Video of the Week

The 2007 NBAA Convention has been a busy one for the AVweb team, and there were many invitations we (unfortunately) had to turn down. When the kind folks at Airbus invited us to tour a fully-equipped A318 Elite, however, we just couldn't pass up the opportunity. Grab your most presentable briefcase and join us for a taste of business travel in the highest style. (Click through to watch.)

What makes an aircraft paint job "good"? Aviation Consumer editor Paul Bertorelli and Scheme Designer's Craig Barnett show you what to look for in a video critique. (Click through to watch.)

What makes an aircraft paint job "good"? Aviation Consumer editor Paul Bertorelli and Scheme Designer's Craig Barnett show you what to look for in a video critique. (Click through to watch.)

During a press conference at the NBAA Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Cessna Aircraft revealed just how full the company's plate has become. In addition to making an offer on the financially-challenged Columbia Aircraft and rolling out the highly-anticipated SkyCatcher, the manufacturer has an $11 billion backlog of aircraft to build and deliver. (Click through to watch.)

In the first of our original videos from the NBAA Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Spectrum Aeronautical's Linden Blue details the progress that's been made on the Freedom Jet GE/Honda HF-120 design. (Click through to watch.)

How do they clear those pylons at speeds topping 200mph? And how much Red Bull do air race pilots like Michael Goulian and Mike Mangold really consume to "give them the wings" they need to compete in the Air Race World Series? AVweb's Glenn Pew ventured to the races in San Diego last week to find out. And though he lost a few hats to stiff breezes whisked in by the racers, he managed to bring back an incredible reel of video highlights and an exclusive look at the intense two-day preparation period with racer Michael Goulian. (Click through to watch.)

How do they clear those pylons at speeds topping 200mph? And how much Red Bull do air race pilots like Michael Goulian and Mike Mangold really consume to "give them the wings" they need to compete in the Air Race World Series? AVweb's Glenn Pew ventured to the races in San Diego last week to find out. And though he lost a few hats to stiff breezes whisked in by the racers, he managed to bring back an incredible reel of video highlights and an exclusive look at the intense two-day preparation period with racer Michael Goulian. (Click through to watch.)

This week's "Video of the Week" comes to us from Spike/iFilm and goes all the way back to 1984, when NASA and the FAA worked together to crash a Boeing 720. Their intent was to study the influence of a fuel additive designed to suppress fire, but ours in the year 2007 is - well, honestly, to watch a very expensive aircraft go down in the name of research. (Click here to watch.)

The folks at the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum are hard at work putting the finishing touches on a replica of the America, a Glenn Curtiss twin-engine OX-6 "flying boat" that was originally conceived (in 1914, mind you) as a trans-Atlantic transport. 30,000-hour retired American Airlines Captain Jim Poel is scheduled to fly America at the Lake Keuka (NY) Seaplane Fly-In this weekend, which means the project staff and volunteers will be pretty busy as you read this. YouTube user angelica4709 has posted several videos about the project (which we're still working our way through), but here's a quick look at the fuselage and a preview of the weekend fun with pilots Poel and Lee Sackett and head builder Art Wilder. (Click through to watch.)

Given this weekend's terrible news about the Zelazny Aerobatic team, we thought we'd share this slideshow of the team in action, posted on YouTube by user gumisiekkk. (Click through to watch.)