How Fast Between "Build it..." and "They Will Come?" In the case South Carolina and Boeing, pretty darn fast. In the movie "Field of Dreams," it was an Iowa cornfield. In North Charleston, it was a Carolina swamp. Either way, from saw grass to million-plus square foot airline...
(0) Comments | Posted May 22, 2012 | 7:00 AM
On my recent trip to Arizona, I ate at Denny's. Twice. It's not that I'm a fan of Denny's but traveling in Arizona without a car, I was restricted to eating in restaurants within walking distance of my hotels. Denny's wasn't the only choice but it...
(1) Comments | Posted May 18, 2012 | 6:26 PM
One never knows where the path called life will lead, witnessed Chesley Sullenberger, who I wrote about earlier this week. One day he's an anonymous airline pilot worried about his kids and his investments, the next, he's landing a crippled USAirways airplane in the Hudson and becoming an...
(0) Comments | Posted May 18, 2012 | 5:25 PM
A standing ovation when he entered the stage. Softball questions from hardball New Yorkers. Heartfelt coos and ooos and ahhs and a second standing round of applause. Three years after his heroics on the Hudson River, Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger still has the Big Apple eating out of...
(1) Comments | Posted April 23, 2012 | 7:30 AM
Both Woody Allen and William Shakespeare have words of wisdom regarding the momentous flight today of Qantas Airlines' newly resurrected Airbus A380. Don't believe me? Keep reading.
One can certainly understand the excitement of Qantas executives, with the arrival in Sydney this morning of the A380 Nancy Bird Walton. The...
(38) Comments | Posted April 19, 2012 | 7:42 AM
You'd think that American Airlines has its hands full what with bankruptcy proceedings and all, but shut up, they've gone and filed suit against the loud-mouthed, gender-bending, former flight attendant whose new career goal, it seems, is embarrassing the heck out of the airline.
In a...
(1) Comments | Posted March 29, 2012 | 12:15 PM
This is the question being asked today, two days removed from the episode on board a JetBlue flight when the captain's erratic behavior forced the co-pilot to lock him out of the cockpit: Is the process of hiring pilots sufficient to assure that they have the required mental stability...
(0) Comments | Posted March 28, 2012 | 11:45 AM
Once again documenting the ups and downs of aviation has me on the run. Was it April 2011, when I wrote, "I am living in fear. I am terrified of my inbox. The ringing of my telephone sounds like the dun-dun dun-dun soundtrack of Jaws?" Here we are 11...
(0) Comments | Posted March 28, 2012 | 7:00 AM
Somewhere along the line, and I don't exactly know when, wine went from beverage to something more. I like wine, but truth be told, always felt a little intimidated by the complexity of the stuff and all those rules: glass size, glass shape, glass thickness. I'm reaching for a simple...
(1) Comments | Posted March 18, 2012 | 9:00 AM
Spend too much time at the big airports, as I do, and it's easy to slip into believing that behemoth centers of people-moving is what flying is all about. It's not.
On a beautiful, sunny summer day here in the southern hemisphere, I was reminded how wonderful it is to...
(0) Comments | Posted March 9, 2012 | 7:45 AM
At first glance it might not seem that President Obama and kid-rocker Justin Bieber have much in common. But both men had just a tad too much altitude going through the doorway of aircraft and -- boom! -- the celebrity noggins got a good crack while the paparazzi snapped photos.
...(0) Comments | Posted February 28, 2012 | 11:00 AM
That was some big swingin' party at New York's 21 Club recently, as Etihad chief executive James Hogan -- grin all over his face -- confirmed what he'd spent the last few years promising anybody who would listen: the Abu Dhabi-based airline would end...
(2) Comments | Posted February 10, 2012 | 6:00 AM
I'm not the best driver in the world, because I'm easily distracted. I am, however, a great passenger. I'm very happy to ride right seat and enjoy the scenery. So, when Kirsten Brøchner, owner of Ibsens Hotel in Copenhagen graciously invited me to drive her little carbon-neutral car...
(0) Comments | Posted January 24, 2012 | 9:47 AM
Two items in the news caught my eye this week. And while both are getting relatively little attention while Americans focus on Newt Gingrich's "open marriage" scandal and the rest of the world wonders what really happened when that cruise ship ran aground in Italy, these...
(0) Comments | Posted December 25, 2011 | 7:00 AM
Several centuries ago, long before power tools, an Ethiopian king by the name of Lalibela had the big idea to build a church out of the side of a mountain. He didn't see the challenges or, if he did, he didn't let them get in his way. King Lalibela saw...
(0) Comments | Posted December 13, 2011 | 8:00 AM
There are five and a half million people in Denmark, and one quarter of them live in the Copenhagen metropolitan area. But their small numbers belie the important message they have for the world: "Save the environment, one person-propelled trip at a time."
Not since I visited China's Guangzhou...
(0) Comments | Posted November 15, 2011 | 6:55 AM
More than 100 years ago, train cars were chugging across Texas powered not by the oil for which the state is famous or even by the coal that provides that storybook puff of exhaust billowing from the smoke stack. No, these trains were running on electricity. That electric trains in...
(0) Comments | Posted November 11, 2011 | 7:40 AM
(0) Comments | Posted November 10, 2011 | 12:31 PM
It's apparent that the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board is a beauty. I've heard people describe her as "angelic." Here's her photo. You be the judge.
But don't let that cutie-pie face deceive you. Deborah Hersman is no delicate flower when it...
(8) Comments | Posted October 24, 2011 | 9:05 AM
How embarrassed is the All Nippon Airways ground crew in Japan after towing the brand spankin' new, close-to-$200-million Dreamliner into a passenger boarding bridge on Thursday? Oh, I'd say that kind of a ding requires something north of a "my bad" and south of harakiri.
From what...

(1) Comments | Posted June 1, 2012 | 7:00 AM