Flying Voices, the project to do an Oral History on Braniff International is working to raise money in a crowd funding campaign and needs your help.  They’ve raised some money but they need more.

I’ve donated $50 and I challenge readers to offer just a small donation to make this possible.  Braniff has no definitive history done on it and one will likely never be made.  This Oral History project is a valuable effort to preserve what we know and love about an airline and it’s our last chance.

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Go to their Facebook page called

1. Flying Voices and “like” them.  They need some love. Seriously.  Go do it now.  I’ll wait while you click the link above.
2. Go to their website and read more about their project and form an opinion of what they want to do.  Their website is, oddly enough, FlyingVoices.Org.
3. Go to their crowd funding website on Indiegogo.com and give them some money.  You can find the second round of their appeal here.

Filed under: Airline History by ajax
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United Airlines has ordered 30 E-175 Embraer jets to use in the United Express fleet.  The aircraft will have 76 seats and offers 10% savings in costs over their current 50 seat fleet.

It’s a good aircraft for the airline but it also points out something that, I think, might indicate a lack of competitiveness on the part of United.

10% improvement over the current 50 seat jets?  Really?  If that is the case and if demand is as good as people say it is, why would United not buy Embraer 190 aircraft instead?  It’s possible that its labor agreements don’t permit it to and, if true, that will hurt United badly in the coming years.

The Embraer E-175 is a fine airplane but it doesn’t offer the seat costs the E-190/195 offer and this isn’t a “new” aircraft family anymore.  It seems like it must be but it isn’t.  These aircraft came online in 2002 which makes their design originating from about 1999.  That’s 11 years or more in age for these airplanes and a lot has happened in the aircraft world since their rollout.

What United needs is the seat costs that American Airlines will enjoy in about 18 months as new aircraft come online and American is able to contract with airlines to obtain and operate bigger regional jets.

Filed under: Airline Fleets, Airline News by ajax
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