| When gremlins attack Apologies to confused nephews and nieces everywhere. Last week’s chortlingly good joke at the expense of the Megaplanes born-again Jumbo was entirely ruined by gremlins. The wide-at-the-bottom and narrow-at-the-top stairs were, in fact, meant to form a cunning design innovation called a “venturi effect staircase”, not the little known “venture effect” phenomenon that was printed. Apologies to all concerned, and particularly to those at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Disneyland, who are believed to be working on just such a device. |
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| Yuck speak (series of 1,000,000) Gravitational moment = crash |
| Quote of the conference From an unnamed British Army speaker at a recent UAV conference: |
| To be or not to be... British Loyalties confused? Hardly surprising really given recent developments, such as the abortive EADS “I am British” tanker advert. Long-standing ever-loyal Aussie nephew, Dave Richardson, noticed a few months ago a comment in the “mergers” section of the Budgie News forecasts edition from BAE’s chief executive that the company might “have considered leaving”. “Tragic though it would be to have BAE move offshore,” says Dave, “a far more troublesome issue would be searching for a new name in these times of the world acronym shortage (due to over-use). It surely could not remain ‘British’, but there would be distinct marketing advantages in retaining the BAE acronym.” Dave suggests a new version could easily be “Budgie Aerospace”. Splendid idea Richardson! Consider yourself appointed as immediate replacement to Sir Brian Armchair as Top Neddy in the Ministry of Big Planes. |
| How low did they really go? Many sceptical nephews (and a niece) have emailed to say they do not believe the picture of the water-skimming Harvards in last week’s edition is for real. Photographer Frans Dely insists it is 100% legitimate and for proof suggests you visit his website for more: www.aviationdimension.com |
| Mind boggling short haul Nephew Mike Foinette says he thought he knew that the Boeing 737 was a “short-haul jet”, but “didn’t realise just how short the haul was until I read ‘more than 12 billion passengers’ have flown on the 737 fleet, which has accumulated more than ‘120 billion kilometres’ (Flight International, 7-13 February). Therefore, by my reckoning each passenger only goes 10km!” Give this man a job as Bottom Kneddy in the Ministry of Unbelievable Aviation Statistics immediately. |
 Read Flight from 1956 or read Uncle Roger's web log. |
Source: Flight International
