Dreamliner arrives in New Zealand

Hundreds of people lined Auckland Airport roads today to see Boeing's first 787 Dreamliner touch down. This is the first flight by the Dreamliner to land in the Southern hemisphere.

The 787 Dreamliner is three years behind schedule and costing $250 million each, Air New Zealand has 8 of the 787-9 version which will be joining the Air New Zealand fleet from 2014.

Boeing is flying the first Dreamliner it made around the world to demonstrate it to clients. The Dreamliner only entered commercial service last month with All Nippon Airways. Within a fortnight of entering service it suffered technical glitches with its undercarriage.

The Dreamliner is a revolutionary lightweight aircraft built mainly of carbon composites designed to save fuel. Air New Zealand's Chief Pilot Captain David Morgan was aboard the flight out of Seattle which touched down in Auckland at 10am. Also aboard were 30 Boeing staff testing the aircraft's performance on the non-stop 13 hours 40 minute flight.

The aircraft flew low of Auckland for the public to see while cars lined prime vantage spots around the airport for the army of plane-spotters out.

The plane will fly to Sydney on Tuesday next week.

A350-900 delays

A350-900 first flight pushed back to end-2012

Airbus has pushed back the first flight of the A350-900 to the end of 2012 and is aiming for certification and service entry by the end of 2013 because of a delay to final assembly.

While Airbus planned a mid-2012 maiden flight, this seemed at odds with its intention to maintain a lead time of about nine months between final assembly and first flight.

Airbus's new timetable appears to provide a potential assembly lead time of a year, and offers a change of tone regarding entry into service - parent EADS had previously said the A350 would arrive in the second half of 2013. Pre-final assembly line initiation is being prepared at several plants - St Nazaire for the forward and center section, Getafe and Hamburg for the fin and tail, and Broughton for the wings. All major component assembly will be under way this summer to ensure delivery to the final line at the end of this year.

The first large aircraft parts are now manufactured and the focus is moving to pre-final assembly start. Airbus has orders for 574 A350s including 359 for the -900 variant.

Crazy about Rugby

Air New Zealand showed its dedication to our national rugby team by painting its newest plane all black.

The Airbus A320 which is painted to support the All Blacks' Rugby World Cup campaign 2011, landed at Auckland Airport to a cheering crowd on the 1st of February.

A silver fern motif decorates the tail and the slogan "crazy about rugby" is splashed across the side of the aircraft that is going to be used for the domestic market in New Zealand

On board was All Black captain Richie McCaw who was welcomed by a group of Air New Zealand staff performing the same haka the players do before a game.

Richie McCaw said he was impressed by the plane and said it showed the airline's devotion to supporting the All Blacks during the Rugby World Cup later this year.

The plane's touchdown yesterday marked the end of its three-day journey from the Airbus manufacturer base in Toulouse, France. It then flew through Canada, Denver, Los Angeles, Hawaii and Samoa before arriving in Auckland

It will begin a nationwide tour on February 6.

The aircraft is Air New Zealand's only black plane but is the first of the airline's new jet fleet of 14 Airbus A320s as it replaces its Boeing 737-300 aircraft for domestic routes.

The airline has painted planes black to support previous All Blacks World Cup campaigns.

787 test program nears an end

Boeing has a revised third quarter target for the delivery of the 787′s service entry now looks to be achievable given all of the delays and setbacks experienced during the testing program – although this comes at a huge financial cost in writing off the first three test airplanes, (ongoing) compensation to customers and a hugely embarassing three year delay to the program.

With just several hundred hours of flight testing yet to be completed, Boeing has, with this revised entry into service schedule, provided the first realistic target of getting the airplane delivered.

Delivering the first 787 earlier will make better headlines, but as with the 777 program, Boeing is aiming to ensure ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standard) capability out-of-the-box for 787 customers.

Delivering the first 787′s will alleviate near-term pressures, but the bigger question remains of how long it will now take Boeing to reach its former target of ten airplanes a month – 2013 is now out of the question.

Qantas problems continue.

A pilot of a Qantas 747 flight was forced to turn back to Sydney today (15/11/10) during a flight from Sydney to Buenos Aires, Argentina, The pilot reportedly told passengers there was smoke coming from the instrument panel in the cockpit.

On Friday, a Qantas Boeing 767 turned back on a domestic flight in Australia after pilots detected abnormal vibrations in one of the plane's two General Electric engines. A week earlier, a Sydney-bound Qantas Boeing 747 landed safely in Singapore after an engine caught fire minutes after takeoff.

Both 747 planes were fitted with Rolls-Royce RB211 engines.

The fault on the A380 two weeks ago was in the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine. Leaking oil caught fire in the motor of a four-engine Qantas A380, heating metal parts and causing the disintegration over Indonesia before the jetliner returned safely to Singapore. Chunks of flying metal damaged vital systems in the wing of the Sydney-bound plane, causing the pilots to lose control of the second engine and half of the brake flaps on the damaged wing in a situation far more serious than originally portrayed by the airline.

Qantas grounded its six A380s within hours and said four days later that the checks had revealed suspicious oil leaks on three engines on three different grounded A380s. Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa, which both use A380s with Trent 900 engines, have conducted checks on their superjumbos and all but one have returned to service, the airlines say.

747-8 flies

Boeing's giant 747-8 freighter is the biggest plane the Boeing company has ever built, It took off on its first flight today which is a year later than originally planned and one day earlier than the anniversary of the first flight of a 747 41 years ago. The 747-8F took off from Everett's Paine Field at 12:39 PST and Touched down at 4:18 PM.

The 747-8 Freighter reached a speed of 230 knots (264 mph/426 kph) and an altitude of 17,000 feet (5,181 meters) on the first flight. It is about 5.5 meters longer than the existing 747-400 jumbo jet. The company conducted high and low speed taxi tests on the freighter on Saturday, with the aircraft performing well.

At this stage there are 76 firm orders for the freighter and 32 for the 747-8 inter-continental passenger jet which was launched on November 14, 2005, Boeing has firm orders for 10 planes from Cargolux of Luxembourg and eight from Nippon Cargo Airlines of Japan and has a list price of more than $US300 million.

After completing the test program, the first freighter will be refitted and delivered to Cargolux later this year. The first delivery was to have been in late 2009 and the first passenger version in late 2010, but Boeing pushed back the dates due to design changes, limited engineering resources and an eight-week strike that shut down factories.

The 747-8 passenger version will carry up to 467 people in three classes, with a range of just under 7,000 miles and assembly of that plane will begin around mid-2010, with the first delivery in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Lay down beds in Economy class.

Air New Zealand announced a few months ago its plan to have lie down beds in economy class on its long haul flights which will be a world first, Its a project that an Air New Zealand team has been working on for the last three years.

Just today they released the design, Its a row of three seats which will provide a flat surface for two adults to sleep on, Later this year Air New Zealand takes delivery of the first of its new Boeing 777-300 aircraft that will be fitted with these new lay down beds (Skycouch).

A Skycouch ticket will be based on buying two seats at the standard price and the third seat at half-price, there will be Twenty-two sets of Skycouch seats and they will be going on sale from late April.

The 340 seat 777-300 aircraft will be configured with 246 in Economy (including 66 seats creating 22 Skycouch combinations), 50 in Premium Economy and 44 in Business Premier.

The first routes to offer travelers the new Skycouch seats will be on selected services between Auckland and Los Angeles from December this year, and then followed by dedicated return services between Auckland and Los Angeles and through to London from April 2011.

Air New Zealand will also be re-fitting its existing fleet of eight Boeing 777-200s fromJune 2011 and its Asian, North American and UK services should have the new skycouch in 2012.

No Boeing 787-3's on order.

No Boeing 787-3's on order.

What does this mean? Is Boeing abandoning the 787-3 or has it been mothballed just like Airbus mothballed the A380 Freighter variant?

Is it because JAL and ANA which are the only customers to express and interest in the 3 version and have decided that the range capability wasn't enough and have decided to go with the 787-8 or 787-9, Or maybe the Japanese operators just want earlier deliveries of the 787 to be able to compete in the tough Asian market.
This leaves the question, If Japan airlines and All Nippon Airways are taking deliveries earlier, Other customers of the 787 must be prepared to take delivery later. This could then lead to some airlines deferring or canceling there orders.

Boeing could even delay the release of the 787-9, But this could lead to more cancellations or deferrals unless Boeing is prepared to pay compensation, There are several airlines that are seeking compensation, These airlines were relying on the 787 to replace currently leased aircraft whose leases have expired, The last thing these airlines want is further delays.

Deferral could be a good option with the worlds financial situation at present and the amount of people traveling have dropped dramatically over the past year.

Maybe Boeing are reducing the number of series in the 787 range to cut unnecessary capital expenditure and R&D.

787 Finally flies.

On December the15th 2009 Boeing's new lightweight carbon and titanium Dreamliner lifted off the runway for the first time into cloudy skies after more than two years of delays. It was witnessed by several thousand Boeing employees as well as industry VIP's, Enthusiasts and of course reporters from around the world.

The 787 Dreamliner production has been delayed five times in the past three years due to a shortage of bolts, faulty design and a two-month strike at its factory.The most recent delay was the most serious, as Boeing needed to reinforce the side of the plane where the wing meets the fuselage, and the first flight has been postponed six times which has stretched the patience of many of its customers, The advantage it has is that it will save airlines million of dollars in fuel and maintenance costs.

Airlines from around the world have ordered a total of 840 of the aircraft which is worth about $US140 billion, since 2004, when work began on the plane.

The four-hour test flight of the Dreamliner, painted in Boeing house colors, began at Paine Field adjacent to its factory in Everett 30 miles north of Seattle. This is only the start of an extensive flight test program that will take around 9 months to complete and will involve six 787s running around the clock, which Boeing executives have said will be like running a small airline.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a long range, mid size, wide body and twin engine jet airliner . It will have three versions, The 787-3 short range version will have a capacity of 330 passengers, 787-8 baseline version will carry 210-250 passengers and the 787-9 stretched version will carry up to 290 passengers. All three versions of 787 family will carry passengers non-stop on routes between 6500 km and 16000 km . Boeing 787 is using two types of engine, The General Electric GENX engine and the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engine . The length of the plane is 56 m with a wingspan of 59 m and its height is 17.4 m.

First Boeing 747-8F

On the evening of November the 17th, Boeing moved the first 747-8F from the paint hanger in Everett, Washington.

Boeing says the aircraft is painted with an oversized number 8 on the background of the tail and 747-8 featured on the belly of the aircraft. The first flight of the 747-8F is scheduled for early 2010, with Cargolux being the launch customer and is scheduled to take delivery of the first 747-8F during the fourth quarter of 2010.


The Boeing 747 has been a very popular plane and is the worlds most recognizable aircraft. Boeing claims that design of the 747-8F will be quieter, more economical and more environmentally friendly than all previous versions of the 747 and has the economic benefit of similar training and interchangeable parts.

For the 747-8 family of aircraft, Boeing has given the wing an extensive overhaul that will improve the lift over drag and also the engine, This will incorporate all the newest techology that is going into the 787 project, This will allow the airplane to fly further and in a more efficient manner than preceding 747’s.

The passenger version of the 747-8 is called the Intercontinental (747-8I), It will be capable of carrying up to 450 passengers in 3-class configuration over 8,000 nautical miles (14,816 km) at 0.86 Mach, The Intercontinental is not expected to be on the flightline for quite some time yet unfortunately.

Qantas again..

Qantas has stood down two pilots who failed activate the landing gear on a Boeing 767 on approach Sydney's Kingsford Smith international airport from Melbourne on Monday. The plane was less than 300 meters above the ground when the onboard computer system warned the pilots with the words "too low - gear, too low - gear".
The pilots then regained altitude and circled the airport before landing shortly after, This particular warning is designed to go off when the aircraft is too close to the ground.

The president of the Australian and International Pilots Association said it is "very serious" if the enhanced warning system is activated, and the incident is being investigated, In the meantime, The pilots have been stood down.

During take off and landing, You're dealing with air traffic, slowing the aircraft down, configuration changes and changing radio frequencies, So something as simple as landing gear can get overlooked.

The safety bureau is expected to deliver a preliminary factual report in about a month.

Unaccompanied minor sent to wrong destination

Apparently an unaccompanied minor with all the paperwork set to travel from Boston to Cleveland on Continental airlines wound up in Newark instead.

As required by the airline, The parent walked the child through airport security to the gate, then spoke to the agents and then put the child in their care when it came time to board the plane.

The paperwork was complete and it stated the flight number, destination and phone numbers and addresses for the people meeting the child at the airport in Cleveland.

The parent then watched airline personnel take the child and the paperwork with the destination and flight number onto a plane. Everything should have been fine.

The parent had no idea that the child hadn't reached Cleveland until the Father-in-law called and asked where she was.

How could the airline staff put her on the wrong plane and neither flight crew noticed.

A Continental Airline spokesperson later issued this statement:

"We take very seriously our responsibility to care for unaccompanied minors on our flights. In this case, there were two flights departing simultaneously from a single doorway and miscommunication among staff members resulted in the child being boarded on the wrong aircraft.
"We are truly sorry for this error and have apologized to the family. The child was supervised throughout the entire process and was rebooked and routed to the proper destination on the same day. "


I have 2 Children that travel as unaccompanied minors on a regular basis. For me, This is completely unacceptable and there should be no excuse for this to happen even if there are two flights departing simultaneously from a single doorway.

40 years on

Today is one of the greatest days in aviation history. February 9th 1969 was the first flight of the Boeing 747, It was a little past the target date of December 17, 1968, but it was still in time to meet the commitment of a mid-December 1969 delivery for the first production plane.


On December 30, 1969 The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration certifies the 747-100 for commercial service and on January 21, 1970 the 747-100 enters commercial service with Pan American World Airways on a New York-to-London flight.

40 years old and still being produced, In my opinion its the greatest airliner ever built and the greatest that will ever be built.

Qantas to receive A380.

Australia's Qantas Airways is to take delivery of its first Airbus A380 today, making it the third airline to induct the superjumbo to there fleet after launch customer Singapore Airlines and recently Gulf carrier, Emirates.

A Qantas spokesman said it will ''welcome its first A380 aircraft into the Qantas fleet at a ceremony at the Airbus factory in Toulouse", It will fly to Sydney via Singapore, It is due to land on Sunday morning the 21st of September.

Qantas will put the first A380 into service on October the 20th, And it will be flying between Melbourne and Los Angeles, and its first Sydney-Los Angeles service on 24 October. Services from Sydney to London via Singapore will commence from early 2009. Qantas has 20 A380s on order, three of which are supposed to be delivered by the end of 2008, However Airbus have had some unexpected delays once again.

Qantas had said that laptop power will be available in every seat of its new Airbus A380s, Which will also include standard economy class. It had also said that it would offer wireless Internet throughout the A380, as well as web and email access via seat-back inflight entertainment systems.

Qantas had built a reputation for excellence in safety, operational reliability, engineering and maintenance, and customer service, Qantas was regarded as one of the worlds leading long distance airlines, However recent maintenance problems and close calls have damaged there reputation with several problems over the past 2 months.

Qantas problems continue.

Over the past 6 weeks the national carrier of Australia (Qantas) have had several mechanical problems affecting the fleet.

Just the other day a Qantas Boeing 747-400 en-route from Singapore to London landed in the German city of Frankfurt after its crew shut down engine four because of a vibration. Flight QF31 landed without incident. At the moment Qantas engineers are investigating the cause of the engine problem. Passengers were diverted to other carriers, either flying direct to London or to other European destinations.

On July 25, a faulty oxygen bottle blew a hole in the fuselage of a Qantas Boeing 747-400 flying from Hong Kong to Melbourne. The blast caused the aircraft with 365 people on board, to depressurize and it rapidly descended several thousand feet before making an emergency landing in Manila.

On July 29, a Adelaide- Melbourne flight returned to Adelaide when a wheel bay door failed to close, while a hydraulic fluid leak forced a Boeing 767 to return to Sydney.

On August 4 Hydraulics caused a flight to be delayed almost three hours in Sydney.

On August 7 a noisy air-conditioning fault forced the grounding of a jet that had recently returned from routine maintenance in Malaysia with 95 defects.

On August 12, Qantas announced it would temporarily pull six Boeing 737-400s from service after discovering an irregularity in maintenance paperwork.

On August 13, a Qantas Boeing 747-300 from Melbourne was grounded in New Zealand after an engine shut down on approach to Auckland. Also on the same day, Qantas flight QF31 to London - the same flight affected by the incident - was delayed because a crucial screw needed urgent maintenance, while a Boeing 767 jet had a hydraulic failure that affected the plane's steering as it landed at Sydney on a flight from Melbourne. The plane left a trail of hydraulic fluid as it touched down, forcing the runway to close for 40 minutes as the spill was mopped up.

On August 15, a technical problem delayed a Brisbane to Melbourne flight for more than 30 minutes, while a small body panel fell from a Qantas jumbo en route to Singapore from Melbourne .

On August 17, a rudder problem delayed the departure of a Sydney-bound plane at London's Heathrow Airport by more than 16 hours.

On August 20, two flights were canceled between Perth and Sydney and Perth and Melbourne because of technical problems.

Qantas has a near perfect safety record, However, they have had more near misses than any other airline. Is Qantas still a safe airline to fly?

New look for 767-300ER

The blended winglets have become a common feature on Boeing 737 and 757 aircraft and have made their first flight on a Boeing 767.

About a month ago an American Airlines 767-300ER which was equipped with new blended winglets took off. The newly modified aircraft flew a ferry flight from Kansas City, Mo. to San Bernardino, Calif. It will undergo certification and performance flight testing over the following two months. Some American Airlines employees installed the blended winglets, together with necessary wing and aircraft systems modifications at the maintenance base in Kansas City.
The new Blended winglet will increase the payload and/or range of the aircraft which in turn will reduce maintenance costs and improve its take-off capability from difficult airports such as those in hot-and-high places and those airports that have short runways.
The blended winglets are 11-foot-tall (3.4-meters) and were manufactured for Aviation Partners Boeing by GKN Aerospace which are on the Isle of Wight in the UK.

If the FAA and the EASA certify the blended winglets, 767-300ER Aircraft would be equipped and begin revenue service in December. Currently there are over 130 systems from 10 different airlines that already have firm commitments and are currently sold out of the blended winglet system.

This new blended winglet system will save around 6.5% on fuel consumption, Which is a saving of more than 500,000 gallons of jet fuel per aircraft per year, It also translates into an annual reduction of over 5,000 tons of CO2 per aircraft.

The blended winglet already exists on Boeing 737 BBJ, 737-800, 737-700, 737-300, 757-200, 737-500, and 737-900 which is around 2,500 Boeing aircraft, And have been certified for those aircraft. They also hope to launch a blended winglet certification program for the 777-200ER later this year and anticipate certification by December 2010.

The future of space travel.

Richard Branson has unveiled the plane that is intended as the launch aircraft for his Virgin Galactic spaceship full of the first of his paying passengers, In July 2007, three Scaled Composites employees were killed when a test of a propellant system failed at the Mojave Airport which had put a hold on the unveiling of the new spaceship.

It has been called The WhiteKnightTwo (Which has the nickname Eve after Richard Branson's mother) and it was on display for a small group of invited guests and reporters at the California desert headquarters of Scaled Composites, the aerospace firm where it was built.

It is designed as a high-altitude aircraft that will launch SpaceShipTwo from midair. It has a 43-meter wingspan and twin fuselages and it will carry SpaceShipTwo under the center of its wing, between the two hulls, It is the longest single carbon composite aviation part ever manufactured. The plan is for The WhiteKnightTwo to free the spacecraft at about 15,240 metres, from where it will rocket into space under its own power.

Virgin Galactic is part of Branson's airline, vacation and retail company Virgin Group and he hopes to send his first paying customers into space within the two years at a cost of US$200,000 each.

Richard Branson already has 200 people signed up for the ultimate sightseeing trips into space, The ticket price is expected to drop significantly over the next five years. Among the first passengers that are expected to make the first trip into space are physicist Stephen Hawking, actress Victoria Principal and designer Philippe Starck. Each flight into space will carry six passengers up to 50,000 feet.

Virgin Galactic is one of several contenders in the new commercial space race. Other contenders include Europe's EADS Astrium, Blue Origin which was started by Jeff Bezos who is the founder of Amazon.com Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) which was created by Elon Musk, who is the PayPal founder, And Bigelow Aerospace, a venture aimed at creating space hotels, started by hotelier Robert Bigelow.

First flight from renewable energy.

Nuts picked from the Amazon rainforest helped fuel the world's first commercial airline flight powered by renewable energy.

A Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet flew from London to Amsterdam with one of its fuel tanks filled with a bio-jet blend including babassu oil and coconut oil.

"Today marks a vital breakthrough for the whole airline industry," Virgin founder Richard Branson told reporters in a hangar at Heathrow airport prior to the flight's departure.
British billionaire Branson said, however, it was unlikely the nut of the wild growing babassu palm would play a key role as airlines turn to renewable fuel sources to cut the industry's greenhouse gas emissions.
"We did not want to use biofuels such as corn oil which were competing with staple food sources," he said, adding he believed algae produced in places like sewage treatment farms were the most likely future source of renewable fuel for the airline industry.

Biofuels, which are mainly produced from crops such as grain, vegetable oils and sugar, are seen by advocates as a way to cut emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

The biofuels blend on the Virgin flight contained 20% neat biofuel and 80% conventional jet fuel. Branson said tests had shown it was possible to fly with a 40% blend.

Branson, whose Virgin Group business spans an airline, a rail service, drinks, hotels and leisure, has committed to spending all the profits from his airline and rail business to combat global warming by cutting carbon emissions.

Last year, Virgin started to power some of its trains using a fuel containing 20% biodiesel produced mainly using British rapeseed oil blended with US soybean oil and palm oil from the Far East.

De Havilland Comet: Dawn of the Jet Age

Most of us take massive jetliners for granted, but the ability to fly from one continent to another is only about 50 years old. Technology has allowed us to improve with design and material used over the years to provide us with a more reliable and efficient form of air transport.

The four engine de Havilland Comet (named after their 1930s racing aircraft) first flew on July 27, 1949, ushering in a new age of Technology and high speed transportation. The aircraft entered commercial service in January 1952 and quickly became a favorite of elite travelers, capable of cruising at over 400 mph (twice the speed of propeller driven aircraft).

The original design could seat a maximum of 44 passengers and carried a cockpit crew of four (pilot, co-pilot, navigator and engineer). However, the aircraft started to experience inexplicable in-flight failures in May of 1953. It took several more crashes before investigators were able to pin the blame on metal fatigue: the design required an extremely thin metal skin to compensate for the low thrust generated by the four Ghost 50 Mark I turbojet engines. The fuselage surrounding the Comet's large rectangular windows proved susceptible to cracking after many thousands of pressurized flights. The end result was explosive cabin decompression that led to rather nasty structural failure in mid-flight -- definitely not a good way to earn repeat business. The design problems were eventually resolved and the Comet 4 entered service in 1958 with round windows, a strengthened fuselage, and high output Rolls-Royce Avon engines that dramatically increased cargo capacity and speed. Sadly, the damage to the Comet's reputation was irreparable and the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 went on to dominate the airline industry throughout the 1960s.

Its accidents like this that have improved the technology over the years, so that hopefully there will be alot less air accidents in future.

The future of Hypersonic Air travel

The LAPCAT A2 is a proposed jet that could whisk passengers around the globe at a dizzying 6100km/h, about five times the speed of sound.
The A2 project - ponderously titled Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies (LAPCAT) - was funded by the European Space Agency, which challenged scientists to produce a commercial jet using space-travel technology.

Supersonic aviation as a workable model may have ended prematurely with the death of the Concord, but that didn't stop other people from attempting to bring back the hypersonic civil transportation. The LAPCAT project is a study, funded by Europa General R&D, that seeks to determine whether or not it is possible to create a plane that can cover long distances in a very short amount of time. The result? The A2 Mach 5 Civil Transport Concept.

Aside from being fast, the new jet would also be clean and green, burning a liquid-hydrogen fuel that gives off water vapor and nitrous oxide (laughing gas), instead of polluting carbon emissions. At 142 meters in length, the A2 would be about twice the length of the Airbus A380, the largest airliner in service today.

The term hypersonic flight relates to speeds above Mach 5, a velocity at which friction can cause an aircraft's wings to heat to 1000C.
Unfortunately, attaining such external temperatures would mean doing without windows, but designers may put flat-screen televisions where the windows would be, giving the impression of seeing outside.
Despite being capable of traveling at twice the speed of its predecessor, The Concorde, the A2 would be quieter. Senior engineer and managing director Alan Bond said the A2 could be here within 25 years.