Plane Wash
Tuesday, 13th January 2009 by Alex Turnbull
Have you ever wondered how they get planes clean? Well at Heathrow we can see the plane cleaning crews hard at work, but for some reason it's the wet outlines of absent planes that are the most interesting.
Anyone who has read our book would already know that there's just one automatic plane wash in the whole world - and we can see it clearly at Tokyo's International airport.
Since we first wrote about Tokyo's plane wash, Street View has given us another view of the structure - which from this angle looks like a big plane made from scaffolding!
See our previous post on The Langoliers.
Thanks to ChrisW.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
Glad to see our little green plane is still there too.
Those planes aren’t missing, they’re prop invisible jets for the new Wonder Woman movie.
could this explain the mystery plane outlines : https://www.googlesightseeing.com/2007/09/10/mystery-plane-outline/
the plants grow where the water is left behind? i guess that would mean the neatly line up the plans against the outline everytime they wash them. uhm, maybe not.
Sorry to be a pedant, but surely rain has left these outlines rather than plane washing, since we can see outlines of planes all over the airport?
Although, having just typed the above it strikes me that all the ground should be wet! Do they wash the planes all the time then?
OK, I’ve just realised the problem with what I just typed. If it was rain obviously it would be wet everywhere! I am an idiot.
Can we find out an exact date for the imagery?
As those traces are all over the place, I suspect it’s defrosting liquid.
I would have to agree with de-icing solution. A quick look confirms that it is winter(no leaves on the deciduous trees). If it was cold enough to require de-icing I would expect to see steam plumes from chimneys but havent found any yet.
Hmm…..puzzling. De-icing does not take place all over airports. Typically they are isolated spots that planes taxi out to before take-off. They must be close to take-off as there is a time limit between de-icing and take-off. If they miss it they must be re-done. De-icing only takes place in storm conditions and those do not appear to be happening.
I’m thinking that what we may be seeing is a pic following a brief rainstorm. All is now dry except for those spots that were in the shadow of an aircraft. Make sense?
Is that a Concorde just to the west sitting on the edge of the runway??? I thought they had all been moth-balled some time ago?
@ padraigl
Yes indeed it is Concorde, as mentioned in our Concorde Hunt comments thread. No longer in service.
Can we find out an exact date for the imagery? please