Posted on 09/04/2008 9:32:17 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has long had ties to Arizona.
Now his running mate does, too — to Tucson. Tucson-based Global Aircraft Solutions Inc. was set on Thursday to deliver Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's new campaign plane, an Embraer 190 regional jet complete with the duo's campaign logo on the fuselage.
The new jet seats about 100 people and was reconfigured with bigger first class seats, dividers and an area for the press, Global Aircraft president John Sawyer said. New York-based JetBlue Airways will operate the plane.
The Secret Service inspected the plane at Tucson International Airport on Thursday afternoon before it took off for St. Paul, where the Republican National Convention winds up today.
Global Aircraft is parent of Hamilton Aerospace Technologies, a full-service aircraft repair and modification facility that provides heavy maintenance for commercial airliners at the Tucson airport.
No sweat. Mine’s just a point of practicality. 8-10 people in one of those is miserable.
So McCain’s plane would be known as Straight Talk Express 1 and Palin’s would be Barracuda 2.
I’d paint it silver, with realistic painted jaws with sharp ‘cuda teeth at the front, and by the exit door...two Dimocrat donkeys with an red “X” through ‘em. Under one “X” have the words “Community Organizer” and under the other print “Plagerizer”
bump ! bump ! bump !
757? I thought ‘Bambi was riding an MD80 series jet. Did he upgrade?
BTW, I LOVE the fact she’s riding in an Embraer product. They are making some great jets.
She doesn’t have the need of the media or campaign “entourage” (hence the smaller plane need)
It needs a large US flag!
</sarc>
Well, in her acceptance speech, Sarah said that she likes to drive herself to work ... so will Sarah be ‘driving’ this jet?? :)
Not only that, but what kind of safety record does this Embraer have? [And who builds the engines? GE? Rolls Royce? Pratt & Whitney?]
From the picture, it looks like it only has 2 engines, which gives you a redundancy of 1.
I'd much rather see her on a jet with 4 engines, with a redundancy of 3.
Also, they don't say anything about beds in this outfitting [only "bigger first class seats"], which means she won't be getting good sound sleep at night, which, in turn, is going to jack up the exhaustion factor.
I wish I hadn't read this story.
Passengers who've flown the Embraer 190 in JetBlue service really like the plane.
If she went down, it would be like Knute Rockne and Amelia Earhart and Glenn Miller and Buddy Holly and Thurman Munson and John Denver all rolled up into one, times a factor of about positive infinity.
I'd much rather see her on a jet with 4 engines, with a redundancy of 3.
When was the last time you flew? Only the very largest aircraft these days have 4 engines. The last MD-11, the last 3 engined wide body, stopped production in 1999, and it was a freighter not a passenger plane. Airlines routinely fly across oceans on twin engined aircraft up to 3 hours away from a diversionary airport. Palin won't be flying long transoceanic routes anyway. She'll be flying between airports in the lower 48 under rules that require being up to 1 hour from a diversion airport. That's 1 hour flying time with 1 engine shut down. That's practically anywhere in North America including travel to and from Alaska.
Twin engined planes are much more economical to operate. They also have performance benefits. All multiengined aircraft are designed so that they can continue a takeoff and climb out of an airport if 1 engine fails after the point during takeoff when it is possible to safely abort. A 4 engined plane must be able to do this with 3 engines; a 3 engined plane must do it with 2, and 2 engined plane must do it with 1 engine. In normal operations this means that twin engined planes by law have more thrust available when both engines are working. This allows for much shorter take offs and quicker climbs to cruising altitude after takeoff and still be more efficient to operate than planes with more engines.
I think this would be a more appropriate logo for Obama's plane.
I'd much rather see her on a jet with 4 engines, with a redundancy of 3.
Well, we could put Sarah on a 737 like John's airplane. Oh wait. Two engines. OK, how about a 757 like Barak's plane? Oops, two engines. Alright, then let's go with a 767. Nope, two engines again. Fine, let's go whole hog, and get Sara a huge 350 passenger 777. Darn, two engines again!
Alright, I know they're the evil French, but how about an Airbus A320? Darn, two engines again. A330? Nope, two again. Aha! Finally! An Airbus A340 has four engines! Oops, it's also a 300+ passenger jet, a bit larger than the 100 passenger Embraer she's currently assigned to use. Besides, being a long haul aircraft, it might not be the best choice to replace an efficient short range Regional Jet.
What's left? The Boeing 747 and the Airbus A380 are both four engine aircraft. But they're even bigger than the 777 or the A340 that were already too big.
Wait a minute! How about an aircraft made in Great Britain? They're our friends, right? Sure, and this one is about the same size as the Embraer. Success! Kidd, I give you the BAE Avro RJ! (Ta da!)
</good natured teasing>
Plus it probably costs a lot less to lease. Lots of airlines are getting rid of their 747-400's and replacing them with 737-800's or A320's. Sure it doesn't have the range of a 757-200, but a campain plane's job isn't to go nonstop between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Refueling stops on coast to coast trips are good excuses for campaign events. With all the stops he'll have in Colorado, New Mexico, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and other noncoastal battle ground states, there isn't any need for a plane capable of flying nonstop across the Atlantic.
That's an excellent plane to use if your're flying a heavily loaded plane in and out of high altitude airports near ski resorts, but it woult be rather expensive as a campaign plane.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
.svg/180px-Tongue_(Rolling_Stones).svg.png)