Boeing's blended wing

Flying wings - no bodies, no tailplane, just a wing - are hardly new, but this interesting Boeing/NASA concept blends wing and fuselage with multiple control surfaces - and may actually lead somewhere. Or not, as the case may be ;-)

It's lift-off for Ansett 727 RMV

Ansett 727 Romeo Mike Victor lifts off from rwy 16 at Sydney... circa 1973.

Ansett L188 Electra at Sydney

Well almost at Sydney... lights ablaze, it's Romeo Mike Delta on approach to Sydney's rwy 16, circa 1976. These Lockheed Electras were originally Ansett's mainline pre-jet era fleet, and in effect an insurance policy in case the 727s couldn't cut the mustard. But they did, so the L188s were gradually pushed onto out-of-peak services, and finally onto late night cargo duties. Being turbo-props they evaded Sydney's night jet-curfew.

Military pics too

Yes, we even have a few military aircraft in the gallery, like these... an ex-RAAF Mustang, flame-throwing F111s and some RAN A4 Skyhawks.

Sometimes even Fokkers crash - EWA F27

Yes folks, like the sharemarket, planes can crash. This is what was left of the fuselage of East West F27 VH-PWM after it struck the ground on approach near Bathurst, NSW. (Pic taken at Bankstown airport months later, circa 1977. (Someone look that up please.) Basically it slid wheels-up and flattened the bottom. Not the worst crash but one of the more common. Still it's safer - far safer - than driving on public roads.

Air India Boeings at Sydney

Again - still dealing with the letter A - we have many Air India shots, also at Sydney. Both 707s and 747s, individual and in sequence (as in taxying, more taxying, taking off and disappearing...). Samples include this 747 disappearing behind a house (actually my house at the time!) on approach to Sydney's runway 16 and a 707 taking off in a cloud of smoke from the same runway.

Images from Sydney and Bankstown airports: 1975 and 76

Folks, I have updated the galleries... airliner, military, historical and light/executive. Here's a sample...

From 1975 we have a series of images of an Air New Zealand DC10 taxying at Sydney Airport... and from 1976 a shot of ZK-NZG in the air on approach to Sydney. Both images are shot with a Pentax K2 or KX loaded with Kodak Tri-X, 1/125th sec .

Skycontrol news link

Looks like a useful aviation news aggregator, if you don't already get enough news...

Back to the 70s - a TAA DC9 at Sydney

Here's a shot a TAA DC9 lining up for Runway 25 at Sydney, sometime in 1974...I'm hanging off that rusty fence near the Adastra hangar, or maybe sitting on a shipping container...

Aircraft spotting via Google Earth

Yes, I do it too. There's a DC3 at the southern end of Warnervale strip, Wyong NSW Australia for example. And here's an interesting crash site (no fatalities, if it's the crash people think it was). Personally I just like looking at the airports and their facilities and seeing what's there. And sometimes tilting the view and pretending to land. Hey, some people like Flight Simulator, too ;-)

Things have gone strange

OK, I haven't fixed everything... since moving to the beta Blogger platform the design of the page has gone south with the Google ads and background being first casualties. I'll see what's happed and fix it up. I'm still scanning away and hope to have plenty of new pics from the 70's up in the gallery soon.

Cheers, Rob.

The links are fixed - and more pics uploaded

Yes, I moved things around on the server and we have gone to the beta Blogger platform as well, so some sym links didn't, umm, link. They are fixed.

Check out the new (ie old) black and white aviation pics, growing almost daily.

Here's a sample: The Red Baron and his Fokker TriPlane replica fly again (Schofields Air Show, Sept 1976)...

Airport maps and info on the web

Here's a cool tool. Lots of airport maps (just the US it appears to me, but I could be wrong)with plenty of info and links to other sites. Useful and absorbing if you have some time to surf.

Fancy some black and white shots?

I'm thinking CPAir DC-8 Super 63, the really long fuselage gives it away; an Air NSW Viewmaster DC3 (the big square window conversion) and an AirNiugini 707 flying through some bad weather coming into Sydney in the 70s. The Aircraft gallery is here.

Concorde taking off

You won't see this again... it looks like the future but it's very much the past. I'm not happy with the smoke and noise but it's undeniably beautiful.

A dusty old shot of Romeo Mike Zulu

OK, so it's a dusty old shot of VH-RMZ at Sydney... but don't we have a soft spot for Ansett, a brand that gobbled up so many smaller airlines, grew fat and got gobbled itself, then spat out like used gum? Well it seemed like that anyway, so no offence to the gum-chewers.

Aircraft gallery

Don't forget I have an Aircraft Gallery right here! Most of these images date back to the 70s and 80s and there's an airliner bias.

Anyone like to see an EWA DC3?

Well I would. This is VH PWM, an East West Airlines machine, at the 'civilian' side of Williamtown RAAF base just a few short years ago.... OK, some 30 years ago.

Here's a gallery of airliner images. And another of airliner postcards.

More aviation images

You want more airliner pics - especially from the 70s and 80s? Look here!

How did I take that shot of a QF 747? I stood on a wire fence at Sydney airport and waited.

Airliner art - Western Douglas DC4

More postcards here.

How small is small?

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, AAP or perhaps Airbus itself, small is an aircraft of around 100 seats. The report states in part: "Small jets could soon use Bankstown (June 21, 2006 - 9:49PM). Bankstown Airport in Sydney could be used for domestic commercial flights by small jet aeroplanes within a few years.European aeroplane manufacturer Airbus met with Bankstown Airport to discuss commercial flights by the A318 100-seat aircraft between Bankstown and Australian state capitals." Full article here.

Now I agree that using Bankstown to its fullest makes sense, but 100 seats? Steep glideslope? Mixed with a huge volume of light aircraft? I haven't flown out of Bankstown for probably 30 years (feels like just yesterday) and it used to be pretty hairy with the mix of faster and slow aircraft in circuit to parallel runways. Add in a Learjet and it gets v. interesting. That aside, I've seen aircraft the size of Vickers Viscounts at Bankstown and it seemed to cope. On the other hand some of the runways have been closed recently, I believe, so the options for separating traffic may have been reduced. Lastly there is that old problem with a clash with Sydney's runway 07/25... let alone the neighbours and their opinions!

Postcards at GTVeloce

You'll find some scans of postcards here.

More airliner pics

You'll find pics like this one here.

Welcome to Aviation images and postcards @ GTVeloce.com

Folks

Copyright is reserved on all images, be it my own or other attributed work - please ask before using. Otherwise feel free to browse the content here.

More airliner art...

More Airliner Images here...