Irish coffee

Pan Am Boeing 314 Clipper

The original Irish coffee was invented and named by Joe Sheridan, a head chef in Foynes.
Foynes' port, later Shannon International Airport in the west of Ireland.

The coffee was conceived after a group of American passengers disembarked from a Pan Am flying boat on a miserable winter evening in the 1940s.

Sheridan added whiskey to the coffee to warm the passengers.

After the passengers asked if they were being served Brazilian coffee, Sheridan told them it was "Irish coffee".

Stanton Delaplane, a travel writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, brought Irish coffee to the United States after drinking it at Shannon Airport.
He worked with Jack Koeppler and George Freeberg to recreate the Irish method for floating the cream on top of the coffe.

Pan American inaugurated a transatlantic passenger service using Boeing 314 flying boats on June 24, 1939. The Boeing 314 Clipper was a long-range flying boat produced by the Boeing Airplane Company between 1938 and 1941.

A fleet of six large long-range Boeing 314 flying Clipper flyingboats was delivered to Pan Am in early 1939. Pan Am flew regular weekly transatlantic passenger and air mail service between the United States and Britain. The service began on June 24, 1939. The route was from New York via Shediac, Botwood, and Foynes to Southampton.

On July 8, 1939 a service began between New York and Southampton as well. Scheduled landplane flights started in October 1945. The last Pan Am 314 to be retired in 1946.

Source: Wikipedia


Specifications Boeing Model 314 Clipper Flying Boat

First flight: June 7, 1938
Model number: 314A
Classification: Commercial transport
Span: 152 feet
Length: 106 feet
Gross weight: 84,000 pounds
Top speed: 199 mph
Cruising speed: 184 mph
Range: 5,200 miles
Ceiling: 19,600 feet
Power: Four 1,600-horsepower Wright Twin Cyclone engines
Accommodation:    10 crew, 74 passengers

Source: Boeing Company

Facts:

Boeing built 12 Model 314s between 1938 and 1941.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled by Boeing Clipper to meet with Winston Churchill at the Casablanca conference in 1943.
On the way home, President Roosevelt celebrated his birthday in the flying boat's dining room.

Source: Boeing Company

The first free flight

The first untethered, free flight with humans onboard a hot air balloon took place on 21 November 1783.

King Louis XVI of France had decided that condemned criminals would be the first pilots, but de Rozier successfully petitioned for the honor.

For this occasion the diameter of the balloon was increased to almost 50 feet.
A smoky fire slung under the the balloon placed in an iron basket, and it was controllable by the balloonists.

The flight lasted 25 minutes and it took the two men just over five miles.

Enough fuel remained on board at the end of the flight to have allowed the balloon to fly four to five times as far.
The fire threatened to engulf the balloon and the men decided to land as soon as they were over the open countryside.

On 21 November 1783 they conducted the first manned free flight.
The first human to fly freely was Pilâtre, together with an army officer, the marquis d'Arlandes.

The flight began from the grounds of the Château de la Muette (close to the Bois de Boulogne (park)) in the western outskirts of Paris.
They flew aloft about 3,000 feet (910 m) above Paris for a distance of nine kilometres.
After 25 minutes, the machine landed between the windmills, outside the city ramparts, on the Butte-aux-Cailles.
Enough fuel remained on board at the end of the flight to have allowed the balloon to fly four to five times as far.

Source: Wikipedia

The First Person to Fly

In 1783, Joseph-Michael and Jacques-Ètienne Montgolfier engineered the first manned hot-air balloon, a "globe aérostatique".

Étienne Montgolfier was the first human to lift off from the earth, making at least one tethered flight on October 15, 1783.

Later the same day, October 15, 1783, the Montgolfiers brothers launched a balloon on a tether with Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier as the passenger.

Later that year 1783, the first untethered flight was made.

Top 20 safest Airlines 2014

The top 20 safest Airlines 2014

1. Air New Zealand, index: 0,007

2. Cathay Pacific Airways, 0,008

3. Finnair, 0,010

4. Emirates, 0,010

5. Eva Air, 0,010

6. British Airways, 0,011

7. Tap Portugal, 0,012

8. Etihad Airways, 0,012

9. Air Canada, 0,012

10. Qantas, 0,013

11. Qatar Airways, 0,013

12. All Nippon Airways, 0,015

13. Virgin Atlantic Airways, 0,015

14. Hainan Airlines, 0,015

15. Virgin Australia, 0,015

16. Jetblue Airlines, 0,015

17. KLM, 0,015

18. Lufthansa, 0,016

19. Shenzhen Airlines, 0,018

20. Easyjet, 0,018

Source: JACDEC.

Photo: Air New Zealand - Boeing 777-300

Charles Lindbergh and a Cat

In 1927 it was reported in Swedish newspapers;

Columbus of the air

New York - May 20 - 1927 (TT)

The Swedish-American aviator Charles Lindbergh took off at 07.52 this morning American time, for the trans Atlantic flight from New York to Paris. He does not carry a radio. His only company is a kitten.

Paris - May 21 - 1927.

Lindbergh kept his word, almost. He had estimated to arrive at half past nine, but he landed in Paris at 10.21. He landed safe and well at Le Bourget after his bould flight over the Atlantic. A flight that had taken 33 hours and 47 minutes.

It was a man dressed in a suite that desembarked from the Spirit of S:t Louis, carrying a straw hat in his hand. An overwhelming roar broke out in the croud.

Photo: Spirit of St. Louis
Ryan NYP (Photo: US Air Force).

Role     Long-range aircraft
Manufacturer     Ryan Airlines
Designer     Donald A. Hall
First flight     April 28, 1927
Retired     April 30, 1928
Primary user     Charles Lindbergh
Produced     1927
Number built     1
Unit cost     $10,580
Developed from     Ryan M-2

Source: Wikipedia.org

Welcome to Aviation Facts

Welcome to Aviation Facts.

This Site is dedicated to Facts, Figures and Interesting curiosities about Flying.

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