The Aviation Thread [Contains Lots of Awesome Pictures]

I see those Belugas pretty often flying, then again I live near Airbus Hamburg. It always amazes me that this thing can fly...
 
:thumbup:

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A12 or YF12A?

Edit: Looking up YF-12A on wikipedia and checking the tail number, it is an YF-12A, with an interesting history:

Of the three YF-12As, #60-6934 was damaged beyond repair by fire at Edwards during a landing mishap on 14 August 1966; its rear half was salvaged and combined with the front half of a Lockheed static test airframe to create the one and only SR-71C. That aircraft was nicknamed "The Bastard" by its pilots, as it did not fly quite straight. It is unique among SR-71s as it retained the ventral fins under its nacelles from its YF-12 lineage
 
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Not too sure if it's a repost, but what the hell, i'll take the heat. 1 hour of pure enjoyment from my 2nd most favourite aircraft ever(English Electric Lightning is numero uno for me).


Those protestors... :idiot:

EDIT: Also, hows the restoration of the Concorde coming? Are they going to have it done ontime to fly over the opening ceremony of London 2012?
 
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@MrChips:

For your relief of my question, I downloaded a aviation lexicon at Springerlink today. So maybe some less questions :p But as far as I know myself... there will rather be new ones :p

While I was researching the thrust reverser situation in FRA, i found this:

Frankfurt - A thrust reverser broke off a jumbo jet while it was landing Sunday 20 May 2007 at Frankfurt international airport in Germany, but the plane came to a safe stop. Police said it was not known at first why the device, part of the left inboard engine, had detached itself. The Cathay Pacific Boeing 747 cargo jet was arriving on a flight from Dubai.

The pilot only noticed a jolt, but a flight-control tower officer saw the 6.41 am incident and immediately closed Frankfurt's south runway for the debris to be cleared, police said.

Other take-offs and landings proceeded with no delays, airport officials said.

Reverse-thrust ducts are used to direct power forward and reduce a jet plane's speed after it touches down.
The images below are of an RB211-524 on a B747-200.
Many years ago BWIA lost a thrust reverser off a Tristar on take off from FRA. There was a big stink because they diverted to LHR so they could go into the BA hangars to get it fixed. It hit the horizontal stabilizer on the way out.


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Source: http://www.iasa.com.au/folders/Safety_Issues/others/thrustReverser.html
 
After a hellish week at work, working 68h in 6 days, including 2 days in panic mode, today things started to go well, and I was able to fly the beast I'm working on, a A380 Full Flight Simulator. I was even able to fly it with motion ON, and do a demo for the guys who had just spent the week doing the maintenance on the motion hydraulic systems.

That thing is way too easy to fly :D
 
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Think I saw and heard one of those new high-speed turboprops today, rearward facing and rear mounted engines. (Otherwise a looked a bit Learjet-ish.)

But I can't recall what they are called or who makes them.

Anybody know?

(There is probably a picture of one in this thread somewhere. :lol:)
 
Piaggio Avanti, unmistakable sound, and one of the most beautiful aircraft out there IMHO.

 
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Piaggio P.180

This?

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^
Thanks guys, that's the boy.

A real noisy Italian, should have guessed. One landed here today at about 15:00 local on 27R, just caught a brief look from the back.

:smile:
 
This thing has been in orbit for almost a year now
Mission
The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, or OTV, is an experimental test program to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Air Force. The primary objectives of the X-37B are twofold: reusable spacecraft technologies for America's future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth.

Features
The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle is the newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft. Based on NASA's X-37 design, the unmanned OTV is designed for vertical launch to low Earth orbit altitudes where it can perform long duration space technology experimentation and testing. Upon command from the ground, the OTV autonomously re-enters the atmosphere, descends and lands horizontally on a runway. The X-37B is the first vehicle since NASA's Shuttle Orbiter with the ability to return experiments to Earth for further inspection and analysis, but with an on-orbit time of 270 days, the X-37B can stay in space for much longer.
Technologies being tested in the program include advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems, and autonomous orbital flight, reentry and landing.

Background
The Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office is leading the Department of Defense's Orbital Test Vehicle initiative, by direction of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics and the Secretary of the Air Force. The Air Force OTV effort uses extensive contractor and government investments in the X-37 program by the Air Force, NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to continue full-scale development and on-orbit testing of a long-duration, reusable space vehicle.

NASA's original X-37 program began in 1999 and ran until September 2004 when NASA transferred the program to DARPA. NASA envisioned building two vehicles, an Approach and Landing Test Vehicle, or ALTV, and an Orbital Vehicle. The ALTV validated flight dynamics and extended the flight envelope beyond the low speed/low altitude tests conducted by NASA from 1998 through 2001 on the X-40A, a sub-scale version of the X-37 developed by Air Force Research Labs. DARPA completed the ALTV portion of the X-37 program in September 2006 by successfully executing a series of captive carry and free flight tests. NASA's X-37 Orbital Vehicle was never built: but its design was the starting point for the Air Force's X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle program.

The Air Force's first X-37B, OTV-1, launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., April 22, 2010 and performed a successful autonomous landing at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., Dec. 3, 2010, after approximately 91 million miles and 224 days, 8 hours and 24 minutes in orbit.

General Characteristics
Primary Mission: Experimental test vehicle
Prime Contractor: Boeing
Height: 9 feet, 6 inches (2.9 meters)
Length: 29 feet, 3 inches (8.9 meters)
Wingspan: 14 feet, 11 inches (4.5 meters)
Launch Weight: 11,000 pounds (4,990 kilograms)
Power: Gallium Arsenide Solar Cells with lithium-Ion batteries
Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Atlas V (501)

Point of Contact
Office of the Secretary of the Air Force (Public Affairs), 1690 Air Force Pentagon, Washington D.C. 20330-1690; commercial 703-695-0640.
http://www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet_print.asp?fsID=16639&page=1
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The first X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle waits in the encapsulation cell of the Evolved Expendable Launch vehicle April 5, 2010, at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Fla. Half of the Atlas V five-meter fairing is visible in the background. (Courtesy photo)

100330-O-1234S-001.jpg

In a testing procedure, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle taxis on the flightline in June 2009 at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. (Courtesy photo)
 
After a hellish week at work, working 68h in 6 days, including 2 days in panic mode, today things started to go well, and I was able to fly the beast I'm working on, a A380 Full Flight Simulator. I was even able to fly it with motion ON, and do a demo for the guys who had just spent the week doing the maintenance on the motion hydraulic systems.

That thing is way to easy to fly :D


Of course it is, everything with a reset button is. :p
 
I fly planes in Battlefield 3. I could totally fly that simulator and shoot down tons of planes! Pew pew!
 
:lmao:
 
I fly planes in Battlefield 3. I could totally fly that simulator and shoot down tons of planes! Pew pew!

Viper shoot good.
Plane go boom.
 
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