Are we at war already

That’s interesting. Just like Northumbria and the Lakes, then!

There’s an army base about 20km from us, outside Fontevraud l’Abbaye. I wonder if there is a connection.

Not military (I think) but a quite large flying boat came over the house yesterday. First I’ve seen in many years. It had pontoons and the characteristic double concave hull.

Quite likely to be a Catalina which, funnily enough, is featured on the poster for this event:

Could have been a Grumman Albatross. Not that many large flying boats still operational these days.

Can’t do the add photo thing but was it a Canadair Water Bomber? Several European countries have them

I loved flying boats and the principles of operating them, but obviously the advantages of not building so many ground based airports were outweighed by the disadvantages

That was my first thought. Looked it up, and France has several Bombadier/Canadair CL-415 flying boats for firefighting but they’re all bright yellow whereas this was mostly white/silver grey. Pretty sure it wasn’t a Fregat F-100 either as It looked ‘old style’ if you know what I mean whereas that looks quite modern with winglets.

We boarded a Concorde in a museum a few years ago. It looked really old-fashioned and a bit primitive, to be honest, with not much legroom. The Concordski was there too, a lot bigger.

Didn’t it grow about a metre during supersonic flight?

More like 25cm…

Years ago i talked to someone who had been involved in finding a paint that could cope with the expansion. Perhaps he exaggerated. :slightly_smiling_face:

Years ago Brian Trubshaw gave me the information but I dare say the paint researcher knew much more about the subject :wink:

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Yes but would you have flown in a Concordski? :thinking:

Only a few metres longer, and wider. Not much bigger inside. The TU-144 had a much larger wing area which made it look much bigger. That was mainly because they had huge issues with subsonic instability that Concorde overcame with a much more sophisticated wing design. The much larger wing meant much more weight and hence much more fuel making the TU-144 stupendously inefficient.

That elegant aircraft, however impractical by some standards, and despite a terrible dramatic crash during its final days, was truly a magical example of human engineering and remains for me an unforgettable memory.

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David I gave the wrong link so try this one

You can select military in the option on right hand side or create a height corridor to selerct low flying aircraft.

I live under a east/west low flying corridor so see many interesting aircraft such as apache helicopters dakotas, spitfires, lancasters at 1000-2000 ft

Just had a quick look at that but I see a drawback immediately. A bit clunky moving the screen area around, zooming in and out, took me several minutes to find my location whereas it is seconds with Flightradar.
Also, when I click on an aircraft it doesn’t tell me origin and destination. Absolutely vital info when tracking my son because they sometimes seem to change flight numbers and the only way I can pick him up is by clicking on several planes until I find the one covering the correct route.

Might have a longer look later though. :grinning:

Of course not! But it looked great from the outside.

I have passed by there on the Autobahn. I was surprised to pass by another Concorde on the bus from the airport into Seattle. The one at Yeovilton was less of a surprise.

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