Wide-bodied jets have always fascinated me. Give me a ride to anywhere on a 777 or even an A330 and I’ll happily jump on at the drop of a hat. While I have nothing against narrow-bodied aircraft – after all, they serve short routes very ably – I’ve always felt them to be more functional in nature and often devoid of the pleasure of flying. Hence, when I got the opportunity yesterday (thanks to Shashank!) at the Singapore Airshow to be on-board a demo-flight of Boeing’s latest, much-feted beauty, the 787 Dreamliner, I could hardly conceal my delight. It promised to be a flight to remember and by jove, it was!

The Dream Cabin
I must admit that it was love at first sight. As we walked up to where she was parked on the Airshow grounds, we could not help but admire the graceful contours of the plane and quite obviously, that fascinatingly lovely bent wing-tip. Having scouted for the best positions to take photographs “with” her, we had a whale of a time taking snaps, especially the ones with her engines. Soon it was time to board. …

Do you remember the first time you ever flew? What do you remember about it? How big the cabin was on the inside? How small those cars looked on the ground below? The pain in your ears from the air pressure, or perhaps the gum you had to chew to make it go away?

Alice Liu, American Airlines’ Managing Director of Onboard Products, remembers something completely different from her first flight as a 13-year-old, and remembers it so fondly that it helped fuel her desire to work in the airline industry. Despite the nerves and excitement of moving with her family to a new and unfamiliar world across the Pacific, and the experience of seeing the tops of those fluffy, white clouds for the first time, what did Alice remember most about her 18-hour-trek from Taipei to Dallas via LAX? The food, of course.

That’s right. Good old, economy class airplane food, which she enjoyed so much that she asked for a second helping. If I can read your thoughts right now, you must either think that someone so passionate about airline food (!!!) is either flat-out nuts, or a match made in heaven for the job she does for American. Based …

As the sun set over Farnborough 2010, it became clear that Boeing emerged a clear winner. Not just by beating all expectations in getting new orders, but also by shaking off the dust in terms of excellent social media work to engage the community. Farnborough was the epitome of work that Todd Blecher and his team has put in over the last year.

Todd is Boeing’s Communications Director and has spearheaded the organization’s ascent into a new level of statusphere, where better engagement through blogging, use of Twitter and ‘the personal touch’ are a major factor. And for this, Todd is the SimpliFlying Hero for July 2010.
Boeing’s social media engagement at Farnborough
Boeing’s social media efforts were stellar at the Farnborough 2010 – especially for an organization its size and complexity. As industry analyst Ludo Van observed,
Boeing’s onsite videos were very professional and to the point. They produced 32 reports for the show (most of them on site) while maintaining a very high level of quality and interesting content. With their new website and Farnborough microsite, I think Boeing has really taken the lead in online presence and …

Last week, I had the opportunity get a personal tour inside a life-size mock-up of the Boeing 787, at Boeing’s Customer Experience Center near their Seattle Commercial Airplanes HQ. A detailed article and video interview will follow soon, but I just wanted to share the first photos from inside the beautiful plane! Enjoy!