Sierra Hotel Blog
June 3rd, 1973; The second production Tupolev Tu-144 broke apart in mid-air in front of the audience at the Paris Air Show, killing all six crew as well as eight people on the ground. Considering the TU-144 was facing off...
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At 16:25 Eastern Daylight Time on 2 June 1983: Air Canada Flight 797 a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 (aircraft registration C-FTLU) crewed by Captain, Donald Cameron (age 51), and First Officer Claude Ouimet (age 34) was on an international passenger flight...
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XP-47B, AKA the P-47 Thunderbolt, AKA "The Jug" first flew on May 6th, 1941. The aircraft proved impressive in its first trials, the prototype had achieved a level speed of 412 mph at 25,800 ft altitude, and had demonstrated a climb...
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April 23rd, 1967, at 00:32 UTC, Soyuz 1 launched away from Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov, the first Soviet cosmonaut to fly in space twice.Shortly after launch, problems began when one solar panel failed to unfold, leading...
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When Space Shuttle Columbia touched down at Edwards AFB on April 14, 1981 after her STS-1 maiden flight, nobody knew how close disaster had come. An overpressure wave from the solid rocket booster had damaged the heat shield and forced the body flap 5° beyond safe limits — a hydraulic rupture would have made controlled descent impossible. Commander John Young later admitted they would have ejected had they known.
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