What happend to the one that was at Sandtoft (AEW3 if memory serves), Its been almost four years since I’ve been up that neck of the woods. (The Mods suggest that somebody started a Gannet Thread, so well done mate).

last night i watched a program on discovery about a fantastic but almost forgotten ex-FAA aircraft…the fairy gannet..what a beautiful beast they where..i never knew that these aircraft where so unique..the double mamba engine was a fantastic peice of engineering..in the program they mentioned a example that is being flown back from the USA…what is the current status of this aircraft..is she in the UK yet..and is she or when will she be airworthey..
as enyone eny thoughts or memorys of the old gannet….WHAT A BEAST…

You have not read the thread on this Forum about the county court case on historic aircraft paperwork have you mate? The aircraft in question is a T5 and is stuck at Goose Bay with a blown engine (and has been for a while). The Mods had locked that thread the last time I looked at it.

Entropy: Yes mate they do have a pod and like I said, we’ve never ever had to use it, this is why I am looking for pics from American sources of it in use. This system is probably the most expencive survival system in use today, that is why we don’t mess with it on our Pigs.

For F-111 Pod details look here

In each case the Zvezda K-36 ejection seats worked flawlessly…..

Ken

Of course there is the Ukrainian Sukhoi Su-27 airshow crash in 2002 as well, were both pilots successfully ejected. Of course however, the wreckage went in to the spectators and a lot of people were killed.

The story about Blackbirds missions over, or best, near Soviet Union borders is still, in many points untold. In the “hotest” days of cold war, the soviets, carefully monitored the flightphat of every Blackbird sortie from UK, towards Murmansk area o the Baltic sea. Remember that, in the soviet doctrine, the interceptors was “directed” to their targets from ground radar stations, and week after week, month after month, these stations recorded a lot of information about direction, speed, hight and duration of the Blackbird flights.

Also, Foxbats were used “as Blackbirds”, to test tactics to shootdown a real SR-71, over the Soviet Union. The soviets believed after close examination of the Blackbirds flightpaths, that a shootdown was posible using “various planes” located a different areas in the same route of the Blackbird. Each plane has his prope “launch window”, and the Blackbird at Mach 3.0 cant turn on time to evade a missile. In some ocassions this tactic was sucessful, but in the last moment, the order to shootdown never arrived, due political considerations. The Blackbird was over the sea near the frontier, not deep inside of Soviet Union, and one impact a Mach 3.0. disintegrated the plane over the sky, and the soviets wants a near complete plane in his soil. Not 5mm. fragments under the sea.

Yes i agree. No Blackbirds were shootdown over Soviet Union, but.. the victory in aerial warfare not was only a shootdown. If your opponent abort the mission, you win also. Nobody knows, at the present, the number of failed or aborted Blackbird missions near the Soviet Union, and when the Mig-31 becomes operative, the Blackbird career in Europe, ended. I remember a Blackbird picture taken from a Mig-25 published in AFM… and yes, i think that “others” still are clasiffied.

Regards from Spain.

Very True, As for my remarks about the incident in the Baltic, had the Mig 25 been serious, the Blackbird would have been very dead. As for what happen up north, nobody knows unless they have a security clearance. Its possible that a Mig 25 actually got a photo of a SR-71, however, I would put that down to the SR-71 having a problem that had caused it to slow down (Intake unstart or alike) and the pilot had pushed on instead of turning back. As far as I’m aware the SR-71 never made an intention penetration of Warsaw part airspace (may have come very close however and may have done it by accident 😉 ). The real pity about this thread is that I’ve got access to hundreds of photo’s , the problem being however, is that I cannot post them.

specifically am interested in 121 Wing (comprising of 174/175/245 Sqn) operating Typhoons under the control of 83 Group/ 2nd TAF… anyone know if they had any markings to denote that they ‘belonged’ to 121 Wing?? Also interested in the same for post war units operating as 121 Wing (have seen a reference to RAF Fassberg aircraft carrying a red ‘lightning strike’ but I presume that was all of the Wings operating from there – were there were more than one?)

Neil.

Your in luck with post war units. 121 Wing was reformed on 1st April this year at Coningsby, with funny old thing, Typhoons (the paraffin burning type) of 3 Squadron (and 11 Sqn when they reform with the type).

excuse me…
but what do you mean by “Far from it”?

The only primary effects that are produced from any nuclear explosion (fission or fusion) is RADIATION and a blast of Neutron particles. The radiation is produced across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, but most of it is in the form of X-rays and Gamma rays. The heat that is felt is Infra red wavelengths and the Flash is the visible wavelengths. The shockwave that is caused in any detonation inside the atmosphere (or underground or in the sea) is the effect of the radiation release rapidly heating that medium (Air, Ground or water) to a plasma,. Which expands rapidly, just like the gas produced by a chemical explosive (you would get a shock wave in space as well, but this will only be the remains of the weapon that has been turned into plasma and is expanding). The weapon only coverts a fraction of the fissionable or fusionable material, for the Little Boy A-bomb was the figure was about 6 percent of the uranium, the best figure being TSAR BOMBA at 50 percent of the Fusionable mass. The neutrons which are a product of both types of atomic reactions will also bombard the bomb remains and the medium around it, making almost all of it radioactive (also contained in the bomb debris is the fission (and fusion) products produced in the detonation, all again highly radioactive). The sphere of plasma will then expand until the pressure of the material around it stops the expansion (this is the Fireball). At this point the plasma will rise like hot air in a balloon causes the envelope to rise. This causes a vacuum underneath, which sucks up the entire moveable matter below which also becomes radioactive as it mixes with debris. As the fireball rises it cools and expands as it mixes with the lower pressure air thus forming the mushroom cloud.

The simple answer to the question of is there a radiation free nuclear weapon, is that such a device is a physical impossibility.

Is it true that in thermonuclear explosions (Hydrogen or something like it), the radiation matters die becuase of the great heat?

Far from it.