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According to Bay Area event from the AP calendar, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will take part in something called "Green Flight" at San Francisco International Airport. The flight, involving an allegedly magical plane that will save Mother Nature, is being billed as "the first of its kind to arrive in California." It's all a part of the Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions, or ASPIRE.
But in reality, the plane is just a regular "747 with about 300 passengers" -- not the first of its kind at SFO, if you want to get technical. According to P-I Aerospace reporter James Wallace, what makes this flight green is that the engines will idle while hovering about SFO.
Other than getting off the ground without a lot of waiting because their plane has been given a priority takeoff, passengers may not notice much of a difference between this flight and any other until the big jet is about 90 minutes out from the City by the Bay. Then, rather than the usual "step-down" landing approach that starts much closer to an airport, the Boeing 747-400 will make a smooth, constant descent from well out over the Pacific. Few if any throttle adjustments will be needed as the onboard computers fly the plane to a landing. The engines, in fact, will be nearly idle during the entire descent.
What with fuel prices being sky-high, it makes sense. Let's just hope these new procedures go well. While it's scary to think about planes descending continuously upon landing, the fancy new iGPS, computers, and collision avoidance system stuff these days should ease any worries.
Hopefully.
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The thought of a plane "idling" in the air is a little troubling. If it is no big deal, why don't more planes do it? Just don't crash and it is fine by me.
Believe it's been against the rules to cruise on into SFO any old which way you want.
The whole point of today's news is that technology and common sense and "thinking outside the box" can allow us to save fuel.
Allowing 2-engined (as opposed to four-engined)planes to fly tranpacific routes (ETOPS)is a sort of new idea that similarly saves fuel. Sixty years ago, with older technology, that concept was unthinkable.
That story make no sense at all
It is the third flight to be accomplished under the initiative. In September an Air New Zealand 777-200ER flew from Auckland to San Francisco using the same technology and procedures to optimize the flight from gate to gate.
Hundreds of overseas flights have landed at San Francisco's airport utilizing the tailored arrivals procedures and technology.
So is it the first, the third or the 300th?
Tailored arrivals might be simpler to implement, so there's been hundreds of those.
The "third flight" refers to a "gate to gate" implementation, as opposed to just an arrival. G to G suggests the takeoff and flight, the whole magilla.
Or, save even more and just skip the flying and the demonstration. It's all for publicity's sake anyway.