toulouse
am back!! toulouse was extremely good!!!!!
we went to the airbus factory right after we touched down at blagnac. unfortunately i don't have any pictures because phototaking is not allowed there. beats me though because there are so many pictures of the a380 in blagnac on a.net.
we went to the assembly building and saw 3 a380s, SQ, EK and AF. the commentary was in french but i could understand some stuff like the number of people working in the factory (4000) and the height of the plane (8 storeys high).
then it was the ultimate surprise: we were going to see the concorde!!!!!!!!! 2 concordes in fact. concorde #1 and #9 the foxtrot charlie. we went inside the plane!!! but we couldnt take any pictures so i shall take some from a.net. oh how i love that website...
by the way i didnt just anyhow searched 'concorde' on a.net. these are the pictures of the one that i went up - concorde #9 aka foxtrot charlie, and they were all taken in toulouse blagnac.
we also saw the super guppy (although it's not in use now)
and the beluga (transport plane that delivers plane parts from england or germany or spain to toulouse for assembly)
lol this is quite funny. when we passed by the super guppy the guide said "there's the super guppy - the predecessor of the beluga". and i was there chuckling to myself because what she didn't say was "the beluga replaced the super guppy because the latter is made by boeing and people used to laugh at airbus saying that all airbuses were delivered on the wings of a boeing". get the joke?
when we went up the 2nd concorde we could sit wherever we wanted and listen to the guide. but no pictures and i've yet to find 1 of the interior of F-BVFC. the one below is the interior of G-AXDN in england.
it was so sad sitting in the cabin and thinking that this grand piece of human engineering has had seen better days. i could imagine feeling the engines roaring and seeing the curvature of the earth from FL600. and the aircraft body - which could get really hot during flight because of friction between the skin and the air - was now stone cold, as the plane stood silently by itself in the freezing french autumn. it's just wrong to let such a beautiful plane rot in a corner of an airport, albeit well known, knowing it will never find back its past glory again.
aye, mais c'est la vie.
we stayed at ah huat's mum's cousin's house for the night. the next day aka today we went to the cité de l'espace. it's basically a science centre but it focuses more on space technology. there was a replica of the rocket ariane 5 and the russian space station the mir. took some photos but i cant upload right now. when i get back to singapore i shall upload everything.
right i shall stop here now. good night!
we went to the airbus factory right after we touched down at blagnac. unfortunately i don't have any pictures because phototaking is not allowed there. beats me though because there are so many pictures of the a380 in blagnac on a.net.
we went to the assembly building and saw 3 a380s, SQ, EK and AF. the commentary was in french but i could understand some stuff like the number of people working in the factory (4000) and the height of the plane (8 storeys high).
then it was the ultimate surprise: we were going to see the concorde!!!!!!!!! 2 concordes in fact. concorde #1 and #9 the foxtrot charlie. we went inside the plane!!! but we couldnt take any pictures so i shall take some from a.net. oh how i love that website...
by the way i didnt just anyhow searched 'concorde' on a.net. these are the pictures of the one that i went up - concorde #9 aka foxtrot charlie, and they were all taken in toulouse blagnac.
we also saw the super guppy (although it's not in use now)
and the beluga (transport plane that delivers plane parts from england or germany or spain to toulouse for assembly)
lol this is quite funny. when we passed by the super guppy the guide said "there's the super guppy - the predecessor of the beluga". and i was there chuckling to myself because what she didn't say was "the beluga replaced the super guppy because the latter is made by boeing and people used to laugh at airbus saying that all airbuses were delivered on the wings of a boeing". get the joke?
when we went up the 2nd concorde we could sit wherever we wanted and listen to the guide. but no pictures and i've yet to find 1 of the interior of F-BVFC. the one below is the interior of G-AXDN in england.
it was so sad sitting in the cabin and thinking that this grand piece of human engineering has had seen better days. i could imagine feeling the engines roaring and seeing the curvature of the earth from FL600. and the aircraft body - which could get really hot during flight because of friction between the skin and the air - was now stone cold, as the plane stood silently by itself in the freezing french autumn. it's just wrong to let such a beautiful plane rot in a corner of an airport, albeit well known, knowing it will never find back its past glory again.
aye, mais c'est la vie.
we stayed at ah huat's mum's cousin's house for the night. the next day aka today we went to the cité de l'espace. it's basically a science centre but it focuses more on space technology. there was a replica of the rocket ariane 5 and the russian space station the mir. took some photos but i cant upload right now. when i get back to singapore i shall upload everything.
right i shall stop here now. good night!
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