iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

A closer look at the de Havilland Chipmunk, the two-seat trainer that served the Royal Thai Air Force from 1950 to 1989, with 66 aircraft operated during its service. #Aviation #AvGeek #Aircraft #MilitaryAviation #AviationHistory

010

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

From trainer to combat aircraft, the Cessna A-37B Dragonfly served Thailand with twin engines, a nose-mounted minigun and eight weapon stations. A small aircraft with serious ground attack capability. #Aviation #MilitaryAviation #Aircraft #AvGeek #AviationHistory

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The Spitfire’s story didn’t end in 1945. Discover the Griffon-powered Mk XIV in Royal Thai Air Force colours, a British aviation legend with a second career in Asian skies. Spitfire or Mustang for you? #Spitfire #Aviation #AvGeek #Warbirds #AviationHistory

010

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Can you name the airfield? Clue: Just east of Brackley, this field opened in November 1942 and trained bomber crews on Wellingtons and B-25 Mitchells. It served as a satellite to a neighbour that later became a world famous racing circuit.

100

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Can you name the airfield? Clue: On the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border, this wartime field trained Wellington bomber crews from 1943. Its perimeter track later hosted the very first round of the Formula One World Championship in 1950.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Can you name the airfield? Clue: Just south west of Bletchley Park, this Buckinghamshire satellite field trained Wellington crews from 1942, with P-40 Tomahawks playing the enemy in mock fighter attacks. A nearby water tower stood on the runway centreline.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Can you name the airfield? Clue: Near Leighton Buzzard, this Buckinghamshire field trained Wellington crews who joined the Thousand Bomber raids of 1942. In spring 1945 it welcomed home nearly 33,000 freed prisoners of war.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Can you name the airfield? Clue: On the Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire border, this airfield's American B-17s and B-24s fought with paper and radio, dropping leaflets at night and jamming German radar to fake phantom bomber formations. In 1946 it was renamed after a neighbouring village.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Can you name the airfield? Clue: This Hertfordshire airfield trained newly arrived American B-17 crews, while General Eisenhower kept his personal Fortress in Hangar 1. Later it starred in films including 633 Squadron. Today a weekend market fills its old runway and part of the site is a prison.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Can you name the airfield? Clue: Squeezed between two old docks that took a battering in the Blitz, this airfield demands a 5.5 degree approach, almost double the usual angle. In 2018 it closed when an unexploded Second World War bomb was found in the water beside the runway.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Can you name the airfield? Clue: Above a Kentish river, this grass field was where a famous seaplane builder assembled the RAF's first four engined bomber. Dornier Do 17s bombed the factory on 15 August 1940, destroying several of those bombers on the production line.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Can you name the airfield? Clue: A pre war Belgian airfield in Limburg, it became a major Luftwaffe night fighter base. The highest scoring night fighter ace in history was even nicknamed after the nearby town. Liberated in 1944, it hosted American P-47s, then trained Belgian Air Force pilots.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Can you name the airfield? Clue: Sitting on the North Sea coast close to the French border, this field was taken over by the Luftwaffe in the Second World War. Its fighters helped cover the Channel Dash in 1942. Post war, its Sea Kings became famous for rescues.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Can you name the airfield? Clue: Perched on the tip of Kent, this frontline fighter station took a pounding from the Luftwaffe in August 1940. By 1944 it had an emergency runway far wider than normal for crippled bombers limping home. The RAF's first jet squadron also hunted V-1s from here.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Lao Airlines began in 1976 flying DC-3s, DC-4s and Antonovs, with Mi-8 helicopters reaching remote areas. ATRs arrived in 1994. Its first jet, a leased A320, came in 2003, flown at first by Vietnam Airlines pilots. Owned A320s followed in 2011. Quite the journey for a landlocked country.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

In late 1993 Vietnam Airlines began leasing A320s, one of the earliest operators in Asia. By 2000 its Soviet era fleet, Tupolevs included, had largely given way to Western jets. Which airline do you reckon made the boldest switch from Soviet to Western aircraft?

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

On 4 July 1989 Colonel Nikolai Skuridin ejected near Kołobrzeg, believing his engine had failed. It had not. On autopilot, the empty MiG flew about 900 km west, shadowed by USAF F-15s. Out of fuel, it came down on a house near Kortrijk, killing teenager Wim Delaere.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Stearman chief engineer Mac Short and his team designed the Model 70 in 1933, building it in about 60 days without government money. Boeing took over Stearman, so the data plates say Boeing. The famous 10,346 built? That counts spares. Complete aircraft came to about 8,584.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The An-2 first flew in 1947, yet Poland built them until 1991 and four more for Vietnam as late as 2001. China has made its own, the Y-5, since 1957. Over 18,000 in all. A big radial and two sets of wings never quite went out of fashion.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

In 1947 Britain sold the Soviets 25 Rolls-Royce Nene jet engines, among the best in the world. Klimov copied them without a licence as the RD-45. By December 1947 the MiG-15 was flying. Three years later, Western pilots met that engine over Korea.

010

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A Tu-22M3 weighs about 58 tonnes empty and carries around 54 tonnes of fuel internally, with no drop tanks. That thirst shaped history. In SALT II talks the Americans argued refuelling could let it reach the USA. So the Soviets took the probe off in 1979. Diplomacy by spanner.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

In 2011 Goodyear ordered three Zeppelin NTs. Parts came from Friedrichshafen and final assembly happened at Wingfoot Lake, Ohio. They have an internal frame, so they are not technically blimps. Goodyear and Zeppelin teamed up before, building the Akron and Macon in the 1930s.

010

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The Mooney tail is not swept forward at all. The leading edge is vertical and only the trailing edge rakes forward, a look carried over from the little Mite. No trim tabs either: the whole tail pivots to trim. Why that shape? Mooney owners still argue about it.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Early MiG-29s sealed their main intakes on the ground, breathing through louvres above the wing roots instead. Gravel stayed out on rough frontline strips. At about 200 km/h on takeoff the intakes swung open.

010

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

In April 1942 sixteen B-25s took off from USS Hornet to bomb Japan. Spotted by a picket boat, they launched far earlier than planned. Landing back aboard was never an option, so most crews ran dry over China.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The Me 262 first flew in April 1941 with a Jumo 210 piston engine in the nose, because its jets were not ready. Wise move. When BMW 003s were fitted in 1942, both failed on the first flight and the propeller brought it home. Pure jet flight came that July.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

In 1969 the Marines ordered British Harriers to fight from small ships and short strips near the troops. McDonnell Douglas then redesigned it with a bigger composite wing, carrying more fuel and weapons. The twist? The RAF ended up flying the redesign as the Harrier GR5.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The Privateer carried the Bat, a radar guided glide bomb, against Japanese shipping in 1945. Postwar it flew into typhoons as a weather hunter, then fought American wildfires as an airtanker until 2002. Not bad for a Liberator the Navy stretched to fit a flight engineer.

021

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Grumman flew the Bearcat prototype just nine months after the Navy ordered it, a pocket fighter wrapped around an R-2800. VF-19 was operational by May 1945 and heading for the Pacific when Japan surrendered. Its first combat came years later, flying for France in Indochina.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The Wildcat main gear folded into its tubby fuselage, raised by a hand crank in the cockpit. About 29 turns, flying left handed. New pilots bobbed away from the carrier like a fairground ride. Let go while lowering and the handle went for your knuckles.

020

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

In 1942 Rolls-Royce test pilot Ronnie Harker flew an Allison Mustang at Duxford. Lively low down, wheezing up high. His suggestion? Bolt in a two stage Merlin. Hucknall built the conversion and Packard built the engines. Within two years the bombers had escorts to Berlin.

021

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

In 1941 Hurricanes were bolted to rocket catapults on merchant ships to chase off Condors shadowing Atlantic convoys. Most were one way trips. After the fight, pilots ditched or bailed out near the convoy and waited for a pickup. Only one pilot was lost.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

On Halloween 1956, Gus Shinn landed R4D Que Sera Sera at the South Pole, the first visitors since Scott. Engines ran for 49 minutes so they would not freeze. Then the skis decided they liked it there. It took a fistful of JATO bottles to wrench it free.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A jet engine leaves plenty of oxygen unburnt, because the turbine blades could not take the heat. Behind the turbine there are no blades left to cook, so in goes more fuel and up goes the thrust. The nozzle opens wide to cope. The fuel gauge just watches in horror.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Early Spitfire hoods were flat topped, leaving pilots craning against Perspex to check their six. By late 1940 a blown, bulged hood gave headroom and a view behind. In air combat, the aircraft you never saw was the one that got you. A bit of curved Perspex helped change that.

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Thai Airways parked all six of its A380s in spring 2020, four at Suvarnabhumi and two at U-Tapao. A plan to revive two never left the drawing board. In 2023 they went to auction with no reserve price. Turns out nobody needs 507 seats and four Trent 970s that badly!

021

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

In August 2012, VietJet launched its Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang route with a three minute bikini show by beauty pageant contestants at cruise altitude. The regulator fined it about $960 for staging an unapproved show. As marketing budgets go, that was a bargain.

010

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Qatar Airways took its first 787 in late 2012. Weeks later, every Dreamliner worldwide was grounded after lithium ion battery fires, the FAA's first type grounding since the DC-10 in 1979. Boeing's fix? A stainless steel box venting overboard. Brute force, but it worked. #QatarAirways #Boeing787

011

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

When Exocets sank Atlantic Conveyor in 1982, Bravo November was the only RAF Chinook spared because it was airborne. Later it carried 81 armed troops in one lift. It even hit the sea in a snowstorm and still flew home. Four of its pilots later earned the DFC. #Chinook #CH47 #RAF #Helicopter

021

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

British naval firepower in Thai markings! Twelve Fairey Fireflies joined the Royal Thai Air Force, bringing four 20mm cannon to the ground-attack role. Which would you choose, the Firefly or Helldiver? #Aviation #AvGeek #Warbirds #MilitaryAviation #Aircraft

141

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

An aircraft’s stop sign 🛑 These yellow lines mark where pilots must hold short of the runway until air traffic control clears them to cross. Small markings, big responsibility! #Aviation #Aircraft #PilotLife #AvGeek #Planespotting

010

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Thailand built its first homegrown bomber after French engine prices soared. Then the prices dropped. All that engineering, beaten by a cheaper quote! ✈️ #Aviation #AviationHistory #AvGeek #Biplane #Thailand

010

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

2015 WACO Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 For Sale In Florida USA This 2015 WACO Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 is available for $275,000, with offers considered. N80JV has just 186 total hours and features a factory-new Lycoming AEIO-360-B1G6 engine with only 27 hours avpay.aero/company/park...

010

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

You don’t see this every day! Two British icons wearing red, white and blue…but of a different kind! Can you guess where we are? 😃 #aviation #aviationdaily #aviationlovers #harrier #spitfire

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Landing in Bangkok after nearly a month’s rain in three days! Royal Thai Air Force Museum later - great aviation content coming soon! #Bangkok #BangkokFloods #Thailand #Aviation #Aircraft

021

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

From jet trainer to jungle attack aircraft, the A-37 Dragonfly had quite the career change. Small, nimble and armed to the teeth. Would you fly it over the A-1 Skyraider? #A37Dragonfly #CessnaA37 #MilitaryAviation #AviationHistory #Warbirds

130

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I was quite surprised to find a Bell Huey helicopter parked on the roof of Ho Chi Minh city’s Independence Palace - once the home of the South Vietnamese president. #helicopter #helicopterpilot #bellhuey #saigon #hochiminhcity

110

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

2022 Diamond DA42 Twin Star NG For Sale In The Netherlands This 2022 Diamond DA42 Twin Star NG is available for €950,000 with just 187 total hours. Powered by twin Austro Engine AE300 engines, it features a Garmin G1000 NXi glass cockpit avpay.aero/company/kfea...

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

2015 WACO Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 For Sale In Florida USA This 2015 WACO Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 is now available with just 186 total hours since new. N80JV features a factory-new Lycoming AEIO-360-B1G6 engine with only 27 hours Contact the seller for full details and pricing avpay.aero/company/park...

000

AvPay.aero @avpay.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

So kind of the Americans to lend Vietnam all these aircraft and bits of kit. Does anyone know when they’re coming back to collect them? 🤔 #VietnamWar #WarRemnantsMuseum #HoChiMinhCity #MilitaryHistory #AviationHistory

000