UTOPIA AIRPORT: EMMANUEL ARGYROPOULOS TERMINAL

EMMANUEL ARGYROPOULOS TERMINAL

My terminal is named after the first Greek pioneer in Aviation. He was the first Greek aviator to perform a flight in Greece by taking off with his Niuport IV.G, over flew the Acropolis during a 16 minute flight in 1912. In his 2^nd flight, his passenger was the illustrious Eleftherios Venizelos, the prime minister of Greece at that time (the new Athens airport is named after him). He met his fate during the Balkan wars in 1913 when his plane crashed near Thessalonica.

The terminal is dedicated to Olympic Airways, the once proud national airline of Greece and other Greek Airlines

You can see on the tarmac :

A340-300 Olympia-SX-DFA

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I am a long range 2 aisle 4 engine jet airliner. My launch customers were Air France and Lufthansa . The German company introduced the A340-300 D-AIHA “Nurnberg” on the route FRA-JFK on 15/3/1993 .The progress made in twin jet technology in the areas of security, capacity and range made the model obsolete. The A340 line closed permanently on November 10, 2011. Olympia is the ancient site of the Olympic Games. Those games were made in honour of Zeus and were held every 4 years. The period separating 2 Olympic Games is called the Olympiad. The last games were held in 394AD when Theodosius 1 abolished them as being pagan games. The site is famous also for its Gold and Ivory statue of Zeus sculpted by Phidias and considered as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world together with the hanging gardens of Babylon, the temple of Artemis, the colossus of Rhodes, the great pyramid of Giza, the light house of Alexandria and the mausoleum of Halicarnassos. The Olympic torch is lit by 11 women representing the 11 vestal virgins during a ceremony. The other 3 Airbus 340 were named: Delphi (Apollo’s sacred place and UNESCO world heritage site), Marathon ( where the famous battle was won and is the most prestigious Olympic event), and Epidaurus (famous for its theatre and a festival reviving Greek tragedies : Oedipus Rex, Antigone, Medea, and comedies Lysistrata )
Olympic Airways used its A340-300 as a B747 replacement and used them on their long-haul routes to the USA, Canada , Australia and South Africa .
This frame first flew on 24/09/1998 and was delivered to Olympic Airways on 29/01/1999.

The actual SX-DFA

By Gilbert Hechema - http://www.airliners.net/photo/Olympic/Airbus-A340-313/1590956/L, GFDL 1.2, Link

B747-200 -SX-OAD OLYMPIC FLAME

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The B747 was the first twin aisle wide body 4 engine jet to be produced in the Western World. It is commonly referred to the Jumbo jet or the Queen of the Skies (not to be mistaken by the Queer of the sky). It was the first double deck in the modern age era, after the Stratocruiser, to grace the skies. The aircraft came when pax travel sky rocketed and the need of a bigger aircraft became more pressing. Juan Trippe “the visionary” launched the program in April 1966 by ordering 24 frames as he saw that pax growth was exponential and the B707/DC8 could not match the demand. The first commercial service by PA “clipper Victor” from JFK to LHR occurred on January 22, 1970. Commercial success was huge and every company wanted a jumbo in their fleet even if pax traffic did not warrant the need of the aircraft. Such companies were for example SAS and TAP, some major companies such Finnair, Gulf Air, never ordered the aircraft. The 200 series had an increased MTOW, greater range and a 10–window configuration on the upper deck as opposed to 3 in the original 100 series. OA ordered 2 boeing747-284B from Boeing (Olympic Zeus and Olympic Eagle), and 3 Boeing 747-212B were acquired from SQ. Worth noting is that SX-OAA was subsequently sold to TW as N305TW. The name refers to a time when the Olympian gods ruled the earth. It commemorates the theft of fire from Zeus by Prometheus. The legend says that Prometheus one of the titans stole the fire from Zeus and gifted it to mortals. As a punishment, Zeus tied him on a rock and an eagle ate his liver every day as it was regenerated every night. Prometheus was delivered from his chain when Heracles killed the eagle. The Olympic flame was introduced during the 1928 Olympic Games and the torch relay at the 1936 games. The B747 of OA were named as follow: Olympic Zeus (the God of Gods), Olympic Eagle (both a homage to Zeus and the orthodoxy), Olympic Truce (during Olympic Games, there was a truce to allow athletes to travel and compete safely), Olympic Spirit (combination of Olympic values: respect, excellence and friendship and motto: faster, higher, stronger)

The actual SX-OAD