Friday, April 13, 2018

Most famous flights in history

Wright Brothers 1st


Enola Gay dropping the 1st nuke bomb

the Moon shot, Apollo 11, first man on any other celestial object, our moon


Lindbergh to Europe


Amelia Earhart's last


Spruce Goose across Long Beach harbor


Chuck Yeager Bell X-1


Friendship 7, the Mercury mission into orbit


first flight of the Columbia


did I miss any flight that was more famous? Not more famous planes, space ships, pilots... but FLIGHTS... person in an aircraft 

29 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Was it more famous, and does it qualify as it was a bunch of planes? I had to think those over, then I decided that either disqualified it in my mind

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  2. Probably should include Yuri Gargarin 57 years ago yesterday and Sputnik October 4, 1957

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    1. Again, "more famous" and Sputnik doesn't qualify as ... of for gods sake, just read what I said. Seriously? Lobbing a spacecraft does NOT make a "flight". Dang it Wickershaw... if that were the case Voyager 1 would top the list.

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  3. I bet a Russian would mention all the firsts of Soviet aviation.

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    1. as soon as you find a Russian blog having a article on famous Russian flights, you'll be right. Until then... name one famous Russian first of anything. Ummm, Sputnick. Yuri. Gulag. Catherine the great, Anna. Those incredible eggs... And that is pretty much the end of historic firsts from Russia. So, if we could stay on track, and let me know about "more famous flights" I could add something cool to the post

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  4. Maybe Spaceshipone.

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  5. The Hindenburg was pretty note worthy, mostly for the way it ended though.

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    1. Well, yeah, that is the most famous crash/disaster in aviation... but, should I add that to this list? It's grim and morbid.

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    2. It is famous, just not in the positive achievement category.

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    3. Well, look at from a different point of view. Would it be better in the most famous crashes in aircraft post? Or in the most famous flights post? I'd guess it had nothing about it's "flight" that distinguished it from all the other Zeppelin flights. It's landing though, well, see? Not a famous "flight". And I'm not making a list of famous disasters, crashes, or fails. And this wasn't a "positive achievement" catagory... aka, did you see the Amelia Earhart flight in the list?
      This was what I figured were the most famous flights, not rides, crashes, aircraft, space ships, disasters or accomplishments.
      Earharts flight was famous not because she died, or crashed... but because it was the great mystery flight... the great disappearance that led to many searches, expeditions, articles and books.
      Back when I was a kid, the common mysteries of life were the UFO, Bigfoot, Bermuda triangle, and disappearance of Amelia Earhart. No one probably would know her name if she'd made it to Asia. Plenty of women flew before her, and after her, farther and longer than her.
      We don't know their names, there are no paintings, statues, books etc for them. They didn't spark the mass media to write about them for decades.

      So, anyway, Hindenburg. A famous crash.

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  6. I don't think the man on the street would know of Spaceshipone, or any of the recent shuttle replacement prototypes and test rockets/planes/aircraft. Not by name, maybe not even at all. So, just my opinion, SS1 ceratinly doesn't rate as "more famous" as I asked about.

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  7. Sorry. I just read "flight". Can I redeem myself with Alberto Santos Dumont?

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    1. Sure. Was his flight more famous? More famous than these examples?

      Had you heard of his flight, or the Wright brothers as being more famous?

      I'd never heard of him til I posted about him when stumbling across the photos of his incredible plane design. That's why I didn't include him.

      If you went to the next 20 people you meet, the people at the street, coffee shop, restaurant, etc etc, and ask them for the most famous flight before 1920, what will they say, and if no one says Dumont, was it that famous? It deserves to be, but, it isn't, not from what I've found in books, magazines, museums, websites, etc

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    2. It depends on where you ask - and in the USA, focus is primarily on American accomplishments. This spills into popular culture, witness - say - the number of films where feats of foreigners are rewritten to be American feats (sometimes to the loud chagrin of the nations originally involved). Right off I'll just mention the nazis' 'enigma' code machine, which the British captured, but most Americans probably believe were captured by US Navy. Or the postal flight crash in the Andes Mountains by the French aviator Henri Guillaumet, whose story was rewritten so it was an American who - battling incredible odds - survived it. Even the excellent movie 'Master and Commander' differed from the book upon which it was based, so that the bad guys now were French, and not American. (This was during the period where the French didn't believe US claims about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, and French fries became 'Freedom fries' - (oh those innocent days...)).

      I don't mean to diminish America's contributions to aviation, because in this field it has indeed been the leading nation. But as the ghosts of the brothers Montgolfier likely will agree, there are others who were equally important too. I, for one, will rate their balloon flight much more significant than the short flight of The Spruce Goose.

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    3. Again, I made a list of famous, not significant. That's to say that famous are what the Kadashians are, not Betty Skelton. Significant flights would be a list of flights that were 1sts, proof that an aircraft worked, that mankind could get off this damn planet, that one type of design was superior, that a paradigm had been broken... So, no. I'm didn't make a list of significant flights, just the most famous ones.

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    4. Hindenburg, then? Not significant, but pretty famous...

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  8. From an English perspective, I'd have to add Amy Johnson's flight to Australia.
    If you're including lighter than air I would add the Graf Zeppelin circumnavigation.
    I'm sure you'll never get a list that everyone agrees with, though.
    Regards,
    Tony

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    1. I posted about Amy Johnson, and believe me, it's not famous on the internet nor in America.
      I agree the Graf was once, but isn't remembered anymore. Similarly the flight onto the Paris dept store, the de Rozier balloon ride of 1783, Piccard and Jones in 93, Fossett circumnavigation in '02, or his solo flights across each ocean, and Branson's concert. They were all soon forgotten, and that isn't the outcome of more famous events

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    2. Yup, fair comments. For Americans, how about the Yeager/Rutan circumnavigation in Voyager?
      Tony

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    3. Another that was famous at the time, but I doubt anyone you'll talk to on the street tomorrow, all day long, will know it from the words "Yeager/Rutan circumnavigation in Voyager" and so, it's not famous. It was significant, but, that's not what I'm posting about. That would be a lot more flights in the list, and few anyone would have heard of.
      I just don't want to do that post. I find no joy in it. No happiness. Believe me, I'm mostly doing this blog for my own happiness.
      If I were doing it for other people, I'd have to get paid more than the job I do now, because it would be forcing me to give up being happy at this... and really, that would suck.

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  9. This is a very interesting exercise. I would suggest that "most famous" and "first" are what we are looking at. When you consider "most famous flights before 1920" there is only one answer because there was only one first. I would argue that Lindbergh (1927) is famous because he's the next "first". After that it becomes much more difficult. (Yeager yes. Why Earhart?) Gagarin makes your point about "how quickly we forget"

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    1. well, "we" aren't looking at most famous and first. I am the only one blogging.
      Wait, let me look around to see... and yup, just me. I am only blogging the most famous, and was probably unwise to ask, and open the notion up for discourse, if anyone knew of a MORE FAMOUS FLIGHT. I was quite specific, so the answers would be likely to be on point, relevant, etc.

      Well, that didn't happen. It's become a debate, of other topics, related but not relevant.

      There was only one first, but, since I doubt anyone else has heard of it, and since the Wright Brothers got the publicity for it, we aren't likely to be referring to the same flight.

      http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-wright-brothers-had-really-good.html

      Lindbergh also had a crazy amount of publicity

      Earhart had even more publicity because she became a mystery. A disappearance is something that drives Americans crazy, and I can prove it.

      Hoffa. DB Cooper. The Lost Roanoke Colony

      See? anyone that disappears is famous, and if they were notorious, they get even more famous.

      That's why Earharts last flight is more famous than Gagarin.

      Ask 12 teenagers to tell you which one they've heard of

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  10. I was going to suggest the Voyager flight around the world. What about Francis Gary Powers in the 1960 U2 flight? Or the first time NASA flew the shuttle back to Florida on a 747?

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    1. Wow, you're back in the archives! Ok, to respond, let me ask you, are they "more" famous than what I posted?
      I'm not sure what Voyager went around the world... a solar plane? Shuttle? Some airplane?
      That I'm asking tells me that it's not more famous... but I'm just one goofball... was it more famous than the examples I chose as the "most" famous flights?
      And the shuttle ride back to florida wasn't very famous as far as historic flights go, but it was exceptional.

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    2. somehow I got a couple weeks behind on your posts, and I'm trying to catch up. I was thinking of the Rutan Voyager flight, which as you say wasn't famous, but still important. I think the ones you listed would be the most famous or well-known by the general population.

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    3. Weeks behind? Good grief! Well, good luck catching up! I'm not going to make it easy on you, I'll be a blogging fool for a while to give you a challenge!

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  11. Challenge accepted! ;)

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