Spotted - nice aircraft you’ve seen today

[W12GT]

This beauty flew over our garden today, looked huge in the flesh but the photo doesn’t do it justice (apologies for the quality but only had a second to grab my phone). It was quite low (guessing 1000ft ish) and those engines made a beautiful sound! What was it?

[heisthegaffer]

Douglas Dakota

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_C-47_Skytr...

[Eric Mc]

A Douglas C-47 Skytrain (as it’s in USAAF markings).
“Dakota” was the British name for it.

[W12GT]

Thanks! It such a treat to see something that age still flying. Which remind me…we must take our kids to an air show this year…

[Castrol for a knave]

We had a Royal Jordanian Herc and James Whittaker's Sikorsky, on the way to Trafford Park maybe.

We live in the staging area for the Mach Loop, so we get everything from Dutch F16 to Ospreys.

[Zippee]

We get a lot of spitfires and mustangs over this way but my favourite today is quite basic - a dehavilland dragon rapide and a spartan executive.
Both lovely planes and very elegant..

Helps that there was an airshow down the road at shuttleworth

[Simpo Two]

Eric Mc said:

A Douglas C-47 Skytrain (as it’s in USAAF markings).
“Dakota” was the British name for it.

For pure anorak goodness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Douglas_DC-3...

I rather like the much rarer C46: https://www.airvectors.net/avc46.html

[Jo-say8k]

I saw that Dakota today too!
Had a p-47 thunderbolt and a p-51 mustang fly over together yesterday

[48k]

We had a Lancaster displaying overhead for a few minutes this afternoon. Sounded epic.

[darreni]

48k said:

We had a Lancaster displaying overhead for a few minutes this afternoon. Sounded epic.

It flew directly over us in Somerset at 500ft according to flight radar. You could hear it a good bit before you could see it .

[lrdisco]

Above Ambleside. Missed photographing the Typhoons 2 minutes before.

[Eric Mc]

Simpo Two said:

For pure anorak goodness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Douglas_DC-3...

I rather like the much rarer C46: https://www.airvectors.net/avc46.html

Big fan of the C-46. It’s actually quite a bit bigger than a C-47

[Alex Z]

No photos, but the SAAB Draken was displaying at Ragley today. Fascinating to see a rare beastie like that, but it didn’t stay for that long.

[GliderRider]

A Spitfire went over whilst I was having breakfast and a Pitts Special was doing aerobatics over Chichester harbour whilst I was out on the paddleboard around 1.30pm.

[Zippee]

Alex Z said:

No photos, but the SAAB Draken was displaying at Ragley today. Fascinating to see a rare beastie like that, but it didn’t stay for that long.

Saw that advertised on Facebook, would have loved to have seen that fly as I like seeing the rare European stuff when they visit.

[Riley Blue]

Zippee said:

Alex Z said:

No photos, but the SAAB Draken was displaying at Ragley today. Fascinating to see a rare beastie like that, but it didn’t stay for that long.

Saw that advertised on Facebook, would have loved to have seen that fly as I like seeing the rare European stuff when they visit.

I read that the event had permit and ATC issues so the fast jet displays were little more than fly-bys.

ETA: apparently the Draken wasn't cleared by ATC to route to Ragley so had to hold in the air using fuel and had insufficient remaining to do its full display. Whatever the reason, a big disappointment for those who went specifically to see it; I was almost one of them.

Edited by Riley Blue on Monday 5th June 09:36

[Simpo Two]

Eric Mc said:

Big fan of the C-46. It’s actually quite a bit bigger than a C-47

'wingspan was 1.2 meters (4 feet) wider than that of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress'

I'd never seen or heard of it until there was one being used in one of those 'very cold Alaska airports' type series.

[Sixpackpert]

W12GT said:

This beauty flew over our garden today, looked huge in the flesh but the photo doesn’t do it justice (apologies for the quality but only had a second to grab my phone). It was quite low (guessing 1000ft ish) and those engines made a beautiful sound! What was it?

That flew over us in Gloucester on Saturday afternoon.

[Zippee]

Riley Blue said:

Zippee said:

Alex Z said:

No photos, but the SAAB Draken was displaying at Ragley today. Fascinating to see a rare beastie like that, but it didn’t stay for that long.

Saw that advertised on Facebook, would have loved to have seen that fly as I like seeing the rare European stuff when they visit.

I read that the event had permit and ATC issues so the fast jet displays were little more than fly-bys.

ETA: apparently the Draken wasn't cleared by ATC to route to Ragley so had to hold in the air using fuel and had insufficient remaining to do its full display. Whatever the reason, a big disappointment for those who went specifically to see it; I was almost one of them.

Edited by Riley Blue on Monday 5th June 09:36

That's a big shame as it would have been the main attraction for many.

[Eric Mc]

Simpo Two said:

'wingspan was 1.2 meters (4 feet) wider than that of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress'

I'd never seen or heard of it until there was one being used in one of those 'very cold Alaska airports' type series.

They started life as the CW-20 (CW stood for Curtis Wright) and were intended to be pressurised - which is why it had that rather bulbous fuselage. However, World War 2 intervened and only one (non-pressurised) CW-20 was built.This particular aircraft entered wartime service with BOAC.



The production line was commandeered for the war effort and given the US Army designation of C-46. None of the production C-46s were pressurised either.

They were used extensively in the Far East and became famous for their heavy haulage over "The Hump" route from India to China.



This Lufthansa C-46 was a frequent visitor to Heathrow in the 1960s.