A question for Aviation fans?

With my aircraft picture quiz thread being moved here I have had a bit of a chat with one of the mods and it would seem that there is to be a bit of a clearout of non-conspiracy based threads on the Aircraft Projects board.

To my mind a very large percentage of the threads on that board have nothing to do with conspiracies but everything to do with a love of aircraft and a quest to know more about them (and to prove to others what we know already

The upshot of several U2U's was that he agreed with me that a dedicated Aviation board in BTS might be a good idea. My thoughts on this are that it could be a forum for ANYTHING to do with Aviation such as topics on modern fighter jets or even the mythology of Icarus and Daedalus and everything in between.

My thoughts on this are that there are a lot of plane buffs out there and we could leave this chit chat board for the purpose it was intended and people could debate aviation history to their hearts content without having posts moved for being too trivial (on the other board) or cluttering up this one for people who aren't interested, e.g a post about the Airfix TSR 2 kit would be perfectly acceptable there, or even people posting pictures of models they may have made of say F-86's in Russian air force or even Captain Scarlet markings!

The thing is though would there be enough interest in this board to make it worthwhile whilst still having the existing board for all the black projects and the like. Well. whats the vibe on this? Maybe this thread could be used as a barometer by the mods to see if enough people would use it to make it worthwhile?

Im all for a BTS Aviation forum, it makes sense due to all the 'non secret' stuff we tend to end up discussing.

Consider the recommendation seconded!

[edit on 1/4/2005 by RichardPrice]

As a first topic to kick start this thread off, does anyone know of anyone that can produce aircraft models to order, ie in a requested scale and colour scheme? I collect 1:400 civil aviation models (Herpa, Dragon Wings etc) and have been looking everywhere for a 1:400 Sonic Cruiser, but noone makes them. I dont have the time or patience personally to make one (tho i may attempt something this weekend) but would pay money for one.

(posted by waynos)
The thing is though would there be enough interest in this board to make it worthwhile whilst still having the existing board for all the black projects and the like. Well. whats the vibe on this?

Before discussing the vibes I needed to find out about a certain matter. Are you "aviation fans" in any way interested in exoaviation? I just coined the word. It means "extraterrestrial aviation". You see, the only model I happen to have is the Testors model of the so-called "Roswell UFO", a "Collector's Edition" (Item # 555) designed especially for the 50th anniversary of the incident (1947-1997).

Moreover, you might know that one of our fellow ATS members is an engineer and works for the Boeing company. When I found him in one of the chatrooms I suggested that he start a thread on the Boeing-Airbus rivalry. He dismissed the idea on the grounds that he was not a spokesman for the company. However, at least he offered the following priceless comment : that THE OUTCOME OF THE BATTLE WILL BE DECIDED BY THE PASSENGERS THEMSELVES.

So I was wondering, should one trust this opinion given out by an insider, or are there other factors involved which he would never discuss with outsiders? People sworn to secrecy cannot be expected to be outspoken. But apart from that, the conventional viewpoint, according to which in a free-market economy the consumer is sovereign, is no longer something you can swallow whole.
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Originally posted by Macrento


Before discussing the vibes I needed to find out about a certain matter. Are you "aviation fans" in any way interested in exoaviation? I just coined the word. It means "extraterrestrial aviation". You see, the only model I happen to have is the Testors model of the so-called "Roswell UFO", a "Collector's Edition" (Item # 555) designed especially for the 50th anniversary of the incident (1947-1997).

There are a lot of people interested in that sort of thing on the ATS Aircraft Projects forum, so I think the answer is yes.

Moreover, you might know that one of our fellow ATS members is an engineer and works for the Boeing company. When I found him in one of the chatrooms I suggested that he start a thread on the Boeing-Airbus rivalry. He dismissed the idea on the grounds that he was not a spokesman for the company. However, at least he offered the following priceless comment : that THE OUTCOME OF THE BATTLE WILL BE DECIDED BY THE PASSENGERS THEMSELVES.

Heh, there have been many Airbus Vs Boeing threads, and many more that didnt start out as that sort of thread but certainly degenerated into it It is a battle that will be decided by many things, including the passengers, the airports, fuel prices etc. As I said in another thread, to save money you can either move the same amount of people for less money, or more people for the same amount of money. Boeing has the first covered with the 787, and Airbus has the second covered with the A380. Plus you need to realise that Airports can only get so much bigger before residents start complaining, and this means the airports can only take up so much capacity at any one time. This means that prices for landing and takeoff slots are going to go up as more and more traffic competes for them.

So I was wondering, should one trust this opinion given out by an insider, or are there other factors involved which he would never discuss with outsiders? People sworn to secrecy cannot be expected to be outspoken. But apart from that, the conventional viewpoint, according to which in a free-market economy the consumer is sovereign, is no longer something you can swallow whole.
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Why not? His opinions as valid as anyone elses on this board. Hes right tho, he isnt a spokesman for Boeing, and he could possibily get himself into a lot of trouble if he acted as one, so I think his declining to comment is a valid stance.

RichardPrice--

Opinions of experts are always awesome! Thank you. The person I'm talking about is Off_the _street. Unfortunately he was not interested in talking shop in the chatroom on that occasion. All he wanted to do was discuss underwater cameras for his diving excursions, and he said that so far he'd been using leased equipment, and that it was extremely expensive hardware.

Occasionally I've visited the Aviation Projects section. There was a noteworthy thread started by a mainland Chinese member who sounded furious about the claim that Chinese aircraft designers were just a bunch of copycats. The replies poured down on him.

Funny how you serious people have ended up here. It's like sending a Nobel Prize winner over to the sandbox to play with the kindergarteners. The indignity!
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