Plane Spotting

Curious. To my slightly trained eye, I had to wonder why French Mirage fighters would escort a plane into Halifax. Then I saw the canards (small wings up front), then I thought, Eurofighter Typhoon??? Dassault Rafale? Even more curious. But even though the pics are not really good, the plane is a delta wing, single engine, single tail with canards. They are NOT Canadian.<br />
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Pic of a Mirage (minus the wing pods):<br />
<a href="http://static.flickr.com/107/259667015_4709b9b19f.jpg">http://static.flickr.com/107/259667015_4709b9b19f.jpg</a> <br />
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Pic of Eurofighter Typhoon:<br />
<a href="http://www.air-attack.com/MIL/eurofighter/euro_banner.jpg">http://www.air-attack.com/MIL/eurofighter/euro_banner.jpg</a><br />
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Pic of Rafale.<br />
<a href="http://www.air-attack.com/MIL/rafale/rafale_header.jpg">http://www.air-attack.com/MIL/rafale/rafale_header.jpg</a><p>---<br>The preceding comment deals with mature subject matter, however immaturely presented. Viewer discretion is advised.<br />

Resurrected from the grave updated version of the CF-105 Arrow?

I think you're right, they look just like the eurofighter.

Must be NATO doing their dirty work behind our backs. Why are they so afraid of us that they have to sneak around like rats in the dark?

Dr. C, thanks for the links, I wondered what they might be, and my "eye" doesn't get beyond "not a Cesna". I wondered what the plane in the middle of the two fighters was, and if it was the DC-10 the airport was talking about. I tried looking for pics of DC-10's but couldn't make wings or tails out of them trying to match them to the black outline shape in the picture.

That's because they are Typhoons.

Canards are in the wrong place to be anything else.


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The two most common things in the universe are apparently Hydrogen and stupidity.

The givaway on the airliner is the two jets back of the wings on the fueslage. A DC-10's is a single engine, on the tail section.<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-10">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-10</a><br />
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the DC-9 is probabally closer to correct.<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_DC-9">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_DC-9</a><p>---<br>The preceding comment deals with mature subject matter, however immaturely presented. Viewer discretion is advised.<br />

"Must be NATO doing their dirty work behind our backs. Why are they so afraid of us that they have to sneak around like rats in the dark?"

I don't know. I know that Gander, NL was one of the biggest military air bases in North America, and to have NATO allies jets here is quite common. But why have Typhoons 'escort' (they aren't accidentally in the area) a civillian transport?

Anti-terror exercises perhaps?

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The preceding comment deals with mature subject matter, however immaturely presented. Viewer discretion is advised.

Thanks, right again, the DC-9 looks more like it. Airport spokesperson said DC-10 and two RAF jets were in for maintenance at Halifax airport, not escorts, just in for maintenance at the same time.

"Anti-terror exercises perhaps?"

You may disagree, but it is obvious to me that the terror thing is bogus, therefore they were up to something else.

"not escorts, just in for maintenance at the same time"

Yeah sure, they also just so happened to escort in the DC-10 that looks more like a DC-9.

Bad liars.

"You may disagree, but it is obvious to me that the terror thing is bogus, therefore they were up to something else."

Well, about the terror thing; yes, we disagree. But it is in the 'something else' category.

As DL points out "Airport spokesperson said DC-10 and two RAF jets were in for maintenance at Halifax airport, not escorts, just in for maintenance at the same time."

Mmmmmmm, no. You don't fly in that formation (UK's top fighterjets on your left and right) that close to a Canadian passenger jet, except under special circumstances. Especially in Canadian airspace.

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The preceding comment deals with mature subject matter, however immaturely presented. Viewer discretion is advised.

Not sure about the fighters, but it looks to me like the transport is possibly an RAF Vickers VC10 (VC10 sounds close to, and can be confused, with DC10). The VC10 has 4 tail mounted engines and as far as I know is still in service with the RAF as a troop/cargo transport. At one time the civilian version of the VC10 was flown by BOAC, the precursor to British Airways. I worked in aviation for a while and the silhouette in the newspaper pic does not look like a DC9 silhouette to me although the engines are in the right place.<br />
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More details and pics here (page down about halfway for a partial silhouette shot taken from below and to the rear and see if it doesn't look like the one in the newspaper pic). :<br />
<a href="http://www.vc10.net/History/RAFVC10s.html">http://www.vc10.net/History/RAFVC10s.html</a>

Whoever is in charge of the Dept of National Lies should be fired.

Spanky, I think you're right about it being a RAF VC-10, especially because today the clarification from the airport is now naming it as a RAF VC-10.<br />
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<a href="http://www.herald.ns.ca/Metro/636550.html">http://www.herald.ns.ca/Metro/636550.html</a><br />
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The engines are mounted in the same place as DC-9 as Dr. Caleb pointed out. Phew, this name the murky shape thing in the sky is tough.

"Yeah sure, they also just so happened to escort in the DC-10 that looks more like a DC-9."

Rearguard, today's clarification is that it was a RAF VC-10 which as Spanky points out sounds like DC-10 and has engines mounted in same place as DC-9. However, I don't think, nor when I first saw the pic that it was regular maintenance just heading home, the formation does spell business. At the risk of sounding too much like Mel Gison twitching on about black helicopters in Conspiracy Theory, there is a noticable increase in traffic flying above Halifax the last couple of years, all at night. I wonder just what is up there, they sound rumbly and heavy and alot like the traffic we used to get to and from the airshow at Sherewater before it relocated out to the Halifax Airport. Could be a change in traffic patterns out of Greenwood, for all I know, but these "heavy" things are always flying at night.