Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Foto.jpg


Foto.jpg, originally uploaded by smokeonit.

iPhone: +49 177 6831192

Friday, February 13, 2009

Weiterstadt, Germany: Porsche 911 Cabriolet camouflaged prototype

Weiterstadt, Germany: Porsche 911 Cabriolet camouflaged prototype crash, Friday 13th, 2009, 2:45am, kills Porsche engineer.

Photo is facing north, the Porsche was traveling south and crashed with the rear into the guardrail, sliding under the guard rail for approx. 50 meters! people who know what damage the edges of a guardrail can do know what happened...! The Porsche didn't break through the median which would have meant that traffic heading north would have crashed into it.... which would have been even more disastrous since the lights have been torn out by the accident and other vehicles would have crashed into the 911 at a very high rate of speed. After all the left lane is normally used at an minimum speed of at least 130 km/h (80 mph). At night with little traffic and at that time (2:45am) most people drive much faster when in the fast lane...!!!

Weiterstadt, Germany: Camouflaged Porsche 911 Cabriolet prototype crash, Friday 13th, 2009, 2:45am, kills 51 year old Porsche engineer who was with Porsche for 25 years.

A Porsche 911 Cabriolet prototype/test mule (2010 model year) crashed into the median guardrail of the southbound A5 (Autobahn 5 Frankfurt-Heidelberg) near Weiterstadt, Germany. After spinning around 180 degrees its' tail slid under the guardrail for about 50 meters (150 feet) before coming to a halt. It seems that the steel structure of the guardrail cut of the upper structure (A-Pillar and convertible roof) of the car. This stretch of the A5 has no speed limit. Reasonable high speed driving is allowed!
The engineer was driving in tandem with another engineer in a Porsche Panamera which followed shortly behind. The Panamera was able to avoid crashing into the 911 and called police and paramedics.

The Porsche 911 was not driving at super high speeds! Porsche conducts high speed testing on closed circuits! Those test mules with new equipment normally don't drive more than 250 km/h (155 mph) and it was wet and snowing very lightly. Every experienced driver would not have driven faster than 140-150 km/h (87-93 mph). My guess is this was a freak accident and the 911 was going around 120-130 km/h (75-80 mph) when he lost control.

I drive this stretch of the A5 a couple of time a week and it's straight, but it has some ditching parts, especially below the overpasses, which can be fatal if wet and there's no optimal grip. An overpass with such a ditch was close by, approximately 700 meters from where the 911 ended up.

I hope this will have consequences for the company manufacturing the guardrail, and the state of Hesse maintenance crew installing the guardrail...! This should not have been a fatal accident!!! My deepest condolences to the family of the Porsche engineer.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Donated by Boeing 1986, 707-430 D-ABOC @ TXL (Airport Tegel, Berlin) today

Boeing 707 D-ABOC @ TXL (Airport Tegel, Berlin, Germany) 2007

The plane is left to rot at this location. What a shame and an outright scandal!

Used to be on display in front of the main entrance, today she's purposely hidden in the far south-western corner of Tegel Airport (behind a forest blocking the view from the main TXL buildings). The Lufthansa livery has been painted over in order to counter any "ad"-effect the plane might have (had).

Story behind the aircraft:
The aircraft was painted to resemble the 1960's original, but it never actually served with Lufthansa, it was owned & operated by El Al until early 1986 when it was returned to Boeing which was looking for a 707-400 in good condition. Boeing brought it in to their U.S. shop, did a technical check-up and painted it to match the original livery of the D-ABOC. As every Lufthansa plane the name of D-ABOC was "Berlin". The original D-ABOC was scrapped at Tripoli, Libya, in the early 1980s. This plane was a gift to Lufthansa to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Lufthansa, as well as the 200th Boeing delivered to Lufthansa the same year.

November 1986
Boeing had to trick the russians a little since they refused any West-German plane to fly into Berlin or over East-German airspace. It had to be re-registered as N130KR in order to fly it into Tegel Airport. Lufthansa received it with all honors and after some shuffling it got a nice place in front of the Tegel Airport. In 1998 an ex-purser, now running Tegel, by the name of Lothar Schulz wanted to make a name for himself as a hardass penny-pincher and arranged for D-ABOC to be moved to the parking lot of the Tegel Airport fire station which was closed to the public and that meant the plane was not accessible to the public. Since approx. 2000 she's in her final "resting" place, ready to rot. If not drastic measures are taken this plane will be a total loss, since it's parked on top of grass and next to a dense forest on the south-western edge of Tegel Airport. (Geo-Coordinates: 52.5545, 13.2592)

This plane was delivered to El Al 06/1961 as 4X-ATB.
The real D-ABOC was scrapped @ Tripoli in the early 1980's.

The original 4X-ATB actually was involved in a failed hijacking attempt in 1973.
The pilot successfully went into a steep dive allowing the air-marshalls to shoot and kill the involved terrorists. The plane was on route to New York from Tel Aviv and made an emergency landing at London Heathrow in order to cover up the event.


Boeing 707 D-ABOC @ TXL heute. Das Foto wurde Juni 2007 aufgenommen, also kann man davon ausgehen das die Boeing wesentlich schlechter dasteht als in diesem Foto!

Sie wurde vor dem Flughafen auf der Verkehrinsel ausgestellt, ca. 1998 wurde sie auf geheiß von Lothar Schulz, einem ehemaliger Purser bei Lufthansa und nun Manager der BFG, entfernt um "Kosten" zu sparen.
Zuerst wurde sie auf den Feuerwehrparkplatz verbannt, und schlussendlich an diesen Ort gestellt, am süd-westlichen Ende des Flughafens (siehe Geotag), an welchen man nur gelangt wenn man wirklich dorthin will und darf.

Boeing lackierte das Flugzeug in den original 1960er Lufthansa Farben um die 200. Maschine die an Lufthansa verkauft, als auch das 60. jährige Bestehen der Lufthansa, zu feiern. Die D-ABOC war ja bei Inbetriebnahme 1960 Berlin getauft worden, deswegen wurde genau dieses Flugzeug ausgewählt um Lufthansa als auch der Stadt Berlin die Ehre zu erweisen.
Leider existierte die originale D-ABOC nicht mehr, sie wurde Anfang der 1980er Jahre an eine Libysche Fluggesellschaft verkauft um als Ersatzteillager zu dienen. (siehe Geotag des Originalfotos der D-ABOC).
El Al war der Besitzer dieser Maschine und 1986 wurde sie an Boeing abgegeben um dieses Projekt möglich zu machen. Baujahr ist 06/1961 und originale Registrierung 4X-ATB. Boeing überführte sie als N130KR nach Tegel da die DDR und Russland auf das Flugverbot Westdeutscher Fluglinien bestanden. Auch mussten die Lufthansa Insignien überklebt werden und konnten erst wieder in Tegel freigelegt werden.

Bewegte Geschichte dieser israelischen Boeing 707-400:
1973 - Auf dem Flug von Tel Aviv nach New York über Amsterdam versuchten Jugendliche Extremisten die Maschine in ihre Gewalt zu bringen. Daraufhin ging der Pilot in einen Sturzflug über und die an Bord befindlichen bewaffneten Flugbegleiter (heute Air-Marshalls genannt) erschossen die Terroristen. Anschließend landete die Maschine in London Heathrow um den Vorfall zu vertuschen.

1984/1985 - Maschine flog für die ARKIA, blieb aber Eigentum der El Al.

1986 - El Al gibt Maschine an Boeing zurück und als sie wird von Boeing als N32824 registriert.
Dann bewies die Firma Boeing echte deutsch-amerikanische Freundschaft als sie ihrer treuen Kundin Lufthansa zum 60. Gründungsjubiläum und Verkauf der 200. Maschine diese Maschine zum Geschenk machte.
So sollte die Maschine in Lufthansa Farben und mit Deutschem Kennzeichen in West-Berlin landen, um nach vielen Jahren des Flugverbots für Deutsche Fluggesellschaften ein Zeichen zu setzen.
Doch der Kontrollrat der Alliierten der Stadt Berlin erlaubte dies nicht, natürlich auf ausdrückliches betrieben der russischen Verantwortlichen (wer sonst), und der Überflug der SBZ und die Landung in Berlin Tegel als Lufthansa Flugzeug wurde so erfolgreich verhindert. Also registrierte Boeing die Maschine mit einer neuen Nummer und flog im September 1986 als N130KR ohne Behinderung der russischen Behörden nach Berlin Tegel ein. 



if you care about this plane please email or write to Lufthansa and tell them how you fell about all this (nicely;-)):

Lufthansa manager email addresses:

andreas.bierwirth@dlh.de
carl.sigel@dlh.de
carsten.spohr@dlh.de
holger.haetty@dlh.de
stefan.lauer@dlh.de
wolfgang.mayrhuber@dlh.de
juergen.weber@dlh.de
stephan.gemkow@dlh.de

snail mail/fax:
Germany
Deutsche Lufthansa AG
Kundendialog Deutschland
D-33322 Gütersloh
Deutschland
+ 49 1805 838005

E.U.
Lufthansa German Airlines 
Customer Feedback
PO Box 1289
Liverpool L69 3AX
United Kingdom

U.S.A.
Lufthansa German Airlines
United States of America
Customer Relations 
P.o. Box 425, East Meadow, 
NY 11554
U.S.A. 
Fax: +1 (516) 296 9838

Canada 
Customer Relations 
P.O. Box 939
31 Adelaide Street East
Toronto ON M5C 2K3
Canada 
Fax: +1 (416) 360-8827

Japan 
Customer Relations 
3-1-13, Shiba Koen, 
Minato-Ku, 
Tokyo 105-0011 
Fax: +81 3 54025226


New Lufthansa Boing 707 D-ABOC 1960



Lufthansa Boeing 707-430 D-ABOC. Operated by Lufthansa from 1960 until 1977. Plane was scrapped @ Tripoli, Libya, in the early 1980's. She's the original and gave it's name and tail number to the plane featured above.

Lufthansa Boeing 707-430 D-ABOC. Von 1960 bis 1977 bei der Lufthansa im Einsatz. Das Flugzeug wurde in den frühen 1980er in Tripolis, Libyen, verschrottet. Sie ist das Flugzeug welche als Vorbild für das im Post oben beschriebene Flugzeug abgab.


Willy Brandt, damals Regierender Bürgermeister in Berlin, taufte die Lufthansa 707 D-ABOC am 16. September 1960 auf den Namen der alten Heimatstadt der Lufthansa, Berlin.
Von 1960 bis 1977 bei Lufthansa im Einsatz. Das Flugzeug wurde in den frühen 1980er in Tripolis, Libyen, verschrottet.


Major of Berlin, Willy Brandt, naming Lufthansa 707-430 D-ABOC "Berlin" on September 16th 1960. Berlin used to be Lufthansa's home base until WWII broke out which brought all civil flight traffic to a halt.
D-ABOC was operated by Lufthansa from 1960 until 1977. The plane was scrapped at Tripoli, Libya, in the early 1980's.

In 1986 Boeing donated a 707-400 with the same livery as the D-ABOC to Lufthansa, commemorating Lufthansas 60th Anniversary & the sale of plane #200. Unfortunately this plane is rotting @ TXL (Berlin Tegel). see link below (click photo in next post), There's only 3 fully operational 707-400 left, the one @ TXL is one of them. But not for long!