Are cockpits all backward on Airbus planes the way everything is all backward on European cars?
No, but the cockpits on Airbus aircraft are located at the back of the airplane, not unlike the bridge of an oil tanker. The new super-ultra-jumbo A380 will have two cockpits, one forward and one aft. Remember the old show “Hawaii Five-0?” I saw it the other night on cable and when they roll the opening credits they always show film of a jet engine intake and of the underside of a jet fuselage through a fish-eye lens. My question is: Do you know the name of the hula girl all a-dancin’ ‘n’ shakin’? No, but she could well be an Aloha Airlines flight attendant. I don’t think Aloha paid very well in those days, and the flight attendants (and a few of the pilots, I’m told) would often dance for tourists in the restaurants of the big hotels. (Aloha was famous for handing out ukuleles to all its passengers.) I saw a commercial for a charity called Adopt-a-Pilot. It went like this: You call a toll-free number and pledge some goop every month to support a pilot and they send you his picture. Ne
