Sukhoi. Part-One.

T-50. 

Sukhoi is part of a great Russian legacy in aircraft design and development, which today is being topped with the T-50 Stealth combat aircraft and the Sukhoi-100 Superjets. We first heard this Chinese sounding name in the 1960's with a new generation of Soviet fighters that looked similar to the MIG Jets, but they were different in their own right.

It was the debut of the Sukhoi SU-27 as a naval launched fighter that changed everything for the west. The collapse of Soviet Russia revealed that Sukhoi was one of the leading designers back in the day of the MIG-15 Midget and its aircraft were better, but remained secret.

The T-50 is a revolution in Russian military design and now with the coldness returning, will prove the be one of the main fighters of the new Russian Federation. The Superjet is taking the world market with orders all over the globe. 

When Russia gets it right, they get it right for a long haul!

The Airbus Story. Part-One.

From A300 to A350.

The beginning of the Airbus story started in 1965, when British European Airlines proposed a 200 seat aircraft to compensate on the United States Boeing model 747. But it was not until the 28th October 1972 that the A300B2 took to the skies on its first test flight.

In 1970 eight European airlines and their national aviation companies from Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, France and Spain met to start the development of a total European joint built commercial airliner. 

The 28th June 1973 saw the A300B2 enter production, with the first delivery to Air France on 30th may 1974. This gamble paid off very quickly with orders from forty airlines in twenty-nine countries.
The A300 was reliable and cheap to operate, it could accommodate three crew and 336 passengers, was powered by two General-Electric CF6-50C1 engines.

Cruising speed 911km/hr at 9450 metres and a range of 5375Km. Other airlines to operate the aircraft were Air India, Saudi and Thai Airways.