Around the world in 175 days Part 27: Baghdad Iraq, Aleppo Syria

September 16, 20178 yr

July 9, 1924: The Flyers were used to getting up before day break but this day the slept in till after 7am and were not in the air until after 11am for there flight to Aleppo Syria, escorted for the first hour and a half by British Fighters. There route followed the Euphrates river and more monotonous desert They landed at the French Airfield northwest of the city and were greeted by laughing French pilots who insisted on toasting them with a special Champaign they had been saving for the occasion. After servicing there aircraft they were taken into town and to a reception and dinner that lasted until 2am.

September 13, 2017: For the next leg I will be using the Vought F4U Corsair. The Corsair first few in 1940 and was the first US Fighter to fly faster than 400 mph but it did not enter combat until 1943. Over 12,500 were built before the final delivery in 1953, the longest production run of any piston engine fighter in US history. I am using the ‘Birdcage’ model by JustFlight, which is quite nice. My flight to Aleppo was uneventful. Weather was good, clear with 5 knot winds and a temperature of 23C/73F. We cruised at 4000 feet, mostly following the Euphrates river, the Corsair made short work of the 388 mile flight cruising at over 290 knots and landing at the Aleppo International Airport after 1.4 hours of flying. I am happy that the civil war that has engulfed Syria does not invade the virtual space I fly in because I know the people of Aleppo have suffered quite a bit and as far as I can tell there airport is still closed because of the fighting.

Here are my pics;

Climbing out of Baghdad.

Heading out over the desart.

Not much out there.

Selfie!

No eclipses here.

Following the river.

Over Syria.

Landed.

July 10 1924: Despite the dinner than ended at 2am the night before the flyers were up at 6am and in the air by 9am for Constantinople (now Istanbul). Ahead were the 10,000 foot Taurus mountains that they planes could not fly over, so flying single file at 4000 feet they followed the Berlin-Baghdad railroad that cut through the valley, often uncomfortably close to the to the Mountain walls. Here they experienced the first real cold air since they left the Kurile islands. At 2:30 pm they landed at San Stefano aerodrome in Constantinople. To greet them was Admiral Bristol the American ambassador and few other American and Turkish officials but not the large crowds that would have been there had the cables Smith sent from Baghdad and Aleppo arrived, the telegraph system in this part of the world had not caught up to the technology of the day. After servicing there aircraft they went into the city but there were no dinners or receptions to attend since nobody really knew when they were coming. That evening they had dinner at the hotel and went to a Cabaret.

September 14, 2017: For the next flight I will be using the Lockheed L-049 Constellation. The Connie came out of a reqirement from TWA for an aircraft that could fly 3500 miles with 40 passengers. It used four R-3350 engines had a pressurized hull and wings similar to that used on the P-38. The aircraft first flew in 1943 and by then all civilian orders were taken over by the military. Designated the C-69 it was used as a high-speed, long-distance troop transport. Production was slow because the B-29 program had priority for the engines and by the end of the war only 22 had been built. Eventually 856 of all models were built by the time production ended in 1958. It set the standard for speed and luxury until replaced by Jet aircraft. A Connie still holds the record for a flight between New York and Washington, a record that will probably not be broken because it was done before the FAA speed limit below 10000 feet was imposed. The version I am using is made by JustFlight and is included as a default aircraft within P3D. As much as I would love to keep flying WW2 aircraft for the rest of the flight, history moves on and I figure this aircraft will be a good transition between that era and the post war aircraft I will be flying next.

The weather for the flight from Aleppo to Istanbul was good, Clear with no wind and a temperature of 23.4C/74F. Being able to cruise higher than the Douglas World Cruiser I flew at around 10000 feet over the mountains on a direct course for Ataturk International Airport. Landing safely the 489nm flight had taken just 2 hours.

Here are a few pics.

Getting ready to takeoff.