For the aviation fans

[Robbie Stewart]

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I have been lucky enough to see Enterprise on the USS Intrepid in New York ( a great museum) but seeing Discovery at the Udvar Hazy in Washington was incredible. The burn marks and heat damage to the airframe had me staring in awe at the machine and marvelling at the courage of the people who flew these missions.

 

I recall reading the pilots trained landing the shuttles using a Gulfstream G4 (I stand corrected). They would climb to altitude, enter the pattern and engage reverse thrust (which was overridden), esentially gliding the equivalent to a falling brick in for approach and touch down. You only get one shot at it.

 

Talk about nerves of steel.

[kosmonooit]

 

"Luxavia was formed in 1971 by Trek Airways of South Africa. Trek feared, and rightly so, that South African aircraft, due to the country's apartheid policy, would be banned from flying over African countries. Luxavia took over Trek's licenses and were handed the Luxembourg landing rights in South Africa, thus being able to continue the flights between Luxembourg and Johannesburg. Cooperating with Luxair, aircraft were painted in Luxair colours and registered with that airline. Eventually, Trek titles were again to be seen on the timetables alongside Luxavia's. Luxavia/Trek ceased operations in 1994, after Trek's new venture, Flitestar, had failed to compete successfully with South African Airways on domestic routes."

 

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/luxavia.htm

 

 

So who owned Luxair? Was it not Trek (assets and operation) in disguise?

 

If so, it was probably the least of the sanctions busting scams at the time.

Edited March 7, 2019 by kosmonooit

[Long Wheel Base]

Wow Spokey, some awesome photos and stories there. Keep them coming.

[patham]

I recall reading the pilots trained landing the shuttles using a Gulfstream G4 (I stand corrected). They would climb to altitude, enter the pattern and engage reverse thrust (which was overridden), esentially gliding the equivalent to a falling brick in for approach and touch down. You only get one shot at it.

 

Talk about nerves of steel.

 

I was in Florida when the Discovery shuttle - mission STS 105 ended. So a perfectly timed visit to the Kennedy Space Center gave me a chance to see it land from the grandstands set up on the runway.

 

The coolest things was hearing the two sonic booms whilst it was still at altitude. I gather there is one generated at the nose, and one from the main engine cluster at the back. A bit of google-fu actually says all planes have two booms, but because they are normally from small fighters, your brain interprets the sound as a single large one, the size of shuttle making the two more distinct.

 

Same trip to the US gave me a day at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington. Also a very cool place.  

[Spokey]

I recall reading the pilots trained landing the shuttles using a Gulfstream G4 (I stand corrected). They would climb to altitude, enter the pattern and engage reverse thrust (which was overridden), esentially gliding the equivalent to a falling brick in for approach and touch down. You only get one shot at it.

Talk about nerves of steel.

Yes, true this, it was a GII. They approached with the main gear down as well as the reversers deployed. There is an interesting Wikipedia write up on the STA, Space Shuttle Trainer, giving detail of the flights.

 

Of interest perhaps, we could deploy the inboard thrust reversers on the DC8. We did not have conventional spoilers as speed brakes, just roll augmentation spoilers. The machine would shudder and shake but it worked very well. We did not use it much due to the old airframes, but into Camp Bastion in was beaut. At 200 ft, crack the inboard reversers and it pitched the nose up to the right flare angle and at touch down we were slowing nicely before getting all 4 reversers out.

[kosmonooit]

Never had the fortune to see a live rocket launch as yet, it must be awesome although I have visited KSC.  Probably the best must have been the behemoth that was the Saturn 5, and example of which is on display there.  I used to tune into Voice of America on shortwave radio to listen to later launches in the '70's And I  followed just about every Shuttle mission as closely as possible as well, its become a bit easier with the Internet rather than  cranky old valve radio.

 

In my post grad studies on and in the History of Science & Tech, I did quite a lot of work on the early rocket days, the story of the Werner von Braun and the rocket boys. If you are ever in London go take a look at the original V2 they have there, and compare that to the early rockets used to launch American men into space (many examples around the US, some at KSC).

[Robbie Stewart]

Never had the fortune to see a live rocket launch as yet, it must be awesome although I have visited KSC.  Probably the best must have been the behemoth that was the Saturn 5, and example of which is on display there.  I used to tune into Voice of America on shortwave radio to listen to later launches in the '70's And I  followed just about every Shuttle mission as closely as possible as well, its become a bit easier with the Internet rather than  cranky old valve radio.

 

In my post grad studies on and in the History of Science & Tech, I did quite a lot of work on the early rocket days, the story of the Werner von Braun and the rocket boys. If you are ever in London go take a look at the original V2 they have there, and compare that to the early rockets used to launch American men into space (many examples around the US, some at KSC).

 

Interesting.

 

You might enjoy James A. Michener's Space. A fictionalized history of the US Space program, starting with how Werner von Braun was made to build the V-rockets, to Peenemunde's capture and von Braun's exile / defection to the US to help start what is now known as NASA. 

 

Now that I type this, I may read it again one of these days myself.

[patham]

Interesting.

 

You might enjoy James A. Michener's Space. A fictionalized history of the US Space program, starting with how Werner von Braun was made to build the V-rockets, to Peenemunde's capture and von Braun's exile / defection to the US to help start what is now known as NASA. 

 

h26.jpg

Now that I type this, I may read it again one of these days myself.

That was a great book - I think I read it two or 3 times until I lost my copy when my house flooded in a big highveld thunderstorm. Pretty high page count if I remember, but then again most of his books were like that.

[patham]

Never had the fortune to see a live rocket launch as yet, it must be awesome although I have visited KSC.  Probably the best must have been the behemoth that was the Saturn 5, and example of which is on display there.  I used to tune into Voice of America on shortwave radio to listen to later launches in the '70's And I  followed just about every Shuttle mission as closely as possible as well, its become a bit easier with the Internet rather than  cranky old valve radio.

 

In my post grad studies on and in the History of Science & Tech, I did quite a lot of work on the early rocket days, the story of the Werner von Braun and the rocket boys. If you are ever in London go take a look at the original V2 they have there, and compare that to the early rockets used to launch American men into space (many examples around the US, some at KSC).

 

KSC- I probably could go back there for days on end. That Saturn 5 is something to behold. On that trip I tried to line up a trip to watch a Delta rocket launch but that did not come right, but the shuttle landing more than made up for it.

[Spokey]

Wow Spokey, some awesome photos and stories there. Keep them coming.

Thanks, I will. I must dig up some old photos when I get home to SA. I have been lucky to visit some great museums and climb around some wonderful aircraft.

[Spokey]

KSC- I probably could go back there for days on end. That Saturn 5 is something to behold. On that trip I tried to line up a trip to watch a Delta rocket launch but that did not come right, but the shuttle landing more than made up for it.

The KSC is one of my bucket list places to visit. The Saturn V is truly spectacular, just reading about the machine. I have admiration for those guys who had such courage to sit in that tiny capsule and be blasted into space.

The first Saturn V launch actually carried astronauts. They had no time to test the machine prior to a manned lauch.....Crazy stuff.

[Spokey]

 

Apologies for the less than great images, taken with an early phone camera some years ago by a mate at Lanseria.

This DC8 had been bought by Stars Away and had been in long term maintenance in Cape Town. I was, I believe, the only SA Licensed, type rated and current Captain in SA at the time. Was kind of easy to get the job when they needed crew ha ha.

Anyway, we needed to do “recency” landings, so after the positioning flight to Josie we did touch and goes at Lanseria before heading across to OR Tambo. My biggest regret was not doing a missed approach “fly by” for the peeps on the balcony!!

[Lotus]

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Apologies for the less than great images, taken with an early phone camera some years ago by a mate at Lanseria.

This DC8 had been bought by Stars Away and had been in long term maintenance in Cape Town. I was, I believe, the only SA Licensed, type rated and current Captain in SA at the time. Was kind of easy to get the job when they needed crew ha ha.

Anyway, we needed to do “recency” landings, so after the positioning flight to Josie we did touch and goes at Lanseria before heading across to OR Tambo. My biggest regret was not doing a missed approach “fly by” for the peeps on the balcony!!

The size of those engine nacelles, especially compared to the latest 737. Like stovepipe pants vs bell bottoms.

[Spokey]

The size of those engine nacelles, especially compared to the latest 737. Like stovepipe pants vs bell bottoms.

Ha ha, yeah, very low by pass axial flow jet engine. Was very very loud!

[patham]

Thanks, I will. I must dig up some old photos when I get home to SA. I have been lucky to visit some great museums and climb around some wonderful aircraft.

Bucket list trip photos from the Reno Air Races 2007. Nothing like the sound of multiple Merlins, all souped up to the max. These pics are used as my wallpaper

[Spokey]

Bucket list trip photos from the Reno Air Races 2007. Nothing like the sound of multiple Merlins, all souped up to the max. These pics are used as my wallpaper

I like this...........a lot! Those big old radials are awesome too.