Aircraft Super Thread Mk.VII

[Thom]

Edited July 7, 2023 by Thom

[Thom]

55 minutes ago, F-ZeroOne said:

Little bit unrelated, but the cricket [1] tournament known as "The Ashes" is happening on this side of the pond, and cricket being cricket, there are such long pauses between things happening that the T.V. cameras often wander around for things to look at - I only mention this because the other day they actually caught a F-35 (presumably a RAF "B" model) going past. Clearly more proof that this stealth stuff doesn't work and we should all go back to throwing rocks from Fokker triplanes like Grandad used to... 😉

[1] If you're unfamiliar with this British "sport", its rules are as peculiar as Quidditch only with every single thing that makes that game fun removed, and matches can last for literal days. And still end in a draw.  

'Why, in my day, we threw the gunner at the other plane!'👴

Edited July 7, 2023 by Thom

[AN/ALQ128]

X-59 seen in the flesh. A very slick looking plane imo.

[twich]

2 hours ago, AN/ALQ128 said:

X-59 seen in the flesh. A very slick looking plane imo.

Now is this the one that had a "silencer" for the sonic boom? To test for supersonic airliners, so that they can exceed the speed of sound and fly over populated areas?

Twich

[AN/ALQ128]

IIRC, the narrow, extended nose cone, canards and exaggerated angle of incidence wings shape the airflow to reduce the shockwaves generated by supersonic speeds.

[MKT]

Just passing by to say, the X-59 is just giving out the Metal Siren vibes. 

[Thom]

Now that better not just silently break mach - but damn well better hit orbit!!😜

[electric indigo]

More Lockheed

https://twitter.com/Zephyr164/status/1677640884287082496

[Thom]

A couple B-17s have been cleared after a mandatory grounding of the surviving Forts. Sally B, Sentimental Journey passed their inspections. The grounding came around April, after an inspection of Aluminum Overcast found that its wing had shifted by 2 inches at one of its attachment points.

[Thom]

13 minutes ago, electric indigo said:

More Lockheed

https://twitter.com/Zephyr164/status/1677640884287082496

I'm still waiting for the tailless bomber version of the F-22.

[Chronocidal]

That thing looks.. quite a bit like something out of Yukikaze artwork, now that I look at it.  Not the anime, but the novel covers.

[jvmacross]

 

[kajnrig]

Late night toilet thought: Has the Su-75 been demonstrated? I remember the showy promotion and pre-order announcement, and forget if among or after that was ever any actual real-life footage of one operating.

Makes me want to see one in a video game. Like an "all concepts" Ace Combat, where the roster includes it, the F-16XL, Super Tomcat, Silent Eagle, etc... and the Qaher-313.

Edited July 10, 2023 by kajnrig

[Raikkonen]

What is the purpose of the X-59? Is it just a lab plane? 

[Thom]

1 hour ago, Raikkonen said:

What is the purpose of the X-59? Is it just a lab plane? 

Re-testing supersonic air travel. Trying to break the Mach barrier without (or minimizing) the sonic boom.

Edited July 10, 2023 by Thom

[M'Kyuun]

Really interesting design. I hope they find success and translate its features over to commercial passenger purposes. The US is lagging, and to be the only producers/ operators of a supersonic transport would be a huge boon to the economy, not to mention world prestige. How long do you think it'll take the Soviets and the CCP to steal the idea and make their own copies?

Honestly, I would have thought a plane like this would have been developed decades ago, but perhaps it's simply a function of using materials that didn't exist back then.

[electric indigo]

On 7/10/2023 at 3:57 PM, M'Kyuun said:

How long do you think it'll take the Soviets and the CCP to steal the idea and make their own copies?

Not happening until we get supersonic washing machines...

[sh9000]

A-10 Warthog.

[Thom]

Down low and dirty! No other plane does the job this handsome bird does. It is a professional at its job and sometimes that's just what you need. We would/will lose an important tool when these birds are grounded.

[electric indigo]

Zephyr keeps them coming

 

[AN/ALQ128]

Northrop just bowed out of the NGAD competition as prime contractor.

https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/northrop-grumman-withdraws-ngad-program

[Chronocidal]

1 hour ago, AN/ALQ128 said:

Northrop just bowed out of the NGAD competition as prime contractor.

https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/northrop-grumman-withdraws-ngad-program

Yeah, I'm going to make the wild guess that they're probably going to focus on the next-gen Navy platform, and play to their strengths, rather than compete with the USAF's golden child Lockheed Martin.

[AN/ALQ128]

NG is also occupied rn with the B21 program, so they arent exactly hurting for juicy big contracts.

[Thom]

10 hours ago, AN/ALQ128 said:

Northrop just bowed out of the NGAD competition as prime contractor.

https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/northrop-grumman-withdraws-ngad-program

Bring on the Supercat!!

[Thom]

A couple days old, but a Mig crashed at the Thunder Over Michigan air show. Both crew out with injuries but recovering, and no injuries on the ground, thankfully.

 

[renegadeleader1]

20 hours ago, Thom said:

A couple days old, but a Mig crashed at the Thunder Over Michigan air show. Both crew out with injuries but recovering, and no injuries on the ground, thankfully.

 

It made it's debut at OshKosh a couple weeks ago, and people seemed shocked it didn't crash then.

[M'Kyuun]

On 8/16/2023 at 9:48 AM, Thom said:

A couple days old, but a Mig crashed at the Thunder Over Michigan air show. Both crew out with injuries but recovering, and no injuries on the ground, thankfully.

 

Appalled by the guy at approx 50 seconds in who thinks the crew bailed out on purpose as part of the show. When two chutes come out of a fighter, who does he think is flying it? The girl in the vid telling him the plane's crashing is far more astute regarding what's happening. Anyway, sucks that they had to ditch the plane, and I hope no one on the ground was hurt.

[Thom]

8 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Appalled by the guy at approx 50 seconds in who thinks the crew bailed out on purpose as part of the show. When two chutes come out of a fighter, who does he think is flying it? The girl in the vid telling him the plane's crashing is far more astute regarding what's happening. Anyway, sucks that they had to ditch the plane, and I hope no one on the ground was hurt.

He may think it's all magic and faeries.😉

And thankfully no one was hurt on the ground. The wreckage however did stop just short of an apartment complex.

[F-ZeroOne]

Reminds me that a long time ago, at a local air display, I actually saw an ejection from a Red Arrow jet (the RAF display team). Pilot landed in the sea and as far as I'm aware was fine. It doesn't surprise me that someone might think its part of the display, there was some confusion for a bit at the event I saw.

The local area where I live has had some odd aviation visitors over the years - we used to be on a local Route One if the Cold War ever got hot, so we used to have quite a lot of RAF and USAAF traffic passing through, and still the odd exotic now - a local airfield services A400Ms, I got a glimpse of an Osprey at extreme distance when your current President was visiting a little while back, AH-64s eyeing up the nearest cul-de-sac as a potential T-72 hidey-hole, A-10s buzzing my school, but by far the most memorable was seeing an actual, honest-to-Goose F-14 fly past at another local air display; to put it in perspective it would be like having a F-22 turn up at your childhood lemonade stand...! 😄

Also a few months back I also heard, but didn't see, something tear a hole through the sky - as did some of my work colleagues, one of whom put it down to a F-111 (!). I had to point out why that was a little unlikely (actual culprits were a pair of F-15Es).

Edited August 19, 2023 by F-ZeroOne

[M'Kyuun]

5 hours ago, Thom said:

He may think it's all magic and faeries.😉

And thankfully no one was hurt on the ground. The wreckage however did stop just short of an apartment complex.

Did some reading up. It was a MiG-23 Flogger privately owned and operated by a former Navy A-6 pilot w/ 200 carrier landings to his credit. The pilot, Dan Filer, makes his living as a United Airlines pilot, so this is a fellow with remarkable experience. I think his intent was to ditch the plane in the water, but while he and his co landed in the water, the plane went on to crash uncomfortably close to an apartment complex. I'm glad that no one got hurt, but the loss of the MiG, a rarity on these shores, is lamentable. Perhaps some of these older planes are better served as museum pieces rather than ending up as smoking wreckage.

[Thom]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

Did some reading up. It was a MiG-23 Flogger privately owned and operated by a former Navy A-6 pilot w/ 200 carrier landings to his credit. The pilot, Dan Filer, makes his living as a United Airlines pilot, so this is a fellow with remarkable experience. I think his intent was to ditch the plane in the water, but while he and his co landed in the water, the plane went on to crash uncomfortably close to an apartment complex. I'm glad that no one got hurt, but the loss of the MiG, a rarity on these shores, is lamentable. Perhaps some of these older planes are better served as museum pieces rather than ending up as smoking wreckage.

That is the risk. When it's the pilots/owners of the planes choosing the take the risk, that's perfectly fine even with a bad outcome. It's when it impacts someone's home that it gets a lot diecier. Still, the thought of any of these old war birds being grounded is like seeing the last Vulcan allowed to do only taxi runs...

[M'Kyuun]

On 8/19/2023 at 1:30 PM, Thom said:

That is the risk. When it's the pilots/owners of the planes choosing the take the risk, that's perfectly fine even with a bad outcome. It's when it impacts someone's home that it gets a lot diecier. Still, the thought of any of these old war birds being grounded is like seeing the last Vulcan allowed to do only taxi runs...

Alas, the risk is real, and in this instance, very close to catastrophe. If they're going to insist on flying these older or unreliable airframes, perhaps they should create a separate venue to do so in select unpopulated areas around the country, with appropriate hardened viewing areas for the viewers just in case of emergency. Once those pilots bail, or lose control of the aircraft, it's anybody's guess where they're going to come down. I love aviation as much as anybody (I worked on planes for 15 of my 20 years in the Air Force), but incidents like this make me question whether the risk is worth the pleasure of seeing these old birds fly.  I live near both an Air Force base and an international airport, and there's a crash zone very near to where I live, not to mention I see military aircraft flying over my house on a nigh daily basis, so the risk is literally above me all the time. But at least I know the 50+ year old tankers flying over me are maintained 24-7 and have a very high reliability rate. The same can't be said for personal aircraft, especially those of foreign make. All flight is risky until we conquer gravity, but some risk is far more manageable than others, and with the seeming increase in crashes of privately owned vintage and foreign planes, perhaps there needs to be some heightened standards or tighter regulations/inspection criteria before these planes can be certified safe for flight. 

[Chronocidal]

I recall hearing other stories that the MiG-23 airframe has a history of being difficult to handle, and who knows how fickle a Russian swing-wing aircraft would be.  I recall one story about a captured plane being plowed in hard when a general steamrolled his way into getting to fly it, and could not handle it.

Mostly just reminds me of this old meme though.

[Raikkonen]

I love the look of the Mig-23. Even built a Hasegawa kit and also had the mechanical file of it... but... I'm not surprised it keeps having issues. It was one of those jets quickly designed with little testing to make numbers during the cold war. 

Apparently was a great interceptor, but dreadful dog fighter and pilots were uneased flying it due to it's landing gear flaw and weak frame. 

Edited August 21, 2023 by Raikkonen

[electric indigo]

There was a VTOL MiG-23 prototype tested before they settled for the swing wings.