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Penguin Airlines
An anonymous reader writes "DesktopLinux.com interviews Chris Stevens, President of Penguin Airlines about his young venture's business model that includes using Linux in all aspects from the ground up -- from desktops to the reservations system! 'Tux' is more than just a name for this new air taxi service which brings convenient, economical, time-saving air travel via the shortest route between home and destination." They wrote an essay about their business plans, and their heavily computerized jets look nifty as well. CD:Those interested in the aviation side of things should check out James Fallows book "Free Flight" as well.
But Penguins don't fly....
I hope they have better luck than the real birds.
We don't need no Net Explorer We don't need no Thought control
Upside: An airline that never crashes. Downside: Who wants uptimes that last for months?
Let me design your website. www.navalswebdesigns.webhop.biz
The airlines like to use majestic bird names like Eagle and Falcon that convey a powerful animal soaring gracefully through the air. Since one of our fundamental missions is to make private jet travel affordable for all travelers, we needed something that most people could relate to.
So, instead of a large bird majestically soaring through the air, the chose a name of a... dumpy, flightless bird that spends most of its time in the water. Hmm...
To the non-linux savvy, the choice of imagery to represent the company is perhaps less than ideal. I mean, how's about starting with a bird that actually flies through the air?
Why is using one platform, regardless of it's appropriateness, just for the sake of using it, a good idea? Shouldn't a company or group look into all options and decide on tools that are the best fit for what needs to be done?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
"Linux controlling our skies? Might as well stop all airborne travel."
I wouldn't go that far, but you would need to know Bernoulli's Law to board the plane.
"Derp de derp."
You spend way too much time on /. and IRC when the muscle memory in your fingers types out fucking as the default word.
(B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
I couldn't get up to stretch and shmooze because the overhead "No Trolling" light was on the entire fricken time!
Next time I'll take Blue Skies of D (BSOD) Airways, a subsidiary of MS. (They wouldn't tell me what the 'D' stood for.)
Table-ized A.I.
You got it all wrong: "Penguin" in the name has nothing to do with Linux, but what they serve for meals. I learned that after taking "Dogways Airlines".
Table-ized A.I.
I, for one, am terribly interested in the aviation side of this. Using Linux all the way through is very cool and all of that, and I suppose it's groundbreaking for an airline, but it's more an adaptation of existing technology (OS, desktop software, database, web server, scripting software) to a new problem (an airline). Where these guys are really breaking new ground is on the airplane side of things. I read the interview, and somehow I've managed to miss these guys, but I've heard references to this concept before, and as soon as this takes off, I hope to be using it as much as possible.
What these guys are proposing is using the Eclipse 500 to fly people all over the place. It's a six-seat airplane, 355 knot cruise (ca 410 mph), and according to the specs page, it has an accelerate-stop takeoff distance of 2,595 feet. This means it can accelerate to just under the speed it needs to fly on one engine, lose an engine, and still stop safely without running off the end of the runway. This will increase the number of airports Penguin can fly to versus, say, Northwest Airlines, by at least a factor of five. Most municipal airports have at least a 3,000 foot runway. Now, their page is slashdotted, so I'm not sure exactly how they'll handle this, but theoretically that means they could fly me (on a typical trip) from Springfield, MO to New Richmond, WI in a total time of about two hours, including drive time to and from the airport. Currently, it takes about six hours, including nintey minutes for checkin/security and an excursus through St. Louis, Memphis, or (heaven forbid) O'Hare, and then an hour driving from the Minneapolis airport to New Richmond. It's about twelve hours to drive, so it's almost not even worth it to fly, but with these guys, it would be so much nicer. This has the potential to be a serious boon for travellers. Depending on how they do this, it could eliminate hubs, and eliminate having to fly into one of the larger airports, followed by up to three hours of driving.
The Eclipse isn't yet certified, but it looks like it has a really good chance. These guys have been working on it for a while, and they seem to know what they're doing. They're using the Williams EJ22 engine, which is similar to their FJ44 engine that has been very successful on the Cessna CitationJet series. What really amazes me, though, is the price of these things. They're only asking about $850,000, which is barely enough to buy a twin-engine pison (instead of jet) Beech Baron these days.
All of which is to say, I'm really, really excited to hear about these guys, and I hope their business does well. I'll be flying them as soon as I can. They've got cool technology all the way around, and it has the potential to make life much better.