For those of you who like interesting aircraft ..

Chinaboy · World Chat Champion Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Karma :

I was working on a Royal Saudi Air Force base in Taif, Saudi Arabia before Desert Shield and Storm and throughout the war. I was a sheet metal tech on the Saudi Royal Flight SH-3D helicopters.

During that time there was a huge build up of US and French and a few British squadrons on our base. In the next hanger to ours was a squadron of U2 spy planes. When our two helicopter flew off to ferry the dignitaries about they would pop a couple of U2's in our hanger, so getting to see them up close was a fantastic experience and talking to the tech guys was so interesting. When they took off they would pull up right outside out hanger on the main runway and up they went with an ear piercing roar. The next day we would see the same planes land again.
Being friendly with some of the US guys and fighter pilots, I was able to get a guided tour around a C5 Galaxy that used to be a regular visitor. As several of you have said, they are amazing aircraft, more like a hotel. We did have the F117's come in and out too, but only saw them flying as back then they were still pretty much secret and could never get close. But there were so many different fighters on base, it was just an awesome time.

asta1 · Scooby Slapper Joined: 03 Dec 2015 Karma :

chickenstrip · Super Spammer Joined: 06 Dec 2013 Karma :

UncleFester · World Chat Champion Joined: 30 Jun 2013 Karma :

This is the scary thing.

"The original Blackbird was designated the A-12 and made its first flight on April 30, 1962. The single-seat A-12 soon evolved into the larger SR-71, which added a second seat for a Reconnaissance Systems Officer and carried more fuel than the A-12. The SR-71's first flight was on December 22, 1964."

When you consider how old the plane really is ..... makes you wonder what they really have stashed away today.

We lived on the flightpath to Newcastle Airport for about 10 years, Concorde was a semi regular visitor, that is THE loudest and prettiest plane I've ever seen.

The most impressive for me though was the English Electric Lightning, watching it stand on its tail and literally go vertically up from what looked like 10ft off the runway surface was a sight to behold, probably that and the Vulcan bomber - that something so big was so agile ( it had almost the same engine as Concorde).

Duxford has quite a few nice things, the shame is, they are all packed in so tightly it's hard to get a good view of them.
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pepperami · Super Spammer Joined: 17 Jan 2010 Karma :

weasley · World Chat Champion Joined: 16 Oct 2010 Karma :

chickenstrip · Super Spammer Joined: 06 Dec 2013 Karma :

linuxyeti · World Chat Champion Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Karma :

I remember an airshow at finningley, possibly 1980, when they carried out a Vulcan scramble ! 4Vulcalns from being switched off and cold, to in the air in under 2 mins !! Explosive charges to start the engines then the roar of 4 vulcans taking off in quick succession !! If only digital cameras were around back then !!
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MCN · Super Spammer Joined: 22 Jul 2015 Karma :

Big plane fail

https://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/transport-m/c141/pics02.shtml
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

Freddyfruitba... · World Chat Champion Joined: 20 May 2016 Karma :

linuxyeti · World Chat Champion Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Karma :

Freddyfruitba... · World Chat Champion Joined: 20 May 2016 Karma :

Kentol750 · World Chat Champion Joined: 24 May 2016 Karma :

Went for a spin after work one day around llyn brianne, looked down on 2 tornadoes doing low level practice over the water. (Would love to see inside a c5).
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Shaft · World Chat Champion Joined: 27 Dec 2010 Karma :

weasley · World Chat Champion Joined: 16 Oct 2010 Karma :

My dad was in the RAF so I spent a lot of my youth around airfields. Memories include:

- watching English Electric Lightnings take off from RAF Brüggen, point at the sky and disappear
- same for visiting F-15 Eagles
- having essentially WWII aircraft still in active service and flying around all the time (Shackletons at Lossiemouth)
- seeing the Vulcans do their thing
- also seeing Victors doing a scramble
- having two SEPECAT Jaguars collide in mid-air over our house (Brüggen again) and both crash
- seeing a glider fall apart mid-display at an air show at Brize Norton, killing the pilot
- watching the Ilyushin IL-62 carrying Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife take off from Brize Norton and thinking "jeez, did they just photocopy the VC-10 design?"
- seeing a Lockheed C-130 do a crash-stop landing
- just generally being surrounded by loads of fast jets: Hunters, Jaguars, Phantoms, Buccaneers, Gnats, Hawks, Harriers as well as stuff like Canberras, Nimrods, VC-10s, Vulcans, Victors (never saw a Valiant), Jet Provosts and so on. Good times.
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AshWebster · Brolly Dolly Joined: 05 Jan 2017 Karma :

As a design engineer for a big aerospace company i am fortunate to work on various platforms. JSF (F-35), Typhoon, Tornado, Hawk to name but a few. Quite impressive machines.
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chickenstrip · Super Spammer Joined: 06 Dec 2013 Karma :

MCN · Super Spammer Joined: 22 Jul 2015 Karma :

I was on a KLM flight (KL-1470) from GLA to AMS on Sunday there.

Thumbs Up

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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.