I loved your description of the IL-62's takeoff roll. The last time I was on one was on a Tashkent-Moscow flight when it was something like 40°C outside, so given TAS' high altitude to begin with, the density altitude was a major challenge to the underpowered -62. The driver turned off everything, including the air conditioning while he spooled up the engines one at a time to see if they were making enough noise, then, around half an hour later he popped the brakes and off we went, using every centimeter of the runway and then some before we stopped being a bus and became a plane. Very exciting for those in the cabin that hadn't fainted from the heat.
Really looking forward to your next chapter(s) - great stuff so far.