OT: VE day warplanes

This afternoon a trio of warplanes (a bomber and 2 fighters, can't pretend to know their types), made a fly past, presumably to celebrate the VE day anniversary.

Pretty impressive sight, as they were flying very low, and in close formation.

Part of me cannot help wondering, though, how sensible it is to make these flights over densely populated urban areas. These are very old planes, designed at a time when our technology was less advanced and safety priorities were skewed by the necessities of war. Flying so close and low, there can't be much time to react is anything goes wrong, and the consequences of an accident could be catastrophic.

Am I way off the mark here?

Dom

Reply to
anon
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No you aren't. Duxford in Cambridgeshire regulary sees these planes hit the nearby M11

Reply to
Mike

The planes may be old design, but they are fully renovated, or mostly built from scratch again now'a'days, and they do have a lot more safety features built-in than they used to have during war time. The Civil Aviation People wouldn't allow them to fly if they didn't come up to quite modern safety standards.

But they do fly hell'of'a'low though, don't they? :-)

Reply to
BigWallop

That will be the Battle of Britain flight, Lancaster bomber and Spitfire and Hurricane fighters.

Dave

Reply to
dave stanton

And if it wasn't for those planes, and the people who flew them defending this country 65 years ago, most of us would not be here.

Reply to
ian henden

Good grief. I know Political Correctness was going a bit far, but this is ridiculous. These planes are a part of everyone's heritage and it's wonderful to s3ee them fly.

Out of interest, how many aeroplane accidents can you recall in UK that have happened over cities, causing 'catastrophic consequences, that were due to a planes age?

Planes, of every age and type, fly over densely populated areas every minute of the day, the chances of any accident are so remote that it's, IMHO, a risk worth taking. And yes, I live under the flight path of a local Airport.

Yes.

While they're flying there's no problem. :)

Reply to
The Caretaker

---------------8<

_Most_ of us? Maybe you need to define "us" in order to make that one work.

Reply to
nog

No it doesn't. There was one that overran the runway and ended up on the M11 a few years ago but apart from that I can't think of any other cases of a plane on the M11. I think that was blamed on pilot error. I think the M1 has had as many planes as the M11, only in that case it was a fairly modern passenger jet.

Reply to
Dave {Reply Address in.sig}

DC3 Dakota aircraft of the same age as the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight are still used in commercial service in some parts of the world. If the aircraft is properly maintained there isn't a problem.

Ian

Reply to
Ian

I too find such flights exciting but I can't help wondering if it is not all part of a shameful triumphalism and glorification of war.

-- UK Radical Campaigns

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Don't vote, it only encourages them. If voting changed anything they'd make it illegal.

Reply to
iiiiDougiiii

Well they could fly at civil aviation flight levels for the area, same heights as other planes passing by. But then you wouldn't see a lot. The pilots of these planes specialise in low level and formation flying. And the planes are as safe when low in built up areas as airliners. Yet you don't hear many complaints about airliners being dangerous when flying over urban areas do you?

Martin <

Reply to
Martin Davies

No, it's about commemorating those who fought and most especially those who fought and died. That why it's known as the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight

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Reply to
Brimstone

Spot on. Those aircraft are maintained and flown by the Royal Air Force. They are stripped and reassembled annually, and their flying hours are restricted, as are the manoeuvres they are allowed to perform.

Reply to
Bystander

Yes, your just another small minded scaremongering idiot who knows f*ck all about f*ck all. Go away and learn something about how this world works and most especially about what aircraft such as those represent, the job they and the men who flew them did and what they achieved. You can start here

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There are many more web sites dedicated to the men, women and machines of all the armed and civilian services who fought to keep not only these islands but the rest of the world free of Naziism.

Or would you prefer to be speaking and writing in German with your every move watched by the Gestapo?

Reply to
Brimstone

You obviously know little of the level of design of the average light aircraft, if you think the Battle of Britain flight is significantly less advanced than many of the aircraft flying today.

You would be surprised at how long you have to react if something goes wrong in a fixed wing aircraft that is established in level flight.

You are. They have to comply with Rule 5 of the Rules of the Air, which sets a requirement for any aircraft flying over a congested (i.e. built-up) area to maintain a minimum height of 1,000 feet (recently reduced from 1,500 feet) above the highest object in the area, or, in the case of single engine aircraft, high enough to be able to land clear of the congested area if the engine fails. The Thames counts as somewhere to land clear, which is why the main helicopter route through London follows it. I don't know the glide ratio of a Hurricane or Spitfire, but I would be surprised if they did much less than about 1.5-2 miles for every 1,000 feet.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
nightjar

...

IIRC the aircraft was also involved in an aerobatic display, which is intrinsically more hazardous than straight and level flight.

As also happened with the M27, where a passenger jet ran off the end of Eastleigh Airport, and the executive jet that ran off the end of the runway at Northolt, hitting a van.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
nightjar

AFAIK it happened once (I think it was an Me109 that had engine problems) - 'hardly counts as "regular".

Dave S

Reply to
Dave

Care to define regularly?

Reply to
Buzby

'anon's post is clearly an early morning cross posting breakfast troll.

RT

Reply to
[news]

memory of me old dad who was a mechanic on one and was notorious for wringing off cylinder head nuts with the remark;

" If he 'as a problem with that, then he'll more than likely end up in the drink or behind jerry lines, so it won't be my problem"

My uncle is on a picture up there somewhere, leading aircraftman Sidney Case esq!.....

Reply to
tony sayer

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