What brought down US Airways Flight 1549? I like airplanes and flying, I used to have a private pilots licence, so I had to find out for sure.

The drawing is of an Airbus A320, the plane which crashed, the way an engineer might see her.

This is a typical A320 in current US Airways livery.

The shocking truth!

Author: Alexandra Highcrest

Research: Angelina Pieros

Here she is, the Vickers Viscount. Pretty, isn’t she? The Viscount is the first airplane I ever flew in and I’ve loved flying ever since.

Posted by Alexandra Highcrest, courtesy of Angelina

I learned to fly many years ago but I never pursued flying as a profession, I just did it for pleasure. It was fun and you can't do anything in a car that even comes close to simulating the feeling of doing a spiral dive in a Cessna 150. At least not without trashing your wheels. Everything in a plane is more intense and when you get right down to it airplanes don't suffer mistakes or fools lightly. People stagger away from car crashes all the time.

The first airplane I flew in as a passenger was a Vickers Viscount operated by Air Canada. During my childhood Mother and I regularly flew in and out of Toronto to visit friends and family, and eventually I was allowed to make these flights alone. That's when my love affair with aviation began. Unlike now, flying was elegant when I was a child; passengers dressed well and flight attendants (all women) treated their charges like we were important. I loved it. Now airlines treat passengers like cattle as they stuff us into aircraft bearing names such as Airbus...how appropriate.

Angelina and I know that aviation isn't the sort of thing that comes to mind when one thinks of fashion and beauty but there has been overlap and these instances of the fusion of fashion and flying will be touched upon in future blog entrees, so if you enjoy a bit of flight with your fashion, stay tuned.

Posted by Alexandra Highcrest, courtesy of Angelina.