Boy at controls of TU154
In the 70s we flew London-Moscow-Tokyo and back several times by 'Aeroflop' as it was popularly called. The short story is that despite the lack of any entertainment system, I usually found something to do. One flight I used the inflight mag (one page in Russian, one in English) and went round the cabin collecting Russian words until I had learnt the alphabet by heart.
The fittings such as seat-back trays were aluminium and looked to have been cut out by hand as each was slightly different. It was usually an Ilyushin Il-62, I think. As you got further back in the passenger cabin, the legroom grew noticeably less and less generous until in the last few rows your knees were banging the seat in front. I soon learnt to book nearer the front. There was a metal pole running transversely under the seats and since most of the cushion foams were shot from heavy use one had difficulty avoiding an aching bum.
Trying to pay for duty-free I found that no change was offered for paper money. If you insisted on change, the housewife-style stewardess would lift up her apron with a deep sigh and fish around in a bulging leather personal purse for coins of various denominations, if you were lucky. On some flights we were given sweets instead of change. We were going through a vegetarian stage at the time. One meal I remember was a large sausage sitting fatly on a thin film of soup, with plenty of bobbing green peas. My daughter objected, so right in front of her the sausage was lifted out of her soup and whisked away.
The fittings such as seat-back trays were aluminium and looked to have been cut out by hand as each was slightly different. It was usually an Ilyushin Il-62, I think. As you got further back in the passenger cabin, the legroom grew noticeably less and less generous until in the last few rows your knees were banging the seat in front. I soon learnt to book nearer the front. There was a metal pole running transversely under the seats and since most of the cushion foams were shot from heavy use one had difficulty avoiding an aching bum.
Trying to pay for duty-free I found that no change was offered for paper money. If you insisted on change, the housewife-style stewardess would lift up her apron with a deep sigh and fish around in a bulging leather personal purse for coins of various denominations, if you were lucky. On some flights we were given sweets instead of change. We were going through a vegetarian stage at the time. One meal I remember was a large sausage sitting fatly on a thin film of soup, with plenty of bobbing green peas. My daughter objected, so right in front of her the sausage was lifted out of her soup and whisked away.
Last edited by jolihokistix; 29th Sep 2020 at 05:26.
The engines are certainly copies of the RR Nene sold to Russia by the Atlee government. Chinese copies of the Russian copies were used in some jet fighters that were sold to the Pakistan Air Force. The overhaul life was so short that the Chinese manufacturers bought a team over from Rolls Royce engines to sort out the their ins. to mm. measurements for them.
And just a couple of days later, they're in the news:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54338454
I heard of a flight somewhere in the wilds of Siberia where all passengers were seated ready for takeoff, when an engineer appeared in the cabin carrying what was obviously part of an aircraft. He paraded up and down the aisle then left. Shortly afterwards the captain announced that the engineer had been carrying a spare part that was needed for the onward flight. He invited the passengers to contribute to the cost of the part, or they were staying where they were.
T J
