Aircraft you should have seen but haven't.

[HoHoHo]

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.

I've flown on the 747SP to Tehran as a youngster and they're a really nice plane to fly in, wide but not too long!

Boring factoid........the tail on the 747SP is actually taller than the regular 747

[Eric Mc]

Smollet said:

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?

No Hustlers. They were retired in 1970 after a fairly short service life and sent to the Desert Boneyard very quickly for breaking up.

[Mr_B]

Hooli said:

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.

The long running restoration of Kermit Weeks Tempest V is at least still on track to be built to airworthy standards, and took a step closer to reality recently when restoration of the airframe was complete, in as much as it is meant to be by the British restorers, and is due to be shipped back to Florida. I believe his engine guy is talking of looking at rebuilding one of his two Sabre engines. Interesting videos on YouTube about them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0PUeUok0mI

[Tango13]

Smollet said:

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?

None of the B-58's left are flyable

Nerd factoid... The folding wing segments on the XB-70 are roughly the same size as the entire wing on a B-58.

[aeropilot]

Smollet said:

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

Yes, new build recreations with modern engines are the ones all flying.......


Until Paul Allen's original, complete with rebuilt original Jumo's takes to the air again at some point in the future.

[onyx39]

Voldemort said:

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

I think it was down to fly at the last Farnborough, but went tech.

[williamp]

would love to see cold war jets flying again. I know soma countries fly them, but they don't appear at airshows anymore: Phantom, MiG25 foxbat, plus the Russian bombers Bear, badger etc. F15 too. Does the Hellenic air force still fly the starfighter? I'd buy some goodies if they flew one over with some merchandise.

[aeropilot]

williamp said:

Does the Hellenic air force still fly the starfighter?

Nope.

The Italians were the last European AF to operate the 'Hooter'.

[davepoth]

aeropilot said:

williamp said:

Does the Hellenic air force still fly the starfighter?

Nope.

The Italians were the last European AF to operate the 'Hooter'.

Greece still have F4s though, as does Iran. Iran still has Tomcats too. I bet their airshows are awesome.

[aeropilot]

davepoth said:

Greece still have F4s though, as does Iran.

So does Japan.

And so does the USA (just) as the last batch of QF-4 drones are being fed through the system about now, I think I read that the last one is due for it's demise around November time?

[BryanC]

Another one here who wished he could have seen a Typhoon in flight.



I will admit that I once saw a Mosquito dust up the local aerodrome with a hedge-hopping appearance and the memory has always stuck with me. ( Perhaps one of the reasons we don't have air displays here any more ).

Keeping the same theme, how about a Westland Whirlwind - not the helicopter sort, but a single seater with twin engines at full throttle and 4 x 20mm cannon in the nose.



The nearest I ever got was courtesy of Airfix !

[Riley Blue]

It would have to be the Horten Ho229 for me. Incredible to think that 'stealth' technology was incorporated into an aircraft that flew in the 1940s.

[Truffles]

Civil: VC10 (seen an IL62 though); 707;

Military: Lightning; Victor; Valiant; Javelin; Draken; Viggen. Not sure if the B36 was still flying when I was born in 1961, but in case it was, I can add that to the list too.

[Eric Mc]

Riley Blue said:

It would have to be the Horten Ho229 for me. Incredible to think that 'stealth' technology was incorporated into an aircraft that flew in the 1940s.

Was it?

The Horten brothers were into flying wings before radar was even thought of.

[Eric Mc]

Truffles said:

Civil: VC10 (seen an IL62 though); 707;

Military: Lightning; Victor; Valiant; Javelin; Draken; Viggen. Not sure if the B36 was still flying when I was born in 1961, but in case it was, I can add that to the list too.

There are still lots of 707 and their derivatives knocking about - so you should have no trouble seeing at least one of the variants flying.

The E-3 AWACs aircraft are essentially 707s.

The KC-135 tankers and other C-135 variants are from the same family (although fundamentally different in many ways).

[Riley Blue]

Eric Mc said:

Riley Blue said:

It would have to be the Horten Ho229 for me. Incredible to think that 'stealth' technology was incorporated into an aircraft that flew in the 1940s.

Was it?

The Horten brothers were into flying wings before radar was even thought of.

It wasn't just the flying wing shape that made the Ho226 less visible to radar.

[Eric Mc]

Was that an intended consequence of the design or something they discovered when testing? Indeed, they did precious little testing and suffered one fatal accident.

Wiki seems to confirm this -

"Since the appearance of the B-2 Spirit flying-wing stealth bomber in the 1990s, its similarities in role and shape to the Ho 229 has led many to retrospectively describe the Ho 229 as "the first stealth bomber".[3] A static reproduction of the only surviving Ho 229 prototype, the Ho 229 V3, in American hands since the end of World War II was constructed in the very early 21st century and later tested by the U.S. military, who found the basic shape, paint and laminating adhesive composition of the mockup copy would provide for 37% reduction in detection range against the British Chain Home radar of the 1940s, but no significant stealth benefit against most other contemporary radar systems.[3]".

[Magog]

SR-71 specifically for me, but as a leftfield choice would also loved to have seen a Convair 990 or 880.

[dudleybloke]

V-22 Osprey.

[Pesty]

davepoth said:

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...

I think I saw one of those flying around Munich.