For many years after the mid-1980's, the business-jet industry had to break through cultural barriers largely stemming from the stereotype of a business-aircraft flier as a Master of the Universe commandeering a heavy-metal company jet to take the spouse, children and family poodle on a boondoggle to Aspen, Colo.
They told of jets thundering overhead, of sudden flames from the tail of one aircraft and of a flier bailing out and floating down into Absecon Inlet at the north end of Atlantic City, while his plane plunged into the sea a mile and a half offshore at 3 40 p.m.
Graeme Virtue At any time, the British sky is populated not just by commercial aircraft but also enthusiastic amateur fliers, adventurers and oddballs, aerial traffic monitored using worryingly basic equipment by a small ground control team.
No flier wants to use an aircraft's emergency slide in an actual emergency, but you can't help but wonder: Did Mr. Slater enjoy his seconds-long trip down the chute, that quick-escape device that looks like a grown-up slip-and-slide?
He was also the first flier to pilot a winged aircraft at four, five and then six times the speed of sound, exceeding that final milestone on Nov. 9, 1961, when he flew his X-15 at 4,093 miles an hour.
An avid flier of gliders and other aircraft, Rohde often uses raptors to mark upward drafts of wind.
Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, the lighter, more-fuel efficient and purportedly more comfortable aircraft that has forged fans of hopeful fliers, recently made its American debut with the Chilean carrier LAN Airlines.
Of the nearly 3,000 Allied fliers who dueled with German aircraft in that battle, thwarting Hitler's ambition to conquer Britain, none logged more combat hours than Wing Commander Freeborn.
Sunday fliers have their choice of aircraft, ranging from a simulated helicopter to World War I era biplanes.
Note that the airline leases two Boeing 757-200 aircrafromrom partner Thomas Cook Airlines to provide Canadian fliers with non-stop flights to Honololu and Maui from Calgary and Edmonton; in-flight amenities may differ from the usual WestJet selections.
Although airlines ran newspaper advertisements after World War I, the biggest aviation headlines belonged to fliers in relatively primitive piston-engine aircraft that challenged the Atlantic and transcontinental distances.
