Wings & Wheels . . . Delta Cargo Vehicle shipments from Los Angeles International Airport add customer benefits from the U.S. West Coast to Delta’s global network.
     “Freight customers have told us for some time they wanted our ‘Variation Wheels’ service at Los Angeles,” said Ray “Hot Wheels” Curtis, Vice President, Delta Cargo Global Sales.
     “Variation Wheels is the perfect shipping solution for many types of vehicles when expert handling and time are of the essence, including show models, prototypes, new and used vehicles, and racing cars. Besides automobiles, other vehicles that may be shipped include motorcycles and small trucks.”
      In addition to Los Angeles, Variation Wheels operations are approved at five U.S. stations: Atlanta; Detroit; Minneapolis/St. Paul; New York-JFK; and Salt Lake City. Fifteen international stations also handle Variation Wheels shipments: Bangkok; Berlin; Buenos Aires; Frankfurt; Lima; London-Heathrow; Milan; Moscow; Munich; Paris; Santiago; Sao Paulo; Shanghai; Stuttgart; and Tokyo-Narita.

     It may seem like a long way to go to get checked out, but Baltic Aviation Academy’s Airbus A320 Full Flight Simulator (FFS) in Vilnius, Lithuania, was approved by the Cuba Civil Aviation Authority
     The certificate was granted to Cubana de Aviación, Cuba's flag carrier as well as the country's largest airline.
     Recently received documents will allow Baltic Aviation Academy to use a full flight simulator to perform any required training that will improve Cubana pilot skills.
     “As the Cuba aviation market currently is in a developing process and is aiming to raise safety regulations level, airlines have to define the clear strategies to optimize the productivity. Baltic Aviation Academy is glad to contribute to Cuba‘s aviation by ensuring high quality flight personnel training,” commented Egle Vaitkeviciute, Chief Executive Officer at Baltic Aviation Academy.

ast weekend marked the 75th anniversary of the first non-stop transatlantic flight of a land-based passenger aircraft to New York.
     Landing at Floyd Bennett Field in New York City on August 11, 1938, just before 16:00 hours local time, a German built four-engine Focke-Wulf VI 200 “Condor,” registered D-ACON & christened “Brandenburg,” arrived from Berlin having flown 4,100 miles (6,000 kilometers) non-stop across the Atlantic in 24 hours and 57 minutes, at an average speed of 164 MPH (263kmh/h).

     The "experimental" flight caused a sensation, sent shock waves around the world, and scared the hell out of Pan American Airways, which had already established the first commercial air service to Europe utilizing a puddle-jumping flying boat, the Sikorsky S42 aircraft.
     The first Pan Am flights went from Port Washington, New York, to England via Shediac, New Burnswick, and Botwood, into Foynes, Ireland, and onto Southhampton.
     In winter those flights operated across a southern route from Norfolk, Virginia, to Europe via Bermuda, and the Azores into Lisbon where they landed on the Tagus River.

     But by 1938 Pan Am had bet the airline on a dozen 100-ton flying boats from Boeing—B314s, which it planned to launch from Port Washington to Europe in 1939, and then move over to LaGuardia Airport in New York City in 1940.
     The B314 carried more people (46 vs. 23) and was a sound-deadened, luxurious first class ride, but it was a giant lumbering vehicle that operated low and slow compared to the FW200. It’s not unfair to say that the FW200 was like the 1938 version of the fast-moving Concorde, whereas the B314 was like every other slow-go aircraft cruising the skies.
     Of course, WW II ended the high adventure and further development of commercial air services, and by 1945 Lufthansa was out of business altogether.
     But during the conflict, both aircraft served with the B314s as the only long-range aircraft in the USA arsenal at onset, and the Focke-Wulfs served in various transport and other wartime duties in Germany.


     We will never know how the rivalry between B314 and FW200 might have panned out, although just imagining the possibilities 75 year later is delicious.
     The order book for FW 200s was building at the dawn of trans-Atlantic flight.
     For example, Finnair ordered the FW200 as early as 1941, anticipating services to New York from Helsinki.
     To generate interest, handmade display models of the first AY aircraft were actually part of the Finland Pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair held in Flushing Meadow, just near LaGuardia Airport in New York City.
     For its part, Germany had withdrawn from the World’s Fair in 1939 after Poland, and with the war looming any effort to further market and sell FW200s on the international stage was lost forever.
     But undoubtedly the FW 200 and its later, more developed versions would have booked orders from U.S. carriers including rival TWA, if not Pan Am itself.

     TWA would have been an especially intriguing customer for the FW200 as the carrier was still five years away from owner Howard Hughes’ move to operate the Lockheed Constellation.
     It’s worth noting that less than one month before the Brandenburg’s arrival at Floyd Bennett, on July 14, 1938, Howard Hughes landed at the field after flying his Lockheed 14 around the world, setting a speed record for that journey of 3 days, 19 hours, and 17 minutes.

     How the 1939 World’s Fair (in reality, a mega tradeshow) scenario might have impacted not only Pan Am but also the developing airline business can only be imagined, particularly while watching another Airbus A380 take off.
     

     After its historic flight to New York City, which included a grand ride for the crew all the way down Flatbush Avenue through Brooklyn to Manhattan, the return flight of Brandenburg to Germany on August 13, 1938, took 19 hours and 47 minutes at an average speed of 205 MPH (330 km/h), riding the ever-sweet tailwind from New York.
     Later in November, Brandenburg flew from Berlin to Basra, Karachi, Hanoi, and Tokyo in only 46 hours and 18 minutes, but on the return flight D-ACON ran out of fuel and ditched in the ocean near Manila.

     The 26-passenger Condor was designed, under the leadership of Kurt Tank, (right) technical director of Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau of Bremen, and the prototype made its first flight on July 27, 1937.
     Alas, today there are no FW200s left in the world, although the remains of one was discovered in 1981 in a Norwegian fjord near Trondheim and was taken to Germany by aviation enthusiasts who reportedly continue to raise funds and work to bring back an airplane that will never fly again.

     There is only so much money to go around for these things, so the restoration for the rescued Norwegian FW200 may have been slowed down by Lufthansa’s zeal to restore a flyable Lockheed Constellation (L-1649A), taking place right now at Lufthansa Technik; the airplane that brought the carrier back to New York in 1958 expects to be airborne in 2014.
     After the L-1649As were retired in favor of jets, in 1960 Lufthansa converted two of the Super Stars to cargo aircraft.
     As Lufthansa's first long-range cargo aircraft, they continued to fly between Germany and the USA.
     In those years of the "economic miracle," their cargo capacity helped to lay the foundation for Germany's present day role as a leading export nation.

The only B314 experience left in the world is at Foynes, Ireland, where the Irish National Air Museum has lovingly and faithfully recreated a section and interior details of “The Yankee Clipper,” attached to the museum’s main building.
     On August 11, Lufthansa, one of the greatest if not most respected airlines in the world, handed out postcards on their Germany to USA flights detailing the exploits of The Brandenburg 75 years ago, on the date of its epoch and historic flight of fancy.
Geoffrey/Flossie

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