Planes (Birmingham, Huntsville, Decatur: live, military, dangerous)

[Mom36]

I live under the flight path to Huntsville International and love watching the various planes go over, both commercial and military. Can anyone enlighten me about some of the planes that fly over? I'm especially interested in the fighter (?) jets that do several passes in a day. Also, what's with all the 747s that come in from Luxembourg? Thanks!

[PB4Y2]

I believe that most of the 747s are cargo aircraft for the intermodal center.

Many of the military planes are using the Huntsville Airport for practice (Touch and Goes, where they practice approaches and landings without actually landing). Some are the Alabama Air National Guard out of B'ham. I think they use the Huntsville Airport because it is more isolated and less crowded (fewer commercial aircraft coming and going) than other airports of its size.

I used to work on the river in Decatur and we would often see these military aircraft flying up and down the Tennessee River on training flights.

[AU HSV]

Originally Posted by Mom36

I live under the flight path to Huntsville International and love watching the various planes go over, both commercial and military. Can anyone enlighten me about some of the planes that fly over? I'm especially interested in the fighter (?) jets that do several passes in a day. Also, what's with all the 747s that come in from Luxembourg? Thanks!

Panalpina Air Cargo
Also nonstops to Brazil and Hong Kong. This is why International is in the airport name albeit cargo.
Huntsville is a pretty major air cargo facility.
Great vision by Ed Mitchell and the city decades ago.
Delta used to do touch and go training with new aircraft. Maybe still do every now and then.

[FTG-05]

Originally Posted by PB4Y2

I believe that most of the 747s are cargo aircraft for the intermodal center.

Many of the military planes are using the Huntsville Airport for practice (Touch and Goes, where they practice approaches and landings without actually landing). Some are the Alabama Air National Guard out of B'ham. I think they use the Huntsville Airport because it is more isolated and less crowded (fewer commercial aircraft coming and going) than other airports of its size.

I used to work on the river in Decatur and we would often see these military aircraft flying up and down the Tennessee River on training flights.

Pretty good money-maker for the airport. Last I heard (+15 years ago), they get $1200 every time they TNG.

[Mom36]

Any idea on what the fighters(?) are?

[AU HSV]

Originally Posted by PB4Y2

I believe that most of the 747s are cargo aircraft for the intermodal center.

Many of the military planes are using the Huntsville Airport for practice (Touch and Goes, where they practice approaches and landings without actually landing). Some are the Alabama Air National Guard out of B'ham. I think they use the Huntsville Airport because it is more isolated and less crowded (fewer commercial aircraft coming and going) than other airports of its size.

I used to work on the river in Decatur and we would often see these military aircraft flying up and down the Tennessee River on training flights.

Huntsville has the second longest runway in the southeast, two miles long. Any airplane flying today can land here. One reason Huntsville is in the running for landing Sierra Nevada's mini-space shuttle Dream Chaser.
It has two parallel runways 1 mile apart: 18R/36L is 12,600 by 150 feet (3,840 x 46 m) and 18L/36R is 10,006 by 150 feet (3,050 x 46 m)

[Crashj007]

Plane spotters are all over the internet. google "airliner identification"

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by PB4Y2

I believe that most of the 747s are cargo aircraft for the intermodal center.

Many of the military planes are using the Huntsville Airport for practice (Touch and Goes, where they practice approaches and landings without actually landing). Some are the Alabama Air National Guard out of B'ham. I think they use the Huntsville Airport because it is more isolated and less crowded (fewer commercial aircraft coming and going) than other airports of its size.

I used to work on the river in Decatur and we would often see these military aircraft flying up and down the Tennessee River on training flights.

I suspect it's because of the isolation rather than the traffic load. Birmingham's airport isn't all that busy, but it's located pretty much in the city so it is more dangerous for conducting a lot of practice. Plus, the Huntsville runways are very long ... 2.5 and 2 miles, whereas the B'ham runways are relatively short.

I play golf at the airport fairly frequently and haven't seen any of the Delta jets practicing like they did at one time. There is at least one large Navy jet, a tanker, and a couple of exective Air Force jets, along with occasional pilot trainer fighter-type aircraft. I don't know specifically what type they are.

[Mississippi Alabama Line]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

I suspect it's because of the isolation rather than the traffic load. Birmingham's airport isn't all that busy, but it's located pretty much in the city so it is more dangerous for conducting a lot of practice. Plus, the Huntsville runways are very long ... 2.5 and 2 miles, whereas the B'ham runways are relatively short.

BHM has 3 x more enplanements daily than HSV, and nearly double the overall operations. BHM's main runway is also 12,000', HSV's is 12,600'.

If you want to brag about HSV as concerned with BHM, cargo should be your argument, not passengers or operations. HSV moves 412 million lbs. of cargo to BHM's 178 million lbs. Per year.

[Mississippi Alabama Line]

Originally Posted by Mom36

I live under the flight path to Huntsville International and love watching the various planes go over, both commercial and military. Can anyone enlighten me about some of the planes that fly over? I'm especially interested in the fighter (?) jets that do several passes in a day. Also, what's with all the 747s that come in from Luxembourg? Thanks!

That's the Panalpina 747-800 freighter, one of the heaviest planes in the world. Most of the improvements going on out there right now are due to that plane.

I would strongly suggest taking a tour of their facility if you ever get a chance (Port of Huntsville).