Six of the Best Aviation Videos in 2015

As we bid farewell to the year of 2015, and begin to welcome the 366-day 2016, we look back at some of the best videos that went viral around the aviation world.

6. Virgin 747-400 London Gatwick Landing

Well, okay, strictly speaking this video surfaced just after the incident back in late December 2014, but we felt that its a video worth emphasising, and so it will be number six in our list of aviation videos.

The video captures the moment a Virgin Atlantic 747 safely returns to the surface of the Earth following a hydraulic leak leading to a partial gear failure within the main body gears. After spending a handful of hours circling over the English Channel attempting to dislodge the gear, the crew committed to a landing back at London Gatwick

5. KLM 777 Amsterdam Landing

The pilot behind this landing would probably look back at this video and see it from two points of view. Either he’ll see it as, “what awesome skill I used to bring that machine back on the ground, wait ’till the kids see this.” or, “sometimes I wish plane spotters didn’t exist.”

Either way, its a cracking video, leaving the viewer on the edge of their seat, especially as that right wing drops down towards the edge of the runway. The clip became even more popular following UK media and national newspapers highlighting the landing whilst commenting on the bad weather that affected the area.

4. Boeing 787-9 Practice Flight for PAS

Boeing sent their Dreamliner fans crazy shortly after releasing a short clip of a Vietnam 787-9 practicing a steep positive climb take off before the Paris Air Show back in June of last year. The video includes multiple angles of the airliner taking off as well as air to air footage, and then a textbook landing all in 1080p, nice.

3. Birmingham Crosswind Compilation

Whenever there is strong winds around the UK, Birmingham is the place to be to take your popcorn, deckchair, umbrella, and thankfully a video camera. As this footage captures the turboprop pilots of the sky battling the strong crosswinds. As you can see, Birmingham boasts a very nice spot for videographers and photographers with a view looking straight down the single runway, allowing the rest of us here back at home to enjoy videos such as these.

2. Boeing 787-9 Construction Time-lapse

This time the video from Boeing showed a very cool time-lapse of a British Airways 787-9 being assembled at their plane in Everett. The video follows the pieces around the hangers as they are carefully, and seem to be somewhat easily, pieced together to eventually give British Airways another Dreamliner for their expanding fleet.

1. Hello Jetman – Emirates A380

Now this video, was very cool indeed. Bits and pieces of this video started to surface around Instagram, including a clip of the A380 passing below a helicopter, leading to skeptical views of the video being a fake. But then came the main video, and what a video it was. Emirates and Jetman Dubai spent around three months planning and preparing for the stunt, and with a flawless outcome, this was my favorite video of 2015.