Archive for the ‘Air’ Category
The Kalamazoo Air Zoo will continue to offer free admission for all of 2010.
A limited-time summer deal was extended a couple of times in 2009, and attendance skyrocketed. I read earlier that the museum had made up for all lost admission fee projections with increased rides and concessions.
The Air Zoo is a great experience, though I have long been frustrated at the cost of admission. At $20 for adults, it was a bit excessive for repeat visits.
We visited a few months back and I took tons of photos to post. I haven’t got to it, but I’ll have to one of these days.
If you get the opportunity, go check it out.
Soldiers of Company B, 209th Aviation Support Battalion, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, Task Force Lobos, place an L-29 Delfin airplane at its final destination as a static display at Contingency Operating Base Speicher, outside of Tikrit, Iraq, Dec. 16. The L-29 was restored and dedicated to the Iraqi Air Force College in conjunction with a ceremony marking the institution's return and re-opening in its original location of Tikrit. Photo by Sgt. Mike Alberts
Full story: TF Lobos Refurbish, Dedicate Iraqi War Plane
At one point it had been thought that Iraq was outfitting its L-29s as chemical warfare drones. Glad that never turned out to be the case.
A MQ-1 Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle launches for a night flight mission over southeastern Iraq, July 29, 2009. The aircraft serves in a surveillance and reconnaissance role but is also capable of firing two AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. Photo by Airman 1st Class Tony Ritter
Insurgents intercepted drone spy videos
Insurgents in Iraq have hacked into live video feeds from Predator drones, a key weapon in a Pentagon spy system that serves as the military’s eyes in the sky for surveillance and intelligence collection.
Though militants could see the video, there is no evidence they were able to jam the electronic signals from the unmanned aerial craft or take control of the vehicles, a senior defense official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence issues.
Obtaining the video feeds can provide insurgents with critical information about what the military may be targeting, including buildings, roads and other facilities.
There have been reports of this previously, but this might be the first time its been officially acknowledged.
The fix has been to encrypt the feeds. Is it just Murdoc, or was it totally insane to not encrypt them in the first place.
Australian release:
DEFENCE MEDIA ALERT
MSPA 427/09Wednesday, 9 December 2009
F-111 FLYPAST TO MARK AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE ACADEMY GRADUATION PARADE
WHAT: Flypast by an F-111 strike aircraft during the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) Graduation Parade.
WHERE: ADFA, Northcott Drive, Canberra ACT.
WHEN: 10:20am Thursday, 10 December 2009.Background:
An F-111 strike aircraft from Number 6 Squadron, will fly over the Australian Defence Force Academy on Thursday, 10 December 2009, as young graduating officers from Navy, Army and Air Force participate in their final Academy parade before continuing on the next stage of their military careers.The aircraft will approach ADFA from the east at a height of 500 feet, and will pass over the Graduation Parade at 10:20am, local time.
F-111s will be retired from the Royal Australian Air Force in December 2010 when their replacement – the F/A-18F Super Hornet – becomes operational.
Hope they get the full treatment:
An air-to-air right side view of an F-111 aircraft trailing flames during a demonstration for Open House '83. Photographer's Name: Harrison Location: EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE Date Shot: 10/30/1983
The F-111 has never really been considered a “great” plane, and it had its share of problems over the years. And though the USAF has other options that can perform the missions that the Aardvark used to, I’ve always thought the F-111 was a perfect fit for Australia and don’t see how F-18s, with a far smaller combat radius, can really fill its shoes Down Under.
A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft flies a combat mission June 17, 2009, over Afghanistan. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Robertson/Released)
Noticed this tidbit in Afghanistan airstrikes highest since July 2008:
Over Iraq, the use of bombs continues to be rare. AFCent reported only two bombs were dropped in 742 sorties in October.
Two bombs in a month.
After the elections in 2006, Nancy Pelosi said this about Iraq:
We cannot continue down this catastrophic path. And so we say to the president, ‘Mr. President, we need a new direction in Iraq. Let us work together to find a solution to the war in Iraq.’
In 2005 she said the war in Afghanistan “is over”:
“I assume that the war in Afghanistan is over, or is the contention that you have that it continues?” she said to a reporter.
A few moments later, she said: “This isn’t about the duration of the war. The war in Afghanistan is over.”
The war that was “over” more than four years ago sees the most bombs dropped, 647, in the past 15 months and the war on the “catastrophic path”, the one where she fought tooth and nail to surrender or at least prevent the “surge”, saw two.
Let’s just keep that in mind as this crowd decides what to do in Afghanistan.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, Instapundit publishes this observation from a reader:
The towers fell in New York on 9/11/01, Kabul fell to American led forces on 11/14/01. That’s 65 days.
President Obama’s hand-picked replacement commander in Afghanistan, GEN McChrystal, delivered his Afghanistan war plans to President Obama on 8/30/09, and President Obama hasn’t acted on his General’s recommendations as of today, 11/11/09. That’s 73 days, and waiting.
Potential 767 and 777-based platforms make up the “7A7 family of tankers.”
Staff Sgt. Justin Schramm, an aerial gunner on an HH-60G Pave Hawk scans the countryside while on a mission here. The Pave Hawks are used for Combat Search and Rescue, and have been operated by the U.S. Air Force since 1991. Sgt. Schramm is from Eugene, Ore., and is currently stationed at Kadena Air Base, Japan. Here Schramm is working in the 33rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron. Photo by Senior Airman Susan Tracy
Is that tube below the machine gun for brass and links?
The C-130 gunship lab at Robins AFB is updating fire control systems to allow targeting two weapons simultaneously:
“The way they described it is ‘We want to be able to shoot the ant hill, and then kill all the ants as they leave the ant hill,’” said Steve Pollard, the lead C-130 gunship test engineer.
After months of work and close contact with combat flight crews about how they wanted it to work, software engineers in the 402nd Software Maintenance Group did just that. After testing it successfully in the lab, the new capability was put to use.
I didn’t realize that only one gun could be targeted at a time. It’s also unclear whether this upgrade is for the AC-130H, the AC-130U, or both.
Last week I pointed out a story which claimed that the Prince of Wales, the second of two new British aircraft carriers, could be switched to a helicopter-only commando carrier.
British defence equipment and support minister Quentin Davies called the report “complete rubbish.”
He also noted that the British have no intention to cut back on the number of F-35s they plan to purchase. This had been the reason cited for the downgrading of the carrier.
Female Soviet WW2 Pilots near a US-built P-39 Airacobra
A reader sends a link to a BBC audio slideshow about the 588th Night Bomber Regiment (later called the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment) in the Soviet military, an all-female attack unit.
Despite the photo above and an IL-2 in the slideshow, the Night Witches actually flew Po-2 biplanes.
The graphic novel mentioned in the slideshow is available from Amazon.
