Similar missions, aerodynamic requirements, payload, etc. will always produce aircraft with similar configurations.

Mig-15 & F-86, Su-24 & F-111, etc.

I have always felt that this was a great “missed opportunity” for the Russian Navy. With this aircraft in service, they could have rebuilt 2 of the 4 Kiev/Baku (Gorshkov) class ships to include the bow “ski jump”, equipped both these and the Kuznetzov with the Yak 141, and have had a viable combat-capable carrier-based force, instead of the partly useful, available less than 50%, show ship they are stuck with now.

Michael Dorn still owns (and flys) an ex-Canadian Sabre.

“I can’t recall a film in which the star actually flew an aircraft.”

Did Jimmy Stewart fly any of the aircraft in “Strategic Air Command”?

Or should I say… Brig.Gen. James M. Stewart USAF (Ret)?
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/wwii/js.htm

Brigadier General James Stewart was drafted into the Army on March 22, 1941 as a private, and was commissioned in 1942. He completed basic and advanced flight training and then instructed in AT-9s at Mather Field, California. He was a pilot in Bombardier Training School at Kirtland for six months before being transferred to Hobbs for four-engine training. An instructor on B-17s, he went to Gowen Field, stayed there for nine months, and was then made squadron commander of the 703rd Squadron of the 445th Bomb Group at Sioux City.

In the fall of 1943 the 445th moved to Tibenham, in East Anglia, as part of the 8th Air Force. In all, General Stewart is credited with twenty combat missions, all as command pilot. He led the 2nd Combat Wing – the 389th, 445th and 453rd groups – to Berlin on March 22, 1944. Early in 1944 he transferred to the 453rd Bomb Group, one of the 445th’s two sisters, as group operations officer. He returned to the States as a full Colonel in 1945.

After he was discharged from the Army Air Forces on September 29, 1945, Stewart was immediately appointed to colonel in the U.S. Army Air Forces Reserve. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1959 and retired from the U.S. Air Force Reserve in 1968. But, before retiring, the decorated officer had one last mission:
After Stewart’s death in 1997, Air Power History published a memoriam that included this little-known item: “In 1966, during his annual two weeks of active duty, Stewart requested a combat assignment and participated in a bombing strike over Vietnam. Stewart’s stepson, 1st Lt. Ronald McLean, was killed at age 24 in the Vietnam War.

In his World War II years, Stewart flew 20 combat missions, among them the tough ones: Brunswick, Bremen, Frankfurt, Schweinfurt and Berlin. His wartime decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, four Air Medals, and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm.

Stewart has the distinction of having held the highest military rank of any actor, rising to the rank of Colonel in the Air Force during WWII. He later retired from the Air Force reserve as a Brigadier General. He was also an Eagle Scout, further enhancing his image as somebody who actually was the straight-arrow charactor he often portrayed on the screen.

Of the 17 on board, 15 treated for “minor injuries”.

Cause said to be engine failure on take-off…?

Exactly… LST is to “track” a laser “spot” reflected off the target to allow the LGB to lock onto that particular laser reflection. It is normally used when someone other than the LGB-carrier is marking the target.

The A-6E Intruder’s TRAM (Target Recognition Attack Multisensor) had both a LST (also called a FAC [Forward Air Controller] reciever) and a LRD (Laser Rangefinder/Designator)(also called a LRT [Laser Reciever/Transmitter]) {along with the FLIR reciever} in its ball turret. The LST was used for second-party designations, and the LRD was used for self-designation

FAC and LRT were used by the hardware-side repair manuals and supply chain, while LST and LRD were used by the aircrew manuals and operations publications.

As you can see, using acronyms can be confusing, as different ones are used for the same equipment… even on the same aircraft!

note to administrator: While I did work on the afore-mentioned systems in the 1980s, and there were classified aspects to them, the above information is now, and always has been, unclassified.

An-225… one flying, one more in parts.

There is talk of using those parts to complete the second.

Some other places where Naval matters are discussed… although in a different way than here. Feel free to check them out.

http://p216.ezboard.com/bwarships1discussionboards

http://p069.ezboard.com/balltheworldsbattlecruisers

http://ScatteredIntelligenceAgency.net

After all, such Ghetto-class, garbage minded subjects as “filthy stinking ships” should NEVER, NEVER sully the pages of the ‘Upper-class”, nose-in-the-air stuck-up “Aircraft are the only things important in the entire world” KeyPublishing AS^*^%S!!!!!!!!!!!1