.

A dozen U.S. airlines applied for the slots, proposing a total of nearly 60 flights a day. Alaska was among eight airlines that were awarded the 20 available round-trip flights. Alaska said it was the only airline that proposed daily nonstop service from Los Angeles to Havana.

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Boeing teases Dreamliner jet’s airshow demo

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Boeing’s 787-9 Dreamliner runs through a demonstration flight in advance of the Farnborough International Airshow. (Credit: Boeing)

If you love watching airplanes taking it to the max, you’ll dig the video showing a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner jet rehearsing for next week’s Farnborough International Airshow in England.

The video, released today, tracks the All Nippon Airways jet from inside and out as it makes high-banking turns that demonstrate wing flex, and side-to-side movements that demonstrate the plane’s handling characteristics. Boeing test pilots Randy Neville, Van Chaney and John Misuradze were at the controls for the flight over Moses Lake in central Washington state.

The ANA airplane will show off similar moves during demonstration flights from July 11 to 13 in Farnborough, which serves as the focus for the world’s aviation industry next week. After the show, it’ll be delivered to ANA, the largest operator of the 787 Dreamliner.

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Washington creates drone industry council

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An unmanned aerial vehicle flies through a forest. (Photo via Chase Jarvis)

Officials at the Washington State Department of Commerce are working to create an Unmanned Systems Industry Council to foster commercial drone operations in the state.

Plans for the council are being drawn up by John Thornquist, the director of the state’s Office of Aerospace; and Joseph Williams, state director of economic development for the information and communication technology sector. An organizing symposium will be held in Seattle on Sept. 19, Thornquist told GeekWire today.

“It’s going to be selective, for the businesses that are players in this industry,” he said. “It’s not just about the vehicles. It’s also about the tech companies that are behind it.”

Thornquist said the council would bring together state officials, industry representatives and academic experts on unmanned aircraft systems, also known as drones or UAS’s (or unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, for that matter). “The idea is to create a forum whose goal is to increase commercialization in this subsector of aerospace,” he said in an email.

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Solar Impulse crosses Atlantic to land in Spain

Image: Piccard and Borschberg
Solar Impulse co-founders Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg salute the crowd after Piccard landed the Solar Impulse 2 airplane in Seville, Spain. (Credit: Zayed Energy Prize via Twitter)

The world’s most traveled fuel-free airplane, Solar Impulse 2, made better time than expected and landed in Spain today, leaving only 10 percent of its round-the-world odyssey to go.

“The Atlantic has always been the symbol of going from the Old World to the New World,” Solar Impulse co-founder and pilot Bertrand Piccard said after landing in Seville. “And everybody has tried to cross the Atlantic – with sailboats, steamboats, airships, airplanes, balloons, even rowboats and kitesurfs. Today, it’s a solar-powered airplane for the first time ever, flying electric, with no fuel and no pollution.”

Piccard was expected to take 90 hours to cross from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Seville, but he made the trip in only a little more than 71 hours.

“Only” is a relative term: A commercial airline flight from New York to Seville takes less than 11 hours, including a stopover in Madrid. But speed isn’t the point of Solar Impulse’s round-the-world odyssey. Rather, it’s sustainability.

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Solar Impulse begins four-day Atlantic crossing

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The Solar Impulse 2 airplane takes off from New York’s JFK Airport. (Credit: Solar Impulse)

The all-electric Solar Impulse 2 plane left America’s shores tonight and began what’s expected to be a 90-hour trip across the Atlantic Ocean to Spain.

This 3,600-mile leg of the solar-powered, round-the-world flight ranks as the longest single stretch since last summer’s Japan-to-Hawaii trip. During that earlier flight, Solar Impulse’s batteries overheated – forcing a months-long delay to make repairs and wait for the return of temperate weather.

The Swiss-led team says it has upgraded the batteries and added a cooling system to guard against a repeat. Nevertheless, this week’s over-ocean trip is likely to pose the biggest challenge left for the 15-month odyssey.

The fuel-free plane took off just after 2:30 a.m. ET Monday (11:30 p.m. PT Sunday) from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, with Solar Impulse co-founder Bertrand Piccard in the cockpit. His destination is Seville, which is near Spain’s Atlantic coast and the Strait of Gibraltar.

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