Aviation and Aerospace Thread

It's safe to say that everyone here loves cars. But who also loves planes? Helicopters? Spaceships?

Aviation is an odd niche, but those who like it, love it. Flight is a romanticised form of transport that really shows the beauty of precision engineering and technology.

Whether it's a Piper Club, a P-51, Cessna Citation, or the Shuttle Atlantis, every aircraft is great in its own way. This is the thread to share it.

Firstly, if you're interested in this sort of thing, let us know how you got into it. Tell us your experiences! I know there are a few here (particularly staff) who work in the industry

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Also, while this isn't the idea of this thread, discussion about MH370 is welcome. The news so far is:
- Possibly hijacked, pilots shown no records for possible suicide or hijacking.
- Possibly somewhere over Indian Ocean.
- Taliban forces deny it was them (they would admit to it if it was an act of terrorism, that's the point)
- Equipment was purposely shut down by someone experienced.
- If it hasn't crashed, it must have landed somewhere by now. The 777 needs about 2500-5000ft to land, dependant on speed, weight and dryness

So me;

I got introduced to flying by my friend who had MS Flight Sim 2004. I didn't play it a whole lot but I remember taking a tiny, inappropriate plane from New Zealand to Australia. It took about 3 hours before the plane ran out of fuel...

Since then I always had an interest in flight sims. I got myself the entire back catalogue of Ace Combat at the time on PS2. I also kept taking my friend's copy of a strange Helicopter sim on PS2.

I then got MS Fight Simulator X Gold on my laptop. There are lessons on there written and narrated by a real instructor, which teaches you almost everything you'd need to know about flying, including VFR, IFR, paths, patterns, beacons, etc etc. Obviously it was very concise and it hasn't stuck with me a great deal.

I haven't played it in a while but I recently got Ace Combat 6 and TC's HAWX to relight that fire.

I also applied for a position as an ATC not so long ago. I got through the first stages but failed one of the last tests... So I had to wait 2 years to apply again.

Anyway, here's some pictures

Airbus A380 on a bridge


F-111 landing with gear failure


Unpainted SR-71

Ah the not so Blackbird. One of my favourite all time planes.
More of a fan of the SU-27 too. Saw it at Yeovilton Air show and also saw the Eurofighter on its maiden public appearance back in the day

I get to nerd out on a daily basis - I work for an Aerospace company at Gatwick. I suspect there are others amongst us who are also in the industry (I know Duncan is).

My 4 planes that stick in my mind are:

P-51D Mustang
P-47 Thunderbolt
Harrier Gr9
Typhoon Mk.1a

My dad was in the RAF Regiment & plays flight sims quite a lot. So my interest came from him really. He's more interested in commercial aircraft whereas I'm more interested in Military aircraft. I've always liked the Avro Vulcan and was overjoyed to see it at RAF Waddington last year & the Tornado GR4 is spectacular too!





I considered joining the RAF, but due to aircrew roles being so competitive & likely to be a waste of time applying for them, I decided on the Army. Although they're going through a big restructuring phase at the moment.

Kilroy i am the same, i know i am still at school but i cannot join the RAF as a Plane Pilot or a Helicopter pilot but my height being 6ft 4 has really made that difficult for me

Kilroy8 wrote:My dad was in the RAF Regiment & plays flight sims quite a lot. So my interest came from him really. He's more interested in commercial aircraft whereas I'm more interested in Military aircraft. I've always liked the Avro Vulcan and was overjoyed to see it at RAF Waddington last year & the Tornado GR4 is spectacular too!

My Dad loves the Vulcan. He's a big 70s-90s military enthusiast, which I suppose stems from him being a news cameraman from a young age until early 2000s. He has paintings of all those old military aircraft around his house, some of which are collectors items now. He lives about 30 mins away from where the Blackbirds were based in Mildenhall

Learning about control systems and the likes in uni, often in an aeronautical context. Rather complicated and boring, but with a very cool outcome

^^^ Nicky look at what Airbus is doing with control systems v interesting also UTC Wolverhampton

My favourite plane? By far an F-16. Nicknamed "The Viper" You can obviously see why I like it. It is also used on the Google Earth flight simulator!

Ok, here's some videos

Very hairy landing in a storm in Azores


First ever F-35B Lightning II at an airshow. Interesting VTOL jet, still somewhat top secret. Doesn't seem to look like it is capable of true VTOL like the Harrier. Apparently South Korea have already ordered 30.

Ever wanted to sit in a SR-71A? You probably never will, but here's the next best thing:

http://nmusafvirtualtour.com/media/068/SR-71A%20Front%20Cockpit.html

The Lockheed TriStar has flown its last operational mission with the Royal Air Force bringing to an end 30 years of service which saw the aircraft at the heart of operations around the world.

On Monday 24th March two TriStar’s of 216 Squadron based at RAF Brize Norton flew an air-to-air refuelling mission over the North Sea before one conducted flypasts at airfields associated with its history.

During its service the TriStar, fondly known as ‘Timmy’ by its crews, has formed the backbone of long range air transport and air-to-air refuelling, participating in nearly every British conflict since it was brought into service.

The fleet of nine aircraft were acquired as a direct result of the Falklands conflict and the need to provide support to forces in the South Atlantic and to bolster the air-to-air refuelling fleet.

For all you aviation nerds, who can tell me what this is then?   


cookie for the winner.........

Blackburn B-101 Beverley

Haha, the Beverley! What a weird thing About 1/5th of the built aircraft crashed

Haha only 9 where built i think and only one remains at fort paul, although a few years ago it was stained just daan t'road

Here you go Duncan

After a quick Google, 50 were built and 9 crashed.

Standaman94 wrote:After a quick Google, 50 were built and 9 crashed.

almost, 49   

thats mint

I don't really like to jump on this selfie hype, but this is the best one. Particularly with the reflection. Looks like an F-16 he/she is flying.

Standaman94 wrote:

Is that an A380 cockpit?