He actually kicks the tires……..

I thought that was just folklore… 😀

Ken

Haha. First thing I noticed too. I wonder if he was thrown into the air after his first flight as well?

hello. this is a very graceful aircraft.

However, in design terms its not exactly ground breaking. So i was wondering if there is likely to be something more advanced in the pipeline or does this represent the frontline of russian manned aviation for the next 30 years?

It’s a prototype. The production version will most probably be quite different, as has been stated here and can be seen the world over on other programmes.

I’m also not exactly sure what you mean. Do you know of any other manned design currently flying that is of a more advanced design, the F-22 notwithstanding? I Can’t.

We also have no idea exactly what the internals of the machine are at present.

Also Russia’s population is shrinking

No it’s not.
This from a year or so back. Let’s see what the future brings, as none of us can predict it perfectly.

In Russia the first time in 15 years recorded a natural population growth, said today the Minister of Health and Social Development Tatyana Golikova. According to the Minister at a meeting of the interdepartmental working group on the national project “Health”, in August 2009 was marked by natural population growth of 1 thousand people.

Experts still find it difficult to give a clear assessment of the figures named Golikova. At birth could have a positive impact “unpacking” maternal capital, as well as the fact that it is now fixed by the wave of births, which was “programmed” in 2008 – at sunset of the “cloudy years”.

Some also noted the paradoxical effect of the crisis had an effect to improve the demographic situation. The fall of population decline, noted in the January-August 2009, may be associated with a decrease in alcohol consumption because of economic turmoil.

http://finance.rambler.ru/news/economics/52777555.html

If the US could do so without permission, that would assume that Japan is just a vassal state under occupation, and that their electoral process and democratic systems are a sham.

As far as I’m aware, Japan spends a tiny amount of her GDP on defence, and so is happy to have US elements based there. If they decided tomorrow to ask the US to end it’s military presence, their is very little the US could do but obey.

Originally the Taiwanese wanted the F404 for Ching Kou/IDF. F404 was withheld from them previously, but its not a high priority nowadays. We should sell them used F404’s when they begin retiring off the F/A-18A’s and B’s so that they can redevelop the Ching Kou into an F404 user. This would finally give them the middle weight fighter they’ve needed. Add in the F-16C/D Block 50/52 order, 66 airframes, and Taiwan looks more likely they can fend off an invasion. What’s the chance that Taiwan could replace their 60-odd F-5’s with an F/A-50 light fighter?

The engine wanted originally by Taiwan for the developed IDF was the GE-J101, as used in the Northrop YF-17. Although the F404 was developed from it, they were considerably different, with the 101 being smaller and with a different bypass ratio and airflow rate. These would have fitted a Ching Kuo development far better than the larger F404. In fact, this would have basically given Taiwan a YF-17 equivalent.

Also, the Ching Kuo is the F-5’s replacement. The original programme was cut in half, at 130 airframes. It is a twin engined light fighter that was tailor made to replace the F-5’s. The halving of the original ordered numbers led to the retention of the lowest hour F-5’s, and indeed various projects looking at upgrading the F-5. One of these entailed fitting a single TFE-1042 as is fitted on the Ching Kuo, but this would not actually have increased thrust, merely added conformity to it’s fighter fleet and spares holdings and maintenance issues. There was talk of a developed TFE-1042 of 12 000lb (about 5400kg) thrust, which is really what the Ching Kuo and any re-engined F-5 could have really done with to unlock further development potential. This would have begun to put these planes in the bracket originally envisiged for them if they had been powered by the GE J101 in the first place.

It will be interesting to see the pace at which the Chinese designers move at. I have a feeling we will see something a little more concrete design wise in a couple of years or so….

A-Darter for Gripen and Hawk
Date: 23 April 2010

By Leon Engelbrecht

The South African Air Force is to fit the fifth-generation A-Darter short-range imaging infra-red air-to-air missile currently under development at Denel Dynamics to its fleet of 24 workhorse BAE Systems Hawk Mk120 lead-in fighter trainers in addition to integrating it on to the 26 more sophisticated Saab Gripen C and D advanced lightweight fighter.

The move will effective double the SAAF missile combat fighter fleet and will give Denel Dynamics a significant new market for the R1 billion missile programme as the Hawk is flown by about 18 countries.

Denel Dynamics CE Jan Wessels says the new weapon, under joint development by SA and Brazil since March 2007 is on track and on target for delivery to the SAAF and the Brazilian Air Force from early 2013, now less than three years away. Wessels adds training missiles will be delivered from 2012.

Wessels says the A-Darter has now passed a series of development tests, the latest just last month. “For a missile like this the so-called guided flight test is the key test. That’s where you first test it against a target. Now everything has to work as a system. What you now do is you have an actual infra-red target in the air, in this case a parachute flare… now you check if everything is working as a system,” he says.

The test followed a series of programme flight tests where the missile had to fly a series of pre-determined routes, or circuits, “and it is very extreme, left, right up down, all the difficult manoeuvres. But it doesn’t engage a target. You are exercising its manoeuvrability. Can it pull the G’s etcetera. That was done by February,” Wessels adds.

“In parallel the so-called integration missiles that went to Saab. So they have in Sweden already integrated the missile with the structure of the aircraft, the mechanical integration of the missile with the aircraft and with the avionics, which is very complex on the Gripen. They conducted a series of flight tests where they flew with this missile in extreme angles of attack up to 12G, 12 times standard earth gravity) and up to 13 700m in altitude to ensure the aircraft wasn’t damaged. The firing of the missile off the aircraft will be tested as a separate activity but it is these days fairly predictable. That will happen in the latter half of 2010,after AAD, because depends on the availability of aircraft, pilots and this and that.

“The rest of the programme is now qualification and industrialisation. So the real technology has all been solved. On a programme like this those were the risks. On a fifth generation missile like this there were many things we had never done. They have all now been ticked off. Now we can increase the reliability and maturity of the system.”

The next step is to take the missile to the Gripen. “We will repeat the March test, which was ground-launched, but this time from the aircraft, then we will go into clean-up mode and start to prepare for production, reliability testing and the like.”

SAAF director air combat Brigadier General John Bayne let the A-Darter out of the Hawk bag earlier this week. Wessels says fitting the missile to the aircraft will be a new project “that is currently being negotiated. We have a RFI [request for information] to respond to” from the Air Force through ATE and BAE Systems, the original equipment and avionics manufacturers.

“We think there is a lot of potential for [A-Darter on Hawk],” Wessels says. One operating scenario will see the more expensive (in terms of purchase price and operating cost) Gripen act as a command aircraft for one or more Hawk, staying aloof from close combat while feeding command and radar data to the Hawk via the Link ZA datalink both aircraft carry. The Hawk will then close with and engage the adversary using the data transmitted from the Gripen.

“The more they [the SAAF] use the Hawk as a workhorse, the better for our industry. The access to that platform, that product is ten times easier” than the more sophisticated Gripen, Wessels says.

http://saairforce.co.za/news-and-events/880/a-darter-for-gripen-and-hawk