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To: John Valentine

Wow, that’s quite a flight itinerary! Very interesting places to land....

I still remember my flight from New York’s JFK to Helsinki on Finnair.... the 3-letter code for Helsinki was HEL, so my friends and I were joking that “We’re going to HEL!” The train ride from Helsinki to Moscow was frightening, though. It was nearly the end of the Cold War, but military personnel boarded the train halfway to Moscow to check our baggage.... we were 20-year-old American students who were in the Soviet Studies program, so for us it was intriguing and exciting — not so much for our teachers & chaperones....


20 posted on 08/30/2008 8:12:36 AM PDT by SilvieWaldorfMD (Airlines can take their $15-per-checked-bag surcharge and shove it!)
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To: SilvieWaldorfMD

The most interesting flight for me was the one from Alma Ata to Moscow on the Tu-144, the “Concordski” Russian SST.

It was FAST, and the windows were much larger than the ones on the Concord, allowing an incredible view from 60,000 feet plus altitude.

The fuselage was wide enough for a 3-2 seating arrangement rather than the 2-2 seating in the Concord. I was luck to have had this experience since the plane was pulled out of commercial service after only about eight months.

Then, a few years ago NASA leased one and refurbished it to use as a Supersonic test bed. None are flying any longer.


21 posted on 08/30/2008 10:00:19 AM PDT by John Valentine
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