Summary
- Jeb Brooks, a professional and passionate aviation enthusiast, shares detailed flight reviews and other aviation-related videos on his YouTube channel, which has over 650K subscribers and 120 million views.
- Casey Neistat, although not specifically targeting aviation enthusiasts, captivates millions of viewers with his impressive storytelling and travel vlogs that often feature airline reviews and experiences.
- Simple Flying offers a one-stop hub for aviation-related information and stories through their YouTube channels, providing concise and accessible videos on a wide range of topics within the aviation industry, catering to both casual viewers and aviation enthusiasts.
Everyone has a time when they are interested in learning more about their favorite subject but don’t know where to find it. With the internet having an immense amount of information, it is easy to get lost. If you are fascinated by the world of aviation like us at Simple Flying, you will be interested in checking out these great YouTube channels for airplane videos. There will be something of interest for everyone, from trip reports to aviation news to education and cockpit videos.
5 Jeb Brooks
679K subscribers
Dates: | July 2017-Present |
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Videos: | 246 |
Subscribers: | 679K |
Articles written: | 152 |
Jeb Brooks hails from Gressnbugh, North Carolina, and anyone watching his videos can attest to his professionalism and love for aviation. He has expanded his videos since he began sharing his travel experiences on YouTube in July 2017 with a review of Air France’s First Class “La Premiere” cabin on the Airbus A380 between Washington Dulles and Paris Charles De Gaulle. Like many of us, Jeb is an aviation enthusiast and traveled the world for his job, so becoming a YouTuber was never part of his plan. But after watching other YouTuber creators, he began uploading.
After his first video, he began uploading regular videos garnering hundreds and thousands of views. By the fall of 2019, Jeb reached 100K subscribers; by the end of 2022, he had exceeded 300K. Today, he has over 650K subscribers and over 120 million views across his 240-plus videos.
His videos range from airline reviews from the famous Singapore Airlines First Class Suit to the ‘transcon throwdown’ where he rated the most premium products available on the heavily competitive routes between the Northeast of the United States and the West Coast. The staple of his channel is his ‘JebScore,’ which rates five factors on each flight on a five-point scale. These factors include the lounge, seat, in-flight internet (IFE), food, and service. He has also done airport reviews from Frankfurt to Cincinnati and tried to fly back-to-back to every hub: American, United, and Delta. Jeb offers viewers unbiased and effective flight reviews and other aviation-related videos.
4 Casey Nesitat
12.6 million subscribers
Date: | February 2010- Present |
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Based: | New York, United States |
Videos: | 1,108 |
Most frequent airlines | American Airlines, JetBlue, Emirates |
Casey Neistat is an outlier on the list, as his YouTube content is not explicitly targeted at aviation enthusiasts. Nevertheless, through his daily vlogs, Neistat showcases his travels worldwide, from South Africa to London to Finland, all aboard different airlines. Although he has now stopped vlogging as frequently as he used to, his recent travel vlogs included reviewing the Emirates First Class Suite on the Boeing 777 and the Etihad A380 Residence.
His storytelling style and impressive video editing skills have entertained millions of viewers. Casey has over 12.5 million subscribers on his channel, and was ahead of the curve as he began sharing his experience using points of flights starting in 2013 when he made a video about the frequent flyer tiers on American Airlines.
Although he is not a full-time travel vlogger, he is passionate about travel. This love of traveling goes hand in hand with his impressive storytelling skills to provide viewers with some of, if not the most, entertaining travel videos. One piece that differentiates Casey from others is that his filming style makes great trip report videos. Instead of trying to make great trip reports detailing everything, he films the process of traveling and edits it with a special touch only he can do, thus creating great content.
His method of sticking the camera in his face and expressing his opinions without fear of shame or backlash allows him to tell the complete story. His commitment to doing whatever it takes to get the perfect shot or angle is evident to anyone who watches his content.
3 Simple Flying
392K subscribers
Dates: | July 2018- Present and July 2020-Present |
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Channels: | Simple Flying and Long Haul by Simple Flying |
Views: | 160 million and 29 million |
For those who may not have been following Simple Flying, we also have a YouTube channel that boasts a one-stop hub for all aviation-related stories. The channel covers various topics in the aviation industry, with videos lasting around five minutes. Each video is concise and gives viewers all the information they may be interested in learning.
The wide variety of topics separate Simple Flying from other YouTube channels as it covers everything from why US airlines do not operate the Airbus A380 to the new Boeing 747-8 Air Force One aircraft. The main Simple Flying channel has released 1,730 aviation-related videos with 160 million views.
In addition to the main Simple Flying channel, which has almost 330K subscribers, there is also a separate channel for long videos for aviation enthusiasts. This channel is called ‘Long Haul by Simple Flying’ and dives deeper into topics about commercial aviation. Long Haul has 136K subscribers and has released 287 videos with over 28.8 million views.
Each week, the channel releases 1-2 documentary-style videos. Some of these videos range from ranking the top ten largest airlines by revenue to the world’s longest nonstop route. No matter what aviation information you want to learn, there is a good chance you will find it on one of the Simple Flying YouTube channels, as they share all the key stories in a simple and accessible manner.
2 Sam Eckholm
400K subscribers
Date: | Videos: | Subscribers: | Planes reviewed: |
|---|---|---|---|
October 2020- Present | 40 | 400K | Fighter jets, helicopters, military transport aircraft |
As the only military aviation channel on this list, Sam is an aerospace and defense content creator. Sam showcases his passion for aerospace and defense on his track, sharing his experiences and highlighting advanced aircraft and incredible technology, emphasizing the fantastic work people in the United States military do. He shares his passion with a large audience, including 400K subscribers on his YouTube channel and over 1.5 million followers on his social media accounts. To recruit the next generation of service members and engineers, he has partnered with many defense contracts and military service branches to highlight the incredible products.
This has enabled Sam to create incredible videos with the United States Navy, Air Force, and Army, as well as Lockheed Martin, Honeywell Aerospace, and Raytheon Missiles & Defense. He has taken viewers into the back of a fighter jet for a first-person view and has shared videos from military aircraft that would seldom be featured. This includes his recent video on the Lockheed C-5 Super Galaxy, the largest aircraft in the US Air Force.
In his video, Sam detailed how the Air Force utilizes the C-5 to transport tons of equipment across the globe and the immense amount of people and precision it takes to get one of these giants off the ground. Sam also revealed that the C-5 can also transport military personnel and cargo as the aircraft has a dedicated cabin for military personnel. For anyone interested in any military aviation content, Sam is worth a follow to keep up with his high-quality and fascinating content.
1 Sam Chui
3.36 million subscribers
Date: | November 2007- Present |
|---|---|
Videos: | 394 |
Topics: | Flight reviews, airshows, cargo, and airports |
Based: | Dubai, UAE |
Sam is a pioneer in aviation vlogging. In addition to his massive YouTube success, he is an avid blogger, author, and photographer. Any aviation enthusiast intrigued to watch trip reports has come across Sam’s channel at some point and has been hooked. His YouTube videos are exceptional and include entertaining commentary to footage from cockpits, crew rests, and other inaccessible places to the average aviation enthusiast.
Sam’s impressive vlogging skills, coupled with his enthusiasm and extensive knowledge of the aviation industry, set his work apart. He was one of the first proper aviation channels to post videos on YouTube, starting in November 2007. Since then, he has uploaded almost 500 videos and has garnered nearly 850 million views. While he began uploading in 2007, it was only in 2015 that he started to upload on a frequent basis as he documented his trips and opinions on the product.
On his channel, he shares videos of him flying in all different aircraft throughout the aviation industry, including on rare, unusual, and special flights. As airlines began retiring planes such as the 727, DC-10, and older 747s, Sam made it his mission to fly on these rare planes before they were retired.
As he continued to make trip reports on these flights, his audience began to grow, and he has now been able to fly on delivery flights, cargo flights delivering humanitarian aid during the pandemic, and flying an IL-76 Cargo Transporter to Iraq. In April 2018, he gave up his day job for his YouTube career and has not looked back. Today, Sam’s channel covers various topics, from airports to first-class products, private aviation, and airshows.
What other aviation channels should be on our list? Let us know in the comments!
