Bizarre aircraft at egkk

[Vampy]

Just a quick one. On flying out of Gatwick the other day off runway 08, I noticed parhed on the edge of the airfield just past the threshold, a very sorry looking grey aircraft. It looked like a 747SP until you got to the tail and it had a dirty great engine thru it like a DC-10. Could anyone shed any light on to what the aircraft is and what its doing there?

P.S I'm not a spotter, just curious as I've never seen anything like it!

[BRL]

I think it may be the fire-training plane. Not 100% but pretty certain thats the one.

[noisy]

Lockheed TriStar?

[Gordinho]

I think that's a training rig for firemen. They've designed it to incorporate as many characteristics of real aircraft as possible in one rig...

[jettesen]

Yeah. It's the fire training plane. Purpose built facility for the fire training dept. Great when you see it in action. All operated by gas. Have one at LHR too.

[Jerricho]

The one at LHR is a lovely green colour. My wife thinks it looks like Thunderbird 2.

[jettesen]

yep i'm sure. It's just been built, not quite in full operation yet

[Point Seven]

The "lovely green one" was once an inbound from Basrah until Jerricho got his vectoring a bit out and landed it betweeen the hangars.

Still, it gave the firemen something to practise on.

P7

[Jerricho]

You cleared it to land....................................