Test Yourself . . .

The Early Years

SAA was formed in 1934, when the South African government purchased Union Airways and renamed it South African Airways. The first cities served  by the new airline were Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. The next year, the new airline absorbed South West African Airways, expanding its fleet and staff.

The early history of South African Airways is closely linked to the Junkers aircraft. Shortly after the formation of the airline in 1934, SAA took delivery of three Junkers JU-52s. These proved to be so successful that the airline ordered 19 of the new, bigger-engine aircraft. 

As more wide-bodied aircraft arrived to join the fleet, the 707s were sold.

The 1970s

During the 1970s, domestic and international protest against the government's apartheid policies escalated and many African countries refused to let SAA use their airspace or denied it landing rights. The airline needed long-range aircraft to circumvent the boycott, and they found the solution with the Boeing 747SP, which had a longer range than any other aircraft at the time. SAA operated six 747SP aircraft; the last of these was retired from service in 2003. 

The 70s also saw the introduction of the Airbus A300 into SAA's fleet. The airline had 9 of the aircraft flying mainly internal routes. In 2002, SAA began a fleet renewal program and chose to replace its ageing fleet with a range of all Airbus aircraft.

The 1980s

1984 was a year of celebration for SAA, its 50th anniversary. A group of fans discussed the idea of a museum dedicated to the airline, and South African Historic Flight was born out of using one aircraft as the focal point for the celebrations in 1984.

The First Time . . .

Captain Charles (Chuck) Yeager “broke the sound barrier” on October 14, 1947, at Muroc Dry Lake, California. As the first person to fly faster than sound, Yeager reached 670 mph, or Mach 1.015, in his Bell X-1 airplane, Glamorous Glennis, named after his wife.

A year later, December 26, 1948, Soviet pilot I.V. Fedorov broke the sound barrier in his Lavochkin La-176, by diving at full throttle.

American test pilot Scott Crossfield exceeded Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) in a Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket on November 20, 1953.

Not to be outdone, three weeks later on December 12, 1953, Chuck Yeager followed with another record by flying Mach 2.5 (2.5 times the speed of sound) in a rocket-propelled experimental aircraft, a Bell X-1A, reaching 1,650 mph and an altitude of 70,000 feet.

In 1951 air passenger miles flown (10.6 million) exceeded passenger miles traveled in Pullman cars on the railroad (10.2 million).

In 1958 more passengers (1.2 million) crossed the North Atlantic by air than by sea.

On November 22, 1919 the first municipal airport in the United States was opened in Tucson, Arizona and is still in use today!

On December 24, 1944, the people of the Philippines received a surprise when airplanes of 43rd Bombing Group flew over to drop a million Christmas cards; each one containing the words: “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 1944 – General Douglas MacArthur.”

Juan learned his love of aviation early — at the age of six, when his father would take him to the nearest airport.  He was fascinated by the take-offs, and more so by the thought of “so many people going up to the skies behind those tiny windows.”  As he puts it “I was a kid who started loving those Boeing 707s and DC-8s back then.”

Juan began his collection in 1997 so that he could have “my favorite aircrafts here at home.”  The first models he acquired were die-cast, until he discovered Flight Miniatures on the Internet “by accident — one website would bring me to another, until I was lucky enough to find yours.”

His collection has grown to a hundred, most of them in the 1:200 and 1:400 scale, with 6 of his 30 “Flight Minis” in the larger 1:130 scale.  He lists his favorite airlines as British Airways (“the airline I always fly on”), Thai Airways and Air France (“because the colors appeal to me”). He says he loves the Boeing 747-400, which comprises 90% of his collection, because “it is the most beautiful aircraft flying the skies nowadays.”

Juan regrets not having enough room to display his model collection.  He is considering a move to Castille, a beautiful town 450 miles north, where he hopes to have an extra room in his new house to display every single aircraft. 

Juan’s other hobbies include reading and writing in English, music, movies, and travel.  It was on one of those travels, from London’s Heathrow Airport to LAX, that he had one of his most thrilling experiences.  He recounts:

“When we had been flying for about 5 or 6 hours, I asked the airhostess if I could pay a visit to the pilots in the cockpit (pre-9/11 of course!).  To my surprise, she came to me about 20 minutes later. We went up the staircase to first class and straight into the cockpit. I shook hands with the pilot and co-pilot and thanked them for letting me in.  They asked me where I was from and things like that, and I asked them questions about the aircraft, and 10 minutes later I was back in my seat.  It was great and very kind of them.” 

Juan Aracil, a teacher, indulges his sense of adventure with travel and new experiences. He also has an eye for beauty, as evident in this photo showing Juan and his fiancee Rosie.
 
 

   The modern parachute has a much longer history than manned flight.

  The first documented concept and design of the parachute can be traced to the notebook sketches of Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519). In 1617, Faust Vrancic of Croatia constructed a device based on Da Vinci’s drawing, and jumped from a tower in Venice.

Sebastien Lenormand, however, demonstrated the parachute principle in 1783, and thus is credited with its invention. To test Lenormand’s principle, in 1785 Jean Pierre Blanchard dropped a dog in a basket, to which he attached a parachute, from a ballon high in the air. (Ironically, Blanchard claimed he escaped an exploding balloon in 1793 with the aid of a parachute.) His main contribution was developing a foldable parachute made from silk, a departure from rigid frames.

On October 22, 1797, Andre Garnerin became the first person to descend from the air with a non-rigid parachute, from a hydrogen balloon at 2,300 feet in Paris. He not only lived to tell the tale, he also improved on the parachute design by introducing air vents to reduce oscillations.

Over the years the parachute design acquired a harness, then a knapsack, then the smaller breakaway parachute to pull the main parachute. And voila! We have today’s parachute in all colors and shapes.
 

Collectors in general are passionate about their collection, usually collecting within the framework of some sort of pattern or organization so that, as they add to their collection, the pattern fills out and grows incrementally, sometimes towards completion and sometimes into new directions.

Our Flight Miniatures collectors are no different. You probably collect models of aircraft you have actually flown in, maybe of a specific aircraft type, maybe to have the entire fleet of your favorite airline, maybe of all the airlines of a country. To help you with collection ideas, we group some of our models into collector series, namely Flight Miniatures Airline Preservation Series, Flight Miniatures Historic Livery Series, and Boeing’s own Boeing Milestone Series.