GAYOT's Blog

by André Gayot 

In the last century, terrorists of many descriptions found a spectacular way to make their point: they hijacked planes and seized the passengers as hostages to monetize them.

This lesson has not been forgotten. Airlines that were in the epicenter of the drama realized that they, too, could take advantage of this strategy and mimic the principle. It would be even easier because they already had the planes, and the passengers as well, in their grasp. Thus, they did not even need to capture them, which incurs additional costs.

Becoming a hostage seems to us to be an improbable event. Don’t believe that.

Continue reading “When I was a Hostage” »

by Alain Gayot

Soon, we’ll be able to purchase a flight on Virgin Galactic for a twenty minute trip to space. But for nostalgic flyers who prefer to travel back in time, a WWII era B-17 Flying Fortress is the ticket.

For about $400, you’ll be able to sample, for twenty minutes, what brave men experienced as they went on bombing raids over Europe. No first class, no business class, not even premium economy here. These aluminum war machines took ten svelte men in a very noisy, rather uncomfortable environment featuring cat walks, cramped spaces and no facilities.

However, thanks to the Experimental Aircraft Association’s devotion to promoting all things aviation past and future, a happy few will be able to board the Aluminum Overcast, a pristine and fully functional aircraft, during its inaugural 2010 national tour. Stopping at an airport near you, enthusiasts can simply take a ground tour ($5) and chat it up with the crew or embark on their very own mission. You’ll also be able to purchase memorabilia and learn about aviation overall.

Continue reading “Experimental Aircraft Association’s B17 Flying Fortress” »

By Alain Gayot

Motorsports are elevated when you are a live spectator from the sound of the roaring engine to the anticipation of an active crowd of 55,000. But when you are talking about the Red Bull Air Races, everything get kicked up a notch – especially when fans can get right up to their favorite pilot for a quick autograph on a recently purchased t-shirt. Finally it certainly can’t get much better than the setting in San Diego Bay with perfect weather conditions.

 

Created in 2003 by the energy drink guru Dietrich Mateschitz, the air racing series is a cross between the air races of the twenties and modern aerobatics flying. Although the aircrafts are small in size, the show they put on is big – very big. And beyond the actual race plane, there are all sorts of other acts and fly-bys by the U.S. Navy, demonstrations by the Coast Guards etc. You sort of need to attend to catch the full effect.

  Continue reading “Racing Bulls” »

By Alain Gayot

It’s been a few decades since the end of WWII but there are still wars being fought and airmen up in the skies chasing bogies and dropping ordinance. A select group of black men, who had been previously forbidden to participate because of their race, were chosen as part of an “experiment” towards the end of the second world conflict to see if they might be fit to fly. African-American men had flown in air forces in Canada and France but never in the U.S. or for the U.S. Air Force.

 

“If you want to know more about us,” says George Mills Boyd, “you can watch the 1996 Robert Markowitz movie with Laurence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding Jr., The Tuskegee Airmen. But you should know that Eleanor Roosevelt was flown by the [white] Base Commander, as no [black] cadet would have been allowed to take the President’s wife up.”  Alain and Andre caught up with four of the surviving Tuskegee Airmen, who were on their way to meet the boys in Baghdad for a motivational encounter, during a United Airlines tribute. It was an honor and a pleasure to meet a bunch of alert octogenarians who not only fought the enemy but also quasi-insurmountable racial obstacles on their ascent to build the respectable Fighting 99th Squadron. Some of them still fly to this day.

Continue reading “Tuskegee Airmen at the Udvar-Hazy Center and Baghdad” »