FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2002
2002 - 1933.PDF
roger.bacon@flightinternational.com Straight & Level Turkish delight (From the UK Financial Times, Wednesday 29 May): "Turkey is close to finalis ing a $1 .3 billion (£890 million) order for four AWACS (airborne warning and control systems) aircraft from Boeing of the US after Bulent Ecevit, the prime minister, approved the purchase during his recent stay in hospital. Turkish offi cials said yesterday they hoped a final contract would be signed by June." Nephew Wim Ovaa observes that it is no wonder the Turkish government has concerns over rising medical costs! "I'm completely sane, you know!" XCOR E2-Rocket tests, Mojave, California, 2001 Gun control Following arguments that guns in cockpits could provide an aid to crew resource management, as well as a deterrent to would-be hijackers, ACA presi dent Tom Moore offers this thought: "As a manager, I don't want to have a gun in the cockpit. He'll end up using it on me!" Regional attraction Meanwhile, Horizon Air, the north-western US-based Alaska Airlines regional carrier, may have accidentally discovered the secret to "turboprop avoidance" - the phenomenon whereby passengers book a regional jet wherever possible in preference to a turboprop. The carrier says: "We haven't really had to do any thing differently. The Dash 8-400 is new, it's fast and - of course - we offer a special kind of in-flight service featuring guest microbrewery beers and north west wines. It kind of has the effect of making people forget." Size definitely counts Southwest Airlines has angered the American Obesity Society by unveiling plans to charge overweight passengers double "and even triple" the standard air fare if they take up the space of more than one seat. While obviously raising all sorts of questions about "widebodies" flying on "narrowbodies", it also conjures up the rather disturbing image of airport left luggage rooms littered with unclaimed fat. You are now free to move about the country - but only if you lose some weight! Technical description Monty Orangeball: "I thought you said this engine has 41 borescope inspec tion ports?" Max Honeythrust: "Yes." Orangeball: "But I only count 39. Where are the missing two?" Honeythrust: "Inlet and exhaust." Good advice Parachute expert: "And I'd ask you to remember that if at first you don't succeed, maybe sky diving is not for you." 50 YEARS AGO \IRl R\l TI-N(,IM:H< FLIGHT 04.07.1952 A Supercharged Turbojet In this issue our readers are introduced to the Bristol Olympus, a new turbojet which commands attention not only by the excellence of its perfor mance in terms of thrust and economy (even on the basis of the conservative figures offi cially disclosed) but by reason of its unusual technical characteristics. It con sists essentially of a low-pressure and a high-pressure unit, each having an entirely independent axial compressor and turbine, the low-pressure unit acting as a supercharger to the high-pressure compressor. Saucer Research The U.S.A.F has started a search to track down the origin of "flying saucers", discloses General Vandenberg, U.S.A.F Chief of Staff, quoted by Look, the New York magazine. The Air Force, it seems, is now experimenting to verify a theory of Dr. Donald Menzel, of Harvard University, that the "saucers" are an optical illusion caused by tem perature, which projects images of earthly lights into the sky. General Vandenberg was quoted as saying: "The Air Force is interested in anything that takes place in the air." The article said that the Air Force has collected details of more than 800 incidents in which "flying saucers" were seen, of which 38 per cent were classified as astronomical bodies, 13 per cent as balloons, 10 per cent as too nebulous to be of value, 22 per cent as birds and aircraft, 2 per cent as hoaxes and 15 per cent as "unexplained". Shopping Trips? American Airlines have found that 61 per cent of the passengers on its low-fare tourist flights are women; only 25 per cent of the travellers on full- fare services are of the fair sex. Only 32 per cent of tourist travellers fly on business, as against 75 per cent on full-fare services. One in six of the low-fare passengers is making his or her first flight, as against only one in ten of the full-fare travellers. Fast-revving Rubber The B. F. Goodrich Company have developed a new tyre for high-speed fighters which, it is claimed, has completed a U.S.A.F test programme involving simulated landings at 250 m.p.h. The company states that, while normal fighter tyres "have difficulty in surviving five or six landings," this new tyre remains good after fifty. www.flightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 2-8 JULY 2002 39
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
