Google Earth - Aircraft Spotting
 

This one has been reported all over the place, I didn't find it, but you can see the BBMF Lancaster in Google Earth at 52 20 10.87N 0 11 43.34W. I am finding it curiously addictive to look at fuzzy plan views of varigated aircraft, amongst other things. The ship at 51 30 24N 0 04 53W I suspect is HMS Belfast and looks luverly.

Anybody got some more?

That's correct. I can't identify the cruise ship tied up next to her at the moment but it's bound to be one of the usual suspects - there aren't that many that come up to the Pool.Have you tried this site?

Spodman, this one is "somewhere in England":
51deg41min11.66secN 1deg46min21.25secW

The plane is easy, but what is the car?!

Heathrow 09L has Four Air France A320's Landing. :eek:

(yes, I know it is the same one at different stages of Landing)

Put 51 20 04 91 N 0 18 56 61 W into Google Earth.
What is the aeroplane? Only one on the UK register!


Spodman.

For a serious attack of aircraft recognition try " davis monthan afb az "

KK, it's Bart Woodall's Helio Courier G-BAGT - yes, he should have had G-BART! And whatever happened to G-BGIX? It's still got a current C of A...

.... And while you're in Tucson stop off at the Pima Air Museum at 32 08 21 n 110 52 08 w which appears to have one of everything. American that is.

Hello Seleco, looks like a U-2 / TR-1, but I must be blind I can't see the car.

Thanks Globaliser and everybody.

Spodman, there was a thread running a while back (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=204921) about the need for a fast car accompanying U2/TR1s on landing to help with height assessment and steady the unsupported wings (I hope I am remembering this right!). Various posters identified the favoured car for this role as a Corvette, which may be what one of the blobs near the aircraft is. It's a shame GoogleEarth's resolution is so variable!

With a little help from friends, it's the Hebridean Spirit.

They have at least a Viscount and a Caravelle there......

I don't have the lat-long to hand, but look at a village called "Bourne End" near Marlow in Bucks. An Air Canada 747, presumably inbound to LHR, blots out the eastern half of the village.

G

If you haven't found the Air Canada 747 try copying this into the GE search bar.
51.5772055555556,-0.697269444444444
Lots of interesting things to look at near Davis Monthan. What are these ?
32.1474305555556,-110.855397222222

Seloco,

car was a Ford Mustang, V8 4.5 litre engine. Usually carried only driver, sometimes a passenger, thought the latter configuration "degraded performance".

A unique type at 31.473427n, 106.232108w - who's gonna be the quickest to ID it...

Treadi,

That took me to the desert south east of El Paso, and I couldn't see anything. Is that the right place ?

Spec.

Specnut
The aircraft you asked about are Grumman Tracers, with their wings folded
http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contri...bout/1854L.jpg

El Paso is corrrect, and the airport naturally - maybe I wrote the lat down wrong - can't see Googleearth at work, so here's googlemap

Treaders,

Is it the one & only McDonnell MD-220?

airliners.net link here


Edited to add (after T's post): Wahoo!

It is indeed, a nice looking aeroplane!

I've spent an infordinate am,ount of time looking at various airfields - if you like floatplanes, take a look at the NE side of Anchorage airport!

Found a couple of Starships at US airfields - can't remember where, but I think that's testimony to the age of the satellite photos rather than Beech overlooking a couple in their efforts to bulldoze the lot. (There is a survivor at Chino though, but not, I think, visible on Google.)

Point of order! The aircraft at Bourne End is on a northerly heading, so is outbound from LHR on a WOBUN SID. Also, five canoe fairings on each trailing edge means it's an ... A340.

I'll get my anorak. :}

Lots of Starships - in fact, most of them that aren't in museums - at Pinal Airpark in Arizona.

One of only four left flying is the one at Mojave that was used as SpaceShipOne medium level chase.

Dave is Scaled's flying example full-sized or the 85% proof of concept aircraft built by SC?

Fifteen in that view - nearly a third of the total production!

Real Space Ship
 

Try looking at:
52 22 16 70N 014 32 19W
You'll see a genuine spaceship. Well actually it's the ex McDonalds just outside the fence at RAF Alconbury, Cambridgeshire, England, which was designed to look like a UFO. Sadly it's now closed and looking very tired, but it was once voted the number 1 place to eat McDonalds in the UK (not sure that's much of an accolade!).

Smartypants mode on, as the aforementioned Air Canada machine is well west of Heathrow heading N, presumably it was taken on a different day to the airport itself where 09R is shown as the t/off runway and (obviously) 09L for landing - witness the Air France Airbus which appears four times approaching or on the latter.

I had breakfast there once Matt - can't say it was any better than MacDonalds in North End, Croydon (which I have been led to believe was once the highest grossing MacDonalds in the world). Sorry, waaaaaay off topic...

Edited to correct the Nom de PPRuNe I was replying to!

It's the real thing, Treadders - N514RS, the 51st example built.

The 85% Proof of Concept aircraft N2000P was destroyed at Mojave. :{

I think it's outbound - heading north and already NW of LHR - great circle to canadian west coast?

... there's the Lancaster at 52 20 10.87N 0 11 43.34W

whoops sorry - this was mentioned in the first post. Going back to sleep now...

Hello Seloco; it's the invisible poster here! (Take a peek at posting no 20.) :}

It might be heading off in that direction because the NAT Tracks for that day required it, even if bound for Montreal or Halifax N.S.

Point taken GALHI - I obviously need a bigger screen!

PS: isn't it WOBURN?!

No, it is WOBUN, because that's the five letter ATC designator of the intersection the departure goes to. It is indeed in the vicinity of Woburn! The SID only applies for westerly departures: WOBUN 2G for 27L and WOBUN 2F for 27R. The SID for traffic going northerly on 09 departures is the BUZAD. No prizes for guessing where that's near! Now we come to all the other LHR departures: BROOKMANS PARK, COMPTON, DETLING, DOVER, etc.

Er, excuse me while I go and lie down in a darkened room!

There is a U2 sitting in a bay at 51 41 11.60 N 1 46 21.29 W

and a load od DC3s, a Shackleton, a hunter and some more belonging to Air Atlantique at Coventry Airport. 52 22 11.53 N 1 29 06.74 W

I also found a Jaguar squadron on a base somewhere over in Norfolk. I wonder what the military think about Google handing out high quality satellite images??

I doubt they're ecstatic, but probably not that worried either. It's not as if the images are anything like real time.

The "Jag sqn in a base in Norfolk" is RAF Coltishall - and I know that without looking at Google Earth. The fact that it operates Jags has been common knowledge for those interested in that sort of thing for a couple of decades.

Dodgy stuff is hidden away when satellites go over, since their paths are so predictable. Which is why you can't see this anywhere here. :}

The images are a little old. The building I work in was opened in October 2004. It's at 27 34 19.01 S and 153 05 28.22 E Only a hole in the ground in the image.

37 14 13.42n 115 48 28.28w Groom Lake
to the left of the 4 white hangars, are they raptors?

F-16s, I reckon.

Apart from the 3x Janet 737s, King Air and 2xBeech 1900, the only other aircraft I think are visible are a pair of HH-60s or MH-60s.

Odds are the Lanc wasn't photographed from a satellite-- so keep an eye out for suspicious aircraft too.

The presence of a camera carrying aircraft somewhere over the English countryside photographing Lancs would attract rather less attention than same over that location!

Find Rivolto, Udine, Italy. You can see the Frecce Tricolori MB339s all lined up on the apron with red and green-stained grass behind them!!!
Anyone looked at the Pensacola Naval Air Museum in Florida - try and identify all the museum aircraft outside there? By the way, the Blue Angels are away but their support C-130 is on the ramp!