Saturday 21 November 2009

Dubai Airshow 2009

Dear Reader,

I know it's been a while since my last post, but life's spare time allocator has been unkind to me of late. As thus, I have to make do with less time online as I'd like. However, there is a certain plus to this, because I have been able to buy and read more books in the meantime.

A well-read blogger is certainly a better blogger!

Anyway, I had the good fortune of being invited to Dubai's Airshow for this year, and I went a little bit overboard with my camera. Like a Japanese tourist let loose with a gazillion megapixel camera in the middle of the Vatican's miles-long museums!

Here is a story better told by more pictures and less words:

1- The beautiful and graceful new Airbus A380

Probably the largest civilian jet ever made. The first to ever have two levels of passenger seats throughout the length of the plane. Very graceful and elegant. If you were there on 19 Nov 2009, you'd notice how amazingly skilful the test-pilot was in manoeuvring this mammoth at very low airspeeds without stalling!





2-The beauty of the wingspan

Don't you just love panoramic shots? Please click on the picture below to enlarge to appreciate its beauty.



3- Armed Forces

Can't say much except I didn't really feel their presence added much to our dear UAE.
Good old tax-dollars paying for a few posers.







4-Idiots were spotted inside

The queue to get into the airshow on the last day was immense. Probably half a kilometer long. The security was tight with metal detectors and xray machines. However, there was no minimum requirements for the IQ of the persons allowed in. This is a great shame. You had idiots like those below sitting on a helicopter drone thinking that they are cool. Perhaps they need to be reunited with their mothers and their playstations. There were even bigger idiots that I couldn't get myself to photograph who decided to sit inside a jet engine. That is complete fucking nuts. You have around a metre of "metal" between the tip of a jet engine and the rotating blades, and these idiots managed to sit in that narrow strip. They could easily cause damage worth tens of thousands of dirhams and even more if they lent on the blades. I wished if I could start up the engines and take them to full throttle only to suck these idiots into the engine and dissect them in a blink of the eye. However, the engine is worth more than the idiots combined, and plus I didn't have access to that particular cockpit. Darn!



5- UAE Armed Forces

Always lovely to see a UAE flag on some military hardware. Well-done boys!



6- Italian Tricolore 10-plane acrobatic team

As you might know, the Italians have an excellent acrobatic team that is of a similar calibre to the UK's Red Arrows. Fortunately the aeroplani italiani were on display that day and they were absolutely brilliant. Italians are fiercely proud of their "tricolore" flag, or the flag with three colours: Red, White and Green. Most spectators probably thought that the colours were for the UAE flag (which is a fortunate coincidence). However, ignorance is rife, and in this case can be possibly overlooked.

The Italians however did put up an excellent display, especially when they criss-crossed and looked as if they were going to crash into each other as shown in the picture!










7- See you in 2011!

This exclusive event is held every 2 years, so see you in 730 days or so inshalla!
إن شاء الله
لو ما زلنا أحياء نرزق



So long!

BuJ

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

I watched it on TV. The italians had a commentator who was speaking ARABIC in a heavy Italian accent! lol. He apologized on TV... Though Im not sure why as since his Arabic is probably 1000% better than any of our Italian.

Also liked the F15 stuff.

Wasnt too impressed with any of the rest... Actually we were kind of praying that something would crash.

Would have made for better TV.

Anonymous said...

I love the shower in the A-380.. 'life' upgraded me from business class to first class last July on my way Home from this horrible place I'm residing in at the moment..
Bless " Emirates " .. I wish I get upgraded all the time ;)

BTW BuJ; I've been thinking lately how the word 'cockpit' was born !! what if you add a space between 'K' and 'P'.. I think there are so many similarities and this is exactly how the terminology got inspired.. no ? Red cheeks.. red cheeks.. :p

BuJ said...

hala IYM.. oh, you tried the A380 already? mashalla.. was it great? does it take one hour to board? coz there are so many seats and just one tunnel to take passengers?!

anyway as to "cockpit".. check out :

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/43709

""Cockpit," however, is pretty straightforward. The first "cockpits" were actual pits in the ground constructed (to the extent that one "constructs" a pit) to house "cockfights" to the death between game cocks (essentially very belligerent chickens). Cockfighting, a barbaric "sport" usually conducted for gambling purposes, probably originated in ancient China and remains distressingly popular around the world.

As a name for the scene of such grisly matches, "cockpit" showed up in English in the 16th century. By the 1700's, "cockpit" was being used as a metaphor for any scene of combat, especially areas (such as parts of Belgium and France) known as traditional battlefields. "Cockpit" was then adopted by pilots in World War I, who applied it to the cramped operating quarters of their fighter planes. Our modern sense of cockpit includes the entire crew areas of large airliners, which are usually fairly spacious and not, one hopes, the scene of conflict.
"

loool, so no need for red cheeks, yet!

Em said...

I've been in an A380 and I will be again tomorrow :)

Unfortunately, it will be economy...but a girl can hope.

While the airshow was awesome, I wasn't a big fan of it simply due to the noise. I live near the airport and it ruined my sleep. Although I had an awesome view from my house :)

Anonymous said...

You were in an A380 because it's the only plane thats big enough for you.

BuJ said...

tut tut, and this blog is the only one small enough for you?

KJ said...

Unfortunately I totally missed it though I caught glimpses when I happened to be on Emirates road - and frankly the show disrupted traffic there as everyone was looking!

rosh said...
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Al-ain Rose said...
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rosh said...

WOW! brilliant pictures BuJ (and fantastic post). The weather looks it was amazing.

The 380 is majestic indeed, though I've read EADS posted a loss in the recent quarter, and the 380 remains a 'concern' given stalling deliveries. Would you know how many 380s Emirates has in its fleet today? I think Qatar and Etihad have firm orders. I think S'pore has more 380s in its fleet, to most airliners at the moment.

I CANNOT believe people sat on the wings and the engines of those multi-million sensitive crafts?! WOW! Did they just get too much sun in the head? Jesus?

Very interesting how the phrase Cockpit came about -- I never knew that.

ABIT, that's just uncalled for.

BuJ said...

hi Rosh, great to read you.. btw, i have a small correction to make. I did infact take a pic of the idiots sitting INSIDE an engine... if you look at the picture of the panoramic windspan and click on it, then look at the right side, you'll see the fecking idiot.

Media Junkie, KJ and Rose.. great to see you here!

I never been inside an A380, not even at the airshow. Coz when I arrived, they were busy flying it (but the good thing is that I got to get nice airbourne shots!).
actually i dunno how many planes EK has or Etihad or Qatariya of the A380, but i hope they ordered a few. It's a lovely plane. and for the mega popular routes like DXB-LHR or DXB-JFK that would be a fantastic aircraft both in terms of economics and sustainability.

Rosh, the weather is fantastic these days. Today it rained a tiny bit (just enough to make the cars dirty). and when i ride the bike, i actually feel cold. it's 20-25C at night!

Anonymous said...

BuJ.. you did search the dictionaries then.. thanks for your effort.. but I still think of it otherwise..it's just the sound of it.. LOL

I flew on the A-380 4 times now; the first time in Economy; 2 times on Business and one time on First class.. I wonder when I'll be in that cockpit ? I want to try touching the clouds for real with the pilot.. must be a completely different experience.. BTW, they also call it 'the double-decker'..just lisen to the sound of it.. God this plane thingy is all X-rated ! LOL

rosh said...

Yes, I see it now -- some moron's sitting on the right engine?! Re: the weather, 20-25C and rain, already? Nice! especially with the eid / national day holidays around the corner.

rosh said...

LOL IYM!

Anonymous said...

LOL Rosh

Anonymous said...

ABIT, that's just uncalled for.

I know.

tut tut, and this blog is the only one small enough for you?

No, but I LOVES you SO SO much man!

Em said...
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Al-ain Rose said...
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Al-ain Rose said...
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Em said...

he can't bait me on my own blog, so he has to resort to others.

whatever.

like the mariah song..."why are you so obsessed with me?"

Anonymous said...

The fact that you even listen to crap like that speaks volumes about what kind of a person you are.

Bait you? At least you admit to being an Animal. only an animal is "baited" Your words, NOT mine.

AAR... LOL! (we're all insane!)

Anonymous said...

BuJ.. Did you add weeds or magic mushrooms to your post somewhere.. we're all poisened..ouch high in here.. LOL

BuJ said...

hahahaha (LOL is over-used now)!

btw, IYM, you might be a witch but I'm training to be a Magus :)

So I guess I might have doctored a bit with the post!

"cockpit" and "double decker" or "DD"... ahhhh i don't think i should continue with too many youngsters around :)

Anonymous said...

Hahahahaha BuJ.. Who's and what is a 'Magus' ? I need a 'dictionary' level definition please.. listen to the sound of 'dic-tionary' again.. Hahahaha Magus.. See, dyslexics are always blessed.. it's creativity kicking now Magus..

BuJMagus.. if I call you so; it'll sound like a major terrorist from the land of no where.. I should announce for you as the "most wanted" on CNN.. " BuJMagus is a serious war criminal hiding in booming city of Dubai " Hahahahaha

BuJ said...

LOOOOOOOOOOOOL IYM

you're really bad, stop eating mushrooms :P

BuJMagus!! haaha

oh well, you need to read Brida to know what a Magus is!

nzm said...

Awesome images, BuJ! I would love to have attended the Dubai Airshow, but the nearest we came was in 2005 when we watched the A380 and a 777 fly around the Burj Al Arab while we had breakfast at the JBH!

BuJ said...

NZM i have a story with the air show.. ever since it started and i was a spotty teenager in the 1990s i would drool if someone just mentioned the words "air show".. and i remember i would try without much luck to get in using various methods. at the end i managed to get into one of the shows via my school.. it was amazing.. but fast forward to 2009 , and i actually got invited to attend.. i was speechless.. truly speechless.. elhamdilla for everything!