Anyone else like Birds AND planes? (4 Viewers)

[Euan Buchan]

I took these photos of The Red Arrows when they were in Edinburgh last week when King Charles & Queen Camila were here. Was great to see them I haven’t seen them since 2018.

 

[moose1991]

Went for a short flight in this today, as a passenger.
Always wanted to take off & land on water.
It was a great experience.
Kuopio, Finland.

 

[PYRTLE]

Went for a short flight in this today, as a passenger.
Always wanted to take off & land on water.
It was a great experience.
Kuopio, Finland.

And a windmill to boot. I think we only have one commercial seaplane operator in the whole of the British Isles.

 

[Andy Adcock]

And a windmill to boot. I think we only have one commercial seaplane operator in the whole of the British Isles.

Don't fancy a go on the Russian version................

Russian jet crashes into sea near packed beach in embarrassment for Putin

DRAMATIC footage captured a Russian fighter jet crashing into the sea just off a packed tourist beach. In the latest embarrassment for Vladimir Putin, the Su-25 aircraft nosedived into the Sea of A…

www.thesun.co.uk

 

[Farnboro John]

Quick tour of this year's RIAT: 16 pix from the 3,464 taken.....

Themes of this year's Royal International Air Tattoo included Skytanker (air-to-air refuelling) and the Italian Air Force's centenary. The usual mix of old and new, fast and not so fast, also on show.

First eight:

Patrulla Aguila (Eagle Patrol) - Spanish Air Force Aerobatic Team.
Hawker Hunter FGA9 - 1950s RAF front line fighter subsequently used for ground attack and training. This one contractor operated for dissimilar air combat training.
F-18C Hornet - Finnish Air Force - welcome to NATO!
Saab 105 (Sk60 in Swedish Air Force) - also welcome to NATO!
Spanish Navy VSTOL Harrier II in the sunset of its career and RAF STOVL F-35B at the outset of its service.
Rafale C of the French Air and Space Force
Replica (new build) Messerschmitt Me262 and Gloster Meteor WWII jet fighter designs - the Meteor is operated by Martin Baker as an ejector seat testbed.
The Red Arrows - Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team

 

[Farnboro John]

Second batch of eight:

Skytanker: USAF MC-130J Hercules tanker and CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor
Skytanker: RAF Voyager tanker and Finnish Air Force F-18C Hornet
Skytanker: Luftwaffe A400M tanker and 2 Tornado IDS, one configured for buddy tanking
Tornado IDS
Saudi Falcons display team
Typhoon FGR4 "Blackjack" display aircraft
Italian Air Force Centenary: AgustaWestland AW139
Polish Air Force Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter (legacy aircraft from Cold War, to be replaced soon).

 

[PYRTLE]

Would have loved to have seen the Fitter in flight.

 

[Farnboro John]

Would have loved to have seen the Fitter in flight.

Me too, did a few years ago though. I'll dig a pic out.

John

 

[Farnboro John]

Pics as promised: Polish Air Force Sukhoi Su-22M Fitters in the flying display at RIAT 2014.

Cheers

John

 

[John Nihon]

WOW !!! Some pretty awesome pictures Have to say, I enjoy looking at this thread albeit not really participating.

 

[PYRTLE]

Cheers FJ, pure aviation porn ( with the sound off sadly ).

 

[norway]

Incredible photos here!

Birds, planes... pretty much everything with wings is cool in my opinion.

 

[Prestdj]

Seen the v-22 osprey low over the house this week always heading se and around 2pm quite a distinct sound even my partner saw it today and said “ that’s odd”

 

[Andy Adcock]

Flying out of East Midlands today and saw a Vulcan bomber parked up in a cordoned off area of the airfield, anyone know the story of this aircraft?

 

[Farnboro John]

Flying out of East Midlands today and saw a Vulcan bomber parked up in a cordoned off area of the airfield, anyone know the story of this aircraft?

XM575 apparently:

Thunder & Lightnings - Avro Vulcan - Survivor XM575

Cold War British military aircraft, including history, surviving airframes, profile drawings, photos, walkarounds, links, references. Also viewing guides for UK airfields and the Test Flying Memorial

www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk

Looks in relatively good nick.

John

 

[Patudo]

Replica (new build) Messerschmitt Me262 and Gloster Meteor WWII jet fighter designs - the Meteor is operated by Martin Baker as an ejector seat testbed.

I would like to know the rationale for that - you would think MB could have used any number of other aircraft if they wanted a testbed! (PS. and is an ejection seat testbed a one time only deal?)

 

[maplekong]

Pics as promised: Polish Air Force Sukhoi Su-22M Fitters in the flying display at RIAT 2014.

Cheers

John

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(Off topic) all of the planes in these images are so perfect and strangely beautiful, but I'm getting a little bit of a toy plane vibe from these- those little action figure thingies. It might be because I haven't seen these planes in scenarios other than as toys...

I am not obsessed with planes, but I could just look at pictures of any that aren't commercial jets for hours.

 

[Farnboro John]

I would like to know the rationale for that - you would think MB could have used any number of other aircraft if they wanted a testbed! (PS. and is an ejection seat testbed a one time only deal?)

I don't suppose they do that many tests each year and the Meteors are long since amortised. If they still have, as I suspect, a few tons of cheap spares from when they went out of RAF service, why change? In addition to which, it may well be that a Meteor as a very old and fairly low performance jet by modern standards can fly across a wider envelope to cover low speed ejections as well as quicker ones.

The Meteor T7 (T for trainer) is a two-seater originally so the back seater (generally an instrumented crash test dummy these days) bangs out on the test while the human pilot recovers the aircraft to base.

John

 

[PYRTLE]

Popped along to Lakenheath to watch for the Norwegian F35A. Wondered what the odd looking pod was on the rear of the fuselage between the twin stabilisers, but soon learnt it was for a drogue chute that these aircraft utilise on their short icy runways. First impressions are it looks "ugly" as a bolt on for a stealth aircraft and likens it to Fireball XL5 ( for those more elderly members ). Didn't seem to affect their unrestricted climb after take off........ cleared the old lugholes out.

Library picture:

 

[Andy Adcock]

As of two minutes ago, fout fighter jets have just roared over our house, presumably out of Akrotiri. I got outside, just in time to see them pass over the hill towards Pafos and wasn't able to ID them, is there a way you find out who /what they were?

Also at the weekend, got my next door but one neighbour so drunk, that for the first time in two years, he's finally admitted to us that he works on the US section at Akrotiri, maintaining the U2's.