Flying Tigers Group History & Mission
Back in May of 2000 Eric Thornton decided to launch his own virtual
airline based on Aerolineas Argentinas. Having lived in Argentina
for 10 years he believed that Aerolineas Argentinas deserved a top notch
virtual airline. Upon further research and to his astonishment he
found that there was no virtual airline representing one of the very
best airlines in the world - Cathay Pacific Airways! So with the
experience garnered from Aerolineas Argentinas Virtual he launched
Cathay Pacific Virtual. A few months later he realized the same
thing about Emirates and launched another virtual airline representing a
great new airline.
After almost a year in operation with 250 active members (including real
world retired airline captains, the most famous one being the beloved
Captain Dave), Eric received a cease and desist order from a law firm
representing Cathay Pacific for trademark infringement and domain name
dispute. This dispute was resolved amicably but Eric was so disillusioned it was decided to shut down all 3 VAs, much to
the chagrin of all members.
Shortly after there was another group that opened a new version of
Cathay Pacific Virtual sometime in
2001. This one had sponsorship/permission from the airline.
Unfortunately after a few months Cathay Pacific pulled the plug and the second
Cathay Pacific Virtual was shut down. Many flightsim fanatics were
so fed up that 2 virtual airlines representing their favorite
airline were shut down they lost all hope.
One year later Eric wasn't satisfied with the state of affairs between
real world airlines and virtual airlines. He decided to consult with
several lawyers to find out how he could build a website without
permission and without breaking trademark law. Soon
after Cathay Pacific Virtual #3 was born, February of 2002! Many of the original members came
back but many were still so annoyed at the real airline that they never
returned. Over the last couple of years several real world Cathay
Pacific pilots have joined and CPAV was even featured in their own
internal pilot magazine.
 During the next several months many other Asian carriers joined the
Cathay Pacific Virtual family. First was Singapore VA and "Asia's Flying Tigers
Group" was born! Then more virtual airlines joined the
group per member requests and management research including: JAL, Thai & Malaysia
Airlines. We were astonished that the flight sim community had no
virtual counterparts representing these great airlines. Since
previous attempts had failed for European virtual airlines we added some
as well, including Air France, Lufthansa, Swiss & Virgin. Hence
the name "Flying Tigers Group" since we were no longer only focused in Asia.
To this day our virtual airlines are the only ones representing many of
these
great airlines and they are here to stay.
July 2004 was an interesting month. Cathay Pacific Virtual
received yet another Cease & Desist letter. This time we had
enough of this nonsense and we hired our own law firm to counter their
ridiculous allegations. This is the first time we know that a
virtual airline has hired a law firm to defend their rights against a
real world airline. We've successfully countered their ridiculous
allegations and Cathay Pacific Virtual is here to stay.
Soon thereafter our beloved President - Iikka
Meriläinen -
had to resign due to military and educational commitments. Iikka
built a lot of cool features and management tools with his mighty big
brain and the FTG is indebted to him forever. After having served
the year of 2005 in the army, Iikka finally came out of temporary
retirement and resumed his work as President in May of 2006.
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