Of what use would be Yak-141 to Venezuela?
Do they intend to deploy a carrier also – that might be too expensive for them?
Or maybe fly it off converted cargo ships?
Or is it the same doctrine that led to the development of the Harrier – keeping air capabilitys even if runways are destroyed?

Why make a Libyan BN when Libya never had any BNs :confused:

Banshee, the first two are MiG-23s received from Libya, not Fitters.
The trainer near the F-7 looks like a Strikemaster.
The bigger choppers are definatly Hips (longer tail boom than Puma, and 2 small wings on both sides at the end – Puma has only one.
The smaller choppers are most likely AB 205, as Alouettes have a shorter main body and the front end is more flattened.

A better solution is to design an airplane for a slow approach speed, install bigger wheel brakes and use the X-31 technique for extremely short landing.

None of this would help on an ice-covered runway – that’s why Norway uses chutes on their F-16s

Any clue whether the drag chute was offered for the landbased operators of the Hornet

AFAIK no

it can’t be such a huge modification?

Yes it can – in the case of the Hornet at least – where would you put it? There’s not enough space between the engines putting a chute container on top of them would mean more drag…

That airframe is no longer at Shiraz and has been noted elsewhere

Where precisely and most important with or without the radome?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Adrian_44
There is also on the Internet pictures of an F-14 at a Soviet airbase!!

Quote:
Originally Posted by googeler
Those are fake.

Actually there are real, long before the photos reached the public sector, information about them and the reasons for the for the Tomcats being in the Soviet Union were well known. The Soviet AF wanted a good look at a fourth generation American aircraft and primary weapon system, the F-14 and Phoenix Missile. The Iranians wanted technical assistance in maintenance, reverse engineering and, help in building an indigenous aviation industry.
The thermal batteries for the Phoenix missile were exausted by 1987, guess how the Iranians were able to keep the Phoenix Missiles currently operational? New wiring, rocket motors, and cooling systems for the Phoenix Missile have also been built. Assistance with reverse engineering has helped but, updating Iran’s technical infra-structure to a large extent has been a big factor.
Also, have you wondered why the IRIAF has only accepted a few MiG-29’s even though Russia keeps pushing for a major purchase of over one hundred MiG-29’s. Without a sizeable number of MiG-29’s, if the F-14A is not operational then, the most modern fighter the IRIAF has is the F-4 Phantom 2!
A lot of Soviet assistance came with the price of exchange of technical information. Guess what information the Iranian AF had that the Soviet AF really wanted?

Adrian, I never said that Russia didn’t get a look at IRIAF Tomcats – i agree that’s very likely to have happened.
I just said that the photos showing Tomcats with red stars are fake – they have under the chin the IR/TV sensor – which Iran never got, plus the stars look really odd. And the MiG-25 in the background banking is from another picture.