Indian Carrier Based Mig 29's.

[willedoo]

Here's a link to an article on the carrier based Mig 29 contract with India. The article is not that exciting, but it has some nice production photos taken inside the plant for anyone interested in that sort of thing. Looking at how they've got them propped up, I guess the WH&S rules aren't as strict over there.

 

Cheers, Willedoo.

 

http://www.ruaviation.com/docs/4/2011/8/4/38/

 

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[dazza 38]

Good shots mate. We when i was a teccy in the RAAF, we used similar Jacks.Just bigger on the F111. Only every saw one nearly come of the jacks because we where doing flight control rigging and the flight computors where on.Someone bumped a Gyro the access panel was off, Gyros are very sensitive.The jet nearly bounced off the jacks.We always chained off the horizontal stabs during Hydraulic testing.If it hit someone, it would try and drive them into the concrete(3000Psi) Tornado was (4500PSI). General though the jacks are very good once the locking ring on top off the jack is locked off. When we where in position.We would lock off the ring and relieve the pressure of the jack.

 

 

[willedoo]

Good shots mate. We when i was a teccy in the RAAF, we used similar Jacks.Just bigger on the F111. Only every saw one nearly come of the jacks because we where doing flight control rigging and the flight computors where on.Someone bumped a Gyro the access panel was off, Gyros are very sensitive.The jet nearly bounced off the jacks.We always chained off the horizontal stabs during Hydraulic testing.If it hit someone, it would try and drive them into the concrete(3000Psi) Tornado was (4500PSI). General though the jacks are very good once the locking ring on top off the jack is locked off. When we where in position.We would lock off the ring and relieve the pressure of the jack.

Thanks for the insight, Dazza.

 

I was curious about it, sometimes things look worse than they really are & photos never tell the full story. It must have been an experience working on an icon like the F111, all history now, sadly.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

[dazza 38]

Yes it was good mate.9 years on the f111. Then 2 years on Royal Saudi Airforce Tornados I worked for British aerospace, called now BAE systems. I do miss the F111. But the tornado was a lot more fitter freindly.

 

 

[willedoo]

Yes it was good mate.9 years on the f111. Then 2 years on Royal Saudi Airforce Tornados I worked for British aerospace, now BAE systems. I do miss the F111. But the tornado was a lot more fitter freindly.

Sounds good Dazza.

 

 

[willedoo]

Here's a bit of background history of the Mig 29K in the above link, and that of it's carrier, for anyone interested.

 

The Mig-29K was a navalised version developed at the same time (late 80's), as the Sukhoi Su-27K (Su-33), both to compete for the new Soviet conventional fixed-wing carrier programme, on completion of the carrier, 'Admiral Kuznetsov'. Two classes preceded the Admiral Kuznetsov, the Moskva class, a helicopter only class and the Kiev class which combined helicopters and fixed wing V/STOL aircraft. The Kuznetsov was a modification of the Kiev class and resulted in a conventional carrier with a 12 degree ski-ramp launch deck. The Mig-29k project was put on hold when the Soviet Union was abandoned, but was kept alive by the Mig design bureau despite a lack of government funding. The Navy went with the Su-27, and the Mig-29k was mothballed until the recent carrier deal with India. The Kiev class 'Admiral Gorshkov' was modified with a flight deck and ramp similar to the Kuznetsov to enable it to use conventional fixed wing aircraft, so the Mig-29k's went with the deal. Now that it is back in production, economy of scale is one of the reasons behind Russia's descision to phase out the Su-27k by 2015 and replace it with the Migs.

 

Before and after photos of the RNS Admiral Gorshkov, now renamed by India as the INS Vikramadaditya:

 

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The Soviets sure had a different way of conducting sea trials compared to the US.

 

By late 1989 the SNS Tibilisi, later to become the RNS Admiral Kuznetsov, was ready to conduct sea trials and carrier landings with the Mig-29k and the Su-27k. They had never done this before with conventional fixed-wing aircraft, although the prototypes had completed several take-offs and landings at land based test facilities. On the 20th October, the Tibilisi put to sea for the first time, making it's way down the river from the Nikolayev shipyard and along the Black Sea coast to the Crimean Naval base at Sevastopol. A week later, on the 27th, the flights began with gradually descending fly-overs down to a height of 30 metres. Next day, the 28th, saw the first touch and go's and this continued on until the 31st, when the first landings were made.

 

There was no designated body to give the go-ahead for landings and neither pilot knew they were to land that day. They circled for an hour and a half, then the Su-27 test pilot was told by the Sukhoi chief designer to go for a deck landing. He caught the second wire and came to a stop with a 90 metre landing run, the first conventional carrier landing in the USSR. He was followed half an hour later by the Mig-29k. The Mig design bureau didn't want to be outdone, so decided to take off that day, to become the first to do so. Half an hour after the Mig left, the Sukhoi Su-25UTG prototype landed, which meant three different aircraft prototypes making their first ever landings on a new, unpoven carrier that had only been at sea for a bit more than a week. Sounds like Rafferty's Rules. Both Sukhoi's decided to stay the night and take off in the morning.

 

The next morning, the test pilot attempted the Su-27k's first carier take-off. After being towed to the launch station, the wheel detents and blast shield were put in place. Sukhoi chief designer, Siminov, decided the 60 degree shield position was too close to the engine nozzles so he set it back at 45 degrees. Problem was, the actuators couldn't hold the shield in position at that angle, so, true to form, they welded steel pipe from the deck to the shield as a brace. The pilot cranked the engines up to full military power, blasting everyone in the vicinity with all the welding and cutting debris. He engaged full afterburner and waved for the detents to be released, but they stayed up and the aircraft sat in front of the shields at full afterburner for 14 seconds. This caused the blast shields cooling system pipes to explode and blow pieces of the shield in the air up to 10 metres away. Steam from the damaged shield engulfed the Sukhoi and most of the nearby onlookers thought it was smoke from the fighter's fuel lines, so they all bolted. Meanwhile, ATC gave the pilot the order to throttle back; as he did so, the strain on the detents eased which allowed them to retract. This allowed the plane to leap forward at a rate of knots, but the pilot was on to it and braked and shut down the engines. Undamaged, the aircraft took off a while later, starting between launch stations without detents or shields. So that was the Flanker's first ever carrier launch.

 

All they could do with the damaged shield was to cut off the braces, lower it, and repair it later at the shipyard. After a week's delay to process data, the flights resumed without any problems apart from the Su-25 prototype not having folding wings; this prevented it from using the elevator, so it was tied to the deck for the duration of the tests. The conventional powered Admiral Kuznetsov is due for a major re-fit in 2012, with planned removal of it's anti-ship missiles to increase the air wing and the possibility of a new propulsion system and fitting of catapults. The West desginates it as an aircraft carrier; the Russians call it an aircraft carrying missile cruiser, it's main role being support of other Navy ships and submarines. The Cruiser designation allows them to bypass the Montreaux Convention, which prohibits aircraft carriers from passing through the Dardanelles, the access to the Black Sea.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

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