SQ advertised the auction to the A380 first flight as “once-a-lifetime” chance.
Sure, one plane type generally has just one first flight. But then they found someone who, as 17-year-old boy, was on the 747 first flight – Pan-Am JFK-LHR in January 1970, the one which was 21 hours late because engine troubles meant another plane had to be substituted. And invited him to A380 first flight.
What are the other most important first flights?
SQ-s own first 747(200) flight?
Airbus´ first flight (A300 for Air France, sometime in 1974)?
Concorde double first flights (January 1976, simultaneous takeoffs Heathrow-Bahrein and Paris-Dakar)?
Are there any people who already have flown on several historical first flights?
By: dailee1 - 7th June 2010 at 15:21
I take your point. If I include George as Technical Director of Miles Aircraft, who made the first flight of many of his brothers designs, then it would be churlish not to include the DeHavillands, where Geoffrey made the first flight of many of his father’s designs. I would be interested to know which, if any, aircraft met this criterion
Possilbly the most likely to replicate this would be Burt Rutan (Unless of course you know better)
By: pagen01 - 6th June 2010 at 20:37
I don’t know enough about their lives but would any of the de Havillands fit the bill?
Was thinking that Geoffrey was a designer, company founder and test pilot.
By: dailee1 - 6th June 2010 at 20:14
First Flights
ALL of the early ones!
I concur, but I don’t think it has has happened since the early thirties, and George was the pilot on those occasions when he flight tested the new designs of his brother (FG)
I don’t think it is llikely to happen nowadays unless there is a suitably Qualified constructor of a homebuilt drsign:)
By: Oxcart - 5th June 2010 at 19:04
ALL of the early ones!
By: Spiteful - 5th June 2010 at 16:11
The Wright Flyer 1… 🙂
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