The Wright Stuff

An auspicious day indeed. Back in 1903 the Wright brothers made their first successful flight at Kittyhawk, North Carolina on December 17th. Clearly they have a lot to answer for!

Flying Fact - Collecting those miles

Somehow it seems impossible to imagine a life without frequent flyer programmes but it wasn’t until May 1982 that American Airlines launched the first ever scheme. Not to be out done United Airlines launched theirs a week later.

Flying Fact - It's Cheaper Than Ever

According to the Air Transport Asociation in the US the average price a passenger pays per mile is 51 percent lower today, when adjusted for inflation, than in 1978, before the US domestic airline industry was deregulated.

Flying Fact

At any one time there are over twelve hundred Boeing 737s in the air, but you might be surprised to know that the first one was ordered by Lufthansa in February 1965. The first 737 flew over forty years ago in April 1967 and entered service with the German airline in February 1968. To be fair there are many new versions of the basic design flying with the world’s airlines. Over 5,000 have been delivered and the original Boeing prototype is at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

Flying facts

Why do Russian aircraft look like bad copies of aircraft built in America and Europe? Because they are! Add to this the American mechanic's view on how an aircraft looks.

If it's ugly it's British
If it's weird it's French
If it's ugly and weird it's Russian.

Flying Facts

A Boeing 737 takes off somewhere in the world every thirty seconds.

Flying Facts

In April 1966 Pan Am's founder and all round aviation legend Juan Trippe ordered the first Boeing 747 Jumbo jet. It entered service with the American carrier in January 1970. The 1,000th 747 was delivered in 1993; almost 1,400 have been built with another 120 on order.