Luke Aikins 25,000 Ft Jump without a parachute stunt (Saturday, July 30, 2016)
A 42-year-old skydiver with more than 18,000 jumps made history Saturday, July 30, 2016 when he became the first person to survive a leap without a parachute.
After a two-minute freefall, Luke Aikins flipped onto his back at the last second and landed dead centre into a 30-by-30-metre net at the Big Sky movie ranch on the outskirts of Simi Valley in California. Cheers rose from those who gathered to watch the stunt, including his family.
The jump — from the death-defying altitude of 25,000 feet (7.6 kilometres) — makes Aikins the only skydiver ever to go from plane to planet Earth without a parachute.
For those wondering about how he overcame the technical aspects of hitting the net from 25,000 feet there is more information at:
www.cbc.ca/news/world/skydiving-no-parachute-luke-aikins-1.3702300
Click on image below for video.
Canadair North Star
While researching my article for NL 1343 regarding the first Air Canada aircraft to fly the Rondel; I was pleasantly reminded of events that occurred during my childhood in the mid nineteen-sixties that have shaped modern day Canada.
So while looking for a topic for this NL issue I quickly became interested in the place of the Canadair North Star in history.
Trans-Canada Air Lines had been providing trans-Atlantic service beginning in 1943 with Lancastrians to carry military personnel (as the Canadian Government Trans-Atlantic Air Service) and planned to establish scheduled service to Europe after the war ended and needed an aircraft suitable to build these routes.
C.D. Howe (Canada's first transport minister), at the request of TCA, arranged for Canadair Aircraft Ltd. to acquire Canadian Vickers Ltd on November 11, 1944 and production soon began on a Douglas DC-4 variant using four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines to be called “North Star” that became the aircraft to initiate trans-Atlantic passenger flights from Canada. The first scheduled flight left Montreal on April 15, 1947 for London with several members of the government and TCA officials on board.
This may have been the most significant day in the airline’s history up until that time. TCA and the North Star were symbols that the Canadian aviation industry had arrived with a bright future ahead.
TCA operated a total 23 of the aircraft between 1946 and 1960. Terry advises that during the 14 years of service with TCA, they logged a total of 193 million miles and four aircraft were "named", something never applied to any other aircraft type our company operated.
CF-TFA Fin 201 c/n 125 "Cartier".
CF-TFB Fin 202 c/n 126 "Cornwallis"
CF-TFC Fin 203 c/n 127 "Champlain"
CF-TFD Fin 204 c/n 128 "Selkirk"
Ken Pickford contributed the following regarding their deployment with Canadian Pacific Air Lines. CP operated four North Stars primarily from Vancouver to Sydney, Australia, Tokyo and Hong Kong, beginning in 1949. CP never used the North Star name, referring to them as "Canadair Four". They were found to be uneconomic and the three surviving aircraft were sold to TCA in 1952 (one had been written off in a non-fatal landing accident at Tokyo in 1950). They were temporarily replaced by several used Douglas DC-4s acquired from Pan American, until CP's first new longer-range and much more economic DC-6Bs arrived a year or so later.
The aircraft was also operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force and flew 599 round trips during the Korean conflict between 1950 and 1952. One of these aircraft (C-54GM / 17515) has been preserved at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa.
It is the only one of the 71 built between 1946 and 1950 known to be still in existence. In 2005 a group of volunteers formed “Project North Star” dedicated to the restoration of the aircraft. Thankfully their efforts retain a link to a very important period of Canada’s aviation history.
Sources and links:
Between Ourselves (thanks Terry)
Air Canada – The History by Peter Pigott
The Canadair North Star by Larry Milberry
Project North Star web site
Project North Star on YouTube
Canada Aviation and Space Museum
Wikipedia
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Brian is co-founder, historian and photo archivist of the web site www.vickersviscount.net and can be contacted at |
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Michael Leduc sent this message and photo.
We would appreciate if it might be included in the NetLetter with the hope that we may find out who the characters are. The picture was taken at Jacques Cartier Square in Old Montreal. I suspect the photo was taken in the late sixties or early seventies, based on the attire of those in the picture. |
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Jack Stephens has passed us some photos he received of the first Vickers Viscount delivered to TCA (Air Canada) as CF-TGI which presently resides in the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, US. The message to Jack was - Best regards, Andrew Houghton, Retired BA Captain (Viscount co-pilot) and Brooklands volunteer |
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Our cartoon is from the "CP Air Blue Skies" magazine issued spring 1978. The caption is "CP Air to have many types of economy fares!"
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Central Mountain Air ZED ticket agreements cancelled. Effective immediately, the ZED ticket agreements with Central Mountain Air have been temporarily cancelled. While this temporary change may be disappointing, it is not permanent and we look forward to reinstating our agreement with this carrier in the future. If you currently hold ZED tickets, we recommend you get them refunded as they are now null and void. Passenger Pick-up at Heathrow: There has been increased checking of arrival passengers being picked up from the Departure level from all terminals. Most of us have done this as it is easier. There is now a crackdown with signs at each departure level that you cannot pick passengers and their baggage up, and that there are CCTV cameras being used to detect those who shouldn't be there and you could get a £40 fine. The Airport Authority are trying to encourage you to use their short stay car park at each terminal costing nearly £4 for half an hour and over £7 for an hour. What they don't advertise very much is that you can use the Long Stay car parks free for two hours. Air Canada’s check-in counters at Brussels Airport are now back at the main terminal, level 3, row 4 counters 1, 2 and 3. The check-in counters may only be reached upon presentation of an Itinerary Receipt or a boarding pass, and open 180 minutes prior to departure. |
