Discovery Wings - Flying Heavy Metal All 5 Eps

The US's fascination in aviation really took off in May 1927 when American Charles Lindbergh became the first person to successfully fly solo across the Atlantic. His historic flight from New York took 33.5 hours and on landing in Paris he was greeted by a cheering crowd of thousands. Lindbergh became an all-American hero; his achievement rekindled interest in aviation in the USA and commercial air transport began to flourish. By 1930 there were 43 scheduled airlines, although most still mainly carried post and not passengers.

The Second World War lead to more routes being flown to support military operations and to developments in engineering that would change the face of aviation. The General Electric Company in Boston produced an engine based on Frank Whittle's revolutionary design and it was used to power a jet aircraft for the first time in the US in 1942.

After the war, more and more airlines sprang up to cope with the growing demand for air transportation as people began to see it as an increasingly popular alternative to rail and sea travel. American aircraft manufacturing companies like Douglas, Lockheed and Boeing, gradually became the dominant forces in commercial aviation although they were slower to adopt jet technology than their European rivals. There was uncertainty as to the future of jetliners after the de Havilland Comet suffered a series of disasters some of which were attributed to problems with the aircraft.

In 1958, Boeing was the first American manufacturer to go full throttle with jetliners when it produced the 707 which was twice as heavy and could carry twice the number of passengers as the Comet. President Kennedy loved the 707 so much that he bought one and had it especially adapted to become the first ever Air Force One. Airlines loved them too; over 1,800 were built and some of these are still in service today in Latin America and Africa.

Boeing followed the 707 with the even more successful 727. Its advantage was that unlike its big brother the 727 could take-off and land on shorter runways which meant it could travel long and short-haul to many more destinations throughout the world. Then came the Boeing 747 'Jumbo Jet' which first took to the skies in 1969 and is still the largest passenger jet liner flying today.

America's quest for flight took things one step further in the 1960's when it entered the space race with the USSR. Rockets were developed to power space craft which could travel through the atmosphere and far beyond. The Space Shuttle was the first craft that could be re-furbished and used for several missions.

At the start of the 21st century American aviation was heading towards the development of sonic commercial aircraft that could reduce flying time by between 15-20%. The aircraft industry in the US was convinced that passengers wanted to travel faster between smaller airports rather than in larger jetliners which provided more space. But after the terrorist attack of September 11th 2001, passenger numbers dropped steeply and the commercial airline business suffered huge losses. This lead to a rethink and now the industry is concentrating mainly on cost effective, fuel efficient designs for the future.

Flying Heavy metal is a 5-part television series produced by Ricochet and broadcast (in the UK) and Europe on the Discovery Channel and subsequently repeated on Discovery Wings. It is presented by commercial Boeing 757 pilot and Iron Maiden frontman, Bruce Dickinson.

In the series, Bruce looks at and often flies a number of aircraft from across the history of commercial aviation. There are some quite surprising aerobatics done in rather large aircraft...

Ep #1

200 Mb Files - RS & HF interchangeable Links


http://hotfile.com/dl/9210181/22b8edb/FlyingHeavyMetalE01of05.part1.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/9210184/d50668a/FlyingHeavyMetalE01of05.part2.rar.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/260125629/FlyingHeavyMetalE01of05.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/260123824/FlyingHeavyMetalE01of05.part2.rar



Ep #2

200 Mb Files - RS & HF interchangeable Links


http://hotfile.com/dl/9210194/0a60827/FlyingHeavyMetalE02of05.part1.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/9210306/078365e/FlyingHeavyMetalE02of05.part2.rar.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/260129310/FlyingHeavyMetalE02of05.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/260123786/FlyingHeavyMetalE02of05.part2.rar


Ep #3

200 Mb Files - RS & HF interchangeable Links


http://hotfile.com/dl/9210365/fad7e79/FlyingHeavyMetalE03of05.part1.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/9210809/bb90ec3/FlyingHeavyMetalE03of05.part2.rar.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/260128850/FlyingHeavyMetalE03of05.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/260124307/FlyingHeavyMetalE03of05.part2.rar



Ep #4

200 Mb Files - RS & HF interchangeable Links


http://hotfile.com/dl/9210873/8ee679f/FlyingHeavyMetalE04of05.part1.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/9210962/712672c/FlyingHeavyMetalE04of05.part2.rar.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/260129581/FlyingHeavyMetalE04of05.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/260124947/FlyingHeavyMetalE04of05.part2.rar



Ep #5

200 Mb Files - RS & HF interchangeable Links

http://hotfile.com/dl/9211018/94b45a2/FlyingHeavyMetalE05of05.part1.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/9211057/313f17c/FlyingHeavyMetalE05of05.part2.rar.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/260130352/FlyingHeavyMetalE05of05.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/260125513/FlyingHeavyMetalE05of05.part2.rar