U.S. Leading the way in the new Super-Sonic Age!

 Smaller business class Jets?

Britain, and France lead the way with the one-hundred seat Concorde until a crash in France twenty-five years ago ended a most successful trans-Atlantic affair, meanwhile only Singapore airlines operated the type and the Soviet-Russians operated their Tupolev TU-144 between Moscow and the far east, but the demand was not strong and the type was retired too!

On the other hand the U.S. has gone it alone with several larger Boeing concepts, but this new type will allow a one third version to be built more so for private and business flights and to be employed world wide, the secret to this type is perhaps alternative fuel, speed and operational costs being much lower than the original types?

One will just have to wait and see what will happen, or is this another red herring, pink elephants ect, that we will never see the light of day as so many went before!

Brazilian air Crash!

Gyro failure on approach for landing?

There are many theories to yesterdays  ATR-72 crash in southern-Brazil with the plane falling from the sky?

Loss of engine power or running out of fuel, the aircraft would still be able to glide down, but this aircraft just started to spin and drop from the sky killing sixty two people on a domestic flight!

The other explanation is sabotage by a hijacker killing the pilots and allowing the plane to crash in that way on the suburbs of the city, but no one was really about?

The ATR-42/72 has a long and safe record and is used by many airlines around the world, with its STOL ability and short landings it can cope with differing conditions and environments and is popular in the 60 to 90 minute air slots, island operations and there are some military versions too.

The Concorde story . Part-One.

Four Nations.

Only four nations used two types of supersonic civil aircraft, Britain, France and Singapore used Concorde and the former Soviet Union the Tupolev Tu-144. The Russian version was faster and a better aircraft, but all this came a heavey cost to design and the testing programme.

Meanwhile the joint British-French aircraft was more versitile and had a very long service with three long-haul airlines. Concorde was the aircraft of the rich, filmstars and the real jet-set. Both types of supersonic aicraft were the fist of their kind, and despite pleas by Virgin airlines boss Sir Richard Branson, it does not seem that they will be returning in a newer form just yet.

As a boy I remember seeing all three of them during my summer holidays, make their final approaches to London Heathrow International airport. In recent weeks I seem to have the same dream of seeing the BA Concorde against a blue sky. 

These aicraft were grounded since the trajic crash in Paris France. Russia had retired theirs much earlier, due to cracks and financial constraints.

Gliders..

Today gliding is a popular hobby for many people, but 70 years ago gliders were used as a cheap way of transporting cargo and troops to the European battle fields. 

All of the powers involved in World War-II built their own versions. Horsa, Gotha. The idea was to use an aircraft without engines to replace engined aircraft desperately needed for bombing missions.

Meanwhile it perhaps was not a wise move, since many lives were lost in the mass crash landings of these aircraft.