Piper 28 intercepted by F-16s in Air Force One airspace violation: a couple of lessons to be learned May 13, 2012
Posted by Richard Clements in Military Aviation.Tags: Air Force One, F-16, Piper 28, US Air Force
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The Los Angeles Times has run a report that two F-16s were scrambled after a Piper 28 aircraft violated airspace restrictions which were in place due to President Obama being due to leave LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) on board Air Force One on May 11.
NORAD said in a statement: “The fighters responded to a temporary flight restriction violation by a piper 28 aircraft, after intercepting the aircraft, the F-16s followed it until it landed without incident, at approximately 9.50am local time where the plane was met by local law enforcement”.
It comes only a couple of months after a similar incident where an aircraft violated airspace restrictions in place due to the President’s presence in the area. On that occasion 10kg of marijuana were found on board the Cessna 182.
First things: pilots should read NOTAMs
Second: if you have marijuana or you are smuggling other illegal stuff, violating a restricted airspace interested by world’s most important plane might not be a very good idea.
As we wait for the sequel featuring the F-35, let’s celebrate Top Gun Day with a funny video May 13, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Bizarre, F-35.Tags: F-35, Lockheed Martin, Tom Cruise, Top Gun, Top Gun 2
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Top Gun was released on May 12, 1986 (at least in NYC).
It’s by far the most famous (and in my honest opinion, still one of the best) Hollywood movie about military aviation ever reaching theaters, directed by Tony Scott starring Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer and Anthony Edwards.
According to the creators of the dedicated-website, Top Gun Day, established on May 13, 2011 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the action drama film, is:
like talk like a pirate day, only way cooler because it allows you to quote Top Gun all day long, wear aviator sunglasses (no matter how cheap), pretend you’re a fighter pilot (“it’s time to buzz the fridge”), play volleyball in jeans, and drink Hemlock–wait, wait–I mean ICE water. Participating in Top Gun Day is so easy even Slider can do it (read the next post title, “How do I Participate?”).
A Top Gun Day is also made of thousands tweets with the #topgunday hashtag (usually with the most famous quotes of the movie) as well as special avatars and pictures.
The Aviationist’s way to celebrate the Top Gun Day is by sharing this funny alternative ending. It was uploaded to Youtube in 2011 but I hadn’t seen it until today.
As you probably know by now, Top Gun 2 is in the works. Tom Cruise was initially thought to be a drone pilot. However, in March 2012, Tom Burbage, Executive VP of Lockheed Martin and General Manager of F-35 Program Integration, unveiled that the F-35 will be used in the movie, with Maverick being a test pilot.
The F-14 was an extremely fascinating machine and the perfect symbol of naval aviation. Let’s hope the F-35 fits the role as well.
Provided that they will be able to fix the aircraft’s tailhook system after the F-35 Carrier Variant’s embarrassing series of failed tests.
Highway to the danger zone!
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Special colored F-16 chasing C-130 Hercules over Oslo during an air-to-air photoshoot generates panic among Norwegians May 13, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Military Aviation.Tags: F-16, Lockheed C-130 Hercules, Royal Norwegian Air Force, special color
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The following video was taken on May 9, 2012 when Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16AM serialled 80-3686 “686″ in the special color scheme to celebrate the 100 years of the Norwegian military air power from Kjeller rejoined with a C-130 from Gardemoen to take some pictures from the Hercules’s cargo door.
Curiously, the sexy special colored “Viper” not only flies much close to the camera ship, but also performs some aerobatic maneuvers (an aileron roll) whilst overflying a town: nothing extremely dangerous, as the formation was flying at 1,000 feet (300 m) but a bit unusual.
So unusual that many people watching a fighter plane pursuing a “passenger plane” feared an airliner hijacking was taking place above their heads.
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Photo: C-17 (made barely visible in the darkness by the rotary beacons) is readied for departure in Afghanistan May 12, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Military Aviation.Tags: Afghanistan, Bagram Airfield, Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, USAF
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A C-17 Globemaster II performs pre-flight checks and engine start up in front of a loadmaster of the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron in a picture taken at “an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia” on May 4, 2012.
The undisclosed location is most probably Bagram airfield, in Afghanistan, where Obama’s Air Force One landed (in the darkness as well) on his “surprise” visit to Afghanistan lately.
Lighting in the darkness is provided by two red beacon lights: one is underneath the fuselage (partially covered by the loadmaster) whereas the other one is located on the top of the aircraft tail. These lights rotate to produce a flashing effect that is quite fast thus difficult to catch on photo.
These lights are a safety warning to ground personnel that the engines are running: the rotary beacons are turned on before engine start up and remain switched on until the last engine is shut down.
Image credit: U.S. Air Force
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Video: Naval aviation-style airborne change of command (hardcore F-18 Hornet porn) May 11, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Aircraft Carriers, Military Aviation.Tags: Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Naval Air Station Oceana, Strike Fighter Squadron, United States Navy, USS Enterprise, VFA-211
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The following video is the 1,200th one uploaded by the U.S. Navy on Youtube. It shows, from the inside, the VFA-211 airborne change of command that took place while the “Fighting Checkmates” Strike Fighter Squadron is currently deployed with the USS Enterprise in the 5th Fleet area of operation.
VF-211 was redesignated Strike Fighter Squadron 211 (VFA) after successfully completing the transition to the F/A-18F Super Hornet (“Rhino” in naval aviation slang) in 2005 at NAS Lemoore, CA. Upon their return to NAS Oceana, it became the first operational east coast Super Hornet squadron, completing back-to-back combat deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. In early 2008, the squadron received the first Block II Super Hornet, equipped with APG-79 radar, the most advanced version of the Rhino.
Feel the adrenaline as the video brings you on an F/A-18F backseat for a cat launch, few flybys on the aircraft carrier, visual pattern before an arrested landing.
Enjoy!
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The mysterious U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle detachment in Djibouti. Are they conducting covert air strikes in Yemen? May 11, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Military Aviation.Tags: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Central Intelligence Agency, Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa, Djibouti, F-15E Strike Eagle, RAF Lakenheath, Strike Eagle, United States Airforce, Yemen
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Although their presence over there is not a secret (since it was announced about 10 years ago and you can see some by simply pointing Google Earth on Djibouti International Airport, as done in this interesting OSGEOINT analysis) what’s still unclear is what eight U.S. F-15Es are currently doing in the Horn of Africa.
They are reportedly serving in support of Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa, as an Expeditionary Squadron of the 380th Expeditionary Operations Group, based at Al Dhafra, in the United Arab Emirates, and responsible for the “war on terror” in the region, but what’s their actual mission remains a (sort-of) mystery.
Little information can be found on official sources: among the press releases of the Task Force you will only find a news about the change of command that took place on May 6. It confirms what we already know: previous detachment was provided by the U.S. Air Force in Europe’s 48th Fighter Wing through the 492nd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, from RAF Lakenheath in the UK, and the new one, the 336th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, is provided by the 4th FW from Seymour Jonhnson AFB, NC.
By the way, the Strike Eagles recently spotted at Moron airbase, Spain, were on their ferry flight to Camp Lemonnier and not to Afghanistan (as initially believed).
Image credit: Air Force
Even if the American military presence across the world is usually very well advertised, the U.S. keep a low profile on the operations launched by the Air Force’s Strike Eagles from Eastern Africa.
The reason for such prudence maybe that, along with the Reaper drones, even the F-15Es are conducting air strikes in Yemen (and Somalia).
Indeed, counter terrorism operations with attacks aimed at Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, including drone strikes but also naval bombardments, cruise missiles and air strikes, have increased a lot in the last years: the most recent air strikes brought the 2012 total to more than 15, about as many in the previous 10 years combined.
Some of the air strikes in Yemen were reportedly launched with the support of warplanes believed to be Yemeni Air Force ones. But there are also chances that U.S. conventional planes have been involved in air-to-surface operations officially or unofficially credited to the Yemeni government.
As happened on Mar. 11, 2012, when local residents reported that planes bombarded the town and a senior Yemeni official confirmed the U.S. inolvement by saying that “The U.S. did not inform us on the attacks. We only knew about this after the U.S. attacked” to the CNN; or on Mar. 18, when an air strike was claimed by the Yemeni government, even if the local Air Force was unable to launch an aerial bombardment as most of its personnel was on strike.
Air strikes with conventional planes are considered less respectful of the local nation’s sovereignity than drones’ attacks and this could be the reason for keeping the eventual F-15E involvement in the area a bit confidential.
Robots can silently fly for several hours and use their few missiles/bombs when needed. That’s why drones are the weapon of choice to fight Qaeda in Yemen.
However, when you need to quickly reach a distant target and hit it with a considerable payload, you might find a Strike Eagle a better platform to undertake the task.
H/T to Guido Olimpio for providing some of the links you can find in the article.
Screen dump from Google Earth showing six F-15Es on the apron at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti International Airport, on Oct. 29, 2011.
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“Viper Drone”: Boeing QF-16 aerial target for U.S. Air Force makes first flight May 10, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Drones, Military Aviation.Tags: aerial target, Boeing, drone, Lockheed Martin, QF-16, United States Airforce
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The Lockheed Martin F-16 is one of the most famous combat planes in the world. The 4500th example was delivered at the company Fort Worth production facility, in Texas, on Apr. 3.
Since the first Fighting Falcon (nicknamed “Viper” in the fighter pilots community) exited the production line in 1975, the multirole aircraft has been produced in partnership with 5 countries and sold to a grand total of 26 countries. A further 70 F-16s for Morocco, Turkey, Egypt, Oman and Iraq, are currently on order, with the last plane expected to be delivered by 2016.
Flown in the air-to-air, air-to-surface, SEAD roles, the Viper is about to begin a new role: aerial target. Indeed, it will be flown manned or unmanned as targets and decoys within a controlled range for testing against potential adversaries, radars, surface-air missiles etc.
Although the F-16 is a famous Lockheed plane, the contract to develop the QF-16 aerial target was awarded to Boeing.
On May 4, at 03.05 p.m. Eastern time, the first QF-16 Full Scale Aerial Target took off from Boeing facility at Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Florida, and climbed to an altitude of 41,000 feet during its 66-minute flight that marked its first manned flight.
The QF-16 “Viper drone” will replace the QF-4 Phantom drone in the same role.
Image credit: Boeing / Flickr
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“Aviation equivalent of Tutankhamun’s Tomb” in Western Sahara: a perfectly preserved plane found 70 years after it went down May 10, 2012
Posted by Richard Clements in Military Aviation, Military History.Tags: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, North Africa, P-40, RAF, Royal Air Force, Sahara desert, Warhawk
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Polish oil company worker Jakub Perka was exploring a remote region of the Western Sahara desert in Egypt when he stumbled across a plane, later identified as a UK’s Royal Air Force P-40 Warhawk, almost intact and untouched, that went missing in 1942, during WWII.
The plane was so perfectly preserved it still had guns and ammunition, which was taken away by the Egyptian military after Jakub had reported the crash site.
There was no sign of the pilot, no body or remains within the vicinty of the aircraft. However, it is obvious that he survived the crash as his parachute was still attached to the fuselage; a sign that it was probably used as shade by the pilot whilst he waited it out.
Also the radio and batteries were found outside the plane: most probably the pilot tried to contact someone to request help, before eventually opting to walk his way out … to his death. It is though the pilots remains are situated somewhere within a 20 miles radius of the crash site with little or no hope of ever finding his body. He was unfortuate enough to have crashed some 200 miles from the nearest town, so had no chance of rescue.
The RAF airman is thought to have been Flight Sargent Dennis Copping who would have been 24 at the time of the crash. He was the son of a Dentist from Southend, Essex and was a member of 260 squadron, a fighter unit based in Egypt during the the North Africa campaign during WW2. On Jun. 28 1942, Flt Sgt Copping and another pilot were tasked with transferring two damaged P-40s from one base to another to be repaired. Most likely, during the short flight Flt Sgt Copping lost his bearings and went off course, never to be seen again.
The British Ministry of Defense is very interested in what has been dubbed as the “aviation equivalent of Tutankhamun’s Tomb”. The single seat fighter plane could be recovered, restored and then displayed at the Museum at Hendon, north London.
The MoD has requested the defense attache at the British Embassy in Cairo to travel to the crash site and gain the serial number to confirm the true identity of the plane. There are fears, however, now that everyone is aware of its existance, that locals would start to strip the aircraft of instruments and items to be sold for scrap.
Captain Paul Collins, the British defense attache to Egypt has confirmed that a search for Flight Sargent Copping’s body will be made in the hope that his remains can be found and a fully military burial performed.
Richard Clements for TheAviationist.com
Image credit: Jakub Perka via Mail Online
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Don’t worry, this weird plane with 5 engines, is just a flying test bed for a quite innovative FOD resistant engine May 10, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Aviation, Military Aviation.Tags: Boeing 747SP, Foreign Object Damage, Mirabel Aerospace Centre, Pratt & Whitney, Turbofan
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The following pictures show the Pratt & Whitney’s Boeing 747SP flying test bed at the company’s Mirabel Aerospace Centre, in Mirabel, Quebec, Canada, with a PW1217G engine flying on a specially designed stub wing.
The “fuselage’s engine” is a PW127G, designed for the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) aircraft, that was attached to the mini-Jumbo to perform flight testing needed to complement the PurePower Geared Turbofan engine family’s sea level data collected during ground engine testing and to validate performance, operability and in-flight starting.
Not only the somehow weird test bed platform is interesting. The PurePower engine itself is worth a mention. This kind of new generation engine family uses an advanced gear system allowing the engine’s fan to operate at a different speed than the low-pressure compressor and turbine in such a way to improve engine’s efficiency, environmental emissions and noise.
However, along with the reduced environmental impact, the new geared turbofans provide a better FOD (Foreign Object Damage) resistance: as pointed out by a recent AOL Defense article, since they have a much higher “bypass ratio” (meaning that a higher amount of air sucked by the engine bypasses the core of the engine where air is mixed with fuel and ingnited), there’s a higher chance that anything sucked by the engine bypasses the most delicate part of the engine.
Furthermore, the intake fans don’t run as fast as previous generation engines and so they don’t behave as eager vacuum cleaners and the shape of the new engine is such that it can be mounted higher (on the wing) than traditional engines, increasing the distance from the ground and from all those objects that could damage it.
Although these engines are being developed for the civilian airliners, they could be much useful for all those military planes called to operate from dirty and unpaved airstrips.
Larger geared turbofans for wide-bodies could be equip future and current cargo planes, tankers, AWACS, JSTARS, and maybe the future Air Force One too (the Presidential VC-25A is equipped with General Electric engine, though).
As already explained in a previous post, in NASA, Pratt & Whitney and U.S. Air Force have parternered to develop and test technology for improved sensors that can detect changes in vibration, speed, temperature and emissions which are symptomatic of engine problems. Such sensors should be able to alert pilots of destructive volcanic ash particles as well, before the engine is damaged.
Image credit: Pratt & Whitney
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Whistleblower pilots who did not want to fly the F-22 now ready to resume flying the Raptor! May 10, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Aviation Safety, Military Aviation.Tags: carbon monoxide, F-22, Fighter aircraft, grounding, hypoxia, Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, On-Board Oxygen Generation System, Oxygen, Raptor, stand down, Stealth aircraft, USAF, Virginia Air National Guard
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Here’s another chapter of the F-22 oxygen problems saga.
According to their attorney, Frederick M. Morgan Jr, who talked to The Daily press on May 9, the two F-22 pilots who were among those pilot requesting not to fly the Raptor because of the oxygen-deprivation problems with the fifth generation stealth fighter, would be ready to resume flying, right now.
Maj. Jeremy Gordon and Capt. Josh Wilson, belonging to the 192 Fighter Wing of the Virginia Air National Guard, experienced hypoxia symptoms while flying the U.S. top fighter plane. They aired their concerns as “military whistleblowers” (hence being protected from punishment under the U.S. Federal Law), on CBS 60 Minutes on May 6, when they said they were “uncomfortable” flying the U.S. stealthy fighter.
As explained by their attorney, the two fighter jocks feel more comfortable about flying the Raptor now, since the Air Force has removed the charcoal filter installed to detect contaminants in the air supplied to the pilots; a filter that gave them the feeling it was harder to breath.
In the seven months since the grounding on the F-22 fleet was lifted, there have been 11 more oxygen-deprivation incidents in 7,000 sorties.
The Air Force is still investigating the problem, possibly caused by a failure in the OBOGS (Onboard Oxygen Generating System) or the carbon monoxide entering the cockpit.
In order to defend the F-22 Raptor’s reputation (and, implicitly, the company’s image), Lockheed Martin has started a sort of promotional campaign on social networks as the two “whistleblowers” appeared on national TV.
Image credit: U.S. Air Force
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