Cochin becomes world’s 1st fully solar-powered airport

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Cochin International Airport (COK) in southern India was opened just 16 years ago. This week it is celebrating a major environmental milestone – it has become the world’s first fully solar-powered airport.

More than 46,000 solar panels laid across 45 acres are generating 12MW of power, enough to run the airport smoothly.

“Now, Cochin airport will have 50,000 to 60,000 units of electricity per day to be consumed for all its operational functions, which technically make the airport absolutely power neutral,” its operator, Cochin International Airport Ltd., said in a release.

CIAL has been a trendsetter since its launch in the late 1990s. Cochin is the first Indian airport to be built under a public-private partnership model.

The company forecasts the project will help mitigate carbon emissions by more than 300,000 tonnes in the next 25 years. That is equivalent to planting three million trees, it said.

The busiest airport in Kerala state and the fourth largest in India, Cochin handled nearly seven million passengers in 2014-15.

The project was built by Bosch Energy and Building Solutions.

Images are courtesy of CIAL.

Seattle museum gets a Dreamliner

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Seattle’s Museum of Flight is celebrating a rare acquisition — one of the original Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner test airplanes.

It was donated this week to the museum by the American manufacturer, also based in Seattle.

Known as ZA003, the airplane was the third 787-8 produced by Boeing.

In donating the aircraft, the company cited its unique past.

Boeing said the ZA003 had circumnavigated the globe multiple times in 2011 and 2012, first as part of test and certification program and later during the Dream Tour, which introduced the 787 to the world.

“This revolutionary airplane caps the museum’s collection of historic commercial airplanes, beginning with our 1932 Boeing 247, which was the first all-metal, modern airliner,” said Doug King, president and CEO of the museum.

“It was followed by our 1969 prototype 747, the first jumbo jet, and now with the first composite airliner, the 787. It’s an incredible addition to our comprehensive display.”

One of the largest air and space museums in the world, the Museum of Flight attracts more than a half million visitors annually.

As of last month, Boeing had won orders for 1,050 Dreamliners from nearly 60 customers. More than 200 airplanes have been delivered so far.

Major Dreamliner operators include All Nippon Airways, Air India, Air New Zealand, Japan Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines and Air Canada.

Photo shows visitors waiting to see the Dreamliner at the museum Saturday. Courtesy: Boeing 

Report: Air India Dreamliner’s windshield cracks (again)

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An Air India Dreamliner. Boeing photo.

A report says a windshield crack forced an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner to return to Frankfurt airport (FRA) minutes after taking off for New Delhi (DEL).

The Times of India said today the incident happened on May 9.

It said the windshield of the same Dreamliner cracked last November while landing at Melbourne airport (MEL) on a flight from New Delhi.

The newspaper quoted an Air India official as saying that the airline so far had five instances of Dreamliner windshield cracks.

“Windshield cracks happening with such regularity in a brand new plane are rare,” the unidentified official told the newspaper.

Air India is one of the first customers of the problem-plagued Dreamliner. It has ordered 27 aircraft and taken delivery of 13.