Damn! I’ll bet the pax seated in the right-side window seats were holding their breath!

Rolls Royce used to have a Griffon (?) powered Spitfire in a hanger at EMA. Do they still own it?

If they do, that would be taking part in the flypast I am sure.

OK, now I am totally confused……

My understanding is that:

V1 is a go/no go call (point of little, or no return). This would be followed by a ‘Rotation’ call and then a V2 (Blue line – Minimum assymetric control speed) call. On a long runway in favourable conditions the V1/Rotate call would be simultaneous whereas MTOW in hot-and-high conditions might result in quite a long period between them.

Secondly: Why wasn’t the power already set at TOGA? Did they attempt to abort and then change their minds? Or did the on-board systems apply a less than adequate power setting? :confused:

Many years ago a friend used to fly BMA 707’s on wet leases in Africa. He alway used to have to factor in a 200 Knot (?) maximum tyre speed into calculations flying out of Nairobi (also on the ‘Hot-And-High’ list of world airports).

Getting back on the subject somewhat…..

My Uncle trained on the Hurricane in the early part of the war before an extended posting to Burma in a ground suppression role.

Much emphasis in the training was placed on correctly identifying Hampdens as they could easily be mistaken for a Luftwaffe bomber. I am not sure which one but there were some unfortunate ‘friendly fire’ incidents.

Knowing absolutely nothing about it – I am going to comment anyway.

It appears to me that aerial water bombing, to be effective, would surely have to be done low and slow and also in incredibly severe conditions of turbulence, smoke and ash.

The 747 would have to deploy all of it’s (leading edge) lift devices and probably at least 10 degrees trailing edge flap. This would result in tremendous wear and tear on those delicate parts and the associated expense. And as for FOI (foreign object injestion) into those jet engines ……. All we have to do is read up on the BA 747 in Bali to see what ash can do to a jet engine. Just think of whole branches being sucked into those old P & W’s! I cannot think of a more unsuitable Aircraft unless bombing from a great height and what effect would (even) a 747 load have from 5,000′?

The old twin/four engine recips seem best. Long live the DC6 and variants!

I gazed fondly down on her today as I departed 09R this morning for SFO on UA955 (B777). For once I got a window seat!

I also noticed a Concorde parked out just off the cross runway, coned off.

What is that all about?