Random facts about planes..

[Gandahar]

Random fact

The Airbus A380 will never be as cool as the Boeing 747

As proof

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkKrUz45icE

You just couldn't have

"We got an A380 coming down in the night"

could you?


Lyrics

We got a 747 coming down in the night
There's no power, there's no runway lights
Radio operator try to get a message through
Tell the flight deck New York has no lights
There's no power, what do we do
A 747 coming down in the night


New Lyrics

"We got an Emirates A380 circling to land at Heathrow
I should have gone to the toilet when I had the chance
Oh I wish I could be in First class after seeing all those youtube videos
Are my legs still working after 7 hours in this seat? I need to make sure I get my stuff down from the overhead locker to get off quick only to be frustrated by someone taking an age in front of me"

Chorus

Get to passport control ASAP so don't need to queue
Get to passport control ASAP so don't need to queue
Get to passport control ASAP so don't need to queue

Edited by Gandahar on Wednesday 24th May 11:13

[Trevatanus]

LimaDelta said:

Dr Jekyll said:

LimaDelta said:

They are incredibly empty. 20 minutes, 75 miles, whatever.

Totally off topic, but I did a transatlantic cruise a few years ago...

Was very glad to see land when we finally arrived in Madeira..

[2fast748]

Gandahar said:

Random fact

The Airbus A380 will never be as cool as the Boeing 747

As proof

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkKrUz45icE

You just couldn't have

"We got an A380 coming down in the night"

could you?


Lyrics

We got a 747 coming down in the night
There's no power, there's no runway lights
Radio operator try to get a message through
Tell the flight deck New York has no lights
There's no power, what do we do
A 747 coming down in the night


New Lyrics

"We got an Emirates A380 circling to land at Heathrow
I should have gone to the toilet when I had the chance
Oh I wish I could be in First class after seeing all those youtube videos
Are my legs still working after 7 hours in this seat? I need to make sure I get my stuff down from the overhead locker to get off quick only to be frustrated by someone taking an age in front of me"

Chorus

Get to passport control ASAP so don't need to queue
Get to passport control ASAP so don't need to queue
Get to passport control ASAP so don't need to queue

Edited by Gandahar on Wednesday 24th May 11:13

Anything that stops Saxon recording music is surely a good thing though?

[Scotty2]

From my Duxford visit and "Jet-When Britain ruled the Skies" it was all the auto land gubbins that was situated below the cockpit that required the nose wheel to be offset.

Random fact: In some configurations The Trident actually had five engines.

[Trevatanus]

Scotty2 said:

From my Duxford visit and "Jet-When Britain ruled the Skies" it was all the auto land gubbins that was situated below the cockpit that required the nose wheel to be offset.

Random fact: In some configurations The Trident actually had five engines.

I have a friend who run's a small museum dedicated to the Trident in Hounslow.
I will ask him.

[Eric Mc]

Scotty2 said:

From my Duxford visit and "Jet-When Britain ruled the Skies" it was all the auto land gubbins that was situated below the cockpit that required the nose wheel to be offset.

Random fact: In some configurations The Trident actually had five engines.

If you want to count the APU as an engine.

[dazwalsh]

i quite like this one.

The pilot and co-pilot are required to eat different meals to avoid the possibility of food poisoning affecting them both.

[Steve_D]

dazwalsh said:

i quite like this one.

The pilot and co-pilot are required to eat different meals to avoid the possibility of food poisoning affecting them both.

Yes and the captain gets first choice.

Steve

[perdu]

Steve_D said:

Yes and the captain gets first choice.

Steve

Tell him not to have the fish

[NickCQ]

tommyjj said:

Prior to the invention of GPS, many larger airliners used complex inertial navigation systems that actually recorded every bump, climb, turn and dive, along with airspeed, to establish where the plane was. They were surprisingly accurate given how implausible the idea sounds.

Are these systems still in use anywhere? Is this the reason you often see Lat/Long written above the gate - so that the pilot can recalibrate the system?

[Vocal Minority]

Surely not, in a world where and accurate to a few metres GPS can be bought at Halfords

[RizzoTheRat]

A fair few military weapon systems and aircraft use combined INS and GPS on the grounds that GPS can be blocked. Typhoon and F35 both have INS

Presumably an INS can actually give you a lot more information than a GPS. A GPS can tell you where you are, and compare multiple positions to get a rough idea of what's going on. An INS can tell you information like role/pitch rates and acceleration, which are essential for automated control systems, so presumably most aircraft have them.

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Thursday 25th May 08:52

[pushthebutton]

dazwalsh said:

i quite like this one.

The pilot and co-pilot are required to eat different meals to avoid the possibility of food poisoning affecting them both.

It hasn't been that way for a while in my experience.

[Scotty2]

Yup They did count the APU in the 5 engined Trident. An additional booster was u8sed in the 3B.

Bit of searching:

"The physical dimensions of most avionics of the period required them to be housed in a large compartment beneath the Trident's flightdeck; the compartment's size was among the factors dictating a distinctive nose undercarriage design: offset by 2 ft (61 cm) to the port side and retracting sideways to stow across the D.H.121's longitudinal axis."

"One version, the 3B, had a fourth "boost" engine aspirated through a separate intake duct above the main S-duct. All versions were powered by versions of the Rolls-Royce Spey, while the boost engine was also by Rolls-Royce: the RB.162, originally intended as a lift engine for VTOL applications."

[Chuck328]

NickCQ said:

tommyjj said:

Prior to the invention of GPS, many larger airliners used complex inertial navigation systems that actually recorded every bump, climb, turn and dive, along with airspeed, to establish where the plane was. They were surprisingly accurate given how implausible the idea sounds.

Are these systems still in use anywhere? Is this the reason you often see Lat/Long written above the gate - so that the pilot can recalibrate the system?

Yes and yes. These days the old gyroscopes have long since been replaced by laser systems and are still very much integral to the modern nav system which does use GPS as the main driver. Even though they use lasers, they still suffer the 'drift' caused by the Earths rotation. A re alignment on the ground fixes this.

[Trevatanus]

RizzoTheRat said:

A fair few military weapon systems and aircraft use combined INS and GPS on the grounds that GPS can be blocked. Typhoon and F35 both have INS

Presumably an INS can actually give you a lot more information than a GPS. A GPS can tell you where you are, and compare multiple positions to get a rough idea of what's going on. An INS can tell you information like role/pitch rates and acceleration, which are essential for automated control systems, so presumably most aircraft have them.

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Thursday 25th May 08:52

Reminds me of when a couple of B2's were based at Fairford for an excercise last year.
They were both due to go back at the same time, but one went tech.
The GPS had apparently failed.
Ironic that a billion dollar aircraft was grounded and could have (potentially) been fixed by a £100 investment at Halfords.

[z06tim]

NickCQ said:

tommyjj said:

Prior to the invention of GPS, many larger airliners used complex inertial navigation systems that actually recorded every bump, climb, turn and dive, along with airspeed, to establish where the plane was. They were surprisingly accurate given how implausible the idea sounds.

Are these systems still in use anywhere? Is this the reason you often see Lat/Long written above the gate - so that the pilot can recalibrate the system?

Talking of INS - this is one from Concorde. I believe it had three, each with a dedicated digital computer:

[RizzoTheRat]

How big's that? Given that these days a mobile phone has pretty much the same set of sensors (although presumably to a lower accuracy/quality), I guess modern ones are a fair bit smaller.

[V8LM]

Aircraft still use INS, but today they are solid state (bouncing laser light) and not based on mechanical gyroscopes.

[nonsequitur]

pushthebutton said:

dazwalsh said:

i quite like this one.

The pilot and co-pilot are required to eat different meals to avoid the possibility of food poisoning affecting them both.

It hasn't been that way for a while in my experience.

The flight crew have separate meals loaded. A fish choice has occasionally been included. Strictly forbidden, Shell fish.

No captain has been knowingly in a Turkish gymnasium.