Originally Posted by
Mr Oleo Strut
Don't I recall the Russians, particularly TU104s and others, hastily converted bombers with glass noses
The Soviet types with glazed noses were a longstanding feature through to the earlier Tupolev 154s. It was actually where the navigator's station was, entered by a short tunnel in the middle of the console between the pilots, normally covered by a loose curtain. A substantial sextant was mounted in there, which more than one visitor mistook for a "spy camera" ! A hijack attempt once by an intruder trying to overcome the pilots was dealt with by the nav suddenly making an appearance from behind their curtain
ground engineer doing ground-power checks lit up all four on a Comet at the same time in error, and it was lucky the beast was chained down. .
A BEA Comet 4B doing a similar power check did override the chocks, lunged forward, and crashed into hangar doors ahead, which fell forward onto unlucky Trident 'PI which was inside. It was repaired, but was lost shortly afterwards in the Staines accident, and initial investigation was whether the repairs had somehow failed.