F/A-18E Super Hornet's mighty M61A2 Vulcan nose cannon firing.

An A2A Sidewinder missile launch, just as it departs the wing - Who knows where to?

Aft looking image while firing the Nose Cannon.

Left Wingman flying out of formation.

Sidewinder dis-attaching from the wing - FIRE!

Mid-Air refuelling from the tanker!

Inverted flight between mountains in the F/A-18E

Passing over USS George Washington

Launched off of the catapult.

The post Stunning images taken by an F/A-18E weapons trainer officer appeared first on Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine.

Low passes

Low landings

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Day 1  – March 14, 2012

Red Flag 12-3 started off with the traditional photo shoot between the two active runways. The runway photo shoot is the staple of the Red Flag media day and frankly never gets old. Where else in the world can you stand quite literally next to a Strike Eagle taking off in full after burner or see both the latest in aircraft technology – F-22 Raptor or B-2 Sprit or the oldest – the KC-135Rs, during flight operations!

People started to arrived at the runways by noon and a short while later, aircraft started to depart. First the heavies consisting of KC-135Rs, E-3 AWACS, etc. and then the fighters launched. The launch itself is a choreographed event due to mission commanders wanting certain aircraft at specific coordinates at exact times. During a Red Flag launch, eighty plus aircraft are launched in less than an hour or one aircraft every 45 seconds. So it was a race against time for spotters to manage to find time to swap batteries or swap SD cards.

During the departure phase, Nellis Public Affairs Specialist Ben Newell asked a photographer if he'd wanted to go to the control tower and photograph the remaining portion of the departure. It took the guy about 0.1 seconds to say YES! I thought it would be a great opportunity to cover the remaining part of the departures from this rarely visited vantage point. Fifteen minutes later, the lucky person was up on the tower with two other media members shooting the rest of the departure cycle.

From a traditional ground view in between the runways, they had only a one-dimensional view of the Red Flag launch. From the control tower, they were able to get a “global view” of the launch cycle. To get this amount of aircraft prepared for a strike, involving hundreds of aircrews and a greater number of operational, maintenance, logistical, and support personnel is almost beyond imagination.

Once the launch sequence had concluded, these lads had a little less than two hours before the recovery cycle started. One of the media members that had been with us on the tower, had to return to his station to process his material for an upcoming TV broadcast. This turned out to be another opportunity to view Red Flag, from yet another nontraditional point of view – The EOR (end of the runway). The EOR or “last chance” is a term referring to a place at the end of a taxiway, before the pilot(s) move onto the runway. It is on the EOR where maintenance personnel conduct final aircraft checks and arm the weapons systems.

Once the group arrived at the northern EOR, they were able to photograph, not only aircraft recovering from the Red Flag exercise, but also other aircraft not directly associated with the Red Flag exercises that were departing for various training flights. These aircraft included F-16s from the 64^th Aggressor Squadron (64 AGRS) in various camouflage paint schemes.

After photographing the Red flag fighter’s recovery, 2 fellow media members returned to the main runways and joined the remaining photographers who were shooting the recoveries. With the tower and EOR opportunities, they all had missed the launches of the two B-2 Sprits. However, as luck would have it, they returned to the runways just in time to catch the “heavies” (which included the B-2s) recover and taxi back to the ramp. Frankly, the B-2s aren’t the most dynamic aircraft to see take off and/or land (when compared to an F-15E).

Day 2  – March 15, 2012

On the schedule for day two was the panel interview that would consist of a representative from the attending units at Red Flag and a photo shoot of the E-2D.

He ended his presentation with, “I am happy to spread the Red Flag word. It’s a bundle of goodness for not only the United States Forces, but combat forces across the world.”

Red Flag now rotates between two and three week evolutions. According to Lieutenant Colonel Dadgar the three-week course is optimum in terms of getting the aircrews their ten pre-combat sorties Red Flag desires. “It takes a week just to figure it out,” said Lieutenant Colonel Dadgar. But, the downside is that attending students and support personnel are away from home, family, and duty stations for the better part of six weeks which adds increased stress on an already stress filled/high tempo course.

In addition to the challenges of flying a 30-year aircraft, some newer RAF crews are dropping live ordnance for the first time in their career. In addition, junior flight crews are getting opportunities to attend Red Flag, something once attended by only senior aircrews. The RAF wants all aircrews, especially if they are deploying to Afghanistan, to reap all the training and experience of Red Flag.

First Lieutenant Commander Harkins spoke regarding the performance of the E2-D Hawkeye:

Red Flag has been a great opportunity to take advantage of a cross section of a large group of air assets in a realistic threat environment. This type of exposure and experience is needed before we do “fleet introduction.” We are conducting large force strikes and Red Flag has exceeded our expectations. This is our first opportunity to track targets in a varsity level game.   

Major Diller was next to speak and talked about his experiences as a sophomore student at Red Flag flying the B-2. Next, Lieutenant Commander Duez briefly talked about the P-3 Orion. Lastly, Major Spencer spoke about the Boeing KC-135.

The panel interview was concluded with the “Red Force” unit representatives fielding questions from the attending media.

Major Gallemore was asked about being a Team Chief and he said the following:

Basically I am the project officer who over sees and coordinates visiting units and scenario development of the exercises.

Day 3  – March 16, 2012

The Final Day - At 1:00pm,  the groups were merged at Base Operations and they waited for their flights. There, media members were divided into 2 groups. This group was scheduled for the KC-135R that would be refuelling the “Blue Force” or friendlies.

At 1:45 pm, the KC-135 started its engines, soon taxied to the runway, and then took off. Thirty minutes after take off, “Baja 35” was on station and ready to start refueling. When we first arrived on-station, pilots Lieutenant Colonel Babyak and First Lieutenant Payne flew a racetrack pattern 28 miles long by 18 miles wide and at an altitude of 20,000 feet.

About 30 minutes later, a F-22 was on one's left wing, waiting for his time on the boom.

The post The media’s perspective of Red Flag appeared first on Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine.

Maria, who almost finished her doctorate program in a local university, has got a real, once operational Soviet TU-104 plane to restore. The plane is parked at the very far end of the airfield and it's pretty far away from her day job and place of residence, however she visits her plane almost every day to work on it, just like a dedicated person would!

Maria has met and greeted the photographers near her plane, trying to calm the watch dogs of various types living near her plane. "I am coming here a few days a week. It takes one hour and a half to get here. First on a bus, then in a taxi", says Maria. "It's very hard to get here in winter, when the snow is high. I get shoes full of snow whilst getting to the plane. It's very cold in the plane in the winter.".

And when the photographers got into the plane, it really was much colder inside than outside.

"I first got interested in planes because of my frequent job related trips.", says Maria. " So I got interested in how they work, and what they consist of."

Five years ago she learned that there was a written-off - out of service, grounded plane here in Berdsk. "I came here and asked to take a look at what's inside", says Masha. "It was a very sad sight - all of the gauges and devices were ripped off, the wiring was stolen by the scrap metal hunters."

"So I offered to them that I would restore the plane." At first they were skeptical, however as Maria started bringing in the rare pieces of equipment for the cockpit they became more assured of her seriousness. 

As you can see, a lot of gauges are already in position!

"For now I restore only the cabin, the cockpit, the dashboard", says Maria, "I find the parts via the internet, online, some for money, some people give them to me as gifts". She didn't mention the prices of those things, so as not to attract a new bunch of burglars and scrappers.

She still hopes that someday this plane can fly. "However, as for now, the ready to fly state of this plane is zero percent ready, almost nothing is in here - no engines, nothing" says the girl. "We have finished 60% of the cockpit and cabin, but it is really not enough for the plane to fly".

"It's more likely that we'll make a museum piece of the plane. Even now whole families come to me and ask to sit inside, take photos, etc."

She started alone, but recently her boyfriend started to help her from time to time, and then two senior ex-pilots joined her effort in restoration jobs.  

"This plane has stayed here for 36 years already!", says the girl, "At first they used it for some training for paratroopers, then it was used just as a storage facility, and later it was just abandoned."

Maria has yet to learn how to fly a plane, for now she is finishing her doctorate and after that she plans to take flying classes.

As for this plane, it is a TU-104 - the first Soviet passenger jet. It was used from 1956 to 1979 and around 201 planes were built. The crew is 7 people, and it can carry 50 to 100 passengers. According to studies, almost 18% of these planes got into an emergency or crashed, which makes it the worst among all Soviet planes. 

A big thanks to Maria for restoring the aircraft and to the photographers!

Additional Reads -

The MiG15

Author - Jake Meilak

The post Maria – The girl with an aircraft restoration hobby appeared first on Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine.

2) Top Gun

3) Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag

4) Iron Eagle

5) Behind Enemy Lines

• Navy preparing to launch new carrier catapult technology
• Jet Engines – How they work
• Mach Loop – Speed and scenery heaven
• Media's perspective of Red Flag

•  historynet.com
• imdb.com

The post Our favorite military aviation films! appeared first on Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine.

Low-level flying

Locations

Bwlch viewing area.

Cad East

Bluebell viewing area

• The Art Of Mid Air Selfies
• United States Air Force looking to turn on to Supersonic Mercenaries
• Learn more about the nice work of Mark Jayne on MJA Aviation

The post The Mach Loop appeared first on Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine.

The popular MiGFlug selfie, taken by photographer Reto "Air to Air" Schneeberger

Here’s an interesting series of selfies shot during a single session, taken by GoPro cameras, showing Arkefly’s first 787-8, the first Boeing Dreamliner in the Netherlands, welcomed by the RNLAF (Royal Netherlands Air Force) F16 Display Demo Team.

Right Wing Aircraft

A better viewed, Left wing shot!

Left Wing Aircraft.

 The RNLAF F-16 Demo Team 2014/5 currently consists of military personnel from both the 323 and the 322 Squadrons, based at Leeuwarden Airbase. The team consists of one display pilot, Captain Jeroen “Slick” Dickens, four display instructors, eight technical specialists and a webmaster. NATO Tiger Meet (NTM) is a two-week multi-national mid-size exercise that includes all types of air-to-air and air-to-ground and a wide variety of support missions. This year was held at Schleswig – Jagel, in northern Germany.

A fantastic shot of the Formation

The Military exercise, gathers squadrons sporting Tiger emblems with brand new, tiger colour schemes. Along with a few French Rafales, Polish F-16 Block 52+ jets, Turkish F-16s, and Czech JAS-39 Gripens in tiger liveries, the highlight of NTM was the first ever Tiger Typhoon, of the Bavarian Tigers. Founded on March 18^th, 2013, by the 741/2 squadrons of the German Air Force’s Jagdgeschwader 74 in Neuburg, the Bavarian Tigers took over the Tiger Spirit from the 321 Squadron / Jagdbombergeschwader 32. The Tiger Typhoon pilot took a selfie during a large Tiger formation featuring all of the special colours that attended NTM14.

A still from the footage.

According to the Flyvevåbnet (The Royal Danish Air Force), on August 5 two RDAF F-16s from Skrydstrup deployed to Thule airbase in Greenland, to commence the first ever “Arctic mission” aimed at training F16 aircrews in the Arctic Search and Rescue mission. The aircraft arrived in Greenland for the 2 day exercise with a stopover at Kangerlussuaq another airport in Greenland. The Arctic scenario has recently become one of the Danish defence priorities. Among all the other things, the RDAF could be asked to quickly deploy fighter planes to the island to perform surveillance as well as SAR support tasks around the Arctic Circle.

 Once again, RDAF pilots took some interesting selfies using their GoPro cameras.

The image (a still frame of the full GoPro video) was most probably shot during the deployment at Al Dhafra air base, in the UAE, of U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors. According to the French fighter pilots, aerial combat with the Raptor is highly important, regardless of the outcome of the friendly dogfight, training with the F-22 gives the French Mirage 2000s the possibility of learning to fight against a superior fighter - “Sometimes a battle begins even before meeting the adversary, when it is necessary to convince themselves that the opponent is not so terrible, and despite the gap of performance, the technological chasm, one is able to get the game.”

Raptor formation from the canopy.

The best aircraft for selfies.

The Lockheed Martin F-16 is fully loaded with a large single piece bubble canopy which specially features no forward bow frame. The pilot sits on a newly developed elevated 30° inclined ejection seat (to improve G tolerance) that, combined with the special bubble canopy, provide what is by far considered the best 360° visibility of any combat plane in the world. The perfect plane for top notch, cool “selfies”. By the way, the much loved GoPro cameras have taken this kind of photographs to a completely new level.

But, it isn’t just F16s that are capable of taking unordinary images. Below is a self-portrait photo (selfie!) taken by a fighter pilot of the French Air Force’s Escadron de Chasse 1/7 Provence, which is based at Saint-Dizier. The fighter jocks depicted in the ‘selfie’ is flying a Rafale C “omnirole” aircraft at an unknown, but surely very high altitude, with condensation trail clearly visible behind the jet. Rafales of the Armée de l’Air have been involved in Libya and Mali air wars.

A further iterative development of the warbird has been recently announced, the new F3R standard will include the integration of MBDA’s Meteor BVR air-to-air missile, the latest version of the Sagem AASM Hammer air-to-surface guided munition and the newest version of the Thales’s PDL-NG laser designation pod.

Though, not only Western fighter jocks love self-portrait shots (known as ‘selfie’).

This image shows a pilot of the People’s Liberation Army Naval Air Force, also known as the PLANAF, aboard a J-15 Flying Shark. You can spot the aircraft carrier on the right hand side. The naval aviator took the photo as he was overflying the Chinese Navy’s flagship. The J-15 naval fighter aircraft is the primary plane of China’s recent Liaoning aircraft carrier.

Chinese Selfie.

And then, finally, there’s the handheld selfie, the most challenging (And dangerous). The one taken by Lt. Commander Nate Barton, who flies the left-wing position with the world famous U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels demo team is a real “selfie”: it is not a screenshot taken by a GoPro camera, like the other ones taken by other pilots recently, but a photo shot with a phone from the cockpit of an F/A-18 Hornet! Barton, Blue Angel Three, took the image and posted the following tweet on Twitter -

“#BlueAngels are ready to fire it up over @NavalAcademy #upsidedown!”.

The ultimate selfie!

• Air Force One selects the 748
• USAF teaming up Raptors with F35s

The post The art of Mid-Air selfies appeared first on Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine.

Small Margins

The U-2 Dragon Lady. Notice its huge 31.4 m wingspan!

Introduced in 1957, the U-2 is remarkably still in use today. This puts it on the list of very few aircraft that has flown with the USAF for more than 50 years. It has a service ceiling of 21,000m and has therefore been very effective when surveilling the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam and Cuba. But how can it be able to fly this high? The answer is its light air frame, large wing span and big engines. The later model, TU-2S,  features the 84.5kN General Electric F118. This might not sound much, but since the whole U-2 only weighs 18.1 tons (max weight) the engine is perfect for its mission. The U-2 can fly for 12 hours without refueling, covering a distance of 10,300 kilometers with a cruise speed of 690 km/h and a max speed of 805. The speed that it had to reach to be able to climb to this altitude (ie the ideal speed) was only 19km/h under its stall speed. This means that if going 19km over the ideal speed the engine would stall, breaking the super fragile aircraft to pieces, and going under the limit would make it drop in altitude to a level where enemy anti-aircraft defences were within firing range. Therefore the pilots called this range of 19km/h the “coffin corner”.

Great glider becomes horrible lander

The aircraft is built to be easy to control at high altitudes, but at lower height the air has a higher density and so the U-2 gets very hard to control. It requires a lot of physical strength to steer it at the low altitudes of the runway, and due to its great glider capabilities, it floats over the runway, making the landing extremely hard. Usually there is a chase car and a second U-2 pilot assisting the pilot of the descending U-2 with information such as angle of descent and declining aircraft height. Since these cars need to have high speeds it is actually not any special-built Air Force vehicles but normal Chevrolet Camaros and Ford Mustangs.

The "unbalanced" aircraft

A U-2 at touchdown showing its "bicycle" landing gear.

The U-2’s landing gear is of a rather unusual configuration since it only features two wheels - one in the front and one in the back, making it look like a bicycle. Before taxiing the ground crew installs extra wheels called “pogos” under each wing who are then disconnected from the aircraft right after takeoff to reduce weight. When landing, the wings have a titanium skid at the very tip, protecting the wings from damage. When the aircraft has come to a complete halt, the ground crew once again installs pogos under the wings and begin to taxi the U-2 to its hangar. The rear landing gear is coupled to the rudder and so the pilot can provide some steering during taxiing.

The crew (ie the pilot since the U-2 is a one-seat aircraft) wears a special pressurized suit, just like on the Blackbird, in case of a pressure fall in the cockpit. The pilot can take both drink and food with him in small special containers when having long duration flights however many of the pilots choose not to, and can therefore lose as much as 6 pounds of body weight on a single mission. When the Dragon Lady was new, it was possible to bring a suicide pill when going on a mission, capable of killing you within 15 seconds. The reason was the danger of being shot down and captured flying over the USSR or Eastern Europe. However after an incident when a pilot almost swallowed his pill due to its resemblance to a piece of candy, it was removed.

50 years of U-2 development

As you would expect of an aircraft that has been in service for more than 50 years, there has been a wide variety of models and improvements of the Dragon Lady. Some of the most important improvements with their new designations are displayed in the table below:

A Dragon Lady without underwing pods indicating that it is a U-2H (not showed in table) or earlier.

End of the Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady

The competitors - A RQ-4 Global hawk (front) together with a two-seat U-2 (back).

As you can see the Dragon Lady was a beast at its introduction and is still a great aircraft that has served with the USAF as well as with NASA and CIA. It was a lifesaver for American intelligence gathering services during the Cold War and made it possible for the Americans to spy on the Russians well out of range of anti-aircraft defence. But as with all great inventions there will come something greater eventually. To the U-2 that might be the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk. The Global Hawk is an UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) which has a service ceiling of 18,000 meters and can stay in the air for 28 hours. This change, which was made public in 2001, is to start taking place in 2016. However some politicians have made complaints about this as they claim that the U-2 will still be more cost-efficient than the RQ-4.

Additional Reading:

• Read the first article of the series (about the Blackbird) here.
• Interested in naval warfare? Learn about different designations of vessels here!
• Read about a giant Russian bomber project from the 30's here.

Sources:

• Militaryfactory.com
• Pedlow and Welzenbach 1992
• Blackbirds.net
• LAtimes.com
• Flightglobal.com
• Invention & Technology Magazine, Volume 22 by Huntington, Tom
• www2.gwu.edu
• NYtimes.com

The post Remarkable airplanes – #2: Lockheed U-2 appeared first on Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine.