Live long and prosper (Vulcan)

[Martin]

The Vulcan may be the best looking of the V-bombers, but the Victor was way scarier with its vaguely B-29 like nose.  The Valiant looked like an Aeroflot cargo plane 

who made the Valiant? I remember the Victor which became an in flight refuelling thingy

[TimO]

The Valiant looks a bit like a scaled up fighter aircraft (mind you, the French did that, even more so, with the Mirage IV).  I quite like the look of the Victor (which looks a bit Nimrod-y), but the Vulcan beats both of them for shear gobsmacking look and originality, even if it wasn't quite as radical as a flying wing.

[TimO]

Avro made the Vulcan
Handley Page made the Victor &
Vickers made the Valiant (but not Sam!)

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Going to the Leuchars Airshow this year specifically to see the Vulcan!

Wave to my old house on Meteor Row.

[Martin]

Vickers made the Valiant (but not Sam!)

bit boring;



I did like the Noocular flash proof white colour scheme of that age though

on an (unrelated) tangent; there seems  to be an Singapore A380 over Lunnon at about 18.45 these days but only seen it for real once yesterday (the only scheduled arrival I was aware of is about 05.00)

[rogerzilla]

This, on the other hand, would give any Cold War Commie the willies:

Mean machine

[Martin]

This, on the other hand, would give any Cold War Commie the willies:

Mean machine

Yeah was looking at that just now; IIRC one did a flypast over Buck Hice for the Falklands Jingofest.

One of my favourite Airfix kits of youth was the Saunders Roe SR53; moulded in white plastic you only had to paint the inside of the cockpit and the top of the nose cone black

[Adrian]

on an (unrelated) tangent; there seems  to be an Singapore A380 over Lunnon at about 18.45 these days but only seen it for real once yesterday (the only scheduled arrival I was aware of is about 05.00)

There is one that leaves from Heathrow about mid-day. I would be surprised if it sat around on the tarmac for around 17 hours between flights

[Martin]

on an (unrelated) tangent; there seems  to be an Singapore A380 over Lunnon at about 18.45 these days but only seen it for real once yesterday (the only scheduled arrival I was aware of is about 05.00)

There is one that leaves from Heathrow about mid-day.

That's the one that arrives at 05.00; seen it take off near Slough; the evening arrival is new; A Qantas one is due to start service some time next year (this takes me back to about 1970 when the only time - as a Gatwick boy- I saw a 747 was when I went up to the Motor Show)

can we have an aeroplane board? 

[Adrian]

seen it take off near Slough

I've seen it take off a couple of times once from outside T3 and once from T5. It really does lumber into the air

[PaulR]

I know nuffink about planes but there was something that can only have been an A380 heading in to heathrow over SE London the other day.  Quite a sight once you've worked out quite how big it is.

[Frenchie]

The Vulcan may be the best looking of the V-bombers...

As a Mirage lover, I'd favour the Mirage IV.

[Frenchie]

Facing a Trent 900 engine gives the measure of the size of these modern airliners, because of the high by-pass ratio... Mind the T800 isn't much smaller!

[Tourist Tony]

Back to the Olympus bits, I may be wrong but believe they were also used as naval motive power...

[Frenchie]

Back to the Olympus bits, I may be wrong but believe they were also used as naval motive power...

Could well be; gas turbines find their ways in many applications and there's certainly lot of technology sharing. RR may be well known for their aeroengines but they do gas turbines for ships, oil rigs and work on compressors for a range of applications.

[TimO]

Back to the Olympus bits, I may be wrong but believe they were also used as naval motive power...

I believe they were, and still are, at least in a fairly heavily modified version.

[rogerzilla]

The InterCity 125 (HST) was supposed to use a gas turbine engine, but it was never very economical, so they went with a piston engine in the production model.  It still sounds like a gas turbine because of the massive turbocharger.

It might be the most successful British train design ever; all the ones that are still in operational condition are in regular service, and some have actually been brought back to replace their newer but unreliable successors, e.g. on First Great Western.

[Adam]

Back to the Olympus bits, I may be wrong but believe they were also used as naval motive power...

I believe they were, and still are, at least in a fairly heavily modified version.

Yes, as well as a naval version of the T800