The Good Old Days - When Red Was Bad!
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The Good Old Days - When Red Was Bad!
Does anyone remember the good old days of flying in Africa when 'Red Was Bad'?
By this I don't mean when grandpa flew his trusty DH-82 down the Rift Valley to Wilson for some essential supplies: ie Tusker. I mean before the Iron Curtain fell and the Russian mafia traded snow in the Ukraine for the hot sun of Africa. When piston slappers and turbine airliners were the norm rather than the exception. Pilots came from every corner of the globe - bringing with them hopes and dreams of Africa - to either learn or to teach others the 'Art' of flying. Mechanics too were judged not just on their credentials and 'mates' to get them a job but rather their reputation and uncanny ability to keep their machines in the air - even under impossible circumstances. Did in fact the 'New South Africa' play a part in reshaping what we now call 'African Aviation' - or was it more global realisation finally entering the last bastian of our aviation past. Did we all lose something in the process or were we just too naive to think it would never change.
Where do we go from here?
By this I don't mean when grandpa flew his trusty DH-82 down the Rift Valley to Wilson for some essential supplies: ie Tusker. I mean before the Iron Curtain fell and the Russian mafia traded snow in the Ukraine for the hot sun of Africa. When piston slappers and turbine airliners were the norm rather than the exception. Pilots came from every corner of the globe - bringing with them hopes and dreams of Africa - to either learn or to teach others the 'Art' of flying. Mechanics too were judged not just on their credentials and 'mates' to get them a job but rather their reputation and uncanny ability to keep their machines in the air - even under impossible circumstances. Did in fact the 'New South Africa' play a part in reshaping what we now call 'African Aviation' - or was it more global realisation finally entering the last bastian of our aviation past. Did we all lose something in the process or were we just too naive to think it would never change.
Where do we go from here?
Last edited by Mobotu; 24th Aug 2002 at 16:22.
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Wow, someone in Africa with some literary sense. Ernest K. Mobotu by chance?
Here's my submission and I draw on Jerome Tharaud for inspiration:
Many wonderful inventions have surprised us during the course of the last century and the beginning of this one. But most were completely unexpected and were not part of the old baggage of dreams that humanity carries with it. Who had ever dreamed of steamships, railroads, or electric light? We welcomed all these improvements with astonished pleasure; but they did not correspond to an expectation of our spirit or a hope as old as we are: to overcome gravity, to tear ourselves away from the earth, to become lighter, to fly away, to take possession of the immense aerial kingdom; to enter the universe of the Gods, to become Gods ourselves.
— Jerome Tharaud, 'Dans le ciel des dieux,' in Les Grandes Conferences de l'aviation: Recits et souvenirs, 1934.
And now in Africa the steamships have all sunk, the railroads have been carried away and the electric light has been replaced with candles, we still have that wonderful ability to overcome gravity and to take those possessions (that have not already been taken from us) into the immense aerial kingdom.
Here's my submission and I draw on Jerome Tharaud for inspiration:
Many wonderful inventions have surprised us during the course of the last century and the beginning of this one. But most were completely unexpected and were not part of the old baggage of dreams that humanity carries with it. Who had ever dreamed of steamships, railroads, or electric light? We welcomed all these improvements with astonished pleasure; but they did not correspond to an expectation of our spirit or a hope as old as we are: to overcome gravity, to tear ourselves away from the earth, to become lighter, to fly away, to take possession of the immense aerial kingdom; to enter the universe of the Gods, to become Gods ourselves.
— Jerome Tharaud, 'Dans le ciel des dieux,' in Les Grandes Conferences de l'aviation: Recits et souvenirs, 1934.
And now in Africa the steamships have all sunk, the railroads have been carried away and the electric light has been replaced with candles, we still have that wonderful ability to overcome gravity and to take those possessions (that have not already been taken from us) into the immense aerial kingdom.
