Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Terry Baker, co-founder of the NetLetter scours the internet for aviation related Trivia and Travel Tips for you, our readers, to peruse.

Answer for the mystery airline in 'Odds and Ends'.

Middle East Airlines, or MEA is the flag carrier of Lebanon with its head office in Beirut. The tree on its tail symbolizes a Lebanon cedar that is native to the country and is the national emblem.

In 1945, Middle East Airlines was established and launched its first service from Beirut to the neighboring countries of Syria, Cyprus, Egypt then Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other destinations in the Gulf.

In 1963, the airline merged with Air Liban. Despite closure of Beirut International Airport during Lebanon’s civil war between 1975 and 1990, MEA managed to survive by leasing aircraft and seconding staff to international airline companies.

With the return to normality in 1990, MEA succeeded in reinstating service to all its previous destinations, strengthened and improved its network to Europe, Middle East and the Gulf.

Source: mea.com.lb/english/about-mea/history-and-network

Electric aircraft.

Norwegian airline Wideroe says it will offer scheduled service using electric aircraft by 2026 and expects to be emissions-free on all domestic flights by 2040.

The airline is working with Rolls-Royce and Tecnam to put the 11-seat P-volt to work on the numerous short-hop routes it flies in the rugged country.

“Norway’s extensive network of short take-off and landing airports is ideal for zero emissions technologies,” Wideroe CEO Stein Nilsen told designboom.com. “This aircraft shows how quickly new technology can and will be developed, and that we are on track with our ambition of flying with zero emissions around 2025.”

Source: www.avweb.com/aviation-news

Last Airbus A380.

The end of the line for one of aviation’s most ambitious and ultimately costly programs came with a low pass and a wing wag from an A380 destined for Emirates on Thursday March 18, 2021.

The final double decker aircraft to come off the assembly line at Toulouse Blagnac Airport in southern France, MSN 272 took off for Frankfurt where it will be painted and the interior fitted for Emirates.

Airbus announced two years ago the type would be discontinued just 14 years after the first delivery to Singapore Airlines in 2007.

In all-economy configuration, the Super Jumbo can hold up to 853 passengers but most airlines opted for a mix of classes with 500-600 seats, not a lot more than the new generation of more efficient twin-engine long-range aircraft like the Boeing 787 and Airbus’s own A350.

Airbus spent $25 billion developing the huge aircraft and sold 251. Many of those are now stored because of the pandemic downturn.

Source: www.avweb.com/aviation-news. Click the source link to view the video of the flight.