Welcome to Rob’s Aviation World, the friendly place for aviation chat, news, photography and models.
MY STORY
As you’ve guessed, I’m Rob. Among my passions in life are travelling and aviation. Who doesn’t like to travel and see new places? Of course, some of us also have to travel for business. According to IATA, over 3.5 billion people took a flight in 2018.
Airshows are popular throughout the world and aviation is an interest that crosses international boundaries. I’ve been lucky enough throughout my life to be able to experience all sorts of aviation activities from flying in commercial airliners, flying in military aircraft, in helicopters and gliders.
The first flight I have vague recollections of was travelling from London’s Heathrow to Melbourne, Australia when I was a small child. The aircraft was a Vickers VC10 of BOAC and the routing was from Heathrow via New York JFK, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Fiji before finally arriving in Melbourne. The return trip in a BOAC Boeing 747 took us back to London via Darwin, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Tehran and Tel Aviv (yes, those last two cities really were linked directly by air).
Over 100 aircraft types and nearly 50 years later I’ve lost none of my passion or enthusiasm for aviation. There have been plenty of changes in the commercial aviation world in that time. Developments in airliner design including fly-by-wire, composite materials and ultra-long range.
I’ve flown in Douglas DC-6s freighters deep in the Alaskan wilderness, in seaplanes around the Bahamas and even been on a tanker aircraft during air-to-air refuelling.
I believe I must be one of the very few people who witnessed Concorde’s first commercial flight in January 1976 (my school was just half a mile from Heathrow), it’s final commercial flight in October 2003 AND its final flight ever in November of the same year.
AIRCRAFT MODELS
…or airplane models as they’re referred to in many parts of the world, are a great way to remember a favourite flight or to have a representation of your favourite airplane in your home of office. There are countless different designs and scales to suit all requirements from tiny 1:400 scale die cast airliners to giant 1:16 scale models. Prefer to build your own model? You’re covered there too with many major model kit manufacturers including Airfix, Revell and Tamiya. 
AVIATION ENTHUSIASM
I hope I can help kindle your aviation enthusiasm through articles here. I’ll keep you updated on my aviation adventures and travels here and hope you’ll do the same in the comments section.
If you ever need a hand or have any questions, feel free to leave them below and I will be more than happy to help you out.
All the best,
Rob
airwaymodels.com
23 Responses
Thank you for sharing with us this great post on your aviation world.I am happy to read such inspiring story about your passion with aviation.
To be frank this story gave me a good advice about what I can do in my life following my passion.Most of the time I do what makes my family happy and forget my happiness.
I am going to follow my passion too.
Thank you, Julienne. I can heartily advocate following your passion.
Aviation is such an amazing world and the people that are passionate about it blow me away. Because we all know that flying is quite a scary thing to do, you have no second chances up there.
I love drones and have had one for a couple of years now, I know it is nothing like flying but your brain gets to see what is up there. I never really could get into making model airplanes, I should really look into this stuff more for I have kids and they would probably love it if I started building a model airplane from scratch.
We love traveling, but flying for us is the part we would love to skip, maybe just because passenger planes are not that exciting, you can’t see anything and just are stuck in one place for hours, wishing you could land soon.
Keep that passion alive Rob, we need more of this in the world, passionate people.
Thank you, Kris. I accept that parts of travelling by air aren’t great but in recent years I’ve found ways to enjoy premium cabins (business/first) without breaking the bank. I’ll be covering some of those ways in future posts.
Everyone loves to travel and see new places, over the holidays I had to fly to southafrica in a Boeing 747. I would like to get some airplane models for slightly sinister reasons. I want my lil cousin to be more inclined to the aviation industry and seeing that he’s still a kid an airplane model may just influence him unconsciously. It would have been extremely helpful if you listed some airplane models and their prices. Thanks for writing
Thanks for this review. Flying Aircraft for the first time is a phenomenon. I can see that you are a senior citizen with vast experience with flying and traveling. In Africa aircraft is seen as a big thing to those living in rural areas. Its not common to see a plane flying. People are always scared of flying a plane because of bad and sad experience of plane crashes.
well I will be following up your article to know how far you have gone in your flying adventure.
Thank you, Tsquare. I’m yet to visit Africa but there lot’s I’d like to see there. Meanwhile, you can follow my travel adventures here and see where I’ve been before.
Great Idea. I haven’t flown model plains in years. I was fortunate to be at JFK when one of the last Concords left. The afterburner shook the whole airport. All of the aircraft I flew were on a wire control, I never got into radio control. I transitioned into Cessna 150’s and other single-engine aircraft.
I thank you for your walk through the museum’s and your flight experience. My flight from San Francisco to India was the longest ride in one hop that I took.
Good luck with your endeavor.
Winslow White — Fellow traveler
Many thanks, Winslow. San Francisco to India is certainly a very long haul!
I really like this post, it’s personable and it conveys that you love sea and air travel. Hey I was wondering, what is it like flying over the Bahamas? Did you ever see the Bermuda Triangle? What’s your favorite plane of all times? I’ve always had a passion for DC-6s freighters and have always wondered what else is out there for travel as such, and am also fascinated by what you said about air-to-air refuels. How does that work? Does the pilot have to stay steady in the air to get fuel?
Thank you, Marshall. Flying over the Bahamas is wonderful. I confess I’m a bit of a sceptic when it comes to the Bermuda Triangle, but it’s an engaging mystery. Favourite plane of all time? Probably Concorde. As for air-to-air refuelling, yes, it takes a lot of steady skill on the part of both the pilot of the tanker and the aircraft being refuelled. I’ll try and do an article on it.
Hi Rob, Thank you for sharing your whole career story with us, congrats on all the amazing trip,i really hope you also meet new friends while traveling around the world.This story of yours really motivate me to follow my passion and live up to my dreams. I will always check here for more updates
Thank you, Clement
Hi Rob,
Nice content, I like the webiste, I’ll keep visiting so that I can see how you’ve improved so far!
You are sooo lucky that you’ve been able to flight like that! when I was a kid, I wanted to be a pilot, then as teen, I wanted to be a stewardess haha… and the again I wanted to be a pilot. I am perusing that!, I can’t still flight airplanes or helicopters but I’m o flying drones by the moment haha.
Good job, keep working on the content and images, you’re doing great.
Thank you for the encouragement, Maria. Keep pursuing your dreams 🙂
Everyone loves to travel but we might not experienced the the full beuty of different types eroplanes different models but if I am asked which model to go for i will go for dreamliner 787 this plane revolutionized the travel it’s now eesy to travel from London to Melbourne nonstop thanks to dreamliner.
Thank you, Charles. The 787 has certainly brought some changes. As you say, London to Australia is now a daily event. Not sure I’d want to do it in a middle seat in economy though…
I love this write-up on aviation because I’m always a lover of anyone who is interested in aviation coupled with your inspiring story of aviation. My opinion about your post is that it is captivating and I love the introductory part of it, as it gave me facts about flight numbers in the year 2018. You have written a wonderful and informative post.
Have a nice day
Thank you, Salim.
Hi Rob,
Wow, that’s an excellent story. I love everything related to flights. I had a friend that had a private plane, and he invited me to fly with him. I can tell you; it was terrifying. In fact, I got sick and I almost though up:) Anyway, it was the best experience ever. My kids do love flight too, and that would be a great idea to build planes. I found your website fascinating, and I’ll come back for sure.
Thank you for sharing such a great story!
Thank you, Daniella. It’ll be great to welcome you back.
Hi Rob
I see you are working on a book about the Trident crash near Staines .
Have you any idea when it is likely to be published ?
Kind regards
John
Hello John. We’re working towards the latter part of 2023. Thank you for your interest. Rob