Now this is just an interesting story. Thomas Salme is a maintenance engineer that became a Boeing 737 pilot by using a flight simulator and printing a fake airliner pilot license. Over the last 13 years, he flew around passengers without any incidents.

How do planes get made? Southwest Airlines made a time-lapse video showing exactly how they do it. In 2 minutes and 30 seconds you can see exactly how they built this Boeing Specialty Plane.

The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) had a great day on Tuesday December 15. For the first time, Boeing landed the Dreamliner 787. The flight landed as thousands of workers and journalists were watching at the Paine Field, north of Seattle. The Dreamliner 787 is a 250 seat jetliner that burns less fuel and lasts longer. The flight landed at 10:30AM.

The Dreamliner is the first commercial plane that is made mostly of composites instead of aluminum and steel. The Dreamliner was about 28 months late, but the delay was worth it in order to work out all the kinks. About 840 of the 787 planes are on pre-order as of right now. The total cost of production for the 787 was roughly $10 billion. The cost for one of the planes is about $150 to $205 million.

Below is a video of the Dreamliner 787 in action:

Matthew Sheil is a flight enthusiast that took simulation to the next level.  Sheil built a 747-400 flight simulator in a warehouse in Sydney.  There is about 45 different software programs that run on 14 different computers.  The simulation allows Sheil to fly to about 27,000 different airports.  Computer screens replace the windows.

Sheil built the simulator for around $300,000 AUD (around $197,000 US).  Many professional simulators cost up to $40 million so it is quite impressive that he was able to build it at a lower price.

[via Gizmodo]

A Continental Boeing 737-800 test flight using partial algae fuel has gone successfully well.  One of the engines in the plane used 50% aircraft fuel and 50% biofuel.  The test flight lasted 90 minutes.  The test flight took place this past Wednesday.  This is the first in a series of tests that will be taking place within the aviation industry.  Biofuels may become somewhat of a standard within five years.  The test flight started from Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, TX and did a circuit over the Gulf of Mexico.  The test took place from 38,000 ft. and included a mid-flight engine shutdown.

“The airplane performed perfectly,” stated test pilot Rich Jankowski. “There were no problems. It was textbook.”  The alternative fuel was created using algae and jatropha.  This past February, a Virgin 747 was able to fly from London to Amsterdam using fuel made of Brazilian nuts and coconuts.

The United States uses 20.8 million and the world as a whole uses 80.29 million barrels of oil per day based on 2005 estimates.  India and China combined use about  9 million barrels and their combined population is eight times as much as the United States.  The United States definetely needs to find oil alternatives so this is a good start.  Our dependence on oil is costing lives of people overseas.  We need oil alternatives for the sake of humanity.

[via Slashdot]