Singapore Airlines to introduce mobile phone calling and internet connectivity onboard

Singapore Airlines is collaborating with inflight connectivity provider OnAir (jointly owned by Airbus and SITA) to provide passengers on its Airbus A380, A340-500 (nonstop Singapore Newark and Los Angeles), and Boeing 777-300ER flights, a full suite of on-board communication offerings, including access to Wi-Fi Internet and GSM compatible mobile telephony services including SMS texting, email messages, and voice calls.

The airline plans to roll out the services in the first half of 2011, but the carrier has not specified a launch date as yet.

Passengers will pay for their usage via their telecom provider's phone bills, at international GSM roaming rates. For internet access, passengers will have to sign up for an access package when logging in to the system. However, the airline has not divulged any pricing details for either service which it says "will be announced closer to the launch."

Just a week ago the carrier also announced the introduction of a new western classical music channel on its aircraft equipped with the Panasonic eX2 AVOD systems. These are again the same three types of aircraft.

Some of the music tracks are:

1. The Salzburg festival opening concert 2010 by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra -- conducted by Daniel Barenboim, one of today's leading pianists and conductors,
2. Lucrezia Borgia, an Italian opera performed by Edita Gruberova, the world's undisputed Queen of bel canto, as her concert debut,
3. Così Fan Tutte – Director Claus Guth's concluding production of Mozart's da Ponte trilogy for the Salzburg Festival,
4. Dudamel and The Simon Boliver Youth Orchestra, declared ‘the biggest audience hit of the summer’ at the Salzburg Festival by Munich daily Münchner Merkur; and
5. La Traviata by Anna Netrebko, the acclaimed Russian soprano, and the Wiener Philharmoniker

Regrettably neither of the two announcement apply to the carrier's Boeing 777-200, 777-300, or A330 fleet which are used on flights to the airline's destinations in India, though it does offer one daily Boeing 777-300ER flight each, ex Mumbai and ex New Delhi.

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Indian Air Force to celebrate its 78th anniversary with massive air display

The Indian Air Force will celebrate its 78th anniversary tomorrow at Air Force Station Hindon just east of the Yamuna river from the national capital New Delhi.

An air display by various aircraft will form part of the Air Force Day Parade cum Investiture Ceremony. The air display will commence with microlites followed by flag bearing sky divers of the Akash Ganga team dropping out of An-32 aircraft.

A fly past of three Mi-17 helicopters trooping the Air Force ensign will be followed by a formation of Mi-25 and Mi-35 helicopters. A transport fly past will be lead by a Dornier with two HS-748 and two An-32 aircraft in echelon positions on either side.

The fighter flypast will be led by formations of SEPECAT Jaguar, MiG-21 Bison, MiG-29 Baaz, Mirage 2000 Vajra, and the Sukhoi Su-30 MKI aircraft. This would be followed by a Su-30MKI performing a vertical charlie manoeuvre.

The grand finale would be marked by aerobatics by the HAL Advanced Light Helicopter equipped Sarang and HAL HJT–16 Kiran MkII equipped Surya Kiran aerobatics teams.

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British Airways revives 1983 livery in tribute to retiring Boeing 757 fleet

In 1978, with launch orders from the erstwhile Eastern Air Lines and British Airways, Boeing commenced the venerable Boeing 757. Eastern Air Lines put the aircraft into commercial service on January 1, 1983, followed by British Airways on February 9, 1983.

British Airways has operated the 757 for 27 years, longer than any other operator, with the aircraft reaching a maximum strength of 54 in the carrier's fleet. Now, the airline is retiring the last three 757's in its fleet at the end of this month.

In tribute, British Airways has repainted one of its 757-200, registration G-CPET, in the same “Negus & Negus” livery prevailing when it first introduced the plane into service in 1983.

In keeping with the tradition of British Airways naming many of its aircraft after famous castles in the United Kingdom, G-CPET is also being titled “Stokesay Castle” during its final month of service.

The last scheduled flights for the Boeing 757s will be on Saturday, October 30, 2010.

Stokesay Castle near Ludlow, Shropshire is open to visitors Wednesdays to Sundays throughout October. For further visitor information, call +44 1588 672 544 or visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/stokesaycastle

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Images: Indian Air Force Lockheed Martin C130J makes first flight

KC-3801, the first of six stretched fuselage Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force, made its first flight, at Marietta, Georgia, USA on October 4th.

Along with these pictures, Lockheed Martin released a simple statement

The first of six C-130J Super Hercules for India took to the skies for its maiden flight yesterday. The aircraft will now complete a series of company and customer flight tests prior to delivery in December. The second and third aircraft are due to fly within the next few weeks.

All images © Lockheed Martin

Signed back in 2007, the $962 million Super Hercules contract was the first major defence deal between India and United States. These aircraft are expected to be used by the special forces of India like the Black Cats, and will be equipped with a Forward Looking Infra-red (FLIR) AAQ-22 Star Safire III sensor turret which permits operations in complete darkness as well as an in-flight refuelling probe.

The United States and Boeing are looking forward to close another deal with the Indian Air Force later this year, when President Obama visits India, for a proposed fleet of ten Boeing C-17 Globemaster III strategic transport aircraft, a deal expected to be valued around $4.4~$5.6 billion.

The C-17 procurement will be the second procurement by Indian armed forces from Boeing. The Indian Navy signed a $2.2 billion contract in January 2009, to procure eight of an Indian variant of the Boeing P-8a Poseidon called the P-8I. The P-8I is maritime patrol and anti submarine warfare aircraft based on the Boeing 737 commercial aircraft platform.

Both Lockheed Martin (F-16IN SuperViper) and Boeing (F/A-18 SuperHornet) are also competing with vendors across the globe for the $5.5+ billion Indian Air Forces Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) tender which should be finalised in 2011.

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Night plane spotting images from Bangalore airport

Today, some night plane spotting photos for your enjoyment.

Spotting at night throws up some unique challenges. The aircraft need to be stationary, and the photographer requires good anticipation to capture the image in those few seconds between an aircraft's arrival at the gate and it being swarmed by ground support equipment and people, or from the time of its push back till it taxies out, and it goes without saying, you cannot use a flash.

Despite these challenges, the results can be quite spectacular.

This is the passenger terminal building of the Bengaluru International Airport. Some may consider it a drab box, but it transforms in to an oasis of light during the night. Do observe the light trails of a business jet taking off over the terminal.

Lufthansa's Boeing 747-400 D-ABTK arrives after its ten hour flight from Frankfurt. Standing almost 100 metres away did not prevent me from getting buffeted by the hot and strong exhaust gases, even though the engines were at idle power.

Cathay Pacific's subsidiary Dragon Air operates an Airbus A330-300 to Bangalore. Here is B-HWI wearing the 25 years anniversary livery, just a few minutes before being closed up for departure back to Hong Kong in the wee hours of the night.

An unusual shot of the only Boeing 727 operating in India. This clean and gleaming plane N727VJ has oodles of shiny chrome and is one of the private jets of the Mallya family. It features winglets on which the beacon light shines like a bright diamond. A pity that Dr. Mallya does not ensure the other planes of his Kingfisher fleet are kept as clean as this one.

As usual comments are welcome. Images are the copyright of Devesh Agarwal.

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Spotted: Photo of Indian Airline's early A320 VT-ESC in the new Air India livery

Went spotting with a few members of the Aviation Photographers India yesterday.

As it rolled off runway 09, I could not believe my eyes, but sure enough, it was soon confirmed, VT-ESC one of the early batch of Airbus A320's delivered back in the early 1990's was rolling in wearing a new fresh coat of paint in the livery of Air India.

The erstwhile Indian Airlines was an early adopter of the Airbus A320. It's first A320 VT-EPB was the 45th A320 produced by Airbus, which was delivered to the carrier on June 26 1989. VT-ESC has a manufacturer serial number (MSN) of 416 and was the 21st A320 delivered to the carrier on June 2, 1993.

These early A320s were all fitted with the slim and long IAE V2500 engines, which also power the current A320's of IndiGo and Kingfisher Airlines. Compare this to the shorter and fatter CFM56 engines which now power the new Air India A320 family aircraft along with the A320's of GoAir. Another very noticeable feature is the main landing gear which had two smaller wheel sets when compared to the single large wheel set found on the newer A320's.

Compare the old and the new A320s of Air India. Below is a picture of VT-EDD which was delivered to Air India in February this year.

Images © Devesh Agarwal. All rights reserved. View more pictures here.

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