Low-flying Chinooks

[BSRU]

See military aircraft all the time, Swindon is surrounded by military airfields.

 

[Bromptonaut]

Interesting thread; when I'm not a bike nut I'm loking at aircraft. .

Mrs B came in this eve and asked if I knew why 4 Chinooks were formated over Wellingborough this morning. The response that Osama's brother had been found in Kettering was not well met!!

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Just to update, saw a Chinook over Oldham around 6 pm. Don't know what it was doing.

Carry on.

Ummm, flying I'd imagine!

 

[brockers]

Extraordinary to think they've been around for almost fifty years.

So much military aircraft has been around for that long. Amazing really when the speed of development of early aircraft was so rapid. Just think, the time from the Wright brothers' first flight, to Frank Whittle's initial jet engine contraption design was only 27 years. Now, we've still got shedloads of stuff flying that was designed in the sixties and earlier like the C130 Hercules, and lots of others I can't think of. Oh yes, B52s - which they reckon will still be airborne in the middle of the century, making them 100 years old. Even when you look at the current Tornado fighter/bomber, its concept was proposed in the late sixties, and they're still in use after thirty years. But I suspect they've had a re-bore and an oil and filter change in that time.

 

[gbb]

Ive always thought...how do they last so long ? (planes, helicopters etc)
The truth is (i assume) that as long as you've a stong airframe to fit everything to, the rest of the plane bears no resemblance (barring a passing one) to the same plane 30/40/50 years ago.
Its the advances in avionics, propulsion systems etc that keep them in the air for so long. I'll bet if you compare a first generation Tornado (or any other early aircraft), the new ones will be faster, more efficient, more...everything.

 

[sunnyjim]

Ive always thought...how do they last so long ? (planes, helicopters etc)
The truth is (i assume) that as long as you've a stong airframe to fit everything to, the rest of the plane bears no resemblance (barring a passing one) to the same plane 30/40/50 years ago.
Its the advances in avionics, propulsion systems etc that keep them in the air for so long. I'll bet if you compare a first generation Tornado (or any other early aircraft), the new ones will be faster, more efficient, more...everything.

'expensive' is the word you're groping for.