On July 28, 1935, the B-17 Flying Fortress took its maiden flight in front of a crowd of reporters eager to see Boeing’s new bomber. Arguably the most famous heavy bomber of World War II, the B-17 was primarily employed in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign of the conflict against German industrial and civilian targets. It was considered the first truly mass-produced large aircraft, eventually evolving through numerous design advancements, from B-17A to G.

The Flying Fortress was a potent, high-flying, long-ranging bomber capable of unleashing great destruction yet able to defend itself. During World War II, the B-17 equipped 32 overseas combat groups and dropped 640,036 long tons (650,195 tonnes) of bombs on European targets (compared to 452,508 tons (451,691 tonnes) dropped by the Liberator and 463,544 tons (420,520 tonnes) dropped by all other US aircraft).

According to the 2008 North American Airline Satisfaction Study from the consumer research group J.D. Power and Associates, the leading factor for the decline in customer satisfaction was due to poor airline customer service.

The recent study found that customer dissatisfaction with the helpfulness and courtesy of flight staff, gate agents and crew was twice as large as dissatisfaction with pricing. Sam Thanawalla, director of the global hospitality and travel practice at J.D. Power stated:

“Passengers are being affected by the ramifications of carriers making staff cutbacks and have expressed performance and attitudes of airline staff are suffering.”

In the study, there were seven areas probed to measure customer satisfaction levels for traditional and low-cost airlines: cost, crew, in-flight services, aircraft, check-in, the boarding deplaning and baggage claim processes and the reservation and check-in process.

JetBlue, for the third year in a row, ranked the highest over-all, scoring well in six out of seven of the categories, while Continental Airlines and Alaska Airlines tied for first among traditional carriers. Continental continued a three-year streak among the old-line airlines. Alaska Airlines and Air Canada were only the airlines customer satisfaction scores increase, while all others’ score decline.

Online checking and airport kiosks were used by many airlines to speed up the check-in and boarding process and cut staffing costs. Alaska Airlines, a major carrier along the West Coast, has relied heavily on kiosks, as well as an automated baggage drop as part of patented system called “Airport of the Future.” Paul McElroy, spokesman for Alaska Airlines said, “It allows our customer service agents to handle twice the amount of customers than we usually would.”

The J.D. Power study found that more passengers were booking their flights online in 2008 than in 2007. Older passengers were more likely to prefer complementary meals, while younger ones preferred in-flight movies. Rewards program was also a contributing factor for the passenger’s preference of choosing an airline.

Six people were killed and one was seriously wounded on Sunday when two medical choppers crashed on their way to a hospital in Flagstaff, Arizona, air officials declared. The helicopters collided near Flagstaff at around 3:45 in the afternoon (PDT), said Ian Gregor, a spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration in Los Angeles.

Preliminary reports indicated that at least one patient was among the three people killed in a helicopter operated by Air Methods Corporation. The other four died, as well as the injury, occurred aboard a helicopter operated by Classic Helicopter of Utah, Gregor added.

A spokesman for the Flagstaff Police Dept. said two rescue workers were slightly injured in a secondary blast while one of the helicopters on the ground burst.

Boughner said the two helicopters slammed into a hillside covered with ponderosa pines, leaving a large field of scattered debris and causing a fire. The set fire to flame was approximately 10 to 15 acres, but was quickly contained.

Flagstaff lies about 75 miles south of the Grand Canyon National Park, one of the largest tourist draws in the U.S., which attracts some 5 million visitors a year. Four people died last year with a similar accident in Arizona, when two news television helicopters ran up while following a car chase in Phoenix.

The SOHO spacecraft discovered its 1,500th comet, making the observatory the most successful comet detector.

The NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory made its historic discovery on June 25 that puts SOHO’s count ahead of all other discoveries of comets throughout history combined.

SOHO launched in 1995 to study solar physics and space weather, but its prime location between the sun and the Earth gives an excellent view of the space inside Earth’s orbit. The spacecraft records comets as they slowly lose ice and often disintegrate in orbit around the sun.

Roughly 85 percent of SOHO’s comet discoveries involve a collective of icy objects known as the Kreutz group. The comet’s offspring now pass within 932,000 miles (1.5 million km) of the sun, then are flung far out into the solar system on highly elliptical orbits.