Aviation Pictures: How expensive can a fifth generation thread be?

[Fat Guy]

In other news, Chinese sources as saying that the Xian H-20 stealth bomber could make its first public appearance at the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition this November.

[Sabelkatten]

"But we never saw any aircraft?"

"It's a STEALTH aircraft!"

^-^

[Fat Guy]

"But we never saw any aircraft?"

"It's a STEALTH aircraft!"

^-^

[ANS Kamas P81]

That three-color Japanese livery really is an attractive color scheme.

[Ruger]

Reminds me of a display at an open house at Shaw Air Force Base back in the late 80’s or so. Had a display set up showing off the new stealth fighter.

Only it was in full stealth mode, so the only thing you could see behind the barrier lines was it’s landing gear.

 ;D

Ruger

[Colt Ward]

Is that the photo that gets tagged as Wonder Woman's invisible jet?

[I am Belch II]

I thought that was a Klingon Bird of Prey??

[hoosierhick]

Reminds me of a display at an open house at Shaw Air Force Base back in the late 80’s or so. Had a display set up showing off the new stealth fighter.

Only it was in full stealth mode, so the only thing you could see behind the barrier lines was it’s landing gear.

 ;D

Ruger

 ;)

[Ruger]

;)

Kinda, except you could also see the struts and this was on concrete.

Ruger

[ANS Kamas P81]

Looks like a Raptor out of Eglin went down, pilot ejected.  No details yet, anyone heard any news?

[Fat Guy]

Not much more than you just said unfortunately: https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/15/politics/f-22-jet-crash-florida/index.html

[Cannonshop]

sometimes, with fighters, you land the airplane, and sometimes, with fighters, (even in peacetime) the plane lands without you.  this is true of pretty much ANY sort of high performance machine.  (a motorcyclist that hasn't dumped their bike, hasn't dumped it YET. same thing applies to aircraft.)

[Nightlord01]

sometimes, with fighters, you land the airplane, and sometimes, with fighters, (even in peacetime) the plane lands without you.  this is true of pretty much ANY sort of high performance machine.  (a motorcyclist that hasn't dumped their bike, hasn't dumped it YET. same thing applies to aircraft.)

This! So much this.

Every aircraft design fails sooner or later, largely due to imperfections in the manufacturing process. Airworthiness is a massive part of the industry now, it suits everybody to have the aircraft land only when the pilot wants it to, but even that process fails on a fairly regular basis.

[DaveMac]

Snowbird down in Canada

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52701421

[Daryk]

Sounds like the pilot managed to miss everyone on the ground at the cost of her own life...  That takes work in a residential neighborhood.

[chanman]

Sounds like the pilot managed to miss everyone on the ground at the cost of her own life...  That takes work in a residential neighborhood.

The pilot survived. The fatality was his passenger, a PR officer.

Also, the plane mostly hit a house - luckily the occupants were in the basement/backyard and not the part where the plane hit

[PsihoKekec]

They both ejected, but it seems it was too low for parachute to fully deploy and the crew member who ejected slightly higher survived with serious injuries. I guess these airplanes have older ejection seats that are not zero-zero capable.

[hoosierhick]

The Fighter Pilot Podcast posted a video about the crash on YouTube yesterday.  They had a former Snowbirds pilot watching a video of the crash and commenting.  He said the plane had a 0/60 seat.   Of course, being at low altitude and in a steep descent doesn't give much time to eject before you're too low.   https://youtu.be/Xl7qOY2-o_Y

[Daryk]

Yikes!  Why would you fly aerobatic aircraft WITHOUT a 0/0 seat??  ???

[monbvol]

From what I understand it probably did have a 0/0 setup but 0/0 setups still aren't going to completely remove the possibility of coming down a bit hard at such low levels.  Especially in that kind of situation.

[PsihoKekec]

Yikes!  Why would you fly aerobatic aircraft WITHOUT a 0/0 seat??  ???

Because planes are old, predating the 0/0 seats and Canadian military budget has always been tight. It took them more than thirty years to replace the aging Sea Kings, ejection seats in these planes are even further down the list of priorities.

[dgorsman]

The aircraft are lower performance than those used by the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels.  And other acrobatics oriented aircraft, such as those used in the Red Bull air races, don't have any ejection system.

[Colt Ward]

Saw a F-35 crashed in FL?  Two USAF fighter crashes in FL in the space of a week?

[Daryk]

The aircraft are lower performance than those used by the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels.  And other acrobatics oriented aircraft, such as those used in the Red Bull air races, don't have any ejection system.

Yikes!  That must involve one hell of a waiver...

[PsihoKekec]

No need for waiver as Red Bull air races are civilian competition and as such have no requirement for ejection seats.

[Daryk]

I meant for the pilots to sign...

[Nightlord01]

I meant for the pilots to sign...

It would be part of their accepted risk profile, yes.

Not too sure about the US, but here in Aus, it doesn't matter what you sign when it comes to mandatory safety equipment, the person in charge is in a world of hurt if it's not provided. Some things cannot be waived here.

[dgorsman]

Apparently there's a ton of mandatory training on top of that, like underwater egress.

[CrossfirePilot]

I meant for the pilots to sign...

You should see the waiver I signed for my flying job.  There has to be a better way to make $18/hr...

[truetanker]

You should see the waiver I signed for my flying job.  There has to be a better way to make $18/hr...

Would you rather fly this instead?

TT