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Milestones

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I made a model of a Boeing 727 and was very happy to discover it featured a hinged staircase at the rear.. I didn’t know it was ever used in-flight! :eek:
Well I'm pretty sure that the rear stairs was never designed to be used that way but it certainly has been :)

Most modern airliners don't have them because they tend to be larger and with the engines under the wings instead of at the back as in the 727, meaning that the plane stands much higher on the ground meaning that the stairs would have to be much longer and thus heavier, resulting in lower fuel efficiency and in these days of high fuel costs and penny-pinching corporations, I guess that makes a lot of sense :)
 
especially to DB, wherever he is.
It seems unlikely that he is still around even if he did successfully escape as this was 50 years ago and he was described as being in his 40s at the time...
 
An interesting re-enactment of the incident, although in reality, it was pitch dark when Cooper jumped, not broad daylight as in the Loki clip :)
Also, I just noticed that in the Loki clip, he was sitting somewhere in the middle of the cabin whereas in real life, Cooper was sitting in the centre seat of the very back row on the right side :)
 
Well I'm pretty sure that the rear stairs was never designed to be used that way but it certainly has been :)

Most modern airliners don't have them because they tend to be larger and with the engines under the wings instead of at the back as in the 727, meaning that the plane stands much higher on the ground meaning that the stairs would have to be much longer and thus heavier, resulting in lower fuel efficiency and in these days of high fuel costs and penny-pinching corporations, I guess that makes a lot of sense :)
Warren Buffett, the "oracle of Omaha" (now 90 or so) and one of the most successful investors of all time said that airlines were a business with huge, on-going capital costs that weren't justified by the return.
In 2007, Warren Buffett wrote in a letter to Berkshire Hathaway investors that “if a far-sighted capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk, he would have done his successors a huge favor by shooting Orville down.” But Buffett eventually changed his mind about the airlines, and now he has changed his mind again. Over the weekend, Buffett announced that his company, Berkshire Hathaway, has sold the entire multibillion-dollar position it had taken in the four largest U.S. airlines — American, Delta, Southwest, and United — starting in 2016.
 
Warren Buffett, the "oracle of Omaha" (now 90 or so) and one of the most successful investors of all time said that airlines were a business with huge, on-going capital costs that weren't justified by the return.
In 2007, Warren Buffett wrote in a letter to Berkshire Hathaway investors that “if a far-sighted capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk, he would have done his successors a huge favor by shooting Orville down.” But Buffett eventually changed his mind about the airlines, and now he has changed his mind again. Over the weekend, Buffett announced that his company, Berkshire Hathaway, has sold the entire multibillion-dollar position it had taken in the four largest U.S. airlines — American, Delta, Southwest, and United — starting in 2016.
I've read that over time since their inception they have net lost money. They are extraordinarily vulnerable to events-9/11, Covid, wars, crashes, etc. The big question now is to what extent business travel will come back. Back when I used to travel a lot on business, I'd frequently come back home and ask myself whether that trip really accomplished enough to be worth the time and expense. The answer was frequently, "No". And that was before Zoom...
 
Back when I used to travel a lot on business, I'd frequently come back home and ask myself whether that trip really accomplished enough to be worth the time and expense. The answer was frequently, "No"
Yes but you’re only seeing it from one point of view. What if the real purpose of the trip was to get windar out of the office for a few days for the benefit of his colleagues? :rolleyes:
 
On November 25th, 1941, eighty years ago, Captain Hans-Dietrich von Tiesenhausen, commander of U331, attacked a flotilla of British battleships in the Mediterranean. He managed to approach close enough to fire a salve of torpedoes on HMS Barham. Three of them hit, and the battleship quickly capsized and finally blew up. More than 800 sailors perished in the sinking. The event was captured by a cameraman on a nearby plane.


The sudden weight loss in U331's bow due to the firing of the torpedoes, made the ship surface. She was taken under fire and almost rammed by Barham's sister ship HMS Valiant. Von Tiesenhausen made an emergency dive, from which U331 only recovered at a depth of 265 m, more than hundred meters below the U-boat's design maximum depth (150 m). About a year later, he was taken prisoner when U331 was sunk by allied aircraft and he survived the war.
 
It was just a fun reference, not meant to be any kind of accurate reconstruction! But yes, if they tried to do an accurate reconstruction they would probably mess it up.
To be fair, Hollywood has never had much of a grip on real-world events (historical or current) but it was cool to see this incident being referenced in entertainment as it's one of those enduring mysteries that still holds a degree of fascination after five decades :)
 
I've read that over time since their inception they have net lost money. They are extraordinarily vulnerable to events-9/11, Covid, wars, crashes, etc. The big question now is to what extent business travel will come back. Back when I used to travel a lot on business, I'd frequently come back home and ask myself whether that trip really accomplished enough to be worth the time and expense. The answer was frequently, "No". And that was before Zoom...
On a related note, if all of the delegates who attended the COP26 summit gave the slightest fuck about the environment, they'd have done the whole thing via zoom...
 
On November 25th, 1941, eighty years ago, Captain Hans-Dietrich von Tiesenhausen, commander of U331, attacked a flotilla of British battleships in the Mediterranean. He managed to approach close enough to fire a salve of torpedoes on HMS Barham. Three of them hit, and the battleship quickly capsized and finally blew up. More than 800 sailors perished in the sinking. The event was captured by a cameraman on a nearby plane.


The sudden weight loss in U331's bow due to the firing of the torpedoes, made the ship surface. She was taken under fire and almost rammed by Barham's sister ship HMS Valiant. Von Tiesenhausen made an emergency dive, from which U331 only recovered at a depth of 265 m, more than hundred meters below the U-boat's design maximum depth (150 m). About a year later, he was taken prisoner when U331 was sunk by allied aircraft and he survived the war.
Submarines were deadly, both for surface ships and the submariners. US submarines Darter and Dace, in addition to relaying positions of the Japanese flotilla coming through the Palawan strait to attack the landings on Leyte, were able to sink two cruisers in the 17-ship force (6 destroyers). Neither submarine was damaged, but one ran aground later and both crews had to return to Australia aboard the other. It must have been a little stinky, shall we say.
A Japanese submarine sank the USS Lexington in the battle of the Coral Sea, and the USS Indianapolis was sunk by a submarine as it was returning to base after delivering an atomic bomb to Tinian. The Japanese lost almost their entire "merchant"fleet to US submarines (after the technical problems with the US torpedoes were worked out).
I read that roughly a quarter of US submarines were lost in the Pacific. I'm sure U-boat losses were even greater, especially after Ultra was able to pinpoint their locations.
 
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But then they wouldn't have been able to smile for the cameras after!
Or provide all that extra trade for the local prostitutes... :D
 
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