Civil Aviation

Qatar Airways(QR), referred to as an ME3 (as it is one of the three big airlines from the Middle East), operates a fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft. Its oldest aircraft is the Airbus A330 type, while the youngest ones are the Dreamliners it acquired a few months ago. Regardless of the aircraft type (and…

Qatar Airways, which was the first airline in the world to be “certified to the industry standard for the prevention of illegal wildlife trafficking in aviation”, operates a fleet of 235 aircraft. These aircraft include the Airbus A380 – one of the largest aircraft to have ever been made, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner (the type…

Last month, a passenger traveling from Delhi Airport to Hyderabad in IndiGo Airlines – the largest carrier in India – found his check-in bag in a dilapidated condition, with its locks missing, zippers torn, and the insides tampered with. Delhi Airport, saw another incident of a similar kind, though greater and graver in scale, when…

Although the Soviet Union was mired in swashbuckling bureaucracy before its dissolution into Russia, there were a lot of Engineering marvels it produced. The first dog to make it to space was a USSR-ian, and so was the first person, the first spacewalker, and much more*. Despite such a brilliant track record, the Tupolev Tu-104…

Spring Airlines, a Chinese budget carrier, once offered an airfare of merely 13 cents (1 Yuan) for flights between Shanghai and the northern city of Jinan. In 2012, this low-cost airline made a profit of $22 million in 2021. Ryanair, perhaps the most famous budget airline, offered flight tickets for as low as €1 during…

When the Antonov An-225 was destroyed in 2022 amidst the first flush of the Ukraine-Russia War, it was a devastating blow to many avgeeks around the world. After all, the An-225 with the multitude of aviation records it had set, was an iconic aircraft. It has been photographed various times, but one of its more…

Air travel is becoming one of the more accessible ways of transportation as many airports around the world are upping their efforts to accommodate travelers with disabilities and special needs. This was especially true of Melbourne Airport, which has an “Airport Assist program” dedicated to “people with both visible and non-visible disabilities, as well as…

Until the 1930s, passenger chairs on an aircraft used to be wicker chairs. This was a time when flying was luxury for a privileged few. The world wasn’t studded with as many aerodromes as it is, and some of the oldest US airports are from this era. Back then, in-flight entertainment system would have been…

Modern aircraft engines are strong, efficient, and can even propel aircraft to a speed greater than that of sound. The North American X-15 even hit hypersonic speed. However, such airplane (engines) have to undergo rigorous tests to study how they operate under different environments. After all, one of the aircraft in the North American X-15…