“Laser on track for intercept test”
DATE:21/03/06
SOURCE:Flight International
Restructured programme is holding schedule, but faces a critical demonstration before production can begin
Downgraded to a demonstration, with plans for production on hold, the ambitious US Airborne Laser (ABL) programme is keeping to a schedule that calls for a ballistic missile shoot-down test in 2008, says prime contractor Boeing.
“New Russian fighter-bomber in final test stages”
15:42 | 22/ 03/ 2006
AKHTUBINSK, March 22 (RIA Novosti) – A new Russian fighter-bomber [Su-34 Fullback] capable of delivering high-precision strikes has started its final test flights, a senior official said Wednesday.
[BTW, I assume no success yet with our quest to secure a photo of the (reported) toilet in the Su-34 cockpit?]
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=&art_id=vn20060224070140735C602906
http://www.ktvotv3.com/Global/story.asp?S=4543460&nav=menu124_2
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=bizarre&id=3934045
http://english.people.com.cn/200603/23/eng20060323_252695.html
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/22/content_4333012.htm
“Auction for Soviet-era Minsk aircraft carrier falls at first hurdle”
UPDATED: 08:14, March 23, 2006
The auction of the retired ex-Soviet aircraft carrier Minsk ended in an anti-climax on Wednesday after it failed to attract its starting price in Shen Zhen, a booming city in South China’s Guang Dong Province.
http://www.asagumo-news.com/photo.html
Photos of JASDF F-1 last flight at Tsuiki AB on 2006.03.09, and JASDF T-1B retirement at Hamamatsu AB on 2006.03.09.
Close-up photo of the, eh, sheath.
In the Navy.
http://pic.people.com.cn/GB/42589/4141133.html
First Class Pilot LIU Wen Li, PLAAF. 33.
First female wing commander.
Almost 2,000 flight hours. Can fly four aircraft types.
Recently recovered after cancer surgery.
For comparison/reference, JGSDF helo-type UAV displayed at a JGSDF public relations centre:
http://mirainet.cool.ne.jp/sheep/uav_3.jpg
http://mirainet.cool.ne.jp/sheep/uav_2.jpg
http://mirainet.cool.ne.jp/sheep/uav_1.jpg
http://mirainet.cool.ne.jp/sheep/uav_sys.jpg
(http://mirainet.cool.ne.jp/sheep/kouhou1.html)
http://news.sohu.com/20041118/n223044351.shtml
17 November 2004:
PLAAF. Trainer.
Chang Chun City, Ji Lin Province.
About 13:00, belly-landing.
Two crew not wounded.
http://www.kynard.com/photos/from/page8.htm
“No Wheels emergency landing of an A-7 on foamed runway China Lake, CA 1970.”
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/F-100/HTML/E-1366.html
“A NACA High-Speed Flight Station hangar wall meets the nose of a North American F-100A Super Sabre airplane on 8 September 1954.”
http://www.kmike.com/oz/Breen/FrameB/breen3.htm
“Crash Landing, while attempting an Emergency approach, South of Chorwon, 26 May 1953”
http://www.nasgi.org/wiza002.htm
“Crew members Fitch (left) and Dave Wiza stand beside their S2F after a successful emergency landing.– Hal Neubauer”
http://www.luftwaffe.cz/mullerr.html
“The Rudi M阿ller`s Bf 109 G-2/R6 after emergency landing on 19 April 1943. Note the U-2 aircraft with ski gear in the background.”
] I also like Chinese wrecks such as tanks, planes and so on.
To quote an ancient Chinese proverb, “Different strokes for different folks.”
Personally, a double bonus would be an US military aircraft that crashes in, or affects, urban Japan, preferably without civilian casualty.
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/060318/15/2y9x0.html
XC-2 was a Taiwanese domestic transport plane, when the USA would not sell C-130 to Taiwan.
Design completed in October 1967. First flight on 26 February 1968.
If mass-produced, prototype serial number would be 3701. After first flight, USA willing to sell C-130 to Taiwan.
Now, the Taiwanese President’s “ROC Air Force One” is coincidentally serial number 3701.
Japanese and US aircraft. Chinese AF, after WWII.
http://www.f-4ej.com/cgi-bin/joyful_exif/img/584.jpg
http://www.f-4ej.com/cgi-bin/joyful_exif/img/585.jpg
Photos of JASDF T-1B #856 at Tokorozawa Aviation Museum, Tokorozawa City, Dasaitama Prefecture.
(Thanks to Suematsu, who runs that F-4EJ fan site.)
ROCAF, modern.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20060318-9999-7m18arms.html
“Arms dealer guilty of illegally exporting military hardware”
March 18, 2006
By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
A Pakistani arms dealer working out of Rosarito Beach was convicted in San Diego federal court yesterday of illegally exporting military aircraft parts on the black market. Some of the equipment wound up in Iran.