Samsonite

The trend started many years ago and by keeping in touch with friends who live there, friends who spend as much as 30 days per trip there, and, gasp, reading these boards, one doesn't have to be "on the ground" to know the decline has, unfortunately, continued. BTW, are you still smoking the same brand?

Not as easy as it would appear. It was mentioned in the early press releases about the accident that there were extra pilots onboard and without them there was doubt the plane would have survived. Here is what appeared into today's aviation press on the subject. "ATSB credits Qantas pilots in A380 engine incident By Geoffrey Thomas | December 6, 2010 The Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan credited Qantas pilots with saving the Airbus A380 that suffered an uncontained engine failure after take-off from Singapore Nov.4 (ATW Daily News, Dec. 3). Addressing media on Friday in Canberra at the release of the ATSB's interim report on the incident, Dolan said that "the aircraft would not have arrived safely in Singapore without the focused and effective action of the flight crew.'' The ATSB report also showed that the A380 lost 17 critical control systems and the five pilots onboard, with a combined experience of 72,000 hours, took just under an hour to deal with 54 error messages after debris from the Rolls-Royce Trent 972 engine ripped through the wing. The crew—a captain, co-pilot and second officer—was bolstered by a check captain and training check captain on QF32. On Friday, VP-Australian and International Pilots Assn. Richard Woodward said the pilots were forced to deal with an "unprecedented" number of issues during the two-hour ordeal. Dolan said that, while it was impossible to say how close QF32 came to disaster, the consequences of this type of uncontained failure "were very serious." "The most serious damage in terms of scale was the result of one significant part of the turbine disc going directly through the wing of the aircraft," Dolan said. While the 54 error messages were demanding, the landing was extremely difficult and passengers were briefed for an overrun." http://atwonline.com/aircraft-engines-comp...e-incident-1203 "54 error messages" ?! They are not flying an airplane, but operating a flying computer.

Another vote for Opera. I've been using it since it all fit on 1 (one), 1.44 meg. 3 1/2" floppy disk. Most of the "features" found in today's more popular browsers were first seen in Opera. Here is a short history of browsers, http://www.matusiak.eu/numerodix/blog/inde...ed-opportunity/ Browser and Operating System Statistics can be found here, http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

"DATE:03/12/10 SOURCE:Air Transport Intelligence news Sixteen Qantas Trent-900s require modification or replacement By Greg Waldron Qantas says 16 Rolls-Royce Trent 900 powerplants for its Airbus A380 fleet require modifications or replacement. Of these 16 engines, five have been replaced, says the carrier. It adds that it has completed one-off oil stub pipe inspections on the first of the two aircraft to have resumed service. "No issues outlined by the ATSB were found, and the aircraft will operate to London via Singapore as schedule this evening. Inspection of the second aircraft has commenced," says Qantas. The announcement follows the Australian Air Transport Safety Bureau's release of a preliminary report about the uncontained Trent 900 engine failure over Indonesia on 4 November, which forced a Qantas A380 to make an emergency landing in Singapore. "With CASA's (Civil Aviation Safety Authority) approval, two A380s have returned to service with Qantas voluntarily applying a range of conditions that include not operating the aircraft across the Pacific until further operational experience has been gathered." The carrier adds that it will receive two new A380s in the coming weeks, with another two due for delivery in early 2011. According to Flightglobal's ACAS database, Qantas operates six A380s, has 14 on order, and options for an additional two. Of the six operational aircraft, the A380 involved in the 4 November incident will "remain in Singapore for sometime," says Qantas, where it will undergo extensive repairs." http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/...eplacement.html

Is that "Sir William"?

I've flown Asiana twice out of Seoul and it is an excellent airline, but due to the long layovers I've won't fly them from the U.S.

Yes, the 787 is late, but as usual you, and your two friends bring little to the discussion but mis-quotes, mis-representation, the occasion outright lie and often the personal attacks on anyone who disagrees with the 3 of you.

No one left to blame, genius, but those who orchestrated this disaster. You could place a good portion of the blame on the boy wonder from Boeing, now at Ford, who approved the cataclysmic worldwide supply and assembly chain for the 787. Had the the major components been designed, built and joined as they have with all previous Boeing aircraft, it probably would have been put in service with little to no delay.

Boeing's biggest problem is senior management. Not middle managers, but those in the executive suite at H.Q. Any executive left over from McDonnell/Douglas should be placed in a position where he can't do anymore damage and those Boeing trained (prior to the merger) executives with engineering backgrounds should be brought out of retirement to turn the company around.

Absolutely agree! If I had to pick one reason for the decline, that would be it.

Absolutely correct. He was in another major Vietnam War film, "Apocalypse Now".

"Wall Street"

"Cascading failures followed airline engine blowout By JOAN LOWY, Associated Press – 28 mins ago WASHINGTON – Pilots struggled against a rapidly cascading series of system failures after a Qantas airliner's engine blew out, severing electrical and hydraulic lines and puncturing fuel tanks. The description of the pilots' ordeal on the Nov. 4 flight came as Qantas' chief executive said Thursday the engine failure may lead to replacement of as many as half of the 80 Rolls-Royce engines that power some of the world's largest jetliners, the Airbus 380. After the Qantas engine disintegrated, blasting metal shards into the left wing, the pilots were inundated with 54 computer messages alerting them of systems that had failed or were close to giving out, said Richard Woodward, vice president of the Australian and International Pilots Association. Woodward has talked with all five pilots who were in the cockpit. "I don't think any crew in the world would have been trained to deal with the amount of different issues this crew faced," Woodward said. "The amount of failures is unprecedented," he said. "There is probably a one in 100 million chance to have all that go wrong." Among the pilots' troubles, the wing's two fuel tanks were punctured. As fuel leaked out, it caused a growing imbalance between the left and right sides of the plane. At the same time, the plane was becoming tail heavy. The electrical power problems prevented pilots from pumping fuel from tanks in the tail to tanks farther forward, Woodward said. Gradually the plane's center of gravity began to change, he said. That may have posed the greatest risk, safety experts say. If a plane gets too far out of balance, it will lose lift, stall and crash. The pilots managed to return the crippled plane to Singapore and land safely, with 450 passengers aboard. Qantas has since grounded its fleet of six A380s, each powered by four of the giant Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told reporters that Qantas may have to replace 14 engines, each worth about $10 million. Rolls-Royce has indicated that the number of engines that needed to be replaced was "40 engines worldwide," he said. Rolls-Royce has remained virtually silent since Nov. 4 as its stock price has dropped." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20101118...superjumbo_woes

Richard Crenna.

"The Longest Yard."

And the engine on the QANTAS 747-400 mentioned above was made by... Rolls Royce. Given the number of flights per day and hours per flight, etc., etc., etc., un-contained engine failures are quite rare and the consequences can be severe. The number of un-contained engine failures involving Rolls Royce engines in such short a short period of time is beyond coincidental and is legitimate cause for concern.

"DATE:10/11/10 SOURCE:Air Transport Intelligence news Lufthansa's first A380 has 'precautionary' engine change By David Kaminski-Morrow German flag-carrier Lufthansa has become the latest carrier to undertake an engine change on its Airbus A380 fleet, switching a single powerplant on its first airframe. The airline is one of three carriers to use the Rolls-Royce Trent 900, currently under scrutiny following the uncontained failure on a Qantas A380. Lufthansa changed a single engine on the airframe registered D-AIMA, the first A380 delivered to the airline. The jet is just six months old having arrived in mid-May...." Rest of the story here, http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/...ine-change.html

"Singapore Airlines pulls 3 A380s due to engines By KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press – 1 hr 16 mins ago SYDNEY – Singapore Airlines pulled three of its A380 superjumbos from service Wednesday after tests uncovered problems with the planes' Rolls-Royce engines less than a week after an engine on a Qantas A380 exploded shortly after take-off. Tests revealed oil stains in three engines on three of the airline's A380s, Singapore Airlines said in a statement. The planes, in Melbourne, Sydney and London, will be flown to Singapore, where they'll be fitted with new engines, the airline said. "We apologise to our customers for flight disruptions that may result and we seek their understanding," airline spokesman Nicholas Ionides said in a statement. Last week, Qantas grounded its fleet of A380s — the world's newest and largest airliner — after one of the aircraft's Rolls-Royce engines burst during a flight from Singapore to Sydney. The explosion showered debris over Indonesia's Batam island. The plane, carrying 466 people, made a safe emergency landing in Singapore. On Monday, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said tests had uncovered oil leaks in the turbine area of three engines on three different A380s. All six of the Australian airline's A380s remained grounded Wednesday....." Rest of the story here, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101110/ap_on_...superjumbo_woes

"An Officer and a Gentleman."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101108/ap_on_...antas_emergency "Qantas CEO: Oil leaks in 3 engines of its A380s By KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press – Mon Nov 8, 6:30 am ET SYDNEY – Tests have uncovered oil leaks in three Rolls-Royce engines on Qantas' grounded Airbus A380s, the airline's CEO said Monday, as engineers tried to zero in on the cause of an engine failure on board one of the carrier's superjumbo jets last week. Australia's national carrier grounded its six double-decker A380s, the world's newest and largest airliner, after an engine burst minutes into a flight from Singapore to Sydney last week, scattering debris over Indonesia's Batam island. The plane made a safe emergency landing in Singapore. Engineers conducted eight hours of extensive checks on each engine over the weekend. On Monday, CEO Alan Joyce said engineers have discovered oil leaks in the turbine area of three engines on three different A380s. "The oil leaks were beyond normal tolerances," Joyce told reporters. "So Rolls-Royce and our engineers have looked at what we have gathered as an accepted level and they have passed that threshold." "All of these engines are new engines on a new aircraft type," he added. "The engines are not performing to the parameters that you would expect with this." Because of that, he said, all of the airline's A380s will be grounded for at least an additional 72 hours. "We are not going to take any risks whatsoever," Joyce said. "We want to make sure we have a 100 percent safe operation." All three affected engines have been removed from the planes for further testing, and will be replaced with spare engines the airline has on hand, Joyce said. "As a consequence, it's now narrowing our focus on that issue," he said. Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, the other airlines that fly A380s fitted with Rolls-Royce's Trent 900 engines, also briefly grounded their planes last week but resumed services after completing checks. The Qantas engineers are working with Rolls-Royce, who manufactured and maintains the engines, as well as Airbus. Shares in Rolls-Royce Group PLC slumped almost 4 percent to 568.5 pence ($9.18) Monday morning on the London Stock Exchange. They lost more than 5 percent last week after Thursday's in-flight incident. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading an international investigation into the blowout on the A380, appealed for help from residents of Indonesia's Batam island to find a missing piece of a turbine disc. The island was scattered with debris last Thursday when one of the A380's four engines failed minutes into a flight to Sydney, with 466 people aboard. The engine was quickly shut down and the plane returned to Singapore and safely made an emergency landing. "The recovery of that disk could be crucial to a full understanding of the nature of the engine failure, and may have implications for the prevention of future similar occurrences," the bureau said in a statement. It released a photograph of a jagged and bent piece of turbine disc from the Trent 900 engine and asked that anyone who might have found a similar piece should hand it to police. It said one piece of the shattered engine that had been found on Batam was being sent to Britain for examination by Rolls-Royce engineers, under the supervision of bureau investigators. Extra experts were being sent from Australia to Singapore to examine other debris. Rolls-Royce Group PLC, a London-based aerospace, power systems and defense company separate from the car manufacturer, could not immediately be reached for comment Monday. The company has said the investigation is in its early stages and that it is too early to draw any conclusions. John Goglia, a former National Transportation Safety Board member and an expert on aircraft maintenance, said the photo showing the broken turbine disc indicates it was the disc that may have failed. The photo didn't show any signs of discoloration on the disc that would indicate overheating. There are several reasons why a disc might fail, but they usually involve the metal used to make the disc or the manufacturing method, Goglia said. He cautioned that he was looking at one photo, which was not enough information to make a definitive judgment. Qantas passengers stranded by the grounding of the A380s are expected to be flown to their destinations within 24 hours, Joyce said. The airline is adding flights from London and Los Angeles to help clear the backlog. Joyce would not specify how much the airline has lost since the engine explosion, nor would he comment on whether Qantas plans to seek compensation from Rolls-Royce. "We are working with Airbus and Rolls-Royce to fix this issue — that's our top priority and compensation talks will take place after the aircraft are back in the air," he said. (This version CORRECTS Corrects percentage of decline in Rolls-Royce stock price. This story is part of AP's general news and financial services.)"

Sidney Poitier

Katharine Hepburn

Bob Hope

The 787 is available with either Rolls or GE engines. Unfortunately, the launch customer, ANA, selected the Rolls power plant for their aircraft. Then there is the on going problem of poor craftsmanship from their Italian subcontractor. And, just this last Friday, Pratt Whitney filed suit against Rolls and is trying to stop delivery of the Rolls Trent 1000 engines to Boeing. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12070080 "Pratt & Whitney Fans Dispute With Rolls-Royce Jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney steps up patent-infringement complaint against Rolls-Royce The Associated Press WASHINGTON November 5, 2010 (AP) Jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney is raising the stakes in a dispute with rival Rolls-Royce by seeking to stop shipments of Rolls-Royce engines for Boeing's next passenger jetliner. Pratt & Whitney said Friday it filed patent-infringement complaints against the British company at the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.K. High Court. The dispute centers on who owns the designs for fan blades used in modern commercial airliners. Rolls-Royce is competing with General Electric Co. to build engines for Boeing's new 787, which is made of lighter composite materials and designed to be fuel-efficient. The plane is in the final stages of flight-testing. Boeing had planned to begin delivering the plane to airlines early next year, but Aviation Week reported Friday that Boeing has told customers to expect a delay of up to 10 months. Pratt & Whitney's patent-infringement challenge also covers another Rolls-Royce engine that is used in the giant Airbus A380 jetliner. Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp., says Rolls-Royce's Trent 900 and Trent 1000 engines use fan-blade designs that the U.S. company invented. The companies were already fighting in federal courts in Connecticut, where Pratt & Whitney is based, and Virginia. Rolls-Royce sued Pratt & Whitney earlier this year for patent infringement, and Pratt & Whitney filed a countersuit in September. Pratt & Whitney claims that Rolls-Royce hid information about existing patents to get the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to approve its fan-blade technology. United Technologies said it spent decades developing its geared turbofan jet engine, and Rolls-Royce, lacking a similar engine, was trying to undercut a joint venture between Pratt & Whitney and GE to build engines for the Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger plane in production. Pratt & Whitney said Rolls-Royce had failed three times to win patent office approval for an engine part called the fan stage, which is a set of blades on a rotating hub."

Hedy Lamarr