Category: Anniversaries

Short notes, personal memories connected to anniversaries

Anniversary – Boeing 747 first revenue flight

40 year anniversary on 22 January 2010 Pan American World Airways is long gone but the 747, into its fifth generation, still strives. Forty years ago on 22 January 1970 it was a Pan Am clipper that introduced this undisputed king of large aircraft to revenue service. N736PA, a 747-100 flew from New York to… Continue reading Anniversary – Boeing 747 first revenue flight

Anniversary – The fall of the Berlin Wall

20 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 2009 Roger-Wilco deals with politics only in as much as it is aero-politics so you may wonder why we would include in our list of anniversaries the fall of the Berlin Wall now 20 years ago on 9 November 1989. As you will… Continue reading Anniversary – The fall of the Berlin Wall

Anniversary – SATCO ATC system handed over in Amsterdam

50 year anniversary of SATCO handover 15 July 2010   If you look it up in an aviation dictionary, you will likely find that SATCO stands for Senior Air Traffic Controller. But the original meaning is much more exotic! SATCO was the abbreviation of Signaal Automatic Air Traffic Control, an automated ATC system FIFTY years… Continue reading Anniversary – SATCO ATC system handed over in Amsterdam

20 October – ATCO day

Air traffic control centers are often far away from the airports and the sunscreen glass of the control towers (which for the time being at least tend to be on the airport…) prevents people from getting a glimpse of those inside. To pilots and vehicle drivers on the airport surface, the voices may be familiar,… Continue reading 20 October – ATCO day

Anniversary – IL-18 HA-MOH crash at Budapest-Ferihegy airport

35 year anniversary on 15 January 2010 Some anniversaries are occasions for sadness and a moment’s silence. An aircraft crash is always sad, a huge loss for everyone involved. When HA-MOH flew into the ground in the early evening of 15 January 1975 only 9 crew members were on board and they all lost their… Continue reading Anniversary – IL-18 HA-MOH crash at Budapest-Ferihegy airport

Anniversary – First radar system deployed at Budapest-Ferihegy airport

50 year anniversary on 6 May 2009 Those who visit Budapest Ferihegy airport these days see a very different facility from what it had been in 1959. If arriving on one of the low fare carriers, you do pass through the original terminal (Terminal 1) but it has changed quite a bit even though an… Continue reading Anniversary – First radar system deployed at Budapest-Ferihegy airport

Anniversary – First European STC for CPDLC on VDL Mode 2

5 year anniversary on 12 April 2010 The issuance of a Supplementary Type Certificate (STC) is not normally an event that we commemorate years later… except of course if the STC is the first instance in Europe of Controller Pilot Digital Link Communications (CPDLC) using VDL Mode 2 being approved on an aircraft type. I… Continue reading Anniversary – First European STC for CPDLC on VDL Mode 2

Anniversary – IFPS first flight plan treated in live operations

15 year anniversary on 27 April 2010. It was a rather cool and misty April night in 1995 when I found myself driving to EUROCONTROL at an hour normally reserved for rest and retrospection. The time was just past 9 p.m. when the duty supervisor of the Integrated Initial Flight Plan Processing System (IFPS) let… Continue reading Anniversary – IFPS first flight plan treated in live operations