(USSR) Aeroflot @·AIRCRAFTUBE

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Aeroflot

OJSC Aeroflot – Russian Airlines, commonly known as Aeroflot (Russian: Аэрофлот, English translation: "air fleet"), is the flag carrier and largest airline of the Russian Federation. The carrier operates domestic and international passenger services, mainly from its hub at Sheremetyevo International Airport.

Aeroflot is one of the oldest airlines in the world, tracing its history back to 1923. During the Soviet era, Aeroflot was the Soviet national airline and the largest airline in the world. Following the dissolution of the USSR, the carrier has been transformed from a state-run enterprise into a semi-privatised company which ranked 19th most profitable in the world in 2007. Aeroflot is still considered the de facto national airline of Russia. It is 51%-owned by the Russian Government. As of September 2013, the Aeroflot Group had 30,328 employees.

The company has embarked on a fleet modernisation programme, extensive route restructuring, and an image overhaul. The airline joined SkyTeam in April 2006, becoming the 10th member of the alliance.

Early history of Soviet civil aviation

On 17 January 1921, the Sovnarkom of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic published "About Air Transportation". The document which was signed by Vladimir Lenin set out the basic regulations on air transport over the territory of the RSFSR. The document was significant as it was the first time that a Russian state had declared sovereignty over its airspace. In addition, the document defined rules for the operation of foreign aircraft over the Soviet Union's airspace and territory. After Lenin issued an order, a State Commission was formed on 31 January 1921 for the purpose of civil aviation planning in the Soviet Union. As a result of the commission's plans, Glavvozdukhflot (Chief Administration of the Civil Air Fleet) was established, and it began mail and passenger flights on the Moscow-Oryol-Kursk-Kharkov route on 1 May 1921 using Sikorsky Ilya Muromets aircraft. This was followed by the formation of Deruluft-Deutsch Russische Luftverkehrs A.G. in Berlin on 11 November 1921, as a joint venture between the Soviet Union and Germany. The company, whose aircraft were registered in both Germany and the Soviet Union, began operations on 1 May 1922 with a Fokker F.III flying between Königsberg and Moscow. The service was initially operated twice a week and restricted to the carriage of mail.

On 3 February 1923 Sovnarkom approved plans for the expansion of the Red Air Fleet, and it is this date which was officially recognised as the beginning of civil aviation in the Soviet Union. After a resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Enterprise for Friends of the Air Fleet (ODVF) was founded on 8 March 1923, followed by the formation of Dobrolet (Russian: Добролёт) on 17 March 1923. Regular flights by Dobrolet from Moscow to Nizhniy Novgorod commenced on 15 July 1923. During the same period, an additional two airlines were established; Zakavia being based in Tiflis, and Ukrvozdukhput based in Kharkov. During 1923 an agreement was signed establishing a subdivision of Dobrolet to be based in Tashkent, which would operate to points in Soviet Central Asia. Services between Tashkent and Alma Ata began on 27 April 1924, and by the end of 1924 the subdivision had carried 480 passengers and 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) of mail and freight, on a total of 210 flights. In March 1924, Dobrolet began operating flights from Sevastopol to Yalta and Yevpatoriya in the Crimea. Dobrolet's route network was extended during the 1925–1927 period to include Kazan and regular flights between Moscow and Kharkov were inaugurated. Plans were made for Dobrolet flights to Kharkov to connect with Ukrvozdukhput services to Kiev, Odessa and Rostov-on-Don. During 1925, Dobrolet operated 2,000 flights over a distance of 1,000,000 kilometres (620,000 mi), carrying 14,000 passengers and 127,500 kilograms (281,100 lb) of freight, on a route network extending to some 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi). Dobrolet was transformed from a Russian to an all-Union enterprise on 21 September 1926 as a result of Sovnarkom resolutions, and in 1928 Dobrolet was merged with Ukrvozdukhput; the latter having merged with Zakavia in 1925.

Formative years

Responsibility for all civil aviation activities in the Soviet Union came under the control of the Chief Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet on 25 February 1932, and on 25 March 1932 the name "Aeroflot" was officially adopted for the entire Soviet Civil Air Fleet. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union Congress in 1933 set out development plans for the civil aviation industry for the following five years, which would see air transportation becoming one of the primary means of transportation in the Soviet Union, linking all major cities. The government also implemented plans to expand the Soviet aircraft industry to make it less dependent on foreign built aircraft; in 1930 some fifty percent of aircraft flying services in the Soviet Union were of foreign manufacture.

Expansion of air routes which had taken shape in the late 1920s, continued into the 1930s. Local (MVL) services were greatly expanded in Soviet Central Asia and the Soviet Far East, which by the end of the second Five-Year Plan in 1937 was 35,000 kilometres (22,000 mi) in length out of a total network of some 93,300 kilometres (58,000 mi). The agreement between the Soviet Union and Germany relating to Deruluft expired on 1 January 1937, and wasn't renewed, which saw the joint venture carrier ceasing operations on 1 April 1937. On that date Aeroflot began operations on the Moscow to Stockholm route, and began operating the ex-Deruluft route from Leningrad to Riga utilising Douglas DC-3s and Tupolev ANT-35s (PS-35s). Flights from Moscow to Berlin, via Königsberg, were suspended until 1940, when they were restarted by Aeroflot and Lufthansa as a result of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and would continue until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in 1941.

Under the third Five-Year Plan, which began in 1938, civil aviation development continued, with improvements to airport installations being made and construction of airports being commenced. In addition to the expansion of services between the Soviet Union's main cities, local routes (MVL) were also expanded, and by 1940, some 337 MVL routes saw operations on a scheduled basis. Serial production of the PS-84 (licence-built DC-3s) commenced in 1939, and the aircraft became the backbone of Aeroflot's fleet on mainline trunk routes. When the Soviet Union was invaded by Nazi Germany on 22 June 1941, the following day the Sovnarkom placed the Civil Air Fleet under the control of Narkomat, leading to the full-scale mobilisation of Aeroflot crews and technicians for the Soviet war effort. Prior to the invasion, the Aeroflot network extended over some 146,000 kilometres (91,000 mi), and amongst the longest routes being operated from Moscow were those to Tbilisi (via Baku), Tashkent and Vladivostok. Aeroflot aircraft, including PS-35s and PS-43s, were based at Moscow's Central Airport, and amongst important missions undertaken by Aeroflot aircraft and crews included flying supplies to the besieged cities of Leningrad, Kiev, Odessa and Sevastopol. During the Battle of Stalingrad, between August 1942 and February 1943, Aeroflot operated 46,000 missions to Stalingrad, ferrying in 2,587 tonnes (5,703,000 lb) of supplies and some 30,000 troops. Following the defeat of the Wehrmacht, some 80 Junkers Ju-52/3Ms were captured from the Germans, and were placed into the service of the Civil Air Fleet, and after the war were placed into regular service across the Soviet Union. Whilst civil operations in European Russia west of the front line, which ran from Leningrad to Moscow to Rostov-on-Don, were prevented from operating because of the war, services from Moscow to the Urals, Siberia, Central Asia, and other regions which were not affected by the war, continued. By the end of the war, Aeroflot had flown 1,595,943 special missions, including 83,782 at night, and carried 1,538,982 men and 122,027 tonnes (269,023,000 lb) of cargo.

Post-war operations

At the end of the war, the Soviet government went about repairing and rebuilding essential airport infrastructure, and it strengthened the Aeroflot units in the European part of the Soviet Union. Aeroflot had by the end of 1945 carried 537,000 passengers, compared with 359,000 in 1940. The government made it a priority in the immediate postwar years to expand services from Moscow to the capital of the Union republics, in addition to important industrial centres on the country. To enable this, the government transferred to Aeroflot a large number of Li-2s, and they would become the backbone of the fleet.

The Ilyushin Il-12 entered service on Aeroflot's all-Union scheduled routes on 22 August 1947, and supplemented already existing Li-2 services. The original Ilyushin Il-18 entered service around the same time as the Il-12, and was operated on routes from Moscow to Yakutsk, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Alma Ata, Tashkent, Sochi, Mineralnye Vody and Tbilisi. By 1950 the Il-18 was withdrawn from service, being replaced by Il-12s. MVL and general aviation services received a boost in March 1948, when the first Antonov An-2s were delivered and entered service in Central Russia. Development of MVL services over latter years was attributed to the An-2, which was operated by Aeroflot in all areas of the Soviet Union.

Aeroflot's route network had extended to 295,400 kilometres (183,600 mi) by 1950, and it carried 1,603,700 passengers, 151,070 tonnes (333,050,000 lb) of freight and 30,580 tonnes (67,420,000 lb) of mail during the same year. Night flights began in the same year, and the 5th Five-Year Plan, covering the period 1951–1955, emphasised Aeroflot expanding night-time operations, which vastly improved aircraft utilisation. By 1952, some 700 destinations around the Soviet Union received regular flights from Aeroflot. On 30 November 1954, the Ilyushin Il-14 entered service, and the aircraft took a leading role in the operation of Aeroflot's all-Union services. The number of passengers carried in 1955 increased to 2,500,000, whilst freight and mail carriage also increased, to 194,960 and 63,760 tons, respectively. By this time, Aeroflot's route network covered a distance of some 321,500 kilometres (199,800 mi).

The 20th Communist Party Congress, held in 1956, saw plans for Aeroflot services to be dramatically increased. The airline would see its overall activities increased from its then current levels by 3.8 times, and it was set the target of the carriage of 16,000,000 passengers by 1960. In order to meet these goals, Aeroflot introduced higher capacity turbojet and turbine-prop aircraft on key domestic routes, and on services to Aeroflot destinations abroad. A major step for Aeroflot occurred on 15 September 1956 when the Tupolev Tu-104 jet airliner entered service on the Moscow-Omsk-Irkutsk route, marking the world's first sustained jet airline service. The airline began international flights with the type on 12 October 1956 under the command of Boris Bugayev with flights from Moscow to Prague. The aircraft placed Aeroflot in an envious position, as airlines in the West had operated throughout the 1950s with large piston-engined aircraft. By 1958 the route network covered 349,200 kilometres (217,000 mi), and the airline carried 8,231,500 passengers, and 445,600 tons of mail and freight, with fifteen percent of all-Union services being operated by jet aircraft.

Aeroflot introduced the Antonov An-10 and Ilyushin Il-18 in 1959, and together with its existing jet aircraft, the airline was able to extend services on modern aircraft to twenty one cities during 1960. The Tupolev Tu-114, then the world's largest airliner, entered service with the Soviet carrier on 24 April 1961 on the Moscow-Khabarovsk route; covering a distance of 6,980 kilometres (4,340 mi) in 8 hours 20 minutes. The expansion of the Aeroflot fleet saw services with modern aircraft being extended to forty one cities in 1961, with fifty percent of all-Union services being operated by these aircraft. This fleet expansion also saw the number of passengers carried in 1961 skyrocketing to 21,800,000.

Further expansion came in 1962 when both the Tupolev Tu-124 and Antonov An-24 entered regular service with Aeroflot on various medium and short-haul routes. By 1964, Aeroflot operated direct flights from Moscow to 100 cities, from Leningrad to 44 cities, and from Kiev to 38 cities. The airline also operated direct flights from Mineralnyie Vody to 48 cities across the Soviet Union, denoting the importance of the operation of holiday aircraft services to Aeroflot. Statistics for the same year showed Aerfolot operating an all-Union route network extending over 400,000 kilometres (250,000 mi), and carrying 36,800,000 passengers.

By 1966 Aeroflot carried 47,200,000 passengers over a domestic route network of 474,600 kilometres (294,900 mi). For the period of the 8th Five-Year Plan, which ran from 1966–1970, Aeroflot carried a total of 302,200,000 passengers, 6.47 billion tons of freight and 1.63 billion tons of mail. During the Five-Year Plan period, all-Union services were extended over an additional 350 routes; an additional 1,000 MVL routes were begun, and 40 new routes were opened up with all-cargo flights. The year 1967 saw the introduction into service of the Ilyushin Il-62 and Tupolev Tu-134, and in September 1968 the Yakovlev Yak-40 regional jet began operations on short-haul services. By 1970, the last year of the Five-Year Plan period, Aeroflot was operating flights to over 3,500 destinations in the Soviet Union, and at the height of the 1970 summer holidays season, the airline was carrying approximately 400,000 passengers per day, and some ninety percent of passengers were being carried on propeller-turbine and jet aircraft.

Expansion of international flights

In January 1971 the Central Administration of International Air Traffic (Russian: Центральное управление международных воздушных сообщений) (TsUMVS) was established within the framework of IATA, and became the sole enterprise authorised to operate international flights. Abroad, the airline was known as Aeroflot Soviet Airlines. In 1976 Aeroflot carried its 100 millionth passenger. Its flights were mainly concentrated around the Soviet Union, but the airline also had an international network covering five continents: North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The network included countries such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, Cuba, Mexico and the People's Republic of China. Since the 1970s some transatlantic flights were flown using Shannon Airport in Ireland as an intermediate stop, as it was the westernmost non-NATO airport in Europe.

Aeroflot service between the Soviet Union and the United States was interrupted from 15 September 1983 until 2 August 1990, following an executive order by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, revoking the Aeroflot's license to operate flights into and out of the United States following the downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 by the Soviet Air Force. At the start of the 1990s Aeroflot reorganised again giving more autonomy to territorial divisions. REG Davies, former curator of the Smithsonian Institution, claims that by 1992 Aeroflot had over 600,000 people operating over 10,000 aircraft. By 1967, Aeroflot amassed a fleet equal to that of the largest American carriers combined.

Other functions

Aeroflot also performed other functions, including aeromedical, crop-dusting, heavy lifting for the Soviet Space Agency, offshore oil platform support, exploration for natural resources, support for construction projects, transport of military troops and supplies (as an adjunct to the Soviet Air Force), atmospheric research, and remote area patrol. It operated hundreds of helicopters and cargo aircraft in addition to civil airliners. It also operated the Soviet equivalent of a presidential aircraft and other VIP transports of government and communist party officials.

Aeroflot was also responsible for such services as ice patrol in the Arctic Ocean and escorting of ships through frozen seas, oil exploration, power line surveillance, and transportation and heavy lifting support on construction projects. For the latter tasks, Aeroflot used, in addition to smaller helicopters, the Mi-10 flying crane capable of lifting 11,000 to 14,000 kilograms. Hauling of heavy cargo, including vehicles, was performed by the world's largest operational helicopter, the Mi-26 . Its unusual eight-blade rotor enabled it to lift a maximum payload of some twenty tons.

The close relationship between Aeroflot and the Soviet armed forces was underscored by the fact that the minister of civil aviation had been a high-ranking general or marshal of the Air Forces. Most Aeroflot pilots held reserve commissions in the Air Forces. The medium and long-range passenger and cargo aircraft of Aeroflot were also part of the strategic air transport reserve, ready to provide immediate airlift support to the armed forces. Indeed, many aircraft in Aeroflot's inventory were of the same basic design as military aircraft and, even when loaded with bulky cargo and vehicles, were capable of operating from unimproved fields. They were characterized by high wings, low fuselages with cargo/vehicle loading ramps, and landing gear suitable for unimproved or marshy terrain. Short-range airplanes and helicopters were available for appropriate military support missions. Civil aviation also served as a cover for military operations. According to a Western authority, military aircraft belonging to the Military Transport Aviation (Voennaia transportnaia aviatsiia) have been painted in Aeroflot colors for use as food relief and arms or personnel transports to foreign countries.

Aeroflot also cooperated with Soviet intelligence organizations including the KGB, SVR and GRU. The company conducted forcible "evacuations" of Soviet citizens from foreign countries back to the USSR. People whose loyalty was questioned were drugged and delivered unconscious by Aeroflot planes, assisted by the company KGB personnel, according to former GRU officer Victor Suvorov. In 1980s and 1990s, specimens of deadly bacteria and viruses stolen from Western laboratories were delivered by Aeroflot to support Russian program of biological weapons. This delivery channel encoded VOLNA ("wave") meant "delivering the material via an international flight of the Aeroflot airline in the pilots' cabin, where one of the pilots was a KGB officer". At least two SVR agents died, presumably from the transported pathogens. When businessman Nikolai Glushkov was appointed as a top manager of Aeroflot in 1996, he found that the airline company worked as a "cash cow to support international spying operations" according to Alex Goldfarb: 3,000 people out of the total workforce of 14,000 in Aeroflot were FSB, SVR, or GRU officers. All proceeds from ticket sales were distributed to 352 foreign bank accounts that could not be controlled by the Aeroflot administration. Glushkov closed all these accounts and channeled the money to an accounting center called Andava in Switzerland. He also sent a bill and wrote a letter to SVR director Yevgeni Primakov and FSB director Mikhail Barsukov asking them to pay salaries of their intelligence officers in Aeroflot in 1996. Glushkov has been imprisoned since 2000 on charges of illegally channeling money through Andava. Since 2004 the company is controlled by Viktor Ivanov, a high-ranking FSB official.

Post-Soviet Aeroflot

In the early 1990s, the Soviet Union underwent massive political upheavals, culminating in the dissolution of the country. Countries declared their independence during January 1990 – December 1991, resulting in the establishment of 15 republics. Up until that time, Aeroflot had been the only establishment providing air services throughout the CIS, but with the breakup of the Soviet Union, Aeroflot branches of these countries began their own services, and the airline itself came under control of Russia, the largest of the CIS republics, and was renamed Aeroflot – Russian International Airlines (ARIA). Actually, it was in 1992 that Aeroflot was divided into a number of regional airlines, whereas international routes were operated by ARIA. Smaller regional airlines which emerged from the old Aeroflot were sometimes referred to as Babyflots; Bashkirian Airlines, Krasnoyarsk Airlines, Moscow Airways and Tatarstan Airlines were among the carriers that were formed from former Aeroflot directorates.

In 1994, Aeroflot was registered as a joint-stock company and the government sold off 49% of its stake to Aeroflot employees. During the 1990s, Aeroflot was primarily focused on international flights from Moscow. However, by the end of the decade Aeroflot started an expansion in the domestic market. In 2000 the company name was changed to Aeroflot – Russian Airlines to reflect the change in the company strategy.

Since the dissolution, Aeroflot has been actively working towards promoting and redefining itself as a safe and reliable airline. In the early 2000s, the airline hired British consultants for rebranding. From the start, plans were afoot to replace the old Soviet-era hammer and sickle logo, which some people in the West viewed as a reminder of the Soviet communist era; despite this the logo was not scrapped, as it was the most recognisable symbol of the company for over 70 years. A new livery and uniforms for flight attendants were designed and a promotional campaign launched in 2003. It carried 5.9 million passengers in 2003.

Its fleet has undergone a major reorganisation during which most of the Soviet aircraft were replaced by Western-built jets; costs over fuel consumption rather than safety concerns were cited for such a movement. A320/A319s for short-haul flights in Europe and Boeing 767 and Airbus A330 for long-haul routes had been gradually incorporated into the fleet. In the spring of 2004 an expansion on the domestic market was undertaken, aiming to gain 30% share by 2010 (as of 2006 it held approximately 9%). The first task was to outperform S7 Airlines, a major rival and the leader in the domestic market. On 29 July 2004 a new corporate slogan was adopted: "Sincerely Yours. Aeroflot".

Recent developments

In April 2006, Aeroflot became the tenth airline worldwide in joining SkyTeam, and the first air carrier in the former Soviet Union that did so. and occupied all of terminal 3 at Sheremetyevo International Airport in 2009. The company has announced its plan to increase cargo operations. It registered the Aeroflot-Cargo trademark in 2006. During that year Aeroflot carried 7,290,000 passengers and 145,300 tons of mail and cargo to 89 destinations in 47 countries. It saw improvements in its earnings and number of passengers carried. The net profit reached $309.4 million (RUB 7.98 billion) in 2006, a 32.3% increase from 2005 earnings of only $234 million (RUB6.03 billion). The revenue for the same 2005–2006 period rose by 13.5% to reach $2.77 billion with an 8.7% gain in passenger numbers.

Aeroflot became the only shareholder of Donavia —a domestic airline then-named Aeroflot-Don— in December 2006, when it boosted its stake in the company from 51% to 100%; soon afterwards, Aeroflot-Nord was created following the buyout of Arkhangelsk Airlines. As of March 2007, Aeroflot was owned by the Russian Government via Rosimushchestvo (51.17%), National Reserve Corporation (27%) and employees and others (19%), and has 14,900 employees.

In February 2010, the Russian government announced that all regional airlines owned by the state through the holding company Rostechnologii would be consolidated with the national carrier Aeroflot in order to increase the airlines' financial viability. The merger was completed in late November 2011; in a deal worth US$81 million, Aeroflot's sister company Aeroflot-Finance became the major shareholder of Vladivostok Avia, Saravia and Rossiya Airlines, and the sole shareholder of both SAT Airlines and Orenair. It was reported in January 2012 that Saravia was sold to private investors, as the recent-acquired regional airline was not in line with Aeroflot's business strategy. It was reported in June 2013 that in the third quarter of the same year Aeroflot would combine its subsidiaries Vladivostok Air and SAT Airlines into a new subsidiary regional carrier based in the Russian Far East. The subsidiary was effectively created in September 2013, and was originally named Taiga Airline; The name of this subsidiary later changed to Aurora Airline. The new company, 51%-owned by Aeroflot, would initially link Moscow with the Russian Far East, whereas SAT Airlines and Vladivostok Avia were expected to cease operations in early 2014.

In June 2013, during the World Airline Awards which took place at the 50th Le Bourget air show, Aeroflot was awarded the international prize as the best air carrier in Eastern Europe. In October, the company introduced an affiliated low-cost carrier (LCC), Dobrolet. The LCC started operations in June 2014; they ceased on 4 August 2014 owing to EU sanctions over the airline launching flights to Crimea. In late August 2014, Aeroflot announced the launch of a new LCC in October 2014 to replace Dobrolet; it will use aircraft transferred from Orenair. The new LCC, initially named Byudzhetny Perevozchik, is expected to start operations from Sheremetyevo Airport.

For the year ending 31 December 2013, Aeroflot registered a profit of 7.3 billion roubles, an increase of 41.9% over 2012, partly attributed to an 18.4% rise in passenger traffic to 20.9 million.

In March 2014 as a response to 2014 Ukrainian revolution the company announced rerouting their flights to avoid flying over the territory of Ukraine. The announcement (together with worse than expected financial results) caused an almost 10% drop in the share price of the company.

Corporate affairs

Headquarters

The headquarters of Aeroflot are located in Arbat District, Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow. By 2009 Aeroflot began leasing 7,000 square metres (75,000 sq ft) of space from a class A office building on Arbat Street owned by Midland Development. As of that year Aeroflot had plans to build a dedicated 35,000 square metres (380,000 sq ft) headquarters in proximity to Sheremetyevo Airport.

Key people

As of October 2014, Aeroflot's CEO position is held by Vitaly Savelyev. Savelyev was appointed on 10 April 2009 and succeeded Valery Okulov. Expiring in April 2014, The Russian government extended Savelyev's appointment for another five years.

Ownership and subsidiaries

Aeroflot is 51% state-owned, as of December 2013. As of September 2013, the subsidiary airlines included Aurora, Donavia, Rossiya Airlines and Orenair. At that time, the Aeroflot Group employed 30,328; 17,678 of these people worked for Aeroflot JSC.

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    General comments are accessed via the "BLOG En" button.

    Comments are moderated, so please allow some delay before they appear, specially if you are outside Europe.

    Menus are developing below the page, because they are too long!

    But they remain accessible, for example by scrolling the mouse wheel, or with your finger (on the menu) on a smartphone or tablet.

    I see adds on all videos.

    Use a good free add remover software.

    The site is loading random pages at startup.

    We think it is a good way to bring back the memory of aircraft, persons or events sometimes quite forgotten.

    HELP PAGE

    Why this site?

    Discovery

    This website is dedicated to one's aeronautical passion (which I hope we share) and was realised mainly as an educationnal tool. Knowing that, you'll notice that each new visit brings random topics for the purpose of making new discoveries, some achievements or characters certainly not deserving the oblivion into which they have sometimes fallen.

    By these pages, we also want to pay tribute to all those who gave at one time or another, their lives or health in the name of freedom, aeronautical security or simply our comfort.

    Centralisation

    Internet is full of websites dedicated to aviation, but most are dedicated to subjects or periods that are very limited in space or time. The purpose of this site is to be as general as possible and thus treats all events as well as characters of all stripes and times while putting much emphasis on the most significant achievements.

    The same years saw birth of technologies like photography and cinema, thus permitting illustration of a large part of important aeronautical events from the start. Countless (and sometimes rare) media recently put online by enthousiasts finally give us access to these treasures, but the huge amount of information often makes things a little messy. A centralization effort is obviously most needed at this level.

    All persons who directly or indirectly contributed to the achievement or posting of such documents are here gratefully acknowledged.

    General

    Fluid website

    This site automatically fits the dimensions of your screen, whether you are on a desktop computer, a tablet or a smartphone.

    Bilingual website

    You can change the language by clicking on the flag in the upper left or via "Options" in the central menu. Of course, the videos remain in the language in which they were posted ...

    Browser compatibility

    The site is not optimized, or even designed to run on older browsers or those deliberately deviating from standards. You will most probably encounter display issues with Internet Explorer. In this case, it is strongly recommended installing a modern (and free!) browser that's respecting the standards, like Firefox, Opera, Chrome or Safari.

    Cookies and Javascript

    This site uses cookies and JavaScript to function properly. Please ensure that your browser is configured accordingly. Neither of these technologies, or other means shall in no case be used on the Site for the retention or disclosure of personal information about its Visitors. See the "Legal" page for more on this subject.

    Website layout

    Left menus

    Because of the lack of space on smartphones and small tablets, these menus are hidden. Everything is nevertheless accessible via the main menu option, located between the video and photo sections. This menu is placed there for compatibility reasons with some browsers, which play the videos over the menus.

    "Search" and "Latest" :
    The link "In Titles" restricts the search to the titles of different forms. Use this option if you are looking for a plane, a constructor, a pilot or a particular event that could have been treated as a subject.

    The link "In Stories" will bring you to a search in all texts (the "Story" tab) and will take more time. The search term will appear highlighted in green when opening the corresponding story.

    Would you believe, "Timeline" will show all subjects in chronological order.

    "Random" will reload the entire page with a new random topic.

    The bottom section keeps you abreast of the latest five entries. New topics are added regularly. Don't hesitate to come visit us often : add bookmark.

    Blogs and Comments central section

    Under the photos section comes the comments tabs window :

    You can enter general comments in your own language via one of the two buttons on the left (BLOG EN and BLOG FR). Note that these buttons are accessible regardless of the language to allow some participation in the other language.

    All comments are subject to moderation and will be published only if they comply with the basic rules of decorum, while remaining relevant to the purpose of this site.

    The third tab allows you to enter comments on the shown topic and is bilingual. Personal anecdotes, supplements and other information questions will take place here.

    The "Story" tab shows the explanatory texts. They are most often taken from Wikipedia, a site where we participate regularly.

    The "Data" tab is reserved for list of features and specifications.

    Right menus

    On a smartphone, the lack of space is growing and this menu is moved to the bottom of the page to give priority to videos and pictures.

    The top right icons are links to videos posted by third parties (on their own responsabilities) or by ourselves. The link below these icons will take you to the channel of the one who posted the video. Feel free to suggest other videos if you think they are of some interest (Use the BLOG button or the "Contact" link).