Telstar Logistics

Flying Car Completes Successful Test Flight

Well, it's not quite as cute as an Taylor Aerocar, but it does seem to work as advertised. Terrafugia's Transition, a crossbreed of a car and an airplane, successfully completed its first test flight this week, taking to the air for 37 seconds. As MSNBC reports:

Transition's aerial debut followed six months of road tests and years of design. The goal is to create an airplane that can be driven to and from a runway and parked in the family garage at night.

Transition runs on regular unleaded gasoline and can travel up to 500 miles on a single tank of gas. It takes less than 30 seconds for the vehicle's wings to fold up or extend to transform from plane to car or vice-versa.

"The point of the test was to prove that this could both fly and drive," Deitrich said.

Information from the test flight will be used to tweak the Transition's design for a second prototype. The company plans to begin selling the vehicles, which cost $194,000, in 2010, said Richard Gersh, Terrafugia's vice president of business development.

Per usual, the folks from AVWeb have pulled together an excellent and informative video that shows the Transition's first flight, and highlights some of its technical features"

LINKS:
Terrafugia Transition (official website)

PREVIOUSLY:
For Sale: One Aerocar; Half Car, Half Airplane

It's an Amphicar! It's an Amphicar!

(IMAGES: Photos from Terrafugia)

The Joy of Space Travel at SFO

 

Telstar Logistics flew to Chicago this week to meet with a new client, but as we were departing from San Francisco International Airport we took note of yet another superb museum display curated by the airport's museum staff. We've written about them before, so as you may recall: SFO is not just a transportation hub — the airport is also a fully accredited museum, which helps explain why the displays there are so consistently excellent.

The show currently on display in the United Airlines concourse at Terminal 3 is called Out of this World! The Twentieth-Century Space Invasion of American Pop Culture. As the exhibit summary explains:

From elaborate toy play sets and space operas of the 1930s and 1940s, to robots and rocket ships of the space age and beyond, each generation presented its own notions about what the future would bring, both here on Earth and in the mysterious worlds beyond our atmosphere. The artifacts exhibited in Out of this World! The Twentieth-Century Space Invasion of American Pop Culture are reminders of a period when our collective infatuation with space resulted in products that ranged from fantastically silly to truly visionary, objects that may have inspired the conquest of space as much as they reflected it.

Count us among the infatuated. The show is up through through March 2009 (we think), so if you happen to find yourself flying United in or out of SFO, take a few minutes and enjoy a little bit of retro-futuristic space appreciation. It's worth the trip.

LINKS:
Out of this World! The Twentieth-Century Space Invasion of American Pop Culture (Official exhibition page)

Out of this World exhibition brochure (Downloadable pdf file)

PREVIOUSLY:
Backstage at the San Francisco Airport Museum

Our Point-and-Shoot Camera Shootout

In today's New York Times, Telstar Logistics Fleet Management Officer Todd Lappin takes eight pocket-friendly point-and-shoot cameras for a test drive... so you don't have to.

Our review proceeds from three key assumptions:

1) Because "photos always turn out much better when you have a camera on hand to take the picture," pocket-friendly cameras offer significant advantages over bigger DSLRs; and

2) These days, most point-and-shoots offer pretty good image quality; and

3) The most significant differentiator between point-and-shoot cameras is ease-of-use, as dictated by the design of the camera's user interface (tactile feel, switch positioning, screen menus, etc).

So which camera won our point-and-shoot shootout? Read all about it!

LINK:
Finding the Right Point-and-Shoot Camera (New York Times camera review by Todd Lappin.)

This Way to Cathay: A Pan American Airways Brochure from 1937

In 1936, Pan American Airways inaugurated the world's first commercial air service between the United States and China.  Departing from Alameda, California aboard a Martin M-130 "China Clipper," passengers reached Asia by playing hopscotch across the Pacific, stopping along the way for rest and refueling in Hawaii, the Midway Islands, Wake Island, Guam, and Manila before arriving in Hong Kong. 

With a cuising speed of 150 mph, the Martin M-130 made the 8000-mile journey to China in five and one-half days. Tickets cost $1600 per person — roughly $10,000 in contemporary dollars.

All that background comes by way of explaining why we were so excited to find a Pan American Airways brochure at a flea market in San Francisco last weekend. The booklet promotes the airline's flights to China aboard the M-130, and based on a few clues — the emphasis on the M-130, as opposed to the Boeing 314 which didn't enter service in 1939; the absence any mention of Treasure Island, which became Pan American's San Francisco base in 1939 — we estimate that it dates from 1937 (give or take a year).

As the brochure explains:

Who has never dreamed of seeing China—the treasure-house of travel wonders that no one who lives upon this world should ever fail to see. Once these were so far away that few could ever hope to reach them. No longer!  The travel adventure of a lifetime is there for the taking.

We scanned the whole thing, so if you want to learn more about travel marketing in the pioneering days of intercontinental commercial air service, feel free to thumb the virtual pages.

LINK:

Pan American Airways Transpacific Service (Complete scans of original 1937 brochure, by Telstar Logistics)

PREVIOUSLY:

"Flight thru Instruments" and the Fine Art of Instructional Illustration

The Intimate Industrial Illustrations of Frank Soltesz

(IMAGES: All images photographed from the original brochure by Telstar Logistics)

How to Make Drinking at Home Feel Like Flying First Class

This is the we use bar we use in the Telstar Logistics Executive Lounge. Actually, it's an old airline galley cart, and this is the story of how it ended up in our headquarters... and how you can get one too.

A few years ago, we decided we wanted a galley cart -- the kind that flight attendants push down the aisles while serving food and drinks in the skies. Why? Well, we're hopeless aviation geeks, of course, but we also admired the simplicity, durability, and functionality of airline galley carts. Plus, we reasoned, a galley cart would be the perfect foundation for a compact bar setup.

Our quest to find a cart eventually took us to the deserts of El Mirage, California, where we found an aircraft boneyard with a few old galley carts to spare. Here's the one we liked best, as it looked the moment when we first laid eyes upon it:

It's an old SAS galley cart from the late-1970s, manufactured in Switzerland by a company called Bucher. We bought it, took it to a self-service car wash to clean off the dust, then carried it home. Later, we built a few matching drawers from acrylic sheet plastic, then loaded our cart up with vintage airline glassware, tiny bottles of liquor, cans of mixers, and plenty of napkins and bags of peanuts pinched from the cabins of the world's leading airlines.

It's turned out to be a wonderful tool for living. When not in use, all our barware and booze stows compactly and unobtrusively inside the cart. Come fun-time, the cart quickly converts into a bar, with plenty of workspace, easy access to bottles, and a snap-on tray (also found at the boneyard) that provides another level of storage for condiments and cocktail accessories:

And you can imagine how giddy we became when we flew on SAS in 2007, and discovered that the airline still uses carts exactly like ours in regular commercial service:

So where can you get one too?

Used airline galley carts are hard to find, and short-wheelbase carts like ours — which are much better-suited to domestic use — are even more rare. And even if you make the trek to the desert to visit a boneyard, the carts you'll find there are often in sad shape. New ones, however, cost several thousand dollars.

Happily, we just discovered another option. The Swiss company that manufactured our cart has an American subsidiary called Bucher Aerospace, and Bucher is now selling new carts to the general public at a very fair price.



Prices start at around $800 for an empty cart sold in a selection of 10 tasteful colors. Throw in options like top rails, a foot brake (handy during social turbulence), and some interior fittings, and the final price comes closer to $1300.



That's much less than a premium class roundtrip ticket from California to New York, and trust us when we say this: Having one of these carts at home makes every day feel like flying First Class.

LINK:
AlCarts (Airline-style Galley Carts from Bucher Aerospace)

A Roadmap to Our Highways in the Sky

This is a clean version of a most excellent FAA graphic Telstar Logistics saw on a wall at Moffett Federal Airfield after we went flying on a Zeppelin earlier this week.

The image is a pilot's guide to the air traffic routes used at airports around the San Francisco Bay Area -- a roadmap of the highways in our skies. It's illuminating, because it reveals the patterns that guide the jets which fly above our Global Headquarters each day. It all seems kind of random to us from the ground, but thanks to this graphic, the logic that guides those planes is now easy to see.

PREVIOUSLY:

"Flight thru Instruments" and the Fine Art of Instructional Illustration

A Princess Visits San Francisco

 

Although it only reminds us of how much we miss the SS Independence, there's a new tenant at the BAE Shipyard in San Francisco: the Princess Cruises liner Star Princess. At more than 900 feet from end to end, the Star Princess is basically like a oceangoing version of a Las Vegas hotel, with accommodations for 2600 passengers and 1600 crew.

We haven't made it on board, but Flickr user Jasperdo posted a nice set of photos taken during a recent cruise on the Star Princess, which is the next best thing. That crazy-looking cabin perched off the stern like a Formula One spoiler? That's the Skywalker Nightclub — an glitzy disco that apparently looks like this from the inside:

Here's the indoor Pool:

Here's the scene inside the Tutankhamun-inspired Explorer's Lounge:

Here are the acommodations inside cabin B332:

And here's the inevitable view from the Promenade Deck:

While hauled up in drydock, the Star Princess dominates San Francisco's southern waterfront, but just like any other tourist passing through town... it won't be here for long

LINKS:

Star Princess (official Princess Cruises webpage)

Star Princess (Wikiepedia entry)

Star Princess (165 photos of Flickr travelogue by a former Star Princess passenger)

PREVIOUSLY:

Exploring the Ghost Ship SS Independence

(PHOTOS: Star Princess in drydock by Telstar Logistics. All interior photos by Jasperdo.)

A Video Ode to a Revolving 76 Ball

Because it's Friday, and because it's been that kind of a week, what the world needs right about now is a goofy video of a gas station 76 ball spinning dreamily under a perfect blue sky.

Fortunately, we happen to have just that, as filmed on August 25, 2008 at the corner of Geary and Stanyan Streets in San Francisco, California. With it we include a matching soundtrack: "Tijuana Taxi," performed by the incomparable Ron Rhode and his Wurlitzer Theater Pipe Organ. It's 90 seconds of escapism, provided to you as a public service by Telstar Logistics.

Happy weekending!

PREVIOUSLY:
Saving the 76 Ball, for Tomorrow's Children

NEWS FLASH! 76 Ball Granted Reprieve; ConocoPhillips Awakens to Error; Fans Celebrate, Buy Gas

Old Boeing 747 Becomes New Hotel in Stockholm

 

 

Okay, so you may not own the big plot of land you'll need to buy an old Boeing 747 jumbo jet and convert it into your very own home sweet home.  And you may not have the deep pockets required to enjoy all the comforts of home available in the first class cabin of an Emirates A380 superjumbo.  But if you happen to find yourself in Stockholm, Sweden later this year, you can probably afford to spend a night at the Jumbo Hostel, a new hotel that's being constructed inside the shell of a retired Boeing 747-200.

Telstar Logistics Special Swedish Correspondent David Larson brings us his translation of an article about the Jumbo Hotel that ran in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter on 29 August, 2008:

Jumbo Jet Becomes Hostel

Anyone who is tired of ordinary hotels will be able to get an unusual experience at Stockholm-Arlanda Airport. In December the first ever hostel in a jumbo jet will open.

The plane that will be a symbol for the airport, a Boing 747-200, was towed yesterday to it's final stop at the entrance of Arlanda Airport. The old charter plane was decommissioned in 2002, but has now been bought by Oscar Diös who was the initiator of the project and onboard during it's move.

"An incredible feeling. I'm extremely happy," he says.

Oscar Diös has previously run a hostel in Uppsala. Now he wants to give the 17-18 million visitors who pass by the airport every year a unique accommodation option.

The interior renovation of the jumbo jet will begin today, and when finished there will 25 rooms  a wedding suite in the cockpit. Quite a few changes will be made to distinguish this plane from the ones still flying. For example, guests will be able to stroll on the wing and they will not have to use cramped toilets with push doors.

All told, the hotel will have 85 beds, with most rooms using shared bathrooms located along the corridor of the main deck.  Each room will have a flat-panel TV and wireless internet access. The upper deck luxury/wedding suite will retain some of the original aircraft fittings, and if you need to catch a flight from Arlanda in the morning, there's no need for a taxi -- the Jumbo Hostel is just a 10 minute walk from the airport's main terminal.

LINK:
Jumbo Hostel (Official website)

PREVIOUSLY:

Psssst! Who Wants to Buy a Used Boeing 747, CHEAP?

(IMAGES: All photos courtesy of the Jumbo Hostel)

RIP Andrea Pininfarina, Maker of Beautiful Automobiles

Sad news from Italy: Andrea Pininfarina, CEO of Pininfarina S.p.A, the exclusive automotive design firm, was killed yesterday after he was struck by a motorist while riding his Vespa scooter.

Pininfarina, of course, is the famous firm that designed many of the most sexy and sensual Ferraris of the last 50-odd years, and under Andrea's leadership the company produced designs ranging from the 2004 Maserati Quattroporte and the 2006 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano to the 2006 Volvo C70 and the 2006 Mitsubishi Colt CZC.

From his obituary in today's New York Times:

Mr. Pininfarina was part of a family dynasty that began its move into industry in 1930 when his grandfather, Battista Pinin Farina, founded the company, which in its first year designed cars for Alfa Romeo, Fiat and other Italian manufacturers. Mr. Pininfarina’s father, Sergio Pininfarina, is the company’s honorary chairman and one of Italy’s seven senators for life. His younger brother, Paolo, is Pininfarina’s vice chairman. His older sister, Lorenza, is on the board.

“Our country has lost a leading personality of its industrial life and the representative of a dynasty that has contributed to creating the Made in Italy brand in the world,” Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said in a statement.

Andrea Pininfarina was born on June 26, 1957, in Turin, the heart of Italy’s auto design industry. After graduating in 1981 with a degree in mechanical engineering from Turin’s Polytechnic University, Mr. Pininfarina went to work in the United States. He joined the family company upon his return to Italy a few years later and became the chief executive of its German unit in 1991. He became chief executive of the company as a whole in 2001 and chairman in 2006.

Under Mr. Pininfarina, the company diversified its portfolio, balancing flashy projects like the Ferrari Enzo supercar with less exciting car designs for Hyundai, Daewoo and Ford.

LINK:

Andrea Pininfarina, Chief of Car Designer, Dies at 51 (New York Times obituary, August 8, 2008)

(IMAGE: Top, Andrea Pininfarina in 2006, with the one-of-a-kind Ferrari P4/5, designed for a collector. Photo by the New York Times.)

Taking the Littoral Combat Ship for a Test Drive

So, defense contractor Lockheed Martin has a Flickr account.  How odd.  Nevertheless, the company just uploaded some photos of the new Littoral Combat Ship (the future USS Freedom, LCS-1) undergoing sea trials this week.  The vessel looks kind of mean and a little bit stealthy, but what's a Littoral Combat Ship?  The Wikipedia explains:

The Littoral Combat Ship is the first design of the U.S. Navy's next-generation surface combatants. Intended as a relatively small surface vessel for operations in the littoral region (close to shore), the LCS is smaller than the Navy's guided missile frigates, and has been compared to the corvette of international usage. However, the LCS adds the capabilities of a small assault transport with a flight deck and hangar large enough to base two SH-60 Seahawk helicopters, the capability to recover and launch small boats from a stern ramp, and enough cargo volume and payload to deliver a small assault force with armored vehicles to a roll-on/roll-off port facility. Although the LCS design offers air defense and surface-to-surface capabilities comparable to destroyers with 57 mm guns, torpedo and missile launchers, the concept emphasizes speed, flexible mission module space and a shallow draft.

Due to its modular design, the LCS will be able to replace slower and larger specialized ships such as minesweepers and larger assault ships in anti-mine and special forces missions, plus robotic air, surface, and underwater vehicles.

LINK:
Littoral Combat Ship (Flickr photoset by Lockheed Martin)

PREVIOUSLY:
Britain's Stealth Warship Masquerades as a Fishing Boat

(Images by Lockheed Martin)

Virgin Galactic Unveils the Mothership in Mojave

Alas, we couldn't be there.  But all day today we were tuning in to our Twitter box as our friend Xeni Jardin attended the unveiling of White Knight Two, the privately built mothership that Virgin Galactic will use to offer passenger rides into space. Sir Richard Branson was on hand too, as the four-engine, twin-hulled aircraft was rolled out to  an adoring public at Mojave Airport, in Mojave, California. 

One of Xeni's Tweets today read:

My blogger buddy, who shall remain nameless: "I kissed the spaceship. I walked right up and hugged it and kissed it." I did too.

Frankly, we'd have kissed it too. Although, properly speaking, WN2 isn't a spaceship. It's actually a launch platform for the smaller craft which will carry passengers — briefly — into orbit. You can see the spacecraft tucked between the hulls of White Knight 2 in these artist renderings:

Wired News carries some more of the particulars:

After Scaled Composites put the rocket plane SpaceShipOne (SS1) into suborbital spaceflight twice in 2004, thus winning the Ansari X-Prize, Virgin Galactic placed an order for 12 similar spacecraft capable of carrying six passengers and two crew members into space. Before those ships can get into space, however, they will need a lift up -- which is what WhiteKnightTwo will provide.

The original WhiteKnight carried SS1 into the upper atmosphere before releasing it at 48,000 feet. The SS1 then fired its booster and flew to an altitude of over 110,000 meters (69 miles), well past the Kármán line, which is commonly used to define the edge of space.

WhiteKnightTwo is a dual-hull quad-engine aircraft roughly three times larger than the original WhiteKnight. WK2 employs a different tail construction, using a cruciform instead of the WK's "T" style. The engines and cockpits are also located in different areas compared to the original WhiteKnight.

WK2 is the world's first all-composite full-sized aircraft. Everything apart from the engines and landing gear is constructed from ultra-lightweight composite materials. Even the newly patented flight control cables are made from carbon fiber.

And finally, for those of you who were wondering, "What exactly should one wear when attending the unveiling of a revolutionary new spacecraft system?"

In the above photo, Xeni provides the answer: A stylish jacket in Moonbase Control Purple, of course!

PREVIOUSLY:

Burt Rutan's White Knight is "like flying inside a giant whiffle ball"

(IMAGES: WK2 photos by Virgin Galactic. Xeni's photo from her Flickrstream)

Design Dogfight: The Campaign Aircraft of John McCain and Barack Obama

Want to be a plane spotter? Or a political pundit? Test your aptitude with this simple quiz:

Looking at the two images above, can you tell which plane belongs to which American presidential candidate?

As the 2008 election campaign gathers momentum, the candidates are racking up frequent flier miles as they jet across America.  Someday, of course, both John McCain and Barack Obama hope to get an upgrade to the Presidential Suite aboard Air Force One.  Until then, however, the candidates have leased lesser jets to meet their transportation needs.  Both candidates are flying American-built planes: McCain rides in a chartered Boeing 737-400, while Obama chartered a Boeing 757. Both aircraft have been customized to serve as workhorses for the candidates and their entourages, and each has been painted in the livery of the respective campaigns. Let's take a closer look...

AIR McCAIN

Once upon a time, McCain's 737, N802TJ (cn 24874/1936), flew for US Airways. Today, McCain chartered it from Swift Aviation. Reprising the name of his famous campaign bus from the 2000 election, McCain has dubbed his aircraft the "Straight Talk Express." Teal and gold feature prominently in the plane's livery, giving it an early 1990s look. The words "Reform, Prosperity, Peace" are painted near the rear cargo doors, and McCain's campaign URL is emblazoned on the tail. According to the Mosheh Oinounou from Fox News:

The plane is separated into four areas:

–a front section with 10 seats for McCain and senior staff,

–a second area with a couch and two captain’s chairs for McCain to talk to press similar to the back of his campaign bus,

–a third section for Secret Service and other staff,

—and finally a fourth section with 66 seats, and most importantly power outlets, for press.

AIR OBAMA

When Barack Obama returns from his international odyssey in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Germany, he'll be greeted by N755NA (cn 30043/925) , a newly refitted Boeing 757 chartered from North American Airlines. Obama's plane originally flew with National Airlines. It's new white-and-navy livery is vaguely JetBlue-esque, but it's most conspicuous for omitting Barack Obama's name entirely from the fuselage. Instead, the aircraft emphasizes his campaign slogan — "Change We Can Believe In."  Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times reports:

Obama's newly reconfigured plane is divided into first class for the candidate and his closest advisors--such as strategist David Axelrod, who is on the flight; business class seats, occupied Sunday by foreign affairs advisors such as Denis McDonough and coach, where 41 journalists who are part of the traveling Obama press corps are seated.

What do these two aircraft tell us about each candidate's campaigns and their fitness to become Commander-in-Chief?  Frankly, we have no idea.

UPDATE, 07 AUGUST, 2008:
In response to charges by conservative critics that Barack Obama "removed the American flag from his airplane," the truth-hunters at Snopes.com have compiled a report which explains the facts behind the new livery. While it is true that the stylized flags used in the original North American Airlines livery were removed, those graphics were part of North American's trademark, making them inappropriate for permanent use on the Obama campaign's plane. However, in addition to the stylized flag that appears as part of the the Obama campaign logo, the aircraft also retains the American flags placed alongside the aircraft's N-registration number:

In light of these circumstances, Telstar Logistics believes the conservative critique of the new livery is somewhat misleading and extremely silly. The issue of flag display on a campaign aircraft is utterly irrelevant to any debate on how best to address the significant challenges the U.S. will face during the next four years. Nevertheless, we encourage you to read the complete Snopes report for the full details.

PREVIOUSLY:

Is Barack Obama a Borg "Manchurian Candidate?"

A New Design for Delta Airlines

(IMAGES: McCain 737 photo by Mosheh Oinounou/Fox News. Obama 757 photo by Rob Olewinski)

A Ship, a Submarine, a 10,000 Year Clock, and a Penny Arcade: Mechanicrawl 2008

The Christmas Tree, aboard the USS Pampanito

The Long Now's Chime Generator
The Engine Room aboard the SS Jeremiah O'Brien

Telstar Logistics spent a good part of Saturday afternoon checking out the first-ever Mechanicrawl along San Francisco's northern waterfront.  Organized by the folks at the Long Now Foundation, Mechanicrawl is a celebration of the many magnificent mechanical marvels (whew!) clustered along the Bay in this part of the city. 

Taking aim at the Jeremiah O'Brien from the Pampanito

We were able to hit four of the stops on the self-guided tour: The Long Now Museum, the World War II Liberty Ship SS Jeremiah O'Brien, the World War II submarine USS Pampanito, and the Musée Mécanique.

Planet Earth in the Orrery, at the Long Now Museum

All were excellent, although the Jeremiah O'Brien scored extra points by firing up one of its boilers for the tour. The ship's giant pistons were bouncing up and down throughout the day, so it felt sort of like playing Fantastic Voyage inside the engine of your car.  Amazing:

The crankshaft of the SS Jeremiah O'Brien

It's also worth emphasizing that whole the point of the Mechanicrawl was to call attention to various attractions on permanent display along the San Francisco waterfront.  So if you couldn't make it to the Mechanicrawl last Saturday, no sweat...  go see these things next chance you get, because they'll still be here, and they do not disappoint. 

Whirly Bird, a 1969 arcade game, at the Musée Mécanique

LINK:

Mechanicrawl 2008 (Photos by Telstar Logistics)

Under the Hood of Virgin's Inflight Entertainment System

While Telstar Logistics was adrift last week, our strategic associate Xeni Jardin over at BoingBoingTV published a nice little video about the technology that powers the passenger entertainment and communication system installed aboard Virgin America's fleet of Airbus A319 and A320 airliners.  (NERD HINT: Think penguin.) Apart from the fact that we're a little jealous of her tour, and the fact that she was so close by but didn't call and didn't write, it's an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how inflight passenger amenities are becoming vastly more network-centric.  Check it:

PREVIOUSLY:
Telstar Logistics Gets Intimate with an Airbus A380

After and Before: How to Paint a Virgin America A320

(IMAGE: Top, Virgin America cabin photo by chartno3)