When you think of Aviation Technology in India, there isn't much. For India's Air Force and military, most of their aerial vehicles originate from Russia or the U.S. For the past decades, all of India's fighters and other aircraft were foreign aircraft. Their fighters came from Russia and the U.S., and their transport planes were from Airbus. This year, India finally completed the designing and engineering of their first native fighter jet. India's new Tejas jet is their first Indigenous fighter jet to ever come out of an Indian factory. This new jet will make India's dependency on other countries lessen and their Air Force stronger.
Tejas Jet Banking
The Tejas jet is not new, but it is the first jet to be produced in India. The first Tejas jet flew in 2001, but the first fighter jet made in India flew this year. This jet has been acclaimed for being ultra lightweight and very effective as a fighter jet. Although this jet isn't as advanced as an F-22 Raptor, it still gives India bragging rights for the production of an effective, lightweight jet.
The Tejas jet is finally ready for production in India. This jet will replace India's aging Mig-21's and F-16's. This time, the jets will be their own creations, they will know how to fix them, maintain them and upgrade them for the future without depending on another country for assistance. India's new Tejas jet will fly them into the future of aviation.
Since the mid 1960's, the Boeing 737 has been one of the premier airliners of the sky. With advancements in almost every aspect of the jet, this jet remains Boeing's #1 sold aircraft. Even with all of Boeing's newer, larger, more efficient airliners, the 737 dominates the Boeing market by about 5x more than any other aircraft. Of their total orders this year (1,432), the 737 has been 1,104 of those orders. People might wonder why the 737; one of Boeing's oldest jets, remains at the top. The key to the 737's success has been it's modifications over the years.
Lineup of 737s
The 737 has been one of the most produced airliners in history. The key to this success has been modifying the original popular jet to fit almost any circumstance. With about 5 classes of 737 produced in history, and countless variations to those, the 737 can handle almost anything it receives. From freight to rowdy passengers, the 737 was build to handle it all. So many of these jumbo jets were produced, that at any given time period, there are about 1,250 737's in the air.
Although the 737 is one of Boeing's oldest airliners, it has been varied and changed so much to the point where it is a completely different plane from the prototype. From more efficient engines, to composite technologies, the 737 has been a completely different aircraft. Even though it was designed for passenger use, this jumbo jet has been varied to carry freight and even military variants have been created to do aerial refueling and submarine scouting. The 737, one of Boeing's original airlines has become their most popular. If you turn your head to the sky, odds are you will see a Boeing 737 soaring high above.
For many years, the aircraft company Airbus has been making the biggest, most fuel efficient planes of the sky. Since their release of the A380, the world's largest airliner with 2 floors and room for up to 850 people, aviation nerds have wondered what is coming next. With Boeing's release of their new 787 Dreamliner, Airbus needed a plane to compete with Boeing. Their answer was the Airbus A350, a plane made of the newest space age materials very similar to the 787.
Airbus A350 test plane
The A350, originally flown in 2013, is the first Airbus aircraft with wing structures and fuselage made of mostly carbon fiber, a material lighter and stronger than aluminum. The A350 was made to compete directly with Boeing's 787 and 777, both extremely popular jets in the airlines. The new aircraft made it's first flight with passengers yesterday, the 15 January 2015. During the flight, the reaction from the crowd was noticeable, everybody loved the new plane.
The A350 has very impressive performance standards. Because of it's lightweight construction and powerful engines, it can takeoff and land in very little areas and it can climb at a massive rate of climb. So far, the A350 has over 800 orders upcoming. At a price of over 340 million dollars a piece, Airbus has a very large amount of money incoming.
For over 75 years Boeing has been one of the top producers of American made planes. With a variety of planes from the WWII B-17 to Boeing's new unmanned helicopters, Boeing is the company to go to for any aviation needs. Although almost every airliner that they've produced in the "700" series was a hit, Boeing's newest high-tech airliner seems more like a rotten egg.
Boeing's newest airliner, the 787, took it's first flight on the 15th of December, 2009. Everyone at Boeing and airline owners thought Boeing's newest creation would be the most fuel efficient, high-tech plane to ever come from Boeing. The airline owners definitely felt confident when Boeing received over 1,000 orders for their new $297,000,000 jet. Although Boeing received so many orders initially, airliners have really slowed interest in the high tech, composite jet. The total number of 787 orders this year is only 18, while Boeing's most popular jet, the 737 has 663 orders scheduled for this year.
Although it is the most technologically advanced airliner ever created, the 787 has had many flaws that keep appearing and slowing the progress of Boeing. One recent problem that has come up 3 times now is the Lithium-Ion battery that is used to power the 787. Since the 787 relies on so much technology and computers, the 787 has to have a battery 10 times larger than Boeing's jumbo jet, the 777. In three different flights, the batteries have started smoking and caught on fire. Luckily, every time this happened, the planes were near airports for an emergency landing. Another major problem was discovered this March. Boeing found hairline cracks in the 787 wing. Since the 787 is made of composite materials like fiberglass and carbon fiber, this was very scary to Boeing engineers, if the wing cracks continued to grow, the wing could separate from the plane in flight. After a few weeks, Boeing reinforced all cracked areas and haven't found any cracks since.
Even though Boeing's new jet has some problems, hopefully in the future Boeing can fix all of the problems to make the new jet what it was meant to be; the most advanced airliner ever created.
