Aircraft Super Thread Mk.VII

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

So you want to be a RAF Phantom pilot?

Seeing their analogue flight simulator at the 22:30 mark was intriguing.

[Chronocidal]

Oh, wow, I didn't know the RAF was involved in Operation Sleepy Weasel!  

[F-ZeroOne]

On 6/22/2020 at 11:15 PM, Dobber said:

Just so you know, the USAAF means United States Army Air Forces. It was disbanded in 1947. That may be why you haven’t seen their aircraft in a while. 

The Air Force is just USAF. 

Chris

Well, if you think my slip-up was bad I told some of my work colleagues the other day about the F-15 pass and yesterday they messaged me excitedly to say that a pair of "F-111s" had just gone over...! I told them they need to work on their aircraft recognition...

As it happens, I didn't see the aircraft in question but we just happened to be in a place where we heard the alleged Ghost of the Aardvarks fly over...

[Dobber]

3 hours ago, F-ZeroOne said:

Well, if you think my slip-up was bad I told some of my work colleagues the other day about the F-15 pass and yesterday they messaged me excitedly to say that a pair of "F-111s" had just gone over...! I told them they need to work on their aircraft recognition...

As it happens, I didn't see the aircraft in question but we just happened to be in a place where we heard the alleged Ghost of the Aardvarks fly over...

Lol! Tell them that some 105’s will escort them out too! Ha ha. 
 

Chris

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Hoping this Tomcat Tales documentary has a lot of previously unseen footage. Aside from Speed and Angels, the various Fighter Flings, Top Gun and Final Countdown, the best footage I’ve seen is from the 70’s compiled I think on a Grumman DVD. Periscope film has clips of it on YouTube.

I’d love to see stuff from AIM/ACEVAL.

[David Hingtgen]

Does anyone else keep track of the planes they've seen (as in, non-museum ones), or just me?  (basically I try to get the serial/bureau number of any "live" military plane I've seen, hoping that someday I can get a model of the exact one, etc).  

[David Hingtgen]

Brazilian Gripen camo:

[slide]

On 7/5/2020 at 7:02 PM, David Hingtgen said:

Does anyone else keep track of the planes they've seen (as in, non-museum ones), or just me?  (basically I try to get the serial/bureau number of any "live" military plane I've seen, hoping that someday I can get a model of the exact one, etc).  

Sometimes. 

It's pretty rare to encounter military aircraft where I am, so I always try to get a good look,

[renegadeleader1]

Question guys. If you were me and had two weeks vacation in september would you go to Pearl Harbor, or tour London and Normandy?

[sh9000]

[slide]

On 7/10/2020 at 2:28 AM, renegadeleader1 said:

Question guys. If you were me and had two weeks vacation in september would you go to Pearl Harbor, or tour London and Normandy?

I've been to all three, have to say, unless you're going for a specific site or event [like a family historical site, flying legends at duxford, tankfest at bovington, etc], My recommendation would be go to pearl, and then do all the touristy things you can while you're in the Hawaiian islands.

 

Normandy and London were great, I would go again, but they're just not Hawaii

Edited July 11, 2020 by slide

[renegadeleader1]

12 hours ago, slide said:

I've been to all three, have to say, unless you're going for a specific site or event [like a family historical site, flying legends at duxford, tankfest at bovington, etc], My recommendation would be go to pearl, and then do all the touristy things you can while you're in the Hawaii.

 

Normandy and London were great, I would go again, but they're just not Hawaii

Thanks for the insight. I'm definately leaning that way towards Pearl Harbor.

 

In other news does everyone remember the photo I posted of the JU-87 Stuka that was being restored a couple pages back? It doesn't look like it's going to be finished anytime soon. The museum that was restoring it Paul Allen's Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum announced it's permanently closing. Officially it's because of the Covid crisis, but in actuality Allen's family has decided to cut funding to pretty much every museum he was involved with before his death. They also cancelled the expeditions into the pacific to rediscover sunken wrecks.

[Sildani]

On 7/10/2020 at 9:20 AM, sh9000 said:

The Neo-Zero looks dang cool.

[AN/ALQ128]

On 7/10/2020 at 6:20 AM, sh9000 said:

https://www.airrecognition.com/index.php/news/defense-aviation-news/2020/july/6416-japan-plans-to-start-mass-production-of-new-local-made-stealth-fighter-aircraft-in-2031.html

"The new stealth fighter aircraft will be developed by the company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as main contractor, based on the X-2.
In 2016, Japan unveiled an experimental fifth-generation fighter technology demonstrator, dubbed X-2 “Shinshin” (formerly the ATD-X), which was intended to serve as the basis for the F-X fighter.

The Mitsubishi X-2 Shinshin, formerly named ATD-X, was a Japanese experimental aircraft based on advanced stealth fighter aircraft technology. It is being developed by the Japanese Ministry of Defense Technical Research and Development Institute (TRDI) for research purposes. The main contractor of the project was Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

On 27 March 2020, Japan rejected designs proposed by Lockheed Martin, Boeing and BAE Systems. The designs submitted by all three defense contractors include a hybridized F-22/35 fighter, a design based on the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and another based on the Eurofighter Typhoon respectively. According to an official from the Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) the designs did not meet their requirements and that no decision has been reached on the air-frame design. The decision places Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at the forefront in developing the stealth fighter. However, the decision did not rule out the possibility of international collaboration; as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems are still listed as potential partners."

 

[Shadow]

On 7/10/2020 at 9:20 AM, sh9000 said:

That's one weird amalgamation of F-22, F-35 and the YF-23.

[electric indigo]

You can't get military sets from Lego, but fortunately you can get military planes that look like Lego.

[Dobber]

Lol! 

Chris

[David Hingtgen]

Super. 

[Thom]

36 minutes ago, David Hingtgen said:

Super. 

The SuperBug looks great in those colors!

[Shadow]

Here is the article on the conversion to the Super Hornet. I'm still hoping to catch one more show with the Blues in the Legacy Hornet but who knows with COVID now.

I'm curious if the Blues new Super Bugs also will have the updated engines that the rest of the fleet are getting at the moment.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35127/the-blue-angels-have-officially-received-their-first-f-a-18e-super-hornet

Edited July 28, 2020 by Shadow

[ghostryder]

23 hours ago, Shadow said:

Here is the article on the conversion to the Super Hornet. I'm still hoping to catch one more show with the Blues in the Legacy Hornet but who knows with COVID now.

I'm curious if the Blues new Super Bugs also will have the updated engines that the rest of the fleet are getting at the moment.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35127/the-blue-angels-have-officially-received-their-first-f-a-18e-super-hornet

Was the EPE engine ever funded?  Even if it was, I thought the Navy would opt for the increased life (boo!) vs increased thrust.

The single seat E models do look sexy in blue.

[Shadow]

27 minutes ago, ghostryder said:

Was the EPE engine ever funded?  Even if it was, I thought the Navy would opt for the increased life (boo!) vs increased thrust.

The single seat E models do look sexy in blue.

Pretty sure it was. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/check-out-powerful-engine-upgrade-navys-fa-18-super-hornets-and-ea-18g-growlers-are

[David Hingtgen]

Considering how budget-constrained (ironically?) flight-hours and upgrades etc are, an enhanced engine on an old, flight-display-only Super Hornet seems kind of a waste.  They're already stripped down, and fly with small fuel loads.   They should have "enough" performance as-is.    

[kalvasflam]

How many Tornados do the Germans have left?  I think the Brits have retired all of them.

[electric indigo]

85 (of former 357) are still flying, and will do so until about 2030. There's currently a political debate about getting an interim fleet of 45 F-18s to replace them until an upgraded Eurofighter of the next generation FCAS can fill the gap.

[kalvasflam]

11 hours ago, electric indigo said:

85 (of former 357) are still flying, and will do so until about 2030. There's currently a political debate about getting an interim fleet of 45 F-18s to replace them until an upgraded Eurofighter of the next generation FCAS can fill the gap.

OMG, that sounds like a disaster in the making.  I think the last American fighter the Luftwaffe has was the F-4.  If anything, they might be better off with the F-15X as an interim solution.  Or just get more Eurofighters.  They can be bombed up, right?

[Dobber]

Some rare footage of a Tomcat doing a gun run. Also, some LOW passes!

 

[kajnrig]

You weren't kidding. That thing got LOOOOOOW.

[derex3592]

Damn! "How LOW can you go?!" Tomcat pilots be like Roy.....

[renegadeleader1]

Nothing beats that photo of the P-47 flying two feet off the ground.

[kajnrig]

You talking about this one? If not, show me please.

EDIT:

Ugh. The timing on seeing this news certainly wasn't great.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/two-air-tankers-collide-mid-air-while-fighting-nevada-wildfire-n1235398

Quote

Two pilots were killed Thursday when their air tankers collided in midair as they were helping to fight a large wildfire in southern Nevada, federal officials said.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management suggested in a statement that the deceased were "contract pilots." "Recovery operations are currently underway and initial notifications are still being made," it said.

The sheriff in Lincoln County, where the collision occurred, didn’t respond to a request for comment Thursday night.

A National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said that neither aircraft was able to land.

The cause of the 12:55 p.m. incident wasn’t immediately clear, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. There was one pilot aboard each single-engine Air Tractor AT8T, the department said.

The Bureau of Land Management said the cause was still under investigation.

The planes can drop as many as 800 gallons of fire retardant and are able to maneuver into areas that are harder to reach for larger tankers, the bureau said.

"We offer our sincere condolences to the families of the two pilots and to all those working with the BLM Nevada Ely District," the Bureau of Land Management's Nevada state director, Jon Raby, said in a statement.

The planes had been dispatched to help fight the Bishop Fire, a 14,000-acre blaze burning on federal land roughly 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas, according to Nevada Fire Information, a site with state and federal fire data.

The fire started Wednesday, the site said. Its cause was listed as “human,” though no additional details were available. The site said “extreme, record-breaking heat” could fuel the blaze.

Edited July 31, 2020 by kajnrig

[electric indigo]

12 hours ago, kalvasflam said:

OMG, that sounds like a disaster in the making.  I think the last American fighter the Luftwaffe has was the F-4.  If anything, they might be better off with the F-15X as an interim solution.  Or just get more Eurofighters.  They can be bombed up, right?

The problem is that the Eurofighters need a "license to bomb" for the American atomic bombs, which is a condition to keep Germany in the decision process about NATO's nuclear strategy. The American authorities have hinted that this would lead to a years-long process for the Eurofighter, while it could be dealt with swiftly for the F-18s.

The recent decision to withdraw a significant portion of the American troops from Germany may still dampen the incentive for the 8 billion F-18 deal. 

[kajnrig]

Saw this in my feed today, I'm pretty sure this was being talked about a few pages ago?

 

[F-ZeroOne]

The heat sink is an interesting idea. Curious as to how it will dump the heat though.

[Jaustin89]

1 hour ago, F-ZeroOne said:

The heat sink is an interesting idea. Curious as to how it will dump the heat though.

The whole system looked to be tied into the intake/bleed air lines with 4 vents around each engine. At a guess the system will have two operating modes; one where the heat sink stores thermal energy from the engines and the bleed air is mixed into the exhaust stream to further reduce IR signature, and another where the heatsink exchanges into the bleed air lines to cool off.

It's probably going to have a fairly noticable impact on performance due to the inherent weight of any heat sink materials (heat storage is directly tied to mass). But if that system, RAM, and shape based deflection are all combined you can get an airframe stealthy enough to not really need as much preformance.