This leg will take us from the cargo airport of Sharjah to the cargo and passenger hub of Europe, Frankfurt Main or EDDF as air transport jargon codes. On climb out from Sharjah, first signpost is the island of Kish. While belonging to Iran, Kish is a free trade zone attracting vacationers from everywhere with relaxed paperwork to ease on luxury hotels, malls and other varied attractions. Kish receives over a million visitors any given year.

FSX flight planner decided to take us along the western coast of Iran, up northwest clear of Iraq airspace, then eastern Turkey, over the Black Sea, bisecting Romania east to west, over eastern Hungary, then the Czech Republic, Slovakia and finally Germany, 2664 nm or 4837 km as you prefer.

Looking afterwards into Flightradar24 this seems to be the regular routing (crowded even in the small hours!), only noticed a dogleg heading from departure towards the Iranian coast and then north by west over Iran. But the bit about Kish I did like to keep in so left it as the way I did the flight instead of the more official one. Anyway, takes over six hours depending on winds so sit comfortably and relax.

Sliding over Iran airspace we meet the Zagros range to the right. The Zagros span Iran's west coast for over 1500 km and are the result of the earth's crust folding compressed by the slow motion eastward push of the Arabian plate against the main Asian plate. It is the same mechanism through which the Himalayan plateau was formed by the thrust of the Indian subcontinent against Asia, or Italy against Europe for the Alps and so on.

Iran has its roots as far back as 3000 years BC and was cradle for one of the oldest civilizations rivaling Mesopotamia and Egypt. The legendary Persia, which at one time about 500 BC was the largest empire under Cyrus the Great. Only Alexander the Great could muster resources to conquest Persia then under Emperor Dario, 334 BC. After centuries of the coming and going tide of warlords and princes, Muslims got hold of Persia since 600 AD to these days. Looking down the endless string of rural villages with which for us are undecipherable names, one cannot but reflect how life flows there, how it was and how it has changed if any, and how will it ever change in such a rough, unfriendly mountainous and deserted environment. I wonder how the way of coming, staying and quitting from this world has ever changed in centuries.

We left in the last feature where the 747 project got started in part as a hedge against failure of the SST project, in part with an eye on the perceived need to bring air freight to a new level of development. Will not get into details how this project almost cost Boeing its existence yet turned one of the biggest and most iconic success stories in the air transport industry. The Jumbo initiated the era of the wide body airliner, the two aisle cabin. Most importantly, the economies of scale brought air travel into the reach of a new layer of users in terms of buying power. Before the 747, the term "jet set" was coined to identify the wealthy, the ones who could afford jet travel, the ones separated from the commons. The wide body revolution ended that state of affairs, or at least separated the well heeled to the forward first class section sharing the ship with maybe more than 400 additional souls packed trailing behind. The Jumbo entered commercial service in 1970, Boeing planned to build about 400 of them; turned out to build over 1500 and counting. So, what were the others doing? In a minute, we are making progress on our trip so let's check.

While Iran may at first bring memories of deserts and arid mountains, there is a vast network of reserves and protected areas, one of which is Dehdez. Iran is one of the largest reservoirs of plant diversity in the Old World. Of over 8000 plant species 22% are endemic to the region; this is why it is so important to define areas to preserve form alteration. Dehdez belongs to the Khuzestan province, which was the cradle to the earliest civilization in what now is Iran, the Elamites, people whose language was neither related to Semitic nor Indo-European, thereby singling them as a separate ethnic group. Despite intense oil production which puts the province economy in third place within Iran, it features fertile soils and abundant water resources enabling production from sugar cane to cereals, to timber, citrus and olives.

This, and a substantial fishery industry built around abundant rivers and dam reservoirs in time feeds a renowned regional cuisine where species, onions and cilantro can be counted on. When not deep fried rice with ground meat and species similar to kibbeh, you can count on oriental gastronomy as varied, special, and deeply rooted in tradition.

What were Douglas and Lockheed doing then? Launching a project like an airliner takes more than a bout of inspiration and instinct; it is a serious and risky business undertaking which must follow well accepted business practices. There must be a need for the product, there must be a qualified forecast of sales, of who will be the customers, how much will they be willing to pay for the machine to make good business with it and make shareholders happy, how much will it cost to design, develop, build, test, certify, manufacture, sell, maintain, the list goes on and on.

Both Douglas and Lockheed set to work on respective projects for wide body airliners which made sense in terms of an expected booming in air travel if history teaches something. Only they settled on different objectives with respect to Boeing. While the 747 started with capacities from slightly less than 500 passengers up, Douglas and Lockheed more conservatively targeted less than 400 passengers. Boeing gambled on its first line customer, Pan Am, and its intercontinental routing network. Douglas and Lockheed talked primarily with domestic carriers with shorter and less dense routes. The selected capacities and ranges they targeted had an important advantage: the planes could be powered by three engines instead of four. To be true they could have been powered by two engines but with severe restrictions in maximum takeoff weight, range and over water / high ground operation. Engine operating cost is the biggest single one after fuel, so dropping one engine means huge savings. Jokingly, if one could fit and certify a single 777 class engine on a 767 size airframe it should be unbeatable in cost per seat mile.

Thus projects DC-10 and L-1011 were born, very similar and yet fatefully different in outcome. The DC-10 was first ordered in 1968, first flew in 1970, entered commercial service in 1971, and little over 400 were produced not counting the MD11 derivative. The TriStar L-1011 was first ordered also in 1968, first flew just weeks after the DC-10 in 1970, entered service in 1972 but only 250 units were built.

While superficially they are quite similar, they were very different under the skin. Douglas had just been acquired by McDonnell who established a doctrine of cost control and mature technology in order to attain the lowest overall product cost. Lockheed aimed to the latest technology capable to be incorporated in the new design, placing it well ahead of the competition. The TriStar featured the most advanced avionics and the first CAT III autoland capability. It also featured the newest most efficient turbofan in existence, the Rolls Royce RB211. These design goals made it expensive, just a little lower than a 747 and much costlier than the DC10.

The RB211 choice as single option for engine was also an unlucky one that almost destroyed the project. Not that the RB211 were a bad engine, it proved later to be an awesome and extremely successful design, but at that time Rolls Royce happened to go into bankruptcy just when engine production quantities were needed to keep the L-1011 line going, and had to be salvaged by the British government. US congress in time had to weigh in to bail Lockheed and resume production, but a whole year was lost so L-1011 booked sales were diverted to DC10's or others and lost forever. 500 TriStars had to be sold to break even; when it was obvious this was not to be, production was finished at 250 units. L-1011 pilots, passengers and fans can only praise the TriStar, which for that matter proved to be an extremely safe, comfortable and great performing modern plane. Business logic dictated its retirement but it was missed.

We have now been flying for some time over Turkish airspace and are about to leave it to get wet feet in the Black Sea. The city of Sinop dates back to the Hittites, and was later a major port in the route from Mesopotamia through the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Along its history saw domination by Greece, Persia, Rome, was conquered, lost and conquered again by Turks until the definitive consolidation of modern Turkey. Soon enough we make landfall in Romania over the ancient city of Constanta, formerly known in Roman times as Tomis. Poet Ovidio was exiled here by Emperor Augustus, AD 8, purportedly because of praise of adultery in one of his literary works, Ars Amatoria, but something of a more personal character is suspect. Roman influence on the country is obvious, from its name to a language intensely tied to Latin roots.

While flying over Romania, the city of Ploesti lies not far to the left of our route. It is probably not widely known Romania has important oil reserves, and Ploesti is a major industrial extraction site. During WWII several air raids were launched from North Africa targeted to the German controlled Ploesti installations to deny vital fuel for the war machinery. They were dangerous missions suffering heavy losses, and where the B24 Liberator had a major role, but they did not impact significantly on production. The B24 had the most advanced wing design for the time which gave it unrivaled endurance, so much it was later assigned to long range maritime patrol and antisubmarine and convoy coverage during the latter stages of the Battle of the Atlantic. The B24 wing and general fuselage shape comes from the PB2Y Coronado four engine flying boat developed by Consolidated after the immensely successful PBY Catalina long range patrol flying boat. Today Ploesti is home to Petrom, Romania's largest corporation--guess in which business it is.

The Vrancea Mountains belong to the Carpathians range, Transylvania. This is the land of the night terror, of vampires and undead. Truth is like most of Europe in the Middle Ages, ruthless warlords spread terror and gave birth to tales of blood and gore, passed and mutated through oral and written tradition to our days. The Transylvania region is inhabited by as many Romanians as Hungarians, been ruled by both nations once and again when not under the domination of Ottomans. Further on, Lake Tisza slides under and at left, second only to more crowded Lake Balaton as a summer vacation center and across the border to Slovakia the Tatras are the last significant mountain range for this trip. Terrain now rolls more or less smoothly towards the frontier with the Czech Republic which not long ago with Slovakia formed the republic of Czechoslovakia.

So rounding up, the wide body paradigm initiated with the Jumbo was quickly followed by the DC-10 and the L-1011. All used what we now call steam gauge instruments and required a crew of three to safely operate and monitor such big and complex machines. Unlike the L-1011 which was committed only to the RB211 power plant, the DC-10 started with General Electric CF6 engines but incorporated Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines for the DC-10-40. The DC-10 was built in many variants in size, fuel capacity, weight and configuration coping to different market / routes / duty requirements. An Air Force version for aerial refueling was heavily used, the KC-10 Extender.

Announced in 1969 and first flown also in 1972, a newcomer changed the commercial aviation landscape forever, that being the A300 built by the European consortium Airbus. At 260 seats and up it was smaller than either the DC-10 or the L-1011, but it was the first twin engine widebody and could hang CF6 or JT9D engines or later European powerplants as they became available. Decisive for success of the A300 was the fact it was the first ETOPS-90 certified aircraft. ETOPS stands for Extended range Twin engine Operation Performance Standards, though the twin engine qualifier no longer applies, that is, there are four engine airliners ETOPS qualified.

In short what ETOPS certification brought was a relaxation in route maximum distance from a suitable airport in case of engine failure. Previous restriction was 60 minutes flight time, the A300 was approved for 90 minutes and in a progressive upgrade ladder for each model, accumulated flight experience without problems enable application for 120 and 180 minutes and so on. ETOPS also stands for Engines Turn Or Passengers Swim. Of course the economies we noted earlier regarding reduced engine count weighted mightily in so the A300 performance in this area was better than similar three engine airliners. Equally important, it was the first mainstream airliner to make extensive use of composites to save weight and in soon to follow versions it was the first in its size range to be certified for a two pilot crew due to the incorporation of emerging technologies and design features like glass cockpit as opposed to steam gauge instruments and the need of a flight engineer.

Boeing had to wait until 1982 to enter service the 767 with a crew of two, glass cockpit, and sophisticated navigation and control / avionics systems together with capacities from 180 to over 370. If the A300 announced the end of the trijet era the 767 confirmed it.

The Vestonice reservoir together with the Musov and the Nove were formed between 1975 and 1989 by damming of the Dyje, Jihlava and Svratka rivers. The creation of these reservoirs sparked criticism from conservation groups on the grounds that not only the town of Musov was sacrificed, but also many archeological sites, and has had an adverse impact on the local ecosystem. This region is now a Nature Reserve and Special Protected Area. Bohemia ahead and the Sudetes beyond, where Hitler played the prelude to WWII probing the European resolve by annexing the region to Germany.

Just sailing past Bayreuth ATC commands us down to FL280. For those completely uninterested in classic music in general or Richard Wagner in particular, the following bit of trivia can be safely skipped with no regrets on my part, I do not particularly appreciate certain branches of music or artists either so it is OK and I respect and encourage freedom on musical tastes.

Turns out Richard Wagner happened to visit the Margrave Opera House of Bayreuth in 1870, for he was told it was the right size for The Ring of the Nibelung Tetralogy based on Germanic folklore of demigods and warrior heroes. Many classic music lovers despise Wagnerian music finding it overblown in effect but lacking in creative worth, some artists go so far as to decline to perform Wagner creations. While arguably there are split opinions on this respect based on some features of his music, it is also true pieces like the "Prelude and Love-Death of Tristan and Isolde" conform an intimate and deeply beautiful masterpiece which could not be more remote from stridence. The stage itself was fine but (Sigh ..) the orchestra pit turned out to be not large enough for the required amount of instruments (oh well here we go ...). To make it short, Wagner proposed, and was granted support for building a completely new venue and this is how the Festival Hall was born and inaugurated 1876. Both Wagner and Hungarian piano virtuoso and composer Franz Liszt whose daughter was Wagner's wife are buried in Bayreuth. The world famous Wagner festival takes place here, July and August every year.

OK back to aviation and flightsimming. Talking about flight simulations, ever heard about the Link trainer? Devices for simulating flight, be it for civilian or combat learning without risk of personal injury and property damage were created almost at the same time airplanes themselves. Among several trials, it was one Edwin Link from Binghamton, NY who built a device in 1927, patented it and put for sale a couple of years later. It was basically a box with stubby wings and empennage just to remind users what it intended to emulate, but what mattered was it was capable of pivoting on three axes under command of normal stick and rudder inputs, powered by bellows and electric motors. It had actual instruments which allowed for serious piloting except for any maneuver implying visual cues. While the student sweated out in the box, an instructor played controller at the same time recording each and every movement for further analysis and corrections. Flight schools and the US Army were natural candidate customers but despite Mr. Link efforts, interest was underwhelming.

Then came 1934 and the Army Air Force was contracted by government to carry mail. Appalling human and aircraft losses followed in just the first weeks of service due to recurring bad weather faced by pilots poorly trained to cope with. It was then as is usually the case, when someone remembered Ed Link, asked to come have a talk. Luck had the day of the appointment Link flew in undaunted by prevailing poor visibility due of course to his simulator training. Thus the first dozen units were purchased, setting him on course for a flourishing business. When WWII came, thousands of Link trainers were put into operation to churn out the hundreds of thousands of new pilots needed for the allied war effort.

And this is how we round up the third installment, landing in a snowed at EDDF. Never been there much less in winter so I hope FSX is rendering a correct version for the airport. Next time I will invite you to my home turf; this will be recreating the Lufthansa cargo schedule from Frankfurt to Buenos Aires by way of Dakar, Campinas and Montevideo, usually served by MD11's. When landing in Montevideo I will taxi past the new passenger terminal which though small, we find pretty and are proud of. Then, I hope to count on you to share and explore routes to Hong Kong via Almaty, to Mexico via Chicago, to Johannesburg via Nairobi and who knows which others we may happen to find out and be lured to follow.

Rodolfo Astrada
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