Yes, you read it correctly, a Sud Aviation Caravelle taxiing at Stockholm Arlanda airport in July 2021. But why? And how? Caravelle’s have been retired since 2005 and most have been scrapped or are museum pieces.
Le Caravelle Club based in Stockholm keeps their Caravelle operational, in a technically airworthy condition. You can read some more about their work on their website, which is in Swedish but Google Chrome translates it fairly well.
Caravelle Taxiing Video
Below is a the video of the Caravelle taxiing at Arlanda on 5 July 2021. It runs for a shade under eight minutes and features both internal and external shots.
A Lufthansa pilot called Nils Alegren has converted the cockpit of a former Air France Caravelle into a flight simulator. Part of the reason for this little event was so he could get sound recordings of the engines for the sim.
A Caravelle Simulator, You Say?
The entire story of the simulator has been detailed in a very interesting documentary which is also available online. It runs for a little over half an hour and starts with a look at the history of the aircraft.
From there it goes on to the nose section acquired and the details of the restoration itself. A huge amount of work went into it, made even more impressive by the fact that virtually all the work was completed by just one person. His website says that it took 5,000 hours and four years to do it – a real achievement!
The above video runs for about 26 minutes and shows the simulator in action. Getting to play with that would be a hell of a lot of fun, don’t you think? Nils is now restoring a former Lufthansa Boeing 707 cockpit into a simulator, the same way as he did for the Caravelle. You can see his website here and follow along with it.
Overall Thoughts
I imagine if I was flying through Stockholm Arlanda airport and spotted that Caravelle taxiing around, I would have doubted my own sanity! It’s very cool that they are keeping it operational, plus they have the intention of restoring the cabin to its original SAS look.
Having something that is operational as a piece of living history is certainly more interesting than a static museum piece. Hopefully Le Caravelle Club achieve their goals and that the plane remains available for future generations to enjoy.
Have you ever been on a Caravelle before? What do you think of the videos? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image via Le Caravelle Club.
My second commercial flight was on an IC CRV from BOM DEL and my 5 & 6 flights on IT CRV ORY TLS return all in 1970. Most recent CRV encounter was an ex SN aircraft at the Brussels Air Museum. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Super that you managed to get on one a couple of times! Must have been some experience I have to check out the Brussels museum sometime. Certainly would love to check out that Caravelle!
Great video. I flew Caravelle once, from LHR to ORY. I literally spent the whole flight looking out of those wonderful windows. My only time on Air France.
I probably would have done the same in your situation. A unique window shape, that’s for sure!
Va kul!
Absolutely!!