Naim flight club

Thanks Richard!  Am usually more adept at googling answers, but gave up after not being able to link the album cover to an airplane type.  Now if I had just noticed the word "Strato" on the tail....doh!  You are correct sir - Boeing 377 Stratocruiser.  Pan Am named each a "Clipper", for example, the "Clipper Midnight Sun", or the "Clipper of the Sovereign Skies" (which crash landed in the Pacific....an amazing story of great piloting and survival!).

And yes, I too remember getting to visit the cockpit as a boy and getting my "wings"!  What a shame that future generations of kids will never have that amazing experience...

ATB.

Hook

One of the prettiest modern jets, the F-16 is in there somewhere. Duxford again.

Incredible picture tony

That is a shame, had almost become a landmark, even with its wings clipped

This is my mate Peter in his friends 36hp Luton Minor in 1976. Apparently it was a real bitch to fly..., a climb rate of less than 150ft / min. Over the years Peter has owned several aircraft of his own too.

I spent many many hours flying these when I was younger..., good memories!

Classic metal

i just love seeing Mitchells being chucked around at Duxford FL show 

Classic wood...

The Comet

Flew in a few Dan Dare Comets when I was a lad. Mum was petrified.. LOL. I loved every minute of it, as did Dad!

J

Another gorgeous de Havilland, the Dove.

Yet another British beaut - the lovely HS Trident:

Certainly looks like a Boeing Stratocaster, developed from a Superfortress.

I remember well going to Heathrow Terminal 1 , actually the only terminal, and spotting, Strats, Constellations, DC3,4 and 6s,Yorks, Vikings, Ambassadors, Viscounts, etc, hours of fun. Even saw a Brabazon fly over.Moving to near Gatwick with about 2 flights an hour was a real drag.

We survived Dan Dare too, not in a Comet though.

I remember many a bumpy trip around the old Soviet Union in one of these ageing Aerflot YAK-42s - and the female flight attendants could not be described as glamourpusses. Frightful Gorgons would be a more accurate description.

The lower lounge of the 377 looks like it was fun.  I wonder if flying really did used to be more of a pleasant, even elegant experience...or am I just seeing the distant past through rose colored glasses?  I suspect things are safer today...in most ways.  Still, am dreading our MPL-JNB flight coming up In a few months...

Hook

No rose colored glasses. Certainly flying was much more comfortable and civilized in the US prior to deregulation. The difference in seat pitch alone would be eye-opening. It was also a lot more expensive and so far fewer people flew to exotic locals than can afford to do so today.

First class isn't what it used to be either. Now real money flies it's own or charters!

These are all aircraft that my dad flew during his career as a pilot. He flew quite a few others, too. But these are the ones I know about for sure. He only flew in a Hornet once, as a retirement gift from the RAAF.

that could be your best one yet Kevin LOL

Guys,

   am i right in thinking that there is a huge Russian plane that is so large, the only British airport it could use was stansted, as it had a longer runway?

I've had a couple of hair-raising internal flights in Russia too Kevin. Apparently the pilots on Aeroflot were all ex-russian air force, hence their rather disconcerting habit of plunging eathward at the last minute before landing...

Chaps

The most useful planes are those with either Ryanair or Easyjet written on the side.

Mick

I can well believe it Tony. I had an amazingly uncomfortable flight from Moscow to Alma-Ata once in - I think - a Tu-134, in which the plane hit some turbulence and half the passengers were sick as the pilot seemed to deal with the turbulence by dive-bombing.

This is the kind of old bollocks Aeroflot used to put in their inflight magazines back in the Soviet era. I still have a load somewhere, must dig them out.

I think Aeroflot only had one decent-looking flight attendant (or "hostess"/"stewardess" as they used to be known then) - the lady pictured above.

She seemed to appear in every issue of the Aerflot magazine, either on the cover or brightening up the interminable features on dams or Lenin's old summer dacha; always carrying a nice bunch of flowers (rather than the terrifying food, which mostly seemed to be gherkins or gristle fried in breadcrumbs, that most Aeroflot babushkas wielded).