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Airbus 320 cabin touch screen
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Airbus A320 Economics
|
| The Airbus A320 was built to compete
with the Boeing 737 and offers greater cost advantage. The B737 has been
a huge success over the last 36 years however it is a very old design and
was derived from the Boeing 707. The original 737 was fitted with fuel
guzzling turbo-jets. Later when the fuel efficient high bypass engine was
available they found the ground clearance was not sufficient and the new
engines had to be extensively modified with a deformed nacelle |
| and a smaller fan to fit under
the low 737 wing. This substantially reduced performance. |
|
 |
|
|
| The Airbus A320 was designed
for the later "big fan" engines allowing full use of their performance,
claiming a fuel saving over the 737 of over US$200,000 per year. |
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|
Airbus 320 Big Fan
|
|
| PAX |
|
180 |
|
Engine |
|
CFM56 |
| Speed |
|
811Km/h |
|
Range |
|
4,843Km |
| Altitude |
|
39,000ft |
|
W Span |
|
34.1m |
| Length |
|
36.6m |
|
Tail Hgt |
|
11.7m |
| F Crew |
|
2 |
|
C Crew |
|
4 |
|
|
New Visa
|
| On arrival in Kuching you have to
present yourself at Immigration and obtain a new visa for Sarawak, even
though we arrived on a domestic flight, the visa is valid for 2 months.
We were told this is done to control the migration of people from Malaysia
looking for work. On departure we also had to present at immigration and
have our passport stamped, however |
|
|
| on entering Malaysia there were no
checks and our existing Malaysian 3 month visa was still valid. |
|
|
|
Sarawak Visa Stamp
|
|
| We were surprised to find Kuching
had a very modern airport, complete with aerobridges even. |
|
|
|
Modern Kuching Terminal
|
| We were soon out of immigration,
collected our baggage and took the fixed price RM15 (A$5.55) 7km taxi into
Kuching town. |
|
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|
The White Raja's
|
|
| 200 years ago Sarawak
was a part of the Sultanate of Brunei, but as a reward for his help in
putting down a rebellion, it was ceded to an English adventurer, James |
| Brooke, who ruled Sarawak as his
personal kingdom, he became known as the White Raja and he ruled from 1841
until 1868. |
|
|
| James never married and Charles Brooke,
James nephew became the second Raja and ruled from 1868 until his death
in 1917. The third |
|
|
| and last Rajah, Sir Charles Vyner
Brooke ruled from 1917 until the Japanese invaded in 1941, he fled to Sydney.
After the |
|
|
| war he ceded Sarawak to the British
who gave Sarawak independence in 1963, later it became part of the Malaysian
Federation. |
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|
