Kate Upton is both beautiful and extremely sexy. Since being named Sports Illustrated “Rookie of the Year” in 2011, Kate Upton has had both a wildly successful modeling and acting career.

The new SI Swimsuit edition is out, but just having Kate Upton shot on a sun drenched tropical beach wasn’t enough. Sports Illustrated featured Upton in a tiny bikini while floating in zero-g weightless. For those doubters, the the weightless experience was not simulated.

While floating in zero gravity during a parabolic flight on a custom airplane, 21-year-old model Kate Upton is shown literally suspended in air. Her innocence is evident as she defies gravity while only wearing a gold bikini.

Sports Illustrated partnered Florida’s Zero-G Corporation who offers an amazing weightless experience. The plane – G-Force One – is a converted Boeing 727 and allows you to actually feel like an astronaut.

The modified Boeing 727 performs parabolic arcs to create a weightless environment and allows clients to float around, flip and soar just like being in space.

Practice makes perfect, as it’s been reported that curvy Kate Upton actually went up seventeen different times to complete the amazing photo shoot and video. They both definitely turned out beautifully. The filming actually took place last year at the Space Coast Regional Airport at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

M.J. Day is editor of the latest Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and stated, “The ZERO-G experience was really exhilarating for everyone involved. We have been almost everywhere in the past 50 years with SI Swimsuit, but we have never done anything like this. It was certainly the most out-of-the-box shoot. Once again, Kate surprised us all with how she handled modeling in weightlessness.’

The mission of Zero Gravity Corporation is to make the excitement and adventure of space accessible to the public. The company offers the zero-g flights all year-round in cities across the U.S. – Austin, Cape Canaveral, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle.

Zero Gravity is the only company in the world that offers weightless flights for the general public at just a fraction of the cost of suborbital or orbital flights.

Kate Upton also did a photo shoot for Sports Illustrated that was recorded on video. Here it is ….

If you would like to enjoy the thrill of weightless, try the A ZERO-G Experience® which is available beginning at $4,950 per person. Please contact The Life of Luxury and we can assist you with your travel reservations.

British Airways – Dreamliner

Uncomfortable seats is often ranked as one of the top airline complaints by travelers.  British Airways is here to change your travel experience and has announced the cabin design and layout for its Boeing 787 and Airbus A380 aircraft.

Only six months away from delivery, the new British Airways Dreamliner will provide comfort for 214 customers while the A380, the largest aircraft in the British Airways fleet, will accommodate 469 customers.  Elegant cabin designs fitted on British Airways’ new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft will be featured on twenty-four Dreamliner’s and twelve A380’s.  These designs have proven to be immensely popular with customers.

The British Airlines Dreamliner will have 35 seats for customers in the new 2:3:2 Club World triple configuration; 25 seats in a 2:3:2 World Traveler Plus layout; and an additional 154 seats  in a 3:3:3 formation for those traveling in World Traveler.

The A380 main deck will have 14 seats in First (with extra space for stowing personal items); the Club World cabin will include 44 seats in a 2:4:2 configuration; and in World Traveler there will be 199 seats in a 3:4:3 layout.

The A380 upper deck will feature 53 seats in the new 2:3:2 Club World triple configuration; 55 seats in a 2:3:2 World Traveler Plus layout; and World Traveler will have 104 seats in a 2:4:2 configuration.

Other amenities on both new aircrafts will offer travelers more movie options, TV shows, audio programs and music featured on the airline’s latest Thales inflight entertainment system.  Other benefits include new larger screens in all cabins and an easy-to-use system with shortcut buttons.  You will be able to connect laptops and take advantage of the in-seat power available for the first time in all cabins.

Willie Walsh, chief executive of International Airlines Group (IAG), stated: “We are investing GBP5bn in British Airways’ new and upgraded aircraft, innovative technologies and customer services.  We now have six Boeing 777-300ERs, all fitted with our latest cabins. Our customer feedback and satisfaction scores show the seat and cabin designs have achieved the highest ratings we have ever seen.

By next spring we will have finished installing our new First cabins in the British Airways Dreamliner. The nine new aircraft we take delivery of in 2013 will feature our latest signature designs to ensure the customer experience maintains
the highest standard across our fleet.”

The first Dreamliner will arrive in May 2013 and A380 deliveries will be introduced in July 2013.  British Airways will be the first European airline to operate both new aircraft styles and will announce the routes the new aircraft will operate in Spring 2013.

They’re elegant, efficient, and exciting and require very little infrastructure. Airships have the potential to be more efficient than airplanes, cars, and even passenger trains and barges.

The Manned Cloud, with its fins and whale-like shape, resembles the Thunderbird 2. But, unlike the huge International Rescue rocket in the puppet series, this gigantic airship won’t be roaring off in a blast of flame and smoke to any international emergencies.

Instead, its designers say the 700 foot, super airship will gently lift 40 passengers into the sky for a serene cruise of the world.

The airship is a floating hotel called the Manned Cloud, and – according to its designers – it will be capable of circling the globe in a few days. The 20 bedrooms will provide the ultimate room with a view as the airship cruises at a height of 18,000ft. It has a restaurant, a library, a lounge and a gym on the first deck.

On the second level there will be 20 passenger rooms, terraces with panoramic windows, a spa and a bar room. The airship is powered by a giant rear propeller and also has two further engines pointing downwards for vertical take-off.

However, if you’re thinking of checking in, you will have to wait until its expected launch date of 2020.

Massaud, the French company behind the venture, is billing it as an ecologically friendly way to travel, leaving little impact on the environment – and eliminating the need for hotels.

Designer Jean-Marie Massaud’s team has been working in conjunction with the French National Office of Airship Research on the project since 2005.

A spokesman for Massaud, AurÈlie Ullrich, said: “The idea at the heart of this project is that passengers can see fantastic places like Thailand and the Caribbean without the need to build ugly hotels everywhere.

“It could land for a few days or for a week if there is a big event going on.

“We don’t want to be carrying around gallons and gallons of heavy petrol or diesel and we are looking into fuelling it with some form of gas.”

The cost of a night on the airship is yet to be decided, but it is likely to be out of the reach of most pockets.

However, it could provide the perfect hideaway for camera-shy celebrities.

Personal jets have long been the preferred transportation choice of execs and the rich & famous. In fact, most top executives will do anything to bypass the delays and hassles of commercial air travel.  A growing number of pilots, day trippers and business travellers with some extra dollars are finding a new way to join the jet set.

Small private planes better known as “very light jets,” or VLJs, are starting to appear in the sky and on the tarmacs of small local airports across the country. Several companies plan to amass fleets of the new VLJs and offer air-taxi and on-demand charter flight services once they get federal approval.

First-hand displays of the aircraft, called the “SUVs of the sky,” drew scores of curious aviation buffs at a recent trade show in Hartford, CT for private pilots and aircraft owners. But while several of those attending already own small propeller-driven planes, they said their bank balances fell far short of the $1.6 million to $3 million needed to buy one of the little jets.

“If I had an extra million and a half on hand, sure, I’d buy one. I’d have to win the lottery first,” said Lars Margolies of Gardiner, N.Y., eyeing one of the jets at Hartford’s Brainard Airport with New York City resident Rob Boettcher.

Boettcher, who currently owns a four-seat Piper Archer, said very light jets are getting a lot of buzz in circles of aviation because they are extremely attractive to people who want to upgrade, and because of the potential cottage industries that new air-taxi services could spawn.

Among those services: Linear Air of Concord, Mass., already has one of the mini-jets and four more are expected to arrive in the next several months. The company plans to expand its fleet to 15 sometime in 2008. Linear Air already offers charter flights on eight-seat Cessna Caravan turboprops, but company president and CEO William Herp said the new jets – which will carry two pilots and three passengers – are lighter and faster. It will start using its new jet as soon as the Federal Aviation Administration gives the go-ahead, he said, adding he hopes that will be sometime this fall.

“We have customers chomping at the bit to try them. I literally get e-mails and phone calls every day from people with questions about it,” Herp said.

Another company, a Chicopee, Mass.-based startup called Pogo Jets, plans an initial public offering of stock to raise money to order more than two dozen of the jets, with an eye toward launching service in 2009. Pratt & Whitney Canada, a division of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp., manufactures the PW600-series engines used by many mini-jet makers. The engines, small enough to fit in the trunk of a midsized car, can be built in eight hours each, and can power a little jet for more than 1,600 kilometres on a single tank of fuel depending on weather conditions. In fact, the mini-jet market has helped Pratt & Whitney’s Canada operation become its fastest-growing segment, Pratt spokeswoman Jennifer Whitlow said. It expects to deliver more than 3,000 of the engines to customers this year, she said.

“Pratt took a big and ambitious dive into the market, and going with them was one of the best decisions we’ve made,” said Andrew Broom, a spokesman for Albuquerque-based Eclipse Aviation, which is using Pratt engines on its new Eclipse 500 VLJ.

That craft, which starts at $1.5 million, was certified by the FAA in 2006. Those are the jets that Linear Air already has on order, and which Pogo Jets hopes to acquire. Eclipse has more than 2,600 orders for its new jet, which can be equipped with leather seats, an entertainment system with satellite radio and other perks. More than 50 of the planes already have been delivered to buyers.

The slightly larger Citation Mustang personal jet, produced by Wichita-based Cessna Aircraft Co., also received the FAA’s approval in 2006. Cessna has been building Citation planes since 1973, and its Mustang VLJ started drawing interest from potential buyers almost immediately after it was announced in 2002.

While some air-taxi services have favoured the smaller Eclipse jets, many well-heeled industry leaders, companies and individual plane owners and pilots have gravitated to the Cessna Mustang. And as with Eclipse, demand for the Cessna has been so robust that it’s outpaced supply. A Citation Mustang ordered today, costing between $2.5 million and $3 million, will be on the owner’s tarmac in fall 2010.

Article written by Stephanie Reitz – The Associated Press

U.S. air travel is a miserable experience–bad service, long lines, grumpy flight crews and groping security agents. It’s an endurance test, an endless stream of delays and discomforts with little resolution in sight. Full article