Some vintage gliders too.
From this page, with lots of other pictures of vintage gliders (scroll down a bit):
ETA: For anyone who’s interested in the Southern California area: The Vintage Sailplane Association, Western Region holds a public open house, with lots of these old sailplanes on display, at Mountain Valley Gliderport in Tehachapi, every year on Memorial Day weekend. (Assuming it’s not canceled because of Covid.)
Let us not forget “inverted gull wing.”
Ah, the Corsair - love it!: Vought F4U Corsair - Wikipedia
Cool painting:
looks like a photo of a model.
Meanwhile, in First Class…
slightly faster and twice the cargo space of a Caravan.
A remarkable B-52 landing capability:
I am curious…
I just read this story (below…route map in the story) about Cathay Pacific planning the world’s single longest passenger air route from New York to Hong Kong. They will fly east over the Atlantic and then Europe, the Middle East and China. Total distance is 10,357 miles (16,668 kilometers).
But why? A quick Google search says going west from New York to Hong Kong is 8,045 miles (13,000 kilometers).
So why this long way? All I can think of is the jet stream slows you down going west but since it is a shorter flight doesn’t that cancel out (give or take)? Also, I thought planes had to pay a fee to any country they overfly for using their airspace. There are a lot less fees to pay if they go west (US and Canada I think).
Could be a lack of diversion airports going the other way.
Is that a big deal? I mean, lots of planes fly over the Pacific. Also, wouldn’t a route from New York to Hong Kong take the plane over Alaska and then over Japan (so it is not water the whole way)?
Well, it’s something that either works or doesn’t, if the diversion distance is 240 minutes and there are a few miles where the nearest suitable airport is 241 minutes then the route can’t be used. Without knowing the specifics of their operation (preferred diversion airports, aircraft ETOPS certification, etc) it’s impossible to know if it is a factor in the route choice or not. Keeping in mind that they need to be diversion airports the company is willing to use.
The winds may also be a factor as you said earlier. 100+ knots winds are common in the jetstream.
Sorry for the triple post. I found the following quote, so it seems your first thought is correct:
“A company’s spokewoman said: «We are always running contingency routings for potential events or scenarios». «The Transatlantic option relies on the facilitation of strong seasonal tailwinds at this time of the year in order for the flight time to be between 16 and 17 hours, thereby making it more favorable than the Transpacific route», she added.”
Korean Air flight 007 comes to mind … skirting a little too close to Russia, perhaps?
“… KAL 007’s particular airway, R-20 (Romeo Two Zero), passes just 17.5 miles (28.2 km) from what was then Soviet airspace off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula…”
What button would a qualified pilot never push?
British Airways pilot falsified his past experience to obtain job. Now he got caught and sentenced to a year in jail. Apparently, he actually was a competent-enough pilot. But this article says that he got caught when suspicions were raised because…
Do airliners typically have a button that qualified pilots would never push? Perhaps a decoy button just for the purpose of catching unqualified pilots? Would it be duly labeled “Qualified pilots: Do not push” or maybe “Unqualified pilots only: Push”?
What would such a button actually do when pushed? Simply send a notification to The Authorities? Instantly shut everything down? Maybe initiate self-destruct sequence?
Retract landing gear? except I’m pretty sure that is a lever, not a button (The planes I fly have non-retractable gear) maybe switch to one of the emergency backup systems only used after engine failure? (maybe the starter when the engines are running?)
Brian
All your suggestions sound plausible.
Any plane with motorized retractable gear would have a switch to activate, which could be in the form of a button I suppose. I had an opportunity to fly a Cessna 182RG once (the RG stands for Retractable Gear). I don’t recall the exact design of the gear switch – it could have been a two-position switch that maybe looked like a lever. But it was an electric switch on the instrument panel, not an actual lever like the Johnson bar for the flaps in many small planes.
ETA: In most of the gliders I’ve seen with retractable gear (I’ve never flown one), the gear really is controlled by a direct lever.