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Aviation Thread - News, facts, questions, photos, videos, etc.

Started by Taaroa, June 04, 2017, 09:15:23 AM


Uncle Duke

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on December 30, 2018, 10:11:21 AM
Ivan scraped up enough spare parts to get a Backfire airborne?

The Russians did a major upgrade on some of their Tu-22s in the past couple years (glass cockpits, new avionics etc.), "Air Forces Monthly" did an article on the upgrade several months ago.  Don't know if they're operational yet.

*Oops, didn't see your second message, it was on the next page.


Quote from: Taaroa on January 01, 2019, 09:26:53 AM
'Titanic of the skies': The story of London's ill-fated luxury airship service to Melbourne
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-30/australia-nearly-had-an-airship-service-to-london-until-tragedy/10630846



That Cape Town to Melbourne route would have been something.  A whole lot of nothing down that way. 

I freely admit that I first learned about the R-101 from Monty Python.   Right about at 1:55 in this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEVAGVaEaVo

Uncle Duke

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on January 01, 2019, 09:52:53 AM
That Cape Town to Melbourne route would have been something.  A whole lot of nothing down that way. 

I freely admit that I first learned about the R-101 from Monty Python.   Right about at 1:55 in this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEVAGVaEaVo

In the haunted aviation world that's surprisingly prevalent in the UK, there is some paranormal history associated with the crash of R-101. I remember reading it in one of books by Fuller(?) or a similar author who wrote of such things back in the 80s when these stories were all the rage.

Quote from: Uncle Duke on January 01, 2019, 11:40:43 AM
In the haunted aviation world that's surprisingly prevalent in the UK, there is some paranormal history associated with the crash of R-101. I remember reading it in one of books by Fuller(?) or a similar author who wrote of such things back in the 80s when these stories were all the rage.

So this R-101 talk led me to a list of airship accidents.  Some are pretty wild - a spy blimp was taken out in a collision with a crop duster.   One on the list grabbed my attention.  The US Navy L-8 "Ghost Blimp" incident.   The Navy blimp went out on patrol during the war off San Francisco.   It came back but without it's crew - both disappeared without a trace.


Dr. MD MD

But what of the new Russian hypersonics that supposedly, we can’t compete with? I just heard a news report on the radio the other day about it. ???

Uncle Duke

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on January 01, 2019, 02:36:01 PM
So this R-101 talk led me to a list of airship accidents.  Some are pretty wild - a spy blimp was taken out in a collision with a crop duster.   One on the list grabbed my attention.  The US Navy L-8 "Ghost Blimp" incident.   The Navy blimp went out on patrol during the war off San Francisco.   It came back but without it's crew - both disappeared without a trace.



Yeah, I'm familiar with that story.  The consensus of opinion is the first crewman fell out while performing some maintenance procedure, and the second guy fell out trying to grab him.  Either that or they got taken by aliens.

Taaroa

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on January 01, 2019, 09:52:53 AM
That Cape Town to Melbourne route would have been something.  A whole lot of nothing down that way. 

There are a few passenger flights that go along there today - ie Perth Johannesburg and Johannesburg Sydney (which often goes directly over Melbourne). The alternate airports situation is a bit grim too, where if Perth is closed the next airport that could take a large airliner and passengers is Adelaide (another 2hrs flight away) or Learmonth (an RAAF base in the middle of nowhere with a caretaker staff). Plus you have very strong winds that far south which even affect trans coastal domestic flights in Australia.


Taaroa

QuoteTupolev has started flying a converted Tu-214 flying test bed. The aircraft serial number is 42305007. The aerospace company said in October last year that the test bed is to test equipment for the Tu-160M2 and future PAK DA bomber.







Taaroa

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on January 06, 2019, 11:44:24 AM
So here is another ravishing beauty of the skies:


It's probably worse than you think:
-jet engine for crop dusting, which means less fuel efficient and has a time lag between throttle adjustments and response. Ignoring that jet engines are normally used for high speeds and altitudes...
-it's a biplane with giant tanks (?) between the wings and fixed position landing gear, all great for causing huge amounts of drag.
-the wings themselves look quite narrow and long, which is more typical of a plane which flies up high and for a long time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k13CVnnkpJk



Taaroa

Quote from: Metron2267 on January 07, 2019, 07:05:28 PM
I wonder if you caught this one:

https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a25740504/restored-twin-mustang-flies/

Interesting, thanks. Accidental flight of restored aircraft doing ground runs seems to happen really often.  ::)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBNON6NTFIY

Get a load of the pilot immediately lighting up a cigarette at 1.05  ;D




Taaroa

Boeing unveils new Transonic Truss-Braced Wing
QuoteBoeing revealed the newest Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW), which researchers say will fly higher and faster than the previous TTBW concepts. The new configuration is designed to offer unprecedented aerodynamic efficiency while flying at Mach 0.80, which is consistent with the speed of many of today’s jetliners.
QuoteIt has estimated such wings can reduce an aircraft's fuel burn by 8-10% compared to aircraft with conventional cantilevered wings.



https://www.boeing.com/features/2019/01/spreading-our-wings-01-19.page
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/picture-boeing-unveils-trussed-wing-capable-of-jet-454898/

Don't misunderstand this like most non aviation media outlets seem to have - this design is more aerodynamically and fuel efficient, but it doesn't allow faster flight compared to current airliner designs.

Jackstar

Quote from: Taaroa on January 10, 2019, 06:37:47 PM
this design is more aerodynamically and fuel efficient

So, why are they rolling it out some seventy-plus years after the start of The Jet Age? Asking for a friend.

Taaroa

Quote from: Jackstar on January 10, 2019, 06:42:54 PM
So, why are they rolling it out some seventy-plus years after the start of The Jet Age? Asking for a friend.

Technology improvements I guess, but also companies/the public are more conscious about fuel prices and the flow on effects nowadays. There actually is technology out there for aviation that developed after the fuel crisis in the 70s, but ended up getting shelved after prices came back down.





Taaroa

Special colour scheme for the final year of 'classic' Hornet ops by an RAAF squadron.

Quote2OCU was the RAAF’s first F/A-18A/B ‘classic’ Hornet unit, taking delivery of its first aircraft, A21-101, at the US Navy’s NAS Lemoore in California in 1984. That aircraft and A21-102 were delivered to Australia in April 1985 after completing a non-stop 14-hour ferry flight from Lemoore to RAAF Williamtown, a flight that to this day is still the longest non-stop Hornet flight.






So the UDF post above lead me down the turboprop path which lead to the TU-95 and that lead to this Bear explosion.   I'm sure it has been posted before on the
thread but if not:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK1FS8VyN74

Uncle Duke

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on January 12, 2019, 08:38:02 PM
So the UDF post above lead me down the turboprop path which lead to the TU-95 and that lead to this Bear explosion.   I'm sure it has been posted before on the
thread but if not:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK1FS8VyN74

Back in the mid 90s, there were a series of military aircraft  exchange visits between the Russians and various Western nations.  One of those was a visit by a couple Bears and a support transport to a USAF B-52 unit at Barksdale AFB, LA.  A friend of mine was a B-52 pilot stationed there who got to go aboard one of the Bears, he called it a flying junk heap that he would not fly in.

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