Aviation Thread

[asi1998]

Anyone here have interests in aviation? It is personally one of my favorite things to talk about. Ill start with a discussion. What is your favorite aircraft of all time and why is it your favorite?

[Iron_Fang]

Concorde is my favourite because I went to it last summer at Manchester.

[RobipodSupreme]

I like planes.



My favourite is probably the dreamliner, because it never br- oh wait.
I like cessnas

[asi1998]

I like the concorde and the dreamliner. I do not like anything about cessnas except that they are cheap. I would choose Boeing over airbus anyday however. Boeings are cheaper to buy and cheaper to operate (in general). What do y'all think of this?

[Lord_Mountbatten]

My preferred ride:

[Invunarble]

Didn't Concorde go out of business decades ago? I thought they were a pretty swank airline company. Shame they don't operate anymore.

[TyrasEngineer]

Even though they were retired (with good reason- they often had structural failures due to stress concentrating at the corners of the square windows!) I think the 1950s De Havilland Comet had the best interior - compared to current civilian airliners anyway! http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-p ... 013495.jpg

In terms of military planes, I really like both the Vampire ('cause it's an interesting shape):
http://www.neam.co.uk/images/vampire.jpg

and the Vulcan, since the sheer scale of it is just incredible. It took part in the longest ranged bombing run ever (from the United Kingdom to the Falkland Islands) during the Falklands war (though it needed refuelling a few times on the way).
http://www.surclaro.com/modules/Media_G ... Bomber.jpg That's in it's strategic nuclear bomber anti-flash white paint scheme.

(The images were too big to put in)

To Invun- the last flight was on the 26th of November 2003- I remember it flying overhead since we had gone out for the day and ended up under its flight path

[Invunarble]

I also thought that the SR 71 Blackbird was a pretty neat piece of aircraft as well:



I guess it held the record as the world's fastest plane up until 1998. It doesn't seem to have much apparent weaponry on it, so I'm assuming it was used as a scout plane for the US air force. It seems illogical that they'd decide to stop using it without a better replacement, though.

I remember seeing the interior of one of these in a Smithsonian aircraft museum in DC - it seemed like a pretty cool aircraft back in it's prime.

[SMWasder]

To Invun- the last flight was on the 26th of November 2003- I remember it flying overhead since we had gone out for the day and ended up under its flight path

Same! It wasn't an airline company either, they were built between BAE Systems and EADS (I think) and run by a heap of airline companies.

My dad works for Rolls-Royce in Bristol, so he spent most of my childhood boring me about various planes, but I still think Lancaster bombers are totally badass. I don't really find jet-powered planes as cool as old propeller-powered planes, but I find very early jet planes interesting because they're usually pretty quirky.

[RobipodSupreme]

Imma have to change to the Vulcan, having been reminded of it. I got to see the last (?) one a year or so ago, and it was awesome.

[aeroeng15]

I've always been fascinated with the Valkyrie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Amer ... 0_Valkyrie. I've seen one up close and it is a giant.

Also, can't forget the space shuttle

[MrWhales]

Ospreys are cool, http://seru.us/3ea7e

And Aerwhales are the best form of flying.

[Iron_Fang]

Didn't Concorde go out of business decades ago? I thought they were a pretty swank airline company. Shame they don't operate anymore.

Not decades ago, it was because mainly of 9/11 and around that week the Concorde started flying again after a crash

[aeroeng15]

The Concorde also wasn't able to fly in the US as much because supersonic flight is rather noisy, and the FAA wasn't too keen on that.

[J4Numbers]

Go see a Buccaneer (Out of commision atm).

[asi1998]

Bucaneers were amazing. I remember when Tyrese first introduced me to that plane when I first met him on the server. The airplane industry stopped making as much money after 9/11 and because the Concorde was so expensive to operate (in comparison with other airliners), the airlines did not find it worthy to operate. My personal favorite aircraft of all time is the B-29 Superfortress
Bombers in general I fell in love with more so such as the Vulcan, the Valkyrie, and the Bear. I really liked this aircraft because it could fly at a range of 8100 NM and go at the speed of a passenger plane (575 MPH). All of these planes are amazing imo.

[epjohnson]

I've always liked the F4U Corsair. Two years ago I flew a Piper Arrow IV. I probably have the tail number somewhere...

Spoiler! :

The Piper Arrow IV:

The F4U Corsair:

[asi1998]

The F4U was a heck of a plane! That gave the Imperial Japanese Air Force and Navy a lot of trouble with it but it was also a very hard plane to control and fly due to it's radial engine.

[motormaniac]

I like the Antonov-255, simply because it's freaking huge.

[Iron_Fang]

And the Red Arrows, they are amazing!

[J4Numbers]

And the Red Arrows, they are amazing!

Nyeer.... not so much.
Go to Fairford one year, to the International Air Tattoo, they have some really good air teams from other countries (Also F-16 jets are sweeet). I seem to remember that the Italian stunt team were excellent and I think the Netherlands stunt team was as well, although I might be slightly biased towards the Netherlands because we went on runway pickup to gather the drag chute.

[RobipodSupreme]

Red Arrows are Gnats, aren't they?

[TyrasEngineer]

Hawks. Haven't been gnats for a while.

[Sti_Jo_Lew]

P-51 Mustang is nice. So is the car.

[wokka1]

I rarely talk about this, but I have a pilot's license here in the US, private pilot's license. I actually went to school to be a pilot, and I love to fly, however, I figured out real quick that I had 0 interest in doing it as a job for a big airline. Too many rules and they don't let you site see.

I trained mainly in Cessna 172, sometimes 152's, and the most fun plane I ever flew was a Cherokee 182 turbo.

I've got roughly 225 hours of flight time logged, and have enough hours and training to get my commercial and instrument licenses, just never got around to it. It's hard to fly these days, aviation fuel is even more expensive than gasoline.

Some day I'd like to own a plane, something small and fast

[asi1998]

Some day I'd like to own a plane, something small and fast

If someone gave you the choice of any airplane for free but you would still have to pay the operational costs, what would it be?

[RobipodSupreme]

I think my favourite plane is probably the Blackbird or the Vulcan. They are kewl

[asi1998]

I think my favourite plane is probably the Blackbird or the Vulcan. They are kewl

I am in love with the vulcan. I first learned about it when I watched thunderball.

[RobipodSupreme]

Yeah. It's awesome. Surprisingly quiet though. Got to see one last year at an air show, and it just swept over. 'Twas kewl

[wokka1]

Some day I'd like to own a plane, something small and fast

If someone gave you the choice of any airplane for free but you would still have to pay the operational costs, what would it be?

probably something midsized, like a kingair or cherokee, like a 6 seater with turbo