Airplane Geeks Podcast

We talk with the author of Trailblazers: The Women of the Boeing Company. Also, inductees into the 2016 International Pioneer Hall of Fame, Chinese airline orders, Aviation Week’s Person of the Year, commercial flights to Cuba, Kuwait Airways drops a route, Amazon.com may start it’s own airfreight operation, and online search for empty GA seats gets some bad news. Guest Betsy Case is a writer and the award winning author of Trailblazers: The Women of the Boeing Company. She says the book “acknowledges the inspiring women who helped make the company the success it is today.” Trailblazers describes with words and photographs many of the women who have made their mark throughout the long history of the Boeing Company. Betsy was a marketing writer at Boeing for 18 years and is the author of several Boeing Store books, including In Plane View: A Pictorial Tour of Everett Factory about the Everett factory, and The Jumbo Jet: Changing the World of Flight. She also authored Houseboat: Reflections of North America’s Floating Homes, she owned an advertising agency in Seattle, and she worked as a radio copywriter for several years. Betsy was also a whitewater river guide. Find Betsy's books on Amazon.com or at the Boeing Store. News Military aviatrices honored Women in Aviation International has announced the inductees into its 2016 International Pioneer Hall of Fame: the Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training Program Class 77-08, Brenda E. Robinson, and Gen. Janet C. Wolfenbarger. The ceremony will take place at the closing banquet of the 27th annual International Women in Aviation Conference, which will be held March 10-12, 2016, at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Boeing Gets $10 Bil Order, But Delta Buys Used 777 China Southern Airlines said it will buy thirty 737 Next Generation and fifty 737 MAX narrow body planes. Xiamen Airlines (a unit of China Southern) is buying thirty 737 MAX jets. At a presentation to investors, Delta Air Lines Co.CEO Richard Anderson said he was wrong about being able to buy a used Boeing 777 passenger plane for $10 million. Delta tweeted Anderson saying, “It was actually $7.7M.” Person Of The Year: Delta Air Lines’ Richard Anderson Speaking of Richard Anderson, he is Aviation Week’s Person of the Year 2015. AviationWeek gives the award to “the person who—for better or worse—had the greatest impact on aviation or aerospace over the year.” US-Cuba aviation deal allows 110 scheduled flights a day The State department says that after talks with Cuban officials in Washington, U.S. airlines can negotiate with the Cuban government for 20 routes a day to Havana, and 10 to each of nine other Cuba airports, for a total of 110 round-trip flights. This won’t happen immediately as Cuba needs to address airport, tourist, and even telecommunications capacity. Kuwait Airlines Accused of Anti-Semitism with Israeli Ban Kuwait Airways dropped its route from JFK International Airport to London Heathrow. In 2013, Israeli citizen Eldad Gatt complained to the U.S. Department of Transportation that he could not fly on the airline because he did not have the option in the online booking system to select Israel as the country issuing his passport. Kuwait Airlines says that Kuwait law prohibits business with Israelis and so they cannot recognize Israeli passports. Reports: Amazon is starting its own air cargo operation, wants to use 20 Boeing freighter jets There has been some buzz about Amazon.com creating it’s own air freight operation. In November, Motherboard published A Secretive Air Cargo Operation Is Running in Ohio, and Signs Point to Amazon. The Seattle times published Amazon in talks to lease Boeing jets to launch its own air-cargo business. Now Cargo Facts reports in Amazon building its own overnight airfreight operation, sources say that “Amazon.com Inc. is creating a logistics operation that will include overnight air operations in the US domestic mar...