Tallinin to Mumbai

[John Khan]

Just thought I'd try it

Dawn from outside and inside, over SW Russia








As John Cleese would say..... "And now for something completely different".

Is this one of the most beautiful aircraft ever built? Along with the Concorde and Super Constellation maybe?





Still the fastest Commercial airliner ever built. (Except for Concorde of course). Cruises easily, when a bit higher, at M0.90 . Here at M0.85, but only at 34,000 feet.

John

[Mike Bridge]

Nice mate

[RCR]

Is that Dave Maltby's VC-10? Great stuff! Have to agree that the Connie is one of that all time coolest looking aircraft.

[Brogs]

Had a Flight to the Canaries delayed once with a problem to the Aircraft,, and they replaced it with a Icelandic Airways Comet, one of the last times it flew out of a UK Airport because of the noise restrictions there was at least 3 ft of Legroom between the seats fore and aft, and they were big comfortable Seats and if you wanted a Drink they brought the Bottle, none of these Minatures, best flight I,ve ever had !

[John Khan]

Rob

Yes it is from David Maltby, amazing for freeware. Anyone interested check it out at

http://www.dmflightsim.co.uk

Mike

I went on the origional Comet a few times back in the mid 50s. Luckily before they started crashing and "Metal Fatigue" was discovered.

My Dad worked in Karachi, Pakistan and I was at school in England, starting in 1951. Part of his contract was that I flew out to him during the holidays.

I went several times in a B.O.A.C "Argonaut". This was a DC-4 with Rolls Royce Merlin engines surplus from the war. They were converted in Canada. They used to break down a bit.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11300266@N04/2141537165/

I remember spending three days in Cairo once, waiting for new spark plugs to come from London. We had taxied out to the runway, but during the run-up, two of the engines were running real bad so the Captain said it was a no-go and we went back to the terminal.

In those days they put us up in the finest hotels and organised outings whilst we waited, one of these was to the Pyramids. It's a shame I was too young to appreciate it.

The next day the aircraft arrived from London with a set of plugs, but when they tried to put them in, they were the wrong ones. So we waited for the next day's flight.

Just for the younger ones, the flight went from London to Frankfurt, Rome, Athens, sometimes Damascus, Cairo then to Karachi. It continued I believe to Hong Kong. It took 23 Hours from London to Karachi.

When I went on the Comets it cut the time down to 16 hours but I don't remember the route they took.

John

[John Khan]

In case anyoun is interested, have a look at this...

http://www.vc10.net/History/historyBOAC.html

Good old BOAC or British Airways as it is now, stuffing up another all British operation even though the VC-10 would be far ahead of any competition such as the 707s and DC8s.

They did the same with the Concorde by letting the Americans, and others, kill it politically with the noise and damaging the atmosphere rubbish they came up with. - No disrespect, - but the Americans tried and couldn't build an SST themselves, so had to kill it when it was built by others. It was no noisier than the 707s and DC8s of the time; as those of us who heared them will remember.

The BOAC advertisements when they brought the first VC-10 out to Sydney were all about "Hush Power". Meaning, for the passengers inside, because the engines were at the rear they left most of their noise behind. But they are an incredibly noisy aircraft, and those RR Conways had a special sound of their own. When the Captain - Norman Bristow - activated the reverse thrust after landing I think most of Sydney airport trembled. I was there and remember it well, but I can't remember the year.

A while later I had the pleasure of travelling on one, only from Auckland to Sydney but it was great and I still have a soft spot for them.

John