Flying commercial is a great way to get around the country and of course the world. But flying commercial means that you have to arrive when they say, usually a few hours before your flight takes off, you have to wait in long security lines when you finally board the plane, it is full of other people, seats, baggage and noise. What if you flew a charter? What if you actually had your own plane for the day that got you where you want to be faster, without all the hassle and best of all in the comfort and class that charter jets are known for?

It’s cheaper than you may think to charter, and if you are planning a fun in the sun type of holiday, why not make it all the more special by getting yourself and your party to your destination stress free and on your terms?

A nice Caribbean get away, warm sand, island breezes, the beautiful ocean, these are all things that people clamor for especially if you are in the midst of a cold winter at home. Sure there are plenty of airlines that can take you to places like Jamaica and the Bahamas to name just two, but is the stress of getting there something you want to start your vacation to the sun with?

Charter jets are legendary for their seating since you can change the configuration around to suit your needs. Not only that, but they have comfortable large seats that offer plenty of leg room, elbow room and head room. Entertainment and food services are also available and of course you know your baggage is with you at all times as yours will be the only cargo on that flight!

Relaxing travel moves seamlessly into a cool drink on the sand or by the shimmering pool as you arrive stress and hassle free, usually having landed at a small airport nearer your destination so transfers are shorter as well. Don’t wait for the big companies to decide when a flight will leave, do all of that yourself and arrive on your schedule, on your dates and when you decide. Nothing beats the freedom of having full control over your vacation, from start to finish. If you are ready to kick your next vacation up a notch or two, consider chartering a jet to get you to your fun in the sun destination!

With more and more mobile companies coming out with new and power-packed mobile-sets to lure people, it becomes really difficult to decide as to which mobile handset to pick-up. Samsung is one of those companies which strongly keeps an eye on meeting customers’ expectations and recently it has come out with Samsung Jet Lilac, which is a slim-line touchscreen handset. With a vivid 3.1 inch touchscreen display, this beautiful handset is a must for all those who live life in the fast lane. The handset comes with the latest technology in the form of its 800Mhz processor which helps the users to access a host of multimedia applications easily.

It is also a must for the people who love to do video downloading and want the same feature on their handsets. This magic set from Samsung supports DivX and XviD which means that the user can do hassle free video downloading and viewing as well. And, when it comes to sound effects, this handset undoubtedly beats the rest, with its DNSe and SRS sound effect. Speed, quality and style are the inherited characteristics of Samsung Jet Lilac and it is also equipped with smartphone features such as Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and multi-task manager. When it comes to its outer body, its eye-catching beauty is sure to keep many mouths wide-open.

This handset also comes with 5.0 megapixel digital camera. This means, it is nothing less than a treat for those who love clicking pictures every now and then. So, every time the user wants to click a picture, he/she will be sure of the quality of the pictures taken, as this handset also boasts of features like autofocus, face, smile and blink detection. What more, Samsung Jet Lilac has a host of many other features as well, such as customizable widget camera, WVGA AMOLED display, smart unlock and built-in GPS. The list is simply endless.

In-fact, Samsung Jet Lilac is nothing short of a magic box in the pocket of users, with all the imaginable features. However, Samsung is not the only player in the market which is coming up with such beautiful mobile hand-sets, many other mobile companies are also launching new mobile hand-sets in the market to lure more and more customers and increase their market presence in the global markets.

NZ beckons you to its adventurous realms of Jet Boating!

A pulse pounding jet boating experience along the white water rapids of Canterbury is the adventure tourist’s ultimate salvation. You can feel the rise in your heart palpitations and blood rushing with adrenaline levels reaching a new high.

The striking design feature in a jet boat is the absence of an external propeller which is replaced by an internal propeller called impeller.

The water is sucked in through inlets at the bottom of the boat. The impellers then drive the water out with great force through nozzles at the rear of the boat. When the nozzles rotate simultaneously during this process, it enables the boat to change direction.

In the absence of external propellers and the ensuing damage to them, the improved clearance under the boat enables the jet to be reversed instantly for quick braking. This instant response causes the boat to do 360 degree spins effortlessly almost within its own length. You are certain to be drenched with every such spin.

This squirting out of water at high speeds just below the surface allows jet boats to operate in depths of just centimetres. This leads to a free for all activity that will wrap you for the rest of your life and give you goosebumps when you recall the exhilaration and the euphoria of the whole jet boating experience.

Once you settle into the boat and buckle up, your adventure starts the minute the accelerator pedal goes down. You are now in the midst of a frenzy of thrills and frills as the boat skips along centimetres of water with the expert driver putting it to the ultimate test of speed and endurance.

You will see blurred rocks flying past your face as the driver deftly avoids crags and boulders and the water sprays into your face. Your only comfort is the handrail you are holding to at this stage.

The best part about jet boating is that is suitable for people of all ages and fitness levels and can be enjoyed all year round.

The most exhilarating jet boating rides in the South Island of New Zealand are found at the Kawarau and Shotover rivers near Queenstown. The Buller river near Westport, the Waiatoto river near Haast, the Wilkin river in Mt Aspiring National Park and the Dart river are excellent locations for jet boating.

In the North Island of New Zealand, the top jet boating locations are found at Waikato, Whanganui and Rangitaiki and Motu rivers. The Agrodome in Rotorua has sprint jets and so also at Waitomo. A trip to the Hole in the Rock is a great jetboating ride around the Bay of Islands in Northland.

Everyone wants to get more traffic & make more money online. In this article I want to show you exactly how you can hit the traffic jet stream in your market and massively compound the amount of visitors you get so you can live the life you dream of.

Secret #1:

The first thing you need to realize is that getting a lot of visitors to your site has more to do what is happening on your site then it does your traffic. So if you want to hit the jet stream in your market you need to make sure you are getting a lot of money from the people who come to your site.

You want to maximize your profit to the point where you can buy as much advertising as you can humanly possibly afford and still make a massive profit. Once you get to that point, you are virtually unstoppable in your market.

Secret #2:

The next thing you need to do is make sure you are focused on mastering one traffic strategy before moving to the next one. This is the biggest mistake people make when they are doing banner advertising.

They will focus on that and 12 other strategies at the exact same time. You need to only focus on one & master it. Then move onto the other ones.

You have to realize that the better you get at one strategy, the easier it will be to make more and more profit. So not only will you get better, but your profits should increase as well.

The equipment we maintained at the Naval Communications Station on Guam was the latest and most sophisticated available in one sense and not so complex in another. But it was what the Navy had at the time and they used it to spy on the world: secret encrypted messages, Russian missile launchings, radar communications sites and a multitude of others, among them, simple, almost archaic Chinese digital communications. Then there were our own people: the news media, telephone and short wave communications, and others.

The reason myself, Juan Trujillo, John Proza, Orion Larson and others were there is the equipment would fail at times and the operators would call down to the Electronics Shop in the basement and ask one of us to come to the third floor and get it going.

The first step would be to discuss the problem with the operator present and many times, while explaining the problem, the operator would notice something he had overlooked and take care of the problem on the spot. But there were times when the problem was real and you had to fix it.

The typical procedure would be to plant your body directly in front of a seven by three foot piece of electronics equipment then reach down to the bottom most drawer and turn the power switch off then back on – a crude sort of rebooting the system as is done these days with computers. If that didn’t work we would open the power supply drawer and close it, and might slam it closed if the first step didn’t work.

There were a number of first checks and if none of those worked we would finally drag out the Oscilloscope and start trouble shooting the beast. But that was always the last resort. We might go so far as to remove one or more vacuum tubes, bend the small pins on each base then replace the tube or tubes before reverting to such drastic measures as a technical manual and the O-Scope.

When it came time to leave Guam, Juan turned toward me as we were all standing outside waiting on a bus to take us to the airport. We had our dark green duffle bags at our side, some lying on the ground, others standing up with a hand grasping a handhold as if the person was afraid the bag might get away with all his stuff.

Juan was one of those individuals. He appeared nervous, a little fidgety and said, “Boy, I sure dread going back to the States!”

I had ulcers in my mouth: on each side, top and bottom. I couldn’t sleep at night and was daydreaming every second about the options that might be available to me once I was out of the Navy. I couldn’t wait to set my foot back on some good old solid North American soil and even turned down a rather large reenlistment bonus to have that chance.

I told Juan. I said, “Juan, you’re crazy. I can’t wait to get back home! Besides, I’ve got a woman back there and I haven’t seen her in a year.”

Juan talked slow, with the remnants of a long ago Spanish accent, but didn’t hesitate. Wagging his head, he said, “Well, I want to go back home too. But it’s the flight back there that scares me.”

My face took on a puzzled look. “W…what do you mean, the flight back home?” I asked him, as the two of us exchanged glances. “How else are you going to get back there? Hell, it’s six thousand miles to San Francisco, Juan.”

“I know that,” the Mexican American shot back, “but aren’t we going to be flying on a C141?

“Yes, but…”

“And that’s an Air Force plane, right?” Juan went on, not allowing me to finish.

“Yeah but…what does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, You know how we maintain this electronics equipment. You know the Air Force men do the same thing!”

The Chinese surely understand how international trade negotiations work, and they also understand bribery, extortion, market manipulations, and disruption of supply chain through competitive maneuvering. So, suffice it to say that the Chinese aren’t nearly as naïve as many in the Western World might assume. In fact, in many regards China sees trade as just another lesser version of war, and in case you forgot Sun Tzu was Chinese – so, the only folks naïve are those who think the Chinese are somehow lesser in strategic trade issues or ignorant to business affairs. They are running their own game plan and thus, recognize when someone is trying to pull over a fast one on them.

Okay so, let’s take all this to a higher level and leave the Council on Foreign relations, EU’s Belgium know-it-alls, UN diatribes, and the WTO’s loosely enforced rhetoric out of it for a moment. The reality is that the EU has attempted to put the screws to China, not that China is perfect by any means, and force them to buy 100s of new airliners which meet the EU’s new CO2 emissions standards or pay huge fees and taxes to compete in Europe. It appears that the whole Airliner Cap and Trade (tax and fee) program has been concocted by a few higher-ups at the EU who are perpetuating the Global Warming Theory (myth) which states that emissions of CO2 from human industry and activities are causing the planet to melt?

Now then, there was an interesting article recently in the Wall Street Journal entitled; “China Envoy Backs Shunning of Airbus,” by Daniel Michaels published on 3/10/2012 which discussed some sharp words coming out of a Brussels meeting recently. The article stated that;

“China’s ambassador to the EU said that “it makes sense for Chinese Airlines to shun Europe’s Airbus planes in favor of competing American models from Boeing Company in response to the EU’s new levies on aviation greenhouse emissions.”

Of course it does, it makes a lot of sense, especially as it really appeared to me to be an extortion like move from the EU to get Chinese Airlines to buy Airbus jets, which would have re-balanced trade surpluses slightly and put 10s of thousands of folks to work in factories building those jets – along with another win for Global Warming Alarmists showing they can control markets and introduce a new form of currency to control and force environmentalism down the throats of nations world-wide, while also keeping Chinese, Russian, African, Indonesian low-cost carries with older aircraft out of the lucrative European airline markets.

Then there was the previous WSJ article on 3/9/2012 entitled; “EU-China Battle Stalls Airbus Sales,” by Daniel Michaels and David Pearson which explained that the CEO of Airbus accused EU higher-ups of creating a war with the Chinese costing Airbus over $12 billion in new aircraft orders. I’d say it is at least that high, if not higher, and in the future could blossom to an astronomical loss for Airbus, all over climate-gate tactics. Apparently, all this maneuvering in the EU back-fired on them, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time considering the financial crisis in the member nations there.

Further, the Chinese don’t want to reward bad behavior or succumb to this extortion-like move, nor should they. China has every right to buy aircraft from whomever they want for whatever reason they care to choose. That’s what free-markets are about, and the EU knows or should have known better. But in this case the Chinese airlines will be buying superior aircraft from the Boeing Company anyway, so it’s a win-win for all. Please consider all this and think on it.

Chartering a jet for business is one thing, but chartering it for leisure makes the trip special on a whole other level. One you can go on your schedule and two you don’t need to mess with busy airports and the hassle that flying commercial comes with.

When you add the freedom of chartering a jet to the freedom of exploring one of nature’s most amazing areas, somewhere like Yellowstone National Park for example you have a match made in vacation heaven.

Yellowstone National Park is 3,468 square miles of wilderness, mountains, wild animals and half of the world’s natural thermal features that spreads over three of America’s states: Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. It is home to many lakes, canyons, rivers and beautiful rock formations made from the volcanic area where it is located. It has nine visitor centers and museums and five different entrances and it the first National Park ever designated in the United States.

Probably the most famous of the geysers at the park is Old Faithful, which treats visitors to an eruption every 91 minutes. Old Faithful is just one of the thousands of thermal features that can be found in the park, and it attracts thousands of people from all over the world each and every year.

Of course the park is also home to many varieties of plants, trees, grasses and flowers and many different animal species call the park home as well. Visitors can stay in one of the many lodges or camp in one of the many campgrounds that are sprinkled around the interior of the park itself, and to make negotiating the park that much easier there are paved roads to the major areas and visitor friendly walkways to get closer to the features.

Because Yellowstone National Park is so vast and has five entrances, you can access it by several smaller airports which is great for those smaller chartered jets to land and take off from. Airports in Wyoming and Montana also have shuttles to and from the park that are reasonably priced and perfect for charter jet passengers to get to and from the park with ease.

So the next time you want to get out into nature and explore one of the most fascinating parks in the United States, why not add to that freedom and charter a jet to get you there in style? It’s easier than you think and will make your vacation something to remember for a lifetime.

Private jet services come with a lot of advantages and disadvantages both depending on the nature of your requirements for the same. By this I mean, if you look at convenience then private jet services can be relied upon as opposed to the usual airlines you might fly with. However, cost is something that you must keep in mind if you aren’t that well off financially. However, like all good things have some advantages and disadvantages, so do private jet services. Let’s take a look at a few of both pros and cons of private jet services.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Private Jet Services:

• Since these are private companies these jet services are available 24 / 7 and 365 days a week. You don’t have to follow a time schedule; the jet will take off as per your time requirements and requests. However, in case you have to travel you must make a booking for the same a week or so in advance. Untimely or uninformed cancellation leads to a fine as well. So though it is a privilege to have access to the facility you still will be penalized for any sudden cancellation so make sure you plan carefully and confirm your trip accordingly.

• Another advantage that I can think of is that they offer you a choice of cabin crew, pilot, food etc. The private Jet Service will offer all comforts necessary. However you must make sure you choose a popular jet service for your trip which in case of any emergency while flying can arrange for another jet immediately. You may also have an issue of availability since this service is demand lately. So no use of all the advance booking or scheduling, if the private jet service doesn’t have enough fleet for you to choose from.

• You do enjoy the comfort and peace of a private jet service at the same time you might find that since it is private the cost of travelling is way high and cannot be afforded by everyone. So even with the advantage of the comfort, the disadvantage of the cost comes forward.

There’s also what is known as a Fractional Jet Ownership, where you own a bit of the aircraft. You might wish to obtain the jet with 9 others, aiding to scale back your share. All cost’s involving the jet is split equally between the proprietors. This will assist you to personal a jet at the fraction of the expense; however it also has its draw backs. The only draw again is when it comes to keeping track with the flying routine in order to avoid multiple bookings. Since you can find numerous companies available to choose from for chartering private jets, it is no longer necessary to individual so that you can use one particular. You now possess the exact same alternatives offered for you that are offered if you head to acquire or lease a car. All of it arrives down to which alternative would be most useful for you or your corporate requirements. Which at any time you decide, acquiring or intrusting the use of a Charter Private Jet service, you cannot go mistaken possibly way.

However, if you can afford it then why not! Go on find the best service available and get going your way!

The M1 Tank is the choice of the US Army. It was named for Creighton Williams Abrams. The development work on the tank started in the 1970’s followed by the first production in 1978. General Dynamics (once know as Chrysler Defense) undertook the production project and the first M1 tank was put to use in 1980 by the US Army.

There have been upgrades to the original M1 design that make it more efficient in the ever changing world of defense. Some of the modifications included better amour, chemical, biological, and radiological weapons system. There is also a nuclear protection system as well. The upgrades to the M1A2 with added thermal viewer, additional navigation, and communication equipment were significant. The US Army continues to strive to make improvements on this massive weapon. One such improvement is a design simply adding a combat identification panel in order to reduce “Friendly Fire”. This was done specifically in 2003 during the Iraq war.

The main weapons on board the M1A2 tank are 120mm M256 smooth bore cannons. They also have a 12.7mm.50 calibre M2 machine gun and two 7.62mm M240 medium machine guns. The crew on board also carry shoulder fired anti-tank rockets.

Used to protect the outside structure of the tank is an armour referred to as “Chobham Armour” which is made up of ceramic tiles and steel plating. The name comes from the research center where the armour was made. It protects against explosive ammunition. The tank also has a Kevlar liner to add more protection against specialized penetrators.

There were 1841 units deployed to Saudi Arabia. Only 23 units were lost due to enemy fire, friendly fire and internal fires. There were no deaths that occurred in the tanks in Operation Desert Storm and the tank also saw action in 2003 with no recorded deaths of crew members in that conflict.

The tank has always been a major part of war. The fascination with the size and power of a tank causes people to stop and stare when they see them coming. Even though they can only travel at 42 miles per hour they are still able to attack at a tremendous force and range of 289 miles. The monster weapon is manned by a crew of four and weighs 67.7 tons and is 8 feet tall. How does it get so much power? It has a AGT-1500 multi-fuel turbine (jet) engine manufactured by Honeywell. Also helping in the power category is the Allison DDA X-1100 3B transmission. This tank is probably the most popular tank by sight since it was used both in the Gulf and Iraq wars.

The M1 tanks are the tank of choice for many of the reasons listed above. The goal of defeating the enemy while protecting the troops has proven to be the case with these weapons. Next time you see this tank, remember no crew lives have been lost using these tanks.

Despite what constituted the regional jet revolution during the 1990s with low-capacity, twin-engine designs from Canadair, Embraer, and Dornier, the concept had its origins some two and a half decades earlier in France, Russia, and Germany with aircraft of various configurations and success.

Yakovlev Yak-40:

Although both need and technology combined to produce a commercial aircraft, the latter, when lacking, either impeded or impacted the result. Yet a single design bureau in the USSR, which itself had only been synonymous with fighters and trainers, succeeded in building the first true regional jet.

“Provision of such an airplane was by no means easy, as is amply shown by the failure of western countries to produce a suitable aircraft in this category in response to the FAA’s design competition in the United States,” according to John Stroud in Soviet Transport Aircraft since 1945 (Putnam, 1968, p. 270).

The requirement that sparked it was then a contradiction: a rugged, reliable, simple, low-capacity design that could replace Aeroflot’s Ilyushin Il-12, Il-14, and Lisunov Li-2 pistonliners on short, multi-sector feeder routes in the remote Soviet Union, yet serve limited-facility Class 5 grass fields with pure-jet performance and speed. What was essentially needed was a DC-3 of the jet age.

While half of Aeroflot’s traffic was carried on these local service routes, they were the last to be addressed, leaving Tupolev to fill the other market segments with its Tu-104, Tu-124, and Tu-134 aircraft.

In 1965, the OKB, or experimental design bureau headed by Aleksandr Yakovlev, was assigned the project of developing just such a feeder transport, and, although propeller powerplants were initially considered, the solution lay in the optimum combination of design features-namely, a straight, high-lift, low wing loading airfoil, three turbofans, and aerodrome-facility autonomy.

The result, the Yak-40, and the design bureau’s first commercial aircraft, fulfilled Aeroflot’s needs and offered considerably increased passenger comfort over a piston type.

“Although western manufacturers such as Lockheed, de Havilland, and Dassault pioneered and developed the executive jet, it was the Russians who were the first in the field with the logical step-up from the biz jet-namely, the truly short-haul jet airliner,” according to Michael Hardy in World Civil Aircraft since 1945 (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978, p. 126).

Featuring a circular-section, semi-monocoque fuselage, the Yak-40 featuired straight slightly tapered wings; three 3,308-thrust-pound, twin-shaft, three-stage Ivchenko AI-25 turbofans; and a single-class cabin configured with three-abreast seats, resulting in a 24-passenger capacity at a 29.7-inch pitch.

The Yak-40 weights ranged between 5,070 and 6,172 pounds (payload) and 28,990 and 30,203 pounds (maximum takeoff). Speeds equally varied, from a 350-mph cruise to a 435-mph maximum. Range at a 342-mph speed at a 20,000-foot altitude was 323 nautical miles with 3,968 pounds of fuel and 45-minute reserves. A maximum fuel uplift increased this to 890 miles.

Registered SSR-1966 and piloted by Yu. B. Petrov and A. L. Kolosov, the first of five prototypes first flew on October 21, 1966. Production at the Saratov Aviation Facility the following year led to 1968 certification and service inauguration on September 30, the type becoming the workhorse on Aeroflot’s local service route network.

Because no other regional jet then existed, Aviaexport, the Soviet state aircraft marketing organization, made a major effort to secure sales outside of the communist bloc countries, leading to the Yak-40EC with Collins avionics that achieved western certification.

Aertirrea of Italy, which ordered three, inaugurated service with them at the end of 1970, two of which were later acquired by Avioligure. General Air of Germany also operated five on its third level routes two years later.

Aside from Aeroflot, the regional jet was operated by Cubana, Balkan Bulgarian, CSA, Slov-Air, Air Guinee, LOT Polish, Malev Hungarian, TAAG-Angola, Bakhtar-Afghan, and Communist air forces and governments. It also saw service in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Laos, Madagascar, the Philippines, Poland, Syria, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, and Zambia.

Of the 1,011 produced between 1967 and 1981, 130 accounted for export sales. Aeroflot operated more than 750 itself.

Dassault 30:

France’s Avion Dassault, famous for its Falcon 10, 20 and 50 business jets, attempted a regional counterpart, forward which the Flacon 20 logically served as the foundation for a larger, but similarly-configured design aimed at both the executive and passenger transport market.

The first step toward its reality was the March 25, 1964 agreement between Dassault-Breguet and Germany’s Sebelwerke ATG for a 35-percent share in the manufacturing process of a pure-jet design powered either by Rolls Royce or General Electric engines and accommodating between 32 and 40 passengers. Promise came with potential orders for its new aircraft, designated Mystere 30, from Ansett of Australia and Eastern Airlines of the US, leading the way to construction of a prototype. Still-born, it was never built, but led to the October 2, 1967 recommendation of producing both an eight-passenger business jet version and a higher capacity transport.

While the program equally failed to proceed beyond the conceptualization stage, it did lead to the definitive Mystere 30 of 1973, which, powered by two Avco Lycoming ALF-502D turbofans, first took to the sky on May 11 from Merignac.

Not entirely suited to the market because of its capacity, it served as the foundation for a 630 nautical mile Mystere 40 to carry 40 four-abreast passengers, but mated to a new wing. A reduced, 30-passenger variant would have offered greater range, of up to 950 nautical miles.

Dassault Falcon offered its still paper-bound Falcon 30 for $2.4 million per aircraft–$1 million under cost-to Denmark-based Cimber Air, provided that it ordered the type by December 31, 1972, which it failed to do, sounding the death knell for the program.

“The completion of the Falcon 30 made it possible to solve complex aerodynamic and flight quality problems arising from the adaption of a small aircraft with a large fuselage diameter and heavy engines,” according to the Dassault Aviation website. “These engines were relatively noisy, making them incompatible with the level of sound comfort passengers had come to expect. Although orders had been taken at the 1973 Paris Air Show, the program was abandoned in 1975, as much due to the oil crisis as to the financial circumstances of the companies involved.”

Fokker F.28 Fellowship:

Having assessed the regional market with its turboprop F.27 Friendship, Fokker, a name synonymous with aircraft such as the Dr.1 triplane during World War I and the early F.VIIA/3m trimotor airliner, announced the turbojet F.28 Fellowship as both a higher-speed complement to and successor of it at the 1962 Hanover air Show. Intended for low-capacity, short-range routes, which served limited-facility, sometimes unprepared fields that received no previous jet operations, it was slated to become the world’s second purposefully designed regional jet after the Yakovlev Yak-40, but accommodate two to three times as many passengers than it in a significantly wider fuselage. As such, it was envisioned as becoming the largest aircraft in a small airline’s fleet. In size, it would carry some 20 few passengers than either the BAC-111 or the DC-9.

“The F.28 twin-turbofan airliner is designed to serve the short- to medium-haul sector of the commercial aviation market,” according to the Fokker F28 Technical Data publication (Fokker-VFW International, p. 1). “Within that area, it serves a dual purpose. It brings jet speed and comfort to regions which previously have known only turboprop or piston-engine equipment. And it offers the advantage of moderate capacity to carriers operating domestic, regional, and charter services mostly from well-equipped airports.”

Because of the regional route, airport, and capacity realm it was designed for, it had to adhere to numerous parameters, including offer low direct operating costs, 500-nautical mile range capabilities, a 4,500-foot sea level takeoff field length, unprepared surface operation, optimum handling characteristics to cater to engine loss potentialities, low internal and external noise, a rugged airframe to withstand multiple daily sectors spent proportionally higher during climb and descent and at lower, turbulence-associated altitudes, deal with unavoidable crosswinds at single-strip airports, feature low pressure tires for grass and gravel endurance, and offer high degrees of reliability and self-sufficiency for limited and no-facility airfields.

Powered by two aft-mounted Rolls Royce RB.163 Mk 555 Spey Junior turbofans that were lighter and simpler than those employed by the Trident or the BAC-111, it ultimately appeared with a 16-degree swept-back wing, a t-tail, and a unique pedal airbrake, which facilitated steep, controlled descent profiles without the need for power changes, permitted go-arounds with little more than its retraction, and shortened its deceleration roll.

“The powerful fuselage-mounted speedbrake, unique in commercial aircraft operation, allows quick and drastic reduction in altitude and speed without generating buffeting or changes of trim,” according to the Fokker F28 Technical Data publication (ibid, p. 3). “This direct drag facility does not affect wing lift, but ensures good glide path control and touchdown efficiency.”

Accommodating a maximum of 65 five-abreast passengers, the aircraft, in its initial F.28-1000 version, was followed by a stretched -2000 variant, whose capacity increased to 79 with a fuselage stretch; -5000 and -6000 counterparts, which introduced wingspan increases and leading-edge slats; and definitive -3000 and -4000 versions, the latter, with two additional overwing emergency exists and internal reconfiguration accommodating up to 85 passengers.

The dawn first flight of the initial F.28-1000, registered PH-JHS and piloted by Jas Moll, Abe van des Schroof, and Flight Engineer Kees Dik, entailed an 05:19 plunge into crystal morning skies on May 9, 1967 for what became a successful, 75-minute maiden mission.

The second protype, PH-WEV, followed suit three months later, on August 3, and achieved Mach 0.77 airspeeds and 27,000-foot altitudes on its 90-minute sortie.

The third, PH-MOL, first took to the air on October 20, and the 615-hour flight test program, along with an additional 165 hours for certification, led to that milestone on February 24, 1969 by the Dutch airworthiness authority and on March 24 by the FAA. Launch customer LTU Lufttransport Unternehmen, which had ordered two, amassed 150 airborne hours during a 12-day period for crew training and route proving purposes.

US market penetration, always the goal of foreign aircraft manufacturers, was achieved when Empire, which operated a New York State route system similar to once BAC-111-200 carrier Mohawk, ordered the F.28-4000 to supplement its 19-passenger Fairchild Swearingen Metro turboprops on main routes, albeit with jet speed and quadruple the capacity.

Piedmont Airlines, another US operator and eventually the type’s largest, acquired progressively higher numbers of them-first 20 F.28-1000s from Garuda, then 17 F.28-4000s when it took over Empire, and finally an additional eight, giving it a 45-strong Fellowship fleet.

Dutch indigenous and Amsterdam Schiphol-based NLM CityHopper acquired four F.28-4000s between 1978 and 1979, feeding KLM flights with them.

Although F.28 Fellowship production was less than half that of Fokker’s F.27 with 242 aircraft when it ended in 1984, and it could not offer the progressively higher capacities of the DC-9, the 737, and the BAe-146, it nevertheless carved a regional route niche and was operated by 57 customers in 37 countries. Original and secondary airlines included AeroPeru, Aerolineas Argentinas, Air Alsace, Air Anglia, Air Botnia, Air Gabon, Air Ontario, Air Nauru, Air Niugini, Altair, Cimber Air, Empire, Ghana Airways, Horizon Air, Linjeflyg, Nigeria Airways, NLM CityHopper, Piedmont, Royal Swazi, TAT Touraine Air Transport, THY Turkish Airlines, and Time Air, among numerous others.

Aerospatiale SN.601 Corvette:

Small in capacity and little-known, the Aerospatiale SN.601 Corvette straddled the line between the business and regional markets.

Its seed was planted when the French government, continuing its strategy of re-establishing the country’s post-war aviation industry begun with piston airliners such as the Breguet Deux Ponts, the Sud-Est Armagnac, and the Sud-Ouest Bretagne, requested that aircraft manufacturers submit proposals for a compact twin-turbofan liaison/trainer. Then-separate Sud-Aviation and Nord-Aviation elected to jointly develop an executive jet designated the SN.600 Diplomate in January of 1968 when French indigenous SNECMA designed a suitable powerplant for it, the M49 Larzac.

Although it first took to the sky in prototype form on July 16, 1970, the lengthy development of its intended powerplant necessitated the use of two 2,200 thrust-pound Pratt and Whitney Canada JT15D-1s instead.

In overall configuration, the aircraft resembled what later became the standard for this market: a narrow fuselage with five circular windows on either side; a low, swept wing; two aft-mounted turbofans; and, at least in the Corvette’s case, a semi-t-tail. Accommodation was 12, subdivided into six rows of single, side seats and a central aisle. The crew encompassed two pilots, but the number of passengers did not require an accompanying flight attendant.

Its operators were few Air Alpes, which took delivery of two Corvette 100s in 1974 and another two in 1975, operated routes on its own behalf from Paris and those, such as Lyons-Brussels, on Air France’s.

Other Corvette carriers included Air Alsace, Air Champagne, and TAT Touraine Air Transport in France, and Sterling Airways in Denmark. Airbus Industrie used five aircraft as corporate shuttles between 1981 and 2009.

Plagued by prototype accident; a long, corrective development period; a change in powerplant type; costly operation; failure to establish a North American distribution venue; strong competition; management ignorance; and capacity that proved inadequate, the Aerospatiale SN.601 Corvette nevertheless served as an example of one of the three regional jet origins: an all-new design, the conversion of an existing turboprop one, or the use of a business jet platform.

Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke VFW-614:

Many attempts had been made to produce a more advanced DC-3 replacement powered both by piston and turboprop engines. With turbines, it took form as the regional jet, of which the Yakovlev Yak-40 and the Flacon 30 were early examples, although the latter never proceeded beyond the concept stage. Germany became the third country to enter this fray.

Initially viewed as a “Buschflugzeug,” or “bush aircraft,” the Entwicklungs Nord group, consisting of Focke-Wulf, Hamburger Flugzeugbau (HFB), and Weser, proposed the E.614, a small, simple, rugged, and economical twin-jet with a swing nose for straight-in cargo loading, passenger accommodation of between 36 and 40, two aft-mounted engines, and a t-tail intended for developing countries. The Lycoming PLF1B-2, then being designed in Connecticut, was the intended powerplant.

Intentions, as had occurred with other aircraft concepts, were forced to follow events-in this case, ERNO, the Entwicklungs Nord group, was reorganized into the Bremen-based Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW), resulting in the redesignated VFW-614, for which Rolf Stussel was appointed its project leader, and iterations brought about changes to the 451-kph speed and 600-kilometer range of the aircraft first displayed in model form at the 1963 Paris Air Show.

Development of the Lycomiing engine was discontinued, necessitating its replacement with a turbine designed by Rolls Royce, which, because of its later bankruptcy, raised doubts about its own continuation, and the regional jet was subjected to a radical redesign that resulted in an unconventional configuration in order to minimize noise during operation from its intended small, limited-facility, short-field airports.

Finally, VFW, then Germany’s largest aircraft manufacturer since World War II, merged with Fokker of Holland in 1969, a strategy initially envisioned as mutually beneficial. The former would gain a more extensive marketing reach for an aircraft; projected to sell between 300 and 400 units, and the latter would expand its product line that would now encompass both turboprop and pure-jet aircraft, seating between 40 and 80 passengers, in its VFW-614, F.27 Friendship, and F.28 Fellowship models. Development, final assembly, and fight testing would nevertheless remain in Bremen.

Powered by two 7,511 thrust-pound Rolls Royce Bristol SNECMA M45H-01, thrust reverser-devoid turbofans uniquely mounted on above-wing pylons behind the rear spar, the VFW-614 was envisioned as offering numerous benefits because of it, including a maximum degree of payload configuration flexibility, semi-prepared field takeoffs and landings due to elimination of foreign object engine ingestion, high-frequency compressor noise reduction during approaches, the use of short undercarriage struts, an increase in airfoil surface area and hence lift with the avoidance of flap controls, the low ground access that eliminated loading and maintenance equipment, and inherent fuselage stretchability for higher-capacity versions.

Its other design features were otherwise conventional, encompassing a 16-degree wing sweepback, a standard tail, a tricycle undercarriage, and a 40-passenger cabin configured for ten rows of four-abreast seats.

Intended to replace its high-wing, twin-turboprop Nord 262s on European routes. Cimber Air, which provided considerable design input concerning its M45H engine selection, 1,200-meter runway capability, and 40- to 44-passenger capacity, became its launch customer, its two aircraft entering service on August 2, 1975 and April 1, 1976.

Although TAT Touraine Air Transport also ordered the German type, its contract stipulated its cancellation if the Falcon 30 had proceeded into development, since it was first obligated to purchase a French indigenous product.

Air Alsace also operated the type.

Despite the type’s unique features and the program’s high hopes for success, it was officially cancelled in 1977, leaving its commercial operation to cease three years later. Several reasons were cited for its failure, including VFW’s allegations that Fokker focused its sales efforts on its own products to the exclusion of the VFW-614, the German aircraft manufacturer’s ten-year later appearance, the unsuitability of it for Lufthansa’s routes, and its high operational costs.

Article Sources:

Dassault Aviation Website.

Hardy, Michael. World Civil Aircraft since 1945. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1979.

Morgenstern, Karl, und Simberger, Gert. VFW-614: Die abenteuerliche Geschichte des ersten deutschen Duesenverkehrsflugzeug. Muenchen: Wilhelm Goldman Verlag, 1977.

Stroud, John. Soviet Transport Aircraft since 1945. London: Putnam and Company, Ltd., 1968.