Great Moments in Aviation Oops

What’s your vector, Victor? After mistakenly landing at a small airstrip in Kansas, eight miles from its intended destination, Boeing’s XXL Dreamlifter 747 was able to take off, despite using a runway about 3,000 feet shorter than it typically uses.

Had the Dreamlifter been unable to take off, Boeing planned to pump the bulbous 747 full of helium, paint “Goodyear” on the side and float it above football stadiums.

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Should have checked “Peterson’s Field Guild to Jets”: A Seattle chamber of commerce’s ad in the Seattle Times made the case for Boeing to build its 777X in Washington state. But the photo of a airliner in the ad showed a jetliner built by Boeing rival, Airbus. “It’s an embarrassing, cringe-worthy error,” a chamber spokeswoman said.

You know, “cringe-worthy,” like landing one of the largest planes in the world at a tiny airstrip in the middle of a Kansas cornfield.

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Don’t know much about history: On this day in 1935, a flying boat, the China Clipper, carried more than 100,000 pieces of mail on the first airmail flight across the Pacific.

Fortunately for the pilots, the Pacific Ocean offered more room for error than a Kansas cornfield.

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