by Nick Anderson | May 5, 2022 | Plane Tales
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The aircraft was named ‘Flagship District of Columbia’ and was only the 12th Boeing 707 ever made. It was delivered to American Airlines in February 1959 so at the time America was taking its first steps into the void of outer space it was a mere 3 years old. It hadn’t long been out of it’s periodic inspection and with less than 8,000 hours on the airframe N7506A was expected to have a long and productive life ahead… a wish that would be dashed in a few short minutes.
The New York skyline
An American Airlines Boeing 707 at LAX
Changes in apparent span and the effects of sideslip on a swept wing when yawed
The 707 rudder control system
Wreckage from American Airlines flight 514
The Calverton crash still smoking
A New York ticker tape parade
The flight recorder trace from the American One’s final moments
A reconstruction of the track of Flight One
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Jon Proctor, San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives, the Civil Aeronautics Board and Ted Quackenbush.
by Nick Anderson | May 5, 2022 | Plane Tales
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The Royal Air Force’s Pilots Flying Logbook is a sturdy publication, cloth bound in blue with gold printing on the cover, on the inside of which are the instructions for use. Para 1, sub para (a) it states that the Book is an official document and is the property of Her Majesty’s Government… well, good luck trying to get this one back!
The star of the Top Gun movie
The much admired RAF Phantom QWI badge
The island of Cyprus was famous for its rough red Kokinelli wine
The 20mm SUU23A Vulcan cannon
A typical Cypriot meze
Mrs A moving yet again
Receiving my 1000hrs Phantom badge
The F4 rear office
The arrival of son No1
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Gage Skidmore, Google Earth, Thomas Fedor and Cyprus Tourism.
by Nick Anderson | Apr 11, 2022 | Plane Tales
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Last week we chatted about historic incidents that led to aircraft upsets. This week we talk to a newly qualified airline pilot who is undergoing advanced Upset and Recovery Training at a British training school. We also speak to the school’s chief pilot and one of the instructors, an ex Mig 29 pilot.
Basem undergoing upset training at BAA in a Grob
One of the BAA’s Extras
Basem off to be turned upside down!
Adrian… Basem’s ex Mig 29 instructor
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Capt Nick Anderson
by Nick Anderson | Apr 7, 2022 | Plane Tales
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With the arrival of jet powered airliners, commercial pilots entered a new world of high altitude flying in large swept wing aircraft at velocities approaching the speed of sound. They were often unprepared for the challenge and before long unexpected and unexplained loss of control events began to worry the world of aviation. These events initially occurred when an aircraft was upset from its normal benign straight and level environment and ended up in a high speed dive, something that was rare in the earlier days of straight winged, piston powered airliners. Hence, they became known as Jet Upsets.
Coffin Corner!
Upsets involve extreme attitudes
Less than perfect cockpit design often contributes to upsets
A Pan Am B707
China Airlines A300
The tragic result of the China Airlines upset
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Boeing Company, Geni, the NTSB/CAB, Guido Allieri and the JTSB.
by Nick Anderson | Mar 17, 2022 | Plane Tales
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In the world of Slavic folk tales there are giants in Ukraine but as aviators the ones we are interested are the giants that the fabled aircraft designer Oleg Antonov designed. This is his story.
The OKA1 glider
Antonov at the Leningrad Polytechnic
The OKA38 Stork
The An-2
The An-12 Cub
The An-24 Coke
The vast An-22 Cock
The huge An-124 Condor
The flight deck of the An-124
The mighty Mryia, An-225, carrying a Buran project space shuttle
The destruction of a dream, the Mryia was a victim of the Russian invaders who recently attacked Ukraine
Oleg Antonov
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Antonov Design Bureau, the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, the Central Design Bureau for Gliders, Arpingstone, Igor Dvurekov, Dmitriy Pichugin, Toshi Aoki, Yevgeny Pashnin, Vasiliy Kob and Дизайнер: А.Безменов.
by Nick Anderson | Mar 6, 2022 | Plane Tales
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It’s logbook time again and you may recall that I was as freshly a minted A1 QFI as there could be and I had just left the training world to return to the front line on my old Squadron, the Fighting Cocks. I had been in Wales for
over 4 years and in that time the faces I knew on 43 Sqn had almost all gone… it was like I was joining a unit of strangers.
The Q Shed
Additional armed aircraft ready to go onto QRA
The F4 tank limiting speeds
A Soviet Badger trying to sneak past at low level
An F4 tanking from a converted Victor V Bomber
Decimomannu Air Base
How the ACMI Air Combat Manoeuvering Instrumentation worked
The Men of Harlech near Llanbedr
The Jindavik target drone
A frame from the Jindavik cameras showing a Sidewinder about to impact the towed flare target
My new navigator, Coolhand
A 43(F) Sqn Phantom
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, the USAF, RuthAS and Mike Freer.
