STRAIGHT&LEVEL
From yuckspeak to tales of yore, send your offcuts to [email protected]
100-YEAR ARCHIVE
Every issue of Flight
from 1909 onwards
can be viewed online at
flightglobal.com/archiveflightglobal.com 22-28 May 2018 | Flight International | 39
Pages through the ages
Channel 5LufthansaBattling Zeppelins
After persisting in the attack
for 35 minutes, the seaplane
forced the
Zeppelin to
retreat. Five
minutes
afterwards, the oil pipe of the
seaplane fractured. Attempts
to repair it in the air failed, so
the seaplane came down on
the water, and the pipe was
mended with tape.Singles to twins
Basic training on Moths and
more advanced flying
instruction bring
the young pilot
up to single-
engine Harvards.
The pupil may then continue
with single-engine aircraft or
may pass to twin-engined
aircraft preparatory to
becoming pilots of the
bigger aircraft of the bomber
or reconnaissance types.Apollo situation
“All three spacecraft sections
have passed unmanned
flight tests. The
rest of 1968 will
be devoted to
testing them with
men aboard.” This is perhaps
the key sentence summing
up the Apollo situation in
mid-May 1968.Hercules upgrade
US Air Force Lockheed C-130
Hercules are to become the
first military
transports to be
fitted with the
traffic-alert and
collision avoidance system
(TCAS II). New C-130Hs,
scheduled for delivery from
1994, will be equipped with
the AlliedSignal Aerospace
TCAS II units.Boeing puts
America first
Not so long ago Boeing would
bend over backward to stress its
multinational credentials as a
business that was investing and
creating jobs around the world,
rather than merely exporting its
wares. It appointed “country
presidents”, or corporate
ambassadors, in key markets,
whose role was to help
transform Boeing’s image from
“a US company selling abroad
to one of a business with a true
global footprint”.
So what to make of its latest
initiative – Watch U.S. Fly, a
“community dedicated to
keeping Boeing the world’s best
manufacturer of aircraft and
spacecraft”?
An email from one Joel
DiGrado, Watch U.S. Fly
community manager, urges:
“American workers make the
best products in the world. In
this age of global competition,
we need a better way to voice
our support for the policies and
decisions that keep those jobs
here in the U.S.”
Wonder what all these Boeing
workers outside the USA who
aren’t US citizens think of those
Trumpian sentiments – not to
mention the hundreds of
thousands in the global supply
chain who help make these
“best products in the world”?
Return Flight
Your favourite weekly made an
appearance in a documentary
Ferguson concludes: “I think
there were a number of other
verses, but I’ve forgotten them
over the years. Perhaps others
can remember them?”Tinge of regret
Lufthansa may be the latest
victim of the curse of the high-
profile rebrand. Three months
after launching its new livery,
the German flag-carrier is testing
a different version on a Boeing
747-400, using an “optimised”,
or lighter blue than the
controversial darker hue
unveiled with much fanfare in
February, together with a larger
crane logo on the tail.
At least it appears Lufty has
responded quickly to public
criticism.
It was on an altogether
different scale, admittedly, but it
took British Airways three years
to scrap the disastrous ethnic
fins introduced in the Bob
Ayling era and famously
scorned by a handkerchief-
wielding Lady Thatcher.One-way ticker
No euphemistic messing around
from the Chinese when it comes
to branding “killer drones”.
China Aerospace Long-
March’s CH-901 loitering
munition – displayed at this
month’s SOFEX 2018 security
show in Jordan – is marketed as
a “suicide UAV”.this month shown on the UK’s
Channel 5 about 100 years of
British Airways (and its
predecessors).
The vintage issue of Flight,
from 1949, featured an
interview with the by-then
retired pilot of the first
international scheduled service
30 years earlier – a Lt EH
Lawford.
Celebrating centenaries, of
course, is so last decade. We
marked our 100th birthday in
2009.CAT tales
Alan Ferguson – or as he signs
himself, Acting Pilot Officer
Alan Ferguson SUAS 1972-75 –
responds to our review a few
weeks back of The CAT and the
Hamsters, a history of the
College of Air Training in
Hampshire.
The CAT, he points out, “was
the junior flying training
organisation at Hamble in the
1970s. Southampton University
Air Squadron was undoubtedly
the premier unit there.”
He adds: “We had a song
about CAT, sung to the tune of
Monty Python’s Flying Circus. It
went:
“Golf Alpha Xray Mike Bravo;
“You’re 21 to finals, so round
you go;
“Flightplan your circuits and
chatter on the R/T;
“But steer clear of Chipmunks
and steer clear of me.”“Let’s hope, Herr Flugkapitän, we make it to Toronto
before they introduce any more branding changes”