Top 50 Useless Aviation Facts.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome onboard.

Ever wondered why American Airlines has less olives in their salads than other airlines? Perhaps you’ve pondered how much the most expensive plane ticket in the world costs? Want to know which airline is the largest purchaser of caviar, or who became the first to operate an all jet fleet?

Well wonder no more, as all of your questions, plus much, much more will be answered here, in our Top 50 Useless Aviation Facts.

1) You have a 96% chance of surviving a plane crash. Be nice to your crew and we may even pull your arse off that burning jet, should the worse happen.

2) British Airways lost the luggage of an average 9 passengers on every jumbo jet flight in the first half of 2008, according to a study by the Association of European Airlines.

3) A man once wore 70 items of clothing in a Chinese airport to avoid the baggage charge. I never knew Ryanair flew to China.

4) Stewardess is the longest word in the English language typed with just the left hand.

5) KLM is the worlds’ oldest airline, established in 1919. It’s first flight between Amsterdam and London took place on 17th May 1920.

6) In 1987 American Airlines saved $40,000 by removing 1 olive from each salad served in first class. Do Americans even eat salad? Kidding!

7) Air travel is the second safest form or transportation. Only the elevator/escalator is safer, although it would take quite some time to travel 1,000 miles on an escalator.

8) At any given hour there are over 61,000 people airborne over the USA.

9) The world’s most expensive plane ticket cost Sydney millionaire Julian Hayward, an amazing $123,000, after being the first person to buy a seat on the A380 maiden flight between Singapore and Sydney in 2007.

10) An aeroplane takes off or lands every 37 seconds at Chicago O’Hares International Airport. That’s almost 100 planes per hour.

11) Even if you strapped on giant wings you could still never fly because the human heart cannot pump enough blood to satisfy the enormous strain of flapping. When flying, a sparrows heart beats more than 450 times per minute.

12) 70% of aircraft in service today are over 70% more fuel-efficient per seat kilometre, than the first jets in the 1960s. Take that eco-warriors.

13) The Wing-span of the A380 is longer than the aircraft itself. Wingspan: 80m, Length: 72.7m.

14) In 2012, 1,715 airlines operated a fleet of 23,000 aircraft, serving 3,750 airports, through a route network of several million km’s, managed by 160 air navigation service providers.

15) Most planes flying internationally have their home country’s flag painted on or around their tails. Generally, the flag is facing the correct way round on the left (port) side, and backwards on the right (starboard) side. This is because that is how the flag would look if it were hoisted on a pole above the aeroplane during the flight.

16) Mr Heinrich Kubis was Germany’s and the worlds first flight attendant in 1912.

17) Even though airlines carry medical kits and can quickly be in radio contact with doctors on the ground, about 100 people a year die while flying. So believe it or not, that’s one of the main reasons your wonderful cabin crew are onboard, as we are all first aid trained.

18) The specific rules regarding flight attendants vary among airlines and between countries. But in the UK and US there must be at least 1 FA per 50 passengers.

19) In 2009, Southwest Airlines served 63.2 million cans of soda, juices and water; 14.3 million alcoholic drinks; 14 million bags of pretzels; 90 million bags of peanuts; 17.7 million select-A-snacks and 33.5 million other snacks.

20) If everyone on a plane jumped up at the same time would the plane get lighter? The answer is no. Actually the opposite is true. Due to the basic laws of physics, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so if you jumped into the air you actually force the aeroplane down a little bit, thus increasing its weight albeit momentarily.

21) In 1940, it would cost 1 years wages to fly from London to New York. By todays average, it costs only Mondays and Tuesdays working wage. Unless you’re flying Ryanair where the flight itself would cost you half an hours work, but all the add-ons would cost Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays wages.

22) Mohawk Airlines hired the first African-American flight attendant in the United States, Ruth-Carol Taylor in December, 1957.

23) ‘MAYDAY’ is derived from the French word m’aidez, which means help me.

24) The average age of commercial aircraft is 19 years. The average age of an American Flight attendant is 105.

25) Singapore Airlines spends about $700 million on food every year and $16 million on wine alone. First class passengers consume 20,000 bottles of alcohol every month and Singapore Airlines is the second biggest buyer of Dom Perignon champagne in the world.

26) Prince Charles and Prince William will never fly on the same aircraft, just incase there is a crash.

27) The Boeing 747 burns approximately 1 gallon of fuel every second. Over the course of a 10 hour flight, it may burn up to 36,000 gallons.

28) British Airways was once the world’s largest purchaser of Champagne, with passengers drinking a minimum of 90,000 cases every year. They purchase all this champagne by selling the contents of the suitcases they lost in 2008! Again, kidding!

29) In the 568 US plane crashes between 1980 and 2000, more than 90% of the crash victims survived.

30) An air traveller can lose approximately 1.5 litres of water from the body during a 3 hour flight.

31) Thai Airways cabin crew are required to wear separate uniforms on land and in the air. They change into traditional Thai dresses in the air, while on the ground they wear a corporate purple suit. Also, any crew of a nationality other than Thai are not allowed to wear the dress.

32) Only around 25% of first class passengers pay full fare. The rest are upgrades, frequent fliers and airline employees, otherwise known as scum.

33) The name of Idlewild Airport was changed to JFK international on 24th December 1963, a month after John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

34) Only 5% of the world’s population has never been on an aeroplane.

35) In 2010 easyJet cabin crew had served 28,796,475 tasty Bacon baguette and poured  95,481,345 hot drinks.

36) Lufthansa is the worlds largest purchaser of Caviar, buying over 10 tons per year.

37) The Boeing 747 (all versions) have travelled and estimated 35 billion miles, that is the equivalent of 75,000 trips to the moon and back.

38) When Concorde used to fly over the Middle East on the early Bahrain routes, there were complaints that the sonic booms upset the camels and ruined their sex lives. What I would like to know is how the locals discovered this fact……..

39) Emirates is the worlds largest operator of Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft and is one of only 9 airlines in the world to operate an all wide-body fleet.

40) A Boeing 747s wing-span is longer than the Wright Brothers first flight (120ft).

41) The internet and on-line check-in was first used by Alaska Airlines in 1999.

42) As well as being the second oldest airline in the world Qantas, formed in 1920, also has the best safety record with no fatal crashes in their history. Tick Tock.

43) On 11th June 1962, Air India became the worlds first all Jet airline.

44) The first women flight attendants in the 1930’s were required to weigh no more than 115 pounds, be nurses and un-married.

45) 75% of all inflight arguments between grown adults are a result of economy passengers reclining their seats. Don’t you just hate it when they ask you to tell the person in front to put their seat up. Like they can’t hear you anyway! Do it yourself.

46) Pilots are 75% more likely to be at the front door saying goodbye to passengers after a good landing than after a bad landing. That’s probably why none of the flight deck I know ever leave the cockpit.

47) Two to six hundred million gallons of wastewater is created each year from aircraft de-icing.

48) The winglets on an Airbus A330-200 are the same height as the worlds tallest man.

49) Hijacking of aircraft was not officially outlawed until 1961.

and finally………

50) Cabin crew are onboard an aircraft to save your arse, not kiss it!