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Aviation (The Age of the 707)
The Age of the 707 That smoke is from the 1,700 pounds of water injection the J 57s used for take off. (Note where the airplane is. Go to the overrun and suck the gear out from under it.) Those were the good ole days. Pilots back then were men that didn't want to be women or girly men. Pilots all knew who Jimmy Doolittle was. Pilots drank coffee, whiskey, smoked cigars and didn't wear digital watches. They carried their own suitcases and brain bags like the real men that they were. Pilots didn't bend over into the crash position multiple times each day in front of the passengers at security so that some Gov't agent could probe for tweezers or fingernail clippers or too much toothpaste. Pilots did not go through the terminal impersonating a caddy pulling a bunch of golf clubs, computers, guitars, and feed bags full of tofu and granola on a sissy-trailer with no hat and granny glasses hanging on a pink string around their pencil neck while talking to their personal trainer on the cell phone!!! Being an Airline Captain was as good as being the King in a Mel Brooks movie. All the Stewardesses (aka. Flight Attendants) were young, attractive, single women that were proud to be combatants in the sexual revolution. They didn't have to turn sideways, grease up and suck it in to get through the cockpit door. They would blush and say thank you when told that they looked good, instead of filing a sexual harassment claim. Junior Stewardesses shared a room and talked about men.... with no thoughts of substitution. Passengers wore nice clothes and were polite; they could speak AND understand English. They didn't speak gibberish or listen to loud gangsta rap on their IPods. They bathed and didn't smell like a rotting pile of garbage in a jogging suit and flip-flops. Children didn't travel alone, commuting between trailer parks. There were no Mongol hordes asking for a seatbelt extension or a Scotch and grapefruit juice cocktail with a twist. If the Captain wanted to throw some offensive, ranting jerk off the airplane, it was done without any worries of a lawsuit or getting fired. Axial flow engines crackled with the sound of freedom and left an impressive black smoke trail like a locomotive burning soft coal. Jet fuel was cheap and once the throttles were pushed up they were left there, after all it was the jet age and the idea was to go fast (run like a lizard on a hardwood floor). Economy cruise was something in the performance book, but no one knew why or where it was. When the clacker went off no one got all tight and scared because Boeing built it out of iron, nothing was going to fall off and that sound had the same effect on real pilots then as Viagra does now for those new age guys. There was very little plastic and no composites on the airplanes or the Stewardesses' pectoral regions. Airplanes and women had eye pleasing symmetrical curves, not a bunch of ugly vortex generators, ventral fins, winglets, flow diverters, tattoos, rings in their nose, tongues and eyebrows. Airlines were run by men like C.R. Smith and Juan Tripp who had built their companies virtually from scratch, knew most of their employees by name and were lifetime airline employees themselves...not pseudo financiers and bean counters who flit from one occupation to another for a few bucks, a better parachute or a fancier title, while fervently believing that they are a class of beings unto themselves. And so it was back then....and never will be again! ![]() ![]()
__________________ "Knowledge is often mistaken for intelligence. This is like mistaking a cup of milk for a cow" |
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#2
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Re: Aviation (The Age of the 707)
Great post Hunted. ![]() |
#3
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Re: Aviation (The Age of the 707)
I've got a large original black and white photo of the Qantas 707 that did a barrel roll on its first flight. Its tail number is VH-EBA, city of Canberra. I was stunned to see the video footage of it because i didn't think that a comercial aircraft was capable of that kind of manouvre. These aircraft are absolutely beautiful to look at and were considered to be the finest passenger aircraft of their day. A few years ago VH-EBA was found and fully restored then flown from its would be gravesite in England, back to Australia. It made a few stops along the way and on one of the stops John Travolta had flown his ex Qantas 707 to the location so he could get a few photos of the two planes together.
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#4
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Re: Aviation (The Age of the 707)
Beautiful aircraft. ![]() |
#5
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So Fucking Banned Poster Rank:4 Join Date: Mar 2009 Mentioned: 464 Post(s) Quoted: 34608 Post(s)
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Re: Aviation (The Age of the 707)
Good read!
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#6
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Re: Aviation (The Age of the 707)
I once saw Travolta bring his 707 in. ![]() |
#7
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Re: Aviation (The Age of the 707)
Google 707 barrel roll and you can watch the prototype 707 in a demonstration flight doing a roll. Fucking crazy! I wonder if a 747 or an A380 can do it.
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#8
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Re: Aviation (The Age of the 707)
That would be frickin insane watching the 380 do it. ![]() |
#9
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Re: Aviation (The Age of the 707)
Great post and in 100% agreement. ![]() |