MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
After seeing the Vulcan roar back to the skies, with that noise like the gates of hell opening, what else would you like to see come back?
This nearly made it the other day;
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Another of the Tanker Trash, a Victor
But for me, it would have to be a Wellie.
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Pterydactyl. how cool would it be to have to keep an eye out for them on back counrty rides?
Beaufighter - lovely aircraft.
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And the best of them all - the Mossie
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Those giant dragonfly things would be pretty cool, too. The one's with the two and a half foot wingspan.
resounding second for the wooden wonder....
Concorde - no matter how many times I saw it, I would always stop and stare.
I've also always had a thing about Dakota - DC-3s
Concorde.
Lockheed P38 lightning
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and proper one too
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Not sure what flew over here (Derbyshire) about 4.00pm today but it was big an triangular and looked pretty impressive. Vulcan ?
Not a plane geek, but it has to be Concorde.
Does an [url=
count?
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I know they're not mothballed, but I used to love watching these playing about in the skies above our house when they were based at Mildenhall.
They really need to come back to the UK for another tour 🙂
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the aluminum deathtube or widowmaker was a pretty awesome sight when i used to work visiting flights at yeovil and prestwick but i spent three and a half years on phantoms and they remain my favourite
English Electric Lightning, definitely.
Though XH558 is like all your Christmases come at once.
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Blackburn Buccaneer
Spitfire I reckon.
Jag and a Buck? Lovely.
Concorde? I think the thread is decided! Purely beautiful.
Tsr2.
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Halifax bomber.
A true thing of beauty
Another vote here for English Electric Lightening-if you think the Vulcan makes a spine tingling noise I recall being at Farnborough in the good old days when the crowd lines were much clsoer to the runway and the feeling and nosie from the Lightening taking off and going into a vertical climb with afterburners is soemthing taht will live with me forever.................
The Lightening would definitely be on my list but for me the number one would be the SR71 Blackbird. Saw them quite a few times at Mildenhall taking off and very very impressive they were too. Even static display before take-off you could see the fuel dripping from the tanks as they used to self-seal at altitude due to heat expanding the airframe.
Concorde for me.
We were lucky enough to get Alpha Charlie at Manchester airport, one of the first to be handed over for viewing. I never got bored of seeing it.
A truely beautiful aircraft.
ernie_Lynch - We were out yesterday over Winterhill, riding Rivington pike, when my friends chain snapped, imagine my joy when the Dakota DC3 came over our heads really slow and low on it's way to the Southport airshow. It made my day.
Marcus - it was indeed the vulcan, off to Poynton to say hello to Woodford, then over Manchester airport, before its showing at the Southport airshow.
Just reading a book about the SR-71 at the moment - incredible plane!
Buccaneer, defo, but Jag? What was the saying, "they only take off due to the curvature of the earth"!
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Love the EE Lightning but I've always wanted to fly a Shorts Sunderland. Or the Lancaster (still one flying).
I've always loved these..
Boing 314 Clipper
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Great story here: [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_314 ][/url]
Diverted flight of NC18609
Clipper NC18609 then called the California Clipper was a Boeing 314 famous for having completed Pan American World Airways' first flight between California and New York, the long way by traveling West. The flight began on December 2, 1941, at the Pan Am base on Treasure Island, California for its scheduled passenger service to Auckland, New Zealand.[15][16]
NC18602 made scheduled stops in San Pedro, California, Honolulu, Hawaii, Canton Island, Suva, Fiji and Nouméa, New Caledonia en route to Auckland when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
Cut off from the United States and commanding a valuable military asset, Captain Robert Ford was directed to strip company markings, registration and insignia from the Clipper and proceed in secret to the Marine Terminal, LaGuardia Field, New York.
Ford and his crew successfully flew over 31,500 miles to home via
* Gladstone, Australia
* Darwin, Australia
* Surabaya, Java
* Trincomalee, Ceylon
* Karachi, British India
* Bahrain
* Khartoum, Sudan
* Leopoldville, Belgian Congo
* Natal, Brazil
* Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
* New York, arriving January 6, 1942.
At Surabaya, Captain Ford had to refuel with automobile grade gasoline. "We took off from Surabaya on the 100 octane, climbed a couple of thousand feet, and pulled back the power to cool off the engines," said Ford. "Then we switched to the automobile gas and held our breaths. The engines almost jumped out of their mounts, but they ran. We figured it was either that or leave the airplane to the Japs."
On the way to Trincomalee, they were confronted by a Japanese submarine, and Ford had to jam the throttles forward to climb out of range of the submarine's guns. On Christmas Eve, when they took off, black oil began gushing out of the number 3 engine and pouring back over the wing. Ford shut down the engine and returned to Trincomalee. He discovered one of the engine's cylinders had failed.
When Captain Ford was planning his flight from Bahrain, he was warned by the British authorities not to fly across Arabia. Ford said, "The Saudis had apparently already caught some British flyers who had been forced down there. The natives had dug a hole, buried them in it up to their necks, and just left them." Ford flew right over Mecca because the Saudis did not have anti-aircraft guns.
A Pan American airport manager and a radio officer had been dispatched to meet the Clipper at Leopoldville. When Ford landed they handed him a cold beer. Ford said, "That was one of the high points of the whole trip." After NC18602 had completed its harrowing flight to safety, Pan Am renamed the aircraft, the Pacific Clipper. The name change was mainly for publicity purposes, arising from the first newspaper articles having wrongly identified the aircraft. NC18609 remained the Pacific Clipper from 1942 throughout the remainder of its career. Purchased by the US Navy in 1946, it was subsequently sold to Universal Airlines but was damaged in a storm and ultimately salvaged for parts.
TSR-2 Cancelled by Harold Wilson because it was too good. His friends/paymasters in The Kremlin told him that it would upset the balance of power because it was far superior to anything they had, so it had to go. Sod British jobs when the Red Flag is sung.
How about a Bugatti? Not bad for 1938!
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That is beautiful did it ever fly
No, so strictly speaking it shouldn't be on this thread. Bugatti were getting close to completion of it as the Germans invaded France, so it was shipped out of the country and alas never flew. It's a stunning bit of engineering that really needs to fly though.
apologies in advance for my choices (obviously I've only chosen the Comet for it's 50's scifi looks, not it's err flying)- and the pics don't really do either of them justice imo.
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Concorde certainly. Victor also. However if you want aesthetics I give you the Lockheed Constellation. According to Wikipedia some are still flying and there's even one stashed in a shed near Swindon!
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Another vote for Yorkshires finest flying banana here
Concorde and Mosquito - have seen both in the past. Tragic that the BAe mossie crashed (for the crew obviously, but also for the loss of the aircraft)
Quite a few of the types mentioned have airworthy examples - be nice to see some of the "extinct" or museum bound example restored to flying condition (and was, I guess, the OP's direction)
Hawker Typhoon / Tempest. There are so many Merlin engined aircraft around, it would be nice to hear a Napier Sabre (not that I ever have... and from what I've read might not be so good to have a pilot put at risk with one)
Some of the German WW2 aircraft, again for their distinctive sound. Bf109, FW190D...
Another oddball, the very quick, but totally extinct, Westland Whirlwind
I used to like seeing the GoodYear airship doesn't seem to be about now.
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Any of these...
A relative who used to fly with Bomber Command always said that this was a lovely aircraft to fly.
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... but suffered terrible losses
It has to be,
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[i]... but suffered terrible losses[/i]
I looked after a guy in hospital who had flown missions over occupied France/Holland, in order to resupply the Resistance and SOE operatives. Unfortunately, their flight paths were based upon false-information supplied by German intelligence (this is before the Allies upped the code-breaking efforts)... and so they were flying straight into the sights of German AA batteries. Of his flight crew, only he survived.
When I was a kid we used to watch the Ark Royal's Buccaneers and Phantoms - ear shatteringly loud
i'd have to say the Tsr2, i'd love to see something that size screaming across the hills in wales while out riding!
A proper, full-sized Zeppelin
There's so many I'd like to see in the air. There are flying replicas of Me 262's and Fw 190's, and having seen a brilliant Nat Geographic programme about it, a flying replica of a Horton flying wing jet fighter, a genuine stealth WW2 wooden jet. Then there's the Typhoon and Tempest, the Beaufighter, one of my all-time favourite planes, the DeHavilland DH88 Comet, the Supermarine S6B, any number of Japanese WW2 aircraft, and as a number of others have mentioned, the EE Lightning, and the Victor. It would be wonderful to see two of the three original V-Bombers flying together again.
I heard last week that the Lightning will be flying again. There is a group doing a similar thing to what they did with the Vulcan.
It has to be the EE Lightning. My old chap helped design bits of it so it holds a certain fascination for me.
The problem with Lightnings flying in the UK today is one of FAA approval. IIRC, there are airworthy examples at Bruntingthorpe but the British authorities aren't keen on a mach 2 jet in the hands of a private pilot.
Lightnings still do fly in South Africa, Thunder City have four, two single seaters and two two seaters which are used in a test pilots school there. The current speed record for a plane flying from African soil is held by a Lightning and was set in 2007.
Lightning & Phantom for me.
Would love to see the Lightning fly again, but I thought that it's lack of redundant systems means it's never going to happen?
Thinder City - Very much at the top of my Lottery winning places to visit!
No mention of the Spruce Goose yet? 😉
F-105 Thuds.
The Viggen.
Grumman F7F Tigercat. Bristol Beaufighter. I had a fascination with any fighter with twin radials...
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Skyraider
and of course........
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TSR2
If only someone could build one of these with the benefit of the knowledge it gave us. Best looking aircraft ever.
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This website is excellent
http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/contents.php
You can see where surviving examples of great cold war and other jets are and what condition they are in.
Includes: Buccaneer Gannet Gnat Hunter Javelin Lightning Phantom
Scimitar Sea Hawk Sea Vixen Swift TSR.2 Valiant Victor Vulcan
A Lightning will never fly again (legally) in the UK. The main stumbling block is not the lack of redundant systems, nor lack of non-life expired parts for it, nor the fact they have an alarming habit of leaking like a leaky thing, its the fact BAe who inherited the type approval for it won't approve flight in civvy hands and won't allow anyone else to take over type approval (as with Marshalls and 558). No type approval, no permit to fly from the CAA.
P-51, P-38, F86 sabre dog, F-4, FW 190 again,A-10 again (love them), and the spruce goose, ME 163 Komet(300 built for 9 allied kills, bloody rubbish really but i'd like to see one airborne) and a De Havilland sea venom and mossie might be nice an oh and an FW condor would do nicely.
F-86 Sabre for me
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And my favourite of all time.
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I'd spend a couple of days in this going to the US. Why not make it solar powered too?
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Still think the daddy of close air support the A1 Skyraider is an outstanding bit of kit.
How's about the AC-47 "Spooky"
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I would run a mile if I knew it was in the area when it can do this...
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I don't usually like bringing dead threads back to life, but saw this today:
[url= http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn17885-beasts-from-the-sky ]Real sky monsters[/url]