The Buzz Posts

The heart and soul of social media – blogging, Twitter, podcasting and a host of other new tools – is its ability to create a buzz around an issue – often within within seconds – much the way we saw with Janis Krum’s TwitPic post of a US Airways Air…

The past six months have not been easy for the aviation industry, or any other industry quite frankly, as we’ve all witnessed the bottom falling out of the marketplace. No one has any idea whether we’ve actually hit the bottom or not, nor does anyon…

The JA Air Center opened its new four-building campus, which covers 150,000 square feet, on December 1, 2008. As the airport’s primary FBO, the company had to add flight services–charter, training, and aircraft rental–to its well known menu of avio…

Remember the old days, back when people had little respect for business airplanes simply because they knew next to nothing about them? Those were the good old days until the guys from the motor companies jumped on their airplanes in Detroit to head …

Although the challenge arrived in a private e-mail a few minutes ago, one Jetwhine reader demanded in no uncertain terms that a simple video about the death of an old airline to strengthen another is only part of the tale. What about the companies t…

For anyone who ever built model airplanes using a spray gun or just an aerosol can, this is all going to seem pretty familiar. To everyone else, this clip is simply one step – although a very visible one – in the process of airline evolution. Enjoy.…

I have the good fortune to be one of the aviation resources some media folks call upon to translate complex aviation babble into language even my 14-year old daughter can understand. We don’t have too many good-news stories in the airline industry t…

After just digging out from under 10 inches of lake effect snow in Chicago, I walked in to find these great shots from a Jetwhine reader. Thanks Alan J. They reminded me of a time when an instructor once encouraged me to try landing a Cessna 150 so …

It’s another frosty night in Chicago, but I stayed at work late to write because the issue of who will become the next FAA Administrator is really gnawing at me. Like the November election, this administrator choice is going to be an important one …

Reveling in good news is how I always try to start the new year, but finding it in aviation has been a challenge in the relentless headwind of layoffs, furloughs, shutdowns, and bankruptcy filings. But I did find some, in my own backyard, at OSH, be…

Rob Mark So here we are, nearly ready to turn off the lights on 2008 in order to be prepared to bring them up on 2009 and all of it happening as economies all over the world unravel. The aviation manufacturing industry has not been immune to the hi…

By Rob Mark Is there anything more stressful than knowing you want to buy your budding aviator something, but knowing full well that the economy has taken a toll on your pocketbook? Sure they might love anything you buy them now, but after Christmas…

Anyone who has blogged for more than a week will tell you that new media writers don’t press keyboards because we crave the fame and fortune of a successful media empire like Jetwhine (ahem). Most of us have long ago learned to cope with those accol…

A good question, posed by Matt Thomas in his comment about New Book Holds Hope for Aviation’s Future. “Do they risk finding other things to do that are perhaps more fun?” he asked on the next line, referring to pilots in general and not the subject…

As you might expect, I’ve received a fair number of comments to my recent post, Aviation Reality in a Post-Peak World. All of them came to me as email, using the link that is my byline at the end of my posts. Either directly or indirectly, they said…

Everywhere today, talk about airline travel is pretty much the same. Flying is a commodity, so it makes good sense to search for the cheapest price, a variable that normally overrides the few other filters consumers can use, like the number of enrou…

I can only wonder what truly dumb move will be next from the folks running some of the U.S. auto makers now that both Ford and GM have decided to work together for the first time. No, I’m not talking about building an F-150 Tahoe-like vehicle, which…

Aviation has weathered a number of economic storms in its history, most notably the Great Depression and the collapse of the GA boom that followed World War II. How the industry met and survived past challenges unfortunately will not predict aviati…

Most people will tell you I’m a fairly gregarious person. Even a few might tell you I talk way too much. I’m the guy that wants to introduce everyone to everyone else. But there is one place I absolutely clam up and simply shy away from contact with…

I spent some time on the radio the other day with my podcaster-buddy Addison Schonland of Innovation Analysis Group in San Diego trying to figure out the answer to that question in light of the recent shutdown at Eclipse. Despite what people may th…

I used to fly Part 135 charter from Chicagoland a few years back. The company often had us riding as co-captains in some early Citations on some wonderful trips in some occasionally awful weather. Any of you who have found yourself stuck down at 3,0…

By now, most aviators are aware of the TSA’s new focus on general aviation security now that they have slapped the airlines around enough over the past five or six years that is. I’ve always thought anything that is detrimental to any sector of the …

Airframe manufacturers are dealing with the financial fires spawned by the global economic meltdown in many ways, including reorganization, furloughs, and layoffs. American Champion Aircraft is pursuing a different tact, introducing a new airplane…

Airports come and go these days, but some closings become more personal than others. Living in Chicago, we had our own sad, yes even depressing moments when Mayor Daley hacked Meigs Field to death just to prove who was really in charge. Personally, …