willedoo

A lot of good photos there, thanks Spin, much appreciated. Good to see the Buccaneer flying, a couple of nice shots of it with condensation there. Cheers, Willie.

Thanks for the link, cficare, very interesting. Nothing like a bit of good old aviation archaeology. I've been looking on Google Earth for an abandoned Il-76 in Afghanistan for a long time without success, like finding a needle in a haystack. Location is the problem, all I know is that the strip is/was in the south. As the story goes, in the early days of the invasion, the U.S. military were planing an airfield site in southern Afghanistan and needed to fly in a large generator. The job was priced at between sixty and seventy thousand dollars and no one would touch it because it was an unprepared airfield with no fuel for the return trip, in an area mostly under hostile control. One day the charter agent got a phone call from an independent Il-76 crew offering to do it for two million dollars in advance. By this time, the Americans had no choice, so they paid the money. And right on time, the ex Soviet crew flew in, unloaded the generator and sat down in the shade. As the Americans were wondering how they were going to fly out again, a mini bus driven by an Afghan pulled up in a cloud of dust and the Russian airmen piled in the back. As they were about to leave, the Yanks said, " Hey, how will you get the plane back? " The crew replied, " We won't. It's an old one we bought for the job and we're ditching it here." Apparently it cost them half a million dollars and they patched it up just enough to get there, then walked off with close to one and a half million dollars profit. It's supposed to be still there, but trying to track down any reference to it's whereabouts has been a bit fruitless so far. Cheers, Willie.

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Might be getting off the track a bit, but I came across this collection of photos while looking for clues on the wrecked a/c in the oiginal post. http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=495001 There's some nice photos of outback ruins & some WW2 wrecked aircraft on page 2.

Sure is , Geoff. Makes a man almost homesick, I sort of miss the sandstorms, 50+ degree heat & the flies. Well, maybe not just yet. I've been trying to spot some vegetation that might tie it to a general region, but it looks fairly generic. The shrubs behind the wreck look like acacias or needlewood, could be SW Qld or SA, but there's a lot of red sandhill country in WA as well. You'ld think someone would have left a signpost on the ground at least. I suppose it either came down where it's lying, or its part of a more extensive station dump / boneyard. The only real clue is the colour scheme & what looks like a 'G' on the tail. Cheers, Willie.

Certainly looks like it Peter, thanks. The country in the background doesn't give any clues, could be a lot of places. Cheers, Willie.

Very interesting article Spin, thanks. I'm just speculating here, but I'd say the public/private model is the only way in the future. The days will soon be gone whereby space travel & exploration can be funded by public money, the money just won't be there. Also interesting to see the cost comparison with the Soyuz. It's a far from perfect alternative, it's just unfortunate that it's the only one at present & is unsustainable for a lot of reasons. One of the major ones is reliability. The Russian programme in the last year has been a nightmare, we're just lucky the failures were all unmanned. It's been a big embarrassment for the government there & a lot of heads have rolled in Roscosmos of late, but problems are entrenched & will take a lot of time to overcome. It seems to be a matter of urgency for the U.S. to be able to do their own independent thing again & it's hard to see a return to sole public funding in today's economic climate. The technology & expertise can be acquired but I'd guess it would all hinge on the ability of private companies to turn a profit. Cheers, Willie.

Shame there's not more stuff available in this country at the right price.

You have to admire their dedication, but it's a lot of money lost in the event of a mishap. I think if I had the time & money, I'd rather build a 6 dof motion simulator. At least once it's built, you can't crash it. Cheers, Willie.

Just curious, I came across this photo on a foreign website & was wondering if anyone knew any information about it. The caption was ' Light aircraft abandoned in the outback'. That's all I know about it. Cheers, Willie. [ATTACH=full]1184[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]18182[/ATTACH]

Another link to some photos of abandoned and re-cycled aircraft: http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2010/11/splendid-abandoned-airplanes.html and a couple more re-cycling links from the same site http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2010/03/plane-obsessed-more-jet-hotels-and.html http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/03/mystery-photo-jet-in-your-backyard.html some interesting chopper photos worth looking at as well, http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/03/monstrous-aviation-part-2-huge.html

Interesting videos, thanks, Peter. Looks like the Russians could have saved a lot of money developing the An 225 & just bought a second hand Jumbo instead. It's a much more dignified end than the Buran had to suffer, though. Here's a pic of it after the Cosmodrome collapsed on top of it. [ATTACH=full]1182[/ATTACH] Cheers, Willie.

Thanks for posting, Peter, nice clip. I've never used the youtube full screen mode before you mentioned it. Had a scratch around & found the buttons. In the process I learned also that a double left click on the embedded screen opens up the original youtube source page in another window, with the corresponding higher resolution. Didn't know that, you learn something every day. Cheers, Willie.

Be good if it did. Maybe a tin foil hat would do. Cheers, Willie.

A media report from Russia about the development of a radiation protective coating for military aircraft & high altitude flight. Interestingly, they claim it also reduces radar signature by thirty percent. Would be nice to see technology like this in commercial aviation one day, if it was econmically viable. It would be comforting for flight crew knowing exposure was reduced. http://www.ruaviation.com/news/2012/4/13/922/

Landing an An-124, views from the cockpit. Cheers, Willie.

Here's another one in Poland: Cheers, Willie.

Quite an impressive list, thanks, Dexter. They've been around in the aircraft industry for a while, about 1919 or so & put out a lot of stuff in that time. Seems to be even more so nowdays. I'd guess their most successful was the L-39 Albatross, having the former Eastern Block countries as customers being a big boost. They look like being fairly prolific in the LSA field these days as well. Thanks for posting, very interesting reading. Cheers, Willie.

Video taken of a belly landing, seems to be a bit unexpected, judging by the casual camera work. Cheers, Willie.

Got me thinking, there, Geoff, I'm not well versed in the Burma history, but I always thought they were in a better position there than in the Pacific region. Maybe with better supply lines, they might have decided to make a late push & drive a wedge between our forces. I'll have to do a bit of reading. I remember when I was in Burma 30 years ago, there was heaps of Marsden Matting being used as fences, mainly in the regions surrounding Rangoon. Wasn't much other WW2 stuff visible, but I'm sure there would be a lot there still. They don't throw anything out, when I was there, you could go down to the markets & whatever you bought was wrapped up in Bitish pay sheets & other documents from the days of the Raj. I've stll got them somewhere. We should get this bloke out to Oakey with a metal detector. Cheers, Willie.

I couldn't help wondering about the lower section of rudder missing from the first An-2, whether the locals souvenired it, or a passing truck might have hit it. It would have been just about extending onto the road. Cheers, Willie.

Bit of a dodgy take-off with a Let L-410 taking off from a road & overflying a couple of derelict An-2's:

I bet Grumman misses those days.

Well I'll have to be honest, Nerb, I already had the sound off, so never got to hear this one. I'll have to turn it back on & watch it again, you never know, I might like it. Cheers Willie.

Video compilation of various light aircraft departures. A bit long at 20 minutes, but good viewing. The F-16 that ran off the runway can be seen in the background with its nose still in the dirt. Cheers, Willie.