The aviation picture thread

I had to ask the attendants what model this one was..

I would ALSO liked to have asked the gentlemen in front about their interest and attendance at the show.. plenty of families and kids.. but perhaps these guys would have a heck of a story to tell.. if anyone just asked.. but I hesitate to do that in case they feel I am asking because they are "old" and at a plane event and therefore "must" have something they might like to share..

I had an amazing chance conversation just earlier with an older lady and her experiences.. but I'm not sure about coming up cold turkey and just asking someone and how that might appear to them.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Convair 240 or 340?

My first airline plane ride was in one... Continental Airlines, here in the US.

Ha, I'm not as old as those guys, but am getting there.


Now I'm trying to figure out what the wingtip light/tank is in the upper corner of the pic... Lockheed P2 Neptune (searching, it looks like the RAAF used them)?
If that's what it was, did it have the auxiliary jet engines?

Questions... you should ask them, I'll bet they'd by tickled to chat, I would be.

 

It's been said that 007 performed a quasi-ground loop after a demo flight at Camp New Amsterdam (NL).
.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The pilot popped the canopy, stepped out and was reported to have said "Sorry guys..."

Brand new F-15 by the way.

 

This P-51 sought temporary asylum from the weather at KGMU and I was lucky enough to get a glimpse.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

They said 440.

I'll work out a polite way to approach next time then.. would hate to miss out on chance to hear anything good and time ticks past and stories are lost..

Yes we (did) have Neptunes! .. here's one that did a couple of low level passes..

related: Back in 97 a sailor in round the world yacht race capsized at 100 deg E, 52 deg S and given Australia was "nearest" (he was 2300 km south west in utterly no mans land!) a P3 Orion was despatched to find him and direct the subsequent rescue ship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Bullimore
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The Convair 240/340 was the basis for the T-29C and T-29D I used for training in navigator and electronic warfare school. Good old P&W R2800s. The T-29D was fitted with a B-47 radar system, which had a really beautiful picture nearly as good as a map. Compared favorably with our F-111 radars.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The definitions so overlap as to make any distinction meaningless. Even the historic origins. Latin and Germanic languages have used Motore and Moteren to refer to internal combustion engines since their invention.

In the strictest sense fossil fuel supplies the power in much the same way steam does.

 

Eric Brown considered it one of the great planes of the war.

 

Brian, Bob- to make terminology more confusing, in rockets/launch vehicles, we have liquid engines and solid motors.

 

Thanks, they're all the same aircraft with minor differences.

I meant to say 340 or 440... the 240 was just the first version
The 440 only differed from the 340 by having a few more seats and an extra window.

There were a number of later versions with turboprops (540,580, 640 etc.). modified by Convair and aftermarket companies.

Edit:
This is good reading:
http://www.aussieairliners.org/scrapbook/convair/convairliner.html

I also had to double check that it wasn't a Martin 202 or 404, which look almost identical. We had both the Convair (Continental, Frontier) and the Martin (TWA) flying into our airport when I was a kid.

 

Okay! I give up.

 

Glad I was correct on the Neptune... very cool plane when I was a kid.

There was a B-29 here (FiFi) last summer at an airshow; there were a couple of older men standing near it and talking so I went up to them, said "Excuse me..." They talked to me for a half hour; both had flown in B-29's and B-50's after the war and had many stories.
They were happy to talk.
Try it.

 

The last pic shows the nozzles really cranked down and the lack of 'turkey feathers', which they deleted from the production line not too long before this aircraft was delivered.

 

Bitburg AB got the first F-15s and then Soesterberg AB in the NL, where the USAF installation was called Camp New Amsterdam. Soesterberg was a real plum assignment for F-15 pilots, with cushy flying times and lots of airspace over the North Sea. From RAF Lakenheath we would fly simulated cruise missile and bomber profiles for their F-15Cs (by then in the early 80s) to intercept. Both Bitburg and Soesterberg are closed now.

 

I am a bit of a grammer Nazi but after quite a bit of looking at the words, origins, history etc I decided the two really are interchangeable. Just as the Germans see pressure as an absolute and there is no such thing as vacuum, it is a distinction without a difference.

 

The real question here is if I pointed out "grammer" nazi does that make me in turn a "grammar nazi"?

 

Passed the runway at an opportune time. This plane has been laid up for quite a while, glad to finally see it fly.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Closed indeed, since 2008 no longer operational as a (military) airport. Soesterberg is now home of the National military museum.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

With awesome TDYs from CNA to England, Deci and Norway. That's one of ours on the left.
.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Inactivated 1 July 1994. Strategically, at the time, I never could understand that decision.
.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Lots of military history in the Netherlands. Should be an interesting museum.

 

Phantom and eagle look enormous

 

They are.

 

Add a couple of F-111's F-14's and Raptors and the rest of those aircraft would have a Napoleon Complex. Take 2 huge turbofan after burning jet engines and you end up with a big air frame since you have to have a place for all that extra fuel.