willedoo

Phil, I'm not an aerobatic pilot or a female, but Svetlana Kapinina in the video has a five way seat restraint harness and what looks like a parachute harness under that. If they're tightened up correctly, that should do the job of any sport bra.

Instagram post by a Kuwaiti pilot hit by lightning: [MEDIA=instagram]Br57KE7hMeh[/MEDIA]

Soyuz landing in Kazakhstan.

It would be interesting to see how the size reduction affects the range. On the subject of Russian aircraft, not the Su-57, but some good footage of a Su-25 and Su-34 on a recent training exercise:

It would be good to see no. 2 fly after gathering dust over all those years. Before their fall out in 2014, there were plans to build new An-124's as a joint Ukrainian/Russian venture with the plant to be located in Russia. That went by the wayside and now the Russians are looking into building them on their own. Problem is that the Antonov plant was moved from Russia to Ukraine in the 50's, and after the breakup of the Union, it became Ukrainian property along with all the documentation and patents. Ukraine is now saying that they will take legal action if necessary to stop Russia from building the 124. As the world economy grows, there would probably be enough work for two 225's.

Hello all, I was watching this promotional video on the Russian Navy's recent 285th. anniversary celebrations. At about 0.31 into the video, the pilot of a Tupolev Tu-95 Bear bomber is seen wearing a leather helmet and oxygen mask designed 58 years ago, which came into production in 1961. As a helmet nerd, it's always interested me how some aviation technology reached it's near zenith years ago, and others are developing constantly. In almost six decades, the only change in mask technology is the addition of a plastic outer hard shell which carries the attachment straps, with the rubber or silicone face piece attached inside of that. The latest of the latest have a soft bendable T shaped metal insert in the nasal bridge area of the facepiece, along with a cutaway in the plastic hard shell so the pilot can access the metal insert and mould it to his nose and cheek profile to provide a better seal. Not big advances in 60 years, but a case of not having to re-invent the wheel. Similarly, the current partial pressure suits are the same ones designed about the same time. They have a set job, they work, and there's not a big deal of wriggle room for advancement in technology there. The bomber crew in the video still use the older gear as they don't pull G's and don't need the level of pressure sealing that a fast jet crew requires. Aircrew life support equipment reached the point a long time back where the bulk of the science was done, and the future is just a series of tweaks. The big advances seem to be outside the wearable gear, in engine technology, aerodynamics, avionics and aircraft systems. I'd say there would be a lot of potential for major advances there for a lot more years to come. As an example, the anti gravity suit designed for the new 5th. generation Sukhoi 57 is basically the same suit designed back in the 50's. It's just a pair of pants that inflate. The big advancement now is the aircraft mounted system that drives it. The system computer reads a lot of factors, such as pilot weight, airspeed, AOA etc., and is quick enough to combine all data with control inputs to predict the amount of G's about to be encountered. The result is that the correct amount of air pressure is fed to the G suit a moment before it's actually required. This enables the pilot to handle a higher G factor by about 2 to 3. In older systems, the air pressure was fed to the suit in response to G's pulled, so the lag effect was there. Same old speed jeans mated with improved system technology. So what's the future? I would guess engine technology will always improve with issues like weight, power, fuel economy etc.. With avionics, I would think the sky's the limit. How far aerodynamics advance is anyone's guess. In the LSA and ultralight field, will we ever see a completely different engine type in the future, and move away from glorified lawnmower engines. End of rant. Cheers, Willie.

News item on Iran's new Kowsar fighter. It looks very F-5 like, most likely the Saeqeh re-designed back to the original F-5 tail. I'd assume it has a lot of Russian and/or Chinese components and systems. The bang seats in the video appear to be a Russian K-36D variant. Just guessing for the engines that they would have a stock of GE J85 ECU's from their Northrup F-5's. PressTV-Iran unveils first domestic fighter jet

Hello all, I got to climb inside an ex RAAF Neptune today at the Qld. Air Museum. Certainly interesting; a total rabbit warren full of instruments, switches and gauges. One thing that impressed was the roomy cockpit with a really good level of visibility. Not made for people with arthritis though. You need better knees than mine to get in and out of it comfortably. Looking forward to the Orion arriving there in the future. The bigger aircraft always seem to create a lot of interest with the visitors. A bit of the wow factor, I guess. In the biggish category, they've got the F-111, Caribou, DC-3, Ventura, Neptune, and soon to be Orion. A shame there's not a spare Liberator around for restoration. Cheers, Willie.

A bit like landing on a postage stamp.

At first glance, they look very similar to a Qantas tail.

Boats in Vietnam made from American aircraft drop tanks.

Peter, that was the Zveno project. I guess at that stage it had a limited future with in flight re-fueling just round the corner. I think that one in your photo at the Monino Air Force Museum is the only survivor. Cheers, Willie.

The pilot's body was recovered as well, but no mention of the other crew members. It's been an ongoing dig for a couple of years.

Photos of some of the gear recently recovered from a WW2 crash site. The Ilyushin DB-3 was located in a swamp after 76 years in the mud.

You beat me to it, Peter. I was going to ask where the photo was taken. The rise in land height sparked the interest.

A couple of favourites:

This is an interesting article about the almost 3,000 Hurricanes operated by the Soviets. Describes a lot of the modifications and variants. Soviet Hawker Hurricane Specials

Su-57 underside.

Peter, I'd guess that's phonetic, as E in Russian is pronounced Ye. eg: the name Elena is pronounced Yelena . I've noticed in a quite a few publications, that they translate designations to the pronunciation rather than the spelling. I think it happens when Russians translate the document to English. They take it a bit literally and then a third party will translate that to their language, thus extending the mis-interpretation.

Spot on. The E-152A, designed by the MiG bureau, NATO recognition name Flipper. The technology was transferred to China where quite a few years later it went into production as the J-8.

The block pattern ramp probably gives away the country of origin of this X Plane. Twin engined heavy interceptor; it did more than 40 test flights. Eventually adopted by another country as a production aircraft. One interesting feature; the shock cone is fixed. Intake air is regulated by an axially translatable nose cone ring.

Peter, you were right in the first instance as well. The VVA-14 was designed as a prototype VTOL anti- missile carrying submarine platform. It had two top mounted forward thrust engines (same family as the MiG-21 and Il-76) and twelve lifting turbojets. It also had inflatable floats. It never did achieve VTOL capability and was eventually abandoned as a project. The first prototype never had the lifting engines fitted and was eventually modified for use as a ground effect Ekranoplan designated VVA-14M1P. Photo below gives a good view of the inflatable floats (replaced by metal in the Ekranoplan). I think this hull at Monino museum might be the remains of the Ekranoplan version.

That's it, Peter. Sometimes referred to as the MiG-1.44.