hmmmm

I was at pinkpop, because the tickets for Rock Werchter were sold out. Decided to cut some corners by only going the third day. So I missed the Pixies. From what I’ve heard it was a bit like the museum Arthur mentioned earlier. 4 people standing on stage, no interaction what so ever, they played the play list and said goodbye. Could have been because the field in front of the stage wasn’t that filled with 10.000 people. One guy jumped on stage and it took the crapy security about 2 minutes to catch him, the guy managed to kiss the feet of the singer, who didn’t notice it according to the people I spoke to.

Anyway, the third day of the festival, not bad. Never seen Lenny Kravits and Moloko, so I played some catching up with those two bands, Moloko was great, she is plain mad. Jet, and Datsuns were rather good, nothing special though. Muse wasn’t that intresting, been there done that experience.

Geforce, lets trade, I will go to RW and I will get you tickets for the Pixies in the Heineken Music Hall, sounds like a good deal to me 🙂

ELP, you only need to re-enter once you reach orbital volicty, which is WAY higher then the suborbital mission such vessels need to complete. Sub orbital speeds can be performed at speeds like Mach 3 or something like that (look at the current X-price competion), while orbiting speeds exceed Mach 20 as experienced by the space shuttle.

I doubt that Irkut would buy 3/4 of Yakolev if it knew that it couldn’t get its grubby hands on the Yak-130.

I believe it was all about the design team they wanted. Irkut wants to be the first all-round Russian aviation company, thus being able to perform the design, manufacture, marketing and after sales individual.

Off course I could be wrong, but AFAIK OKB Yakovlev received 77 million USD from their Italian partner for the complete blueprint and that is where they almost deserted the complete programme. Sokol picked up the ball and has the production rights, which could be accuired, but not by purchasing Yakovlev OKB

Also, any news on export sales of the Be-200? I thought there was a rumor that the US Forestry Service was intending to purchase some to replace their old WWII Catalinas.

Hawkings & Powers has signed a letter of intent for 8 re-engined Be-200’s. I believe they should be powered by the BR-715 or something like that. AFAIK the PBY Catalina was never used for water bombing.

As for the An-70/Tu-330/Il-214 mix up. The An-70 was ment to replace both the An-22 and An-12 still in service and take on the tactical transport roles for both the AF and Russian Navy. Please note that these are tactical duties, which are rather hard to perform with a Il-76. Because equipment becomes heavier and heavier the An-70 is much bigger then the Cub. The An-70 is developed in the Ukraine just like its engines. This is a major hurdle for the Russian AF.

The Tu-330 is actually pretty similar to the Tu-204 (which itself is a B757 look-alike). The fuselage and engines and avionics are similar. Undercarraige, loading ramp and off course its wings will be redesigned. I believe they aim at 70% commonality with the Tu-204 family. It is supposed to be build by Kazan in Tartarstan.

The Il-214 is a clean sheat programme which is still a little vague until now. Initial production should find place at IAPO. You should be able to find additional information at that website.

hmm about 7c

The TS-11 was no the competitor of the L-29 Delphin.

It was the Yakovlev 30 (Yak-104), the trainer was supposed to be powered by the RU19-300 turbojet. This enigne found a role as APU on the An-24RT and later Antonov 24/26s. The Yak-30 was supposed to be superior to the L-29 but political correctness made L-29 the winner

At least according to a recently aquired book about Antonov’s Turboprops 😀

About the Russian type in trouble at Farnborough, didn’t an An-124 have a problem with one D-18T, it had to be replaced, an An-22 brought the replacement. Or was this a different year?

Correct me if I am wrong, but there was no such thing as the Afghanistan AF around that point of time. It was either the air force operated by the Taliban governement or air assets used by various opposing forces such as the Nothern Alliance, or one of the many other warlords.

But sadly enough I have no info on the event