London Heathrow #2

The following pictures are from the gate 8 area at London Heathrow's terminal 1. If you ever get the chance, this is a great place to take photos from - it is as close as you will ever get to a runway and it's floor to ceiling glass. The only thing to watch for is an apparent blue tint in the glass and the usual reflections.

Top to bottom are:

Airbus A319-131, G-EUPH, of British Airways with a special livery. This is the aircraft that flew me to Dublin.
Airbus A319-131, G-EUPY, of British Airways in the normal livery
Airbus A340-642, G-VRED, of Virgin Atlantic Airways
Airbus A300B4-622R(F), D-AEAR, of DHL
Finally, one last photo from outside the Giraffe food outlet in T1:
Airbus A320-211, D-AIPC, of Lufthansa with the Star Alliance livery

London Heathrow #1

Two days ago I transited through London Heathrow [ICAO code: EGLL] airport - a memorable experience as it turned out!

I had never transited through Heathrow before. It is a huge airport, and I knew I had to go through immigration and transfer from terminal 5 to terminal 1. I had 3 hours to do it.

Turns out it was very very easy! On arrival, I asked and was directed to the terminal transfer bus. This resulted in a 17/ 18 minute ride around airside to get to terminal 1 - a free airside tour thrown in :-) Nice. Immigration was done in terminal 1 and it didn't take long before I was in the very familiar surroundings of the terminal 1 departure area.

I was heading to Dublin, and so after a feed, a walk around and a few photos, I headed to the departure gates - waiting at gate 8 initially, before being directed to gate 78 - a long walk, although probably only 5 minutes.

Anyway, here are a few photos from the main terminal 1 area - from behind the Giraffe food outlet. Top to bottom we have:

Boeing 787-8, N961AM, of AeroMexico
Boeing 737-8K2, PH-BXA, of KLM in an historic livery
Boeing 777-368/ER, HZ-AK13, of Saudi Arabian
Boeing 777-336ER, G-STBK, of British Airways
Airbus A380-841, 9M-MND [as best I can tell], of Malaysia Airlines

Brussels National Airport #3

Here is my final post of aircraft from Brussels National Airport. Top to bottom are:

Airbus A319-111, G-EZAZ, of Easyjet Airline
Boeing 737-322, JY-JAD, of Jordan Aviation
Boeing 737-8B6, CN-RGN, of Royal Air Maroc. It's not a great photo, but I like the livery
Airbus A320-233, LY-VEP, of Avion Express
Lastly, my favourite aircraft from Brussels... it's a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, A7-BCM, of Qatar Airways!

Brussels National Airport #2

Here are some more photos from Brussels National Airport. Top to bottom are:

Embraer ERJ-190-100STD, OO-JEB, of Jetairfly [TUI Airlines Belgium]
Airbus A319-112, OO-SSK, of Brussels Airlines
Bombardier CRJ-701ER, D-ACPP, of Lufthansa Regional [Lufthansa Cityline]
Airbus A320-211, TS-IMD, of Tunisair
Airbus A319-112, EI-IMB, of Alitalia

Brussels National Airport #1

Yesterday I took two flights, firstly from Brussels National Airport [ICAO code: EBBR] to London Heathrow [EGLL], then from London Heathrow to Dublin [EIDW]. While at Brussels, I took the opportunity to take a few photos.

Unlike many airports, Brussels provides signage to point passengers to the viewing areas, which despite poor glass in  some places, they do give good views of the terminal area and one of the runways.

Anyway, on to the photos. Top to bottom we have:

Left side of Terminal B, including Airbus A320-214, A6-ANK of Air Arabia and Airbus A330-243, A6-EYR of Etihad Airways
Right side of Terminal B
Airbus A320-214, EC-JTR, Vueling Airlines
De Havilland Canada DHC-8-402Q, YL-BBU, of Air Baltic
Airbus A320-323, SX-DVJ, of Aegean Airlines

Air

Brussels Air Museum - Last photos

What follows are the final photos I am publishing from my visit. There were of course a lot more aircraft than what I have published or photographed and if you're into tanks and guns and everything else war-like, there is a lot more to see.

Entry to the museum is free except for special exhibitions so it is well worth going to visit!

Anyway, top to bottom we have:

Voisin de Caters [replica but with the original engine and propeller]
Supermarine Spitfire Mk X1V
Sikorsky S-58, OT-ZKF
Not sure of the type, but this helicopter comes with the worst camo & hi-viz combi I have seen :-)
There was no sign, but this appears to be a Link trainer, or similar, with an awesome body kit and paint job!

Brussels Air Museum - Jet fighters

No aviation museum with a military flavour would be complete without some jet fighters. Here are just a few of the jet fighters at the Brussels Air Museum!

Top to bottom are:

Dassault M.D. 450 Ouragan [yes, I also thought this was a MiG at first glance...]
North American F86F Sabre
Dassault Mirage 5
McDonnell-Douglas F4 Phantom II
General Dynamics F16

Brussels Air Museum - Smaller Aircraft

OK, so here are some of the smaller aircraft at the Brussels Air Museum. Top to bottom we have:

De Havilland Canada DHC3 Otter on skis!
Morane-Saulnier MS 315
Percival Gull, G-ACGR
Morane-Saulnier MS 892 Rallye, OO-TAU
Piper PA18 Super Cub
Nord 1002 Pingouin 2 [version of the Messerchmitt Bf108 Taifun]
Dornier DO 27
Tipsy Trainer

Brussels Air Museum - Larger aircraft

Here are some of the larger aircraft from the Brussels Air Museum. My favourite by far is the SUD Caravelle VI N, previously operated by Sabena [Belgium World Airlines].

If you look carefully, you'll also see a P38, though perhaps not the P38 you were expecting :-)

Anyway, top to bottom we have:

SUD Caravelle VI N, OO-SRA, previously of Sabena
Douglas DC3 Dakota, OT-CWG
Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar
Pembroke P-38, OT-ZAD
Junkers JU 52/M3

These Belgians do museums good!

As previously announced, I went to the Brussels Air Museum yesterday. The air museum is part of a much larger military focused museum and, if I had taken the directly route, would have only been about a 1 hour walk from my hotel [which is right next to Brussels Midi train station].

Here are a couple of photos to get us started. You'll see from the first of these, that the Belgians do museums pretty good! The entrance was on the other side and to the left of the massive arches [sorry Berlin, these look bigger and more impressive than yours!].