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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 8, 2019 5:11:33 GMT
Today is the 100th anniversary of the first commercial flight between Paris and London. Travel time was 2h37 and the fare was £15.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 8, 2019 5:35:09 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 8, 2019 6:46:12 GMT
I was going to look up the equivalent, so thanks for doing it. I am always fascinated when I see ancient movies and people are staying at the Ritz or the Waldorf for $10. There was no airline back then. The plane was a Farman Goliath, a converted bomber. The bomb section was replaced with 12 rattan armchairs for the passengers. www.crezan.net/images/f60/60-2/60_sgta_1.jpg
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Post by patricklondon on Feb 8, 2019 13:43:46 GMT
That is interesting! Was there an airline & if so, does it exist in any form today? Both the French and British companies starting up at that time were in a way ancestors, through assorted takeovers and government-enforced mergers and reorganisations, of Air France and British Airways. Here's one of the more regular flights a few years later: My blog | My photos | My video clips | My Librivox recordings"too literate to be spam"
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Post by lagatta on Feb 8, 2019 14:38:50 GMT
Anyone celebrating the Lunar New Year? (this might also go in the food category).
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 8, 2019 14:56:35 GMT
I absolutely love the images. I'm not quite sure that I fully agree with 'The Channel trip has been robbed of its terrors by the installation of daily air service.' I'm also quite surprised that the French planes alone were already transporting almost 20,000 passangers a year between the two cities in 1922.
One thing that is well shown (and which I saw on the news report here this morning) is that in those days, the pilots were still riding outside.
Customs and immigration at Le Bourget looks like a lot of fun.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 8, 2019 14:58:01 GMT
Anyone celebrating the Lunar New Year? (this might also go in the food category). I ate Chinese yesterday. The big Paris parade isn't until February 17th, but the smaller parades are being held this weekend.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 8, 2019 17:05:24 GMT
The plane was a Farman Goliath, a converted bomber. The bomb section was replaced with 12 rattan armchairs for the passengers. Fascinating. I guess rattan was chosen because of weight issues. It would be interesting to know if there were enterprises scrambling to be first to offer commercial flights, as surely more than one entrepreneur saw the possibilities. Both the French and British companies starting up at that time were in a way ancestors ... of Air France and British Airways. From the French company article: On 8 October 1921, A Farman F.60 Goliath made an emergency landing at Saint-Inglevert, Pas-de-Calais due to problems with a propeller shortly after the aircraft had crossed the French coast. The aircraft was operating an international scheduled passenger flight from Le Bourget Airport, Paris to Croydon Airport, Surrey, United Kingdom. Another aircraft was despatched from Paris to take the six passengers on to Croydon.
That is impressive, especially considering how many of us have been stuck during air travel in the 20th and 21st centuries The picture on the video explains a lot about fear of flying! Amazing that the new airlines managed to cover everything, including that sophisticated advertising, but didn't manage to provide wheeled staircases. ... in those days, the pilots were still riding outside. Yes -- and smiling about it, too!
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Post by questa on Feb 8, 2019 23:20:53 GMT
Australia had the 3rd airline to take off in early 1920s. The vast distances people had to travel in the state of Queensland led to a group of aviators in Winton (a small township in outback Qld) to start up the "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service" which became Qantas, complete with the flying kangaroo logo. This also explains why there is no "U" in Qantas. The company still has the original airport there and is a tourist site of aviation.
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Post by patricklondon on Feb 9, 2019 10:03:52 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 9, 2019 18:55:38 GMT
Great information, Questa! Have you been to the original airport. I love these nuggets of Australian history and culture you share. It's a huge country about which I know nothing.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 9, 2019 19:29:59 GMT
I at least knew the origin of the name QANTAS, but of course when you work for an airline for 35 years, you learn lots of things like that. I also know that nasty acronyms for quite a few airlines, for example Lufthansa ("Let Us Fuck The Hostess As No Steward Available"). We airline people have dirty minds.
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Post by questa on Feb 10, 2019 0:08:38 GMT
K2 Oz Airline also referred to as Quaint Arse. Each year the Gay Pride March features a well rehearsed marching/dancing squad of about 40 'boys' in the briefest of attire but full equipment, doing the safety drill of "seat belts, oxygen masks, life-jackets, brace positions etc" to the latest dance music. It is hilarious!
Bixa, I drove through Winton in 1964 on a solo camping trip around the country. Tourism had not been invented, roads were dirt, no camping areas (usually slept at the back of the petrol station yard where there was a tap and toilet) My memories of Winton are a few hangars with some light planes tied down in front of them, and a horrible dog that skulked around when I tried to get pictures of the place. There was an office in a small building that had faded photos of VIPs arriving and departing and various pics of aircraft that made me wonder at the courage of the earlier passengers.
Winton today has a population of 875 and is proud of its history. Our "anthem" Waltzing Matilda was written there after the crippling Shearers' Strike in the 1890s. The huge deposits of dinosaur fossils and opal fields brings people from other countries and now they have sealed main roads and artesian water (if the frackers don't poison it.) It is still true outback
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 10, 2019 1:46:40 GMT
That's downright poetic, Kerouac. Questa (or do you prefer Qesta?), that's quite an adventure! You definitely need to put "original" Winton in your novel. Winton of today does sound like the best of both worlds -- accessible, but not running away with itself.
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Post by questa on Feb 10, 2019 11:12:40 GMT
Nobody runs in Winton, even the crows fly backwards to keep the dust out of their eyes. It is 1,356 Km from Brisbane, the state capital. Very flat dry pastures and sheep and cattle the main business. Bixa, I could spell it that way but " U " wouldn't like it...
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Post by lagatta on Feb 10, 2019 13:46:44 GMT
There are places in Québec that far away from Québec(City)the capital, but have the opposite climate, deep cold.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 1, 2019 17:49:17 GMT
Today is the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the Concorde. Even though the Concorde doesn't fly anymore, time certainly does.
Obviously, I never flew on the Concorde, but at least I had some caviar from it. One of my colleagues' husband was a bodyguard for François Mitterrand, so he took the Concorde dozens of times. Since he didn't like caviar, he always brought the little jars of caviar back with him to the point where even my colleague got sick of caviar, which is much less enjoyable when the person across the table from you is making a face. So she gave me a couple, and they were wonderful. Each jar was worth about 50 euros (although I'm sure Air France got a big discount).
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Post by mossie on Mar 1, 2019 19:08:13 GMT
With the connections you had I am surprised you didn't wangle a flight.
I bought myself a lunch flight on it when I retired, I had never been supersonic in my RAF days and just wanted the experience. I did enjoy the trip and still have the little plastic model Concorde we were given as part of the deal.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 4, 2019 19:11:22 GMT
Staying on the airlines theme, it is interesting to note the oldest airlines in the world that still exist.
1. KLM - 100 years old in October. Anybody who has flown on KLM and read the inflight magazine knows this, because it is mentioned in every single issue. 2. Avianca - also 100 years old. Founded by German immigrants in Colombia. 3. Qantas - founded in 1920. 4. Aeroflot - founded in 1923. Largest airline in the world after WW2. 5. Czech Airlines (CSA) - founded in 1923. It was the 3rd airline after BOAC and Aeroflot to use jets. 6. Finnair - founded in 1923. A pioneer in flights to Asia. 7. Delta Air Lines - founded in 1924. Now the largest airline in the world according to certain criteria. 8. Tajik Air - founded in 1924. Was the only means of transportation in a country without roads or rail. But it died in January 2019. 9. Air Serbia (formerly JAT) - founded in 1927. Was the only "communist" airline to buy planes from both East and West. 10. Iberia - founded in 1927. First airline to fly from Europe to South America.
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Post by casimira on Mar 5, 2019 13:48:31 GMT
HAPPY MARDI GRAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 5, 2019 14:43:48 GMT
Back at you!
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 5, 2019 15:44:08 GMT
It is absolutely amazing how unnoticed Mardi Gras is in France. I was pretty sure that it was today, but I saw no mention of it on television or in the press and didn't look at a calendar. Of course one reason for this is that carnival season has become completely secular and pretty much stretches from the beginning of February well into April no matter when Mardi Gras actually falls, but it only concerns far northern France and the area of Nice. No idea why. But I'm not totally stupid -- I'm going to far northern France this weekend.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 5, 2019 22:13:20 GMT
If you had been in Oaxaca today, you might have thought you were in France because of the same degree of indifference to the day before Lent. Are we going to see weird medievalish northern France-style celebrations?
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Post by casimira on Mar 8, 2019 18:39:46 GMT
Today is INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY.
I listened to several different interviews with prominent women figures from all over the world today on NPR.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 8, 2019 19:49:54 GMT
I am actually a bit irritated by the way various institutions in France commemorate this day. For example, in parliament the presidency of the legislative session was turned over to the female vice presidents. Absolutely all of the political guests of the radio and television programmes were women. Fine, but why is it still necessary to do this? Because all the rest of the year, the women are still mostly in the back seat of just about everything.
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Post by patricklondon on Mar 10, 2019 12:09:29 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 10, 2019 17:08:50 GMT
Thanks for that link, Patrick -- very interesting. It made me go to youtube & I'm listening to this right now ~
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 25, 2019 7:45:23 GMT
In 1807 the Slave Trade Act came into force banning slavery in Britain and Ireland.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 27, 2019 5:52:00 GMT
p1.storage.canalblog.com/28/17/599939/63899502.jpgToday is the 30th anniversary of the inauguration of the Louvre pyramid. It was designed to give access to about 1,200,000 visitors a year. However, the Louvre now receives more than 10 million visitors.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 28, 2019 16:56:26 GMT
Still beautiful and striking after all these years.
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