Favourite Aircraft

[Mr Mac]

Tight slot , thanks for the photos of the BOAC VC10 & BCAL 707 you forget how small they are in comparison with what we fly in today. Also how good in flight entertainment is now, as my flights from Chile to Gatwick dragged for hours. We seemed to land evey few hours apart from the long leg from Receife to London. I seem to recall it went Gatwick, Receife, Rio, BA,Santiago. This was put into perspective yesterday evening watching a Santiago bound A340 leave Frankfurt via Madrid, makes my flights look like a Wells Fargo stagecoach in comparison.

[PAXboy]

MANY thanks Mutt. I thought it was just the URL. Great, now I can flood the thread with smashing pics of the beauty.

[Rush2112]

Originally Posted by TightSlot

Hope you lot don't mind, but I've wandered through this thread attaching a few images to various posts, with the exception of Concorde, because....

1. We know what it looks like anyway
2. An image would be superfluous to the prose that we have enjoyed so far

I hesitate to disagree with a mod, but I seriously doubt anyone would mind gratuitous pictures of Concorde. I cannot imagine any situation (on an airplane-related website at least!) where I would not want to see a picture of it.

It is a major regret that I never had the opportunity to fly on one, sad to relate.

Of planes I have flown on, my favourite is still the 747-400. My first ever long haul, BA to CGK, may perhaps be why, and I find it sad that SQ seems to be phasing them out. Last week I flew with LH SIN-CGK and I was delighted to discover it was a 747-400 and on both sectors I noticed a distinct lack of bumpiness - was it because the plane is bigger and more substantial than the usual 777s that I go on with SQ?

[vserian]

I am a big fan of 3 holers and the L-1011 is my favorite. Always wanted to fly them.

[TightSlot]

I seriously doubt anyone would mind gratuitous pictures of Concorde

Here's your starter for 10...

[Rush2112]

Gorgeous. Thanks!

[vctenderness]

Oooooh I think I've just wet myself!!!!

VCtenderness

related to earlier pics of the big iron bird of course

[Dubaian]

I'm with the poster on Page 1 for the Gulf Air 5* Tristar. In those days GF was a great airline with superb service, food and bev. Probably didn't make any money but out of the Gulf in the early '80s more than gave the BAs, Cathay Pacifics and Quantas a run for their money. And a fairly quiet and comfortable aircraft too.

[gsky]

favourite aircraft/flights

Re Concorde.
for sheer "excitement".. unrivalled. the take off was memorable
as was the food and drink !

and the BAC1-11 also pretty impressive ( noise) on take off.

also the VC 10
What a wonderful sight when waiting to return home from Jeddah in the 70's.
It made the heart beat faster to see ( and hear).
and the first beer was always "the best"!!

Finally upper deck on a B747-400 MCO-AMS
the one and only passenger on the upper deck and treated like royalty. unforgettable.

Happy Days

[Hotel Tango]

I was lucky enough to fly Concorde and I won't deny that it was an exceptional experience, however, I'd place that particular aircraft in a category all of its own. I have been fortunate to fly on a great variety of aircraft starting in the 50s. I find it hard to select one as an all time favourite. If push comes to shove I guess I'll have to go for the Vickers Viscount. I loved the sound of the RR Darts, the cabin space and the large oval windows which afforded great views. I flew numerous sectors with BMA, BEA and a few each with Alidair, Cambrian, Virgin Atlantic and BAF (British Air Ferries) with which I recorded my last Viscount flight in May 1987. For those of you who may doubt that a Viscount operated for Virgin Atlantic here's a photo:



Sorry TS, don't know how to display photo other than by link. Can you do that for me please.

DONE

[Hipennine]

Never fortunate enough to fly on the VC10, but I always found that the Trident 3b was consistently the smoothest flight sitting down the back. Streets ahead of the rest of the T tails I've been on, and way better than wing slung jets.

Agree about the views out of a Viscount window, even if you were sat in line with the engines.

I remember seeing one of those Virgin ones at DUB one day - were they Atlantic or Express out of Belgium ? Flew in that day in an Aer Lingus 737-200 (in "Executive" class), and back out on a Dan-air HS 748 - what a contrast !

[Hotel Tango]

Hipennine, it was Virgin Atlantic. The original concept was to provide a european extention from Maastricht to their NYC operation out of LGW. In reality most pax were point to point between UK and NL. During the period of operation a number of different Viscounts, in various guises, were used.

[rvv500]

My favourites are B 747 and A 300, two of the smoothest and most spacious widebodies you could ever fly in. Close second is L-1011, those beauties that Cathay Pacific used to operate.

[McGoonagall]

My first trip by air was as a 6yr old in 1965 from Newcastle to Nantes. Photos took by my Dad show an Elizabethan (?) from NCL to LHR a Caravelle LHR to ORY, I think it was a Vanguard to Nantes from Paris. Air France did the last two legs but I cant remember or identify the Elizabethan operator. Seems to have a globe on a fin though. The Caravelle flight was amazing to a young lad, felt like it was climbing near the vertical.



Later trips on a BCal 707 to Singapore and a Crabair VC10 to Sydney were memorable as well.

[wub]

This beauty is almost certainly my favourite. Climbing aboard in the steaming heat of the tropics and being welcomed by Captain Manly-Voice is somehow always reassuring.

I'm posting this photograph of G-BNLL, arriving in Singapore, for the particular reason that I'm on board, in seat 14E! Ahhhh... Club Class.

[Hotel Tango]

I cant remember or identify the Elizabethan operator. Seems to have a globe on a fin though.

BKS Air Transport. For the record it was an Airspeed Ambassador. BEA marketed the a/c as the Elizabethan - which incidentally was my first commercial airliner flight

[McGoonagall]

BKS Air Transport.

Thank you Sir.

[Cymmon]

First ever flight BAC One-Eleven 500 from Manchester to Rome, 1981ish.....British Airways.

Since then been on B727-B777 (all various models), Caravelle 12 (last flight by Air Inter), Viscount 700 (Janus airways- remember them? VCV, HPH), Douglas DC-3 CLASS!!!!, Most Soviet fleet with 3 trips around what was then Russia (An-24, Il-62/M, Il-86, Tu-134/A, Tu-154A/B-2), Dassault Mercure (long and noisy take-off), Airbus (A300B2/B4/600R,A319-A321, A330-2/300), Islander, DHC-8 dash 400, Saab 340, DC-9-30/MD-83, ATR72, EMB-195LR....S-61N, Long Ranger, Cessna 150, Piper Cherokee.

I love flying, but as stated many different plus and minus points for each aircraft.

BAC One-Eleven 500 for my first flight, Viscount for the huge eliptical windows, Caravelle for the rain drop windows, DC-3 for pure nostalgia and the sound!!!! VC10 (sadly never got the chance to fly),Boeing 757 and Tupolev Tu-154 for the looks.

Boeing 777-200LR/300ER for comfort (yes, normally noisy but Qatar airways business class!)

Concorde, PURE BEAUTY!

I think I can get it to 4, DC-3 (classic long lived airliner), Boeing 757 (for some reason it is lovely to look at), VC-10 Super and Concorde.

PS: DC-3 was G-AMSV, Air Atlantique (3 times) with the diagonal stripes!
Hint for photo.....

EDIT: Google is your friend...

[pwalhx]

Totally agree the first flight sticks in my mind because of the excitement of the occasion but also the beauty of the aircraft.

I was a young 17 year old working in the Cargo Centre at Manchester Airport, BA ran a trip for agents down to Heathrow for an exhibition and my employer sent me along for the ride.

The aircraft was the inbound JFK flight which was positioning to Heathrow for regular maintainance. I recall walking out on to the ramp to the fantastic site of the VC10, the organiser of the trip knew it was my first flight and arranged for me to sit up the front. A magnificent day, spoilt only the the fact we came back by coach.

Last year I flew the first time on the A380 from Manchester to Dubai en route to KUL I confess also to have fallen instantly in love with that aircraft.

[PAXboy]

Rush2112 you need to visit Airliners dot net, search for Concorde and sit back to enjoy the (very long) show!

To see how to place pics, mutt gave the info. When at the page you want, with the pciture on your screen. RIGHT CLICK to get 'image info' option. Select, then Copy, then Paste that using the Picture icon on the row above where you are entering text (not the chain link icon).

So, setting aside the Concorde ... My first love is the VC10, departing LHR on 5th December 1965 for JNB via CIA and NBO. The elegance of the rear mounted engines also commends the DC9s/MD80s to me.

In props, I only ever went on the Viscount and the DC4. my one trip on the DAK was foul - bumpy beyond imagination so I have no sweet memories of it. Viscounts a fair amount as they were the only link from LHR (then LTN) to IOM when my mother moved there in 1981. The worst was on Air Rhodesia from Salisbury (as was) to JNB. their low ceiling meant a thunderstorm could be enjoyed at close quarters and we had just all eaten breakfast ...

Now let me tread on some toes. I HATE 3-holers. They are an abomination and should also be sent to crash land on the moon. It's the angled No 2 engine that is so ghastly. The 727 might just scrape muster (despite it's high climb rate and crusing speed) and Trident was similar but the L-1011 and DC-10 are just AWFUL. Must be avoided because they look terrible and I hate being in an aircraft that looks terrible. GAK.