I went to Luton Airport with my club, Cubs. It was just me and William and his friend. I was meant to be with the Tuesday group, but they didn’t have enough space, so we went to the Wednesday group instead. First we picked up William’s friend from his house, who lived on the way to the Airpoirt. We gave our passports in to the lady at the Reception Desk and waited for the great event to begin…
Hangar 1 had four or five planes in there being fixed. They all looked quite old, but one of them was shiny and new, which I, of course, liked best!
They all had big engines with massive fans. I think they were 22-23 blades in each engine, which did cost them a lot of money. They then turned the engine on and got a photo of us quickly, but they didn’t get the moving fan in it in time. Did you know that there was 7 tons of fuel in each wing of a plane and 25 in the middle?! It’s true! We take about 25-45 litres for our car, but imagine 39 TONS! Most of the planes cost about one hundred and twenty MILLION pounds just to sell, make or buy! It’s true, you know!
Then we actually WENT in a plane. They were properly ‘rebuilding’ this one, and it didn’t have any seats. We were all expecting seats, but only some of the people there weren’t listening so they didn’t know why they weren’t any seats. Of course, William and his friend and I all knew. Most of the Wednesday ones were quite naughty, but we were listening, being smart and behaving ourselves!
That plane was to hold 230 passengers once they’d put the seats in.
We went right into the front too – no glass wall or anything, we could actually GO in it. There were lots of buttons and knobs and clicky-click-click dials and sounding tunes. There was a small noise when the man asked a boy what he’d pulled or pressed, but when the little boy said, “Nothing,” the man said they were doing stuff at the bottom of the plane, so it was probably them. But even then, I thought I was going to blow up for a second….!
Did you know that the inventor of planes was actually Leonardo da Vinci? It was. He drew a little diagram with a piece of paper and a pencil. The pilot would turn their hands and turn pedals with their feet to make the wings flap. But, there was not enough power to get it off the floor. It was known as the Ornithopter.
Wilbur and Orville Wright were the first people to actually make a proper plane. And, 99% sure, it worked – even in 1903!
You want to be an aeroplane engineer? It takes four years to train! My great granddad Peter was an aeroplane engineer. During World War II, he used to make the planes for the pilots in the RAF. The planes would then have been used in the Battle of Britain! So, MY great granddad helped us to win the war! It’s a good thing he was just an engineer, or else he would have probably been killed in a plane or fighting a battle!
My visit was really good, and I learnt a lot of facts, though I thought they would take us on holiday to Jamaica or Barbados, as we had our passports with us!