KLM THE L188 ELECTRA AND THE STARS

KLM, THE L188 ELECTRA AND THE STARS

This post of A plane A name will deal with the fleet of KLM's L188.

KLM ordered 12 Lockheed L188 Elektras. All the fleet was named after stars and planets . They were delivered between September 1959 and December 1960

PH-LLA Delivered September 21, 1959	MERCURIUS	Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system. It is also known as the jumping planet and as Udu.Idim.Eu in Assyrian, Nabu for the Babylonians, Stilvon for the pre-hellenistic Greeks, newer Greeks refer to Hermes  because the planet moves across the sky quicker than any other planet, in China the planet is known as Chen Xing, and as the Water Star for the Far Eastern Mythology , and Budha for the Indian mythology.
PH–LLB Delivered October 10, 1959	VENUS	The 2nd planet from the sun, only planet named after a female figure , known for the Greeks as Aphrodite, Ishtar for the babylonians, Inana for the Sumerians, Astarte for the Phoenicians, Anahita for the Persians, Kileken for the Maasai people and Barnumbirr for the aboriginals in Australia.
PH-LLC Delivered November 19, 1959	MARS	The 4th planet, needs no introduction, named in both Greek (Aris) and Roman mythologies after the god of war,Mangala for the Hindu, Angaraka in Sanskrit, Ma’adin in Hebrew, the fire star for the Far Eastern cultures and Tyr for the Scandinavian mythology.
PH-LLD Delivered December  16, 1959	JUPITER	5th planet from the sun, The equivalent of Zeus in the Greek mythology, also named Phaeton , Wood Star for the Chinese, Korean and Japanese cultures, Brihaspati (the Guru), in Hindu mythology, Erendiz for the Central Asian myths and bears a relation to Thor (Germanic myths)
PH-LLE Delivered January 30,1960	SATURN	6th planet from the sun, 62 moons orbit the planet, known as Cronus for the Greeks, Shani for the Hindus, Earth Star for the Chinese, Shabbatai for the Hebrew and Zahal for the Arabs Saturn was the Roman god of Agriculture.
PH-LLF Delivered February 18,1960	URANUS	Or Ouranos, the Greek god of the sky .Discovered by William Herschel on March 13,1781
PH-LLG Delivered February 25,1960	NEPTUNE	8th planet from the sun, named after the roman god of the sea and discovered on 23/9/1846. The 13 moons of the planet carry the names of water deities from the Greek mythology : Triton, Proteus, Despina, Naiad, Thalassa, Sao, Psamathe, Galatea, Larissa, Nereid, Halimede, Laomedeia, Neso and are divided between regular and irregular moons
PH-LLH Delivered April 16,1960	PLUTO	Is a dwarf planet that lost its status as a planet in 2006. PLUTO in addition to be the friend of Mickey Mouse is named after the god of the Underworld. Pluto as 4 moons of which only 3 are named Charon, Nix and Hydra , the last one is simply known as P4 (discovered only in 2011)
PH-LLI Delivered  April 29,1960	CERES	Another dwarf planet named after the goddess of agriculture, fertility and grain crops (cereal). The planet was discovered on 1/1/1801.
PH-LLK Delivered May 14,1960	PALLAS	An asteroid discovered in 1802. Its  name is PALLAS ATHENA  another name for the goddess Athena.
PH-LLL Delivered December  1, 1960	ORION	It is constellation named after a hunter in the Greek mythology, some of its famous stars are Betelgeuse, Rigel, Bellatrix, Mintaka, Alnilam, Alnitak, Saiph , Meissa and Hatsya…. All of these names originate from the Arabic language

PH-LLM  (Sirius)

Delivered December  14, 1960

Sadly, PH-LLM crashed on approach at Cairo airport on June 12, 1961. Sirius is the brightest star on the night sky ans its name is derived from the Greek, meaning glowing or scorcher. Colloquially, the star is also known as the dog star and played an important role during ancient times as the heliacal rising of Sirius marked for the Egyptian   the annual flooding of the Nile, and for the Greeks , it heralded the hot and dry summer “the dog days “( which became synonym for heat wave, and in French une canicule means extreme heat and the word is derived from the latin canicula meaning little dog)  and for the Polynesian, it meant winter . Sirius played an important role for navigation in the Pacific Ocean . 

PH-LLK -PALLAS FLIGHTSIM

 

PH-LLD "Jupiter" By RuthAS - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7130650