Airport with most diverse aircraft types
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I guess Oshkosh is probably the winner due to the shows.
In the UK I think Farnborough would also win due to the shows.
My thoughts on Hurn are that in the the 60+ years that I have known the place there have been a great many types passing through, ie, most of the worlds airliner types with the exception of the Eastern Block, a vast array of military aircraft, based, visiting or at the old airshows, most types of Biz Jets and props either passing through or for maintenance and many GA aircraft particularly in the 60s and 70s when it was a favorite customs stop on the way to France or the CIs.(Cheap duty free).
Other places like Biggin Hill would have a vast list but not the big airliners and the big airports would not have much GA.
Dixi.
In the UK I think Farnborough would also win due to the shows.
My thoughts on Hurn are that in the the 60+ years that I have known the place there have been a great many types passing through, ie, most of the worlds airliner types with the exception of the Eastern Block, a vast array of military aircraft, based, visiting or at the old airshows, most types of Biz Jets and props either passing through or for maintenance and many GA aircraft particularly in the 60s and 70s when it was a favorite customs stop on the way to France or the CIs.(Cheap duty free).
Other places like Biggin Hill would have a vast list but not the big airliners and the big airports would not have much GA.
Dixi.
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Remember busy Boscombe Down. Stanstead today!
Is that Boscombe Down, I lived not far for there, remember seeing the Flying Bedstead - as I looked out of my pram! ;0) Boscombe Down was always very diverse and busy in the 1950's. Quite a few Fleet Air Arm planes flew round Boscombe Down.
Stanstead is getting more aircraft, I've been surprised at the increase in private planes, no so many commercial flights - as expected! Seen several private aircraft with unusual livery, been looking at the planes of the rich and famous on Google!
Stanstead is getting more aircraft, I've been surprised at the increase in private planes, no so many commercial flights - as expected! Seen several private aircraft with unusual livery, been looking at the planes of the rich and famous on Google!
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Dixie, Biggin has hosted quite a few airliners over the years, I've seen a VC-10 on the ground there, the Orbis DC-8 and I'm pretty sure I remember the Orbis DC-10 squeezing itself in for one show.
One of the great things about threads like this is that nobody is ever going to come up with a definitive answer.
I'd hazard a guess that few, if any, airports (regardless of how you define the term) even have a comprehensive record of all the individual aircraft that have visited in the last 60 years, let alone the time, energy and patience to sit down and analyse how many different types have been represented.
Carry on, chaps.
I'd hazard a guess that few, if any, airports (regardless of how you define the term) even have a comprehensive record of all the individual aircraft that have visited in the last 60 years, let alone the time, energy and patience to sit down and analyse how many different types have been represented.
Carry on, chaps.
Don't panic, I have absolutely no inside information, but you only have to look at how GA has been essentially squeezed out of other major airports (and EMA is now a major airport when you take cargo and passenger ops together) then I fear that it can only be a matter of time before the aeroclub Cessna in the circuit becomes a hindrance to the "business plan".
As a working daily tally it would probably feature Vientiane in the 60s. From Helio Couriers through Beech 18s, Lodestars, C46, 47,123s, Boeing 307 etc.. Mostly Air America crewed and operating off a PSP 'runway'.
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Later on i might have a crack at remembering how many types I saw at Gatwick between about 1974 and 1988 when i used to visit for reasons other than passenger or meeter/greater... Biggin might be harder especially as i still pop up there once in a moo blune to have a coffee and watch the somewhat fewer movements...
Thread Starter
Yes to those but I don't think Biggin has ever seen a 747 or Antonov 124.
I'm probably imagining it, but I 'think' that one year there was a Virgin 747 that either landed or did a touch and go during the airshow. Perhaps 11 0r 12 years ago. I was at the end of the runway and mesmerised by an F86 Sabre that was yowling past.
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Come up with 128 different types (including Caledonian's Hermes cabin trainer
) at Gatwick between 1974 and about 1988/89 from memory, one of the most interesting being a French Electra Junior F-BJJY.Edit: more Gatwick memories... Army Beaver, Scout and Alouette, RAF Puma, new Hawks do ILS approaches and overshoots out of Dunsfold a couple of times...
Last edited by treadigraph; 7th Jan 2022 at 17:51.
Unfortunately its glory days have long gone, MIA in the 60's & 70's gets my vote, when it provided a daily diverse mix of modern jets/turbprops and a vaste array of large pistons (DC3/4/6/7, C46 and Constellations) from Central and South American countries. Most legally hauling freight, some others not quite so legal!
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Miami certainly excellent, spent a couple of days in a car at the end of 8L in 1984 - loads of radial but no Connies other than Clipper Dick though... We briefly attracted the attention of the FBI (?) as Sen Gary Hart flew in as part of his Presidential nomination campaign.
Was it airborne at the time?
I remember sheltering under a Vulcan wing at Biggin ...
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Don't panic, I have absolutely no inside information, but you only have to look at how GA has been essentially squeezed out of other major airports (and EMA is now a major airport when you take cargo and passenger ops together) then I fear that it can only be a matter of time before the aeroclub Cessna in the circuit becomes a hindrance to the "business plan".
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As DaveReidUK says, there probably isn't a definitive answer anywhere, but I'll go for Farnborough in the UK, with Oshkosh as world no.1.
Btw, I missed Tridents and Heralds off my list of airliners seen at NCL in my younger days.
Btw, I missed Tridents and Heralds off my list of airliners seen at NCL in my younger days.