Don’t be surprised that the title of this post sounds a little bitter. I AM bitter. This week is the Paris Air Show. In odd years, it’s at Le Bourget, the airport where Lindbergh landed after his first transatlantic journey, and in even years it’s in Farnborough in the UK. So why am I bitter? I want to go!

These shows serve very little useful purpose other than being a humongous boondoggle. Yes, you get to see cool planes flying around, but that’s hardly the point of the show. The point is for suppliers to schmooze their best customers with the hope that their efforts will result in orders down the line. The big guys all have their own “chalets” where they do their entertaining. Yes, they actually call them chalets.

Often, the air show isn’t just the place to vie for orders.  It’s the place where orders are announced. In the aircraft manufacturing game, Boeing has long accused Airbus of stashing its orders away so that it can make a big splash. Of course, Airbus says that’s not true at all – the customers determine when to announce the orders.

No matter who decides, it’s clear that Airbus has had a huge week so far. They kicked it off with a hotly contested order from US Airways.  Boeing had offered a combo of 787s and 737s to replace the airline’s Airbus fleet, and rumors were that they had this in the bag. In the end, Airbus apparently came in with such a shockingly good counter that US Airways couldn’t turn it down. So now, you’ll see 60 new A320 series aircraft replacing older 737s and eventually 22 A350s (the Airbus answer to the 787) replacing the entire current widebody fleet.

Airbus has also seen orders from Qatar Airways, Emirates, GECAS (leasing company), Jazeera Airways, ALAFCO (leasing company), and more.  Don’t think that Boeing has been sitting on the sideline, though. They’ve had some big orders as well including an order from the leasing company ILFC for 50 787s.  In all, it looks like Airbus has recorded more than 400 and Boeing closer to 150.  That’s a lot of business, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are all other sorts of aviation-related deals going on as well.

So why should an airline customer like you care about these airshows? Absolutely no reason at all. Like I said, it’s just a big boondoggle, and I wish I were there.

It’s a rare and happy day when I can throw a little baseball into my posts. And today, Delta has given me good reason.

Delta announced yesterday that they’ve named one of their 757s after Hank Aaron. And not only did they name it after him, they named it “Hank Aaron 755.” Yup, that 755 is the current career home run record that Hank Aaron has held for over 30 years. How great is that?

Baseball fans know where I’m going with this one, but for those who live in a cave, let me explain a little further. This is one of those amazing baseball records that just doesn’t get broken easily. It’s not often you can find a power hitter who can sustain his level of play for so long. But after more than 30 years, the record is about to be broken by Barry Bonds, and I’d say that most people aren’t happy about this.

Bonds used steroids for years during his career. Now, steroids don’t make you a great baseball player – he certainly is that on his own – but they can give you more power. And that’s why Bonds taking this record is tainted. It should have a big asterisk in the record books when it happens. Most of the baseball-loving world isn’t happy, with the exception of the obnoxious Giants fans who think Bonds can do no wrong.

As we helplessly watch Bonds creep up on Aaron’s record, it feels like watching a car crash in slow motion. You know it’s happening and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. So you sit there with a bad taste in your mouth and try to forget about it.

So with that background you can understand why Delta’s move today is a feel-good kind of move for baseball fans all over. It’s true that there’s nothing they can do to stop it, but they can make a small statement that sends a strong message to baseball fans. They feel our pain and they wish they could help more, but this is the best they can do. Read here for more. (Photo Credit: Agustin Anaya)

Why did Delta do this? Well, Hank Aaron spent his days with the Milwaukee Braves, the team that moved to Atlanta in 1965. (You’d think AirTran would want to celebrate him now as well.) Aaron spent his last years playing in Atlanta and he’s now a VP with the team, so he’s a hometown hero in Delta’s hometown.

Delta certainly is gaining any fans in San Francisco with this move. There’s no mention of Bonds in the press release and nobody said a word about him at the rollout ceremony yesterday, but there’s no doubt what spurred the timing of this dedication. Nice work, Delta. And forget about Bonds, Giants fans. Start thinking about how to get out of the basement of the NL West instead.

The TSA really should have its own tv show. I have to assume that if they showed 99.9% of the crazy stuff that happened at checkpoints, it could fill multiple hours of programming.

There was a huge uproar last week about the poor, innocent woman who was forced to empty her child’s sippy cup to prove the water inside wasn’t dangerous. Then she accidentally spilled the water out when she was opening it, she was forced to clean it up, and she eventually missed her flight. Oh, the horror. As you can imagine, there was plenty of outrage about the liquid ban, how horrible life is, etc.

But now we have an alternate version of the story. The TSA was so compelled to defend itself that it put up a page on the TSA site called MythBusters to shed some more light for us.

The TSA version (you can find a link to the official report on the site), says that the officer told her she’d have to empty the sippy cup, she became angry, flashed a badge, said she was secret service, and announced she was exempt from the liquid ban. Then they pulled her aside and when asked to show the contents of the sippy cup, she poured it out all over the floor. That of course resulted in hysterics. She eventually did clean up the contents, but not the debriefing caused her to miss her flight.

So who is right? Well I haven’t seen any proof of a flashed badge, but after watching the video on the TSA site, I think it’s safe to say that the initial story is a lie. I’ve embedded the video found on the TSA site below (they also uploaded it to YouTube). If you can’t see the player, you can find the video here.

At about the :53 second mark, the woman and her son are escorted into the picture by a TSA agent. Not 5 seconds later, you can see her emptying the sippy cup. If it really was an accident, I highly doubt we’d see her shaking the cup to make sure she got it all out like we see in this video. If you stick around long enough, you can see her first clean-up attempt at 5:35, but it’s pretty boring. All the action happens up front.

So is there anything to take away from this? Yes, don’t be dumb. Just like antagonizing a cop on duty is a bad idea, so is messing with a TSA officer. The people you see on the front line are not the ones creating the policy, they’re just enforcing it. I agree with everyone who thinks that the liquid ban is unnecessary if not downright ridiculous, but I’m not going to challenge a TSA agent when I fly because it’s not going to do anything other than make me miss my flight.

This woman tried the alternate approach and all it did was make her catch a later flight than she planned. Her initial attempts to garner sympathy have now resulted in backlash against her. Nice work.

I feel bad for all of you who live in Minneapolis, Detroit, or Memphis. Northwest, the king of retaliation, has successfully fought off competition so well in those cities that your options are pretty limited. (Frontier may still be fighting it out in Memphis, but I’m ready to take bets on when that experiment ends.) So it was no surprise to see them at it again today.

Flash back to May 29. American announced they’d be adding three daily flights between New York/LaGuardia and Minneapolis starting September 5. Since LaGuardia is a large station for the airline, it’s not completely out of the realm of reality. But any time you go up against Northwest, you know it’s not going to be pretty.

Right now, Northwest owns the route with 7 daily flights. Nobody else even tries it. So when American came in, you knew it was time to sit back, relax, and wait for the fight to break out.

It finally broke out this morning when Northwest announced that it would be flying three times a day on the completely absurd Dallas/Ft Worth – New York/LaGuardia route. Oh, and in case you hadn’t figured it out, service starts September 5. Now, Northwest has absolutely no chance in hell of making this route work. They don’t have a frequent flier base on either end. This is there solely to push American to pull out of “their” market.

The fun part about this is that American is no slouch in the retaliatory wars either. In fact, they’re one of the few to actually have gone to court over it. (Read here for more info on that fun-filled case.) So this could be a test of wills . . . a battle of egos . . . a fight for ridiculousness. I can’t wait to see who blinks first. For now, enjoy the competition if you live in those cities. It won’t last long.

Let’s stick with the green theme today and take a look at easyJet’s new ecoJet concept. They released plans for a plane that would be 25% quieter, reduce CO2 emissions by 50% (though 10% will come from unrelated air traffic control improvements), and emit 75% less NOx than your run of the mill 737 or A320 series aircraft. Pretty good numbers, huh? You can read all about it on their website.

Take a look at this picture from the Flight Global article.

As you can see, the plan is to use a different type of engine to power this guy. The unducted fan is basically what you’d see inside an engine today but without the casing that you see on every other jet flying. According to easyJet, this will “offer unrivalled environmental performance due to their higher propulsive efficiency.” This type of engine has been studied by manufacturers for years, but it hasn’t made it to a commercial jet yet.

Another distinct feature you can’t really see from this picture is that the wing is swept forward to reduce drag. This is definitely an airplane that would catch your eye at the airport. You’ll have to wait until 2015 to see it though . . . that’s the targeted launch.

So will it actually get built?

Probably not in its current form. This was designed internally by easyJet, so you know once Boeing and Airbus get their hands on it, it would change significantly. This is basically just an easyJet PR grab to announce that they want the big manufacturers to make more efficient planes. Though this big splash may not actively accomplish anything, the signal it sends to Boeing and Airbus is that demand for a new plane is there, and it’s demand that ultimately gets a new plane built. Of course, they could have done this in private discussions with the manufacturers, but then they wouldn’t have gotten all the buzz and goodwill they’re likely to get from a more public announcement.