The Aviation Thread [Contains Lots of Awesome Pictures]

Well, one thing's for sure, that desert camo paintjob is seriously ugly. Makes far more sense than blue on top, but it just makes it look dirty.
 
Forgot to mention - James Bond flew an L-39, which automatically makes it cool already :cool:
 
EW. I wouldn't even identify the F-16 Block 60 as being an F-16 if you hadn't just told me. I knew it had gotten bigger, but I had NO IDEA it had been outright RUINED.

The biggest external change on those planes are the CTF's (Conformal Fuel Tanks) and they are removable but they can't be jettisoned in flight.

Similar bulging happened on the A-4 Skyhawk over its history so this kind of thing isn't uncommon as a plan ages and gets modified to meet new roles and capabilities.

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Well, one thing's for sure, that desert camo paintjob is seriously ugly. Makes far more sense than blue on top, but it just makes it look dirty.

I like dirty paint jobs, which is one of the reasons I love the HAF A-7's they just look so gloriously dirty.
 
Forgot to mention - James Bond flew an L-39, which automatically makes it cool already :cool:

Ah but that was Pierce Brosnsn James Bond so that cancels out the 007-related coolness. :p
 
So I'm the only one here who likes the block 60 design? :cry:

Nah, I personally like it as well. Not as sleek, but in some ways better.
 
This is my favorite F-16 variant:

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The 747-8 is on the way, the Freighter was rolled out a few months ago...

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Now it's the Intercontinental to go... I think the 747 ranks as one of the most beautiful commercial airliners ever made, just behind the DC3...
 
The 747-8 is on the way, the Freighter was rolled out a few months ago...

*PICTURE*

Now it's the Intercontinental to go... I think the 747 ranks as one of the most beautiful commercial airliners ever made, just behind the DC3...

Cool, I wasn't aware of that. It also has a jagged trailing edge on the engine nacelles.
 
It also has a jagged jaaaaaaaaged trailing edge on the engine nacelles.

:p

Wikipedia informs me that the engines on that 747-8 are the same series that they use on the 787. It's pretty cool that they're no only still building the 747 but still rolling out new versions of it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 
:p

Wikipedia informs me that the engines on that 747-8 are the same series that they use on the 787. It's pretty cool that they're no only still building the 747 but still rolling out new versions of it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Damn straight. The 747 platform is just a gigantic sky-mule which can be reconfigured into prettymuch anything efficiently and effectively with relatively minimal reengineering. Reference the E-4, VC-25, 747-LCF, 747-SCA, 747-SP.

The process of creating a new 747 variant is as follows:

1) Reconfigure the fuselage as desired (longer, shorter, extend the upper deck, bloat it up so it can eat entire airplanes, glue some hardpoints to the roof, whatever.)
2) Fiddle with the wing design a little
3) Every once in awhile, stick some updated engines under the wings
4) Every once in awhile, give the interior and avionics a facelift.
 
Damn straight. The 747 platform is just a gigantic sky-mule which can be reconfigured into prettymuch anything efficiently and effectively with relatively minimal reengineering. Reference the E-4, VC-25, 747-LCF, 747-SCA, 747-SP.

The process of creating a new 747 variant is as follows:

1) Reconfigure the fuselage as desired (longer, shorter, extend the upper deck, bloat it up so it can eat entire airplanes, glue some hardpoints to the roof, whatever.)
2) Fiddle with the wing design a little
3) Every once in awhile, stick some updated engines under the wings
4) Every once in awhile, give the interior and avionics a facelift.
The 747-SP looks kind of weird though...

american-747sp-n602aa-68grd-dfw-bdl.jpg


Bahrainroyalflightb747sp-21a9c-hmha.jpg


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The wing span is actually bigger than the entire length of the fuselage, so it looks kind of stubby.

schematic1.jpg
 
Apparently the mechanics didn't see the part on the instructions that said tumble dry low.
 
I just looked at all the pictures in this thread. I'm tried, but that was worth seeing all the awesome. :)
 
And I'm pretty sure we've only scratched the surface of all the wonderful aircrafts out there.

Like this:

DHC Beaver

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DHC Turbo Beaver (Turboprop version of the normal Beaver)

DeHavilland-DHC-2-Turbo-Beaver-N728TB-Amphibian-Aircraft.jpg


Cherokee

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And speaking of the 747 SP:

nasa_747sp.jpg
 
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Is that an airborne microwave transceiver?
 
Damn straight. The 747 platform is just a gigantic sky-mule which can be reconfigured into prettymuch anything efficiently and effectively with relatively minimal reengineering. Reference the E-4, VC-25, 747-LCF, 747-SCA, 747-SP.

Any time a new variant of an existing aircraft is created, there is still a HUGE amount of engineering work that goes into it - remember that it took a team of a couple thousand people almost three years to do the engineering work needed to convert a 747-400 into the 747-LCF. The biggest reason why the 747 is so popular for stuff like this is because they are big, readily available (new and used), and possess rather remarkable performance by airliner standards, not to mention an unobstructed main deck from nose to tail. On the topic of 747 variants, there is one more very cool one that hasn't been mentioned yet, the YAL-1A Airborne Laser:

http://img32.imageshack.**/img32/5251/yal1aairbornelaser04121.jpg
http://img32.imageshack.**/img32/4116/79ba.jpg
 
This thread needs more early days of flight awesomeness.

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...or maybe not (this Jenny is a replica, and I think the top one is as well now that I look at the pics... I'm pretty sure the middle one is original though)
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