November 2008 Archives

 

Upper: A320, Mediterranean Sea, after ANZ accident 28 November (NZDT) 2008

Lower: DC-10, Mt Erebus, Antarctica, after ANZ accident 28 November (NZDT) 1979

 

(Lower photo: NZ History)

We've been talking about this video this week. So, being of the mind to share, here it is...

Let us know if you've ever had to put an aircraft down like this, or if you think the pilot handled this well. Why do you think it happened? What would you do?

 

Here's something for the weekend!

 

Here are some more Ryanair goodies for you...

We are working hard on making our 210,000 pdf page archive as accessible as possible and as you will appreciate, it's an ongoing project.

It's good to know that not only is it providing pleasure to those looking for Flight's coverage of spectacular moments in history, it is also providing a good source for geneaology searches such as in the case of Ian Haigh, who's uncle answered a job ad in Flight....

Ian Haigh shares his archive find...

"To all involved in the 'Flight' Magazine archive.

I wish to record my grateful appreciation of all the hard work carried out by those involved in creating your wonderful free archive of past editions of 'Flight' magazine.

Thanks to your efforts I have been able to fill in some of the gaps in the civilian and military history of my late uncle, Flying Officer G. W. Haigh RAFVR.

This includes finding a 1937 advert for a Pilot Instructor required to take over running of the the aerodrome:- Flying Instructor.

 

This may have been one he responded to which got him his job at the Kuala Lumpur Flying Club in 1937. 

According to an undated newspaper clipping I have from Kuala Lumpur, Malaya, regarding my uncle's arrival as the first civil-trained instructor, their CFI, Arthur Newark, had recently left and the other two instructors were injured.

I have also been able to find the RAF Service announcements of his promotions:- to Pilot Officer & to Flying Officer and the Roll of Honour listing of his loss:- MIA (missing in action) and KIA (killed in action).

He was the pilot of one of two Blenheim bombers (L8441 & L1414 F/Lt N.D. Lancaster) detailed to attack Japanese barges off the west coast of Malaya on New Year's Day 1942.

Currently, I'm searching your archives more widely for indirect but relevant background information on items such as aircraft, airfields, Surrey Flying Services (his last firm before emigrating), Croydon (re: the Spanish Civil War - he flew a DH Dragon G-ACDL out to Barcelona in August 1936, a risky business!) and many others.

I have also been able to greatly help another researcher, wanting to find any information on his little known relative, CFI Arthur Newark, by pointing him towards your archive.

As an aside, I have a slightly battered copy of 'Flight' magazine No . 2329 Vol. LXIV, Friday, 11 September 1953 with details of the Farnborough show which brings back memories of the family visit made to the show around that time (all the way from North Wales).

Four years ago, I rescued this from an old farmhouse down in North Devon which I have been helping my daughter & family to renovate.

The previous owner of the farmhouse, a 70-year-old batchelor with a love of aeronautics, obviously dreamed - Colditz style - of escaping from the loneliness and hard drudgery of everyday farming and was inspired, in part, by your magazine.

Why? Because in the loft above a 200 year old wooden cider press, we were amazed to find the dusty, worm-riddled remains of the fuselage of a light aircraft he had been attempting to build.

Sadly, it was in too poor a state to recover and, stupidly, I omitted to photograph it.

However, I did rescue his hand-carved propeller and hopefully it will be displayed in the house one day as a tribute to Michael's dreams.

With many thanks for the Archive and best wishes for the future in an uncertain world.

Ian 'Zim' Haigh

P.S. After over 70 years of non-use, the cider press was lovingly restored to working order three years ago."

If you have found anything interesting within the archive that, let's not put too fine a point on it, dates as far back as 1909, then please email me at barbara.cockburn@flightglobal.com

 

Seven people were on board an Airbus A320 aircraft, belonging to Air New Zealand's Freedom Air, which has crashed off the coast of France during a training flight.


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If urban warfare is your thing then this video shows an "community" Xbox game where the player controls what appears to be a ducted fan powered unmanned air vehicle and battles other UAVs from street to street

Biplane Clips Cow - Watch more Animal Videos

(Note: You see the cow about 55 seconds into the video)

For all you animal lovers out there, the above video is probably worth giving a miss. The uploader definitely saw the funny side:

A cow winds up on the receiving end of this plane. Guess the pilot had a major beef with her.

If anyone knows the aircraft that is being flown please let us know!

As long as the British Airways 777 inquiry is tying up its resources, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch is probably fairly grateful for recent incidents such as the one involving a Beech Baron landing at Guernsey.

 

Its report starts like this:

 

The aircraft was for sale, and on the return flight the aircraft commander occupied the right seat and the prospective purchaser, who was an experienced pilot but not current on type, occupied the left seat.

 

And ends like this:

 

The commander did not apply any braking during the initial landing roll and the other pilot offered to raise the flaps. Before the commander could prevent him from doing so, the pilot in the left seat inadvertently selected the landing gear handle instead of the flap lever and moved it to the UP position.

 

Case closed, methinks, but no word on whether the sale went through.

Santa Paula is Steve McQueen's last hometown and it's paying tribute to its most famous resident with a weekend of aviation activities as well as promoting its Aviation Museum.

Steve McQueen's wife Barbara will be signing copies of Steve McQueen: The Last Mile, a book that captures unique images of the actor who loved vintage aircraft, motorcycles and cars and admired the men who flew and drove them.

Barbara McQueen says that this is her first trip back to Santa Paula since her late husband's death in 1980.

"Santa Paula was Steve's church and he really loved the city with all of his heart and soul. He was treated like a normal person there where he could relax and be himself, hang out with friends and fly his planes."

Mike Dewey, a museum board member, remembers wistfully how Steve used to say: "Santa Paula Airport is my kinda country club.'" 

The crew of Apollo 8, who flew to the Moon on Saturn V 40 years ago next month will reunite live on NASA TV today.

The prgramme will be broadcast LIVE on www.nasa.gov on Thursday, Nov. 13, at 1:30 p.m. EST.

The show will feature Apollo 8 crew members Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders.

 

The crew for the Apollo 8 spacecraft L-R: James A. Lovell Jr., William A. Anders, Frank Borman, 1968. Picture credit CSU Archives / Everett Collection/Rex Features

During the 60-minute programme, the astronauts will discuss the epic December 1968 lunar orbital mission and how the success of Apollo 8 contributed to the overall moon landing effort that culminated just six months later with Apollo 11.

The crew also will discuss the years following Apollo and the future of space exploration.

Flight reported on 21 November that the event would happen and we recorded the event here on 21 December 1968 but interestingly in less detail due to time constraints with the Christmas printing deadlines. So here is an entry on 2 January of the successfull mission.

As the QE2 sets sail from Southampton today for a life in Dubai met by Emirate's A380 , I found that Flight recorded other events involving flypasts over notable ships.

 

Picture credit: Guy Moores - QE2 moored at New York Harbour, October 2008

In 1936, Flight ran an advertisement comparing the aerodynamism of the prototype aircraft Airspeed "Envoy" Series II with the "dynamic principles of the ship, the Queen Mary, which it says, earned its name as 'Queen of the Atlantic' because of its "economic speed".

On 2 November 1967 in Flight International's Straight & Level column we ran an historic picture story about the same flypast over the Queen Mary.  

Flight recorded in its 21 Decmber issue of 1967 how the prototype DC-9-4Q, made its initial flight in November. It is pictured flying over the "Queen Mary" off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.

Flight's deputy editor Max Kingsley Jones suggested a few other flypasts with a maritime link such as the Red Arrows and Concorde flying past the QE2 among others, but these are not as majestic, so stay-tuned for the next post.

Pilot Jim O'Neill, 65 suffered a stroke at 5,500ft (1,676m) and lost his sight while flying a two-seater Cessna aircraft from Glasgow Prestwick Airport to Colchester, Essex last week.

An aircraft was made available to guide him in to land from the RAF base at Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire.

Wing Cdr Paul Gerrard, chief flying instructor, flew his Tucano T1 about 50m next to the Cessna to bring O'Neill safely down.

Listen to the audio where you can hear the calm in Wg Cdr Gerrard's voice despite stressful circumstances.

 

Watch this video of a light aircraft losing a wing in flight. I won't tell you how it ends.