A Bit of Organ Trivia

by **Mike Bracchi** » 26 Oct 2013 18:13

A few weeks back I found some old Home Organist magazines, and I came across some articles and adverts from Hertfordshire Organ Studios, the company that Vince and I founded back in the late 70's, the articles were written by a friend of ours Phil Baldwin; In the cutting below Phil writes ....

"What have organs to do with flying? Not a thing, normally. (British Airways have yet to install one on a wide bodied jet.)

Well, that got me thinking, maybe British Airways hadn't .... but had any other airline? So I set the ferret loose and it came back with pictures of organs that had been installed on aircraft as early as the mid 1950s.

Let's take a look ...

Good old days: A flight attendant treats passengers to a tune on a tiny Minshall electronic organ ahead of a transatlantic flight from New York to London in 1954.

In 1973 Led Zepplin hired a former United Airlines Boeing 720B passenger jet built in 1960 to fly them from gig to gig, the aircraft was specifically modified to cater to the biggest band in the world ... An all important cabin bar was installed complete with a built-in Thomas electronic organ.

John Paul Jones playing the on-board bar’s Thomas electronic organ.

And American Airlines had the "piano bar" ... it was an economy class lounge at the rear of their 747-100 cabins, the "piano" was in fact a compact Wurlitzer electric piano.

Wurlitzer Electric Piano on-board AA's Boeing 747-100

Mike

by **jackoj** » 27 Oct 2013 08:39

Hi Captain Mike

,
Interesting stuff, how did you do in the race? must of been real exciting, only once ever drove a single engine aircraft and that was a birthday prezzy, other than that I use to Go Kart race, witch of coarse is quite the opposite as you are so low to the ground, but the buzz of over the ton speed so low was very exciting, could only imagine how you felt in the aircraft, must have been great. Thanks for the drift into the past, enjoyed the reading. ATB. jackoj.

by **LeoP** » 27 Oct 2013 15:09

You must have the patience of a saint searching for all of this stuff to put on this site Mike, for me it makes it a joy to spend time on-line here.

by **Mike Bracchi** » 31 Jan 2014 23:08

LeoP wrote:You must have the patience of a saint searching for all of this stuff to put on this site Mike, for me it makes it a joy to spend time on-line here.

Thank you Leo, as long as you enjoy it I will keep ferreting :wink:

jackoj wrote:Hi Captain Mike ,
Interesting stuff, how did you do in the race? jackoj.

Wotcha John,

:lol:

I wasn't placed, I only flew one of the 16 races during that season that went to make up the BAR Championship ... pilots were awarded points out of 100 depending on their placing at the end of each race and the pilot with the most points over the total season was champion ... I can't remember for sure, but I think I got about 18 points ... it wasn't good :lol: