Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines Podcast

Click on the title to listen our podcast recorded during a visit from Stephen Carroll from News2Day (RTE). The Kilvemnon musicians from first to sixth class are conducted by our talented principal, Mrs. Teckie Brett.


Today,News2Day came to our school. They came because our teacher Miss O'Connell won a competition for the best school in Europe. We came first. They came at eleven o' Clock. When they came we had to play two songs on our tin whistles. We played Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines and Aeroplanes. We played them twice. Then they asked us questions about our project. Two men came from News2Day. One was called Steven Carroll!! They were excited to see us. We were excited to see them. They stayed until two o' clock. Tomorrow we are going to Shannon airport. Lucky us!
By The Rose

5O Years of TransAtlantic Flight with Aer Lingus

1919
Alocock and Brown complete the first non-stop TransAtlantic flight from Newfoundland to Clifden,Co.Galway in 16 hours and 12 minutes.According to the New York Times,at times they even flew "upside down".

1927
Charles A Lindbergh,flying the spirit of St Louis ,becomes the first aviator to make a solo,non-stop TransAtlantic flight from Long Island to Paris.It took 33 hours and 30 minutes.

1929
Hundreds of TransAtlantic crossings with passengers are made by Zeppelins in the late `20s and early `30s.Graf Zeppelin even circumnavigators the earth

1936
Aer Lingus Teoranta is registered as an airline. Teoranta means "limited company" and Lingus is derived from the Irish "loingeas", meaning fleet.

1939
Pan American inaugurates the world's first transatlantic passenger services between New York and Marseilles, and New York and Southampton. Passengers pay $375 one way.

1945
The US Civil Aeronautics Board grants permission to American Export Airlines, Pan American and TWA to operate services across the North Atlantic. The agreement breaks Pan AM's monopoly and contributes to a boom in air travel in the post-war era.

1947
Transatlantic services are first mooted in Ireland, with Aerlinte Eireann formed as an associate company of Aer Lingus. Five new Lockheed L749 Constellations are ordered, before the service is scotched after a charge of Irish Government in 1948.

1950
The transatlantic route is the world's number one route in terms of traffic with SAS, KLM, Air France, SABENA and Swissair all carrying passengers across the ocean.

1958
Aerlinte Eireann is re-established and on 28th April the first service leaves Dublin and Shannon for New York.

1960
Aer Lingus enters the jet age with Boeing 720s covering the routes from Dublin and Shannon to New York and Boston. In 1964, the larger Boeing 707 follows.

1979
Pope John Paul II flies from Rome to Dublin and later from Shannon to Boston on an Aer Lingus plane that has been specially chartered for him.

1996
On October 2, the last Aer Lingus Boeing 747 flight takes place after 25 years of service. Over eight million people have travelled across the Atlantic in Aer Lingus "Jumbo Jets".

2008
With passenger numbers now exceeding nine million per annum. Aer Lingus transatlantic routes include Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New york, Orlando, San Francisco and Washington DC.

Visit to Shannon Airport and Foynes Museum

When we went to Shannon Airport.We met our tour guide Denis and made our way to the hangar.When we got inside we went up the steps and into the plane.We thought that we would only be allowed to look around the plane but we got to sit in the first class seats and watched some tv. A few people at a time were allowed to go into the cockpit and look around at all the buttons and controls.We each got to sit in the pilots seat.After that we got out of the plane and went to look at the engines.We saw all the parts and then we took photos and videos of it. We got back on the bus and went to Foynes Flying Boat Museum.There we saw a little film about Flying boats. We also saw what the pilots and air hostesses uniforms were like.We saw what communication systems were used back then.We then got to the flying boat itself.We got to see all the places where they used to sleep and eat and we got to see where the luggage was kept and where the cockpit is.We all got our photo taken sitting in the cockpit.We all had a great day.