Favourite Aircraft
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Favourite Aircraft
A post on another thread set me thinking... Do we all have a favourite aircraft to fly on?
This isn't referring to seats, IFE or other cabin fittings, marketing initiatives or even crews - we're talking about the actual aircraft itself. For some, it will be Concorde, others the 747: The large windows on the Viscount, the rugged utility of the 737-200 or the elegance of the VC-10
It's better if you can give a reason for your choice, although sometimes you can't quite put it into words, like the boy or girl that you saw across a room and later married...
EDIT: And pictures are welcome as evidence.
This isn't referring to seats, IFE or other cabin fittings, marketing initiatives or even crews - we're talking about the actual aircraft itself. For some, it will be Concorde, others the 747: The large windows on the Viscount, the rugged utility of the 737-200 or the elegance of the VC-10
It's better if you can give a reason for your choice, although sometimes you can't quite put it into words, like the boy or girl that you saw across a room and later married...
EDIT: And pictures are welcome as evidence.
Not only was BEA's Comet IVb one of the most beautiful aeroplanes ever built - but it belonged to an era when aviation was still an exciting adventure that people dressed up to participate in. Early BEA cabin crew had to be assessed as 'above average' to be selected for Comets and a leisurely first class lunch could occupy most of the flight from Athens to Heathrow in those pre-IFE days.
(OK - I realise that is not much help to the passengers of today!)
Comet IVb at Frankfurt 1961
(OK - I realise that is not much help to the passengers of today!)
Comet IVb at Frankfurt 1961
I would say the 727. It carried me on the first flight I remember. It is the airplane that taught me some 30+ years ago to trust airplanes. Its wing was flipping considerably for me back then and I was afraid it might break. But after an increasing number of safe trips I realized it was safe to fly and help to fall in love with aviation.
Also the C-130 which took me home on my first leave during my military service. I was so happy to be airborne and away that I said it is better than sex.
Rwy in Sight
Also the C-130 which took me home on my first leave during my military service. I was so happy to be airborne and away that I said it is better than sex.
Rwy in Sight
Last edited by Rwy in Sight; 16th Aug 2011 at 07:51. Reason: To add a phrase
Favourite plane
Tristar for me.
Took me from school to home when I was fed up with school and from home to school when I was fed up with home for many a year.
Cockpit was roomy and flight crew welcoming and flights were always great due to being pretty much full of fellow UMs whenever I flew!
Took me from school to home when I was fed up with school and from home to school when I was fed up with home for many a year.
Cockpit was roomy and flight crew welcoming and flights were always great due to being pretty much full of fellow UMs whenever I flew!
That's easy, the Lockheed L-1049 Constellation. Simply beautiful and graceful. And a real aeroplane for real pilots. By gum, those were the days 
Last edited by BRUpax; 15th Aug 2011 at 10:34.
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It will always be the BCAL 707,s which took me to school from South America, and back again at the start and end of terms. Also the great "Aunties" (retired CC) who used to look after you when you were too young to fly by yourself with BCAL. Only down side was the limited inflight entertainment in those days on that long route. Also flew Lufthansa on the same route with 707 but no "Aunties", but some very pretty German CC to compensate as I remember as a young teenager.
Also have a soft spot for DC8 and 727 from that era, but not 737 (always thought it a bit fat and dumpy) compared with the other Boeing jets of that time.
Turbo props were Vanguards BEA and Viscount Channel Airways and a BOAC Britania( 1 trip only back to and from Rome, plane was going to Cairo I think) but did not get to fly on them that much before they were replaced by Tridents and BAC 1-11. Went on BOAC VC10 twice once from Manchester to Barbados and once LHR to HK nice looking plane as I remember in that livery. All seems along time ago now.
Also have a soft spot for DC8 and 727 from that era, but not 737 (always thought it a bit fat and dumpy) compared with the other Boeing jets of that time.
Turbo props were Vanguards BEA and Viscount Channel Airways and a BOAC Britania( 1 trip only back to and from Rome, plane was going to Cairo I think) but did not get to fly on them that much before they were replaced by Tridents and BAC 1-11. Went on BOAC VC10 twice once from Manchester to Barbados and once LHR to HK nice looking plane as I remember in that livery. All seems along time ago now.
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The very first commercial flight of wife and self was late-ish 70s. I had always been fanatical about planes but never had the opportunity to fly commercially before. I was just about 40 years old then. It was a BA charter (British Airtours?) from Gatwick to Rhodes, returning a week later. The purser told us that it was the very last 707 in BA's fleet and was due to be retired within a very short time. The flight was brilliant, the service excellent (as many free drinks as you wanted) and the views from the windows awe inspiring. Flying over (then) Yugoslavia, the pilot navigated us between the towering clouds of a massive thunderstorm. The clouds shot up either side of us like a volcanic eruption. Whether we were just lucky or whether he planned it like that I don't know, but the view was spectacular. I know a lot of this post is about the journey but none of the aircraft I have flown in since (747, 737, 767, Tristar, DC10, MD11, BAC111, Airbus, Skyvan air taxi 
and more) have felt so comfortable in respect of legroom, cleanliness or stability. I understand there are still many 707s in service around the world.
and more) have felt so comfortable in respect of legroom, cleanliness or stability. I understand there are still many 707s in service around the world.
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The day the World got larger
The day the World got larger was not the day that we flew from New York to Heathrow by Concorde.
An equally memorable day was a while after the crash in France. Concorde was due to fly again. We parked on the perimeter road. There were other groupies there. There must have been over a dozen of us. One of us was in touch by mobile phone with someone who was watching Concorde taxiing - and our man shouted out the important bits with eventually "it has taken off".
In my earlier days I had been to a factory that was making the "harness" for Concorde. The harness was a veritable tree of wires with long branches and roots of bunches of cables. It was there that I first saw a portable computer. The computer was mounted on four casters so that it could be pushed along the hangar floor. It was explained to me that during the test, crocodile clips were attached to the ends of all the wires and then the computer did its test - it tested continuity for each wire in turn and it also tested to be certain that there was no short-circuit between any two two wires. They certainly needed a computer for such a mind-boggling task.
Then there was the end. This was when there was the last opportunity to see a Concorde in the sky in Britain. My wife and I had parked on a moor where BA has its headquarters. We got out of the car and climbed up to the top of the gentle hillock. We were absolutely alone - we saw no-one as we stood and watched. We had come early and Concorde was late. The light was steadily fading. We were facing South and expected Concorde to come from the right and pass in front of us and land to our left. We saw it. Our eyes were fixed on it. Our concentration was loyal and much more important than anything. As we watched, our single-minded concentration was threatened by an intruder. Another plane was coming in low. This plane was very much nearer to us and threatening to block our view. Something familiar? Do not be distracted! Yes, impossibly it also was a Concorde. Two Concordes. Both coming in to land. We did not see them touch down but we watched as they sunk behind the evening grass. We were on the moor, with no sight or sound of any other human being. That truly was the day that the World got larger.
An equally memorable day was a while after the crash in France. Concorde was due to fly again. We parked on the perimeter road. There were other groupies there. There must have been over a dozen of us. One of us was in touch by mobile phone with someone who was watching Concorde taxiing - and our man shouted out the important bits with eventually "it has taken off".
In my earlier days I had been to a factory that was making the "harness" for Concorde. The harness was a veritable tree of wires with long branches and roots of bunches of cables. It was there that I first saw a portable computer. The computer was mounted on four casters so that it could be pushed along the hangar floor. It was explained to me that during the test, crocodile clips were attached to the ends of all the wires and then the computer did its test - it tested continuity for each wire in turn and it also tested to be certain that there was no short-circuit between any two two wires. They certainly needed a computer for such a mind-boggling task.
Then there was the end. This was when there was the last opportunity to see a Concorde in the sky in Britain. My wife and I had parked on a moor where BA has its headquarters. We got out of the car and climbed up to the top of the gentle hillock. We were absolutely alone - we saw no-one as we stood and watched. We had come early and Concorde was late. The light was steadily fading. We were facing South and expected Concorde to come from the right and pass in front of us and land to our left. We saw it. Our eyes were fixed on it. Our concentration was loyal and much more important than anything. As we watched, our single-minded concentration was threatened by an intruder. Another plane was coming in low. This plane was very much nearer to us and threatening to block our view. Something familiar? Do not be distracted! Yes, impossibly it also was a Concorde. Two Concordes. Both coming in to land. We did not see them touch down but we watched as they sunk behind the evening grass. We were on the moor, with no sight or sound of any other human being. That truly was the day that the World got larger.
Last edited by notlangley; 16th Aug 2011 at 00:30. Reason: terry clips changed to crocodile clips
Paxing All Over The World
My, my TS - what have you started?!
Perhaps our favourite is our first? But let me first address myself to applaud notlangley for his post on the end of the world as we loved it to be ... I travelled only once on the magnificent machine. It was in her closing days and I learnt (through this forum) that BA were running a deal of one-way Supersonic and then return regular. There were to be a 1,000 seats for the Brits and the opposite 1,000 rides for the Americans.
I hoped to get a seat to go to a wedding I had been invited to in NY state but in the end I just took the date they offered. So 8th August 2003 saw me on G-BOAC (I LOVED having that registration) and I just went. I had already visited the USA that year and there was no reason to go.
Further, I was totally broke and had to put the £2,300 fee on to plastic and take a week off work [I'm self employed so I lost money]. On my return, I got trapped by the NYC and North East power outage and had another three days in the USA and lost more money. (Travel insurance paid but even their maximum did not cover it)
As I was at checking in I though: "YOU IDIOT! Why try and make a boyhood dream come true? This is doomed to be less than anything I thought and I'll be standing at the JFK carousel thinking, 'That was a waste of money'. Can I cash in my ticket now?"
I didn't and when I was at the JFK carousel I was thinking, "Oh Wow. Oh Wow. Oh Wow." I shall not bore you with a minute by minute description but it is seared into my memory. All the money was irrelevant.
Whilst waiting for departure, I was sent many text (SMS) msgs by family and friends the most memorable of which was: 'Is that a cell phone in your pocket - or are you just VERY pleased to see the Concorde?' It might have been a bit of both ...
Perhaps our favourite is our first? But let me first address myself to applaud notlangley for his post on the end of the world as we loved it to be ... I travelled only once on the magnificent machine. It was in her closing days and I learnt (through this forum) that BA were running a deal of one-way Supersonic and then return regular. There were to be a 1,000 seats for the Brits and the opposite 1,000 rides for the Americans.
I hoped to get a seat to go to a wedding I had been invited to in NY state but in the end I just took the date they offered. So 8th August 2003 saw me on G-BOAC (I LOVED having that registration) and I just went. I had already visited the USA that year and there was no reason to go.
Further, I was totally broke and had to put the £2,300 fee on to plastic and take a week off work [I'm self employed so I lost money]. On my return, I got trapped by the NYC and North East power outage and had another three days in the USA and lost more money. (Travel insurance paid but even their maximum did not cover it)
As I was at checking in I though: "YOU IDIOT! Why try and make a boyhood dream come true? This is doomed to be less than anything I thought and I'll be standing at the JFK carousel thinking, 'That was a waste of money'. Can I cash in my ticket now?"
I didn't and when I was at the JFK carousel I was thinking, "Oh Wow. Oh Wow. Oh Wow." I shall not bore you with a minute by minute description but it is seared into my memory. All the money was irrelevant.
Whilst waiting for departure, I was sent many text (SMS) msgs by family and friends the most memorable of which was: 'Is that a cell phone in your pocket - or are you just VERY pleased to see the Concorde?' It might have been a bit of both ...
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MD 80 series for me. There's something really elegant about the design and I'm told that pilots like to fly them. Alas I've never flown in one - the nearest was a training flight on a DC9!
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I could not find the right words in my Eulogy of Concorde to explain this.
The first flight of Concorde was said to have made the World smaller. So the retirement of Concorde could very well be considered as allowing the World to spring back to its original size.
The first flight of Concorde was said to have made the World smaller. So the retirement of Concorde could very well be considered as allowing the World to spring back to its original size.
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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....
- We know what it looks like anyway
- An image would be superfluous to the prose that we have enjoyed so far
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BAE 146. Small plane, 4 jet engines and one time when Gatwick runway was shut (a 747 was blocking with welded breaks after an emergency stop) we smugly got to leave via the short runway with little delay. Many others couldnt
Paxing All Over The World
She was my first, my last, my everything ...
Photos: Vickers VC10 Srs1101 Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net
It is so difficult to find images that capture her beauty and elegance. I have looked through more than a hundred and have settled for this simple profile.
The reasons why she failed to conquer the world do not matter but if you want to read more about the old lady, I commend you to: A Little VC10derness
Photos: Vickers VC10 Srs1101 Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net
It is so difficult to find images that capture her beauty and elegance. I have looked through more than a hundred and have settled for this simple profile.
The reasons why she failed to conquer the world do not matter but if you want to read more about the old lady, I commend you to: A Little VC10derness
Last edited by PAXboy; 16th Aug 2011 at 16:31. Reason: still not sure of the correct way to put pictures in.
