The United app is easily the best in the biz. It’s fantastic
2 Likes
This probably should be in the travel thread but…
You know BA has shit the bed when I’m seriously considering UA for my next transatlantic flight. BA flies the same 777 equipment and, in economy, has the same 3-4-3 seat configuration.
The BA inflight experience used to be head and shoulders above UA, but now it seems no longer to be the case.
United still flies a 757 form IAH to Munich. It’s 2-4-2 in economy, it’s a good economy deal if you’re traveling with someone. Wife and I have done it a few times returning. The Hilton at MUC is also a great place to stay the night before an early flight.
Just flew to Edinburgh on BA, but we did not have the problems you did. We thought it was fine. The direct Austin to London flight was on a 777.
Good to know. Unabashedly further cross-polluting threads, I am absolutely going to one of Palace’s road games in Europe, and Munich would be a delightful option if the Football Gods deign to make it so.
More likely:
2 Likes
Of course, Eastern Europeans probably have similar concerns:
Dear sweet mother of God…we’re in Croydon.
1 Like
A banger from Oliver:
Lord Hardthrasher gives us the potted history of the Meteor; a quite remarkable piece of engineering and innovation.
Yes, the ME 262 saw combat before the Meteor, but it was sent up in ones as they were available. The Meteor was the first to be deployed in a squadron, which is what counts to be “operational” and had the first recorded air combat kill.
In a twist, the ME 262 was powered by an engine design riffed from Frank Whittle’s prototype. The same prototype General Electric used for its first jet engine.
I have never understood how the necessary wing strength is maintained in these “through the engine” designs, like the Meteor and the de Havilland Comet.
1 Like
Agreed. Weirdly, the weakness in the Comet was the windows.
It can pose problems for propeller driven aircraft, too. I was at this air show and witnessed this:
Doing aerobatics in a plane not designed for doing aerobatics is likely to rip the wings off whether there is an engine there or not.
1 Like
God, how awful.
Good point. If memory serves, the pilot had been doing aerobatics for some time under a special license to promote the airplane as “safe”. I think fatigue failure was the ultimate cause, unsurprisingly. The worst part of witnessing this event was the pilot’s fiancé’s wailing over the P.A. as she was the announcer.
1 Like
The reporter said the plane was “experimental”. In aviation terms, this doesn’t mean necessarily that it has some kind of new tech in it, it often means that it has not been fully certified by the FAA. Some commercial manufacturers build nothing but “experimental” aircraft and never bother to get the FAA stamp of approval for any of them.
As a casual observer, a fat-body, high-wing structure like that to me screams minivan of the skies. Try taking a Dodge Caravan off-road, at speed, and see how far you get before the wheels come off.
My buddy, the aviation enthusiast at who’s bequest we were at the air show, mentioned to me that the pilot was having “trouble keeping it in the box” just before the incident.
1 Like
I’ve not heard that phrase before, but I assume it’s something like the opposite of the “edge of the envelope”.
Air India 787 crashed into a medical college in Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff. All 242 on board killed plus at least five on the ground so far.
1 Like
don’t know what to say other than fuck
1 Like
There’s video.
