An old thread in the archive:

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4272

This thread is becoming soon the thread of the year!!!

Superb photos, Steph

Just saw the movie Les Chevaliers du Ciel (called “Sky Fighters” in Germany)!
Kovy, Merlock, I agree with all your comments!!!
There are 3 air scenes that are breathtaking and unique. 😮 😎 🙂 🙂
One with a M2000 flying close and hiding under the belly of a Qatar Airways Airbus A340 in the opening section!,a Mirage 2000D going supersonic (!) at very low level over the Djibouti desert and a Tour D’Alpes with an AlphaJet!!!

My tip for all people, who haven’t seen it so far, just do it like the charcter pilot “IPod”:
He always listen music with his IPod, in the air and even on ground.
So load your favourite music on your MP3-players, put the headphones on and losten to the music while watchting the whole movie! 😉 😀

MSN 007

And this late afternoon, MSN007 (the fourth A380) performed RTO prior to first flight tomorrow or on monday…

The A380 MSN 007/F-WWSD was transfered to Hamburg-Finkenwerder (FXW) today. First flight of forth A380 was on last Sunday.
It’s going to join the test program and then to Etihad in 2007.

Click for larger image!
More pics and source in french: AeroWeb-fr.net – Airbus A380: Premier vol de l’A380 MSN007

Is it amazing how quickly we all become uninterested about things, for months before the first one flew it was a desire, now they fly without any pomp at all. I did not even start a new thread! 😉

TopGear: Various Cars blown away by the thrust of a 747 engine
http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=59 😀

FIRST F-35 EXITS LOCKHEED MARTIN FACTORY

First “unofficial” Roll out!

Looks great, the longer landing gears suit a fighter better than as on the F-22! 😎
The nob on radar dome is for the testing probe.
The Flir (different abbreviation, I know, but just not now! 😮 )is smaller than I thought, it suits the F-35 very well and would also fit on a F-22″C” and on an UCAV. 🙂

Click picture for high resolution photo (ca. 3MB, 3000 x 2000 pixel)!

FIRST F-35 EXITS LOCKHEED MARTIN FACTORY, PREPARES FOR TESTING
FORT WORTH, Texas, February 20, 2006 —

The Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35 Joint Strike Fighter team has completed assembly of the first F-35 aircraft and moved it out of the factory in preparation for an intensive period of ground testing. First flight of the F-35, a conventional takeoff and landing version, remains on schedule for this fall.

The first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter moves from the factory to a fueling facility at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas, on Feb.19 achieving another major milestone toward first flight planned later this year. Workers completed assembly of the aircraft on Feb. 17. …..

Source:
http://www.lockheedmartin.com – FIRST F-35 EXITS LOCKHEED MARTIN FACTORY, PREPARES FOR TESTING

german motorways as landing strips

German Luftwaffe also used several road pieces as landing strips. Most prominent here was a piece of A1 near Oldenburg. You can still see some of the relevant installations there today but they are all used otherwise. Aircraft used were Fiat G-91, F-104G and even Transall. …

Those were not built with such purpose in mind. All prop-ac could be operated by an “unlimited number” of gras-strips already. Building of motorways stopped with WWII. The later jet aircraft ( Me-262 f.e.) were in need of hard surfaces to avoid ingestions of fragile first jet-engines!
So in the late 50s new motorways were built with that use in mind or modified, when in need of general-repair. So most ABs had at least two aux. motorway strips not far away. At first the NATO had the norm to deploy no more than one sqdn at each AB in wartime. Too costly in confined Germany, so that minimum solution.

To operate from motorways, you are in need of “strengthened” landing-zones, or after the first landings it becomes unusuable through crackings, when for take-offs such strengthening is not in need. The same with rollways at ABs.
Modern ABs have unmarked landing-zones at rollways already in case of emergency.

A superb site about german motorways used as landing strips at the german site lostplaces.de:
http://www.lostplaces.de/nlp/index.html
The site is only in german language, but has a lot of info since WW2.
The list of motorways and the map is especially interesting!!!
Please scroll down to see the pictures as pop-up windows.

SU-33 “Targa” ….. :diablo: 😀