Favorite Aircraft

[Montague S]

Originally Posted by Chris Griffiths

Have to agree with that, but graceful is not what one would describe the sound as.
One of my goals in life is to get close enough to a "Bear"(will settle for an AN-22) just to hear those big Kuznetsovs and their huge contra rotating props beating the air into submission.
One might wonder what would have been the outcome if the USAF/Boeing/P&W et al had gone down the turboprop route and developed the B-29/50 family further... oh wait a minute!!!

MAKS 2009 would be the go...

but for now you can kick back and listen to them on youtube! there are a few newer bears flying now that have a slimmed down cockpit.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9T4ySB8NRRQ

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4nwTUgdz7nM&feature=related

second one is AN-22.

[Adrian C]

I seem to recall a thread similar to this on the old board a few years ago.

Anyhoo, it's the Fokker Friendship for mine. It's probably the reason I'm a plane nerd in the first place.

To cut a long story short, the first house we lived in when I was born was literally over the back fence from the Runway 08 end of the old 08/26 at Wynyard (YWYY) in Tassie. So naturally, whenever I was out in the yard (this is in the mid-70s) you'd have Ansett and TAA's finest coming in and out on a daily basis.

We moved to Hobart when I was a toddler, but as the grandparents etc were all in Wynyard, whenever we went back for holidays the best bit for me was seeing the Friendships again. It used to be a great delight when I saw a different one like the Air Queenslands or ASAs rotating through Melbourne for whatever reason. Then there was the sighting of the rarest beast of all, the ex-Airlines of Northern Australia VH-MMO before it was repainted.

Over the course of my childhood I think I notched up every Friendship Ansett, TAA and East West had in their fleets.

Although I never flew in one, I've got a DVD of the Grand Canyon Scenic tours run by an F27, and there's also some wonderful videos of them on Youtube so I can hear those Darts one more time.

And on a more recent note, the Upper Deck (Economy ) on the SQ A380 is the most stunning piece of aviation technology I've had the pleasure to ride in.

[Paul C.]

I have many favourites, commercial airliners and fighters, past and present. I'll list mainly the passanger planes I like.

TURBOFAN PASSENGER PLANES

* Boeing 747, no doubt the greatest icon to grace the skies!
* Airbus A380-800 (though I think the slightly longer -900 would look better)
* Airbus A330-200
* Airbus A340-600
* Airbus A319 and A320
* Boeing 777-200 and 300
* Boeing 707
* MD-11's (I've flown on two Finnair MD-11's, plus many freighters land in Australia)
* Virgin Blue's 50th aircraft VH-VBY (since my first flight on Virgin Blue was on this aicraft)

PROPELLER PASSENGER PLANES

* Douglas DC3 and C47
* Saab 340 and Saab 2000
* ATR-42 and ATR-72
* Q400

SUPERSONIC

* Blackbird
* Concorde

I dislike

* Cessna 172's (ahh, because there are just so many and they look "tooty")
* Dash 8-100 and 200
* Fokker 50 (not a big fan of their shape)
* BAE 146-100
* Any short modern looking Boeing 737's, oh they look so fat and squashed. The old -200's are fine!
* Airbus A318
* DC9 and Boeing 717 (don't know why)

There's many, many more.

[Paul C.]

Originally Posted by Adrian C

I seem to recall a thread similar to this on the old board a few years ago.

Anyhoo, it's the Fokker Friendship for mine. It's probably the reason I'm a plane nerd in the first place.

To cut a long story short, the first house we lived in when I was born was literally over the back fence from the Runway 08 end of the old 08/26 at Wynyard (YWYY) in Tassie. So naturally, whenever I was out in the yard (this is in the mid-70s) you'd have Ansett and TAA's finest coming in and out on a daily basis.

We moved to Hobart when I was a toddler, but as the grandparents etc were all in Wynyard, whenever we went back for holidays the best bit for me was seeing the Friendships again. It used to be a great delight when I saw a different one like the Air Queenslands or ASAs rotating through Melbourne for whatever reason. Then there was the sighting of the rarest beast of all, the ex-Airlines of Northern Australia VH-MMO before it was repainted.

Over the course of my childhood I think I notched up every Friendship Ansett, TAA and East West had in their fleets.

Although I never flew in one, I've got a DVD of the Grand Canyon Scenic tours run by an F27, and there's also some wonderful videos of them on Youtube so I can hear those Darts one more time.

And on a more recent note, the Upper Deck (Economy ) on the SQ A380 is the most stunning piece of aviation technology I've had the pleasure to ride in.

Wynyard Airport has two runways, a main East to West one and another runway that is on a 45 degree angle from North East to South West which cuts through the main runway.

I'm not sure if that main runway at Wynyard existed in the 1970's though and I think anything bigger than a 737 would have great difficulty in taking off or landing on Wynyard's 1.5km runway. The Saab's of today could use both runways if they wanted to but they always use the main East to West runway. The SF340's only need about 800m on a fine day to get airborne.

Its a very good regional airport for photography and I always prefer it to Devonport because of the views. Plus you can go up behind some of the runway.

[Gerard M]

Definitely got to be the C-5 Galaxy...love that plane...used to always come into Richmond, but haven't seen it in years!!!

Does anyone know if it ever comes into Richmond anymore?

[Andrew McLaughlin]

Originally Posted by Gerard M

Definitely got to be the C-5 Galaxy...love that plane...used to always come into Richmond, but haven't seen it in years!!!

Does anyone know if it ever comes into Richmond anymore?

Nup - Just KC-10s, C-17s and the occasional DC-8.

[Adrian C]

Originally Posted by Paul C.

Wynyard Airport has two runways, a main East to West one and another runway that is on a 45 degree angle from North East to South West which cuts through the main runway.

I'm not sure if that main runway at Wynyard existed in the 1970's though and I think anything bigger than a 737 would have great difficulty in taking off or landing on Wynyard's 1.5km runway. The Saab's of today could use both runways if they wanted to but they always use the main East to West runway. The SF340's only need about 800m on a fine day to get airborne.

Its a very good regional airport for photography and I always prefer it to Devonport because of the views. Plus you can go up behind some of the runway.

Hi Paul,

To fill you in on Wynyard's background, the two runways used to be the gravel 05/23 running NE/SW (used to be longer at the NW end before they displaced the threshold) and what is now the taxiway between the RPT apron and the Wynyard Aero Club was the main runway, numbered 08/26. It was around about 1300m long from memory, and because it was so close to the township arriving F27s onto runway 26 used to skim over the aerials of houses coming in over East Wynyard, almost literally on windy days.

The present 09/27 was built during the 1980s saga where the Federal Government as owner upgraded Devonport to full F28 standard but would only agree to upgrade Wynyard to full F27 standard - whatever the hell that was.

After the usual parochial arguments, in the end the powers that be gave in and funded the building of the new 09/27, also to full F28 standard. Only trouble was, Devonport had all the F28s, courtesy of Air NSW and East West. But hey, at least the F27s had a shiny new runway to land on when it opened in late 1986.

For reasons better known to themselves but probably little to do with economics, Ansett roped in Air NSW to run a (I think) 3 x weekly rotation during 1987 that overnighted on the Melbourne-Wynyard-Melbourne run. I can't recall when that was terminated, but certainly by the time my family moved back to Wynyard in August of 1988, it was all Fokker 50s.

If anyone with more knowledge of the topic can jump in, feel free.

[Brendan Lawrence]

Favourite aircraft for me would be the Airbus A330 (-200 or -300) and to refine that even more; the GE-powered variant. The shape of the GE's, tapering to the back with the silver cone at the rear, look much sexier than the hair-dryer shaped RR engines and the stubby/poddy-looking PW's. Overall the A330 has a very sleek and graceful fuselage design, particularly the nose and wings. Airbus cabin interior and flight deck is also a preference for me.

Next favourite aircraft would be the Airbus A340-600; the length is amazing, the Rolls Royce engines look very mighty, and other reasons where they're common with what I said about the A330.

[Blake Riley]

Favorite Aircraft

1st - Boeing 777 - I hope to fly it one day for British airways and its such a amazing aircraft

2nd - MD11/DC-10 love the classic tristar always had something for them and Fedex

3rd - B747 - just a Stunning aircraft

4th - A340 - Really Good modern plane with a amazing Flightdeck

[Tim C]

747, A330, 777 in that order.