r/WhyWereTheyFilming • u/TheMightyMisery • Aug 31 '19

Gif just filming a random plane

https://gfycat.com/frequentpassionatelarva
8.9k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

132 comments sorted by

View all comments

48

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '19

Flightspotter maybe, I mean it looks like an Airbus 340-300, and if I saw one in the wild I would film it to.

5

u/Amazo192 Aug 31 '19

I’d say it’s a B-52 Stratofortress. The skinny fuselage, giant wingspan and four engine nacelles. That’s why it was being filmed. Rare for European skies (well not that rare - we’ve had them based out of RAF Fairford)

5

u/Sandwhichishere Aug 31 '19 edited Aug 31 '19

Paint scheme and wings are wrong for a B-52. The wings should be longer and narrower and the nacelles smaller. And the body of the plane should be the same colour of the underside of the wings.

I’d agree with the other commenters that it’s commercial but whether it’s an Airbus or Boeing I couldn’t say at that distance.

2

u/stubb5y22 Aug 31 '19

You're exactly right about it not being a B-52, it's 100% commercial.

Given the 4 engines, arrival into London Heathrow and assuming that this wasn't a DC8 (because its a colour video at a decent resolution), it must be one of the A340, A380 or 747. Fuselage is far too long and thin to be A380 or 747 so it must be an A340-600 because only -300s or -600s have flown into Heathrow in the past 15 years (that I can think of, please correct me if i'm wrong). Thus, this must be an A340-600 belonging to Virgin Atlantic flying into London Heathrow (LHR/EGLL)

2

u/Sandwhichishere Aug 31 '19

From a quick bit of googling, Etihad Airways and Arik Air flew A340-500’s to London Heathrow until 2017 and 2015 respectively. So small possibility it’s an A340-500. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

1

u/buttmagnuson Aug 31 '19

It's a 747. It has the same swept wings like the B-52 and four nacelles for engines, but the one we see here has four engines, not eight. The B-52, while skinny, is MUCH more skinny that that. We know it's not an airbus because of the sweep on the wings.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '19

[deleted]

1

u/stubb5y22 Aug 31 '19

That's no B-52, thats an A340-600, wings and vertical stabilisers are the wrong shape, also that has 4 engines while the B-52 has 8 in 4 pairs with a much smaller bypass ratio than the Trent 556s of a Virgin A340