Sounds almost like a re-run of Count Rosen’s “Biafran Babes” Bolkows.

True, but I have more in mind the so called “Night Witches”- the Soviet women pilots who flew night-time bombing missions against the Germans in WW II, flying Polikarpov Po-2s.

I’ve just been reading about them in the book “A Dance with Death” by Anne Noggle. I recommend it highly.

As with the Night witches, you may wonder if the Tamils are spending their resources the right way, buying the aircraft and training up flight crews, etc, considering the limited amount of damage they could ever hope to cause!

Two MiG-29s have been lost in a mid-air collision – according to the RBK news agency.

The two aircraft were on a training flight when they collided with each other while flying over the Sholokhovskii district in the Rostov Region of Southern Russia. The pilots of both planes were able to eject from their aircraft and survived the incident.

A crash investigation team has been sent to the crash site.

http://top.rbc.ru/index1.shtml?ext=1

Meanwhile Russia’s Sukhoi, the world’s only competitor of America in aircraft technologies of the fifth generation,

http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/88404-0/

That’s a pretty tall claim.

Do we actually know enough about Sukhoi’s PAK-FA to really accept ‘in blind faith’ that it really will be ‘fifth Generation’, especially as regards Stealth and Net-centric technologies?:confused:

Let’s remind that what is meant is not the world’s only aircraft with the forward-swept wings (Su-47), which was used as a flying laboratory for the fifth generation, but a totally new machine, which nobody has seen so far.

http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/88404-0/

Obviously never heard of Grumman’s X-29…:rolleyes:

This is great! I got my peanuts and chips ready, plus a bottle of finest Lipton Ice Tea Green, let the show begin, folks! 😉

Do you expect the HUD camera recording to to be replayed at a news conference in Havana or Caracas any time soon?

Don’t hold your breath…:rolleyes:

Some quick research on the Net revealed that the IAC are still operating 7 out of the 8 Alouette III helicopters which they first took delivery in November 1963 – and probably won’t finally retire them until the IAC takes final delivery of the rest of their AW-139s
Can anyone tell me if there are any other helis as old as these, specifically turbine aircraft, in service in any other air arm around the world? The S-61 and CH-46 do spring to mind.

Which hopefully will be sooner rather than later given that we are dependant on a seriously overstretched RAF in the event of the need for an airborne intercept of anything heavy….

Do you seriously think that the Irish government are going to order a squadron of F-16s or Grippens any day soon?? :rolleyes:

I know there was a tread here before about cheap unsophisticated fighters for the less well off nations……Now what would be nice?

Would you call Ireland, the so called “Celtic Tiger”, a less well off country?
Our fellow EU members like Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have MiG-29s, JA39 Grippens in service in their air arms, and these countries are by no means flush with cash either!

Finland, a country also comparable to Ireland in population and economy, took delivery of 64 F/A-18C/Ds in the last ten years or so, which for a while made the Finnish air force the most advanced in Europe!:eek:

I think the Irish are suffering more from some sort of sturgid mind set, rather than a paucity of cash. They’re passing the buck basically…

Add up the number of E 3s and B-1Bs and compare with the number of Mig-31s and you could say they have more experience with PESAs in aircraft.

Add up all the actual flying hours achieved by the E-3 and the B-1B and then compare with the actual total hours flown by the MiG-31 – we can then perhaps say who has the real experience with airborne PESA…

And the US shuttle isn’t?

Didn’t try to deny that for one moment!

Even NASA’s chief Director (or a previous one) admitted that the Shuttle programme was probably a big mistake.
And now it’s being replaced by a new bell shaped 3 man crewed “capsule” system that looks suspiciously like the old Apollo…:rolleyes: :confused:

Bad case of deja-vous for all involved!:rolleyes: