A long overdue awesome aeroplanes thread!

tail end charlies view !

I always liked the look of the P39 and the fact that it had a 37mm cannon in the nose and tricycle landing gear but it was a bit rubbish tbh.

The T-28 Trojan. A plane that resonates for me because of the story of Lee Lue, which I first read of in the amazing book on the secret war in Laos, Shooting at the Moon. Fly til you die.

lovely shot of a corsair

Havard

Don’t think we’ve had a Wellington yet? Built a few of these models as a kid

colourful stearman

early b24 liberator

Evil-looking suburban Nimrod AEW.

Tiger Moth – not for any aviation-related awesomeness, but because I once did a loop the loop in one whilst sitting in the passenger (front) seat

..and to counteract all this awesomeness, let’s have a chippy

The awesome Yakovlev Yak-3

From Wiki …

“On 17 July 1944, eight Yaks attacked a formation of 60 German aircraft, including escorting fighters. In the ensuing dogfight, the Luftwaffe lost three Junkers Ju 87s and four Bf 109Gs, for no losses to the Yaks.[6] Consequently, the Luftwaffe issued an order to “avoid combat below five thousand metres with Yakovlev fighters lacking an oil cooler intake beneath the nose!”[7] Luftwaffe fighters in combat with the Yak-3 tried to use surprise tactics, attacking from above.”[8]

My boyhood favourite:

Harrier GR3

you can imagine the lecture from your co !

My favourites have been done but a few more for the hell of it…

Grumman Duck – not a looker…

C5 Galaxy – what a beast…

Always liked this one from the film, Acrostar Mini Jet, looks like a hoot to fly…

I’ve a soft spot for this one. BAe 146, very capable aircraft and I worked on them as an Apprentice and flew one in a proper simulator…

Edit: Not sure what has happened to posting pics via BBL code from Flickr!

northrop blackwindow (in olive drab)

F15 strafing run on the plane spotters.

Tornado Gr4

And the much unloved Tornado F3

Mirage F1 again

Send in the robots, sort of, landing on US carrier

Can’t believe this hasn’t featured. Chatting to a B1 driver he reckoned it’d be pretty potent in a long range Air to Air role too!

it has 🙂 twice

Damn you!! I was about to post one of those.

Regardless, here’s another piccie:

c47 cockpit

These just look so cool, like an idea of what planes should look like- sleek and fast.

nice ju52 compo

rockfords great escape me108 taifun

ford tri-motor

There can never be enough Buccaneer…

The sign said don’t touch, I couldn’t help myself though.

Lucky enough to live in a low fly zone so whatever I have seen recently.
Normally tornados and hawks but the occasional more exciting Hercules doing its thing is a thing of beauty.

But they allow you to get soooo close it’d be rude not to

The deck of Intrepid is a great place to hang out. Even better now there’s a shuttle there.

Anyone read ‘Fate Is the Hunter’ by Ernest K Gann?

Fantastic book…

Evil-looking suburban Nimrod AEW.

That’s the MRA.4 (mark 4, Marine Reconnaissance Attack), not the AEW.3 (mark 3, Airborne Early Warning) actually. The stillborn mark 4 was the only Nimrod to be fitted with the modern bypass turbofans that needed the enlarged air intakes. The (also stillborn) mark 3 had smaller intakes but an even more bulging nose:

I remember reading a story about a Buccaneer that was being chased by an enemy fighter during a Red Flag exercise. It was flying at low level and as part of its attempts to shake the fighter it ended up dropping its payload of practice bombs. At the end of the mission it was calculated that at the altitude it was flying enough debris would have been thrown up by the bomb’s detonation that it would have destroyed the enemy fighter and the Buccaneer was credited with an air-to-air kill using an unguided bomb! Afterwards this became an acknowledged part of their air-to-air combat techniques.

Below decks on the Intrepid they have a landing capsule.
It looks like I made it in my shed.

On seeing the Me 109 get a couple of mentions you have to remember that Erich Hartmann was the leading fighter ace of all time in one of these with, prepare yourselves, 352 confirmed kills. And he made it out of the war to a ripe old age.

I don’t know much about the man or his politics, but despite the fact that he was on the wrong side, 352!

Now time for some Boulton Paul Defiants:

Mig 17

Short Stirling

De havilland venom

Hurricane, the other merlin powered fighter during the Battle of Britain

The Argie Pucara

and of course, the Sea Harrier

That Venom is lovely.

Another Porter.

And yes, they really are getting back in.

Source

I’ve always liked the Short Sunderland

Or this little guy

This puppy deserves a mention:

As does this beast too:

What a great thread. I really like the pics of the chipmunk. Got loads of hours in them when I was an air cadet. I also remember going to Holbeach ranges on a couple of occasions watching A10’s, jaguars, harriers and tornados doing bombing and strafing runs was just awesome. One particular memory is of being in the tower being given a talk by one of the controllers who then asked a jaguar to do a fly past for us. He did 3 passes and the last one we were all convinced he was going to hit us. Amazing.
i also remember driving along the loch from north North Ballachulish to Fort William watching Buccaneers and tornados blasting past us over the loch so low you could see the pilots faces.

a bit of 30’s elegance with Lockheed electra