Looking remarkably intact is the prototype Brown Boveri Gas Turbine locomotive 18000 which spent its working life hauling express passenger trains from Paddington before being withdrawn in late 1960. The machine, as is perhaps inevitable with prototypes, proved neither reliable nor cheap to run. After withdrawal the locomotive was kept at Swindon Works for four years before being repatriated to mainland europe where the gas turbine was removed and the locomotive used as a testbed for experiments on rail-wheel interaction. Once these experiments were concluded the locomotive was put on display in Vienna in 1975 and was eventually secured for preservation in the UK in the early 1990s initially being stored at Crewe.

Although there is no realistic possibility of re-instating the original type of power unit, it is still good to see that the locomotive is safely in preservation. Externally, some repairs are needed, to be followed by a repaint to the original livery of black and silver. Internally, there is a good deal of conservation to be undertaken. The intention is to use 18000 as the focal point of a display relating to the post WW2 business plan for the 1950s, published by the GWR under the title 'NEXT STATION', of which the new gas turbine electric locomotive was an important part. (With thanks to the Didcot Railway Centre website for the above information).

A 1:1 scale replica of ESA’s ExoMars 2020 rover in the ‘Mars Yard’ of its ESTEC technical centre, inspected by members of the public during Sunday’s ESA Open Day in the Netherlands.

More than 7 500 visitors attended the ESA Open Day on 7 October, coming from all across Europe and beyond, as far away as Indonesia, Japan and South Korea.

ESA’s ExoMars rover, together with a Russian stationary surface science platform, is scheduled for launch in July 2020, arriving on Mars in March 2021. It will investigate how Mars has evolved and whether there may be conditions for life there.

It will travel across the martian surface and drill down to determine if evidence of life is buried underground, protected from the Sun’s radiation that bombards the surface of the 'Red Planet'. The rover will collect samples and analyse them with next-generation instruments – a fully fledged automated laboratory on Mars.

The competition to name the ExoMars rover closes at 23:59 BST (00:59 CEST) on Wednesday, 10 October.

Another testbed rover can be seen to the right of the ExoMars rover, in the 8 x 8 m terrain Mars Yard filled with different sizes of sand, gravel and rock, part of ESA’s Planetary Robotics Laboratory.

See more pictures from the ESA Open Day here.

Credits: ESA–G. Porter

Interesting history after its time with Uni Air ended in 2016. The MD-90 went on to become a non-airworthy engine testbed aircraft for Delta Air Lines between 2016 and 2020.

Something a little different. This is a reverse engineered B-29, based on USAF examples that crashed on Soviet soil. Tupelov design bureau built them. This one went to China where it was upgraded with turboprops and converted to an AWACS testbed! It’s now at the amazing PLAF Museum near Beijing.

Raytheon company | N580HH | Convair Cv-580 Testbed | Based and shot at Tucson International Airport (KTUS/TUS)

See more car pics on my facebook page!

- - -

The XK120 was launched in roadster form at the 1948 London Motor Show as a testbed and show car for the new Jaguar XK engine. It caused a sensation, which persuaded Jaguar founder and design boss William Lyons to put it into production.

The "120" in its name referred to its 120 mph (193 km/h) top speed (faster with the windscreen removed), which made the XK120 the world's fastest standard production car at the time of its launch.

It was available in two open versions, first as the roadster (designated OTS, for open two-seater, in America), then also as a drophead coupé (DHC) from 1953 – and also as a closed, or "fixed-head" coupé (FHC) from 1951. The DHC was a more deluxe open model, with wind-up windows, and wood-veneer dashboard and interior door caps, as on the FHC.

The roadster was successful in racing.

(Wikipedia)

Toulouse Blagnac Airport, 22/03/2019.

A330-841 c/n 1888

Nearly 50 years since it was left in the desert, the #1 engine on this YB-58A at Edwards AFB "Photo Resolution Range" still has a little something left in it...

After it's career as a prototype and testbed for weapons systems that would eventually find their way into other subsequent aircraft, this airframe was placed on static display out in the desert in the 1960s for use as an aerial reconnaissance test target. For more information on this specific aircraft, click here.

Night, full moon, red-gelled X-2000 flashlight from behind the nacelle frame.

Pratt & Whitney Canada’s Test Bed Boeing 720B at the National Air Force Museum at CFB Trenton - this was the last Boeing 720 in the world to fly and was donated to the museum by Pratt & Whitney

Memories from the railways as we knew them - the 1970s

This was the scene at Scarborough in August 1974. We had gone up on our 2 week annual holiday, and I was always torn between my love of the beach and my love of the trains :)

Although aged just 12, I was happy to roam around the station on my own, and in this shot I managed to capture a lined-up pair of the stylish Class 101 Met-Cam units, both with first class compartments leading. In the sidings in the distance one of the regular visiting Class 40s awaiting its next turn and a Mark 1 coach.

Class 101 Metro-Cammell units - One of the most numerous and widely used types, built for the ScR, NER/ER and LMR, later also based in WR with access to the SR. They updated version of the earlier Yellow Diamond Met-Camm Lightweights with the blue square control system. Including these early types and the more powerful Rolls-Royce engined variants later (Class 111s) a total of 760 Met-Camm vehicles were built.

When class numbers were introduced the vehicles were initially divided into Class 101s (the vehicles with AEC engines) and Class 102s (those with Leyland engines). Later the classes were rationalised with all becoming Class 101s.

The type was used as the testbed for refurbishment scheme in the 1970s, which led to many types being given a life-extension at a time when BR had no replacements for the ageing vehicles.

Many sets were given an additional "facelift" to see them become one of the last types to be phased out of traffic in the early years of the 2000s, only surpassed by some bubble cars returned to traffic. Many vehicles saw further use as parcels, sandite and route learning units, and many entered preservation.

Information courtesy of: railcar.co.uk/type/class-101/orders

Taken with my basic Kodak Brownie using 120 roll film.

You can see a random selection of my railway photos here on Flickriver: www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/

154002 was one of two prototype BR Sprinters built in 1984 and originally numbered 150001/150002. 150002 was experimentally modified as a "testbed" for future Class 158 sets and renumbered 154002. It is seen here running with this number at Burton on 21st. August 1989. It subsequently reverted to being 150002. 150001 & 150002 are still extant today; they are the only Class 150s built as 3 car units.

I've yet to find a good place to get shots of airplanes departing Palmdale, which is too bad because this 757 is pretty special. It's the 757-200 prototype, first flown in February 1982 and retained by Boeing as an avionics testbed - hence the bewildering modifications to the nose. Outbound to St. Louis (STL) using call sign "Boeing 57A heavy."

This Sabreliner 50 was donated by Rockwell-Collins to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, Oregon in 2013.

She had been used as a radar and avionics testbed. N50CR was the last of only two of the type produced, being uprated and enhanced Sabre 40s, she has a unique interchangeable nose cone dependent on the mission of the day.

N50CR has been removed to outside storage in late 2019.

EMC5 LK15FKE seen at the east of Croydon Flyover working on route 312 towards South Croydon Bus Garage.

These are one of the first batches of Electric buses in London, these dating 5 years back. The 312 has notably been a testbed of some electric buses which included YT1 and PDL120. Haven't got into photographing one during my Croydon visits so whilst the 'old' WVL was on its way here, I got the time to finally tick these off.

This 777 is painted in the "One World Alliance" livery. It also used to be the 777-300ER testbed/prototype! Here is JAL15 from LAX-HND.

Used at Edwards AFB as a testbed for several new ventral/rear fuselage strake designs. Sadly, they were removed before it was returned to McChord

Bae-Aérospatiale Concorde: 21st January 1976 - November 26th 2003

Yep, I'm on another one of my Concorde bouts again, but I don't consider that a bad thing if I'm honest because I've never known anyone who really doesn't like this aircraft. The thing about Concorde is the fact that it was, and still is, probably one of the most beautiful and sophisticated creations mankind has ever made, up there with the likes of the Saturn V Rocket. With smooth crisp lines and a long sweeping body, Concorde, although very much a plaything for the rich, showed the world that Supersonic travel is not just reserved for Fighter Pilots, but for the fare paying public as well, and took us to a place where I sadly feel we shan't return to, not in this day and age.

So where does Concorde's story begin? Well, our ability to break the Sound Barrier is a good start, with the early Spitfire pilots of World War II inadvertently doing so, and then a flight by the experimental Bell X-1, which was launched from the underbelly of a bomber and jetted off into a world very much of its own. Following these breakthroughs in speed, the first considerations for a passenger alternative were considered as far back as 1950, and in 1954 the first meeting of the Super Sonic Transport (SST) Committee was held.

Original intentions were to build passenger aircraft to similar principles as the X-1, but these were shelved due to impracticality. Instead, a new design known as the Delta-Wing was looked at, being used on the likes of the AVRO Vulcan. Ideas were created, and tests carried out on the similarly designed Handley Page HP.115, a purpose built aircraft for the intention of making the perfect testbed for the future SST. Eventually, the Delta design chosen was dubbed the Ogee Platform, derived from the Ogival Wing design. The most important intention of the design was to place the wing's centre of pressure as close as possible to the centre of gravity so as to lower the amount of control force required to pitch the aircraft, and the Ogee Platform came closest to this requirement.

Final design requirements came down to the design of the airframe itself outside of the wings. Essentially, the aircraft was similar in design to contemporary Delta-Wing fighter jets, with a long streamlined nose and a smooth body to reduce resistance as much as possible. Problems came with the actual operation of the aircraft's basic functions, most notably the cockpit, which had to be designed with streamlining in mind, but couldn't use conventional aircraft windows, with the strengthened window frame obscuring the view forward for takeoff and landing. In response, designers created a Drooping Nose, where the streamlined visor could be raised and lowered, with conventional aircraft windscreens behind to provide a view similar to that of a regular aircraft. Due to the length of the aircraft, the plane was fitted with a small wheel at the rear of the frame so as to absorb any potential tail-strikes during takeoff and landing.

During supersonic flight and transit through the Sound Barrier, fuel would be distributed between the forward fuel tanks and a small fuel tank in the rear whilst the aircraft was accelerating and decelerating so as to alter the centre of mass, essentially acting as an auxiliary trim control.

But one of the most endearing parts of the design was the point on the nose, which is not there for stylish flare, but for a very important reason. Without the point, aircraft attempting to transit the sound barrier would face much greater resistance as the airframe is much larger and more obtrusive, the point on the other hand breaks the sound barrier ahead of the actual aircraft itself, meaning the transit effect travels around the frame of the aircraft rather than against the hull.

Of course, the most difficult part when it came to getting the SST to go are the actual engines themselves. For the greatest efficiency, the new SST couldn't use conventional Turbofan engines as their cross-sectional area was too excessive. Instead, Rolls Royce was commissioned to build a set of Turbojet engines that could be slung in streamlined pods underneath the wings. The result was a quad set of Rolls Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines that had been developed from the Bristol engines used on the Vulcan bomber. In all, only 67 of these engines were ever built, and had an overall maximum thrust of 38,000lbf, pushing the SST to beyond the speed of sound.

By the mid-1960's the designs had been near enough perfected, and after signing up with Sud Aviation of France (later to become Aérospatiale), the combined efforts of British Aerospace and Aérospatiale resulted in the construction of two prototypes in 1965, these aircraft being dubbed 'Concorde', the French word for Harmony, Agreement, or Union. Concorde 001 was built in France at Aérospatiale's factory in Toulouse, whilst Concorde 002 was built at the BAC works in Filton near Bristol. The first flight of a Concorde aircraft took place on the 2nd March 1969, with Concorde 001 flying from Toulouse. On the 9th April, Concorde 002 made its first flight from Filton, and on October 1st, 001 made its first supersonic flight.

Both aircraft were presented at the Paris Airshow of June 1969, alongside one of their rivals, the Boeing 747. But Concorde was not the world's first supersonic commercial airliner, as the Soviet Union had beaten them to the punch in June of that year with the Tupolev Tu-144, an aircraft of almost exactly the same principles of Concorde that had been hastily put together between 1965 and 1968 after blueprints and designs had been obtained by Soviet Agent Sergei Fabiew. The Tu-144 made its first supersonic flight in June 1969, and made its first supersonic commercial flights with Aeroflot in May 1970.

However, the 'Concordski' (as it was known by the West), had many serious flaws, which came to bear in a series of horrendous crashes. The first major crash was at the 1973 Paris Air Show, where during a display flight, the first production Tu-144 aircraft broke apart over a suburb, killing 6 people on the aircraft and 8 on the ground. Another major incident took place in May 1978, when on a routine test flight an improved version of the aircraft known as the Tu-144D crashed on landing, resulting in the withdrawal of the 144's from commercial service after only 55 flights. They would remain cargo aircraft until 1983, after which they were used for the training of Soviet Cosmonauts for the Buran Space Shuttle project.

Concordski however did have a profound effect on Concorde, especially after its crash of 1973. Confidence in the Concorde was rumbled by the failure of the Tu-144, and thus many potential buyers pulled out. Originally, airlines such as American Airlines, Pan Am, Japan Airlines, Eastern Airlines, United Airlines, and Air Canada had all put in orders, but by 1975 only Air France and BOAC (later nationalised into British Airways) orders remained. At the same time, Boeing and Lockheed of the United States attempted to create their own SST's so as to combat Concorde, with Boeing creating the 2707, and Lockheed the L-2000, neither of which went beyond concept models.

Eventually, 14 production Concorde aircraft were handed over to their respective airlines between 1976 and 1980, with the first aircraft being delivered to British Airways on the 15th January, the first flight taking place to Bahrain on the 21st January. Simultaneously, Air France made its first flight to Rio de Janeiro via Dakar in Senegal. However, the Transatlantic routes to the United States were the main points of contention, as the fear of Sonic Booms caused protest, resulting in a ban being passed by Congress. Although permission was given to fly to Washington Dulles on the 24th May, the New York Port Authority continued to ban Concorde due to the noise. The result was a risky training program by Concorde pilots to land at JFK Airport without using any power at all, meaning that from the start of their descent over the New York area, no power could be applied so as to keep the noise levels to a minimum, doing the whole approach in one. Eventually the ban was lifted after it was found that Air Force One, a Boeing VC-137 (converted Boeing 707), was louder than Concorde, and thus commercial services to JFK began on November 22nd, 1977.

In addition to the British Airways and Air France flights to New York and Washington from Paris and London, a slew of other short lived ventures occurred at the same time. In 1977, British Airways jointly shared a Concorde for flights to Singapore via Bahrain with Singapore Airlines, painting G-BOAD in a BA/SA hybrid livery. These flights however were capped after only 3 runs due to noise complaints.

Another short lived venture was with the American airline Braniff, which leased 10 aircraft from both airlines to operate subsonic domestic services from Washington to Dallas-Fort Worth from 1978, with Braniff crews taking over from international crews after landing at Washington. These services ended in 1980 due to a lack of profitability, with only 50% bookings or less on most flights.

Over the years, Concorde also flew to a myriad of destinations off its usual Transatlantic services, including Mexico, Florida, the Caribbean, South America, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, mostly on charter flights but sometimes for short demonstration flights for fun seekers. Usually, Air France would provide the charter aircraft as their Concorde fleet was used less than the BA fleet, only operating two flights a day as opposed to BA's four.

The 1980's though were the boom years of Concorde, as this was when the money makers really spread their wings. In the immortal words of Jeremy Clarkson "For the have not's, it wasn't much fun, but the have's were having a ball!" Wealth moved from the stars of stage and screen to the stock marketing men and women of Europe and America. Investments on oil shares, and other large multinational companies meant you and your house was worth more than most countries. Greed was endemic, and the super-rich had no shortage of that. They'd have Champagne for breakfast, eat nightly at the Ritz, have a fleet of chauffeur driven Rolls Royce's at their beck and call, and would make weekend trips across the Atlantic with Concorde like it was a commuter train!

It was thanks to Concorde that Phil Collins could perform two shows for the 1985 Live Aid in one night, the first at Wembley in London, the second at Philadelphia JFK stadium, picking up Cher along the way who would join him in the finale 'We are the World.' You could arrive before you departed, and probably bump into a selection of celebrities en-route. Ex-Beatles, Actors, Businessmen, Fashion Designers, you name it, they were probably there!

These years were wild, profitable, and turned Concorde from an airliner, into a rite of passage for the money makers of this world. If you could fly on Concorde, then you'd truly made it in life!

However, as the 90's began to blossom and boom, the end of the decade brought its headaches for Concorde, and when things went wrong, they really went wrong quickly!

The recession of 1992 damaged Concorde's sales as money became much harder to come by, and the explosive era of greed began to fade away in the face of austerity. Environmental considerations began to crop up, and Concorde was singled out by environmentalists as one of the biggest culprits for noise and air pollution.

But on July 25th, 2000, disaster struck when Air France Concorde F-BTSC, crashed upon take-off from Paris Charles de Gaulle, smashing into a nearby hotel and killing all 109 passengers, plus 4 people on the ground. The cause was later determined to have been debris left by a preceding Continental Airlines DC-10, which punctured the tyres of Concorde and ruptured the fuel tanks on the port-side wing. However, the crash resulted in the grounding of all Concorde aircraft for over a year. Although test flights were carried out, and some private charters, revenue earning service was intended to return in the summer of 2001.

G-BOAF made the first service flight of a Concorde aircraft across the Atlantic from London to New York on September 11th, 2001, landing at JFK airport 30 minutes before American Airlines Flight 11, hijacked by terrorists, was flown deliberately into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, in what would turn out to be one of the darkest days in modern history. In the ensuing chaos, flights across America were grounded immediately, and Transatlantic services diverted, but this was just the beginning. Global markets collapsed and the aviation industry went into meltdown. Airlines such as TWA, Swissair, Sabena and Ansett Australia were just a few of the victims of this aviation downturn, and Concorde's return to service was delayed until November 7th, 2001.

Concorde may have stuttered back into life, but time had really caught up with this supersonic machine of the past. The maintenance costs of the aircraft were now much higher, with fuel prices rising and passenger levels dropping due to stagnation in the post-9/11 market. British Airways was making a loss on every single flight they made, and both this, with a mixture of discontinued support from Aérospatiale's successors, Airbus, meant that Concorde's fate was very much sealed.

On the 10th April, 2003, Air France and British Airways simultaneously announced the retirement of Concorde. Although the day after Virgin Atlantic and its founder Sir Richard Branson intended to purchase British Airways' Concorde fleet for a nominal fee of £1 each, citing a clause in the original agreement to operate the aircraft, the Government and British Airways denied allowing him to buy the aircraft for such a small price, demanding at least £1 million for every aircraft. This was further hampered by Airbus' refusal to continue maintenance support.

The end slowly came throughout 2003, with Air France's last Concorde flight taking place on 27th June, whilst British Airways conducted a series of farewell tours to a selection of destinations, including Toronto, Boston, Washington, Belfast, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh. Concorde was officially retired from British Airways service on the 24th October, 2003, but continued to operate a small number of farewell charters until November 26th, when G-BOAF, the last Concorde to be built in 1979, flew to its home base of Filton, ending the supersonic age of passenger air travel.

In all, every one of these £125 million aircraft still exist apart from two. Aircraft 203, F-BTSC, was lost in the type's only ever fatal crash in 2000, whilst Aircraft 211, F-BVFD, was withdrawn in 1982 after only 5 years of service and used as a spares donor, being cut up for scrap in 1994. The 6 prototype and 12 remaining production aircraft are now scattered across the world in museums, including Barbados, Seattle, New York, Brooklands near London, Manchester, Le Bourget, Toulouse and Chantilly in Virginia.

So, what killed Concorde and can we ever go there again? Many things killed Concorde, and when they came, they came fast. The economic downturn of the 90's and the rising environmental considerations started to damage its image, but the Paris Crash, the September 11th attacks and the ensuing stagnation of the aviation market, an outdated design becoming more and more expensive to maintain, the discontinuation of maintenance by Airbus and the fact that they were making a loss on every single flight is truly what ended Concorde's reign.

As for returning to the world of supersonic travel for the fare paying customer, in this world of austerity and environmentally bound agendas, I highly doubt it. Although Boeing considered the idea with the Sonic Cruiser, the amount of fuel required to operate these aircraft and the overall lack of interest or money to fund a project solely aimed at the 1%, means that chances are we won't see the likes of Concorde ever again.

But either way, we can be glad to say that we did it, we built Concorde, we flew it, operated it for 27 glorious years, and in doing so brought nations and continents closer together. Concorde truly lived up to its name, an everlasting symbol of peace, prosperity, speed, design and human endeavour.

Launching for another Trans-Atlantic voyage, British Airways Bae-Aerospatiale Concorde flagship G-BOAC let's loose the Afterburners to depart Runway 27R at Heathrow. Concorde was the world's first and only commercial airliner to be fitted with military style Afterburners, and were used to provide that extra bit of power to get this warhead with leather seats on the go!

The reason I love Concorde so much is the fact that it was, and still is, probably one of the most beautiful and sophisticated creations mankind has ever made, up there with the likes of the Saturn V Rocket. With smooth crisp lines and a long sweeping body, Concorde, although very much a plaything for the rich, showed the world that Supersonic travel is not just reserved for Fighter Pilots, but for the fare paying public as well, and took us to a place where I sadly feel we shan't return to, not in this day and age.

So where does Concorde's story begin? Well, our ability to break the Sound Barrier is a good start, with the early Spitfire pilots of World War II inadvertently doing so, and then a flight by the experimental Bell X-1, which was launched from the underbelly of a bomber and jetted off into a world very much of its own. Following these breakthroughs in speed, the first considerations for a passenger alternative were considered as far back as 1950, and in 1954 the first meeting of the Super Sonic Transport (SST) Committee was held.

Original intentions were to build passenger aircraft to similar principles as the X-1, but these were shelved due to impracticality. Instead, a new design known as the Delta-Wing was looked at, being used on the likes of the AVRO Vulcan. Ideas were created, and tests carried out on the similarly designed Handley Page HP.115, a purpose built aircraft for the intention of making the perfect testbed for the future SST. Eventually, the Delta design chosen was dubbed the Ogee Platform, derived from the Ogival Wing design. The most important intention of the design was to place the wing's centre of pressure as close as possible to the centre of gravity so as to lower the amount of control force required to pitch the aircraft, and the Ogee Platform came closest to this requirement.

Final design requirements came down to the design of the airframe itself outside of the wings. Essentially, the aircraft was similar in design to contemporary Delta-Wing fighter jets, with a long streamlined nose and a smooth body to reduce resistance as much as possible. Problems came with the actual operation of the aircraft's basic functions, most notably the cockpit, which had to be designed with streamlining in mind, but couldn't use conventional aircraft windows, with the strengthened window frame obscuring the view forward for takeoff and landing. In response, designers created a Drooping Nose, where the streamlined visor could be raised and lowered, with conventional aircraft windscreens behind to provide a view similar to that of a regular aircraft. Due to the length of the aircraft, the plane was fitted with a small wheel at the rear of the frame so as to absorb any potential tail-strikes during takeoff and landing.

During supersonic flight and transit through the Sound Barrier, fuel would be distributed between the forward fuel tanks and a small fuel tank in the rear whilst the aircraft was accelerating and decelerating so as to alter the centre of mass, essentially acting as an auxiliary trim control.

But one of the most endearing parts of the design was the point on the nose, which is not there for stylish flare, but for a very important reason. Without the point, aircraft attempting to transit the sound barrier would face much greater resistance as the airframe is much larger and more obtrusive, the point on the other hand breaks the sound barrier ahead of the actual aircraft itself, meaning the transit effect travels around the frame of the aircraft rather than against the hull.

Of course, the most difficult part when it came to getting the SST to go are the actual engines themselves. For the greatest efficiency, the new SST couldn't use conventional Turbofan engines as their cross-sectional area was too excessive. Instead, Rolls Royce was commissioned to build a set of Turbojet engines that could be slung in streamlined pods underneath the wings. The result was a quad set of Rolls Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines that had been developed from the Bristol engines used on the Vulcan bomber. In all, only 67 of these engines were ever built, and had an overall maximum thrust of 38,000lbf, pushing the SST to beyond the speed of sound.

By the mid-1960's the designs had been near enough perfected, and after signing up with Sud Aviation of France (later to become Aérospatiale), the combined efforts of British Aerospace and Aérospatiale resulted in the construction of two prototypes in 1965, these aircraft being dubbed 'Concorde', the French word for Harmony, Agreement, or Union. Concorde 001 was built in France at Aérospatiale's factory in Toulouse, whilst Concorde 002 was built at the BAC works in Filton near Bristol. The first flight of a Concorde aircraft took place on the 2nd March 1969, with Concorde 001 flying from Toulouse. On the 9th April, Concorde 002 made its first flight from Filton, and on October 1st, 001 made its first supersonic flight.

Both aircraft were presented at the Paris Airshow of June 1969, alongside one of their rivals, the Boeing 747. But Concorde was not the world's first supersonic commercial airliner, as the Soviet Union had beaten them to the punch in June of that year with the Tupolev Tu-144, an aircraft of almost exactly the same principles of Concorde that had been hastily put together between 1965 and 1968 after blueprints and designs had been obtained by Soviet Agent Sergei Fabiew. The Tu-144 made its first supersonic flight in June 1969, and made its first supersonic commercial flights with Aeroflot in May 1970.

However, the 'Concordski' (as it was known by the West), had many serious flaws, which came to bear in a series of horrendous crashes. The first major crash was at the 1973 Paris Air Show, where during a display flight, the first production Tu-144 aircraft broke apart over a suburb, killing 6 people on the aircraft and 8 on the ground. Another major incident took place in May 1978, when on a routine test flight an improved version of the aircraft known as the Tu-144D crashed on landing, resulting in the withdrawal of the 144's from commercial service after only 55 flights. They would remain cargo aircraft until 1983, after which they were used for the training of Soviet Cosmonauts for the Buran Space Shuttle project.

Concordski however did have a profound effect on Concorde, especially after its crash of 1973. Confidence in the Concorde was rumbled by the failure of the Tu-144, and thus many potential buyers pulled out. Originally, airlines such as American Airlines, Pan Am, Japan Airlines, Eastern Airlines, United Airlines, and Air Canada had all put in orders, but by 1975 only Air France and BOAC (later nationalised into British Airways) orders remained. At the same time, Boeing and Lockheed of the United States attempted to create their own SST's so as to combat Concorde, with Boeing creating the 2707, and Lockheed the L-2000, neither of which went beyond concept models.

Eventually, 14 production Concorde aircraft were handed over to their respective airlines between 1976 and 1980, with the first aircraft being delivered to British Airways on the 15th January, the first flight taking place to Bahrain on the 21st January. Simultaneously, Air France made its first flight to Rio de Janeiro via Dakar in Senegal. However, the Transatlantic routes to the United States were the main points of contention, as the fear of Sonic Booms caused protest, resulting in a ban being passed by Congress. Although permission was given to fly to Washington Dulles on the 24th May, the New York Port Authority continued to ban Concorde due to the noise. The result was a risky training program by Concorde pilots to land at JFK Airport without using any power at all, meaning that from the start of their descent over the New York area, no power could be applied so as to keep the noise levels to a minimum, doing the whole approach in one. Eventually the ban was lifted after it was found that Air Force One, a Boeing VC-137 (converted Boeing 707), was louder than Concorde, and thus commercial services to JFK began on November 22nd, 1977.

In addition to the British Airways and Air France flights to New York and Washington from Paris and London, a slew of other short lived ventures occurred at the same time. In 1977, British Airways jointly shared a Concorde for flights to Singapore via Bahrain with Singapore Airlines, painting G-BOAD in a BA/SA hybrid livery. These flights however were capped after only 3 runs due to noise complaints.

Another short lived venture was with the American airline Braniff, which leased 10 aircraft from both airlines to operate subsonic domestic services from Washington to Dallas-Fort Worth from 1978, with Braniff crews taking over from international crews after landing at Washington. These services ended in 1980 due to a lack of profitability, with only 50% bookings or less on most flights.

Over the years, Concorde also flew to a myriad of destinations off its usual Transatlantic services, including Mexico, Florida, the Caribbean, South America, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, mostly on charter flights but sometimes for short demonstration flights for fun seekers. Usually, Air France would provide the charter aircraft as their Concorde fleet was used less than the BA fleet, only operating two flights a day as opposed to BA's four.

The 1980's though were the boom years of Concorde, as this was when the money makers really spread their wings. In the immortal words of Jeremy Clarkson "For the have not's, it wasn't much fun, but the have's were having a ball!" Wealth moved from the stars of stage and screen to the stock marketing men and women of Europe and America. Investments on oil shares, and other large multinational companies meant you and your house was worth more than most countries. Greed was endemic, and the super-rich had no shortage of that. They'd have Champagne for breakfast, eat nightly at the Ritz, have a fleet of chauffeur driven Rolls Royce's at their beck and call, and would make weekend trips across the Atlantic with Concorde like it was a commuter train!

It was thanks to Concorde that Phil Collins could perform two shows for the 1985 Live Aid in one night, the first at Wembley in London, the second at Philadelphia JFK stadium, picking up Cher along the way who would join him in the finale 'We are the World.' You could arrive before you departed, and probably bump into a selection of celebrities en-route. Ex-Beatles, Actors, Businessmen, Fashion Designers, you name it, they were probably there!

These years were wild, profitable, and turned Concorde from an airliner, into a rite of passage for the money makers of this world. If you could fly on Concorde, then you'd truly made it in life!

However, as the 90's began to blossom and boom, the end of the decade brought its headaches for Concorde, and when things went wrong, they really went wrong quickly!

The recession of 1992 damaged Concorde's sales as money became much harder to come by, and the explosive era of greed began to fade away in the face of austerity. Environmental considerations began to crop up, and Concorde was singled out by environmentalists as one of the biggest culprits for noise and air pollution.

But on July 25th, 2000, disaster struck when Air France Concorde F-BTSC, crashed upon take-off from Paris Charles de Gaulle, smashing into a nearby hotel and killing all 109 passengers, plus 4 people on the ground. The cause was later determined to have been debris left by a preceding Continental Airlines DC-10, which punctured the tyres of Concorde and ruptured the fuel tanks on the port-side wing. However, the crash resulted in the grounding of all Concorde aircraft for over a year. Although test flights were carried out, and some private charters, revenue earning service was intended to return in the summer of 2001.

G-BOAF made the first service flight of a Concorde aircraft across the Atlantic from London to New York on September 11th, 2001, landing at JFK airport 30 minutes before American Airlines Flight 11, hijacked by terrorists, was flown deliberately into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, in what would turn out to be one of the darkest days in modern history. In the ensuing chaos, flights across America were grounded immediately, and Transatlantic services diverted, but this was just the beginning. Global markets collapsed and the aviation industry went into meltdown. Airlines such as TWA, Swissair, Sabena and Ansett Australia were just a few of the victims of this aviation downturn, and Concorde's return to service was delayed until November 7th, 2001.

Concorde may have stuttered back into life, but time had really caught up with this supersonic machine of the past. The maintenance costs of the aircraft were now much higher, with fuel prices rising and passenger levels dropping due to stagnation in the post-9/11 market. British Airways was making a loss on every single flight they made, and both this, with a mixture of discontinued support from Aérospatiale's successors, Airbus, meant that Concorde's fate was very much sealed.

On the 10th April, 2003, Air France and British Airways simultaneously announced the retirement of Concorde. Although the day after Virgin Atlantic and its founder Sir Richard Branson intended to purchase British Airways' Concorde fleet for a nominal fee of £1 each, citing a clause in the original agreement to operate the aircraft, the Government and British Airways denied allowing him to buy the aircraft for such a small price, demanding at least £1 million for every aircraft. This was further hampered by Airbus' refusal to continue maintenance support.

The end slowly came throughout 2003, with Air France's last Concorde flight taking place on 27th June, whilst British Airways conducted a series of farewell tours to a selection of destinations, including Toronto, Boston, Washington, Belfast, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh. Concorde was officially retired from British Airways service on the 24th October, 2003, but continued to operate a small number of farewell charters until November 26th, when G-BOAF, the last Concorde to be built in 1979, flew to its home base of Filton, ending the supersonic age of passenger air travel.

In all, every one of these £125 million aircraft still exist apart from two. Aircraft 203, F-BTSC, was lost in the type's only ever fatal crash in 2000, whilst Aircraft 211, F-BVFD, was withdrawn in 1982 after only 5 years of service and used as a spares donor, being cut up for scrap in 1994. The 6 prototype and 12 remaining production aircraft are now scattered across the world in museums, including Barbados, Seattle, New York, Brooklands near London, Manchester, Le Bourget, Toulouse and Chantilly in Virginia.

So, what killed Concorde and can we ever go there again? Many things killed Concorde, and when they came, they came fast. The economic downturn of the 90's and the rising environmental considerations started to damage its image, but the Paris Crash, the September 11th attacks and the ensuing stagnation of the aviation market, an outdated design becoming more and more expensive to maintain, the discontinuation of maintenance by Airbus and the fact that they were making a loss on every single flight is truly what ended Concorde's reign.

As for returning to the world of supersonic travel for the fare paying customer, in this world of austerity and environmentally bound agendas, I highly doubt it. Although Boeing considered the idea with the Sonic Cruiser, the amount of fuel required to operate these aircraft and the overall lack of interest or money to fund a project solely aimed at the 1%, means that chances are we won't see the likes of Concorde ever again.

But either way, we can be glad to say that we did it, we built Concorde, we flew it, operated it for 27 glorious years, and in doing so brought nations and continents closer together. Concorde truly lived up to its name, an everlasting symbol of peace, prosperity, speed, design and human endeavour.

This Dart has a unique history. It was originally a testbed/development vehicle for Dennis, being new in 1996, and fitted with a Plaxton Pointer body. In 1999, it was then exported in chassis only form to Cape Town, South Africa, and re-bodied by Neoplan, in 1999, using Alexander ALX200 fitments. After being used in service for a couple of years it was imported back in to the UK and acquired by Cavalier, Long Sutton, in 2003. After the Stagecoach acquisition of Cavalier, it eventually found its way up to Chesterfield where it had been in service since around 2011. It is seen here at Shore Road, Birkenhead, for The Wirral Bus & Tram Show, on 02/10/2011. Alongside is preserved Chester City Transport, 79, BCB613V. a Northern Counties bodied Leyland Fleetline FE30AGR. It was new to Greater Manchester PTE subsidiary, Lancashire United Transport, in 03/1980. © Peter Steel 2011.

BOE57A Departing on a test flight. This is the first 757 Prototype now used as a testbed by Boeing with an F-22 Nosecone and avionics. Nicknamed the "Catfish." This is the first time it has come to PMD in the recently repainted retro scheme.

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The XK120 was launched in roadster form at the 1948 London Motor Show as a testbed and show car for the new Jaguar XK engine. It caused a sensation, which persuaded Jaguar founder and design boss William Lyons to put it into production.

The "120" in its name referred to its 120 mph (193 km/h) top speed (faster with the windscreen removed), which made the XK120 the world's fastest standard production car at the time of its launch.

It was available in two open versions, first as the roadster (designated OTS, for open two-seater, in America), then also as a drophead coupé (DHC) from 1953 – and also as a closed, or "fixed-head" coupé (FHC) from 1951. The DHC was a more deluxe open model, with wind-up windows, and wood-veneer dashboard and interior door caps, as on the FHC.

The roadster was successful in racing.

(Wikipedia)

As part of my on-going experiments into alternative Lego train chassis and drive-train arrangements, I totally stripped down and rebuilt my GO Transit F59PH locomotive as a "technology testbed". The body was completely redesigned to be separate from the chassis and to mount to its chassis "clam-shell" style like scale model trains. This allows me to develop and iterate the chassis design independent of the locomotive. I intend to use this configuration for all my locomotives in future because I like the idea of being able to perform maintenance and tuning without a traumatic disassembly and rebuild of the entire locomotive. In fact, I hope to be able to interchange chassis among some locomotives with similar wheelbase for flexibility. I hope to be able to keep all of the mechanical and electrical infrastructure (controller, battery, motor, lights, etc.) mounted to the chassis with minimal connection to the body shell.

Illustrated above is some of the progress made to date. I have rebuilt the F59PH body shell--its still not finished, but very close. The chassis is my 3rd version built to date. It is powered from a centrally under-mounted PF L-motor. This keeps the centre of gravity lower and allows for more room inside the body shell. The motor drives a central drive shaft connected to gear driven 2-axle bogies. The tractive effort of this arrangement is impressive, especially with the L-motor vs. the M-motor.

The next steps will be to develop a power pickup from the metal wheels and to fabricate and develop my hybrid DCC + PF electronic control module. Lots to do, but its great fun!

Half an hour later, and racing north through Lichfield Trent Valley with an intermodal freight from Felixstowe to Trafford Park is veteran AC electric Class 86, 86632 and an unidentified classmate.

For a time it was the flagship of those early days of Electric traction on the Midland Region, but today few remain in nocturnal freight operations. The 100mph Class 86's were by far the most numerous of the original electric traction for British Rail, but their decline has been pronounced as many now languish in silent storage or have met their end at the cutter's torch.

The Class 86 was a culmination of developments pioneered by the original AC electric locomotives that formed the backbone of British Rail's Modernisation Plan in the late 1950's and early 60's. As part of the electrification of the West Coast Mainline, a new fleet of electric locomotives were commissioned to various manufacturers, these being the Class 81, 82, 83, 84 and 85. While the Class 81 and 85 were quite successful, and would see active service in the 1980's and 1990's, the Class 82, 83 and 84 were noted for their unreliability, largely due to their manufacturer's inexperience at building electric locomotives.

The Class 86, originally dubbed the AL6, took elements from each to create the perfect flagship locomotive, including the bodyshape and wheel design. The AL6 however also brought to the table its own innovative design features, including quieter cooling fans, the lack of a second pantograph and the fitting of four AEI 282AZ 900hp Traction Motors, with an overall power output of 3,600hp on the original locomotives.

The Class 86's made their first official appearance on the West Coast in August 1965, and eventually all 100 locomotives would be in service with BR after a 24 month construction run, making it the most numerous class of electric locomotive in the UK, an unbeaten record. However, initial problems came with regard to the AL6, largely due to the position of the axle-hung traction motors, which would cause damage to the tracks due to the additional unsprung mass. To solve this, new flexicoil springs were added in 1969 to help support the traction motors, this eventually being placed onto all members of the class.

By 1970, several variants of the class had been created for various purposes. 86/0 locomotives were unmodified members without flexicoil springs, and were restricted to 80mph; while 86/2 were modified with flexicoil springs, and could operate at the locomotive's top speed of 100mph, putting them in good stead for passenger services. A later variant was the Class 86/1, modified with 5,000hp traction motors as a testbed for the upcoming Class 87's, which would be the flagship electric locomotives for passenger trains out of London Euston.

Even following the introduction of the Class 87's in 1974, the Class 86's still held a prominent role on the West Coast Mainline for both passenger and freight operations. Their influence was widened in time thanks to the electrification of routes out of London Liverpool Street towards Cambridge, Harwich, Norwich and Ipswich. Class 86's began operations there during the mid to late 1980's, and became the prime motive power for express services along the Great Eastern route towards Anglia. This coincided with the addition of TDM or Time-Division Multiplexing, which allowed the locomotives to be controlled by cab-control cars. On the West Coast Mainline, streamlined Class 82 Driving Van Trailers made an appearance after 1988, while on the Great Eastern, converted MkII carriages called DBSO's, or Driving Brake Standard Only, were brought in from Scotland after they were displaced from Edinburgh to Glasgow expresses by Class 158 DMU's.

By the 1990's, a majority of the Class 86's were still in service on freight and passenger workings. Class 86/2's worked express passenger services, whilst Class 86/4's were reclassified into 86/6's for use on freight as part of the new Freightliner and Railfreight Distribution services. For a brief time, several 86/2's were allocated to freight, and these were renumbered 86/5's, but were quickly returned to InterCity. By the mid-1990's, the Class 86's were truly at the peak of their powers, operating InterCity services out of two major London terminals, and being the backbone of both freight and parcels services on the West Coast Mainline north of London, as well as on the Great Eastern to the east.

However, as privatisation began in the late 1990's, new operators were quick to outline their new plan for replacing the nearly 40 year old locomotives with newer stock. The Class 86's were split into several companies, with passenger 86/2's being divided amongst Anglia Railways, Virgin West Coast and Virgin Cross Country. Freight operator EWS inherited 15 locomotives from the Parcels sector, whilst 30 locomotives went to the newly formed Freightliner company.

As mentioned however, commitments to the new franchising system meant that old stock had to be replaced in order to improve service reliability, and the Class 86's were singled out for retirement more than the other classes. Virgin Cross Country were the first to retire the locomotives, their fleet of 19 locomotives used between Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland being retired in September 2002 along with all loco-hauled Cross-Country services. Some Class 86's would continue to find service with Virgin's West Coast Mainline arm, but the end was nigh for these locomotives as well, the last being retired in September 2003.

Anglia's Class 86's held on for another year, but as Virgin replaced its loco-hauled stock with new Class 390 Pendolino units, displaced Class 90's, which were much younger and more reliable, began working on Anglia's services out of London Liverpool Street. Coupled with the change in franchise from Anglia to National Express' 'One', and by September 2005 nothing remained of the Class 86, the very last Class 86 hauled intercity train taking place on September 17th, 2005, with 86235 doing the honours.

EWS also quickly retired the Class 86's, due largely to the removal of the Mail Train contract in 2003, but also due to the introduction of Class 66's to operate most freight diagrams.

Freightliner however continue to maintain a sizable fleet of locomotives for their freight operations on the West Coast and Great Eastern Mainlines, with 14 of these 52 year old locomotives still in active service with the company. Today they're quite hard to find in the daytime, but in rare instances you may be lucky enough to catch one running very late or very early.

Other Class 86's include ones exported to Bulgaria, of which 6 have currently been so far together with several Class 87's. Many Class 86's however continue to languish in storage, mostly at Long Marston base in Worcestershire, as well as many having been scrapped or stripped for spares donors.

Class 86's have also had their fair share of accidents, perhaps more so than other UK locomotive classes. The first such accident was in January 1975, when 86209 collided head-on with Class 83, 83003, killing one, though the 86 was eventually recovered and returned to work. Also in 1975, 86006 and 86242 suffered a devastating crash at Nuneaton, when the two electric locomotives entered a temporary speed restriction at high speed causing a derailment that killed 6 and injured 38.

Another very serious incident was the Colwich rail crash of September 19th, 1986, when 86211 and 86429 collided head-on, resulting in the death of one of the drivers and the destruction of both locomotives.

In 1996, 86239, hauling a Mail Train, collided with the rear of a freight train near Stafford and ended up in a back garden, writing off the locomotive and killing two Royal Mail staff aboard the mail train.

The last major crash of the Class 86 was in 2003, when 86631 and 86611 crashed into a stationary freight train at Norton Bridge, the force of the impact snapping the leading locomotive in half. Thankfully there were no fatalities, but both locomotives were written off.

Officially, three locomotives have been preserved here in the UK, but even these still see regular revenue earning work. 86259 'Les Ross' was purchased by the eponymous owner in 2008, and is a regular operator on the mainline working railtours for Vintage Trains. Two other Class 86's, 86101 and 86401, have been returned from preservation to help operate the Caledonian Sleeper service from London to Scotland. Though mostly used for Empty Carriage workings, they do sometimes operate the full route between London and Glasgow/Edinburgh.

Today, the Class 86's, though over 50 years old, still prove themselves reliable and charming electric locomotives, and true pioneers in their own right. A design that may date back to the late 1950's, the flexible nature of these engines has helped them stand the test of time, and one hopes they see continued use well into the future.

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, turboprop engines were still considered a viable option for long-range bombers, and the USAF was interested in determining the feasibility of producing a high-speed, long-range turboprop-powered bomber. In support of this goal, the Air Force requested that a pair of B-47Bs be converted as flying testbeds to test a jet engine-propeller combination and provide data on installing turboprops in swept-wing aircraft.

In April 1951, Boeing was contracted to modify two B-47Bs (Serial Numbers 51-2103 and 51-2046) as flying turboprop testbeds under the designation XB-47D and assigned company numbers Model 450-162-48 and 450-162-49, respectively. They retained the outboard J47-GE-23 jet engines of the B-47B, but a single Curtiss-Wright YT49-W-1 turboprop of 9,710 equivalent shaft horsepower (eshp) occupied each of the inboard underwing nacelles in place of the paired J-47s. The T49 was a turboprop version of the Wright J65, which was, in turn, an American version of the British-designed Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojet. The turboprops drove four-bladed propellers 15 feet in diameter, having paddle-type blades, each 24 inches wide. The wing flaps had to be modified to accommodate the T49s, and changes had to be made in instrumentation and controls for four engines rather than the usual six.

The program was delayed by problems with the T49 engine, which failed to pass its 50-hour qualification run. Additional problems with the engine-propeller combination and government-furnished equipment shortages delayed progress. It was not until late 1955 that the aircraft were ready for their first flights.

XB-47D 51-2103 flew for the first time on 26 August 1955, with 51-2046 following on 15 February 1956. Surprisingly, the performance of the XB-47D was fairly similar to that of the conventionally-powered B-47, and landing performance was improved with the addition of the fully-reversible propellers of the XB-47D.

In this image, the first XB-47D (450-162-49, Serial Number: 51-2103) conducts a test flight using the new T49 turboprop engines. Although numerous test flights were made without mishap, no further conversions were ordered, and the Air Force did not pursue its idea of a turboprop-powered bomber any further. The maximum speed achieved by the XB-47D during these tests was 597 mph (960 km/h) at 13,500 ft (4,129 m), the fastest yet achieved in level flight by a propeller-driven aircraft.

ESA’s technical heart will be serving as a testbed for this driverless shuttle in the coming months.

The Agency’s ESTEC establishment in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, is working with vehicle owner Dutch Automated Mobility, provincial and municipal governments and bus company Arriva to assess its viability as a ‘last mile’ solution for public transport.

The fully autonomous vehicle calculates its position using a fusion of satellite navigation, lidar ‘laser radar’, visible cameras and motion sensors. Once it enters service in October it will be used to transport employees from one side of the ESTEC complex to the other.

The fully-electric, zero-emission shuttle will respect the on-site speed limit of 15 km/h, and for its first six months of service will carry a steward to observe its operation along its preprogrammed 10-minute-long roundtrip.

Come visit ESTEC during our annual ESA Open Day on Sunday 6 October. Find out more here.

Credits: ESA–B. Smith

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The C111 was a series of experimental automobiles produced by Mercedes-Benz in the 1960s and 1970s. The company was experimenting with new engine technologies, including Wankel engines, Diesel engines, and turbochargers, and used the basic C111 platform as a testbed. Other experimental features included multi-link rear suspension, gullwing doors and a luxurious interior with leather trim and air conditioning.

The C111-III was powered by a 230 horsepower (170 kW) @ 4,500rpm straight-5 OM617 turbodiesel which broke nine diesel and gas speed records. With more aerodynamic bodywork that gave it an air drag coefficient of .191, the C111 eventually reached 200 mph (322 km/h) at Nardò in 1978, and averaged 14.7mpg@ 316 km/h (195.4 mph) over a 12-hour cruise. A later 500 hp (372 kW) 4.8 L twin KKK-turbocharged V8 version set another record, with an average lap-speed of 403.78 km/h (250.958 mph). It was achieved by Dr. Hans Leibold in 1 minute, 56.67 seconds on May 5, 1979.

(Wikipedia)

Nikkormat FTn w/Nikkor 50mm f 2.0 Prime

Disney World

Walt Disney World Resort (commonly known as Walt Disney World or Disney World) is an entertainment and vacation resort complex located about 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Walt Disney Company.

Covering an approximate 27,000 acres (42 sq mi; 109 km2), Walt Disney World contains numerous recreational facilities designed to attract visitors for extended stays, including four theme parks, two water parks, four golf courses, conference centers, a competitive sports complex and a major shopping, dining and entertainment complex. Additionally, there are 31 Disney-owned resort hotels and one camping resort on the property, and many other non-Disney-operated hotels on and near the property.

Designed to supplement Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which had opened in 1955, the complex was planned and conceptualized by Walt Disney in the 1960s. Walt's vision for the complex was to build a new, self-contained destination resort on ample land, as he felt Disneyland had become limited by the third-party establishments that had sprung up around it. "The Florida Project", as it was then known, was intended to present a distinct vision with its own diverse set of attractions. Walt's original plans called for the inclusion of an "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT), a planned community intended to serve as a testbed for new city-living innovations. Walt's original vision would not progress past conceptualization, as he died on December 15, 1966, during the initial planning of the complex before construction had begun. After his death, the company wrestled with the idea of whether to bring the Disney World project to fruition; however, Walt's older brother, Roy O. Disney, came out of retirement to ensure the project was realized.

Construction began in 1967, with the company abandoning the planned community concept, instead choosing to build a theme park resort similar to Disneyland. Magic Kingdom was the first theme park to open in the complex in 1971, followed by EPCOT (then known as EPCOT Center) in 1982, Disney's Hollywood Studios (then known as the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park) in 1989, and Disney's Animal Kingdom in 1998. Initially known as Disney World, the name of the entire resort was named Walt Disney World at Roy's insistence, to memorialize his brother.

In 2024, Walt Disney World was the most visited vacation resort in the world, with an average annual attendance of more than 49 million, while Magic Kingdom has been the most visited theme park in the world for at least the past 24 years. The opening of Walt Disney World helped turn Central Florida into a major global tourism destination and the resort has contributed singificantly to Florida's economy, generating billions in economic activity and supporting a large number of jobs across the state. The resort is the largest single-site employer in the United States, the flagship destination of Disney's worldwide corporate enterprise and has become a staple of American popular culture.

Boeing 747/400 working for Virgin Orbit.

D-AVXB, the 2nd of the Airbus A321NEO testbed aircraft.

Before all the controversy surrounding the Boeing 737 MAX family, this example, since then delivered to Southwest Airlines, is seen performing a demonstration celebrating the 100 years of the Boeing Aircraft Company over the Farnborough International Airshow.

The illusive Arriva DW411 is seen here at Enfield Garage having just completed a rounder on Route 279. The vehicle was delivered to Clapton Garage in 2011, however following a fire , it was sent back to Wrightbus, Ballymena where it was repaired. Upon repairing the vehicle, it was chosen to be a testbed for the new Euro V1 DB300, this required the chassis to be elongated to achieve this. This was achieved and in 2013 the vehicle was photographed in its new state, which gave the impression that it was ready to return to service. But this was not the case. It appeared that the vehicle was again chosen to be the test bed for the new generation of Wrightbus integral vehicles, the Streetdeck which features a Mercedes Engine. The vehicle was again modified, this time gaining a new Chassis to allow the new engine to be fitted, although it didn't need to be elongated this time! The new vehicle was spotted on British shores in April 2014 and following a lengthy test at Milbrook it arrived at Arriva's Enfield Garage in July 2014.

Photo taken by Stefan Röhrich.

München-Riem

1979-02-27 (27 February 1979)

G-AXCP

BAC 111-401AK One-Eleven

087

Dan-Air London

Dan-Air BAC One-Elevens were regulars at Riem.

G-AXCP would become the next to last BAC One-Eleven to fly, as the N162W electronic testbed with Northrop Grumman. It was grounded in November 2017 and withdrawn from service on 10 March 2018., It was broken up in October 2019 together with N164W, the other long-term survivor and the last BAC One-Eleven to fly. (Source: bac1-11jet.co.uk)

Information from flickr - thanks to Ken Fielding (slightly adapted):

Delivered new to American Airlines in Nov-66 as N5401, it was sold to Dan-Air Services in Mar-69 as G-AXCP. It was wet-leased to British Midland Airways briefly between Oct-82 & Jan-83. It was sold to British Aerospace in Oct-86. Two months later, in Dec-86, it was sold to Florida Express as N173FE. A year later, in Dec-87, it was sold to A J Walter Aviation Ltd and immediately sold on to the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It was re-registered N162W in Aug-89. At the age of 30 it was sold to Northrop Grumman in Mar-93. As of Jul-15, and now almost 50 years old this aircraft was in service with Northrop Grumman as an electronics testbed until November 2017.

Registration details for this airframe:

www.planelogger.com/Aircraft/Registration/G-AXCP/830401

G-AXCP with Dan-Air at Riem in February 1970 (initial colours):

www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding/6788784201/in

Another shot of G-AXCP with Dan-Air at Riem in July 1971 (initial colours):

imgproc.airliners.net/photos/airliners/1/1/7/1646711.jpg

G-AXCP with British Midland in December 1982 (hybrid Dan-Air/BMA colours):

www.flickr.com/photos/stevefowler747/48413372121

G-AXCP with Dan-Air at ZRH in 1986 (later colours):

www.flickr.com/photos/145175264@N02/35246390362

This airframe as N173FE with Florida Express in May 1987 (basic Dan-Air colours):

www.flickr.com/photos/propfreak/27284352478

This airframe as N162NW with Northrop Grumman at BWI in May 2009 (round nose):

www.flickr.com/photos/bwi2muc/3560651005

N162W with Northrop Grumman at BWI in October 2009 (pointy nose):

www.flickr.com/photos/bwi2muc/3978522788

N162W with Northrop Grumman at BWI in September 2015 (final colours):

www.flickr.com/photos/23032926@N05/23322725623

Scan from Kodachrome slide.

EMDX 9501 is an SD60MAC, one of only four built. 9501 and its three mates were once painted in a special version of Burlington Northern's Cascade Green for demonstration there. The four SD60Ms served as a testbed for EMD's AC-traction motors, ubiquitous on six-axle diesels since then.

Nikkormat FTn w/Vivitar 28mm f 2.8 Prime

Disney World

Walt Disney World Resort (commonly known as Walt Disney World or Disney World) is an entertainment and vacation resort complex located about 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Walt Disney Company.

Covering an approximate 27,000 acres (42 sq mi; 109 km2), Walt Disney World contains numerous recreational facilities designed to attract visitors for extended stays, including four theme parks, two water parks, four golf courses, conference centers, a competitive sports complex and a major shopping, dining and entertainment complex. Additionally, there are 31 Disney-owned resort hotels and one camping resort on the property, and many other non-Disney-operated hotels on and near the property.

Designed to supplement Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which had opened in 1955, the complex was planned and conceptualized by Walt Disney in the 1960s. Walt's vision for the complex was to build a new, self-contained destination resort on ample land, as he felt Disneyland had become limited by the third-party establishments that had sprung up around it. "The Florida Project", as it was then known, was intended to present a distinct vision with its own diverse set of attractions. Walt's original plans called for the inclusion of an "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT), a planned community intended to serve as a testbed for new city-living innovations. Walt's original vision would not progress past conceptualization, as he died on December 15, 1966, during the initial planning of the complex before construction had begun. After his death, the company wrestled with the idea of whether to bring the Disney World project to fruition; however, Walt's older brother, Roy O. Disney, came out of retirement to ensure the project was realized.

Construction began in 1967, with the company abandoning the planned community concept, instead choosing to build a theme park resort similar to Disneyland. Magic Kingdom was the first theme park to open in the complex in 1971, followed by EPCOT (then known as EPCOT Center) in 1982, Disney's Hollywood Studios (then known as the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park) in 1989, and Disney's Animal Kingdom in 1998. Initially known as Disney World, the name of the entire resort was named Walt Disney World at Roy's insistence, to memorialize his brother.

In 2024, Walt Disney World was the most visited vacation resort in the world, with an average annual attendance of more than 49 million, while Magic Kingdom has been the most visited theme park in the world for at least the past 24 years. The opening of Walt Disney World helped turn Central Florida into a major global tourism destination and the resort has contributed singificantly to Florida's economy, generating billions in economic activity and supporting a large number of jobs across the state. The resort is the largest single-site employer in the United States, the flagship destination of Disney's worldwide corporate enterprise and has become a staple of American popular culture.

Today, the International Space Station became a testbed for technologies that will allow astronauts to control rovers on planets as they orbit above. The experiment allows astronauts to feel the force through a connected joystick that transmits feedback across great distances.

In Europe’s Columbus laboratory, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet set up a joystick that was linked to its twin at ESA’s technical heart in the Netherlands. Each joystick moves the other and accurately conveys force, allowing their operators to ‘shake hands’ and feel each other’s push and pull.

Thomas and ESA’s Thomas Krüger proved the system was ready by moving the joysticks and the astronaut commented “a firm handshake!” Thomas then spent over an hour ‘feeling’ different materials in the Netherlands through the joystick. He rated them on a scale of 1–10 to gather data on how astronauts can distinguish object stiffness remotely. This is important for more advanced remote robotic tasks in the future.

Controlling a rover on Mars is a real headache for mission controllers because commands take an average of 14 minutes to reach the Red Planet. Space exploration will most likely involve sending robotic explorers to ‘test the waters’ on uncharted planets before sending humans to land – and ESA is preparing for that future.

This Haptics-2 experiment falls under the Meteron project that is developing the tools to control robots on distant planets while astronauts orbit above. This includes developing a robust space-internet, designing the software to control the robots and developing the interface hardware.

Credit: ESA–G. Porter CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Greenham Common, 27 June 1981.

The Comrod! XV814 was used as a testbed for the development of the Nimrod. It still had the modified tail in 1981.

XV814 was built in 1957 at Hatfield and flew with BOAC and Qantas. In 1967 it came to Farnborough to serve with the Royal Aircraft Establishment.

It was withdrawn from service in 1993 and scrapped in 1997.

Scan of a printed photo.

'Experimental November Seven Eight Seven Romeo Romeo Heavy' off of runway 17L heading back home to Tucson after having a fifth engine, what Rolls Royce calls the 'Pearl 10X', fitted on the right wing. The new Pearl 10X is visible just behind the Trent 1000 in this picture. Fascinating to see three different engines on a five-engine airplane.

Repeated cyber attacks culminated in the partial recovery of AKU AdMTER schematics. This information would prove instrumental in the development of the NATO testbed dubbed the NT1 "Silverback"

Clunkier and more heavily armored than its renowned cousin, further developments still continue.

I have long coveted Devid's AdMTER drones. The legs especially. Hopefully this does them some justice.

Growling north with a single graffiti covered MkII carriage in tow is Direct Rail Services Class 37, 37405, working a stock move from Willesden DRS depot to Crewe Gresty Bridge via Stoke-on-Trent.

The proud and powerful workhorse that even 50 years after its construction, continues to be a major part of the British Rail scene. I am of course talking of one of the most successful diesel locomotives of all time, the Class 37.

In the 1950's, British Rail was in desperate need to replace its ageing fleet of steam locomotives on both freight and passenger usage, and even though the new BR Standard locomotives were starting to make inroads into the Victorian built fleet, it was apparent that diesel and electric haulage was the only way forward. As such, English Electric, who had already had success with the construction of the Class 20 light freight loco and the Class 40 heavy passenger loco, were assigned to help deliver a new mulit-purpose diesel locomotive with a power output of more than 1,500bhp. Although the Class 40 could have been easily capable of handling this task, problems with these locomotives were that it was far too heavy and underpowered, which meant that in addition to hauling a heavy train, it also had the added task of hauling the actual locomotive itself! The earlier Class 40's were especially known for their unreliability, having to be frequently rescued by the steam locomotives they were built to replace!

Essentially, what English Electric did was build a scaled down version of the Class 40, shorter than its predecessor by 8 feet, weighting 33 tons less, and being powered by a much more reliable English Electric 12CSVT engine developing 1,750bhp. A batch of 42 locomotives were delivered in 1960 from the Vulcan Foundry in Newton-le-Willows, these being initially designated English Electric Type 3's, but this order was increased to 309 following the initial success of these engines, with production finishing in 1965. Work on the class was separated between several different plants, with construction primarily taking place at Vulcan Foundry, but also with assistance from Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns factory in Darlington.

The class was initially tasked with both freight and passenger workings, but the rough n' tumble nature of these engines meant they were more at home on goods trains. Some of the earlier locomotives were fitted with Steam Heating Boilers to warm passenger carriages as earlier coaches did not feature Electric Train Heating, although other locomotives had boilers added in 1967/68. Beyond the end of steam in 1968 and throughout the 1970's the Class 37's were dispersed among the many administrative Regions of British Rail, travelling the length and breadth of the country and working all manner of trains from Class 1 Express Passenger services to lower class breakdown trains and short goods services. This became apparent in its variety of liveries, especially following sectorisation of British Rail in the 1980's, with Class 37's sporting the livery of InterCity, Regional Railways and Railfreight Distribution.

Throughout their time however the fleet continued to be interchanged, especially after the introduction of the TOPS computer system which designated them Class 37. The variety of Class 37 sub-classes included:

- Class 37/3: Extended fuel tanks replacing the steam heating boiler

- Class 37/4: Addition of Electric Train Heating for use in passenger service

- Class 37/5: No major changes, a designation for engines with original split headcodes

- Class 37/6: Engines modified for use with Eurostar Class 373 units

- Class 37/7: Heavily modified for heavy freight workings, with extra ballast for more dragging power

- Class 37/9: Used as testbed for experimental Mirrlees MB275T engine

However, as the 1990's drew in and with privatisation on the horizon, it was apparent that the Class 37's were starting to look very tired. Their reliability was starting to falter, and the demands on the class were much greater than before. As such, newly formed primary freight operator EWS, made an order for a new fleet of Class 66 locomotives from General Motors to replace the many ageing British Rail classes. Upon their introduction in 1999, these engines were quick to see off many Class 37's, which went on a variety of their own journeys. In the summer of 2000 and 2001, many Class 37's were exported to France and Spain to help with the construction of their many High Speed Lines, including the LGV Méditerranée route from Lyon to Marseilles. While many of the French ones have since returned, a small fleet of Class 37's continued to work in the sun of Spain on the High Speed route between Perpignan and Figueres, but have since returned upon its opening in 2010.

In 2007, EWS was taken over by DB of Germany to become DB Schenker, which continued to operate a small fleet of Class 37's until 2010 when the last engines were retired. Throughout the 2000's these locomotives were placed into storage and scrapped, this particular era being their darkest hour. But as said, many continued to find their way into new leases of life, their reliable nature and flexible abilities making them a key part of many private fleets.

Direct Rail Services, the former rail arm of British Nuclear Fuels, took on a batch of Class 37's to operate their various freight trains, including the haulage of Nuclear Flasks, a task they continue to do till this day, with 29 of the class still on its books and in regular service. Colas Rail took on a fleet of 4 Class 37's in 2014 to expand their fleet, whilst charter company West Coast Railways owns four and four others were converted for use with Network Rail on engineering services.

Either way, it is apparent that these plucky and powerful little locomotives, of which 48 are preserved and 38 remain in mainline operation, will continue to be an integral part of the British Railway scene for many years to come.

Who knows, maybe they'll live to see mainline service when they're 100!

Autumn in Dorset, old fortifications, old wars and older landscapes.

The illusive Arriva DW411 is seen here at Enfield Garage having just completed a rounder on Route 279. The vehicle was delivered to Clapton Garage in 2011, however following a fire , it was sent back to Wrightbus, Ballymena where it was repaired. Upon repairing the vehicle, it was chosen to be a testbed for the new Euro V1 DB300, this required the chassis to be elongated to achieve this. This was achieved and in 2013 the vehicle was photographed in its new state, which gave the impression that it was ready to return to service. But this was not the case. It appeared that the vehicle was again chosen to be the test bed for the new generation of Wrightbus integral vehicles, the Streetdeck which features a Mercedes Engine. The vehicle was again modified, this time gaining a new Chassis to allow the new engine to be fitted, although it didn't need to be elongated this time! The new vehicle was spotted on British shores in April 2014 and following a lengthy test at Milbrook it arrived at Arriva's Enfield Garage in July 2014.

Boeing BBJ 747-8 (747-8JK)

38636/1434 [747-8 Intercontinental prototype]

9K-GAA 'AL KUWAITIYA'

دولة الكويت

STATE OF KUWAIT

KUG

Copyright © 2018 A380spotter. All rights reserved.

www.heathrowexpansion.com/

www.backheathrow.org/

ATR 72-600 test-bed and demonstrator visiting Guernsey. It performed several circuits in low visibility conditions before returning to Toulouse.

Airfield: Guernsey Airport (GCI/EGJB)

ESA microwave engineers took apart an entire Galileo satellite to reassemble its navigation payload on a laboratory test bench to run it as though it were in orbit – available to investigate the lifetime performance of its component parts, recreate satellite anomalies, and test candidate technologies for Galileo’s future evolution.

Located in the cleanroom environment of the Galileo Payload Laboratory – part of ESA’s Microwave Lab based at its ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands – the new Galileo IOV Testbed Facility was inaugurated this week with a ceremony attended by Paul Verhoef, ESA Director of Navigation and Franco Ongaro, ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality.

Paul Verhoef congratulated the team and underlined the importance of ESA having these capabilities: ”Such a navigation payload laboratory does not exist in industry. We foresee the testing and validation a number of very innovative ideas for the next series of Galileo satellites, before entering into discussions with industry in the context of the procurement of the Galileo Transition Satellites that has recently begun. This shows the added value of ESA as the design agent and system engineer of the Galileo system.”

“Our Lab has always been very responsive to the testing needs of the Navigation Directorate,’ comments microwave engineer César Miquel España.

“Now this unique facility allows performance of end-to-end testing of a Galileo payload as representatively as possible, using actual Galileo hardware. We can also support investigations of any problems in orbit or plug in future payload hardware as needed. And because each item of equipment is separately temperature controlled we can see how environmental changes affect their performance.”

The Testbed began as an ‘engineering model’ of a first-generation Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV) satellite, built by Thales Alenia Space in Italy for ground-based testing. It was delivered to ESTEC in August 2015, along with four truckloads of ground support equipment and other hardware.

That began a long three-year odyssey to first take the satellite apart, then put it back together – akin at times to space archaeology, since the satellite had been designed more than 15 years ago.

“We found lots of documentation on how to integrate the satellite, but nothing on how to take it apart,” adds technician Gearóid Loughnane. “We had to dismantle it very carefully over several weeks to remove the smaller items safely and take out the electrical harness, which ended up as a big spaghetti pile on the floor.”

The next step was to extricate the navigation payload from the satellite platform, and then begin to lay it out to connect it up again. A parallel effort tracked down supporting software from the companies involved, to be able to operate the payload once it was complete, as if it is orbiting in space.

Valuable help came from Surrey Satellite Technology Limited in the UK, Dutch aerospace company Terma that developed Galileo software, and Rovsing in Denmark, supplying ground support equipment.

“A big challenge was tailoring the spacecraft control and monitoring system to work only with the payload units while having to emulate the platform equipment” comments technician Andrew Allstaff.

Comprising equipment produced by companies in seven separate European companies, the Testbed generates navigation signals using actually atomic clocks co-located in the lab, which are then upconverted, amplified and filtered as if for transmission down to Earth.

The idea came from a GIOVE Payload Testbed already in the Lab, which simulates the performance of a test satellite that prepared the way for Galileo. As a next step the team hopes they can one day produce a Galileo ‘Full Operational Capability’ Payload Testbed – the current follow-on to the first-generation IOV satellites.

The next four Galileo FOC satellites are due to be launched by Ariane 5 in July.

Credits: ESA–Cesar Miquel Espana

Nikkormat FTn w/Nikkor 50mm f 2.0

Disney World

Walt Disney World Resort (commonly known as Walt Disney World or Disney World) is an entertainment and vacation resort complex located about 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Walt Disney Company.

Covering an approximate 27,000 acres (42 sq mi; 109 km2), Walt Disney World contains numerous recreational facilities designed to attract visitors for extended stays, including four theme parks, two water parks, four golf courses, conference centers, a competitive sports complex and a major shopping, dining and entertainment complex. Additionally, there are 31 Disney-owned resort hotels and one camping resort on the property, and many other non-Disney-operated hotels on and near the property.

Designed to supplement Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which had opened in 1955, the complex was planned and conceptualized by Walt Disney in the 1960s. Walt's vision for the complex was to build a new, self-contained destination resort on ample land, as he felt Disneyland had become limited by the third-party establishments that had sprung up around it. "The Florida Project", as it was then known, was intended to present a distinct vision with its own diverse set of attractions. Walt's original plans called for the inclusion of an "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT), a planned community intended to serve as a testbed for new city-living innovations. Walt's original vision would not progress past conceptualization, as he died on December 15, 1966, during the initial planning of the complex before construction had begun. After his death, the company wrestled with the idea of whether to bring the Disney World project to fruition; however, Walt's older brother, Roy O. Disney, came out of retirement to ensure the project was realized.

Construction began in 1967, with the company abandoning the planned community concept, instead choosing to build a theme park resort similar to Disneyland. Magic Kingdom was the first theme park to open in the complex in 1971, followed by EPCOT (then known as EPCOT Center) in 1982, Disney's Hollywood Studios (then known as the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park) in 1989, and Disney's Animal Kingdom in 1998. Initially known as Disney World, the name of the entire resort was named Walt Disney World at Roy's insistence, to memorialize his brother.

In 2024, Walt Disney World was the most visited vacation resort in the world, with an average annual attendance of more than 49 million, while Magic Kingdom has been the most visited theme park in the world for at least the past 24 years. The opening of Walt Disney World helped turn Central Florida into a major global tourism destination and the resort has contributed singificantly to Florida's economy, generating billions in economic activity and supporting a large number of jobs across the state. The resort is the largest single-site employer in the United States, the flagship destination of Disney's worldwide corporate enterprise and has become a staple of American popular culture.

Jetting off to Christchurch.

Yellow Buses 4021 began its life with First Manchester as a Euro 6 engined seed/testbed. It has gained Jetbus 737 branding for its new life in Bournemouth, but had strayed onto the cross Bournemouth 1 service, linking Poole and Christchurch, when seen on the 23rd of May 2021.

Honeywell Test Bed, N757HW at Dublin Airport, 24th August 2018 operating a High Speed Wifi connectivity demonstration flight to and from Brno in Czech Republic.

The illusive Arriva DW411 is seen here at Enfield Garage having just completed a rounder on Route 279. The vehicle was delivered to Clapton Garage in 2011, however following a fire , it was sent back to Wrightbus, Ballymena where it was repaired. Upon repairing the vehicle, it was chosen to be a testbed for the new Euro V1 DB300, this required the chassis to be elongated to achieve this. This was achieved and in 2013 the vehicle was photographed in its new state, which gave the impression that it was ready to return to service. But this was not the case. It appeared that the vehicle was again chosen to be the test bed for the new generation of Wrightbus integral vehicles, the Streetdeck which features a Mercedes Engine. The vehicle was again modified, this time gaining a new Chassis to allow the new engine to be fitted, although it didn't need to be elongated this time! The new vehicle was spotted on British shores in April 2014 and following a lengthy test at Milbrook it arrived at Arriva's Enfield Garage in July 2014.

The earliest customer and the first airline to take delivery of the Boeing 787 in the United States, United Airlines have since taken delivery of their entire order for Boeing 787-8s and Boeing 787-9s. With the Boeing 787-10 having successfully been given type approval and the first now in revenue service.

Although United have since taken delivery of all Boeing 787-8/9s, the airline still have 14 Boeing 787-10s on-order and is expected to take delivery of their first example by October 2018, but will also be the recipient of a testbed example.

The 14 Boeing 787-10s are expected to be primarily used on transatlantic flights from their East Coast hubs, very likely from Chicago-O'Hare, Newark-Liberty and Washington-Dulles. Whilst the speculation is rife about their planned flights, what isn't being speculated is how they will be configured.

The planned configuration of their Boeing 787-10s has recently been leaked by the press and will be regarded as a new flagship for the airline as they will be the first long-haul aircraft to see proper Premium Economy seating, as well as being fitted with the new Polaris Business Class interiors. There will be 318 seats in total spread between 208 in Economy, 45 in Economy Plus, 21 Premium Economy and 44 Polaris Business Class seats.

With their pending arrival later in the year, United continues to send in their Boeing 787s into London Heathrow and are being used on 3 daily flights during the S18 schedule, notably on one daily flight each to Denver (UA26/27 utilising Boeing 787-8s), Los Angeles (UA923/935 utilising Boeing 787-9s) and Washington-Dulles (UA919/924 utilising Boeing 787-8s).

Currently, United Airlines operates 37 Boeing 787s, which includes 12 Boeing 787-8s and 25 Boeing 787-9s. United have 14 Boeing 787-10s on-order, with the first to be delivered in October 2018.

November Two Seven Nine Five Eight is one of 25 Boeing 787-9s in service with United, delivered new to the carrier in September 2015 and she is powered by 2 General Electric GEnx-1B engines.

Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner N27958 on final approach into Runway 27L at London Heathrow (LHR) on UA924 from Washington-Dulles (IAD), Virginia.

Photo taken by Stefan Röhrich.

München-Riem

1977-05-01 (1 May 1977)

G-AYXR

Boeing 707-321(F)

17608/122

Dan-Air London (leased from British Midland, Tunis Air cheatline)

G-AYXR is lining up on runway 07 on a beautiful May day at Riem. The aircraft had visited Riem before with Donaldson International on 1 October 1972.

Information from flickr - thanks to Paul:

New to Pan Am as N730PA in 1960. Converted to a freighter in 1970 and to Donaldson International Airways as G-AYXR in 1971. To British Midland Airways in 1975 and leased to a number of airlines. To International Air Leases as N37681 in 1980. To General Electric in 1983 and used as an engine testbed. Reregistered as N707GE in 1990. Scrapped at Mojave in 2003.

Registration details for this airframe:

www.planelogger.com/Aircraft/Registration/G-AYXR/489311

This airframe as N730PA with Pan American at LHR in August 1961:

abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1037666

G-AYXR with Donaldson International at YYZ in July 1971:

www.flickr.com/photos/158362432@N07/50391050258

G-AYXR with Kuwait Airways at EMA in ca. 1976:

www.flickr.com/photos/154191970@N03/35532356325

G-AYXR with Tunis Air at FRA in June 1976:

www.flickr.com/photos/skypicsintl/16225807938

G-AYXR with BMA at LGW in September 1976 (no titles):

www.flickr.com/photos/pslg05896/30695255760

G-AYXR with Kenya Airways at LHR in February 1977 (Tunis Air cheatline):

www.flickr.com/photos/pslg05896/22818814488

G-AYXR with Kenya Airways at FRA in July 1977 (Tunis Air cheatline, red tail):

abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1268587

G-AYXR with Pakistan International at EMA in April 1980:

abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1282566

This airframe as N37681 with International Air Leases/Batch Air, used as an engine testbed by General Electric, at MHV in October 1984:

www.flickr.com/photos/pslg05896/30490227284

This airframe as N707GE with General Electric at MHV in October 1992:

www.flickr.com/photos/markp51/35448079624

N707GE with a CFM engine in the #2 position:

www.flickr.com/photos/n747ge/6361483173

N707GE stored derelict at MHV in September 2003:

imgproc.airliners.net/photos/airliners/6/2/2/0458226.jpg

Scan from Kodachrome slide.