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Here are some fun and interesting facts about flying and airlines that we bet
you didn’t know!
72 | FireFlyz
• Flying is one of the safest modes of transportation. You are more likely to be poisoned, electrocuted or die in a car
crash on the way to the airport than in a plane crash.
• KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is the oldest in the world, established in 1919 and undertaking its first flight in 1920.
The initials stand for Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, which is Dutch for The Royal Aviation Company.
• The A380 has longer wings than body – the wing span measures 80m and the aircraft length is 72.7m.
• The world’s first flight attendant was Heinrich Kubis, who worked as chief steward in for a German airline from
March 1912. He had previously worked in some of the most luxurious hotels in Europe including The Ritz in Paris.
• In the 1940s it cost the average person a whole year’s wage to pay for the flight from London to New York. These
days, the average person only has to fork out the earnings from Monday and Tuesday to pay for the same trip.
• Mayday is the internationally-recognised call for help, and the word derives from the French
m’aidez
whichmeans
‘help me’.
• Only about a quarter of the people sitting in first class have paid the full fare. The rest will be frequent flyers, lucky
people earning upgrades and airline employees.
• In the 1930s, female flight attendants had to be single, trained as nurses and weigh no more than 52kg.
• Every three seconds an airplane is taking off somewhere in the world.
• Research suggests that people fall in love at first sight with airline stewardesses more often than with women in
other professions.
• Due to the amount of carbon dioxide building up in the atmosphere, turbulence is getting worse.
• Pilots eat specially prepared meals to minimise the risk of them becoming ill during the flight.
And saving the best until last…..
• A Frenchman named Michel Lotito holds the record for the largest airplane ever eaten. Over a period of two years
he literally consumed every part of a Cessna 150 plane. Lotito suffered from a medical condition known as
Pica
,
which is a craving to eat things such as dirt, metal and glass. He also had a very strong stomach lining so was able
to consume metal objects without causing himself damage.
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