Pick a plane to fly around the world

[Beefitarian]

This one would make a terrible hotel but if the funds were there it might be a good one to show to kids of all ages.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6QHk2ZAAh4

[sidestick stirrer]

Ah yes: I remember all the kids covering their ears and screaming.
Except ours as we had brought all the ear defenders from our airplane and the workshop for them to wear, parents were asking us where they could buy them...
I think one of our kids slept right through that part of the show.

[sidestick stirrer]

Amazing airplane with retractable rotating beacons so they wouldn't burn off at high speed. Hard to believe how long ago it was designed and even harder to believe it now rests in museums. Its career came to a sudden end after a coordinated attack by six or eight Russian interceptors although they didn't fire any missiles and the Blackbird was in international airspace( just), it could not outrun a missile fired from in front...

[Beefitarian]

It's an expensive toy. I suspect there's something out there we don't know about being used as a replacement. Maybe not the US&A does seem kind of broke. Then again that might be a sham for all I know. Money is kind of a banking trick in a way. They keep spending and owe trillions of dollars with nothing to back it.

Why can't I get a loan like that? I'd buy an SR-71.

[sidestick stirrer]

"Flying the SR-71 Blackbird" by Colonel Richard H. Graham, USAF (ret), a very-technical read and the performance charts in the back go out to Mach 3.3
Wouldn't this machine make the trip around the world a pretty-short affair?
How many kids are going to get to sit in the cockpit doing it that way?
There's one in Seattle where you can lower yourself into the cockpit, grab the stick and throttle and dream...
Making your own engine noises is optional, raises the eyebrows of the parents waiting next in line with their kids.

[iflyforpie]

I'd love a big piston airliner, like a DC-3, Ju-52, or even a Ford Trimotor. Sell rides so lots of people could get to experience vintage flying.

Even cooler would be an old flying boat, like a Short Empire Class or Boeing 314--the first globe trotters.

[Beefitarian]

There's one in Seattle where you can lower yourself into the cockpit, grab the stick and throttle and dream...
Making your own engine noises is optional, raises the eyebrows of the parents waiting next in line with their kids.

Seriously? I thought it was cool that the ropes are right beside the one at Evergreen. Nice.

[sidestick stirrer]

yes, seriously.
the airplane that I found impressed and thrilled children the most was the front seat of a Cub, especially with the doors open. Flying low over fields, whinnying at the horses and mooing at the cows, farmers looking up and waving back at our waves, emptying their pockets of stones into the ocean, watching for the splashes they could never see. Low and slow, no need to toss it around, just let the miracle of aviation seep into all their senses and sell itself.

[Beefitarian]

There was a DC 3 for sale for under $100K once. The most effective part of the ad was, "Buy this plane to give rides at airshows. Who doesn't want to ride in a DC 3?"

I wanted to do it. I'd love to go halfers on pie's potentially failed scheme here.

I'd love a big piston airliner, like a DC-3, Ju-52, or even a Ford Trimotor. Sell rides so lots of people could get to experience vintage flying.

Even cooler would be an old flying boat, like a Short Empire Class or Boeing 314--the first globe trotters.

There was one for really cheap in Morroco, we can fix it up and eat some tajine with cous cous.

[costermonger]

Pretty much built for such a mission, I think. Three engine reliability, land on water or runways, pretty much a 'look at me' sign with wings for the airshows..