Post by MissRiaElainePost by ReclinerOf course, these days, much of the diversity of planes has gone. The vast
majority of planes are underwing twins, Airbuses and Boeings. Amost none
from other manufacturers, no triples, relatively few quads, few
rear-engined. And you don't need to be an expert to identify them: your
phone tells you all about all the planes, long before they're within sight
or sound.
My phone doesn't..! Although my other half who's more into this these
days uses a website called flightradar24.com on the laptop to find out
what's going over here at any time, we often get helicopters to and from
the rigs and also air ambulances inbound to ARI (Aberdeen Royal
Infirmary) going over the rooftops at quite a low altitude..!
Yes, there are several plane spotter apps; I use Plane Finder.
They give you the identity, route, track, flight number, etc, of any flight
in the world. You can watch them coming down the glide slope, so you know
exactly what's incoming. Even if you see a plane at 40,000' you can easily
identify it, where it came from, where it's going, when the plane first
entered service, etc.
For example, the most recent plane to have overflown me was Qatar QR8133,
on its way from Liège to Mexico City. It's a 777F, A7-BFN, flying at
30,000'.
Post by MissRiaElaineSad to learn of the demise of the Queens Building, it must have been the
late 60's the last time I was there, so it's not surprising, I suppose.
I've only really been through Heathrow a handful of times in recent
years, and as it was usually at stupid o'clock I didn't take too much
notice of my surroundings...!
It was demolished about a decade ago, but the name sort-of lives on, as the
new Terminal 2, which occupies its site, is called The Queen's Terminal.
Mind you, I can't quite imagine HM ever actually using it, even if she uses
a public flight. She'd normally use Northolt, or the Royal Suite at
Heathrow.