Aviation Pictures Part Trois

[Bren]

A bit late but a couple of days ago Tom Cruise posted on twitter/facebook with the hashtag #Day1:

[ColBosch]

Nope.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

i feel the need to make somebody bleed.

[Luciora]

Come on EA.  Mr Cruise isn't going to save your derivative driving.... Oh wait.

[Feenix74]

Hmmm...didn't we already see that in a scene in Firebirds?

*Ducks and covers from the return artillery barrage*

 ;D

Ruger

"Strawberry gum?" ^-^

[Feenix74]

"It's delicious."  :D

Australia Army Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter doing trials on HMAS Canberra

[beachhead1985]

"It's delicious."  :D

Australia Army Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter doing trials on HMAS Canberra

So are they keeping their Cobras and going for a mix with this in the scouting role vice say; a Kiowa and the Cobra as the attack helicopter or replacing the Cobra?

[glitterboy2098]

they might be doing like the JGSDF.. who use the Cobra for Attack, the OH-6D Loach for observation, and their home grown Kawasaki OH-1's for armed recon.

(well, Japan does have some Apache's.. but not many)

[Kidd]

I might be mistaken, but I think they're dumping the whole Tiger fiasco

A bit late but a couple of days ago Tom Cruise posted on twitter/facebook with the hashtag #Day1:

Only if we get some realistic fighter combat.

[Deadborder]

I feel like I've seen one carrying AA-8s, but I can't find an image now that I (briefly) search. Maybe they were AT-6s and I'm just dumb.

But I'll never skip an opportunity to post a Hind.

Never ever a bad time for Hind pics

[Deadborder]

Thanks for that. I have never seen a pic of an AAM armed Hind before

[Feenix74]

I might be mistaken, but I think they're dumping the whole Tiger fiasco.

Unknown at this stage. Both the Tiger and the Taipan have their issues, here is an article with a summary of some of the issues the two helicopters have faced http://www.australiandefence.com.au/land/tiger-and-taipan-a-tale-of-two-helicopters.

Taipan MRH-90


I believe Australian Dept of Defence has invested too much time and resources into both to just dump them. However, I can see them not getting extensions to life of type and being quickly replaced at first opportunity with Longbow Apaches and Blackhawks.

[DoctorMonkey]

It seems to me to be more common for the British military to be more likely to buy something other than American than the Australians (Blackhawks, MBTs) yet for attack helicopters Apaches were obtained and the rest of the helicopter fleet is at least fairly sensibly balanced to get decent numbers of aircraft in the fleet of each type in UK forces but not for Australia


I'd also suggest people look up on YouTube a short video about a silly British "Top Gun 2" about drone pilots but I'm not sure if it's safe for work...



Sorry, no photos as on iPad

[ANS Kamas P81]

As an aside, that's what the real Top Gun 2 is going to be about (and they confirmed casting Val Kilmer to repeat his role) so who knows how accurate that British film might be.

Also, Cheyenne!  Shame about that one, being a victim of interservice fighting and the stupidest test I've ever heard of.

[Feenix74]

We had a grand plan, the aerospace engineers wanted to cut down number of different types of helicopters that we were operating across the services to get efficiencies of scale and improve interoperability across the services (Army and Navy). So instead of operating Sea Kings (Navy) and Blackhawks (Army), you get the Taipan MRH-90 to replace both share the airframes across Army and Navy (to the stage that the "Navy" MRH-90s were painted in camo with a "Navy" stencilled on the front instead of "Army"). So think F-35s but with egg-beaters  :'(





Tiger ARH was a slightly different issue. Army wanted the Longbow Apache but it was going to be significantly more expensive than the Tiger or Rooivalk. Additionally, there were some sensitivities with the idea of buying an "attack" helicopter designed to kill MBTs in the Fulda Gap. So we decided to get an "armed reconnaissance helicopter" instead, so decision was made to go with Tiger instead of Apache (nevermind that it too was designed to kill MBTs in the Fulda Gap . . .) may also had something to do with the fact that Eurocopter committed to assemblying the Tigers and Taipans in Brisbane . . . Anyway I have tight-roped Rule 4 enough.

[Kidd]

Local-industry sensitivities are part-and-parcel of defence procurement in general, and not without a certain amount of reason. As a matter of fact, that's a big draw as to why the UK picked the Apache - those are Westland Apaches, DoctorMonkey - as well as the fact that the pache really is the premier attack helicopter worldwide.

As an aside, that's what the real Top Gun 2 is going to be about

So, "Stealth" man-over-machine stuff then.

[ColBosch]

Only if we get some realistic fighter combat.

ICEMAN (Kilmer) and MAVERICK (Cruise) are loitering in their F-35s, flying in a lazy oval roughly centered on their aircraft carrier. SUDDENLY, the radio crackles to life!

CONTROL: "Flight One, this is Control, over."
MAVERICK: "Control, this is Flight One, over."
CONTROL: "Flight One, we have two bogies in the no-fly zone, range five-zero klicks, do you confirm, over."
MAVERICK: "Control, Flight One confirms, two bogies on scope, bearing oh-three-five, range five-zero klicks, over."
CONTROL: "Flight One, confirm target assignment, over."

SMASH CUT to Maverick's radar display. TWO RED DIAMONDS are moving menacingly across the upper-right hand quadrant. THEN...ONE IS OUTLINED WITH BRACKETS! SMASH CUT to Iceman's radar display! The OTHER red diamond is OUTLINED WITH BRACKETS!

MAVERICK: "Control, Flight One-One confirms, over."
ICEMAN: "Control, Flight One-Two confirms, over."
CONTROL: "Flight One, stand by, over."

A THRILLING FIVE MINUTE WAIT, DURING WHICH NOTHING MUCH HAPPENS! Since the bogies are in the F-35s' forward arc, neither pilot performs any maneuvers.

CONTROL: "Flight One, clear to engage designated targets, over."
MAVERICK: "Roger, Control. On my mark, Flight One-Two. Three...two...one...mark. Fox one, over."
ICEMAN: "Mark. Fox one, over."
CONTROL: "Flight One, stand by."

ANOTHER THRILLING WAIT! Far off in the distance, the missiles find and destroy their targets...but it's so far away nobody can see it. NOTE FROM FX DIRECTOR: Thanks! Explosions are hard!

CONTROL: "Flight One, targets destroyed. Resume patrol, out."
MAVERICK: "Control, Flight One, Wilco. Out."
ICEMAN: "You can be my wingman any day."
CONTROL: "Flight One-Two, clear the airwaves, out."

[DoctorMonkey]

Very nice ColBosch, I prefer the drone version


Two gone-to-seed, overweight and somewhat greasy "pilots" sit at adjacent desks with joysticks, monitors etc

[Kidd]

;D ;D ;D bravo

There's some scope for WVR manoeuvreing though, such as if visual ID of some target is needed... and throwing in different assets, capabilities and mission types will make things more interesting. The average Joe Public doesn't know about things like BVRAAMs, CEC, that sort of thing...

[ColBosch]

;D ;D ;D bravo

There's some scope for WVR manoeuvreing though, such as if visual ID of some target is needed... and throwing in different assets, capabilities and mission types will make things more interesting. The average Joe Public doesn't know about things like BVRAAMs, CEC, that sort of thing...

Neither do I, nor do I particularly care to learn. But I prefer to not pay for my recruitment materials, so I'll be sitting this pile of steaming dogshit out.

[JadeHellbringer]

I know JUST the oversized rudder to steer us back on topic to aircraft rather than politics or movies!  ^-^

[Weirdo]

Anybody ever photoshopped one of those to be carrying Great Whites under each hardpoint? At this point, the pun seems obvious.

[Kidd]

I sometimes wonder if those tanks are hard-mounted, one almost never see any Tonkas without em

[Bren]

2018 CF-18 Demo plane (commemorating 60 years of NORAD)

[Daryk]

That half maple leaf/half star reminds me of a Cameron star...

[Sartris]

This is for the photo I wish I would have gotten today.

A C17 did a flyby over Lake Minnetonka at about 500 ft. I was stuck in my car and stuck in traffic so I didn't get the look I wanted but from what I could reckon it was about 500 off the ground and about 500 feet from shore and doing about 200 kts and about a 45 degree (or more) bank at one point.  Just awesome...of course all the snooty people in Wayzata had absolutely no appreciation for that display...

A bit late on this one but it reminds me of when i was still living in Fargo and there were some old world war ii birds at the summer air show (2000? 2003?). I was going over a bridge toward campus (which is basically right next to the airport) and almost slammed into the back of the car in front of me because I was mesmerized by the B-24 being escorted by a Zero and a P-51 coming overhead at about 500 feet.

Then there was the time I was counselor for a summer camp that was housed in one of the highrise dorms and the blue angels buzzed the building and almost blew out my eardrums (and my shorts). I'm good on being close to operating combat aircraft now, thanks.

[Ruger]

Also, Cheyenne!  Shame about that one, being a victim of interservice fighting and the stupidest test I've ever heard of.

The Cheyenne is one of those that I wish had been chosen...much like the YF-23...

Ruger

[worktroll]

But instead you got the Apache, and the Marine Harrier. So not entirely a bad thing, from a project that hadn't equalled the Sgt York affair, but was heading that way.

[Deadborder]

People romanticise the Cheyanne to death. They also tend to forget that it was running up against weight problems and technical problems, and was allready obsolete before it finished development.

[ANS Kamas P81]

Most of the technical stuff had been solved, the test that took the life of a pilot was trying to induce a rhythmic rotor hop and had to disable all the safety systems used to prevent said rotor hop.  So of course it's a: going to happen and b: it already had a means to prevent it.  Yeah, it was a big chopper, but it was also fast and sneaky as hell.  The observer teams in various tests didn't see or hear it until it was practically on top of them, much closer than other helicopters at the time.  And the ordnance load was pretty solid for the era as well, six wing stations for FFAR pods or TOW 3-packs.