Most unusual application for a helicopter?

[Graviman]

Purely to expand my interest in helis...

The name of the helicopter game definately seems to be versatility. I have seen various unique modifications and applications, from B47 crop dusters to the machine (think it was an S61 - Discovery Channel) used for relaying cables over the new japanese Akashi Kaiko suspension bridge. The machines used to recover the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules are also well worth a mention, despite being unmodified.

What is the most unusual helicopter application you have been involved in or know about?

Mart

[CyclicRick]

How about delivering Father Christmas or even Pizza!!
I was asked by the tower to unfurl their windsock the other day after it got entangled..didn't work unfortunatley :sad:

[Thud_and_Blunder]

Whoever persuades UK racecourse owners that hovering helicopters over their waterlogged track will help to dry them out obviously has the gift of the gab.

[helicopter-redeye]

Or persuading an airfield owner to pay for 2 hrs hovering about the field at dusk to 'prevent fog forming in the morning..'

:O

[ShyTorque]

Flying all night over a plantation to prevent frost on Florida orange trees?

My most unusual flight was a mercy mission for a Killer Whale. A landslide took out the power to Ocean Park which stopped the filtration and cooling plant. We were tasked to deliver an underslung 6,000lb generator to the road just below the whale's pool on an 80 ft strop. As I brought the aircraft to the hover, the whale came up out of the water, leaned on the edge of his pool and looked me straight in the eye from just outside the rotor disc! I'm sure he winked at us... ;)

The flying circular saw takes some beating though.

[nibog]

We used a couple of Allouettes to clear cut grass from a football pitch just in time for our lunchtime game.

It didn't work as well as you might imagine.

Only in the military..

[407 too]

MANY years ago, training in 500d, with the maiden flight of the boeing 767 at yxs, on rotation taking off, one of the wheels fell off and bounced down runway and into grass - tower asks to try and locate tire:eek:

[BlenderPilot]

Does this count for an unusual application?
(Some TV chick that decided to get herself an original pics for her portfolio at my hangar, 2003 I think!)

http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/PPRuNe/BB1.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/PPRuNe/BB2.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/PPRuNe/BB3.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/PPRuNe/BB4.jpg

[overpitched]

No seatbelt, No harness, No door, No clothes..... It's all fun and games till someone looses an eye !!!!

[belly tank]

Overpitched!

Im Sure that G String has some sort of approved lanyard on it :}

And i also note that the cargo mirror has not been repositioned for a better wide angle shot :{

[overpitched]

Would that be a Cof G string then ???;) ;)

[TheMonk]

Isn't the "step" supposed to be installed on the outside of the landing gear?

[voodoo2]

Hmmm.

How about replacing an older powerline with a new. They wanted me to pickup an temporary cable to lay down along side the old one. Our CP decided that a 1000 fot sling would be maximum lengh. Actuallt it became airborne at 850 feet. I then had to "try" to lay it down with precision. The first lift it was picked up in the middle of the cable so I had to pickup another end again and do the same thing. A bit uncomfortable to get the sling airborne at 850 feet. I was in a AS350B3 and the weight of the cable was around 1 ton.

Another one was when i was flying as a target for a new radar. They wanted me to hover at 10 000 feet for over an hour.

To simulate a real windy day for a television program. Hover over the actors for 3 minutes. Job done.

Batchler Party. At 8000 feet they stapped a fake parachute on his back and blindfolded the poor guy. We pretended to be climbing to 20 000 feet but in realety i gently descended to a friends house were there were a swimmingpool. Once there they gave him the handle for the backpack and told him to pull it as soon as he was outside of the aircraft. (Wish i could have seen his face). So at about 5 feet above the pool the kicked him out. Bastards :-)

[SASless]

Slinging Dunny's up to nearly the top of a snow covered peak in Washington State and backloading the hiker's deposits. One can claim having hauled all sorts of crap by helicopter after that escapade.

Also hauling dead Salmon to the alpine creeks and streams in Oregon. Sea Gulls followed the support truck carrying the bucket back to the hangar and swarmed it evertime it stopped for a traffic light.:E

[teeteringhead]

We used to have a task on the Wessex in NI to erect telegraph/power cable poles.

Workmen would position pole alongside hole, heli would lift other end of pole to put it in hole - only a specialised usl I spose, but it didn't really go anywhere or even leave the ground...

... all went well until someone attached the lanyard about a third of the way down the pole rather than the end ..... geometry unavoidably put pole into rotor disk!!

[Thomas coupling]

Shytorque you mentioned the orange groves in florida. A colleague of mine used to:

Fly over gigantic orange groves in Florida between 15 and 30 feet above the trees. 45 gallon Diesel drums were set alight and the heat was spread over the crops to keep the frost away. They had to fly between 15 and 30 feet. Too low and they hit the trees, too high and they were flying IMC in the layer of diesel smoke.
All this was done alongside 20-30 other helos doing the same thing at the same time :oh: :oh: :oh:

Another job he did was to pick up half a dozen mexicans in the morning and hover over the croc swamps in Florida allowing them to jump into the swamps and herd the crocs away from public access points! His job as the pilot was to be at the ready to collect any of these 'volunteers' who were being chased by a rampant croc:ooh: :ooh:

Couldn't believe it.

[SASless]

Shaking water off Cherry Trees can be good sport too.

[TheFlyingSquirrel]

I was just watching a program on mining in Indonesia on Discovery. The research helis needed somewhere to land in the dense thick jungle, so they winched down some poor sod with a chainsaw, who under extreme care of the winchman, then proceeded to clear the upper branches and leaves first, so eventually he could get to the terra-firma so he could fell the trees. So here's another one, using a chopper to create a helipad ! ( " some of the chainsaw men got killed " said the narrator....really ? )

[loachboy]

If I remeber rightly, a TV Helicopter was used in the 80's when One Day International Cricket was in it's infancy, to dry the Cricket pitch of the Sydney Cricket Ground so play could commence.

Regards

Loachy
:ok:

[the wizard of auz]

Saw a pic of a choppa hovering inside a large shed to dry the concrete floor once. also watched a turbine B47 belting about with a large clothes line type arrangment slung underneath. was doing some magnetic survey work.

[ATN]

Spraying white paint on greenhouses with a B47 before summer heat peak.

ATN

[Graviman]

Wowsers - some great responses! I guess there is always a tendancy to try to put the heli to use, whether or not the idea is sensible :rolleyes: ...

Howabout most awkward load carried?

Mart

[Whirlygig]

The most awkward load I've carried was a friend of mine (still is!) who is also a driving instructor. After complaining that a Schweizer wasn't very fast and couldn't we go to Le Touquet for lunch, I said to myself, Practice Autorotation GO!

That shut up her up!

Cheers

Whirls

[Cyclic Hotline]

Winchmen.


Bwahahahaha - just joking folks. Just joking.:p

[KikoLobo]

Looking for a lost Dog. Somone hired a friend of mine just to look for a lost Dog. My friend even told the owner it was going to be very difficult to recover the dog using a helicopter on the city, but the guy was reluctant and say he did not care and paid up front.

[SASless]

Awkward Load....nothing more awkward than having an FAA Inspector and a NTSB Accident Investigator riding with you...with the company Chief Pilot sat in the back discussing your flying.


:\

[SilsoeSid]

Unusual maybe, but useful, certainly. The ground handling handle on the tail of a Gazelle.

In company with a shovel and a 'loo roll', probably the best exercise dump position going! :E :yuk: :E


Most awkward load, well.....Dartmoor/Salisbury Plain 1996......full compo rations for 2 weeks, say no more!!! :E :yuk: :E

On a par with the Commons Defence Select Comittee. :ok:

[EMS R22]

The PM of NZ , our own Helen Clark!

[ems300]

Helen clarke!! that would be a bl dy:mad: awfull load alright!! She would come under the very scary loads and butt ugly!!! better you than me!!:ok:

[Revolutionary]

Somewhere in Germany there's a pilot who had a dead cow tossed from his helicopter (http://www.animalrights.net/archives/year/2001/000149.html)

[blade771]

SAR flight at Culdrose picked up daisy the cow from the bottom of a cliff a few years back, initially winched a vet down who sedated her and then underslung in a net back to safety.
I have delivered santa a couple of times, nearly chucked his sack of goodies through the main disc when he was on his way out though!!

[Fun Police]

i once had to shoo a balloon (of the party variety) off of the runway at abbotsford int'l airport in order to stop the 737 waiting to go from eating it. no naked chics in sight tho'.:(

[vaqueroaero]

I've done frost patrol in a 500 over avacado trees.

There was a time when I was hired to look for someone's lost dog.

Another time I was hired to look for a gang of white line painters who had apparently stolen some guys wifes handbag. (I didn't ask - I just flew) :confused:

I've also gone out and looked for crashed radio controlled planes - some were found some weren't.

And I also remember having a guy phone up and wanting to drop 10,000 ping pong balls over a crowd at a skateboard competition. We politely refused that one!

[N Arslow]

I refuse to discuss the dropping of a teddy bear on a parachute to the flight deck of a ship - nor the subsequently futile SAR effort to find and recover the doomed furry one...

[SASless]

Well....there was a period of time in Iran when we devoted some amount of time tracking down homemade hot air balloons made from survival blankets and sterno cans filled with jet fuel and petrol mix. All were launched at night....and drifted around creating who knows what kind of thoughts in the local's minds!

The MK 93 seemed to be the best configuration for distance and height....if that suggests how much flight time was consumed in the project which was done covertly....after the nightly round of Uckers.

[Bertie Thruster]

Winchman at end of 300ft of cable with 12 bore (12 gauge scattergun) collecting game for the lunch pot.

[KENNYR]

Taking Sir Rex Hunt (Governor of the Falkland Islands), his dog and two bodyguards to a high place on West Island so that he could walk his dog (at tax payers expense)!!!!

[Leftpedal]

Against my better judgement I did leaflet dropping from a R44 once. We managed okay but a fixed wing doing the same thing got a bunch of them stuck in the (elevators?) and had to quit.

[SHortshaft]

On more than one occasion I was sent out to sprinkle a deceased’s ashes over what had been their favourite stretch of sea.

It took a couple of goes before we were able to work out how to do it without the ashes blowing back into the cabin.

[Brilliant Stuff]

For pretty polly we hung a 80' poster under a AS355 showing a couple of legs in tights, whilst a 206 flew around it in order to film it.

I believ something similar is being done at the moment over London by Cabair

[blade771]

Yep, they certainly are but something a great deal bigger. Brilliant design so if the banner causes any problems, it and it's stabilisation weight can be released and then dropped with no danger to those on the ground. Several big sponsors using the system. Usually underslung from AS355.

[BlenderPilot]

Weird Flights?

1.- I once took a police officer in Bell 407 to his girfriends apartment in the morning to wait until she came out, he pasted computer cut vinyl signs all over the helicopter saying he was sorry (I didn't ask for what) and we had to follow her all the way to work all over the worlds most crowded city, while he called 1000 times on the cell phone to apologize and when the call did go thru she would just hang up on him, needless to say she was really hot looking from the air, I can just imagine the marvels she did up close!

2.- I had to drop fake money for contestants all over a golf course for an MTV show.

3.- I took a guy to his girlfriends home where she was having a party so that he could deliver his promise ring to her, we landed in the patio which was really tight and I was taking it slow, he was so excited he jumped while I was still about 10 feet up and broke his leg.

[Darren999]

Hovering over tomato crops in Pennsylvania in a B47 to stop the frost killing them 1st thing in the morning.Hovering 20-30 feet around the field!! interesting!! very popular though...

[EMS R22]

Just about every machine in the country(NZ) is doing that when the frost hits.

[rotorfan]

Looking low-level over corn fields for an escaped (expensive) stud bull. We spotted it a couple of times, but it would run from the mighty R22, natch. (Imagine his view, nothing but green leaves in his face.) I wouldn't have guessed that a large bull could be so invisible in a field of corn. :sad:

[Ascend Charlie]

Hovering over an air force bowling green to dry it out for the inter-service bowls competition .

Racing a Pilatus Porter around a trotting track - the Porter was fastest from start line to finishing post, but he couldn't stay over the track on the corners.

Carrying prize-winning ducks from the Royal Easter Show to the boss's farm - it was north, and the ducks would have flown south if they weren't in the chopper.

Sling-loading a lounge suite to the balcony of a high-rise apartment

Tossing equipment (electric fans, desk lamps, broken tools) from a Board of Survey into the waters of Stockton Bight so nobody could hand them in again and get a new one in return - some of the items were recognised as having been through the Board 3 times, so this was one way to make sure they didn't do it again. And we had to carry an official who certified that we didn't keep any items to recycle!

Culling feral animals (pigs, foxes, rabbits) that were on high ground during a flood, a rifle out each of 3 doors and me with the cyclic between my knees and a 38 in hand out the 4th door, plugging away at pigs. The first round goes into its rear haunches as it runs away, then it turns side-on to see what the mild annoyance was, and another 5 rounds put enough holes in a pig to make it sink in the water.

Chasing a snake off the runway - caution, snake turbulence.

Most useless application for a helicopter - carrying politicians.:8

[Luther Sebastian]

It's only useless if you're still carrying them when you land.

[Stanwell]

Snake transport?
In outback Queensland a while back, a bloody big Brown Snake had decided that we were a snake taxi and that he'd use our services.
(Perhaps he thought he'd go see his girlfriend or something.)
It took a full extinguisher bottle of CO2 to persuade him to do it by other means.

It would have been an interesting ride if we'd discovered him while airborne.

[SASless]

Sling loading Dunnys and the contents for the National Park Service.

Certainly the most glamorous job I ever had other than perhaps scattering the remains of dead Salmon along the upper reaches of streams for the US Forest Service.

People avoided you in the Pub afterwards following each long Day's Work.

[BOBAKAT]

have carried a drowned dead man, picked up on the reef on a lost island in the basket outside, it's count ?
If not : retrieve videotapes of a canoe race in a bucket hanging from a rope in the middle of the Pacific... :O

[Reely340]

Pulling a barge:
http://www.nevadasurveyor.com/radio_towers/ColumbiaBarge.jpg

[Flying Bull]

Blowing halon out of the streets of a town in a valley, after the fireextinguishingsytem of a big company flooded not only the industrial hall but also the streets around.....
And something similar, also a town in a valley, with toxic fumes after a fire with an inversion weather with no wind....

and it worked - fire services were happy ;-)

[whoknows idont]

If not : retrieve videotapes of a canoe race in a bucket hanging from a rope in the middle of the Pacific...


We might have a winner here... Couldn't possibly have come up with that!

[Gordy]

As SASless says...."Dunnies"

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/helokat/Lucyhaul.jpg

Or R-44's that could not fly themselves:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/helokat/2015/100_1438_zpsilagghuw.jpg

Or who says an L4 cannot haul triples:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j35/helokat/2015/10561596_10204689869075594_9218780006450739572_n%201_zpsq1cu 9mqm.jpg

[John Eacott]

I've done the dunnies drop (perfectly positioned on a boulder at the top of Mt Buffalo with the best view over the valley :ok:) but the annual call at the end of summer, from Parks, to longline out the full long drop toilets was something to keep on at least a 200' line.

Triple loads: how about a triple flag fly, at night, low level to be spotlighted at the AirShows DownUnder?

900+ft of bird netting to go over a fishpond?

Using Helitacks to fly water from the nearby river to fill a buoywall so the firetrucks could avoid driving down to the river :hmm:

[skadi]

mxdNnitPNEM

skadi

[John Eacott]

skadi,

Done in 1969 with a Wessex at Portland using the winch, running directly at Chesil Beach until lifting over the grockles at the last moment!

No doubt a repeat of it being done by a Whirlwind even earlier ;)

[BOBAKAT]

Oh, I forgot, many years ago, I tow a woman, barefoot champion, behind a squirrel in the lagoon of Bora Bora
I have this endorsement on my license now ;)

[Arnie Madsen]

Bell 47 skid used to persuade the bear to move away from a geologist who just had her arm eaten off.

[JohnDixson]

This is dated, but may be of interest to both the long line pilots and the H-2/H-3/H-60 dipping community.

In the late 60's early 70's the DOD folks came up with a requirement to be able to keep an H-3 in a hover at 10,000 ft for extended periods. Hence the design included a 10,000 ft long flexible refueling hose. So the idea was to lift off, haul the hose to 10,000', engage the " Hover " coupler in the AFCS, and sit there for 8-10 hrs, all the while taking on fuel from below as needed. It didn't stop with the concept. The hardware was built and flight tested, as I recall, at the Augusta Ga Airport. Pilot was Kurt Cannon. You all can imagine the challenges. I do not recall why it did not go forward, but can think of a good number of reasons.

[SASless]

Back in 2009, Northwest Helicopters of Olympia WA, had a NASA Contract which required execution of a 4,100 Foot Long Class C External Load (One in which the Longline remains in contact with the Ground).

NASA wanted to test the Concept of a Robot climbing its way into Space or some such silly notion. Good for Northwest but expensive for the Taxpayer.

Latest News (http://www.nwhelicopters.com/hfs/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=32&Itemid=51&limitstart=5)

[Bellrider]

Pipelinepatrol......

[JerryG]

1. Lowering a VHS tape of the royal (Charles/Diana) wedding to the QE2 as she came up the South West approaches so that the pax didn't miss out on the national p*ss up.

2. Using a home-made sky-shout to scare yachties away from a live torpedo firing range. The fall-back position if they ignored us was to get the submarine to surface next to them ... hysterical to observe the increased levels of interest at that point!

3. Blowing sand in the eyes of Miss Grace Jones, shortly after she'd punched Russel Harty. (The mine/bomb sequence in A View To A Kill ... didn't mean to, honest)

4. Dropping the NASA/ESA Huygens probe for parachute inflation tests. Had to knock on the door of a couple of Oxfordshire houses to ask for it back when the wind got up a bit. Five years later it broke through clouds and took the most stunning pictures of the surface of Titan. I hereby claim to be the only helicopter pilot to have participated in filming another body in the solar system (but I'm certain somebody on here is going to knock me off that perch?)

[fly911]

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q140/fly911/BK_zpsb99awmqp.jpg

[fly911]

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q140/fly911/Mi26x2_zpselbbhoax.jpg

[jellycopter]

Under slinging fully grown cows in a net from the bottom of the Mountains in Oman to the villages at the top. They had to arrive alive so they could then be slaughtered on site to celebrate Eid al Fitr after Ramadan. Sometimes the poor cows died of shock on the way up so go back down and get another!

[Gordy]

Sometimes the poor cows died of shock on the way up so go back down and get another!

Clearly they were not normal cows then:

lly8BBGidJQ

[jellycopter]

Clearly they were not normal cows then:

lly8BBGidJQ

Normal cows, probably a sh1te pilot!

[piesupper]

In 1975 I and several hundred other guys were building the Ninian Central production platform at Loch Kishorn.
Just prior to float-out, most of the gangways had been removed so that access on and off the rig, although still in dry-dock was not easy. Getting to/from the canteen from your work area on the rig could take 15-20 mins each way. A fair chunk of "wasted" time on a 12 hour shift with 3 breaks. The union put their foot down and everyone got off the rig for their main break but the tea breaks were covered by swinging tea urns and snacks aboard by the tower cranes. As a banksman, it was my job to get the load safely down and unhooked.
One night shift two out of four tower cranes had broken down and those still working were way too busy to deal with our grub. In order to prevent mutiny, the rig boss commanded that one of the Bell Rangers on charter from PLM picked up our grub from the canteen and slung it aboard for the hungry bears. Straight line distance less than 300 yards but probably the most expensive cuppa and bacon roll I ever had.

This photo shows the scene a few days after at float-out. We dug the biggest dry dock in the world, built the biggest oil rig in the world and at float out we had the largest hover craft (it could only float by frantically pumping compressed air into the base) and the largest moving object in the world at the time. At float out, I counted 14 helicopters in the air, which might be some sort of record for non-military, non-fly-in occasions.
http://kishornport.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Leaving-dry-dock.jpg

[Spunk]

My favorites:

-blowing of snow of the roof top of a soccer stadium
-taking water samples with nothing but a helicopter, a rope and a bucket
-frost prevention, hovering overhead tomato fields
-drying a horse race track

[Vertical Freedom]

pulling a injured & sick Mountaineer off Manslu between camp 4 & 5; 24,400' @ -7ºC (but only just) :=
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
whilst filming crossing the Nuptse pass @ 27,000' the pass below at 26,444' prevailing jetstream wind speeds of 60+knots :ouch:

[500guy]

I don't think 14 is the maximum piesupper.

Remember this project?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBWHUdPQCH8

We flew a total of 22,000 hours building that line.

There were 4 Skycranes
1 BV107
4 Kmax
1 407
6 500D/Es
3 530FFs
1 520N
1 212S
6 or 7 Astars.

I think we got as many as 18-20 flying at the same time at the height of the project. They we spread out a bit over several miles. But you could usually see 2-4 in the air at any given time.

[WG99]

Followed a Bridge to Bridge water-ski race chartered by two mothers watching their sons compete, lot of fun winding along the Hawksbury River bends ... felt like we were on skis, too.

About 29 Santa Claus deliveries, all different and all hazardous with pepped-up dress-ups exiting and heaving their Santa sack up over their shoulder, threatening the rotor blades. Their over-sized gumboots a problem in the cockpit, too.

Cross-country charter New Year's Eve with my large male passenger drinking a six pack of beer, one by one tossed the empties out the window.

Joyrider (disabled heavy set young man) threw a punch at my jaw, knocking off my headset. His "carer" was seated by the window for safety but I copped the blow. Very short flight.

Filming a disabled swimmer on a marathon swim from Sydney to Wollongong; he had only one leg and one arm.

Filmed the HMAS Ovens (submarine) off the Sydney coast, surfacing for a Join the Navy brochure. Difficult to see the coast on return flight.

Gas pipeline regular inspections, low level CBD Sydney with street directory flight path on lap. Still have the street directory showing the underground pipeline location.

Parachute drops.

[Tourist]

This is dated, but may be of interest to both the long line pilots and the H-2/H-3/H-60 dipping community.

In the late 60's early 70's the DOD folks came up with a requirement to be able to keep an H-3 in a hover at 10,000 ft for extended periods. Hence the design included a 10,000 ft long flexible refueling hose. So the idea was to lift off, haul the hose to 10,000', engage the " Hover " coupler in the AFCS, and sit there for 8-10 hrs, all the while taking on fuel from below as needed. It didn't stop with the concept. The hardware was built and flight tested, as I recall, at the Augusta Ga Airport. Pilot was Kurt Cannon. You all can imagine the challenges. I do not recall why it did not go forward, but can think of a good number of reasons.

This seems to make no sense to me.

This hose that is 10000ft long. This will surely weigh once full at least 1Kg per foot if it is to carry enough fuel to feed an H3.

An H3 can surely only lift 6000Kg ish?

Was it an extraordinarily thin hose at amazing pressure?

[9Aplus]

Mi-26 x 2

That Buran sling story ended when they made drop test with 15T load on
one helicopter. Camera spotted close encounter of tail and main rotor blade....
Friend of mine was on board... all ended well...

[500guy]

EAC tried the same thing with two S64Fs decades ago. As soon as one descened a hair more than the other it recieved a disproprtionate share of the load. It also almost got ugly.

[JohnDixson]

Tourist, the following news article from 1969 provides some further information. The project was Long Drink, not High Drink, and it was flown at Huntsville, not Augusta.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19691112&id=JWpYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LvgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5287,3403415&hl=en

Might have some hose details in a few days. Glad you probed the issue: it got me to reconnect with some old friends.

Never say never in aviation, right?

John

[AnFI]

The Jet fuel in 3000m height of hose would make a pressure (at SpG of 0.8) of 240Bar or 24mPascal which is like 240kg/cm^2

The hose need only be 1cm^2 , making the weight of the fluid in the hose 3000m x 0.0001m x 0.8(SpG) = 240kg (a smaller diameter hose could be used, but the pressure would be the same)

Surprisingly the helicopter would not have to lift this since the pump (at the bottom) lifts the fuel (but the helicopter has to lift the hose - which might weigh about the same as the hose).

So not THAT hard to do.

Or you could just use an efficient helicopter and carry the fuel, depending on the payload required.


(BTW Amazing pair of articles on the same page;, US test pilots fly and like Concord, and new noise rules introduced. Trade war? who started it? I know the Germans by invading Poland ! )