What's going on in the air?

[Adrian E]

The A380s do an impressive job of blocking out the sun when they take off over Datchet/Slough - I race toy cars in a park in Slough and it's one of those weird experiences where everything goes dark and you wonder why!

In other news, BA seem to be rotating their fleet maintenance at Gatwick by flying a Southerly loop over Crawley at 4k feet. Luckily they're all quiet planes, but is odd to look up and see large planes that low so far from the airport!

[HPsauce]

Intriguingly an Emirates A380 left at 9pm tonight for Dubai and another Emirates one from Heathrow actually landed in Dubai a few minutes later, so multiple daily flights, today at least!

Also there's a BA A380 currently "on manoeuvres" at Heathrow. It flew in yesterday from Chatearoux in France, an airport I've never heard of. Looking it up it seems to be an ex-military base now used for maintenance, training and some other functions. I wonder if the plane was being "fettled" for a return to service?

[steamship]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

Chatearoux in France

Chateauroux is ominously known as a 'plane graveyard', where BA sent their A380s. I only know this because I'd watched loads of YouTube videos of airports around the world with runways and taxiways strewn with planes.

...came across this video of the Chateauroux airport: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQD_Hxoj6XA

[oldnick]

it's where veolia have their aircraft dismantling site , I read somewhere that veolia have 180,000 employees world wide !
if I remember correctly concorde crews used to be trained

[HPsauce]

By the looks of it a number of BA A380s have been moving back and forth between there and Heathrow. Maybe for maintenance work to keep them airworthy or to keep crew flying hours up?

[HPsauce]

On the big plane front a Ukrainian Antonov 124 just went over heading for Brize Norton, according to Wikipedia still the largest military transport aircraft in current service.

Pretty much at the same time as another Emirates A380 left Heathrow for Dubai. And the BA A380 G-XLEK is still lurking at Heathrow.

[steamship]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

On the big plane front a Ukrainian Antonov 124 just went over heading for Brize Norton, according to Wikipedia still the largest military transport aircraft in current service.

Strange they don't list the Antonov 225 as the largest, with its six engines and 32 wheels! Would hate to be checking the tyre pressures on those. Maybe because there is only one of them.

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

BA A380 G-XLEK is still lurking at Heathrow.

No longer, it returned to the boneyard earlier this afternoon.

[27litres]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

On the big plane front a Ukrainian Antonov 124 just went over heading for Brize Norton, according to Wikipedia still the largest military transport aircraft in current service.

It depends on your definition of largest.
Excusing the AN225 (as stated elsewhere it's now being used by a commercial outfit, so isn't 'military'), the other very large transport is the US C5 Galaxy, which was the worlds largest plane outright for nearly 20 years.

The C5 Galaxy is longer than the AN124 and has a higher Gross weight.
AN124 has a greater wingspan and beats the C5 in payload by 20 odd tonnes, making it a (slightly) better transport (127T vs 150T payloads).

All three (C5, AN124, AN225) are beaten in wingspan by Howard Hughes' H4 Hercules "Spruce Goose"! At nearly 100m across, it was only beaten in wingspan itself by the experimental Boeing Stratolaunch just over a year ago. So a 72 year record!