Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.
Invasion of the fat planes! There’s a really fat green plane at Heathrow (which looks a little like Thunderbird 2)…
And at Hong Kong International, there’s some sort of fat pink alien spacecraft!
(Or these might be fire training aircraft of course…)
Update: from the comments, here’s a lime-green fatplane, and a white one which has some mysterious Dutch writing next to it…
Thanks to Mako, foo and Marco.
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The first one looks like it must be some kind of training prop. I would say perhaps for firefighting but it does look rather close to a runway for that. Also, go due east a little way and there’s a nice shot of a Concorde being towed.
They are both Fire Training Aircraft. The firefighters will set them on fire and then put them out.
does nobody actually read the posts anymore?
lol i will be in one of these
here is the concord view from MS Live Local
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=qs6jkw8vhm87&style=o&lvl=2&scene=2028436
There is another of the fat green ones at London Stanstead (visible from the runway at takeoff/landing)
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
This is one on Schiphol, Amsterdam with clear big type:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Alex, I’ve done a lot of research and I think those might be fire training aircraft! And that first one is at heathrow airport. Don’t you think it looks like Thunderbird 2? I checked hybrid mode and the other one is at hong kong international airport. Go me!
Oh, wait, I might read what you wrote now….
You lot have all been stabbing in the dark. I talked to a mate and they are training aircraft used by the fire services.
Here are two pictures of the fire training rig. It looks like they tow it to other parts of the airport before setting it on fire.
You know, I’m not sure. But I think they may be fire training air craft. Just a wild guess though.
i think im gonna take a shot in the dark here…but i say they are fire training aircraft.
anyone agree?
Yes they’re fire training aircraft… The Thunderbird 2 one looks almost identical to a training rig they have at the Royal Fire Service College here in England. And as for the “mysterious Dutch writing” next to the white plane, it certainly would make for very mysterious Dutch because it’s English, it clearly says “FIRE TRAINING”
I change my answer. These are clearly Flying Car testing grounds.
Actually Chris, I’m a native Dutchman, and a professor in Dutch Linguistics at the University of Holland, and that text actually says “FIRÉ TRAÃŽNING” which in Dutch means “Children’s Play Area”.
So these aren’t Fire Training (as I think one or two of you might have suggested) but Children’s Play Areas.
No, you all Wrong!
I know the Answer!
They are… ( suspance ) … Fire training Aircraft!!
Hm no i dont think so … i think they are some kind of fire training aircraft … or a playground … not sure about that o.O maybe they just light them up for fun … that would combine these two excellent theories
keep guessing guys!
I could have sworn that the fire training theory wasn’t in the original post when I read it
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
hagrid left his pencil at luton airport.
‘I’m a native Dutchman, and a professor in Dutch Linguistics at the University of Holland, and that text actually says “FIRÉ TRAÃŽNING†which in Dutch means “Children’s Play Areaâ€. ‘
i’m dutch and i know for a fact that it’s not even remotely true. it just says “fire training” in english. period. the university of holland doesn’t even exist.
has anyone found one of these in flight?
jake, that’s because you didn’t finish reading the post…
and sara…? Seriously?
They all look fat because the wings are missing- it is just an optical illusion. the pink chinese craft may be a drone or testing aircraft.
you know they really aren’t the impressive structures the satellite pictures make them out to be:
http://tinyurl.com/nz4p8
Am I the only one that finds wooden stands slightly dangerous?
yes alex, seriously. do you think “children’s play area” would actually make any sense? plus, dutch rarely uses accents, so “FIRÉ TRAÃŽNING†would obviously be wrong. everything from beginning to end in that post is total bull.
Were you born this painfully serious, or did it take years of training in the University of Holland to get that good?
Sara, reread that post with this in mind:
JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, ALREADY!!!!
I went to the University of Holland and I know for a fact that they don’t offer the “Painfully Serious” major.
I have been on the one at Stansted airport… wosrt holiday ever! No really, it was a school trip (I lived locally) they are little more than shells and have remained unchanged since I visited over twenty years ago.
If you look to the Northwest of this FIRE TRAINING PLANE, you will see a line of 4 airplanes landing on the runway
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
…very strange that they are landing this close to each other, however, I think this must be an artifact of the high-altitude (satellite) imaging process. If you look very closely at the insignia on the side of the plan (hard to see from the top, I know!) all four planes appear to be have the same insignia (Air Italia, maybe?) which leads me to believe these are all the same plane in some sort of sequential photo exposure.
Ok people….THE REAL ANSWER! Sheesh!
The planes are NOT fat in real life. Google Earth providers (satellite and airphoto companies) take pictures, then sell it to Google Earth STRETCHED to A Geodetic (Latitude Longitude) projection. Therefore, a perfect circle is, now an oval and so on. This is because a geodetic projection is good for the whole planet, whereas it is quite useless for engineering puproses because nothing is in real dimensions - hence the FAT planes! Everything is slightly distorted (stretched or squashed). My company sells imagery to Google Earth….so this is fact. Hope this helps!
great find on the time lapse steve, thats very cool!
Actually brendwal the training planes ARE fat in real life. They are made of great big metal cylinders that can be set on fire on a regular basis and are considerably bigger and more rotund than most real planes and because they only need to resemble a plane, not actually be one, they are not at all aerodynamic. Trust me, what you can see from Google Earth looks pretty accurate to me.
hmmm yea. im with Uberdada, I dont really think that you theroy of the circule turning into an oval thingy is right… every thing else looks right. I think that they can compinsate for that shit now. But I can be wrong, I have been wrong one other time in my life