2020-05-01 Plane & Pilot

8 MAY 2020 ÇPlane&Pilot

Lasts

A dozen things that will (in most cases) never be done again. For

many of them, that is a very good thing. For others, it’s bittersweet.

JATO BOTTLE ON AN ERCOUPE:

Back in 1941, engineers wanted to know how

much improvement to takeoff performance strap-

ping a small rocket to the side of an Ercoupe could

make. Answer: a lot. The test, conducted at March Field

in Southern California, used a solid fuel rocket—yes,

they still call it a JATO ( jet-assisted takeoff ) and not a

RATO—that put out a modest 28 pounds of thrust for

12 seconds. Doesn’t sound like much, but that Ercoupe

really went up fast! 

1,200 PEOPLE ON A 747?

In the early 1990s, regime changes in Ethiopia

sparked renewed concerns about the welfare of

Ethiopian Jews, prompting Israel to launch Operation

Solomon, which airlifted nearly 15,000 refugees to Israel

in a span of just 36 hours. One of the planes pressed into

service, an El Al Boeing 747, airlifted a record number

of passengers, which is widely reported as 1,088, though

it’s believed that many children made their way onto the

plane hidden inside their mothers’ skirts. 

JUMPING INTO AN AIRPLANE!

This is as crazy as it sounds, but on two separate

occasions, a total of three wingsuit flyers flew

into the open doors of an airplane. The most recent and

presumably last such leap was accomplished in 2017 by

Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet, who lept from an alpine

peak and flew into the open doors of a Pilatus PC-6. They

made the jump on the 20th anniversary of the first such

successful leap, by French wingsuiter Patrick de Gayardon.

TWO MONTHS NON-STOP IN A 172:

A pair of aviators, Bob Timm and John Cook, set

the endurance record of all endurance records

when, in 1958, they flew a specially outfitted and highly

modified Cessna 172 around the desert of the American

Southwest for 64 days, 22 hours and 19 minutes. During

that time, they were refueled more than 125 times from a

speeding pickup truck on a flat stretch of highway below.

The Cessna 172 they did it in is now hanging in the rafters

at McCarran International Airport. 

SMOKING ON U.S. AIRLINERS:

Smoking on a plane. Makes sense, right? No! But

for decades, it was standard practice. Over time,

good sense took hold, and lighting up in the cabin was

crushed out like a bad butt. On June 3, 2000, the United

States banned smoking on all domestic and international

commercial flights. China didn’t ban smoking on its

flights until 2017, though reports are that it continues

to allow its pilots to smoke in the cockpit.