Cattle Call: This week in quirky aviation news: winglet wars, Panda Flight Academy, Occupy Boeing
Welcome to the third edition of Cattle Call, a weekly round-up of quirky aviation news to start the weekend with.
- Air New Zealand's mascot, Rico, has died, and the airline has partnered with Hasbro to create an online game to solve the mystery of his death.
- All Nippon Airlines has announced the launch of the "Panda Flight Academy" to train future pilots.
- Airbus and Boeing are engaged in a legal battle over winglet royalties, with Airbus challenging the patent held by Aviation Partners.
- A passenger on a Biman Airlines flight punched the personal television screen and had to pay a fine of USD 9,800.
- Virgin America offered a charter flight and the opportunity to name one of its A320s through an auction, which has already been sold.
- Protesters from the Occupy Wall Street movement distributed fliers at an aerospace conference, calling for a decrease in defense spending and mistakenly referring to Boeing as the fifth largest defense contractor.
Cattle Call starts with the death - some say tragic, some say not soon enough - of Rico, Air New Zealand's infamous fluffy, flirtatious and globe-trotting animal-thing mascot. This being Air New Zealand, of course, Rico's death brings one more marketing opportunity: ANZ has partnered with game maker Hasbro to create an online game in the style of Clue/Cluedo to solve who killed Rico.
Not that we should be pointing fingers, but coincidentally around the time of Rico's death All Nippon Airlines announced it would start the "Panda Flight Academy" to train future pilots. Or was Rico's murderer lurking in Toulouse, where a large shark with a larger appetite has been seen: Airbus put a decal of a shark jaw's on its first A320 featuring fuel-saving winglets, which Airbus brands as "sharklets" with the slogan "taking the bite out of fuel burn".
Winglets were also in the spotlight this week as a winglet war erupted between Airbus and Boeing. Airbus sued a partner of Boeing in order to avoid paying royalties for winglets, Bloomberg reports. Aviation Partners has a joint-venture with Boeing to make winglets and has said Airbus must pay it royalties for infringing on its patent. Airbus wants to take a bite out of Aviation Partners by having courts declare the patent invalid.
One passenger tried to take a bite out of his Biman Airlines personal television screen. Biman said the passenger was a youth travelling with his father and punched the screen ten times while watching a movie en route from London to Dhaka, according to the Daily Star. The passenger was met on arrival by police, but the issue was settled after the family paid a fine of 7.47 lakh - about USD9,800.
Rather than punching an IFE screen and paying a fine, Virgin America may suggest you participate in its auction to name one of its A320s and conduct a charter flight on any one of Virgin America's routes. The price? USD60,000 - and it's already been taken, although there is now a wait list.
Also taking bites was the Occupy Wall Street movement. At an aerospace conference protesters distributed fliers calling for a decrease in defence spending, understating conference attendee Boeing as the fifth largest defense contractor. Leeham News said Jim Albaugh, CEO of Boeing Commercial Aircraft, did not miss a beat, half-joking, "That's wrong. We're number 2. Take this out and have them retract this."
Also in the Occupy Aviation Department, 100 Libyans surrounded a Tunisair A320 on the tarmac at Tripoli airport, Reuters reports. A dozen cars drove out on the tarmac to the aircraft, where the protesters - some of whom has unspecified weapons - wanted to check the identities of some injured Libyans on the flight. The aircraft door was shut and the protesters were barred entry. The ad hoc group mainly used the incident to issue a demand to the Libyan government unrelated to aviation.
Not shutting the door is Boeing, which on its website now offers a "Design Your Own 787 Dreamliner" section to create a livery for the carbon composite twin. Curiously, you must be 18 years or older to use the website, and must agree not to use any creation for anything other than personal use. The site also asks users not to "recreate recognisable characters, logos, trademarks, wordmarks, or names". But we would still like to see you create an Airbus-branded 787 - with a shark's mouth. And maybe Rico, too.