What's going on in the air?

[johnny_quattro]

One of my Raspberry Pi computers located at a friend's house in Somerset is showing lots of air traffic. It's been building over the last month or so, with last week showing a marked increase in the amount of aircraft seen overhead. This location has much greater range due to its optimal location.

My own Pi is showing similar levels of activity although mine only has a range of about 40 miles, compared to the Somerset one at around 150 miles range. The first image was taken on the 21st of July 2020, the second image from today, the 12th of August 2020.

[HPsauce]

I accidentally saw another interesting large transport aircraft yesterday, on the edge of UK airspace, a Boeing 747 DreamLifter. On it's way from Italy to I'd guess the USA somewhere.

I'd never heard of it, but it's a (very) wide-bodied 747-400 now mostly used by Boeing to transport aircraft sections (largely for the Dreamliner) from suppliers to their assembly plants.
There are only 4 and Boeing now own all of them, though they didn't used to.

[johnny_quattro]

Possibly shifting stuff for the Covid-19 cause?

Boeing's 747-400LCF Dreamlifter has flown its first COVID-19 airlift mission, flying 1.5 million medical face masks from Hong Kong to South Carolina (report from April 2020)

The Dreamlifter is one of the largest cargo planes flying thanks to its oversized fuselage, built to aid 787 Dreamliner production and part transport.

Four of the modified Boeing 747-400 freighters are currently flying with three being offered for aid missions.

[johnny_quattro]

N718BA 01/09/2007 Dreamlifter
N747BC 22/08/2001 Converted to 747-4J6LCF by EVA Air 08/2006
N780BA 17/12/2004 Converted to 747-409LCF Dreamlifter 16/02/07
N249BA 17/05/2006 Converted to 747-409LCF Dreamlifter 10/2006

I will certainly watch out for those tail numbers/registrations on my logs :-)

[HPsauce]

Oddly there's a BA 747 showing at Heathrow at present - G-CIVH.

[steamship]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

Oddly there's a BA 747 showing at Heathrow at present - G-CIVH.

According to the site http://thebasource.com/, the plane was placed into storage there on the 18th March. They appear to have them dotted around various locations.

[HPsauce]

Just saw an A380 (Emirates) going over quite low leaving LHR for Dubai while above it an AirACT 747 was leaving a big contrail at 36,000 ft going to Shannon from Istanbul.

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

Just saw an A380 (Emirates) going over quite low leaving LHR for Dubai

And another one just now, so at least 2 today!
They make a very distinctive noise and I was sitting outside having a beer on our patio and thought - that's not the sound of a common-or-garden twin-jet!

[HPsauce]

Heard an unusual plane noise yesterday and looking on Flightradar24 it was an Antonov An-26B. No call sign, origin or destination so it's a mystery!
It was travelling from NW to SE at a "middling" altitude, below 20,000ft IIRC.

Incidentally Emirates are still flying A380s, there's one on the tarmac at Heathrow that looks likes it's heading to Dubai shortly.
(Edit, it just took off ...)

[steamship]

Watched a video on YouTube earlier this week and it mentioned that the president Tim Clark said they would be flying the A380 for 'at least' the next decade. It also mentioned about three new A380s being delivered, and according to the planespotters website, they have 115 in the fleet of which only 15 are operational, plus another 7 on order. Hate to think of how much it costs to have 100 aircraft parked up, yet still being maintained.

EDIT: Found the video. It's on the "Dj's Aviation" channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNyLSjm6I2w