Saunders Roe Princess G-ALUN flypast at the Farnborough SBAC Show in September 1953
In the first half of the 1900’s airline travel boomed. During World War II, there was a shortage of materials for making aircraft and proper runway facilities. Because of a lack of proper airports, the popularity of flying boats soared (get it soared?). Flying boats were purpose-built to land on the water and provide air transportation for all over the work (as long as water was around).
The 1940’s saw the biggest use of flying boats to get passengers around the world, but by the beginning of the 1950’s, more and more land based aircraft were being used.
The Saunders-Roe Princess was one of the last flying boats designed and built, but it never made it into service. Her journey started in 1945 when Saunders-Roe wanted to build an aircraft that could used by British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). Their bid was successful an in 1946 three aircraft were ordered by BOAC.
Engineers decided to have the airplane powered by ten turboprop engines. The four inner propellers had contra-rotating propellers, driven by a twin engine. The two outer propellers were single and powered by one engine. Although the engines were unique and head of their time, the complexities ended up dooming the aircraft type. The total thrust was not as they had expected and the gearing was not able to handle the engines.
The Princess was a double decker plane, designed to fly 105 passengers very comfortably. The aircraft was to be the pinnacle of flying boats, but it never got to see that day. In 1951 BOAC cancelled their orders. NASA looked at using the aircraft for transporting Saturn V rocket parts, but decided against it. Airbus even looked at using the Princess to transport A300 sections, but decided on the Super Guppies instead. There was hope the aircraft would be used in some capacity, but never were. In 1967 all three were destroyed.
Seeing such a beautiful plane destroyed is a real shame. One could have found its way to a museum or into a collector’s hands.
Additional media:
* Old video on making the Saunders-Roe Princess
* Airshow fly by of the plane
* Some color video and seeing her twin blades
* A few photos from Airliners.net
* Article on the aircraft written in 1952 by Flight
Image: RuthAS via Wikipedia
It took 9,500 flowers to make this lei for the Hawaiian Airlines A330
Last week I showed a photo of Hawaiian Airline’s brand spanking new Airbus A330 and it had a fancy lei on it. I asked how many flowers do you think it took to make the lei?
Via the comments and people emailing me I received over 60 guesses. They ranged from 330 to 330,200 (both guesses a play off the being an A330, I am guessing) The answer? According to Hawaiian Airlines it took 9,500 dendrobium orchids to make the lei on the Airbus A330. Now that is a lot of flowers.
And who was closest? David Brown. Seriously. But it isn’t me, it is another David Brown (there are a lot of us out there and he has an aviation blog too). Mr. Brown guessed 9855 flowers, which was closest to 9500. I will be mailing him his prizes. Thank you all for participating!
On June 4th the A330 had its maiden flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles. This is the first of 27 new A330s and A350s that Hawaiian plans to introduce into its fleet over the coming decade. Check out this photo of the A330 being pushed back from its gate at Honolulu.
CLICK TO WATCH - Korean Air Boeing 777 has a hard landing
Last week I posted this video from YouTube showing a Korean Air Boeing 777 having a rough landing. Then, it vanished from YouTube and from around the net. I tried to find another copy, but no luck. Then a reader, Ruben, found another copy. Thank you very much!
Any landing you can walk away from is a good one in my book. Watching a huge Boeing 777 bounce around like a Cessna 172 with a new pilot at the controls is entertaining (knowing it all turns out ok).
To learn more about what is going wrong here and maybe what the pilot could have done, check out John Croft’s blog on Where the Cro(ft) Flies.
A few Boeing 787's among other Boeing products from the sky. That is the Future of Flight in the background. Photo by Liz Matzelle
Saturday was the first sunny day in the Seattle area in a long time. The whole thing about Seattle always being rainy is normally not all true…however the past week and a half it sure has felt like it.
On Saturday Liz Matzelle (@ImperfectSense) was able to get a flight above Paine Field (KPAE) and she took some pretty sweet photos. Can you identify the planes in all her photos?
I recently took a tour on the ground of KPAE, but you can’t beat being in the sky.
Check out Liz’s 25 other amazing photos of KPAE from the sky!
Air Madagascar Boeing 767-300 (5R-MFF)
Can you take a guess where Air Madagascar is based? If you guessed Madagascar, pat yourself on the back. If you knew its headquarters is located in Antananarivo, Madagascar, give yourself a double pat. The airline’s official name is Socit Nationale Malgache des Transports Ariens, but goes by “Air Madagascar” for short (good thinking).
The airline was founded in 1947 using two DC-3’s and six de Havilland DH89’s. Currently it has a fleet of three ATR 42’s, two ATR 72’s, four Twin Otters, three Boeing 737’s and two Boeing 767’s. Back in 1979, the airline purchased a Boeing 747-200B, which was phased out in 1999 by the Boeing 767-300.
Air Madagascar mostly flies to destinations in Africa, but also to China, Thailand and France.
Thank you @vivekmayasandra for this suggestion!
Image: caribb