Interesting Facts

During World War I, France allegedly tried using parrots on the Eiffel Tower as an early warning system for enemy aircraft. (The experiment was abandoned because the parrots were very good at raising the alarm for approaching aircraft, but were unable to distinguish friend from foe, and they quickly grew bored.)

Many aeroplane cockpits have cup holders. (Pilots are allowed to have beverages in the cockpit. Unfortunately this factlet came to light in 2011 when a pilot spilled coffee on the cockpit panel of a Boeing 777-200 headed from Chicago to Frankfurt, leading to a false hijack warning and culminating in the plane's emergency landing in Canada. I guess they've got to keep hydrated, but they should give them sippy cups.)

According to the International Air Transport Association, mobile phones and other electronic devices have disrupted flight instruments 75 times over the last six years. (The use of mobile phones on aircraft was banned until 2008, when the communication regulator Ofcom agreed that carriers could offer coverage above 3000ft, but during one flight electronic devices are believed to have caused the autopilot to disengage at 4,500ft. I am about to fly, so on reading this, I'm not a happy bunny.) Source: Daily Telegraph

BBC South East has revealed that airlines deliberately fly longer routes over the Atlantic Ocean to avoid paying air traffic control charges. (These routes are known as tango routes, and they can produce an extra three tonnes of carbon dioxide.)

One of the requirements of being a member of Ryanair's cabin crew is that your are "able to swim well". (Well at least they don't ask you to be able to fly.)

The mile high club is slang term applied to individuals who have engaged in sexual activity while on board an aircraft. There is no known formally constituted club so named. (According to the BBC, travel lawyer Philip Banks, from the firm Irwin Mitchell, says that getting frisky in the toilet of a plane could be a criminal offence. Seemingly a person has committed an offence if they have sex in a lavatory to which the public has access, under section 71 of the Sexual Offences Act 2004. You have been warned.)