willedoo

I find the whole Cold War period a fascinating part of history. Having grown up in the Cold War, we were conditioned to think our side was righteous and the other side evil. It wasn't until the demise of the Soviet Union, the advent of the internet, and the relative freeing up of information, that it became apparent we had been subject to just as much propaganda as those opposite. We were taught it was all black and white and now we know there was grey. And there still is a lot of grey.

Not much was known about the so called 'Secret War' until the 90's. In this article, it's claimed 126 American airmen are still missing from spy missions over the USSR. https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/secret-casualties-of-the-cold-war-180967122/

My dad was in the 2nd/9th up in the islands during the war and said the same thing about the Americans back then.

Breaking news article just out of Iran simply reads: ' A Ukrainian plane which crashed outside Tehran earlier this week had flown close to a sensitive military site and was brought down due to human error, General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran says. ' Sounds like they've finally admitted it was shot down. There's a bit more on RT. https://www.rt.com/news/477993-tehran-admits-plane-shooting-down/

Interesting the quote in that Guardian article: " The reality, as was pointed out by aviation forums, was that it had happened before, not just in 2014 with MH17 but also in 1988 when the USS Vincennes, an American guided-missile destroyer, shot down an Iranian airliner, killing everyone on board. " They always seem to forget Siberian Airlines flight 1812 from Israel to Russia that was shot down by the Ukrainian military in 2001.

Photos like this one circulating in the media are adding to speculation due to what looks like perforations in the fuselage. According to another Iranian news report Iran has asked Boeing to send a representative to join in the black box decoding. They also say the American NTSB has accepted Iran's invitation to participate in the investigation. They've also invited CFM International and all the countries who lost citizens in the crash.

The latest out of Iran is that they and Ukraine are leading the investigation and might need help from Canada or France to decode the black boxes. Another media report had a retraction on the statement that they wouldn't allow the boxes to go to the U.S., so if true, leaves open the option for cooperation with Boeing.

That makes sense, Nev. Extra oxygen, more complete combustion, = nice blue flame. As opposed to no nitrogen, less efficient burning = normal red/orange reheat flame from unburnt gases exhausting.

It would be interesting to know a bit more about it. They add the nitrogen when fueling up on the ground, but I'd assume it's separate storage and injected somehow. The orange seems to be only present on takeoff and I was wondering if the nitrogen is injected only during afterburner takeoffs. Both bombers, the Tu-160 and the Tu-22 both burn blue with reheat, more so the Tu-22 and I was told that is ionization of the gas molecules in the flame due to the more complete combustion. But the nitrogen orange seems to be particular to the Tu-160 and not the Tu-22, which makes me think it's not the cause of the blue combustion. So maybe it's a power boost more than an additive for clean burning. Would it make the fuel burn hotter.

I've been curious for a while as to why the Tupolev Tu-160 bomber puts out orange exhaust and have finally found out that it's added nitrogen. Googling the subject doesn't shed much light on it and mainly comes up with academic papers waffling on at great length about American jet fuels. Question is, does it boost power or just make the engine burn cleaner, or both?

Blue afterburners (around the 7.00+min. mark):

Just filled with air. Although plenty of capacity for vodka and easy to administer if the hose is still on it.

This photo is not overly historic or old, but I've kept it for some time due to an interest in the odd looking vest the pilot is wearing. It was taken at Tatsinskaya training base in 1973 and the trainee pilot is Boris Bubeev. Tatsinskaya is in Russia not far from the Ukraine border and is the airfield used by the Germans in WW2 to supply their troops when they were cut off at Stalingrad. In the photo you can still see the WW2 Marston Mat used on the ramp. Training aircraft in the background is an Aero L-29. But back to the vest that's perplexed me for the last couple of years. I've never seen one like it and in 1973 there were only certain known models of life vests in use. So I've just found out that Boris made the vest himself out of a couple of sets of anti gravity suits (speed jeans), but why. The only reason I can think of is that it was done as a joke. He graduated the following year and had a long career as a flight instructor and electrical engineer .

A retired LAME I know is one of the most mechanically inept people I've ever met. Struggles with the most basic stuff. To be fair, he spent most of his career pushing a pen, not a spanner.

This is a short video clip of the first serial production Su-57, 01 Blue, due to be delivered soon. Plus later builds in the background. Operational status is a couple of years or more later than forecast, fairly normal these days with the complexity of things. It would be a fair guess that they're not 100% combat capable and would be delivered to the Air Force to iron out remaining bugs.

Could be, Marty; no crane or low loader needed. It would be a slow trip but a lot cheaper. Noticed there's cables running back to the main gear. Maybe to spread the load or braking possibly. I remember reading that they're quite roomy inside with a small galley and space for one pilot to have a lie down on long flights. The pilots enter via a ladder through the nose gear well like a larger bomber so I guess the bulky area behind the cockpit is where that all happens.

Russian Air Force Su-34 Syria veteran, 25 Red, was spotted traveling up the highway near Voronezh about 450klm south of Moscow. It appears to be one of the two that were damaged in a mid air collision near Lipetsk in early September. Speculation is that it will be used as a static training airframe. An unusual way to transport a plane 120klm up the highway.

That's enough for three squadrons. Maybe they'll form a wing and have a Wing Commander.

It sounds like an Italian thing. Italian flight gear collectors I know all refer to it as flight gears if it's more than one item.

Looks interesting, Old Koreelah. Do they have a website for the museum? Googling the subject brings up a lot of information about the Soviet leg of the trip, but not much about the U.S. ferry route to Alaska via Canada. That would be a story in itself. Not sure how accurate the figures on this site are, but they list 13,208 U.S. aircraft and 4,613 British aircraft under the lend lease scheme. https://ww2-weapons.com/lend-lease-tanks-and-aircrafts/

Came across these photos of Oymyakon Airport terminal in Eastern Siberia, roughly due north of Japan. Apparently Oymyakon is one of the coldest permanently inhabited settlements on Earth with temperatures from -70 to +30. I couldn't find any photos of the strip, but Google Earth shows it as unsealed. The airstrip was built during WW2 as part of the Alaska-Siberia ferry route for lend lease aircraft supplied by the U.S. According to the history, U.S. pilots would ferry the aircraft to Fairbanks in Alaska for handover to Soviet ferry crews. The Soviets had five ferry regiments, each flying a separate leg of the journey from Alaska to Krasnoyarsk in South Central Siberia where they had a training base. The 3rd. regiment flew from Seymchan to Yakutsk with five stops in between, Oymyakon being one of them. Single seat aircraft like the Aircobra and Kingcobra flew in groups escorted by a pair of B-25's or Douglas A-20 Havoc's. Pilots were then ferried back to their starting point in C-47's. Oymyakon is one of those dying post Soviet towns. The population is down to about 900 people and most likely serviced by An-2 or at the largest, An-24 aircraft. U.S. and Soviet personnel with the first Kingcobras in Alaska. A condition of the lend lease deal was that the P-63 Kingcobras were not to be used against the Germans. There's evidence that the Soviets did, in breach of the deal. Eyewitness reports from German pilots claimed they encountered P-63's on the Eastern Front.

This colourised photo is of female U-2 pilots from the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Regiment in Crimea, 1944. Looking at what they are doing, it must be a posed PR/propaganda photo. They're probably supposed to look like they are pushing a bogged truck. It looks like the pilot on the left hand corner of the truck has lost her hand-hold and is about to fall on her backside in the mud. No wonder the people in the background are laughing. It's amazing how they can colour these old b&w photos; even the resolution quality seems way better than the original. Must be good software.

Bruce, on the earlier video flying with with the Su-30, the wheels are down, but the last video with the Su-57 shows the gear retracting and a while later lowering again. I remember early video of the Su-57 prototype test flights flying with gear down. Maybe it's a common thing with test flights. If something goes wrong, the gear is already down - one less thing to worry about in a forced landing. Could be procedure for low altitude test flights.

Technically it's a UAV, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.

Latest M.o.D. video of the Okhotnik with a Su-57.