Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

World's longest flight.

On March 14, 2020, French airline Air Tahiti Nui flew the longest ever scheduled passenger flight by distance - transiting 9,765 miles across the world from Papeete, in Tahiti, French Polynesia, to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

This one-off milestone was a direct consequence of the coronavirus-induced US travel restrictions.

This route usually involves a scheduled stopover at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). But when an airplane stops over in the US, all passengers must alight the aircraft and proceed through US Customs and Border Protection before they're allowed to advance on with the next leg of their journey. 

Current restrictions rendered this part of the journey untenable, so instead, flight TN064 just carried straight on, departing at 3 a.m. local time from Papeete airport and arriving in Paris at 6:30 a.m. local time on March 15, 2020.

(Source: MSN.com)

Another abandoned airport –

Berlin Tempelhof Airport (German: Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof) (IATA: THF, ICAO: EDDI) was one of the first airports in Berlin, Germany.

Situated in the south-central Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, the airport ceased operating in 2008 amid controversy, leaving Tegel and Schönefeld as the two main airports serving the city, with the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport still under construction as of 2019.

Tempelhof was designated as an airport by the Reich Ministry of Transport on 8 October 1923. The old terminal was originally constructed in 1927. In anticipation of increasing air traffic, the Nazi government began a massive reconstruction in the mid-1930's.

While it was occasionally cited as the world's oldest operating commercial airport, the title was disputed by several other airports, and is no longer an issue since its closure.

(Source:en.wikipedia.org) 

'Miss Piggy' - Manitoba, Canada.

Far away on the frigid shores of Hudson Bay in Canada's northern Manitoba province lies the town of Churchill, renowned as the "Polar Bear Capital of the World."

It is here, just outside the bounds of the local airport in this incredibly remote corner of North America, that this Curtiss C-46 aircraft came to rest one morning in November 1979.

As the plane took off, one of its two engines had a mechanical failure, causing the plane to crash-land, adding its wreck to the tundra's landscape.

Thankfully, though three of the crew members were injured in the incident, everyone managed to walk away.

Since then, the plane has become an attraction of its own, lovingly dubbed "Miss Piggy."

(Source: Microsoft News, November 6. 2019 and Instagram)

Also see at the Manitoba Historical Society website

Nok Air.

Low-cost Thai airline Nok Air has a variety of bird liveries, which plays on the traditional joke, "Is it a bird or a plane?"

{Source: MRO Digest, January 6, 2020)

Court blocks third Heathrow runway.

The UK's court of appeal on February 27 ruled that plans for a third runway at London Heathrow (LHR) do not take into account government commitments relating to climate change.

"We have concluded, in particular, that the designation of the [plans] was unlawful by reason of a failure to take into account the government commitment to the provisions of the Paris Agreement on climate change, concluded in December 2015," the summary of judgement states.

(Source: Flight International Magazine, March 3, 2020)

 Air Transat A310 Fleet

I first wrote about the Airbus A310 in NetLetter #1338 on the topic of the five aircraft acquired by the Canadian Armed Forces from the Wardair fleet after the airline was acquired by Canadian Airlines. These aircraft are designated for military transport as well as VIP's such as the Prime Minister and Governor General.

As mentioned in this issue's Featured Video from Alex Praglowski Aviation, Air Transat was the last commercial airline to operate this fleet in Canada. With its last A310 flight on March 30, 2020, the Canadian Armed Forces are the only operator in North America. The aircraft are now designated as Airbus CC-150T Polaris (A310-304).

I decided to research the history and fate of the 14 aircraft operated by Air Transat. As you can see in the table below, 2 of them were among the original 12 delivered to Wardair in 1988. The majority are now stored (or scrapped) at Mirabel, however, 2 still show in active service with Mahan Airlines of Iran.

Reference: 

www.planespotters.net/airline/Air-Transat