| Selective memories It says here: “A monument to the famous Tu-104 – a first passenger jet liner in the world’s aviation practice – after the completion of its restoration has been set up near the Kievskoye highway leading to Vnukovo airport. The monument was again returned to its place in the year of 50th anniversary of the commencement of Tu-104 operations, the airplane that opened a jet era in the world’s civil aviation.” First passenger jetliner? Nephew Bob Woodling thinks the Russians may have forgotten a certain aaaaaaahhh de Havilland DH106 Comet 1 that entered service with BOAC on 2 May 1952, more than four years before the Tu-104. True, the grounding of the Comet at the time meant the Tu-104 service between Moscow, Omsk and Irkutsk was the only jet airliner then employed in the world. |
| Duty-bound? It says here: “David Taylor, President & C.E.O. of Discovery Air Inc. (DA), is pleased to announce that DA has reached an agreement in principle with the shareholders of Great Slave Helicopters Ltd. (GSHL) to purchase all of the issued and outstanding shares in the capital of GSHL. Mr Taylor stated that, ‘Great Slave Helicopters is well known in the industry for its outstanding service and dedicated employees, which employees would be offered share participation in DA.’” Monty Orangeball asks: “But do they have a choice?” |
| Smell of success A H Hawker reports from Brazil: “If Embraer is trying to attract the right sort of buyer for its new business jet, will the said ‘plane emit Pheronomes?” Rollo Freelunch: “Not sure old boy. As far as I know the only punters here are the ones who love the smell of jet fuel in the morning.” |
| Big chance? Roving reporter “Nobby” Clarke was sitting on his unfriendly skies big bird heading for beaver land when he heard the crew getting ready to announce “welcome aboard”. To his amazement, “they collectively realised they didn’t even know the flight number. ‘Stop one of the passengers coming in the door – they’re sure to know what flight this is,’ one said.” Nobby thought: “Maybe if I tell them this is the flight to Hawaii they’ll go there, because it’s 4˚ below in Ottawa!” |
| A navigator writes The recent Jag wheels-up/near wheels-up/“Blimey that was close!” story prompted this note from nephew Alan Evans. “As the ‘faithful’ navigator in the above incident [Straight & Level, 4-10 April], I would like to point out, in all modesty, that I was the one that saw it first. Please delete ‘faithful’ and substitute ‘sharp-eyed’.” Correction duly noted, thank you. |
 Read Flight from 1956 or read Uncle Roger's web log. |
Source: Flight International
