The “future of flying” is now here today. All Nippon Airway’s four hour flight 7871 on Wednesday from Tokyo to Hong Kong is the culmination of Boeing’s vision for the next generation of customer air travel. The new 787 Dreamliner made its first commercial flight. The craft are made from composite material – reinforced carbon fibre – which is lighter and therefore considerably more fuel efficient. Airlines are expecting to save around 20% in fuel costs on each flight.
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Andy Murray has set himself the short-term goal of overtaking Roger Federer as the world number 3 and he is doing everything right in pursuit of that objective. In Tokyo yesterday he walked way with the Rakuten Japan Open beating Rafael Nadal 3-6 6-2 6-0. It was as emphatic a victory as can be imagined, after Murray had dropped the opening set. Nadal only won a total of 4 points in the final set!
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The world’s first light weight carbon-compositeinauguaral passenge airline, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner took off today from just north of Seatlle and headed off to Japan for delivery to All Nippon Airways which is expected to put the airline into service with effect from the end of October.
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Being a save haven in times of trouble, and having a traditionally strong economy, brings its own problems. In response to the surging value of the Swiss Franc which threatens Switzerland’s exports and tourist industry, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) has today set a minimum exchange rate of 1.20 francs to the euro, saying that it would enforce the minimum rate by buying foreign currency in “unlimited quantities” whenever necessary.
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NEC Corporation has made a breakthrough with the launch of its household energy storage system that will store “green energy” in homes in the immediate future. The system can also control where and when that power is released into the building. Japan has made such storage and control systems a priority in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the north-east of Japan in March.
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Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan asked for the closure of the country’s most controversial nuclear power plant at Hamaoka until adequate earthquake and tsunami protections can be improved. The request comes eight weeks after the huge magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami devastation that triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
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