The UAE Air Force aerobatic display team formed up with an Etihad Airways A380 for the 2016 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

On Nov. 27, an Etihad Airways A380 performed the traditional pre-Grand Prix race flypast in formation with the seven Aermacchi MB-339 jets of the Al Fursan (The Knights) display team.

The following footage, filmed from both inside the UAE AF display team jets and the civilian “superjumbo” show the amazing pass conducted by the unusual formation at dusk.

The Al Fursan team was formed in 2010 and made its first appearance with a simple fly-by with 4 MB-339s at the graduation ceremony at the Khalifa Bin Zayed Air College on Jan. 20, 2010. In July the same year, eight pilots moved to Italy to start training under the supervision of the Frecce Tricolori of the Italian Air Force, world’s largest display team based at Rivolto, and flying the same kind of aircraft. The training course ended in 2011.

The team made its first public aerobatic demonstration on Nov. 13, 2011, during the opening day of the Dubai Air Show.

Nowadays the Al Fursan team is equipped with 10 aircraft, four of those come from the 61° Stormo (Wing) of the Italian Air Force, the Flight School based at Lecce Galatina.

The Emirates MB-339As are painted in black, gold, white, red and green, and are equipped with smoke generators that produce red, green white and black smoke, the same colors of the UAE National flag.

By the way, the video provides also a glimpse of the backseat where you can see a dummy mascotte strapped to the ejection seat….

 

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Salva

Bulgarian Air Force Fulcrums greeted the very first visit of an Airbus A380 to Sofia.

On Oct. 16, a Lufthansa Airbus A380 landed for the very first time in Sofia.

Piloted by the only Bulgarian A380 Lufthansa pilot, Senior First Officer Mario Bakalov, the largest passenger aircraft of the world took off from Frankfurt as a special flight carrying a delegation of politicians, customers and media to the Bulgarian capital to introduce the Lufthansa A380 to customers and the general public in the country and to promote long-haul flights to the U.S. and Asia.

Noteworthy, during its flight across the Bulgarian airspace the Airbus A380 was met by three Bulgarian Air Force Mig-29s (including a two-seater photo-ship). In this post you can find some stunning images taken by the BAF while escorting the giant two-deck airliner inbound to Sofia.

Here’s a short clip showing the three Mig-29s as seen from inside the A380.

Image credit: Bulgarian Air Force / Ognyan Stefanov

 

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Jetpack pilots form up with a giant A380 in an awesome video.

This is video is amazing.

It shows Jetman Dubai flying in formation with an Emirates Airbus A380 over Dubai.

Just think what jetpack-equipped pilots will be able to do in the next years, as skydivers will have enough speed to pursuit and intercept fast movers: as we suggested some years ago with a joke, you’ll have your low cost fighter jet solution to face the current financial crisis…

In the meanwhile enjoy this stunning footage of an unusual formation.

H/T Giulio Cristante for the heads-up

 

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A nice head-on combo image of the Airbus A350 and Airbus A380 during Farnborough International Airshow 2014.

Even if the F-35 saga is what most people will remember about this year’s edition, Farnborough International Airshow, in UK, featured several other highlights, including, as always, some stunning air displays by huge commercial planes.

Among them, the demo of Boeing 787-9, the newest and biggest version of the Dreamliner, with some stunning maneuvers performed by the 280-seat passenger planes, and the displays of the A350 and A380.

The Airbus planes flew their displays in sequence:  as the cool image above, taken by Rich Cooper, shows while the Airbus A380 (which was preceded by an A400M Grizzly) was coming to land at the end, the A350 took off to perform its demo flight.

Image credit: RC-Pro Photography

 

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Crosswind landings are quite frequent at military and civil airports all around the world.

In such conditions, depending on the type of aircraft, pilots may be required to apply a Wind Correction Angle (WCA) and “crab” the plane aligning nose and tail with the wind direction to counter the drifting effect of side winds.

Usually crabbed approaches are safe, unless gusts are particularly strong. As in the following video.

Reportedly filmed at Narita airport, Tokyo, on Mar. 13, 2013, the footage shows a scary approach by a Thai Airbus 380 under a max crosswind of 27.4 m/s.

The heavy liner almost touches the ground with the right wingtip before coming to a safe halt.

A famous mishap cause by strong crosswinds occurred on Mar. 1, 2008, when a Lufthansa Airbus 320 approaching runway 23 at Hamburg performed an unstable flare and slided the left wingtip along the tarmac suffering wing and slat damage.

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