Marc Joel Atrero
AuthorElvis has left the building
January 20, 2015 0 commentDespite popular demand, Elvis has not returned to Australia for this year’s Erickson Air-Crane tour of Australia. But while there is no overweight, white body-suit, blue-suede-shoe-wearing rock star headlining the show, six Erickson S-64E Air-Cranes are touring Australia as the headline act for the 2014-15 bushfire season. It’s the size of a Kenworth, but it’s
Read moreMade in Renton
January 19, 2015 0 commentRenton, the home of Boeing narrowbody airliner production, is ramping up to builda staggering 52 737s a month Boeing’s Renton facility has seen it all and is now gearing up for yet another extraordinary chapter for a factory that has produced more commercial jets than all the world’s other aircraft factories combined. The numbers are
Read moreWhen Retro was the Real Thing
January 18, 2015 0 commentThe ‘retro roo’ remembers a very different Qantas of the 1970s and 1980s, as former Qantas Captain Bill Anderson recalls Qantas recently saw the arrival of a new Boeing 737-800 which is painted in a 1970s era ‘retro’ livery. Timely, as it seems to me there are many loyal Qantas staff, both current and retired,
Read moreSwords to ploughshares
January 17, 2015 0 commentBAE Systems Australia’s move into commercial aircraft maintenance lands a Tiger by the tail BAE Systems is the third largest defence contractor in the world, and enjoys a particularly strong role in military aircraft sustainment in Australia. In October 2013, the company announced it had been chosen to provide base maintenance services for a commercial
Read moreBeyond the Flightdeck
January 16, 2015 0 commentAustralian pilot Geoff Hucker is helping Ethiopian orphans to fly higher For most Australians who grew up in the 1980s, Ethiopia was more closely associated with war and famine than vacation, but for Geoff Hucker, the east African country had always been a source of fascination. Inspired as a boy by stories of Solomon and
Read morePilatus PC-21
January 15, 2015 0 commentPilatus PC-21 – 21 by name, 21st (Century) by nature Thousands of feet below the sharply pointed nose, Lake Lucerne whirls wildly as our PC-21 spins earthward. The altimeter is unwinding at a prodigious rate, and we’re already below the summits of many of the Alps. As the nose flicks round for a sixth time
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