OT: the world's largest plane just flew over my house

[billb]

...I heard on the news that the Antonov A225 was at my local airport and was scheduled to depart at midnight tonight. As I was sitting here a few minutes ago, I heard a rumble like I've never heard, and walked outside. It's raining, and I couldn't see it, but I could definitely tell it was there. There's a website I've used, www.aeroseek.com, that gives great real-time flight tracking. Looked up RDU, and sure enough, the plane was almost right over my town.

Cool.:D

[genphreak]

...I heard on the news that the Antonov A225 was at my local airport and was scheduled to depart at midnight tonight. As I was sitting here a few minutes ago, I heard a rumble like I've never heard, and walked outside. It's raining, and I couldn't see it, but I could definitely tell it was there. There's a website I've used, www.aeroseek.com (http://www.aeroseek.com), that gives great real-time flight tracking. Looked up RDU, and sure enough, the plane was almost right over my town. Cool.:DShe came in from Africa....? Or was headed there... I can't wuite work it out from the mapping...

I know what you mean though, would have been great to see it. Where I went to school in the UK there was an RAF airbase (East Kirkby) across the estuary from us in Lincolnshire. They maintained the world's last flying Lancaster bomber (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster_bomber) at the time,... the sound of 4 Rolls-Royce Merlins from 100' up is something I'll never forget (they always had fun buzzing our boarding school by flying across the water and banking up the shore at an altitude that allowed them to just clear our rugby field's goal posts.

The noise always stirred extraordinarily strange emotions of long-past wartime noises I thankfully never had to hear personally but would have chilled my parents to the bone.

Pity the clouds stopped you seeing that Antonov. Still maybe we'll all get to see an A380 before too long... they can carry quite a few tanks too...

[BimmerMeUp]

It landed at RDU to pick up a powerplant and is on it's way to Africa with it. Went out to see the landing, but got there 5 min too late (Came early.) Did see it on the runway and it dwarfed everything there. Heck you can fit a 747 fuselage in it's cargo bay.

[DueyT]

She came in from Africa....? Or was headed there... I can't wuite work it out from the mapping...

I know what you mean though, would have been great to see it. Where I went to school in the UK there was an RAF airbase (East Kirkby) across the estuary from us in Lincolnshire. They maintained the world's last flying Lancaster bomber (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster_bomber) at the time,... the sound of 4 Rolls-Royce Merlins from 100' up is something I'll never forget (they always had fun buzzing our boarding school by flying across the water and banking up the shore at an altitude that allowed them to just clear our rugby field's goal posts.

The noise always stirred extraordinarily strange emotions of long-past wartime noises I thankfully never had to hear personally but would have chilled my parents to the bone.

Pity the clouds stopped you seeing that Antonov. Still maybe we'll all get to see an A380 before too long... they can carry quite a few tanks too...

Just to clarify, there are actually two flying Lancasters...I've sat in FM213, the "Mynarksi Lancaster", it is maintained and operated by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario, just around the lake from Toronto. I have seen it fly on numerous occasions and I must say, for as much as I love the sound of my M60B40 winding up through the gears...the sound of 4 Rolls-Royce Merline engines is ABSOLUTELY DEVINE!

Cheers,
Duey

[Paul in NZ]

slightly OT but i went to an air show and there were several spitfires and mustangs there....i cant describe or explain the emotion i felt when the first spitfire flew overhead.My father was a radar technician in WW2 (his eyesight wasnt good enough for flying) and he had told us some stories.....

[genphreak]

Just to clarify, there are actually two flying Lancasters...I've sat in FM213, the "Mynarksi Lancaster", it is maintained and operated by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario, just around the lake from Toronto. I have seen it fly on numerous occasions and I must say, for as much as I love the sound of my M60B40 winding up through the gears...the sound of 4 Rolls-Royce Merline engines is ABSOLUTELY DEVINE!

Cheers,
DueyHeh, thanks for setting that straight. I think at the time I was at school the subject was a bone of contention: The Brits were proud as hell of these machines (a pity they let it all goto pot after the war and let Germany supplant most of the UK's engineering capabilities) and I think the Canadian one was undergoing a restoration, so ours was deemed to be (very clearly in our superior colonial wisdoms) the last flying one left... then!

Somehow us forelock-pulling Aussies have got 2 or 3 of them here, not that we made any like our Great and friendly allies the Canadians did. There were thousands of them made so it'd be interesting to know where they all ended up...

Yes that sound is incredible. But imagine putting one in your car- with an output spline like this to mate your drivetrain to...

http://www.bcam.net/engines/merlin/merlin1.jpg


An english fella called John Dodd (http://www.superjohn.f9.co.uk/thebeast.htm) got in a lot of trouble with a Merlin once, he must have been mad;

This guy in Melbourne stuck one in a '55 Chevy Bel-Air (http://www.rodshop.com.au/project55p2.htm), but my favourite is the dodgey old Rover in the previous link- the driver can barely fit in beside the superb 27,000cc engine... this'd be one crazy drive:

http://www.superjohn.f9.co.uk/thebeast/merlinrover1.jpghttp://www.superjohn.f9.co.uk/thebeast/merlinrover2.jpg




http://www.rodshop.com.au/photos/55proj602_8.jpg


But you have to see this... there's a t-bucket with one in it... (http://www.fiat500club.nl/movies/de/pers/chevyfiat500.html) Nick

[Anthony (M5 in Calgary)]

Heh, thanks for setting that straight. I think at the time I was at school the subject was a bone of contention: The Brits were proud as hell of these machines (a pity they let it all goto pot after the war and let Germany supplant most of the UK's engineering capabilities) and I think the Canadian one was undergoing a restoration, so ours was deemed to be (very clearly in our superior colonial wisdoms) the last flying one left... then!

Somehow us forelock-pulling Aussies have got 2 or 3 of them here, not that we made any like our Great and friendly allies the Canadians did. There were thousands of them made so it'd be interesting to know where they all ended up...


Good info here, including a list of surviving lancs:
http://www.lancastermuseum.ca/
They've got one of the engines rebuilt and running now. Just south of the city...

[genphreak]

Good info here, including a list of surviving lancs:
http://www.lancastermuseum.ca/
They've got one of the engines rebuilt and running now. Just south of the city...Heh,good link that Anthony, I particularly like the quote....

"The new bomber was immediately regarded as a success and large production orders were placed. Avro's production facilities were soon overwhelmed, and numerous other companies and contractors joined the effort to produce Lancasters. Consisting of 55 000 separate parts, it has been estimated that half a million different manufacturingoperations were involved to produce just one aircraft. Peak production was achieved during August 1944 when 293 aircraft were produced" No wonder we had the Canadians pitching in...

"Of the total of 7377 Lancasters built (430 of them in Canada (http://www.lancastermuseum.ca/lancavro.html)), 3932 were lost in action. During the war Lancasters flew a total of 156 308 sorties and dropped 608,612 tons of bombs, and placed over 12,000 mines in enemy waters."

[E34-520iSE]

slightly OT but i went to an air show and there were several spitfires and mustangs there....i cant describe or explain the emotion i felt when the first spitfire flew overhead.My father was a radar technician in WW2 (his eyesight wasnt good enough for flying) and he had told us some stories.....

I could listen to wartime stories all day, it's amazing to hear first hand accounts of bombing raids etc. Sadly there's fewer and fewer people around to tell us. I hope our history has been recorded well, or future generations won't learn anything.
Oh, that Rover SD1 with the Merlin engine in looks incredible in those pics. Who needs a bonnet (hood) covering that machinery?

Cheers,

Shaun

[Paul in NZ]

I will repeat one story quickly.
Was the middle of the war,the Luftwaffe had the FW190 ruling the skys,but they came into Britain very low very fast made their rais and took of before the radar could tell the spitfires where they were,My father was at that ime stationed on the cliffs of Dover and was up in the aerials of the station when heard a FW190 coming.However the guy was so low and pulled up so hard to get over the cliffs he couldnt bring his guns to bear on the station,he didnt have time for another run cos some spitfires were already in the area.A good reason to cherish the sound of supercharged V12s dontcha think!

[E34-520iSE]

Hey Paul, I've got a book from 1943, called Roof Over Britain. It describes the success our AA defenses etc. It was published by HMSO/Ministry of Information. There is no direct mention of RADAR in there (as we know RADAR never existed in 1943 - wink!). It's a propoganda tool really, and if you believe everything it says then Paul from NZ's Luftwaffe account would obviously be totally untrue. Maybe we could archive thw WW2 experiences somewhere.

Cheers,

Shaun

[genphreak]

Hey Paul, I've got a book from 1943, called Roof Over Britain. It describes the success our AA defenses etc. It was published by HMSO/Ministry of Information. There is no direct mention of RADAR in there (as we know RADAR never existed in 1943 - wink!). It's a propoganda tool really, and if you believe everything it says then Paul from NZ's Luftwaffe account would obviously be totally untrue. Maybe we could archive thw WW2 experiences somewhere. Cheers, Shaun Heh, great stuff fellows- I spent quite some time reading the stories on that Canadian Lancaster site... heroism crawling through burning hydrualic oil and the tail guner surviving even though he was the only one not to get out of the Lancaster as she dove into the ground... OMG how lucky we are to have avoided such fates ourselves.

Yes Paul I bet your Dad loves the sound of a Merlin... Hahahahha... do enlighten me though, was Radar not admitted by the British for fear of losing the secret? Any idea when they actually employed it?

My Dad wasn't old enough to be in the War, he was drafted into the Peace Corps in Berlin just afterwards when he turned 18 adn returned. He'd been evacuated to New Zealand along with 600 other boys when the Brit's panic was peaking with the onset of the Luftwaffe, V1s and the spectre of the V2. The ship before his was sunk by the U-boats (I think all 400 children were drowned) and the one after his was sunk too... so they didn't send any more after that.

Interestingly, about 20 years ago my Dad re-married a woman from a large, traditional Catholic Austrian family. Her Grandfather was a U-boat Captain (ie in the SS). He had joined Hitler Youth when he was 15. He died some years back but I met him beforehand (at 92). I remember him raising his fist in solidarity with Joerg Heider on the TV, one night that the whole family was there. He was still a 'good Nazi'. However my siblings have none of this rampant nationalism in them at all- the thing the europeans managed very well is how to prevent it happening again in Germany through the use of education. It is a great pity we generally miss this point in the rest of the West.

BTW: I read somewhere that Arnie is reported to have been a tad pally with Heider at some point... (the guy is really a fascist Nazi tyrant of considerable magnitude- look him up on the Web if you don't believe me).

How strange it was to be in a room where there were 4 generations of people who had been sworn enemies not 50 years beforehand. My school had been a Navy school during the war, we learned Math and History in the Nissen huts that they'd built to provision and teach troops heading over the North Sea some 40 years beforehand:

http://www.francisfrith.com/images/catalogue/c10/high/39/woolverstone_W443001.jpg

Woolverstone Hall was built in 1776 by William Berners overlooking the Orwell, up-river from Pin Mill. This is the entrance front; the rows of Nissen huts and a water tank above the roofline are features of the former Nautical School, linked to HMS ‘Ganges’. The Hall became an LCC boarding grammar school in 1950, and more recently Ipswich High School for Girls.http://www.francisfrith.com/search/england/suffolk/woolverstone/photos/woolverstone_W443001.htm

[DueyT]

Genphreak, Anthony, Shaun, Paul...all good stuff, that! FWIW, my grandfather was a RADAR technician working on Mosquitos in 409 Night Fighter Squadron from 1942 onwards, first operating in Britain, then deployed into France from late '43 on. I thus have no doubt that RADAR existed and was operational at the time Paul's dad described, both as ground-based early warning stations and airborne, as equipped on my grandfather's Mosquitos.

Paul, saw the 55' Bel Air with Merlin on TV a while back...it was insane....love it!

In one of the links on the Lancaster site, I followed the arrival of CT114 Tutor jet training aircraft at the Nanton Air Museum. I checked my logbook and confirmed I flew that aircraft several times on my wings training and am very good friends with Maj Dan Robinson, ex-snowbird who grew up in Nanton, where one of the Lancasters is being restored. Small world.

Cheers,
Duey

[Evan]

there are plenty of military operations taking place right now... i don't think it would be difficutl for you to get training and go listen to all the war noises your ears can handle...

let me know how it goes

[DueyT]

there are plenty of military operations taking place right now... i don't think it would be difficutl for you to get training and go listen to all the war noises your ears can handle...

let me know how it goes

?

[E34-520iSE]

there are plenty of military operations taking place right now... i don't think it would be difficutl for you to get training and go listen to all the war noises your ears can handle...

let me know how it goes

Eh?

[rob101]

Interestingly, about 20 years ago my Dad re-married a woman from a large, traditional Catholic Austrian family. Her[FONT=Verdana] Grandfather was a U-boat Captain (ie in the SS). He had joined Hitler Youth when he was 15.
wouldn't he have been in the Kriegsmarine?

[The Bigfella]

I love the sound of the Merlins. I went to the airshow at the Aviation Museum in Temora about a year back - my daughter and I both did flights in David Lowy's Cessna Dragonfly ground attack jet, which was just fabulous - 4G, very little time in level flight:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid183/pd89b8e31e1df039ce7218645d18c436e/f29d2bfb.jpg

The Spit, P40 and P51 though were all fabulous.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid183/p9b718fc7db5c8fe10cfee6fc1f114260/f29d2b29.jpg

[CharlesAFerg]

I love the sound of the Merlins. I went to the airshow at the Aviation Museum in Temora about a year back - my daughter and I both did flights in David Lowy's Cessna Dragonfly ground attack jet, which was just fabulous - 4G, very little time in level flight:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid183/pd89b8e31e1df039ce7218645d18c436e/f29d2bfb.jpg

The Spit, P40 and P51 though were all fabulous.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid183/p9b718fc7db5c8fe10cfee6fc1f114260/f29d2b29.jpg

Down at Hillsboro Airport just at the end of this summer some old guy flying a russian mig crashed into some dudes house during the big airshow... He tried to get to a field but he coulden't bank back up in time... :-/ I don't think anyone was killed except the pilot.

[Paul in NZ]

[QUOTE=genphreak]
Yes Paul I bet your Dad loves the sound of a Merlin... Hahahahha... do enlighten me though, was Radar not admitted by the British for fear of losing the secret? Any idea when they actually employed it?
.....- the thing the europeans managed very well is how to prevent it happening again in Germany through the use of education. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]It is a great pity we generally miss this point in the rest of the West.QUOTE]
They must have been pretty well advanced before the war.Dad was only 20 in 1940,some basic training in army and air force and then into it..it must have been quite good,Dad said that on good days they could see E boats(are they like 60 100 footers?) come out of the ports in France!

Pity the rest of Europe didnt learn a thing or two from the Germans and the French,etc...look at the mess in "yugoslavia"

[E34-520iSE]

http://www.francisfrith.com/search/england/suffolk/woolverstone/photos/woolverstone_W443001.htmHere's the inside cover pic from the 1943 "Roof over Britain" book I told you all about. It is a diagram showing the AA control sequence against the raiders. Notice that the word RADAR is missing. It never appears once in the whole book!

Cheers,

Shaun http://www.geocities.com/stereowizard2004/Airraidcontrol.jpg