Aircraft you should have seen but haven't.

[J4CKO]

Would love to see a 747 SP fly again, last time I saw one was at Geneva, Feb 1st 2003, same day as the Columbia Disaster, think it was the Royal Bahrain flight.

[Eric Mc]

When I lived in Dublin in the 1970s we used to see Iran Air and Pan Am 747SP flying over at altitude.

[nick heppinstall]

kurt535 said:

Love to see an F14
Love to see a Lightning - again
F-111
F-4

I was lucky enough to tick the F14 box in the early 90's. One was flying at Mildenhall.

[MarkwG]

J4CKO said:

Would love to see a 747 SP fly again, last time I saw one was at Geneva, Feb 1st 2003, same day as the Columbia Disaster, think it was the Royal Bahrain flight.

Hang around in Bournemouth, this old girl does a check flight every 6 months or so, still, I think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_Z0m9Vc27A

[Kitchski]

Concorde. Can't believe I never watched it fly, especially as it flew low over Eastleigh back in the mid-nineties (low enough to be able to read the markings underneath, accordingly to my Dad) with a fleet of Spitfires which took off from Eastleigh Airport. I'd just got back from a skiing holiday in Austria (which I did no skiing in) and managed to sleep through it. My Dad found that impossible to understand, as it set the car alarm off on his very early Citroen XM. My argument remains to this day that a pigeon landing on the car next to a very early Citroen XM would set the car alarm off on a very early Citroen XM, but it remains a constant source of jibbery in any case, much to my regret.

Would have also loved to see a Lightning, a VC-10, a Comet and a Victor in the air. Probably the Victor mostly. I was ten when the last Victor flight took place. A ten year old me gave zero fks about aeroplanes sadly.

[ukaskew]

U-2.

Mainly because they fly directly over my house frequently, I've just never seen one (I'm about 50 miles from Fairford but seem to be on the flightpath for big stuff in and out). Can always tell when one is in the air though, very, very loud and the noise hangs around for about 5 minutes.

The B-2 was also on my list, but in June two of them flew directly over my house at about 3,000ft (and back again at dusk), amazing moment.

[Hooli]

Eric Mc said:

I'd like to have seen one of these Typhoons fly -

Yeah, I'd love to see one of them fly & a Tempest.

Mossie too, but there is a chance of seeing one now Oh & Lightnings.

[Thunderace]

ecsrobin said:

davepoth said:

Dr Jekyll said:

What aircraft types would you like to see flying, are around to be seen, but you have somehow missed?

JU52 for me. I've seen them parked but never flying.

Lufthansa's historical flight owns one that's still (sort of) in revenue service. You can book a seat here:

http://www.dlbs.de/de/Ju-52-Rund-und-Streckenflueg...

It was at Goodwood 2 years ago I believe they were allowing people onboard.

There was one at Shoreham last week, would have been one of the highlights for me but it didn't display for obvious reasons.

[NM62]

This thread has got me digging through my old log books.

J4CKO said:

Would love to see a 747 SP fly again, last time I saw one was at Geneva, Feb 1st 2003, same day as the Columbia Disaster, think it was the Royal Bahrain flight.

There was one that flew for the Oman Government / UAE (A40-SO) - That visited Leeds Bradford once.

@Eric - I remember them in and out of LHR too- heard them many a times going out over the Atlantic ( Shanwick Oceanic) - As for the old Typhoon & Tempest - that would be amazing to see those.

@UKASKEW - saw 4 x U-2R and 9 x SR71 from Det 4 at Mildenhall over the years and of course the numerous TR-1's out of Alconbury.

[aeropilot]

Eric Mc said:

I thought I would never get to see a Connie fly - until last year when the one shown above flew at Farnborough. It was worth the 40 year wait.

I stupidly passed up the chance to fly in a Connie back in 1997 - to this day I don't know why I passed over that chance

[NM62]

aeropilot said:

Eric Mc said:

I thought I would never get to see a Connie fly - until last year when the one shown above flew at Farnborough. It was worth the 40 year wait.

I stupidly passed up the chance to fly in a Connie back in 1997 - to this day I don't know why I passed over that chance

Likewise - I passed up a chance to fly on Concorde, then it crashed and was taken out of service - I just assumed that it would fly on for a lot longer.

[Eric Mc]

I could have flown on this flying boat back in 1977 - but decided the ticket was too expensive. It would have cost me £18.

At least I did get to see it fly -

[fatboy69]

Always wanted to see the TSR2 & an SR71 Blackbird in the air.

I know that the TSR2 had a very short flying career however it will always remain an 'I wish' as will the SR71 - for some reason I never managed to be anywhere to see one flying.

[hammo19]

Been lucky enough to have seen most of the aircraft listed here except for Shuttle, TSR2, Connie. XB70. But my list would be

IAI Kfir (on ground not in air)
TU-144
AN-224 (still got a chance one day?)
Ekranoplan

[NM62]

Eric Mc said:

I could have flown on this flying boat back in 1977 - but decided the ticket was too expensive. It would have cost me £18.

At least I did get to see it fly -

that as got to hurt.

I miss the old piston engines - some friends visited Miami in the 80's - there was shed loads of exotica - C46, C97, DC3,4,5,6 and 7, Convair 340, 440 etc - certainly would like to go back to that era.

[aeropilot]

Only a/c that I could have seen but missed the chance to would be the F-105.

Pretty everything else that I would have loved to have seen I could not have had the chance to as any flying examples had already gone by the time I was, say into early teen years.

[jjones]

MonkeyBusiness said:

Haven't seen the Vulcan which is very annoying as it flew over my house this year.
I was inside and heard an almighty roar. Of course every other bugger within 2 miles saw it.

You got the best bit of the experience, to look at in the air to me just another delta wing shape, but the noise - now that is something special!

[Smollet]

Would loved to have seen the Valkyrie fly. I've seen a B1 but not a B2. Also love to see a B52. Are there any Hustlers still flying?

[Voldemort]

Am I right in thinking there's a flying ME262? That's on my 'to see' list.

[Smollet]

Voldemort said:

Am I right in thinking there's a flying ME262? That's on my 'to see' list.

I believe there are some replicas but not with the original make of engines

Edited by Smollet on Saturday 5th September 14:43