Tag Archives: jet

Peering Over the Fence at Bruntingthorpe

When we lived in the US, I would see lots of photos of people attending events at Bruntingthorpe with all sorts of vintage jets roaring down the runway. Sadly, those days are long gone. The story behind that is not one I know. However, there is still a collection of aircraft at the end of the airfield where I believe they have the QRA sheds with the Lightnings. One morning, I was driving north to Derby for work. I decided a small detour was allowable since it was early in the morning. I had no idea how much was visible from the gates and whether anything was open. Nothing was so I peered over the fence and took a few quick photos before continuing on my way. Everything was a bit cluttered from this angle but the lone Starfighter – while distant – did look particularly interesting. Maybe I shall visit properly one day.

Gear and Flaps

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Photographing at Heathrow means you get a steady stream of planes with barely a minute passing without another one landing. You can end up with a ton of similar shots. That got me thinking about other things I would like. A close up of the undercarriage and perhaps the flap system came to mind. For some reason – possibly the noise that the bursting vortices made after they landed – I decided that the 777-300ERs would be the ones I tried these shots with. However, an A380 did sneak in.

There is something about the mass of machinery that you get around the main landing gear and the inboard flaps that seems so complex. Of course, this is all under the wing so the lighting is less than ideal, but you get what you can. Just before sunset would be perfect but you don’t get to choose when the jets land. Here are a few of my favourite shots from that part of the afternoon shoot.

More Airliner Crossing Shots

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While up near Heathrow, while I was mainly bothered about the arriving airliners, there were a lot of high-altitude aircraft criss-crossing the skies. Every once in a while, their paths would look like they would converge. Obviously, they were at different altitudes so nothing that special, but I did find myself tracking them to see if I could get something like a crossing shot.

It wasn’t to be. A few got pretty close but never was I to get the really cool shot of a crossing. Never mind. Here are a few of the ones that got closer during the day.

This Paint Job Would Have Been Quick

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This Brussels Airlines A320 came into Heathrow one weekend. I am not sure even now what the livery is supposed to represent. All I know is that I love it and am delighted that they went to the effort to paint the jet like this. I am assuming there are a ton of vinyls involved in this rather than having it all hand painted but, either way, it looks amazing. If it was painted, that is even better. What a great change from the average livery.

Reunited With DA2

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In September 1990, I started work at what was then British Aerospace at Warton in Lancashire. I was part of the aerodynamics department so couldn’t have been happier fresh out of an aeronautical engineering degree. The walk from our office to the staff canteen could be done along the road but, why do that when you can cut through the hangars. 2 Hangar was the easiest route and also happened to be the location where the front fuselages for the Eurofighter were being assembled.

The programme went through a reworking as the German government considered its continued role post the end of the Cold War, but it did end up continuing even if one of the prototypes was deleted and the others got renamed. The first two planes were P01 and P02 which were German and British respectively. They became DA1 and DA2. DA2 made its first flight while I was away on a project, but I got to see it fly shortly after I returned.

I then got to see it fly a lot over the coming years. Initially it was in a grey paint scheme but, when it had the pressure mapping sensors fitted, it was painted black overall. I recall there was a justification for this, but I always felt it was because the initial Rafale had been painted black and looked really cool.

Military aircraft prototypes don’t usually have a long life. Usually, the development programme means that they are quite different from the final article and so not a useful platform for continued development. As instrumented versions of the production aircraft come online, the prototypes are superfluous. That was the case for DA2, and it found its way into the RAF Museum’s collection at Hendon. It is suspended from the roof of one of the hangars. This makes for a dynamic pose rather than just standing on its gear. However, it is a bit more limiting from getting angles on it.

Thankfully, the museum has a couple of balconies at that end of the hangar that you can access so you can try a variety of different positions to get a shot. There is always a problem with a black painted aircraft when photographing it indoors. The light is a bit limited and the backgrounds are quite bright compared to the subject. Definitely some challenges with taking the images and then processing them to show what you want without making it look wrong. Then again, that’s part of the fun, I guess. It was fun being reunited with a plane that I haven’t seen for a very long time, and I am glad that it has found a home that means many people can get to enjoy it too.

A Spey with a Burner Grafted On

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British defence projects have a bit of a reputation for trying something that will boost domestic content but that compromises overall performance. In fact, some civil aviation projects would probably fit that description. One such project was the procurement of the F-4 Phantom. To boost UK content, the J-79 engine that was used in all other variants was replaced by the Rolls Royce Spey. This engine made it into various civil and military aircraft over the years. For the Phantom, it needed an afterburner.

An example of the engine is on display at the RAF Museum in Hendon. I was first interested by the patterns of the flameholders in the afterburner so took some shots looking straight up the jet pipe. Then I moved around to the side. It is so easy to see where the original engine ends and where the added afterburner starts. It does not look like an integrated design whatsoever. It worked well enough although the redesign of the fuselage to accommodate it resulted in significantly increased drag. Top speed was reduced as was climb performance. One upside was that the Spey was a turbofan so, in the original ground attack role the Phantom had in the RAF, it actually improved low level fuel burn. It probably wasn’t so welcome once they moved across to the air defence role, though.

Cathay Pacific A350-1000

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If you are a regular reader, you will know I love an A350, you will also know I like late day light on planes. How about the combination of the light and the plane. In this case, it is Cathay Pacific – an airline that has a livery that works quite well with a warmer lighting set up. In this case it is an A350-1000 which has pleasing proportions although the -900 is not a bad looking jet either. I was happy to get this one.

G600 Has the Usual Gulfstream Flaps

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This G600 was coming into land at Farnborough while I was visiting. The conditions were far from ideal for photographing anything flying but I am not going to pass one up if the chance presents itself. I was close to the approach path so had an almost head on position. Not ideal but it would be fine. However, what struck me as I looked at the images afterwards was the flaps. Gulfstream has never impressed me with their wing designs. They always seem to have just gone with a larger wing to achieve whatever performance was needed and the flaps on all of their jets seem to be barn doors rather than some advanced design. It seems that the current generation of jets is no different. I guess it doesn’t matter enough to their sales so why bother?

The Ramp Action at Barcelona

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When I made a trip to Spain for work, my route took me through Barcelona. Not a city I have visited before, but I do plan to return. I hadn’t brought a main camera with me since it was a brief work trip, and I was travelling light but I did take my old M6 along with me. Going to a new location can mean some different airlines. However, these days the airlines across Europe are usually the same ones. Ryanair is everywhere of course. There were some converted freighters sitting on the opposite side of the airfield from my terminal. I grabbed a few shots in the brief time I had which wasn’t long given that the schedule was pretty tight.

Virgin Atlantic Names of Planes

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Since they first started flying, Virgin Atlantic has been naming their planes with slightly quirky titles. Many airlines have names on their planes, but they are more often something like cities, rivers, castles etc. Features of the country that the airline is based in. Virgin has a different approach, and they do like a good amount of pun activity in their names. This can also be reflected in the registration of the aircraft with the letter combination sometimes tied to the name.

I have seen this naming over the years and never really given it much thought. However, on a visit to Heathrow a while back that was aiming for something specific, I naturally got to see a bunch of Virgin jets arriving. I decided to get a few close-up shots of the names at the front and then decided to check out what other names I had come across. This is not a comprehensive list of the different planes, nor do I plan on making it a goal to get them all, but it is a fun look at some of the names that they have gone with.