Flight International – 11 June 2019

STRAIGHT&LEVEL

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80 | Flight International | 11-17 June 2019 flightglobal.com

A good sport

One of the most satisfactory

signs of the times is the

healthy state of

aerial sport,

which, since the

restrictions on

private flying were

removed, has shown every

indication of strong vitality.

There is talk of reviving the

pre-War activities.

Silence is golden

To make sure that careless

talk by local civilians should

not give away

last-minute

invasion

activities, the

American authorities at a

USAAF airfield in Britain

detained in the camp all

civilian workers and villagers

who had seen anything of

their preparations.

Weight-watching

Applied to an Airbus

design at the College of

Aeronautics,

Cranfield, the

use of

carbonfibre-

reinforced composites has

resulted in weight saving of

the order of about 40 per

cent in the main wing. It is

anticipated that similar

weight saving can be made

in the fin and tailplane.

Smoke signals

Tobacco smoke is not a

proven carcinogen. If the

airlines were to

supply each

area of the cabin

with its rightful

amount of fresh air, flights

would be far more

comfortable and

passengers would arrive

feeling much more relaxed.

“If I fly this route twice a day for year, I might just get to

the end of Game of Thrones.”

“Glad to see one’s airline is still flying the flag, Mr Cruz”

British Airways

Lex Rayton/ImageBroker/REX/Shutterstock

Short-haul^

superjumbo

For those who have never sampled
the special Emirates Airbus
A380 onboard experience, the
carrier’s latest route may not be
the best place to start.
The offering sounds tempting,
with a three-cabin configuration
that includes 76 flat-bed
business seats and 14 first-class
private suites, 4,000 channels of
in-flight entertainment, and the
chance to “savour regionally
inspired meals”.
The trouble is the route is to
Muscat, a mere 184nm (340km)
away, and the Dubai airline’s
shortest. Scheduled flight time
to the Oman capital is just over
1h, but time in cruise will be a
fraction of that, so just minutes
to enjoy the food, films and that
lie-flat luxury.
What next? A superjumbo
shuttle from Dubai International
to Dubai Al Maktoum? Emirates
needs to do something with all
those A380s.

Spell Kiev-fully

Ukraine and Russia still aren’t
really on speaking terms, and
the latest round of handbags
between the two sides centres
on departure lounge flight
information boards.
The Ukrainian foreign
ministry is trying to encourage
the world’s airports to adopt the
Ukrainian spelling of ‘Kyiv’ –
rather than the Soviet word

First-class war

Climate change activists are

vowing to shut Heathrow with

drones this summer – but

presumably only after any A-list

celebrity supporters jet in from

Los Angeles first.

Royal rustiness

British Airways was graced in

May with a visit from Queen

Elizabeth II as part of the

airline’s centenary celebrations.

It was running three-engined

Armstrong Whitworth Argosy

biplanes out of Croydon and

operating as Imperial Airways at

the time Her Majesty was born

in April 1926 – and, less than

two weeks later, transported its

first British royal when the

soon-to-be King Edward VIII

flew from Paris to London in a

Handley-Page W.10.

Her husband, the Duke of

Edinburgh, is even closer in age

to British Airways and the fleet

has undergone extraordinary

evolution during their lives.

One Budgie News hack recalls

being asked by the Duke what

he planned for a career when he

left college. Back then, this

particular reporter held lofty

ambitions to fly for BA as a

Concorde pilot, and told the

Duke as much.

“Concorde?” replied His

Royal Highness, before leaning

forward and whispering: “But

surely it’ll be all rusty by then?”

‘Kiev’ – for the name of the

capital city.

This ‘KyivNotKiev’ campaign

is serious enough for Ukrainian

political representatives to keep

a running tally of which airports

have fallen into line.

Finland’s airport operator was

pressured by a Ukrainian

diplomat, who pointed out that

Vienna, Vilnius, Riga, Warsaw

and other hubs had adopted the

“correct” spelling, and asked

when Helsinki would follow.

“This is being processed and

the change is coming soon!” the

airport operator replied, as if it

was promising to hand in a late

homework assignment.

Don’t think it’s only Kyiv/

Kiev that is involved in this

malarkey. We can look forward

to similar shaming of airports

that stubbornly insist on

displaying flights to Odessa,

Lvov, Kharkov, and so on.