So far this year, airlines have cancelled orders for 22 Airbus aircraft, leaving the EADS subsidiary with a net order intake of 68 planes.

Rival Boeing sold 85 aircraft between January and June but airlines cancelled orders for 84 aircraft, leaving it with a positive first-half net order balance of one aircraft.

More info at Reuters

The company also is on track to make its first test flight of the 787 in the second quarter of 2009, Scott Carson, chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said at the J.P. Morgan Aviation and Transportation Conference.

Via Reuters

The winglets help increase the plane’s lift without increasing engine power — a combination that improves overall fuel efficiency, saving upwards of 500,000 gallons of fuel per fitted aircraft and generate less carbon dioxide.

American Airlines plans to install Blended Winglet on its entire fleet to Boeing 767-300ERs aircraft by 2011 — that may save the airline upwards of 29 million gallons of fuel each year.

Not bad!

Obama also took his first trip aboard “Marine One,” the famous green helicopter which ferries the president around on shorter trips — this time from the White House to Andrews air force base outside Washington.

Barack Obama's first flight on Air Force One

Air Force One is the air traffic control call sign of any United States Air Force aircraft carrying the President of the United States. Since 1990, the presidential fleet has consisted of two specifically configured, highly customized Boeing 747-200B series aircraft – tail codes “28000″ and “29000″ – with Air Force designation “VC-25A”. While these aircraft are referred to as “Air Force One” only while the president is on board, the term is commonly used to describe either of the two aircraft normally used and maintained by the U.S. Air Force solely for the president.

More info on Wikipedia

747-400 in Delta Colors

But in fact, this is not the first Boeing 747 for Delta. Indeed, the super-jumbo has joined the fleet of the company on October 2 1970, soon joined by 7 other planes. Very quickly abandoned, because the 747-100 was not adapted to the the Delta traffic at this time (Caribbean and Canada).

For the anecdote, the upper deck was actually a suite. It was enough to take 7 first class tickets  to afford the luxury of this space.

According to Boeing, the fuel temperature in over 200 of its 777s that are equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent 800-series engines should not remain at -10°C or below after two hours in flight. This is one hour less than the company advised customers in a notice issued on 29 January.

After two hours at these extreme temperatures, pilots are instructed to reduce the plane’s altitude, which results in both slower air speeds and higher rates of fuel consumption.

“It’s not the greenest thing in the world, but it’s the safest thing we can do right now,” said Boeing spokeswoman Liz Verdier in comments to The Associated Press earlier this week.

via The Post

From 21 medium-haul new generation ordered, it only maintains  5 …! Recession’s fault, but also  2 years behind schedule, due to industrial problems. And yet, it is not already finished. Boeing would have 879 ordered planes.