SA has just received its 4 ashtrays for the cockpit.

In the vast majority of airplanes preserved in the various museums, it is often missing first: the on-board watch, the emblem or the logo of the manufacturer and the airline, or even the ashtrays.

Our aircraft underwent a large sampling campaign when it joined guided tours at Orly Airport in 1976, and the majority of the instruments that had good potential were removed and subsequently reused in other aircrafts. When consulting archive photos, when SA arrived in Athis Mons in 1988, ashtrays were already missing...

Here Is the inventory :

Pilote Copilote

Observer

Flight engineer

Once again Grégoire looked at the problem and he discovered the improbable online ad

"MONOGRAM 2254ASHRECEIVER" for sale !

He places an order immediately at the beginning of May; a delivery time has been announced between the 20th and 27th of May. The package arrived on May the 22nd, the next day we were not able to resist checking if it was the right reference and the right model and we proceed immediately to install it in the SA.

No problem to reinstall those whose supports are still in place :

The pilot station

The co-pilote station

and the observer station.

On the other hand, for the flight engineer station, it was first necessary to install a support which was happily delivered with the ashtray.

And even if today these accessories are no longer required in the cockpit, they still found their place in the SA. And according to information we had, the flight test director had forbidden pilots to smoke in the flight deck, but we do know one pilot who was smoking his “Gauloises” when the boss was not on the flight...

And to finish a little wink with these two photos of our friend FrançoisS taken in 2005.