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I was bopping around Salisbury today, heard a droning noise and looked up to see what it was. To my surprise, it was a DC3 Dakota in D-Day stripes.

This reminded me of a similar occasion in Reading a couple of years ago, when there was the noise of a large prop driven aircraft which turned out to be a B17.

I know there are a number of heritage aircraft still in operating condition. Presumably they go to air shows and so on in the summer. It is still a surprise to see them flying over our towns and cities.,

What interesting veteran aircraft have you seen flying around where you live? Not air shows I mean.

Years ago I once saw the Concorde in the air. That was when it was still in service, but it was still cool to see.

I'm sure I've probably seen many vintage aircraft in the air, but my eyesight isn't really that good so I wouldn't have recognized them as such. Here in Fort Worth I'm just a few miles away from a massive Lockheed facility, Carswell AFB/Naval Air Station, Alliance airport that has lots of air shows, and there is also a vintage aircraft museum on the Dallas side that sometimes does flights, I think.

I've seen a pair of Apaches fly over central London a couple of times (following the path of the Thames). That doesn't sound much to US readers but we hardly own any and it's unusual to have military craft over the capitol.

 Howard A Treesong wrote:
I've seen a pair of Apaches fly over central London a couple of times (following the path of the Thames). That doesn't sound much to US readers but we hardly own any and it's unusual to have military craft over the capitol.

Believe me, it's strange enough for folks here. We had a flight of Apaches fly over my hometown not to long ago, and conspiracy theories were abounding that ISIS was about to attack NW Michigan...

Most interesting sighting was this, out my window last year:



At the time I lived near a small local airport with no meaningful military traffic. I heard engine noise that sounded a lot louder than usual and grabbed my camera just as it flew past at treetop level on final approach. I'd never seen one there before, and I never saw one again.

 djones520 wrote:
Believe me, it's strange enough for folks here. We had a flight of Apaches fly over my hometown not to long ago, and conspiracy theories were abounding that ISIS was about to attack NW Michigan...

Lol. Here it's barely even worth looking up when they fly overhead, since I live near the approach and departure path to an airport and its national guard helicopter base. Sadly the navy jets that go through their regularly on training missions use a different runway.

I was hiking in the hills in Wales (Snowden?) and a Harrier came roaring through the valley, very low. I was fourteen or so and mad about planes then. It was extremely exciting.

While I haven't seen it out and about yet this year, here in Burlington it's not that uncommon to see the Lancaster flying about as we're very far at all from the Warplane Museum in Hamilton.

Mind you, after last year, I'm guessing they're still going over the plane's upkeep and maintenance due to having flown it over to England for the 70th anni shows & memorial events.

Living in Fairbanks Alaska was crazy. Local smoke jumpers flew B-24s. DC-3s where a common sight. C-45's without turbo upgrades. Grumman Goose, and a PBY all working aircraft. By working I mean comercial endeavors or private commuter aircraft. A local airport used to get visited by a Grumman duck, and a Piaggo Avanti too.

I grew up right by Norton AFB and they'd bring the SR-71 in on a fairly regular basis, god I loved that plane and you could always tell when it was coming in as the entire valley would rumble and shake like a mini earthquake. Even when it was 15-20 miles away it'd set off car alarms as it was powering up it's engines. Probably the most amazing plane to ever fly.

Seen a pair of tornadoes doing low flight over a hilly area, they practice mock runs on cars on the pass, it seems, roar over low and fast, very loud.

Good show too lol

Seen a good few ww2 planes at Duxford though, very good collection there.

SR71, damn that's a rare one, real engineering genius.

Once went to a local airfield to watch a pair of Messerschmitt Bf109s do a low altitude fly past. Had a thing for them ever since, despite them being, you know...

...German

The last flying Vulcan over our offices at Gaydon last autumn - as it used to be their operational base they put on a mini show for us! http://www.disco3.co.uk/forum/topic118023.html

I saw two F-22s flying over Charleston a month ago. It's common to see F18s and a few other rotary wing aircraft because of the airbase but I've never seen Raptors before.

Also saw an A10 Friday.