Aircraft Recognition Guide 5: (Antonov, BAC aircraft, D.H Comet, Fokker (jets), Lockheed)

Welcome to my Aircraft Recognition Guide 5! 

*Aircraft photos are credited to the respective photographers from Airliners.net unless stated. 

My photo of EUjet's Fokker 100

 For my part 1, click here (Airbus and Boeing)

           part 2, click here (McDonnell Douglas, Embraer, and Bombardier Jets)

           part 3, click here (Ilyushin, Tupolev, Sukhoi, Irkut, Yakolev)

           part 4, click here (Common Turboprop aircraft)

Hi readers, 

Welcome to part 5 of my Aircraft Recognition Guide! I hope you find the other 4 parts useful. For this part, I post some of the important aircraft in the history of Aviation. A few of them are no longer flying but they played a big role in the past. Without them, aviation today could be different. 

For this part, I will be focusing on the following aircraft manufacturers/aircraft type: Antonov, Aerospatiale Concorde, BAC 1-11, de Havilland Comet, Vickers Viscount, Hawker Siddeley Trident, VC-10, Fokker and Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, C-130 Hercules, L1049- Super Constellation, L-188 Electra and L-1011 Tristar. 

I will be posting the common aircraft types, as there are too many to list down. Hope you find this guide useful especially for non-aviation readers!

Let's start off with Ukraine's aircraft manufacturer: Antonov! 

Antonov is a Ukraine state manufacturing company established in 1946 by Oleg Antonov specialized in turboprop military transport company. The headquarters of this company is based in Kyiv and in May 2015, the company was transferred from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade to the Ukraine Defence Industry. 

Antonov AN-2 

This is a single-engine biplane manufactured by Antonov used for light utility transport and parachute drop aircraft. Its slow flying and short-field performance make it is suitable for short airstrips and this aircraft holds the Guinness World of Record of having the longest production run among the aircraft in the world, 45-year production run. Very popular aircraft among the Russian airliners as this aircraft was built to carry 12 passengers when it was first launched. The first aircraft first flew in 1947 and gradually improvements especially the engines were made during this production period and finally production ended in 1991. China builds the AN-2 under license named as Shijiazhuang YS-5. 

Capacity: 12 passengers

Range: 845 km 

My photo of Russian Air Force AN-2R at the Lelystad Airport in the Netherlands. 

Antonov AN-12 

Antonov AN-12 is a 4-engined turboprop aircraft launched in the mid-1950s and first flew in December 1957. This aircraft is similar to American's aircraft, C-130 Hercules aircraft and can also be used for military purposes such as warplane. 900 of this aircraft were built and production ends in 1973. The Chinese bought the license of this aircraft type and named it YS-8 and it entered production in 1981 and it becomes one of China's most popular military and civilian cargo transport aircraft. 

Capacity: 12 passengers

Range: 3,600 to 5,700 km 

This is Cavok Air's AN-12B aircraft

Antonov AN-24

AN-24 aircraft is a 44-seater twin turboprop plane launched in 1957 and first flew in 1959. This airline was built to replace the IL-14 aircraft on short-medium haul routes. 1000 over aircraft was built and more than half are still flying today due to its popularity. This aircraft can operate on poorly conditioned and short runways and can adapt to many missions such as ice reconnaissance and engine testbeds.

Capacity: 44 seats

Range: 2,761 km

This is Air Ukraine's AN-24B which is now on static display. 

Antonov AN-72/-74

This aircraft is a twin-engine aircraft and is built as a replacement for the AN-26 aircraft. First flew in 1977, the AN-74 series is designed to operate in harsh condition as this variant can be fitted with wheels ski landing gear, de-icing equipment, and other upgrades which allow it operates in very cold conditions. Production of this aircraft only took place in 1980 and the design of this aircraft is easily recognized by its overwing engines. 

Capacity: 52 passengers

Range: 4,325 km

Russia Air Force AN-72 

An Untitled AN-74-200 aircraft on arrival

Antonov AN-124 Rusian

AN-124 is a large aircraft that amazed plane spotters around the world with its massive size. Before the arrival of the Boeing 747-8F, this aircraft was world's highest aircraft gross weight and 2nd heaviest operating cargo aircraft. For military aircraft, this is the largest transport plane in the world. Design of this aircraft started in 1971 and the first flight took place 11 years later! Improvement of this aircraft was made and in 2008, a new variant was announced, unfortunately, the production of this aircraft didn't take place especially with the political tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Capacity: 88 passengers

Range: 5,200 km 

AN-124 is being prepared for departure while the AN-225 just landed

The aircraft manufacturer's livery of the AN-124

Antonov AN-148

This is a regional jet built by Antonov and was launched in the early 2000s. This aircraft is high wing menopause with two turbofan jet engines mounted under the wing. The first flight took place in December 2007 and is used to operate to airports with a poorly equipped airfield. There are 3 versions for this: -100A, -100B and -100E series

Capacity: 68-85 seats depending on the configuration

Range: 2,100 km to 4,400 km

This is Russia - Border Guard AN-148 aircraft

Antonov AN-158

The AN-158 is basically a stretched version of the AN-148, it can seat 99 passengers and wingfence is installed on this version. The first flight took place in April 2010 and was ready to fly around 3 years later. 

Capacity: 86-99 passengers

Range: 2,500 km

This photo of AN-158 was taken at the Paris Air Show by me

A better angle of the AN-158 

Antonov AN-225 Mriya

This is the world's biggest cargo aircraft built with 6 engines, the only aircraft with this number. This aircraft is named Mriya which means "Dream" in Ukrainian. It is the longest and heaviest aircraft built and only 1 is built due to the lack of funds and interest to build the 2nd. So if you see one, count yourself very lucky! This aircraft's initial task was to transport the Buran spaceplane, an enlargement of the AN-124 aircraft. This aircraft was built finished in 1988 and made its first flight at the end of the year. This aircraft served the social-military for a short period of time before it got mothballed for 8 years! Fortunately, it got refurbished and re-introduced after realizing the need for it to carry oversized payloads. This aircraft is still in operation. 

Max take off weight: 640,000 kg

Range: 15,400 km (empty cargo hold) or 4,000 km (200 tonnes payload)

British Aircraft Corporation 

This British Aircraft manufacturer has formed thanks to the merger of English Electric, Vickers-Armstrong, the British Aerospace Company and Hunting aircraft in 1960. This merger took place due to the pressure from the government. I will be focusing on the following aircraft: Concorde, BAC 1-11, Vickers VC-10, and Vickers Viscount.

Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde 

Concorde is probably one of the aircraft that is well known to the public for being the only commercial supersonic jet to fly for a period of time. Unfortunately, due to the accident in Paris that led to the aircraft being grounded by Air France and British Airways and eventually it was withdrawn from service. The good news is both airlines preserved the aircraft frames and they are located at different aircraft museums. This supersonic jet can fly up over twice the speed of sound at Mach 2.04 and can seat between 92 and 120 passengers. This aircraft first flown in 1969 and entered commercial service in 1976. 20 of this aircraft type were built and 7 of them were each delivered to Air France and British Airways while the remaining 6 were prototypes and development aircraft. This aircraft was withdrawn from service in 2003 and would always remain in the heart of aviation. Russian built a similar aircraft to this and that is the Tupolev TU-144. Unfortunately for the Russians, this aircraft didn't last long in commercial service. 

Capacity: 92-120 passengers

Range: 7,228 km

What do you think of this beauty? 

BAC 1-11 

The BAC 1-11 was a British short-haul aircraft built in the 1960s to compete with the French-built Sub Aviation Caravelle. Hunting aircraft originally started off this program and was furthered developed by BAC when the companies were merged. This aircraft was also built to replace the Vickers Viscount and it had a slight lead over the Douglas DC-9 as it was introduced to the market first. This aircraft had a successful life as it operated until the early 1990s as noise restriction prevents this aircraft from entering quite a number of European countries at that time. There are a few versions of this aircraft, -200, -300, -475, -500 and -670. Basically improved versions as both aircraft and engine manufacturers found ways to improve this aircraft type. 

Capacity: 79-119 passengers

Range: 1,340 to 2,744 km

Dan-Air (Defunct) and British Airways were operators of this BAC 1-11 aircraft 

Vickers VC-10

This is a long-range airliner built by Vickers-Armstrong Aircraft Ltd in 1962. It was designed to operate on long haul routes from short runways and performed in hot conditions like places in Africa. This aircraft set the record for flying London to New York at the time of 5 hours and 1 minute and only the Concorde is faster. Not a lot of VC-10s were built and they performed well for the likes of BOAC from 1961 to 1981. Last flight of this aircraft took place in September 2013 and this aircraft looks very similar to IL-62, built by Ilyushin. Super VC-10 was introduced later on as an improved version over the standard version. 

Capacity: 151 passengers

Range: 9,412 km

British Airways and BOAC (Defunct) were operators of this aircraft type.

Vickers Viscount 

This aircraft was built by Vickers-Armstrong in the mid-1940s and first flown in 1948. This was the world's first turboprop engine replacing the piston engine back then. This 24-seater passenger aircraft was used on short-medium haul routes and it was quite a popular aircraft with some features such as pressurized cabin, reduction in vibration and noise and big windows. 

Capacity: 75 passengers

Range: 2,220 km

This Lufthansa's Vickers Viscount is on display at Frankfurt airport.

The defunct airline, Northeast operated this Vickers Viscount aircraft 

de Havilland 

This British aircraft manufacturer was set up in 1920 and became part of Hawker Siddeley group in 1960. Today, it is part of the BAE Systems. This manufacturer built the Comet which is the first commercial jetliner in the history of aviation. I will be focusing on this airliner as it plays a significant role in aviation. 

de Havilland Comet 

The Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949, a unique aircraft easily recognized by the 4 engines buried in the wings. It was a pressurized cabin and with large windows, making it a popular aircraft with the cabin crew and passengers. However, things didn't go according to plan as this aircraft type suffered a number of accidents caused by metal fatigue which was not understood well. After a year later, 3 accidents happened and the aircraft type was grounded to allow checks to understand the cause of the problem and they discovered it was design flaw required changes to take places such as strengthening the structure of the aircraft, dangerous stresses of the corner of the windows and a few other changes. The manufacturer didn't give up and produced the Comet 2, 3 and 4 versions in the 1950s. However, confidence in this aircraft was low and sales failed to recover and eventually succumbed to other aircraft manufacturers. 

Capacity: 36-81 passengers

Range: 2,400 to 5,190 km

This is the only aircraft in aviation history to have its engine design this way. 

Malaysia Singapore Airlines (MSA) operated this comet 

DAN Air's Comet on display in 2014

This aircraft manufacturer was formed with a group of British manufacturing companies emerged in aircraft production. Several of the aircraft manufacturers merged into this company as the government pressurized them to do so. This company was to become part of the nationalized BAe (British Aerospace) company. For this guide, I will be focusing on the Hawker Siddeley Trident aircraft. 

Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident 

This tri-jet aircraft was built for short-medium haul routes, launched in 1962 and started commercial flights 3 years later. This was the first T-tail three-engined aircraft to be designed but it started flying 2 months after its competitor, Boeing launched a similar design aircraft, the Boeing 727. As a result, the aircraft type lost sales even though it managed to gain some big orders from BEA and a few others. In 1978, the end of the production came, by then it produced only 118 aircraft. This aircraft managed to go on till the early 1990s before the last one was withdrawn from service. 

Capacity: 101-180 passengers

Range: 2,170 to 3,597 km

Northeast's Trident 1E

British Airways Trident 1E 

Comparison between a Boeing 727-100 and Trident 3B (longer version than the 1E)

Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. It was set up in 1912 initially in Germany and moved to the Netherlands in 1919. For this part, I will be focusing on F28, F70 and F100 aircraft.

Fokker 28 Fellowship 

This aircraft was launched in 1962 and there were quite a number of investors for this aircraft and that includes Dutch and West Germany government. This aircraft was originally designed for a 50-seater but that changed to 60-65 seater after some amendment to the design. This aircraft is similar in design to the DC-9 and BAC 1-11 and first flew in 1967. With the production in Amsterdam, the aircraft managed to gain some orders and a few variants of this type were introduced. The series are -1000,-2000,-3000,-4000,-5000 and -6000. Production ended in 1987 and 241 of this aircraft type were built. 

Capacity: 65-79 passengers

Range: 1,025 to 2,000 km

Air Ontario's Fokker 28-1000

This Icaro Fokker 28-4000 carried the Barcelona team for their games in South America. 

Korean Air's Fokker 28-4000 

Fokker 70 

Fokker 70 is a twin-engine narrow-body, twin-engine, turbofan aircraft built by Fokker as a smaller version to the Fokker 100 aircraft and also a replacement for the Fokker 28 aircraft. It flies on short to medium-haul routes, suitable for low demand routes. This aircraft was launched in 1992 and its first flight took place in April 1993. It started commercial flights in October 1994 and the last delivery took place about 3 years later as the aircraft manufacturer was forced to shut down production prior to declaring bankruptcy. It was a sad end to both this aircraft type and Fokker. 

Capacity: 72-85 passengers

Range: 3,410 km

Beautiful photo of KLM's Fokker 70

Silkair used to operate the Fokker 70

Fokker 100

The Fokker 100 is a medium-size narrow-body aircraft built for short-range and this model led to strong sales in the late 80s and production ended in 1997, with 283 aircraft delivered. Fokker built the most number of this aircraft type before it declared bankrupt. First introduced in 1983, this aircraft was meant to replace the F28 and the first aircraft flew in 1986. Delivery of this aircraft was to Swissair, the launch customer of this aircraft type 2 years later. 

Kris Air's Fokker 100 on approach 

This is Bek Air's Fokker 100, can you guess whether this aircraft is taking off or landing? 

Lockheed Corporation was set up in 1912 and later on merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin. This company was established in San Francisco initially and relocated to Santa Barbara, California in 1916. The company built mainly fighter planes and once again it relocated to Burbank, California. Some of the aircraft are easily recognized by civil aviation enthusiasts such as the C-130 and C-5 Galaxy (Military aircraft), L-1049 Super Constellation, L-188 Electra and the Lockheed Tristar L-1011 aircraft. 

C-130 Hercules

This is a 4-engine military transport aircraft that was designed by Lockheed. You might see them at airports from time to time, doing military work for the respective air forces. They are designed to transport troops and cargo. First entered service in 1950, this aircraft is still in production up till today, making this the longest continuously produced aircraft and the C-130J Super Hercules aircraft is being built at this time.

Capacity: 92 passengers, 64 airborne troops, 74 little patients with 5 medical crew 

Range: 3,800 km 

Egyptian Air Force's C-130 

South Korean's Air Force's C-130 

C-5 Galaxy 

This is a large military transport aircraft launch in 1961 to replace the Douglas C-133 Cargomaster and Lockheed C-141 Starlifters. This aircraft is well known for being the largest military aircraft in the world and it has many similarities between this and Lockheed C-141 aircraft. Initially, the aircraft encountered problems when placed in service, with cracks on the wings found. Later on, the C-5M Super Galaxy was built with upgraded engines to extend its service life beyond 2040. The first delivery of this aircraft took place in 1969 and this aircraft type continues to fly for the U.S Military Air Force. 

This is how one looks like! 

Loading is done from the front of the aircraft, similar to the Boeing 747 Freighters. 

 L-1049 Super Constellation 

Since 1943, Lockheed had plans to build a stretched version of the Constellation family. L-049 and L-749 came to the drawing board but none of them made it to the assembly stage due to the lack of suitable engines in the civilian market at that time. However, pressure from Douglas which launched the DC-6 and that forced Lockheed to take action. This manufacturer launched the L-1049 in 1950 and first flew aircraft flew a year later before getting the certificate a few months after the first flight. It managed to gain some orders especially from the U.S airlines and went on to operate until 1983 which the last L-1049 Constellation was retired. 

Capacity: 47-106 passengers

Range: 8,288 km

Lufhansa's L-1049 parked at Stockholm Bromma

Breitling's L1049 aircraft 

Lockheed L-188 Electra 

This turboprop airliner was built by Lockheed in the mid-1950s. First flew in 1957, this was the first large turboprop airliner built in the U.S. Initially the sales were good, but because of 2 fatal crashes, no more orders for this aircraft type. The 2 crashes were due to the engine mount problem and the FAA chose to reduce the cruising speed of this aircraft to further investigate. This aircraft was first delivered to Eastern Airlines and eventually this type operated until the mid-1970s before being replaced by more efficient aircraft. Only 129 of this aircraft type were ordered.

Capacity: 98 passengers

Range: 3,540 km

This is the freighter version operated by Atlantic Airlines

KLM's L-188 Electra. This aircraft is in the old livery

Lockheed L-1011 Tristar 

This is the medium to long-range wide-body aircraft built by Lockheed to compete with the likes of Boeing 747 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft. Similarly to the DC-10, 2 engines are mounted on the wing and the 3rd one at the tail. This aircraft has 2 different fuselage length, built for different customers' needs and give the competitors of a run for their money as they too also designed different variants of their aircraft.  Production started in 1968 and ended in 1984 with a total number of 250 built. Unfortunately, after the production of this aircraft ended, Lockheed withdrew from the commercial aircraft business. 

Capacity: L1011-100/-200: 256-400 passengers

     L1011-500: 246-330 passengers

Range: L1011-100 - 7,871 km
                    -200 - 9,140 km
                      -500 - 11,279 km

Cathay Pacific's L-1011 in the airline's old livery, this aircraft was seen taxiing at Changi Airport. 

TWA's L1011 at the hanger, having its engine changed 

Air Canada's L-1011 in the old livery taking off 

Thanks for reading my Aircraft Recognition Guide 5, hope you find this information useful. If there are any errors, please let me know! 

For my other parts: 

Part 1: Airbus and Boeing (Click here)

Part 2: McDonnell Douglas, Embraer and Bombardier (Click here)

Part 3: Some Russian aircraft (Click here)

Part 4: Common turboprop aircraft (Click here)

Cheers,

Charles