[floam]

Preferred like people today prefer their private jet? It cost more than your typical annual salary at the time.

I just read that the trip was still a 5 day journey, involving 20+ stops and spinning that takeoff and landing roulette wheel quite a bit..

The novelty factor might have been just as big a deal as time savings. It was something cool to try as an ultra wealthy globe trotter.

[netsharc]

This page (1) reports 9 stops (between start and destination):

> The plane took off – for the 1st leg of the flight from Amsterdam to Batavia – on 30 April. The schedule: Budapest 30 April, Athens 1 May, Cairo 2 May, Baghdad 3 May, Jask 4 May, Jodhpur 5 May, Calcutta 6 May, Tavoy 7 May, Medan 8 May and arriving in Batavia on 9 May.

This page(2) claims a max speed of 190km/h. Budapest to Athens is 1130 km apart, so if the plane was flying around 150km/h, it's a 7 hour trip for that segment. Ouch. At least the passengers probably had a nice dinner and slept every night in a nice hotel...

(1) https://dutchaustralianculturalcentre.com.au/archive/dutch-a...

(2) https://aircraftinvestigation.info/airplanes/Fokker_F.VIIa.h...

[WalterBright]

I read that it is statistically more dangerous to fly on a private jet than a commercial one.

[lovecg]

Definitely, you can’t get much safer mode of travel than a modern airline. There are some humorous statistics that hour for hour taking a shower is more dangerous.

Accidents generally go up as you move down the scale of regularly scheduled airlines -> charter -> private with professional crew -> private flying.

[throwawaytea]

100 Americans can drive a car their whole life, and statistically one will die.

There is zero chance 100 people could fly private airplanes everyday for their whole life and only one dies. I suppose if you look at 100 skilled pilots flying private aircraft for 50 years daily.. still would be a lot worse

[WalterBright]

My dad was an AF pilot for a couple decades. There were four non-combat incidents that nearly killed him. And he was a very, very careful man.

1. P-51 engine swallowed a valve and failed completely (the P-51 flies like a rock when the engine isn't turning) but fortunately he was over the airfield at the time

2. a total failure of an F-86 engine (F-86 is a decent glider and he was able to glide in on the airfield)

3. his P-51 rear fuselage crumpled after a turn. The mechanic told him he was amazed it didn't come off completely

4. flew into clear air turbulence that was so violent the wings were bent and were scrapped

[throwawaytea]

Cool stuff. Im actually a decent mechanic and it's what makes me dislike airplanes even more, especially the smaller private stuff. I had a friend invite me over and over into his ultralight running a rotax motor. I never agreed to go because all I think about when I hear Rotax are all the jetskiis I knew in the 90s and early 2000s that would give you problems at least once every few lake outings. No thanks for that in the sky.

[WalterBright]

An acquaintance of mine was a private pilot. Took off one day, flew into a storm, crashed and died. Another friend took a chance and flew into icing conditions, and nearly crashed. He said he'd never make that mistake again.

My dad flew F-180s in the Korean War. It was the first operational US jet fighter. It had straight wings (not swept) and had a powerful engine.

He related to me that if you exceeded a certain speed, the airplane would suddenly "pitch up" and fold the wings back. You had to be very careful not to overspeed, which (of course) was very difficult to do in a diving attack. (He said he kept one eye on the target, one eye on the altitude, and one eye on the airspeed.) Anyhow, mission one of his buddies had a Mig on his tail and could not shake it. He decided that he'd deliberately induce the pitch up, and hope that would get him out of the jam. He did, pitched up, the Mig couldn't follow it, and miraculously the wings stayed on.

He carefully flew it back to base. The wings were bent up, and the airplane was scrapped.