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TIL; in the 1970s there were four “Airport” disaster movies. In real life, all the planes went back into passenger service. Eventually 3 of the planes crashed, including the Concorde which crashed outside of Paris in 2000, killing all 107 people on board.

by whatilearned June 25, 2022, 12:42 pm

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TIL United Airlines once forgot to escort a blind woman off the plane, despite assuring her they would. While waiting, she suddenly heard the plane’s door seal shut: “And then, just complete silence. And I started calling out with no response.” She was later saved by the maintenance crew.

by whatilearned June 10, 2022, 1:48 pm

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A Frenchman, an Englishman, a Russian, and a Ukrainian are on a a plan when the plane’s engines fail and it starts to go down.

by cringeyjokesman June 5, 2022, 1:22 pm

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7 Comments

TIL since the 1940s, the US government sends special planes into the eyes of hurricanes to track their path. They fly through them, continuously, for the duration of the storm. The data collected from the plane is the only way to precisely locate the eye of the storm. It’s called fixing the eye.

by whatilearned June 1, 2022, 12:36 am

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TIL that on some airlines, it is completely legal for people aged FIVE to travel on planes alone as long as their parents fill out a form. Until now I didn’t even think that fifteen year old were allowed to do that…

by whatilearned May 29, 2022, 9:51 pm

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TIL the Boeing 747 can carry an extra engine on its wing. Airlines used to use this capability regularly, when engines were less reliable, to deliver replacements to their stranded planes.

by whatilearned May 29, 2022, 12:02 pm

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TIL: In 1937 the entirety of the Soviet Central Institute of Aerodynamics were arrested meaning that many WW2 planes were designed from prison

by whatilearned May 21, 2022, 6:07 pm

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TIL that the inflatable pig on the cover of Pink Floyd’s album Animals broke loose from its chain tethering during the album photoshoot. The pig floated about 20,000 feet in the air causing commerical planes to land mid-flight. Fittingly, the British Royal Air Force found the pig on a farm.

by whatilearned May 20, 2022, 2:33 pm

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TIL Spitfire planes were “crowdfunded” in some cases in World War II. Large scale contributors were allowed to give the plane a nickname which was printed on the side. For example, ‘Dorothy of Great Britain and Empire’ was named by a group of women, all with the name ‘Dorothy’.

by whatilearned May 20, 2022, 1:08 pm

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TIL supersonic flight was made possible because of the ‘flying tailplane’, where the rear wing moved as one surface as opposed to flaps at the back of the wing. At near Mach speeds a planes nose is forced downward due to ‘Mach tuch’, the flying tailplane allowed pilots to maintain control.

by whatilearned May 13, 2022, 10:09 am

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9 Comments

pilots of reddit, when was that time you thought ‘sh*t the plane’s going down’?

by QuestionGuy May 12, 2022, 11:43 am

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TIL that in 1956, an F11 Tiger test pilot outran his own bullets from his plane’s 20mm cannon. After taking at least three hits from his own bullets, his plane crashed short of the runway after the engine failed. The pilot survived.

by whatilearned May 9, 2022, 11:16 pm

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