Monday, March 19, 2012

Why social media could help bring back the romance of air travel


Air New Zeland's Rico

Imagine posting a message on your Facebook page saying ‘bored – want a holiday’ and next thing you know an airline has tweeted you with a great special deal to your favourite city and also told you that your long-lost friend will be in town at the same time. Checking in – you are allocated seats next to someone who has same interests and likes and the IFE system even suggests movies and TV shows you had forgotten you loved.
Far fetched – not really. This concept, enabled by social media, aims to bring Amazon-like personalisation to the air travel experience – bringing back the romance of flying. The concept from Sergio Mello, ceo of Satisfly, allows airlines and passengers to tap into rich publicly available social media networks. For the passenger, this, in the initial stages, would allow them to be allocated a seat next to someone with similar views or tastes (or even to someone who wanted no talk at all!). Meanwhile, for the airlines, this would allow them to build up highly personalised passenger profiles – allowing social media to evolve from communication tools, to actually help drive business profits.
Like ‘Amazon’ which learns over time which books, films and games you like, so would airlines be able to better serve their passengers by drawing on the vast online networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn that people now connect to. Sergio reports that after being almost ‘laughed out’ of conferences only three years ago – airlines are now sitting up taking close interest. He is already in negotiations with several airlines to implement this and become a launch customer.
Source:  Royal Aeronautical Society
The AirplaneNut

Sunday, March 4, 2012

AH1 Cobra Helicopter Falls Two Hundred Feet To The Ground: (VIDEO)



A historic helicopter (AH1 Cobra) crashes to the ground in what looks like it could be a tragic disaster.
Astonishingly both people on board were able to walk away from Thursday's crash with hardly any injuries.
The footage was captured by a cameraman who happened to be shooting near the scene of the accident in Coolidge, Arizona. Steve Esparza managed to film the exact moment the AH1 Cobra started to fall to the ground.





The former military helicopter was being flown by a pilot and mechanic from the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation.
t was apparently filming a car on the ground as part of a stunt for the Korean version of television show Top Gear.
The aircraft had been hovering at no more than 200ft when a mechanical failure forced it to the ground.
Mr Esparza told My Fox Phoenix he knew he was going to capture something extraordinary when he caught sight of the helicopter.
'My heart was pounding, and I knew I was going to witness something, and I just followed it with the camera,' he said.
'I think the thing that shook me up the most was, I thought the pilots were dead. I turned the camera off - I didn't want to roll on what I thought I was about to see.'
But the helicopter's occupants simply shut off the engine and exited the wreckage.
The local police chief said the pilots had been saved thanks to the helicopter's safety features and their own precautions.


Mechanic and Pilot on board were able to walk away from the wreckage with no serious injuries





Source: Daily Mail Reporter

The AirplaneNut