Excellent, tonights programme was far better and actually felt like it was made by a different team.
Seemed much better researched with some great supporting period footage that was correctly choosen (ie Comet I footage when Comet Is were being talked about!).
Only downside for me was not mentioning the fairly successful BAC 1-11, and less successful Trident alongside the VC-10, surprised at no mention of our contribution to the Concorde programme.
The Britannia footage was superb, but the Howard Hughes story really encapsulated the British aviation industrys’ short comings.

Yes, that was very watcheable! I don’t think BOAC could be blamed for the Britannia’s history, they’d ordered it and Bristol didn’t come up with the goods….. remarkable ,really, that BOAC took the Comet 4 after the Comet I disaster. The programme never mentioned the V1000 cancellation which BOAC was partly responsible for but why didn’t Vickers have the faith to risk to completing the prototype as a private venture?
I suppose it was the downsizing of the RR engine for the Trident which scuppered the viable British short-range airliner business including the BAC1-11

When Britain Ruled the Skies (attempting to be accurate)

1) When the Empire flying boat ‘Caledonia’ flew above Manhattan in 1937 for a LIFE photo-shoot (I’m serious)
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/94b0fc16af17afd5.html
2) Over UK airspace from the Battle of Britain till the V2s.
3) Over Germany at night 1943/1945
4) In the field of turbojet and turboprop engines from 1944-1956 (but most military airframes were inferior)…Britain Nene design flew on both sides of the Korean War
5) In the field of turbine airliners from 1952 to 1958 (if only the Comet and Britannia had been perfected alongside the Viscount!)
6) Possession of an Independent Nuclear Deterrent 1956?-???? (Valiant and subsequent, British made Warheads) could be said to be Ruling the Skies (as much as any other country)
7) World Speed Record (by a big margin) Fairey Delta 2 (1956?)
8) E.E. Lightning excelled but was it backed by adequate radar before AWACS arrived?
9) Harrier…had the field to itself

The original 707-100 had the non-fan JT-3(J-57) engine and didn’t quite have the range for reliably non-stop London-New York flights but was OK non-stop NY to LA. (Many were later re-engined with JT-3D turbofans)

Air-India and BOAC had the bigger Intercontinental model and theirs, (-400s) ,had the RR Conway engine which was briefly the best option around 1960/1961, gave reliable London-New York non-stop range but not US West coast to Europe non-stop.

The 707 Intercontinental was developed into the 707-320B/C of 1962 which had the JT-3D turbofan and improved wing which gave it the ‘6,000 mile’ range to fly US West Coast to Europe non-stop with a useful payload

The 707-100 was designed to satisfy the 4,000 mile range market. This increased with the JT3 engines over 6,300 miles with later versions (max fuel). Air India and BOAC were equipped with the -400 series which had the greater range.

Operational considerations; full load will reduce range and there may be passenger drop/collect options in the 1960s.

London to Bombay (as was) is 4400 miles great circle, so actual flown will be more. I can see at least one stop required, and the schedules of that time indicate that.

DAI

The London-Karachi record was taken by a PIA Boeing 720B on delivery in 1962 (probably unbroken today) and John Stroud recorded it all
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IOGCd7QreKgC&pg=PA225&lpg=PA225&dq=PIA+Boeing+720B+London+Karachi&source=bl&ots=phg9A0RN3G&sig=PX4aG-a-uQg6qlb75pHADFSt95M&sa=X&ei=DtY0UOKVGoeY1AWO04CwCA&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=PIA%20Boeing%20720B%20London%20Karachi&f=false

In addition to the slight drop in average cruise Mach number(isn’t that set mainly by ATC?) present-day check-in/security times have ballooned since the Sixties (gone are the days when you could wave your ticket, passport and hand baggage at the check-in desk at Amsterdam and run through the piers in 5 minutes for the London Trident (or Electra or DC-9 or DC-8…..)

Looking to see if non-stop commercial flights London-Australia existed (not yet?) I found
http://www.airwaysmuseum.com/Qantas%201st%20England-Aust%20non-stop%201989.htm

and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-stop_flight

A bit earlier that you asked, but I was a passenger on the record-breaking flight LHR to Karachi in 1955. We flew in a L1049G Super Constellation of Pakistan International Airlines and took 17 1/2 hours with one stop at Cairo. A fascinating flight for a schoolboy.
Chris

What’s this handsome warbird?

In the Philippines December 1941 by Carl Mydans on LIFE
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/e4125c2f8a79d65e.html

Nice bit of product placement in the side-on Iberia Dak shot 🙂

Yes, you’re right about George Bush II…he had flown F-102s in the A.N.G…..Churchill had taken flying lessons (a lot!) but never went solo and abandoned instruction after a 1919 training crash at Croydon which he survived.