Airplanes

[Usrin]

One week ago, we saw an Antonov 124 (Antonov Airlines) landing in Stavanger. Quite shocking sight after the usual Boeing 737's and smaller airplanes. I got to know that it's not a regular route, it comes here only a few times per year.

If you don't know this plane: http://www.airplane-pictures.net/photo/35184/ur-82027-antonov-design-bureau-antonov-an-124/

[CTG]

AN-124 planes come about every second month to Budapest - usually in pair (with one day difference). Luckily they can use only T2's runway, so if there's a landing from the Budapest side of the airport (I always forget the 13/31 R/L codes), they fly over our house (at ~400-450 m altitude).

[CTG]

AN-124 planes come about every second month to Budapest - usually in pair (with one day difference). Luckily they can use only T2's runway, so if there's a landing from the Budapest side of the airport (I always forget the 13/31 R/L codes), they fly over our house (at ~400-450 m altitude).

Btw I remember the first time I saw the Ruslan - it was 2 years ago in the summer. I was walking on the street when this giant appeared, very close to me (~100 m ahead, ~400 m above). Since it was quite a flat and extremely slow landing procedure, the "USSR" engines are terribly loud and I never saw such a huge monster before^*, the whole scene was shocking.

^* AN-124 is about 69 m long with 73 m winspan and quite massive fuselage, while my former record holder, Boeing 747-400 (~70 m length, ~64 m wingspan) seems to be a lot thinner - and of course it's not that loud.

Btw have you ever seen the Mriya? It visited Brasil about two years ago, but also appeared in Netherlands and Germany lately (when it visited Hungary in 2008, the weather was too foggy to see anything from that). Probably I won't ever catch it.

[Usrin]

Important question about flying: http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2013/02/flying-farts-are-fine/

"On the one hand, if the pilot restrains a fart, all the drawbacks previously mentioned, including impaired concentration, may affect his abilities to control the plane," the researchers said.

"On the other hand, if he lets go of the fart, his co-pilot may be affected by its odour, which again reduces safety onboard the flight."

[zaqrack]

Usrin, do you have a news notification set on "fart"? You find incredible articles

[CTG]

Beautiful...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3J7hJ0ql_o

[dreadnaut]

I went through London Gatwick today, thought I would take a couple of pictures for CTG.

[CTG]

Oh, those Virgins... (nice catch!)

[alanrotoi]

I only traveled on Boeing 737-200. I remember after two weeks of my last travel another plane (same model, same airline) crashed in Buenos Aires airport. :O

It was in 1999, the neoliberalism way of no investment of nothing... this time killed about 100 people and I could be one of them  .

[CTG]

I missed the Ruslan... again!

(it came at last weekend - exactly when I left Budapest first time in this year)

[CTG]

Have you ever seen this?



Yeah, the answer of USSR for Concorde: Tupolev TU-144 (even if it had an earlier, forced introduction). It was so typical in cold war: the Soviets built the (slightly) bigger^*, stronger, faster... and the more unreliable one.

Parameters	Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde	Tupolev TU-144
First flight	1969. 03. 02.	1968. 12. 31.
Number built	20	16
Length	61.7 m	65.5 m
Wingspan	25.6 m	28.8 m
Height	12.2 m	10.5 m
Weight	78.7 tons	85 tons
Powerplant performance	4 x 140 kN	4 x 200 kN
Cruise speed	2180 km/h	2285 km/h

^* Those Russians had another megalomaniac plan in the 80s: the 8-engine monster, Antonov 325. However, USSR collapsed before it became real.

[Chulk]

[CTG]

El Al Airlines will come to Budapest with Boeing 747 once a week - just to kill Wizz Air's low cost flights between Budapest and Tel-Aviv. Even if I'm happy to see another Jumbo, I'm against that kind of business trickery.

First flight: today. I would like to see it, but unfortunately I won't have time...

[CTG]

Sometimes I have nightmares like this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo51Be2jL8c

[MiroX]

Stupid accident, really. As far as I know the plane's staff indicated some trouble of the load's instability on the runway or right after the takeoff. It can be very dangerous when such a high elevation angle is needed (security issue in the war zone). Probably the low speed and the broken weight balance led to the fatal stall.