If you like wings, you are going to love the Caproni Ca.60 Noviplano. It had nine wings and was set to be a 100-passenger flying boat. To help get the 100-passenger aircraft and its nine wings off the ground, it had eight engines.
The plane was 30 feet tall – about three stories – and only 77 feet long. One would think the plane might not be the most stable and it wasn’t. It took flight one time, got up to 60 feet before crashing on March 4, 1921.
There was quite a bit of lead ballast in the aircraft and it is assumed they got lose and caused the aircraft to nose dive into the water. Luckily the test pilot survived.
The Caproni Ca.60 Noviplano might not have been successful, but it is one unique looking airplane.
Ah, Saturday Night Live is always (or sometimes) good for a laugh. Every once in a while a nice airline-related gem will pop up. This one is a bit old, but still a good one, making a little fun of Captain Sully and US Airways flight 1549.
I recently connected with film studio Filmetria, which is based here in Seattle and fell in love with new project: Team Marco Polo.
I know it is not exactly airline-related, but it does deal with travel and I think it is frek’n cool, so I am sharing it with you (and no I am not getting paid to write this, thank you).
It is a travel show for kids, but it is quite entertaining for adults too. It is as if Bill Nye The Science Guy, Steve Ricks and a barrel of laughs sat down and created a show. One of the main people behind the show, Bill Jeakle, was a writer for Bill Nye’s show and if you are a local Seattlite, you might also remember him as one of the high-5′n white guys on local comedy sketch show Almost Live (I am working on getting a picture of me giving Bill a high-5).
Anyhow, the Marco Polo character gives people a way to learn about travel without being bored. There are many other characters, as well: a Rick Steves spoof (he gives travel tips), a Tim Gunn Project Runway spoof (he covers fashion), an art loving nun, A bombastic history professor named Professor Bombast, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Odysseus, and dozens more. They all do skits and songs to bring the art and culture of foreign lands to life.
Currently the show is only on YouTube, but they are hoping to change that. They are working with Seattle’s local PBS station to get the show on the air.
If you like what you see, please support their efforts. You can add them on Twitter, join their YouTube channel to know when new episodes are posted and of course watch and enjoy the show.
I think if you are reading this blog, you probably have a pretty good idea what jetliner ended up winning transporting passengers across the Atlantic. However, at the time of this video, it wasn’t quite sure if the Boeing 707 would be able to beat out the Comet. The Comet had some serious issues with coming apart in mid-flight, but the Boeing 707 was an unknown new-comer. Boeing put a lot of money and hard work to make the Boeing 707 successful and it paid off.
Boeing recently did a little re-arranging at their Everett facility for the 767 line (check out Boeing’s video). Moving 200-tons of tools is not easy, but neither is making Boeing aircraft. Instead of taking apart the tooling apparatus and re-constructing it, Boeing decided to move it like an old house. Boeing hired an outside team to jack up the apparatus and drive it to its new location.
This move will decrease the number of days to make a Boeing 767 and increase the amount of space available on the production floor. The Boeing 737 and 777 programs completed a similar change a while back. A big change from previous lines is the exit for the line will be in back of the hangars and not the front.
Now, this just leaves the question, “why?” Boeing currently only has three orders for the 767 all from Azerbaijan Airlines, but there are 55 in the backlog waiting to still be built. The 767 was first introduced almost 30 years ago and there have almost been 1000 built. Many see the Boeing 787 as the replacement for the 767, so why put this money into an aging product?
I can only imagine this move is preparing to build the next generation of military tanker using the Boeing 767 frame. I was curious if Boeing would still plan to produce 767′s if they don’t win the tanker bid and I heard back from Leslie Hazzard, with Boeing Commercial Airplanes Communications.
She told me, “We continue to market and sell the 767 and plan to continue building it as long we see customer demand for the airplane. If we win the U.S. Air Force contract for replacement aerial refueling tankers, we will integrate Tanker production with commercial airplane production on an ITAR-compliant production line.”
It looks like Boeing is planning to win the contract and I feel they most likely will. If they don’t win the contact, will there be enough of a need for an updated Boeing 767 and a Boeing 787? That, I am not so sure about.
