The old vintage P-12 Spoon Rest early warning radars were picking up Blackbirds at 200km distance, “a bit upgraded” Spoon Rest-D at approx. 300km. Tall Kings EW radars even doubled the tracking distance. No wonder that both the Mig-25, Mig-31 during that time in airborne used GCI commands for automated intercepts. Pilots switched their datalinks to “peredacha” and followed instruments to get the best position to fire missiles. Tracking Blackbird was an easy task for ground radars, bcs of its restricted maneuverability at Mach3. Mig pilots were able to lockon the SR-71 with IR missiles, no need to turn on their on-board radars.

P.S. another vintage soviet radar range info vs SR-71, the SNR-75 FAN SONG A radar of the S-75 komplex were able to track it at a distance of 150km.

Compare RAF fleet to Serbian fleet first.

yeahh, a dumb comparison, lots of if…..but not surprising from him at all.

Of course it is. Look at at how short coupled that fuselage is. Long fuselage=small fin, short fuselage=large fin. It’s all to do with the lever arm. On a fuselage that short a small fin would not have the leverage for adequate yaw control. The only thing I’m surprised by is the fact that the Tailplane is not a good bit larger than it is to ensure adequate pitch control………….I did notice that but it still doesn’t seem to provide enough area.

It seems you have read a book on elementary aerodynamics and became an expert overnight to judge why do they have such a small tailplanes. There are also other factors affecting the lever arm of the tailplanes, not just you;ve mentioned “Long fuselage=small fin, short fuselage=large fin. “:rolleyes:

A rather interesting upgrade is this Elbit/LAHAV Mi-17M used by Slovak AF in the SAR role. The FLIR ball under the nose is Elbit ComPASS type, pilot’s vision system consists of Elbit AN/AVS-7 ANVIS/HUD night vision system (aviators goggles and HUD-24 head mounted display).

Systems installed to SAR Mi-17 with help of czech company ČLS. There are also systems installed in coop. with other companies like EADS, BECKER, SPEEL, … etc, including Elbit you already mentioned.

http://www.ceslet.cz/en/military-programs/mi17-vir32-ff2101-dme442-nvg-i56/

It should be also noted that this is an upgrade to Mi-17 and not Mi-171, which differs a lot regarding structural spars near engine bays. Particularly, these disadvantages of Mi-17 are causing problems when installing the new external hoisting system with increased lifting capacity.

Czech 171Shs only have dials in their cockpits, no single MFD or anything like that. The only obvious upgrade would be GPS receiver installed in the central console and black painting of the IP, which indicates NVG-compatible lighting.

You;re correct. The avionics suite in the Czech Mi-171Sh (Shturmovoy variant), is far from to be called “top-of-the-line variant”. You can hardly expect top-noch systems installed when your helos are delivered in discharge of state debt. Czechs are already undergoing steps to upgrade the avionics as well.

what about those long metal stripes found on Typhoon and Rafale radomes, do they not interfere or decrease radar performance?

1MAN

What your posts have in common with Martinez’ is that you’ve both done a good job of making people think that you are intransigent conspiracy theorists.
Martinez is too lazy to do his own research, so like a child he simply asks stupid questions – ‘How good was EID?’, ‘Tell me how many MiGs COMBAT TREE helped shoot down’, ‘Where have all the MiGs gone?’, etc. You are a bit like that, too (‘Show me some sources!’, ‘I want to see photos!’).
You reckon that for America to get any advantage out of flying a MiG-29 or a Su-27, it would have to be the latest model since a great deal has changed. That’s a totally flawed argument that, like Martinez, exposes you as someone who does not know the first thing about US FME – either its scope or its purpose.
And, as with Martinez, just because someone stops responding to your stupid, ignorant questions and opinions, it doesn’t mean that they have conceded that you are correct. Frankly, the other thing that you and he have done a good job of is reminding me why I stopped posting to forums and newsgroups such as this many, many years ago, and why I won’t be doing so again the future!
Maybe you and Martinez can find a guy on the internet called Venik? You’d all get along well with him!

Hey Mr. freelance aviation journalist, when someone demands a single proof for your claims, you go ahead and accuses anybody with an opinion different from yours and calling us lazy, ignorant, stupid or even conspiracy theorists. It;s obvious you do not posses a single proof for your beliefs while waving around with primitive arguments like “you do not understand scale of America’s ongoing FME activities” or that better “if those civilian hacks can do it, why doubt that the US military wouldn’t while refering to civil FAA registry” or else blaah, blaah……:rolleyes:
Hovewer we are living in a time of scepticism, so provide proof for your claims, or realize that your arguments are a joke and with no credibility. As for those other primitive accuses, I do not bother, you know the world is a big place and full of idiots as you that would talk about stuff they do not understand, but I;m feeling immense sorry for those buyers or should I say victims of your present or past “researches”.
Anyway, you remind me of another freelance aviation journalist Tom Copper, you both show more imagination and empathy than it is in reality. You would get along with him too!:D

P.S. Why you rather do not research flying saucers over Groom Lake, afaik America own one since 1947. They`ve been seen flying numerous times, but Flankers or Fulrums none.

You read too much into my posts. Have you not seen pictures of the 23 at an airshow?

I find it just amusing that according to you any American civilian hacks owning a Mig and having a civil FAA registration has to be automatically airworthy. 😀
AFAIK there was only one Mig-23 airworthy in 2006 and I doubt it still is.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/310637/mig_23_air_display_at_the_2006_new_castle_airshow/

And going back to the original subject. Think about it, if in the period up to 1988 or so people had said the US DoD were flying F117s out of TTR would you have believed them given that there were no real clear photographs?

Sorry, do not understand, how is this connected to the airworthiness of the Mig-29 and Su-27 in the USAF we are discussing right now?

And what? Did I say that the civil ones were flying? I only referred to the two US Army ones.

As for your comments about journalists and spotters. Try to remember that the kid sitting on the fence at the airfield with his camera is a useful source of information. It was spotters photogrpahing and writing down numbers of executive jets who provided the evidence on extraordinary rendition so please don’t look down your nose at them or journalists for that matter.

No problem, we are discussing.:) As for the kid sitting on the fence, do not worry, have nothing against them. I`m doing the same in free time…..:diablo: 😀