Afghanistan

[method77]

Learn about the country that most people know as "Home of the Terrorists". Read about their history and most important, read about their music. Listen to Afghan Radio and read about their strange musical instruments. There is more in Afghanistan than just guns.

Link

[HolyMoly]

Great page, Method77. Incidentally, shortly after Karzai took power, I saw an article about Ariana Afghan Airlines. They apparently lost about 3/4 of their entire fleet due to hostilities near the airport in Kabul. However, the article also indicated that their lost jet aircraft were of the old 727-A design ... and that they were able to reclaim brand new (still in carton) parts for their aircraft siezed earlier by the Taliban. At that time, I wrote to my Senators and Congressmen (and the CEO of Boeing) about this. There are two "airplane graveyards" in the US, one for military aircraft and one for civilian. Boeing owns the civilian graveyard ... in which, at the time, they had over a dozen 727-A's in mothballs. I suggested that the US government give Boeing a grant to bring the 727-A's out of mothballs, restore them, and give them to Ariana (since they already had a storehouse of parts for them). It would have been a win-win situation since Boeing would be paid to restore them (at a time when they were laying off employees) and could take a tax writeoff for the donation. And, Ariana would have a fleet of planes they already had parts for. I did get a positive response from Senator Gordon Smith at the time but am unsure if anything transpired.

However, I did notice something on Ariana's website ... saying their Boeing fleet was "expanded" (grin). Who knows ... maybe my suggestion helped change the fate of Ariana and put laid-off Boeing workers back on the payroll as part of the bargain.

Ariana Afghan Airlines website

[DudeAsInCool]

Cool.

[HolyMoly]

They lost most of their prop fleet, too. Unfortunately, their prop fleet consisted of old Soviet-era planes. Parts for them had to be "improvised" ... unlike the 727-As for which Ariana had parts. FWIW, India is getting very chummy with Afghanistan. They donated a number of French Airbus jets to them as well. It's good to see them back on their feet again.