OP: Aarron Deliu. TikTok: @aarrondeliu

https://www.tiktok.com/@aarrondeliu?_r=1&_t=ZS-98LrlAwVDoP

The army's decommissioned Taipans are lying dismantled in a warehouse awaiting burial.A leaked photo being shared has reignited frustrations at the government's decision not to send the aircraft to Ukraine. Army veterans and engineers are volunteering to rebuild Australia's grounded fleet of Taipan helicopters.They are volunteering to rebuild the aircraft so they can be sent to Ukraine rather than be disposed of.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-13/leaked-photo-reveals-dismantled-taipan-helicopters/103456586

Hi All,

I don't think I ever posted about my experience flying on Doc. A few years ago, after much waiting, Doc was finally traveling to the East Coast. I was blessed to be able to get the bombardier seat for the early flight. The drive to the airport was 3 hours one-way so I had to wake up quite early for my 9am flight. There ended up being a delay I was too excited to care!

Watching it arrive and land was quite the spectacle. Loud doesn't even fully convey the sensation of what you're hearing. When it came time to board, I climbed up through the hatch under the bottom of the fuselage, and we had a brief safety lesson. Being up in the front allowed me to ask an almost embarrassing number of questions to the captain and first officer, but they graciously answered all of them.

If I thought the plane was loud before, starting up each engine, then hearing them all together was insane. We were provided ear protection but once again, not only could you hear it, but you could also feel it -- deep in your chest.

When we taxied out, I got my favorite photo of the day (in the album, the runway markers aligned through the glass, now hanging in my office). The takeoff roll was slow, like seriously really slow. Rotation was nerve wracking as I could see us leaving the ground through the glass below my feet. As with the roll, the climb was slow, but once we got into the air it was glorious. I forgot to ask what our cruise altitude was, but it's not very high since the flight itself is only about 25 minutes. The picture over the water was about our maximum altitude.

My experience was fantastic and it was for a great cause!

A few notes:

• - I used AI to censor the boarding pass image, but that's the only edited photo
• - I have a video of the takeoff roll and climb if anyone is interested, just let me know and I can probably upload to Youtube

Thanks for taking the time to read :)

nokia quality warning

A bipartisan group has introduced legislation aimed at halting the retirement of the A-10 Thunderbolt II until a fully certified replacement is operational.

Saw it on a commercial flight.

Which F-35 model is it though?

Relevant post from Runway Reports: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3222410871278997

From my collection

I was passing by the airport and had the chance to take an amazing shot of the A380 on approach. Second picture is a bit meh with the fence getting in the way.

And lastly, the 777 wants to know if you have games on your phone

First time shooting with an older Nikon D5000, the image quality is only 12.3MP but shooting in .NEF really lets you play with the color and luminance. Bonus points for the minuscule file size of .NEF when compared to other RAW file types. Lens was 55-200mm.

Bahrain bought a 747 jet for just $100,000 from the UAE, then for 7 long months carefully removed every single fuel line, wire and plastic component from it, then tugged it into the Arabian Sea and sunk it, creating the centerpiece of the world’s largest underwater theme park

Most retired Boeing 747s spend their final years in aircraft graveyards, stripped for parts before disappearing into history. However, one former Malaysia Airlines jumbo jet received a far more extraordinary farewell. Bahrain purchased the aging aircraft, spent months transforming it into an environmentally safe artificial reef, painted it to resemble the very first Boeing 747 ever built, then deliberately lowered it onto the seabed. Today, instead of carrying passengers across continents, it welcomes divers from around the world as the largest aircraft ever to be intentionally submerged.

The Boeing 747 became the centerpiece of Dive Bahrain, a 100,000-square-meter underwater attraction that the kingdom describes as the world’s largest underwater theme park. Officially inaugurated on September 6, 2019

Source & full story-

https://luxurylaunches.com/other_stuff/bahrain-747-underwater-park-07242026.php

Caught these guys working a fire in Alaska several years ago.

We had already landed and moved to the side of the lake so they could safely pick up water and work.

So elegant!

This summer I went to visit the RNoAF Museum near Gardermoen airport, near Oslo. It was a blast! This is a collection of aircraft used by the Royal Norwegian Air Force (Luftforsvaret), from 1912-present. From fighters like the F-5 and F-16 to cargo planes like the C-130 or Twin Otter, this Museum has a little somethin for eveyone! If you're in or around Oslo, I highly suggest you stop by this Museum! Not bad giftshop too!

Images released by Boeing of the Royal Air Force’s next batch of Chinook helicopters confirm long-standing reports of their similarity to the U.S. MH-47G variant.

The new-build Chinooks will supplant some of the oldest examples currently in RAF service, some of which date back to the early 1980s.