Sunday’s Red Bull Air Races in Windsor, Ontario featured some of the best pilots in the world. Winning his third straight race, Austria’s Hannes Arch took home the top prize and gained valuable points in the World Championship standings.

While all the races were fantastic, the nail biter of the day had to have been when Australian pilot Matt Hall made an incredible recovery after his plane hit the water during a race. Check out the video below of Hall’s superb flying skills.

Although the volcanic activity in Iceland has caused the European airline industry to stand still, we can’t help but look in awe at some of these breath taking shots we’re seeing all over the internet. Below is a sample of some photos from the Toronto Star photo blog. For more photos and photo descriptions click here.

We’ll admit that we’re pretty big fans of planes, so when we recently stumbled across an article about an Australian man who took 8 months to craft an Airbus A380 out of Lego, we were HIGHLY impressed and had to share his story.

Ryan McNaught, of Melbourne, built the 2.2-metre long Lego aircraft in his garage. What’s so genius about this thing is that it’s been split in half so you can see all the Lego passengers, flight deck and even the cargo area (which includes snakes – a tribute to the movie Snakes On a Plane – witty). Oh, and did we mention that it also has a touch screen that controls the wing flaps, landing gear and cargo doors? Yup, he went all out for this one!

It’s no surprise McNaught won the top prize at Brickventon – Australia’s number one Lego convention. Even more impressive is that he will be representing Australia at the Lego Olympics, Brickworld, in June.

We wish him all the luck on transporting that piece of art across the world.

Here’s the Lego masterpiece in all its glory.

Photos courtesy of WAtoday.

We recently stumbled across this beautiful video of a 747 departing from Johannesburg, South Africa and landing in Maputo, Mozambique. The breath taking footage was captured from an HD video camera that was strapped to the nose landing gear. Take a look at this spectacular view.

After more than 2 years of delays, Boeing’s new 787 jetliner finally took to the skies today. Flying for four hours, a 2 member crew will be doing basic tests and system checks to the jetliner. Around 25,000 people stood out in the cold and damp weather in Seattle to watch the historic lift off.

The testing doesn’t stop today. According to reports, over the next nine months a total of six 787s will be tested in conditions that are “well beyond those found in normal airline service.”

Here are some quick facts we dug up about the plane:

·         This take off has been delayed 5 times over the last 2 years
·         The first delivery is expected to be made next year to Japan’s All Nippon Airways
·         Carries up to 250 passengers for about 9000 miles
·         Stretch version: carries up to 290 passengers
·         Short range version: carries up to 330 passengers
·         Roughly 50% of the plane is made of lightweight composite materials

Watch the lift off below:

This video is pretty cool. Using the social networking site Twitter, Jer Thorp created this video that traces and tracks tweets that have the phrase “Just landed in…” or “Just arrived in…”

Looks like there’s a lot of people travelling throughout the world.

Just Landed – 61 Hours from blprnt on Vimeo.

Check the video and people’s reponses here.

To commemorate Oktoberfest, also known as the “fifth” season in Bavaria, Lufthansa Airlines are outfitting their crew in traditional dirndls for 3 flights to Los Angeles, Boston and Dubai. On September 16th, 2009 a Munich based crew dressed in traditional costume took off to Los Angeles. The costumed flights to Boston and Dubai will happen in the following weeks.

This has become somewhat of a tradition for Lufthansa Airlines as more than 50 years ago Lufthansa staff members first exchanged their uniforms for the traditional costumes.

Check out the photos below of this year’s costumed flight attendants.

2009 marks the 40th anniversary of man landing on the moon. To celebrate this historical event we thought we’d post some highlights from the original transcripts between the astronauts and Houston.

The First Step