The General Airplane Thread

[wfooshee]

Spotted today, Piaggio P.180!

Lucky to get this... I was taking a walk in a park near the hotel I'm staying in this week in Tomball, TX, just happened to have the long lens on the camera hoping for some birds or other wildlife, when I heard this going overhead. The only reason I shot it is it sounded different, and looked "funny" to the naked eye, not properly proportioned. Didn't know what it was until I got the image onto the computer, and didn't even then, until some Googling turned it up.

 

[Law93]

Spotted today, Piaggio P.180!

Lucky to get this... I was taking a walk in a park near the hotel I'm staying in this week in Tomball, TX, just happened to have the long lens on the camera hoping for some birds or other wildlife, when I heard this going overhead. The only reason I shot it is it sounded different, and looked "funny" to the naked eye, not properly proportioned. Didn't know what it was until I got the image onto the computer, and didn't even then, until some Googling turned it up.

That cannard wing! I remember back during my aircraft maintenance training, our instructor spent a good chunk of time talking about P180

 

[wfooshee]

Reading about it, I found that the canard let them move the main wing back quite a ways, so the wing spar is behind the cabin space, no intrusion. When flaps deploy, they deploy on wings and canards to keep trim as it was before flaps.

 

[Dan]

Spotted today, Piaggio P.180!

Lucky to get this... I was taking a walk in a park near the hotel I'm staying in this week in Tomball, TX, just happened to have the long lens on the camera hoping for some birds or other wildlife, when I heard this going overhead. The only reason I shot it is it sounded different, and looked "funny" to the naked eye, not properly proportioned. Didn't know what it was until I got the image onto the computer, and didn't even then, until some Googling turned it up.

I love these planes. There’s almost no other plane on the market that looks like these. And in spite of popular opinion, I also enjoy the engine sound when they fly overhead.

 

[Swagger897]

If you think those are weird, check out the Beech Starship. Absolute favorite plane ever.

 

[Jawehawk]

Are there any benefits or downsides to having the propellers facing to the rear rather than to the front? Looks stunning.

 

[RACECAR]

Are there any benefits or downsides to having the propellers facing to the rear rather than to the front? Looks stunning.

If I recall, noise reduction in the cabin is a big one for both aircraft.

 

[Populuxe]

Are there any benefits or downsides to having the propellers facing to the rear rather than to the front? Looks stunning.

Like most things in aircraft design, there are advantages and disadvantages to a pusher configuration. The Wikipedia article lays them out rather nicely.

Another unique design I like is the Hondajet.

 

[Dan]

HondaJets are cool aircraft, but an absolute pain in the butt to refuel. There’s only one port, and that’s on the right rear side about a foot ahead of the air brakes. The first generation jets don’t have any devices to indicate when you need to refuel slowly. The second generation has a button with a little caution light. I believe once the tanks are ~50% full, the light comes on and you need to slow down, otherwise fuel can (and will) splash out of the top if you aren’t careful. You have to let the fuel settle down and then fill up again. This process happens multiple times per refueling and can take a very long time. Most private jets have two fuel ports, one per wing, and the process is much faster on those because two ramp agents can fuel the plane at the same time. The HondaJet’s wings are so small that they can’t put a cap on them or store much fuel inside them.

 

[kikie]

The propellers facing forward = FWD
The propellers facing to the rear = RWD

Interior of the Hondajet.

 

[Swagger897]

Haven’t gotten the chance to see a Honda Jet up close yet at my field but just about everything else has been here. Gulfstreams, Learjets, Cirrus Jets, Falcons, etc... Chick-fil-a and Mellow Yellow store their jets here along with Zac Brown’s Gulfstream.

It’s amazing how quiet the new Citations are. Standing outside about 100 yards away from the runway and you can have a normal conversation next to someone while they’re at full reverse.

 

[KM964]

While we can all agree 2020 was less than ideal, I managed to get one trip in before the pandemic blew up - to South Florida. MIA and FLL always provide some fun spotting oppurtunities, and OPF is a nice place to see some aircraft on death row. This trip also proved to be bittersweet, as it would be the last time I saw some aircraft types for specific airlines.

FLL pics first - decent variety but mostly US and Canadian carriers.

Star Alliance Avianca

JetBlue NYPD

Azul A330neo - arguably the best livery currently flying today.

On to MIA - this is where the fun is for all the stuff from the Carribean and Central/South America.

TAB Cargo DC10 from Bolivia.

KLM Cargo 747.

Cayman Airways 737-300 off to Georgetown.

AA 757 - at the time this was the oldest active 757 in AA's fleet, delivered in 1993. This would turn out to be the last flying AA 757 I shot.

Ethiopian Cargo 777F.

WestJet Frozen livery. Stupid fence.

Air Italy. They ended up folding a month later.

AA 767, the last one I photographed. DFW used to be a base for these birds, but they were moved to MIA and PHL once the 787s started arriving.

Aerolineas Argentinas. No doubt a beautiful paintjob.

Old livery Avianca.

SkyLease 747F.

Finally caught a Carribean 737 that had the hummingbird on the tail - every other one I had seen was solid white.

Surinam Airways 737-700.

Boliviana de Aviacion 767-300.

The big catch of the weekend - the BA Negus 747.

LOT Polish Independence 787.

And to round up this post, an Aruba Airlines A320. Had been sitting there for 9 days at the time, it ended up leaving a week later, to Havana of all places. It's currently sitting in Costa Rica.

 

[Keef]

Haven’t gotten the chance to see a Honda Jet up close yet at my field

A few years ago Honda execs were touring the Marysville plant and brought a whole fleet of Honda Jets to KOSU. They kept them on display for an airport event that weekend as well. Looks like a fun little ride to me.

 

[CTznOfTime]

Would've been funny if they have "VTEC" on the HondaJe5....

My most favorite airline:

 

[Keef]

Would've been funny if they have "VTEC" on the HondaJe5....

My most favorite airline:

Just took a look at Tahiti on Maps. How on earth do they afford an operation like this? I'm only seeing a couple "resort" hotels and nothing massive like I expected, like you'd see in Hawaii or something. There isn't even 200,000 people on the island.

 

[Brett]

Tourism is big business. I just took a look at a few spots on Streetview and it looked awesome. Less hotels and nothing massive is a big draw.

 

[CTznOfTime]

Just took a look at Tahiti on Maps. How on earth do they afford an operation like this? I'm only seeing a couple "resort" hotels and nothing massive like I expected, like you'd see in Hawaii or something. There isn't even 200,000 people on the island.

Tourism is big business. I just took a look at a few spots on Streetview and it looked awesome. Less hotels and nothing massive is a big draw.

Went there for our honeymoon years ago...
Once there, you realize how the beauty of it all can so easily be threaten by Ice cap melting...

And even when not going to Tahiti, I Always try to fly with them to support their business....

The service is top notch, extremely friend flight attendants.

They fly and connect between Japan, New Zealand, Australia, USA, and France....

I wonder if the airline is somehow subsidized by the government...

 

[CTznOfTime]

Just took a look at Tahiti on Maps. How on earth do they afford an operation like this? I'm only seeing a couple "resort" hotels and nothing massive like I expected, like you'd see in Hawaii or something. There isn't even 200,000 people on the island.

Tourism is big business. I just took a look at a few spots on Streetview and it looked awesome. Less hotels and nothing massive is a big draw.

Went there for our honeymoon years ago...
Once there, you realize how the beauty of it all can so easily be threaten by Ice cap melting...

And even when not going to Tahiti, I Always try to fly with them to support their business....

The service is top notch, extremely friend flight attendants.

They fly and connect between Japan, New Zealand, Australia, USA, and France....

I wonder if the airline is somehow subsidized by the government...

 

[KM964]

Here's what little I've spotted since COVID broke out. Here at DFW, pretty much all of our international carriers have left, with the exception of Qatar, BA, and JAL. 90% of the remaining traffic is AA which gets VERY boring very quickly.

BOAC 747. I hate how BA changed the arrival from late afternoon to night. I wasn't bothered at first since they used 777-200s but it was bothersome when they changed back to the 747 for a short few months. Still, was a nice treat to see. This was taken in February before things really blew up.

Azerbaijan Airlines 787 coming in from Atryau, Kazakhstan. Supposedly was chartered to bring stranded Kazakhs home. No clue if Borat Sagdiyev was on board.

Delta A350, which from what I remember was a charter for GM workers.

EVA Air Hello Kitty, bringing in a bunch of PPE from Taipei. EVA has dedicated cargo service to DFW as it is, so not sure why they brought a passenger 77W but I'm not complaining.

AA Stand Up to Cancer A321. AA let people put names of loved ones on this plane for a $25 donation to SU2C - my grandfather's name is on here, and I photographed the side that it's on.

Cargolux retro livery. Such a sharp paintjob!

And the last spot of the year, on New Years Eve - another Delta A350 parked in prime view at Fort Worth Alliance. This was a charter for the Notre Dame football team, playing in the relocated Rose Bowl.

 

[ScottPuss20]

Here's what little I've spotted since COVID broke out. Here at DFW, pretty much all of our international carriers have left, with the exception of Qatar, BA, and JAL. 90% of the remaining traffic is AA which gets VERY boring very quickly.

Cargolux retro livery. Such a sharp paintjob!

Not sure if City of Ettelbruck or City Of Everett...

 

[Barra333]

EVA Air Hello Kitty, bringing in a bunch of PPE from Taipei. EVA has dedicated cargo service to DFW as it is, so not sure why they brought a passenger 77W but I'm not complaining.

Lots of airlines pivoted to putting excess cargo on passenger planes in the absence of passengers. KLM put out a couple of videos taking about loading PPE into their passenger models.

 

[KM964]

Per the suggestion of @Populuxe Cowboy I'm posting these here. Not actual planes, but rather pieces of them.

There are two different companies I buy from - MotoArt and Aviationtag. MotoArt is based in California, and they produce not only these tags but various furnishings as well, from conference tables to mirrors. They do a wide range of aircraft, from civilian airliners to vintage military aircraft and even some helicopters. Aviationtag is based in Germany, and they mostly stick to commercial airliners. Here's my collection thus far, totaling 48 on display, 7 to be displayed, and 4 on the way.

Here are some up close pictures of some of my favorites.

D-ALEH, PH-BFR, and UR-WRQ.

CS-TOE, C-FCAG, and D-ASTZ.

A7-AGB and D-ASTZ.

N8990E

B-18801

JA8968, HS-TGM, and N665WN

Lucky Lady III B52, VN-A347, and VH-OJP

B-2065

HL7495

XA-SWH

 

[Populuxe]

Per the suggestion of @Populuxe Cowboy I'm posting these here. Not actual planes, but rather pieces of them.

There are two different companies I buy from - MotoArt and Aviationtag. MotoArt is based in California, and they produce not only these tags but various furnishings as well, from conference tables to mirrors. They do a wide range of aircraft, from civilian airliners to vintage military aircraft and even some helicopters. Aviationtag is based in Germany, and they mostly stick to commercial airliners. Here's my collection thus far, totaling 48 on display, 7 to be displayed, and 4 on the way.

Here are some up close pictures of some of my favorites.

D-ALEH, PH-BFR, and UR-WRQ.

CS-TOE, C-FCAG, and D-ASTZ.

A7-AGB and D-ASTZ.

N8990E

B-18801

JA8968, HS-TGM, and N665WN

Lucky Lady III B52, VN-A347, and VH-OJP

B-2065

HL7495

XA-SWH

Checking out the planetags site and I see they have a tag from the actual DC-6 used on the Monkee's Summer of Love tour. I've got a friend who is a huge Monkee's fan. I've alerted them on Twitter about this. I know they will love it.

 

[wfooshee]

So, note every airliner's tail number you fly on, and watch the site...

Someday in the future: "I was actually on all of these airplanes!"
Grandchild: "Can I have my PS8 back?"

 

[KM964]

Checking out the planetags site and I see they have a tag from the actual DC-6 used on the Monkee's Summer of Love tour. I've got a friend who is a huge Monkee's fan. I've alerted them on Twitter about this. I know they will love it.

Yeah, they have all sorts of neat stuff. It's addicting.

So, note every airliner's tail number you fly on, and watch the site...

Someday in the future: "I was actually on all of these airplanes!"
Grandchild: "Can I have my PS8 back?"

I haven't flown on any of these but I do have a piece of one I've photographed - CS-TOI, a former TAP A330. They've also cut up a 707 I've photographed, N88ZL, which is releasing in March.

 

[Barra333]

Thanks for posting those links - my father in law may be getting a Gimli Glider tag for his birthday.

 

[Ze Elephant]

In a similar vein, my brother and sister and law have found some pretty cool things for my birthday and Christmas gifts.

On the left is a compressor vane from the 11th stage in an F-86 Saber's J-47 turbojet, and on the right is a genuine piece of metal from an SR-71's J58 engine.

 

[Swagger897]

Just a few from work at the new and old jobs:

You know they always say big airports are like their own little cities, and at first I never really believed it because I was always in the planes and it just seemed so quick to get from runway->gate->runway etc.. But now that I drive on it doing line maintenance, holy cow is it huge. Even in the rain it’s still enjoyable.

 

[Venom800tt]

I see an Embraer 175 cockpit in one of those pics... @Swagger897

 

[Swagger897]

I see an Embraer 175 cockpit in one of those pics... @Swagger897

Indeed. At the moment that’s all I’m qualified to work on (Any Republic aircraft) but looking to move up into Airbus school hopefully.