Quiz time

…it’s been a few weeks, let’s start the new year of with you guys browsing your brains, books and the web. See it as my way of wishing y’all a happy new year.

Correct answers given so far in green
Second round of answers (all by Sean) in purple
And the third and final correction round in dark blue

-1-
An interesting incident in the history of aerial combat is the shootdown of a twin-engined prop aircraft shot down by another twin radial aircraft on May 17th, 1962. Please give the aircraft types, countries/forces involved, and the conflict.
Somehow this one is always forgotten in air combat listings. But on this date, a Dutch P2V-5 Neptune from 320sqn, MLD shot down an Indonesian C-47 on it’s way to drop insurgents over New Guinee.

-2-
One of the earliest ELINT-missions performed was by the Germans along the British coast in late May 1939. Name the aircraft used, bonus non-existing points are given if you know the reason why the mission failed.
Very good Transall, it was a Zeppelin. Anyone know which one, and anyone know the reason why this mission failed?
It is wonderful to see Flood not only as the master of asinine postings, but also with lovely obscurities like this at hand. Excellent!

-3-
What is the obvious means to keep the following pairs of aircraft apart if you happen to stumble across one (apart from looking up the serial of course):
a – Il-28 and Il-28R
The tip tanks are the easiest giveaway. Chalk one up for SOC.
b – Yak-27 and Yak-28 Brewer
All this technical detail-picking… while it is so terribly easy. Yak-27s had their Red Star below the horizontal tail, Yak-28s had theirs above.
c – Tornado GR.1 and Tornado GR.4
One vs two guns is correct, but there is an easier one
…which is indeed the second undernose fairing, this time with the FLIR as Milavia mentioned.
d – F-104G and F-104S
The ventral fins, you’re right Jeroen
e – Mirage IIIC and Mirage IIIE
Well, you can’t really measure the length of an aircraft can you? It is the fuselage stretch which gives it away, but what do you have to look for exactly?
As KingJester said, you have to look at the position of the canopy compared to the intakes. Is the canopy between the intakes, it’s a C-class Mirage III, is the canopy in front of them, it’s a IIIE equivalent.
f – F-16A and F-16AM
It doesn’t have to be difficult, Jeroen is correct on the IFF birdslicers
g – Tu-142MR and Tu-142MZ
A bonus gratification to Flood for making excellent abuse of my poor English 😉
Of course the rearward pointing MAD on the vertical tail of the MZ, and the forward pointing antenna housing on the MR. And lots of other extra aerials on the MR, but you’d have to look closer for those.

-4-
Where is the depot level maintenance performed on the following aircraft:
a – Su-25, Russia.
121 ARZ, Kubinka
b – F-15, USAF
Warner-Robins of course.
c – F-4E, Egypt
These should still be going to Ogden OLC at Hill AFB, UT
d – T-2E, Greece
Tanagra of course, with HAI.
e – MiG-31, Russia
It’s not Ryazan.
The MiG-31, like many of it’s PVO predecessors, recieves it’s large maintenance at Rzhev.
f – Tu-142, India
Unfortunately i haven’t seen one when i was at Taganrog, but that’s where they go.
g – UH-1H, US Army/ARNG
Main hub for these should still be Corpus Christi, although it seems a lot of it is being contracted as well. Unfortunately the days of seeing 60 USAr Hueys in maintenance at Brussels-Melsbroek are long gone…. Good one Pegasus!

-5-
Quite a few aircraft have flown with a surveillance/AEW radar in a rotating disc above the fuselage. Name them, there are at least 7 but your quizmaster will happily agree he’s not infallible.
Jeroen has got the E-2, E-3 and P-3AEW, Transall correctly adds the EC-121 and Hercules to that list. The Yak-44 never flew, and the E-1 didn’t have a rotodome but a fixed housing in which the antenna rotated. I want two more. The Il-76 in both A-50 and 976 (No Il- prefix or anything, it’s a range support and telemetry aircraft) form, and the An-72 in An-71 form are both correct. Of course, i just thought of at least one more…
I guess this was the traditional question in which i made an ass of myself. EC-121, E-2, E-3, E-767, P-3AEW, C-130AEW, A50 (and 976), An-71, Tu-126 and Hs748 is a bit more than seven… dumb, dumb me. But i’m pretty sure the Y-8-with-dish doesn’t exist.

-6-
When did the first Tornado get to wear an RAF roundel, and what was the exact designation of this aircraft?
I never said it had to be that Panavia product. Pegasus is right, a few USAF RB-45C Tornados got to fly with British markings on overflights across the Soviet Union in 1951.

-7-
Because of several weapons treaties, the B-52 recieved two visual modifications to make them identifiable by Soviet/Russian sattelites as nuclear-capable. Give those two modifications.
Transall has got one modification: a fairing on the wingroot. Now who gives the other one? Some B-52Hs also have a VizMod because of a treat though, and it’s not the wingroot fairing.
While it’s not an intentional VizMod, the current nuclear-capable B-52H’s have a disconnected ALT-32 aerial on the rear fuselage for START identification. It’s a pretty small antenna, so it gives some bonus clues about the quality of Russian spysats.

-8-
What airbase…
a – …was home to the OV-10 Broncos in USAFE?
Sembach indeed, the 20 TASS / 601TCW operated these from the mid 1970s till about 1984
b – …was built by the US but served for more than 20 years as a an AVMF airbase?
Yup, Cam Ranh it is.
c – …houses more operational F-16s than any other user has in it’s inventory?
I put operational in the question for a reason, Jeroen! Otherwise AMARC would have been correct too, but the 9 squadrons at Luke are all operational
d – …is the one supporting Cape Canaveral?
Didn’t think Patrick AFB would take that long to come up as an answer!
e – …was Germany’s last operational F-104G base?
Memmingen it was
f – …was used by the Soviets to operationally test attack aircraft in Afghanistan?
Bagram was an operational airbase, but both the Yak-38 and the Su-25 (actually the T8-3 prototype was there as well) were flown during combat evaluations from Shindand in 1982.

-9-
Which jet fighter has three engines?
No, i’m not talking about APU or JATO bottles…Of course it’s Russian: the Yak-38 (operational) and the -141 both had two lift engines, and one vectoring nozzle engine.

-10-
What is a TC-49A, and who operates them?
Indeed, it’s the new designation for the 707TCA’s with the NAEWF at Geilenkirchen. It’s also yet another MDS designator for the 707 airframe