SOCFor a second there I thought the news media had hujacked my graphic 😀
It’s out of date too, but not by much: another active SA-2 site has been located southeast of Damascus.
SOCAnd that was that apart, of course, from the Concorde/Tu144 “vanity services” operated at an overall loss by Air France, British Airways and Aeroflot.
I’m not sure that the Tu-144 operating at a loss could be considered a negative aspect of the program. It did operate in the Soviet Union, who had distinctly different financial theories and practices than the West (which, of course, eventually caught up to them!) 😀
In reality Aeroflot, who had wanted to use the fleet to fly athletes and people around in conjunction with the 1980 Olympics, for example, simply got sick and tired of waiting for the jet to mature. The prototype was an unrefined design that pretty much let them claim the first SST flight, and the standard model (damn near completely redesigned) lacked the range required by Aeroflot (and showed a distinct lack of understanding of the concept of internal noise reduction). Two crashes didn’t help the program either, and so by the time the Tu-144D was ready the program was dead in the water.
Gas did impact both Concorde and the CHARGER…in Concorde rising costs ensured it’d never be more than a niche platform, and in CHARGER poor fuel economy in the NK-144 engines ensured that more refinement was needed (mainly in the form of new RD-36-51A engines) resulting in further delays that irritated and eventually alienated Aeroflot.
SOCWaits patiently for proof of the ‘erroneous’ nature of her opinions…
Grey Area answered part of it.
To continue, the failure of the Tu-144 also impacted the Concorde program. There were plans for reciprocal routes, with Concorde flying across the former USSR to reach places like the Far East. With the Tu-144 having its own issues and not lasting long enough to benefit from the Tu-144D’s appearance, the reciprocal routes concept went away.
There was also the anti-noise lobby in the US that tried to keep Concorde out of American airspace for a bit, but how that had to do with US jealousy I have no idea. Route planning and a few demonstrations eventually satiated that crowd and allowed the Concorde to have access to American airports.
In reality it was the massive upsurge in oil prices that did the most to kill the Concorde as a widely used aircraft. You couldn’t make it anywhere near profitable without filling it with 100 first-class passengers, and that wasn’t going to appeal to the mass-market crowd.
So, where does American jealousy fit into this, especially when you consider that the American SST, being a large-capacity aircraft with at least 300 seats, would have arguably been the better aircraft had it not been cancelled for many of the same reasons that curtailed the Concorde?
SOCNext time just visit MAKS last. The KC-135R that goes there is from RAF Mildenhall, and with a little liquid encouragement the flight crew would surely be amenable to toting your painting or whatnot back to England!
SOCWe’ve tried ‘fast’ (strangled at birth by U.S. jealousy) and, for the lack of that, we’re still plodding away at ‘big’.
Any ideas where we might go next on the speed front or do people think we’re doomed just to ever increasing gigantism..?
The next great leap forward would have been the NASP/X-30/Orient Express. But that got offed, and SSTs are still noisy, so I’ll go with the BWB until one of three things happens:
1. Sonic booms can be dealt with to the extent that they are no longer a problem over land, allowing transcontinental SST flights
2. Jet engine fuel economy improves to the point that SSTs are profitable without having to seat solely first-class passengers
3. We learn how to bypass the fuel problem altogether by creating an engine capable of drawing nitrogen from the atmosphere directly and burning it…or even better, an engine that draws CO2, separates the O, and burns that
And “strangled at birth by US jealousy”? Might want to get your facts straight and keep erroneous opinions out of it.
SOCI just noticed that the Su-35 has strip-type formation lights.
Regarding the fin size, there are a few pictures that seem to show a fin that has grown in length but not in height, making it a bit broader, if that makes sense to anyone other than me.
SOCIf I was such a young Air Force I’d keep a bit quiet about it.
And why is that, exactly? It’s not like the US has only been in the military aviation game for the last 60 years, just that it has been 60 years since the air force was separated from the army.
SOCHmmm…… Other than the obvious question of oversight of special weapons, why were 6 being carried and how? 3 on each wing? The crew wouldn’t have taken off if they were all loaded under 1 wing as that’s not a safe configuration for takeoff and they can’t be carried internally.
They don’t specify that only six were carried. And given that these were ACMs, they’d have been carried six under each wing.
The aircrew should have noticed the fact that there were any weapons or ground training simulators loaded to the plane. The crew chief launching the plane should have noticed. Seeing as how ACM’s are only nuclear armed, the only way this could have happened is if EVERYONE thought they were ground trainers. If I’m not mistaken ground trainers are clearly marked as such.
The missiles were being transported in order to get them somewhere to be disposed of as they are being retired. The likely story is that five of the weapons did not have their warheads removed prior to the flight.
http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2007/09/marine_nuclear_B52_070904w/
SOCWatched Blood Diamond on HD DVD last night. Really, really great film. I have to say that DiCaprio’s later movies have been enjoyable. The Aviator was great, Catch Me If You Can was great, and this one was outstanding. Reminded me of Lord Of War but with more of a focus on the effects of the industry rather than the industry itself.
SOCWatched Blood Diamond on HD DVD last night. Really, really great film. I have to say that DiCaprio’s later movies have been enjoyable. The Aviator was great, Catch Me If You Can was great, and this one was outstanding. Reminded me of Lord Of War but with more of a focus on the effects of the industry rather than the industry itself.
SOCGreat stuff, as always, Ken. Any idea what the Cyrillic script on the side of the Engels BLINDER said?
SOCWhy? Are you one of those people who assume there will be an enormous glow from the aircraft and the heat emissions will be huge? Do you think they will be greater than the mach 3 heated nosecap of an R-73 archer or AIM-9 Sidewinder?
It’s my understanding (which could be wrong) that the ionised plasma itself would be a source of IR energy. As for the aircraft actually glowing, I have no idea where that came from.
If it worked by generating plasma via heat then why not tap the heat from the jet engines? The plasma stealth device does not generate heat to produce plasma.
No, the way I understand it is that the heat is a byproduct of the plasma’s presence, not the other way around.
There might be heat given off due to the high voltage but it would be no worse than the heat generated by a TV or small lightbulb.
The difference being that I bet you can pick up your TV with a radar set…
I doubt this UAV will have a multi million dollar AESA radar in it. As its armament is TV guided and ARH it might have passive radar sensors and optical and IR sensors but I doubt they would mount a radar in it.
Valid arguments but I was thinking more along the lines of a fighter aircraft, I went off on an MFI-related tangent in my head.
I look with a great suspicion at everything that “MIG” shows or presents after presenting the famous MiG 1.44 “stealth fighter” .
The 1.44 was only an aerodynamic test vehicle and was not even represntative of the 1.42 (the designation of the actual production vehicle) configuration.
The actual story about Stealth is that a russian scientist – Petr Ufimcev made a deep theoretical investigation on the subject around 60-s, but the idea (of stealth) was considered not achievable at that time (by russians).
Ufimtsev’s theories had to do with the scattering of radio waves. He wasn’t specifically talking about stealth technology, it was Lockheed that took his theories and first applied them to military technology, creating the stealth concept of faceting and eventually the F-117A.
Are there any specifics on the Tu-160 you could relate?
Apart from the RAM-treated inlets (an indicator of whether or not an operational Tu-160 is being displayed at an airshow-their inlets are covered), the Tu-160 made the transition to a more refined, blended airframe when compared to previous Tupolev heavy bombers. A lot of the early aircraft have a less than stellar appearance due to construction methods and quality control not being up to par, but the newest airframes show far more attention to detail.
I read somewhere that they looked at it and basically said “well that’s nice but how in the hell do you make it?”
I’d assume they were referring to the RAM. The faceting is simple mathematics really, and Russia doesn’t have a shortage of knowledge in that area.
SOCThe problem with the Keldysh device is that it can only really work as a sort of countermeasure. It generates a lot of heat negating your use of IR sensors, and the nature of the system means that your radar won’t work either. As a deterrent to active-radar AAMs or SAMs, however, it has a lot of merit.
The basic principle is fundamentally sound and in reality is a good idea. It allows you to design an aircraft unencumbered by stealth, but retain the radar-defeating principles to an extent. Imagine an Su-30MKI that your AMRAAMs can’t knock down, meaning you have to get into a knife fight. Very bad for the guy not in the MKI!
SOCPicked up the Heaven & Hell Live CD and DVD this weekend. If you don’t know, H&H is the Dio-era Black Sabbath lineup touring under an assumed name. Saw them live a month or so ago, and they’ve still got it. This was a great, great lineup, producing most of my all-time favorite Sabbath tunes. Dehumanizer is one of the greatest metal albums, ever. The CD and DVD were very well done, with the DVD being suprisingly clear.
SOCPicked up the Heaven & Hell Live CD and DVD this weekend. If you don’t know, H&H is the Dio-era Black Sabbath lineup touring under an assumed name. Saw them live a month or so ago, and they’ve still got it. This was a great, great lineup, producing most of my all-time favorite Sabbath tunes. Dehumanizer is one of the greatest metal albums, ever. The CD and DVD were very well done, with the DVD being suprisingly clear.
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