Hello and welcome to Simple Flying's 'Sunday Reads' weekly digest, which is now 88 iterations old! With the festive season on the horizon, it's a busy time for the airline industry, with several great stories emerging in the last seven days!
Boom Secures Engine Makers For Its Supersonic Overture
Boom Supersonic, the company behind what is touted to be the next supersonic passenger aircraft – Overture – has finally secured an engine maker to deliver the powerplants for its jet. In fact, it has secured three, although none are well-known in the commercial aviation space. You can find out more about this move here.
United Airlines Places Biggest Widebody Order In US History For Up To 200 Boeing 787s
United Airlines confirmed a firm order for 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliners this week, boosting its current order backlog to roughly 700 aircraft. Alongside the firm order for 100 aircraft, the US carrier has also placed 100 more options for additional 787s. The carrier's order could include all three aircraft models, the -8, -9, and -10.
Lapland Charters Boost Traffic At Sweden's Pajala Airport
When it comes to holiday charter traffic out of the United Kingdom, you might typically associate this with package holidays to the Mediterranean for sun-seeking British families. However, when winter comes around, a different kind of charter dominates the country's aviation landscape. The demand for trips to Lapland has seen Pajala Airport see a huge increase in traffic compared to its usual operations.
Flight Review: Flying A Boeing 747 In A Real 747 Cockpit
The Boeing 747-400 has increasingly disappeared from service over the past few years. For anyone keen to see the aircraft, several have been saved and preserved (and hopefully more will be later). The latest to open to the public in the UK though offers quite a bit more. Manchester-based company The Deck 747 has preserved the upper deck portion of an ex-BA 747, and turned it into a working flight simulator.
Elvis Presley's Lockheed JetStar Will Go Up For Auction In January
Elvis, the King of Rock and Roll's 1962 Lockheed 1329 Jetstar, is going up for auction. It was initially purchased by Elvis Presley on December 22, 1976, for $840,000. However, the aircraft has sat idle in an aircraft boneyard in Roswell, New Mexico, for the last 35 years. You can find out more about the chance to buy it here.
NASA's SOFIA Boeing 747 Takes Off For The Final Time
The iconic NASA Boeing 747 carrying the world's largest flying observatory has completed its final flight. The Boeing 747SP, registration N747NA, is owned by NASA and was modified to carry a reflecting telescope for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), from whence it derives its nickname.
If you'd like us to send you the week's top stories in a weekly e-newsletter, you can sign up for the mailing list here. See you next week!
What was your favorite story this week? Let us know what you think in the comment section!