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The Aviation Thread [Contains Lots of Awesome Pictures]

calvinhobbes said:
Same here near Nörvenich AB. I didn’t have to cover my ears, but the jets definitely interrupted my conversation, so it was hardly even an inconvenience.
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My SC was literally about a mile from the end of the runway, in the direction of the runway:

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Yesterday, I saw 3 Osprey fly past my window. I just learned Biden was in town.

This morning, they and Marine 1 flew over again. Low. And I mean *low*. My girlfriend was in the shower, and she cut the water and shouted out the door, asking if that was just an earthquake.

I live close enough to the San Francisco Airport that I could walk home after a flight home in about 25 minutes, between the airport and the city itself. Wish I could have gotten video, or at least seen it. It literally felt like the house was moving, not unlike an earthquake.
 
NecroJoe said:
Yesterday, I saw 3 Osprey fly past my window. I just learned Biden was in town.

This morning, they and Marine 1 flew over again. Low. And I mean *low*. My girlfriend was in the shower, and she cut the water and shouted out the door, asking if that was just an earthquake.

I live close enough to the San Francisco Airport that I could walk home after a flight home in about 25 minutes, between the airport and the city itself. Wish I could have gotten video, or at least seen it. It literally felt like the house was moving, not unlike an earthquake.
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That sounds like the C-160 Transalls flying over the home I grew up in. Sweet memories!
 
calvinhobbes said:
NIMBYs

There's a power line corridor near where I live and it used to be home to two lines, i.e. two sets of ugly steel lattice transmission towers and wires. The expansion of off-shore wind power in the North Sea means that we need new power lines to connect the wind farms to the large consumers in the south of the country, such as the chemical and automotive industries. They decided on an HVDC line* which, in my town, will run along the existing corridor. So of course, there was strong opposition and we're all supposed to fear the electric gremlins, spirits and vapours that are sure to emanate from this particular work of the devil. The lawsuits have been struck down and construction is advancing well.

While I don't believe that the electromagnetic fields created by this power line are harmful, I do dislike the more than ugly extra tall and wide pylons. But I did consider the addition of a third transmission line a necessary evil, even though I wondered why they need gigantic pylons for just one new line. Turns out they're moving the two existing lines to the new pylons and removing the old ones... so we'll be left with just one set of pylons, albeit very big ones, that now stand in the centre of the corridor and hence further away from the buildings. A solution that's as close to perfect as you can get without forking out for nicer looking pylons or underground cables. But still, there are people who hate it because Change Is Bad™. :wall:

* https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultranet
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Said power line seems to be getting finished in my town. There’s been constant helicopter noise today and it’s coming from this:

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That thing is hovering above the rope at the top, i.e. the equivalent of a lightning rod, and there’s a basket suspended underneath it. From that, workers are clamping bird protection “flappers” onto the rope. So they’re handling parts that are designed to flap in the wind while dangling from a helicopter within its downwash and some 90 metres above the ground.

It’s nice to see professionals at work.
 
So, a "flying car" concept from Alef Aeronotics is the first vehicle like this to get FAA approval to test fly over certain areas within the US.

Here's the "car":
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Guess how it flies.


Wrong.
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What the hell? 🤣
 
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The US is looking at putting pontoons on a C-130 for special ops, maritime patrol, SAR, etc. There's a company now trying to convince them a flying boat would be a better option because it's more efficient and can handle more than glassy calm seas.

They are proposing the Catalina II, and I'm all for it. It would be so cool to restromod a Lanseair with modern turboprops, hydraulics, and avionics; but a fully modern Catalina II would be something to see.
 
While a new Catalina type flying boat would be cool, a VTOL would be better suited for such missions. Imagine a tilt rotor combined with a flying boat. A V-22 Osprey Catalina crossover.
 
A tilt rotor VTOl is sometimes hard to get off the water compared to a planing hull designed to transition to flight. Water can kind up suck down on a hull and make it difficult to lift off. A proper flying boat hull will push the plane up out of the water by getting up on the plane like a speed boat, but then release easily and transition to flight.
 
That just makes me feel sad, such an incredible plane reduced to being hauled around by barge.
 
I respect what the plane was, and am pleased that it continues to be maintained.
 
The USS Intrepid (where you normally find that Concorde) is an epic museum in New York, I have been there twice, 2006 and 2009, I regret that I didn't go there on my trip there in 2016.

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