The General Airplane Thread

  • Thread starter Crash
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I love the blue afterburner flames from that Jaguar :drool:
The Hornet pic and Spitfire are also cool.
And that engine was a compressor stall, which can be caused by numerous things. Most of which aren't mechanic related :sly:
 
IIRC, that fire-spitting Spitfire shot is a remake by a MoD photographer of this shot:

SpitfireI-Vcockpit-1.jpg
 
Here ya go!!! Replica of the world's first naval aircraft, the Curtiss Model D Pusher, which on January 18, 1911 landed on a makeshift deck on the USS Pensylvania, was turned around and then took off from the same deck. It even used a tailhook to stop on landing (cables tied to 50-lb sand bags!)

A flying replica was built and went around air shows during 2011 as part of the Century of Naval Aviation celebration. I was fortunate enough to see it and snap a couple pics. (Click for 1280 size)







The Navy's Tailhook Legacy flight for that airshow was an SB2C Helldiver, an F4U Corsair, and an FA/18F Superhornet.


They had the Tailhook Legacy and the Model D in the air at the same time, and had the legacy flight run a much larger circle so that the timing put the old Curtis and the Legacy flight in view at the same time.


But if you want an old airplane, it doesn't get much better than the very first (successful) one. The Wright Flyer is at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The fabric was replaced about 30 years ago, but the wood frame and the mechanicals are the same pieces from that day on the beach at Kitty Hawk in 1903. This one is not a replica!
 
Seeing all those in one shot is seriously cool 👍

About a year ago my dad had a layover in D.C. so my sis and I flew up on another flight and met him there for the night. One of the things we did was tour the Air & Space Museum and we finally got to see the Wright Flyer. Can't recommend that museum enough!
 
It's interesting how size has changed.

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The F-15 is 63 feet long, the B-17 is 74. Both weight about 50,000 lbs loaded. A fighter like that would be crazy talk in WWII. The Su-27 above almost outsizes the B-17 at 72 ft. It's heavier though, 35,000-40,000 lbs empty and a loaded weight of 50,000 to 60,000 lbs.

Another interesting fact is that if redesigned today with modern materials and propulsion, the B-17 could possibly put up a good fight against the F-15, but only in a slow turning fight.
 
A good point on sizes. Scroll up a few posts and look at my shot of the F4U Corsair opposite the FA-18F Superhornet. The Corsair was a MONSTER in its day!
 
Anyone here played Birds Of Steel, World War 2 flight sim for PS3. You can fly over 100 planes, Allies, Axis all faithfully reproduced and modeled. Online games, where you can be up against 16 players. There is also a very good forum community, similluar to Planet GT.

Another flight sim for PS3, IL2 Sturmovik Birds Of Prey, both are really good to play.
 
I think I played the demo of that game, the one where you fly over the south of England??? I liked it, but i'm afraid never actually played the full game :guilty:.

Talking of fighter plane games, my favorite 'dog-fighting' game was Ace Combat 5 on the PS2. It had a fantastic story mode, a decent amount of planes from the F22 to the F5 and pretty good graphics as well for a PS2 game. I managed to rack up weeks of gameplay I loved it so much. I liked how in one mission you took part in a fly pass in Rio after one successful mission.👍
 
Ace Combat is only flying game I can do on the console <3

I did just install War Thunder on my PC yesterday, and so far I'm loving it. The only downside is my 13-year-old MS Sidewinder joystick isn't supported so I have to use a mouse, which is very annoying. Besides that, beautiful game with some great action. Definitely recommend it.


Also, an Asiana Airlines B777 crashed on landing at SFO. Some of the pictures I'm seeing make it look like the plane struggled to keep altitude and hit the ground too early and almost ended up in the drink. Look at where the debris trail starts on the runway relative to the shoreline and it looks like it was almost a catastrophe. But 2 are reported dead. :(

DizHY3V.png


Here's the Airliners.net thread with all the pictures available.
 
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Sad news to wake up to (Australia), as far as I am aware this is the Boeing 777's first fatalities due to a crash since the 777 went into service in 1995. So far it's just lucky to see so many people have escaped alive.


I am very curious to see what caused it, I have noticed a lot of people blaming the pilots already due to the striking the apron/rocks but it may be a result of a issue like the BA 777 engine stall issue years ago or a microburst.
 
Yeah, I'm not one to just blame pilots like that before the investigation (since my dad is one). I don't see how they could have approached the runway that poorly by themselves.
 
The demo you played was IL2 Sturmovik Birds Of Prey, which does have the best story mode of the two games.

Played Ace Combat on PS2, good story. I prefer the games mentioned, than just fire and forget. Better sim, much harder, more immersion and very satisfying when you get a kill online

War Of Thunder will be coming to PS4.
 
I don't usually post in this thread but i'm hearing that the lighting that pilots use to help them land on the runway were not operational yesterday. :odd:
 
John Wells
The demo you played was IL2 Sturmovik Birds Of Prey, which does have the best story mode of the two games.

Played Ace Combat on PS2, good story. I prefer the games mentioned, than just fire and forget. Better sim, much harder, more immersion and very satisfying when you get a kill online

War Of Thunder will be coming to PS4.
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Ace Combat: Squadron leader is a personal favourite :)
 
Blackbird.
I don't usually post in this thread but i'm hearing that the lighting that pilots use to help them land on the runway were not operational yesterday. :odd:
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ILS inop

Not unusual and shouldn't be a problem at all with good visibility. Pilots must be able to land visual without any issue.
 
Some data released by the NTSB from the CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder) and FDR (Flight Data Recorder):


Sound of stick shaker began approx. 4-sec prior to impact. (Stall warning)
Call to go around made approx. 1.5-sec prior to impact.
The data indicate that the throttles were at idle and the airspeed slowed significantly below target approach speed during the approach.
The throttles were advanced a few seconds prior to impact and the engines appear to respond normally.

Footage of the crash landing has been released but as deaths occurred I'm not sure whether I can link it here, easy to Google.

The two death victims are reported to have been ejected out of the rear of the aircraft and found within the debris when the tail broke off due to impacting with the sea wall. To make matters worse there is a current investigation determine if one of the girls was accidently run over and killed by a rescue vehicle.


After watching the crash video I must credit the design of the Boeing 777 as even though it hit hard then pretty much cart wheeled after impact it remained almost fully intact and in my opinion reduced the death and injury toll dramatically.


Here is a picture of the interior cabin of the 777-200ER as it lay on the tarmac released by the NTSB (none of the deaths occurred within this picture)


BOmrTBwCcAARecz.jpg:large
 
It didn't cartwheel as in tumble end over end as some people think from the word "cartwheel". What it did was a 360 in the horizontal plane.

Most likely scenario is the pilot was coming in too high, reduced throttles to idle, waited too long (way too long) to throttle back up again.

The ILS was out because they'd moved the threshold 600 feet further down the runway and it wasn't back on line yet but the PAPI was working fine. Or was, until the 777 slid over it and wiped it out.

Ironically the reason they moved the threshold was to reduce the risk of planes hitting the seawall.
 
BobK
It didn't cartwheel as in tumble end over end as some people think from the word "cartwheel". What it did was a 360 in the horizontal plane.
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You watch the crash caught on video?

It didn't do a full cartwheel but it did do half of one, the rear of the plane came way off the ground (though not fully vertical) and pivoted from around the nose, it was far from staying horizontal.
 
But the airplane didn't roll, i.e. bank left or right. In the bounce it spun flat, with a little pitch and a lot of yaw, but very little roll.

If someone tells me an airplane cartwheeled, I would think it went to something approaching 90 degrees of roll, wings near vertical.
 
^That. Not exactly what I'd call a cartwheel but still very serious and scary.

That video was crazy and very revealing. At first I didn't want to simply blame the pilots but it isn't looking good for them.

It also boggles my mind that the guy was in training, which means he had another more experienced buy in the cockpit that was supposed to be looking out for him and the 300 other people on that plane. From the video it seemed painfully obvious they were too low, so why did the attempts to correct it come so late? It also seems like he tried to pull the nose up before adding power, which is something even I know is stupid and I've never had formal flight instructions. So I just have to wonder why the others didn't do anything, and if they did, why they waited so long. And international flights, especially ones where you cross the Pacific, have four pilots up there... so that's two other guys who weren't paying attention.
 
The video is pretty fuzzy so it can be hard to figure out just what is going wrong, and I probably should have "more nearly horizontal than vertical". But "cartwheeling" to me invokes images of tumbling end over end, which the plane clearly not do.

The media wouldn't try to sensationalize any of this, would they?
 
What you get in first class on Emirates airlines.



There are other videos that show the shower room and bar on the A380 and the Dubai lounge better.
 
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Ok, yeah cartwheel isn't a good word (originally a word of a eye witness) for it now I think about it some more. Tail still came way up which most didn't expect/believe until the video went public.

GregTheStig
It also boggles my mind that the guy was in training, which means he had another more experienced buy in the cockpit that was supposed to be looking out for him and the 300 other people on that plane. From the video it seemed painfully obvious they were too low, so why did the attempts to correct it come so late? It also seems like he tried to pull the nose up before adding power, which is something even I know is stupid and I've never had formal flight instructions. So I just have to wonder why the others didn't do anything, and if they did, why they waited so long. And international flights, especially ones where you cross the Pacific, have four pilots up there... so that's two other guys who weren't paying attention.
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My current theory is they were attempting to correct it with pitch, hence the continued nose up attitude. However they probably assumed they were in a autothrottle mode and paid no regard to the power setting/speed until it was way too late.

Thing is even if their SOP was to be in a autothrottle mode on approach, which some airlines do... that doesn't mean you forget to monitor the airspeed.

As for the pilot in training:

Yeah it was new to the 777 but did have almost 10,000 hours of flight experience including the 747-400, the 777 has a near common rating to the 747-400 and he still should have been very proficient even without a competent check pilot watching him. Maybe the fact the 777 is fly by wire confused him into believing too much into automation.
 
It's sad to hear about the 777 accident, though at the same time it's heartening and people are relatively lucky that it was not more tragic.

I agree with Bob and Jay's theory. It's approach made it seem like it was a human factors issue, otherwise the crew would/should have radioed in mechanical failure and emergency landing earlier. The fact that they waited until seconds before collision to try and initiate a go around make it seem like the crew wasn't paying full attention.


haitch40
What you get in first class on Emirates airlines.



There are other videos that show the shower room and bar on the A380 and the Dubai lounge better.
Click to expand...


First class nowadays get crazy with showers, fold flat beds and stuff. The top tier airlines try to one up each other with their First class cabins, making it ever more luxurious and sumptuous.
 
Crash
First class nowadays get crazy with showers, fold flat beds and stuff. The top tier airlines try to one up each other with their First class cabins, making it ever more luxurious and sumptuous.
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You can have as much food and drink as you like as well. That means you can have as much black caviar as you wish. :drool:
Oh and the seats don't just lie flat. They are leather and massage you.
It's about £4,000 to go first class return from London to Tokyo for example depending exactly which flight you get.

As for other videos if you want to just type Emirates A380 first class into youtube. Or of course any other airline but Emirates gives the best first class IMO.
 
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