Gadling

Instead of spotlighting an image from the Gadling Flickr pool on Fridays, we're going to highlight one from the pool of contributors' submissions (including you!) from Everywhere's Photos. Today's image is from contributor Rachel Tavel. She writes,

For those of you following the story of the the solider's dog that was lost by United Airlines earlier this week, you can now get updates on the unfolding events on the website helpfindjeddah.com or via a Twitter feed that they set up.

Apparently, enough people had caught wind of the story via the web such that there's a serious movement towards finding the animal -- well over five hundred people are now following the feed, garnering enough attention to get the Washington Post to run an article this morning.

In it, we learn some new facts about the debacle, including the interesting note that the owners only fed the dog people food and are concerned about her ability to fend for her self on her own.

Judging from some of the intense comments we got on our earlier story, there seem to be two schools of thought on the attention and resources that this search is getting: either you think we should shut down DC tomorrow and form a human chain across the the metropolitan area or you think we should sack up and let things sort themselves out -- haven't you ever seen that movie Homeward Bound?

I personally am a bit divided. I do hope that we find the dog quickly and think that all of the effort that people have put into finding her is quite touching. At some point, however, we'll probably need to stop consuming resources and leave the rest up to fate.

It's not very often that we Americans are privy to a taste of the Airbus A380, the new supermega jumbo jet that took to the skies last year.

Singapore Airlines was the first customer of the aircraft and though they took a quick zip around the United States, as our friend Mr. Cranky talked about last year, most folks have barely seen or heard much about the aircraft -- after all, none of Singapore's A380 flights regularly touch American soil.

Emirates, Dubai's glorious national carrier, however, has more appeasing plans. Starting later this summer, the airline is opening flights on the A380 between New York's JFK and Dubai, while routes from Los Angeles and San Francisco are planned for later in the year.

The airline plans to kick off its festivities with an inaugural flight reception at JFK on August 1st, where the media will be treated to inbound airport goodies from tarmac access to interviews with Emirates' staff and general merriment. Then, the aircraft flies cross country to California where two "acquaintance" flights are scheduled for the media and other interested parties. Too bad that's on the wrong coast for me.

If you've got any friends in the media world, now might be a good time to cash in your chips for a ride on the A380 -- otherwise you're going to have to wait to fly revenue. Last time I checked, those flights were going for about two grand.

Stay tuned for pictures and coverage from the Emirates reception.

I thought that Rocketplane was a show on the cartoon network until I read an article this morning reporting that a French Flight Attendant won a trip into sub-orbit with the galactic airline.

First, about the flight attendant: Mathilde Epron was working her daily flight schedule when she grabbed a quick Kit Kat snack, tossed the wrapper in the garbage and went on about her normal duties. Suddenly, struck with a feeling that she should have checked the wrapper, she went back to the trash two hours later, dug out the refuse lo and behold, won one of the first trips into space on fledgling space tourism company, Rocketplane.

Secondly, Virgin Galactic has competition? Where did Rocketplane come from? Tell us more about yourselves and your crazy moniker, Rocketplane, we're delightfully curious.

Apparently, Ms. Epron is scheduled to get four days of astronaut training at Rocketplanes headquarters in Oklahoma then will be on one of the first flights scheduled in 2010.

Only a shade behind Virgin Galactic, which plans to unveil its White Knight Two later this month and carry passengers in 2009.

If Rocketplace sticks to its guns and testing goes well, we could have an interesting commercial space competition in the next ten years. Maybe all of this competition will drive the price of a flight down from 200-250k down to 100k. Time to start saving!

Now that Open Skies is in full effect, carriers left and right are scrambling to take advantage of all of the sweet landing slots in the EU's congested airports.

Case in point, London's Heathrow Airport. Most travelers flying into the United Kingdom prefer landing at Heathrow because of better connections and proximity to London via the Tube. But landing slots at LHR are all full, so whenever one opens up, competition is hot to fill it in. Similarly, carriers want to hold on to their high-value slots to make sure that any competition doesn't come in and snatch up some capacity.

So what do you do when you can't book enough passengers to justify flying in and out of your slot? This case might show up if, say hypothetically, you've been cutting capacity like crazy to save cash and demand is low because travel is so expensive. Sound like any economy you know?

In that case, what do you do with your landing slot? Well, according to BMI, or British Midland Airways, you keep flying. Without passengers.

British Airways did the same thing earlier this year to try to preserve landing slots and we figured that the subsequent disgust with their MO combined with the price of fuel would be a deterrent for other carriers to do the same thing. But I guess those slots are just too valuable.

Why not at least auction off the empty seats on the aircraft? I know that you have to pay flight attendants if you have passengers onboard, but I feel like you can make enough to pay a few employees and offset the price of jet fuel a bit. But I guess that would make too much sense.

If you happen to be riding around in one of the Moon Rovers at Washington Dulles in the next couple days, keep your eyes peeled for any four legged creatures running around the tarmac.

John and Ronia Weisner, two owners of a dog that was traveling with John, an active member of the armed forces, en route to Saudi Arabia, were horrified to find that their pet was lost at Washington DC's Dulles airport, not an hour after they turned her over to United Airlines' airport authorities for luggage check in.

The culprit, they suggest, is the substandard cage that the FAA required them to use -- apparently the new kennel that they purchased had to have screws in it but was still not structurally sound enough to handle the baggage system.

But how did the dog escape? Once the dog and cage went down into the luggage system, it appears that something struck its side and the dog broke free. As to whether the dog could have broken itself free, the Weisner's state:

"There's no way, no something hit it, bended it inward."

Now, in an effort to find the missing animal and restore peace to John and Ronia, the two have offered a $2500 reward, while United has put up another matching $2500. The pair have been scouring the tarmac with escorts looking for the dog and apparently have still yet to find the animal.

My bet is that it will show up in someone's luggage in Abu Dhabi.

Today's photo comes from Buck Forester, who has an astonishing number of beautiful photos in our online Flickr pool.

In continuing my theme of Photos of the Day, I'm picking photos that accurately portray how I feel at the time of writing. Today, that's tired.

Buck's photo brings me back to my days in my small two man tent in Montana, and Idaho, traveling across the North and camping all of the way. His long exposure reflects one of the best things about camping: looking up at the stars in the middle of the night and really connecting with nature. I miss being out in the back country, alone in the woods.

Have a great travel photo you'd like to share with the world here on Gadling? Add it to our Gadling pool on Flickr and we might pick it as our Photo of the Day.

Six of the legacy carriers carriers announced today that they're participating in a new program to implement advertisements into their boarding passes. So now when you try to save time by checking in online you'll be bombarded with a Carnivial Cruise ad that you have to print out and carry around with you while you're at the airport.

Anything to make money, right? I'm kind of surprised that we don't have ad space on the inside of aircraft -- on the ceiling, walls and seat backs -- US Airways already tried putting advertisements on the air sickness bags.

Today, Delta will be the first carrier to test drive the service, called Sojern, on its routes into Vegas, but the ads will quickly multiply around that route. Bacteria reproducing in a host body is a good way to think about that.

What I'm most curious about is whether the 3rd party ads will be custom tailored to the specific passenger. Will I, a young male be getting ads for Lane Bryant? Or will Sojern work with the airline to study my travel behavior, look at my past trips and send me a coupon for happy hour in New York?

Either way, you can kiss your old print-at-home boarding passes goodbye. Which is fine with me, as long as they don't raise ticket prices.

Just outside of London, the Farnborough Airshow kicked off its biennial air show yesterday, starting a week of fun filled aviation spectacles and sales. Along with the Paris, Dubai and Berlin air shows, industry leaders use the Farnborough Airshow to feature some of their latest technology, designs and concepts as well as ink deals for large aircraft orders.

You can always tell when an air show is in full swing when checking out the travel wire -- every several hours Boeing or Airbus or Embrarer will anounce another deal with another rich country or magnate for a few dozen aircraft; today, FlyDubai bought 50 737s and Emrarer sold 22 jets to Consorcio Aeromexico SAB.

It's also a good time for airframe manufacturers to update the world on what's going on with their newest creations, namely "Why is the 787 so behind schedule?" and "Can you really fit a schoolbus inside of an A380?", so keep an eye out for announcements along those lines and your shares of stock to follow the news.

I, personally, was thinking about going this year, but unfortunately ran out of time off at work with which I can enjoy such pleasures as long weekends in London.

No worries. I'm saving myself for the Paris Air Show, THE place to be for airplane debauchery, delight and excitement (only held on odd years). See you in Paris on the 15th of July next year!

Further adding to the speculation about the future of Midwest Airlines, the embattled airline today announced that it is cutting forty percent of its workforce via furloughs and layoffs. In light of the escalating fuel crisis, this cut follows the announcement that it will be grounding all of its MD-80 aircraft.

Sad news for a small airline that is struggling to make its mark in the ultra competitive and expensive market that currently is the airline industry. Will they make it through the oil surge?

Over the Fourth of July weekend my girlfriend flew Midwest through Kansas City and generally had good things to say about the airline. Seats are nice, leather and spacious while food and beverage is not only existent and free but also quite supple. Her main observation? "There are only like ten people on this flight."

If, even over a holiday weekend, you can't fill up your planes, then you either have a serious pricing or a serious consumer confidence problem. Why? Since many people have been hearing rumors about the airline going under, demand for tickets has probably gone down. What's an airline to do to inspire confidence?

Well, you could always promise 100% refunds on your tickets if you liquidate. With so many people booking flights and losing their money on flops like Skybus and Maxjet, I think that the least they deserve is a guarantee that they'll get their money back if you take the plunge.