Daily Mail (sorry) pics
Not that the incident itself is of any importance of course (plenty of "yer we shuld of shot it down" posts on other forums) but, wow, what a beautiful aircraft.
Loads of Tu-160 hardware porn on YouTube, one example here :)
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Daily Mail (sorry) pics
Not that the incident itself is of any importance of course (plenty of "yer we shuld of shot it down" posts on other forums) but, wow, what a beautiful aircraft.
Loads of Tu-160 hardware porn on YouTube, one example here :)
Interesting that they're still testing our response times.
A gliding instructor of mine recalled an incident when he was doing a cross country flight. Gliders are legally allowed through military airspace, although you'd be foolhardy to do so without at least radioing that you're entering. So, he duly radioed the airfield to ask for clearance. The airfield granted it, with a request that they could use the opportunity to practice a fast response operation. They were flying fairly close to the airfield so he and his P2 (think co-pilot) could see the two Eurofighters taxiing. Apparently the speed at which they responded to the scramble was scary, and that it's a sight suddenly seeing two top of the line fighter jets bearing down on you at a few hundred mph :D
Personally I wouldn't be surprised If we give them a few extra seconds just to throw their analysis off.
(on a side note, a scramble from Conningsby is supposed to be under 4 minutes)
Just sub watching. I think they do it every couple of weeks.
- Who's up there?
+ Cougar, Merlin, Maverick and Goose.
- Great. Maverick and Goose.
just for the record....
the Russian's are using these superb aircraft to spy out more business/football clubs etc to buy
To be honest the RAF must be welcoming the Russians with open arms. With ongoing defence cuts, strategic bombers floating around gives the RAF a reason to maintain interceptors and patrols.
just wish they could get the Blackjack and Bear to visit some Uk air shows.
I'm surprised that you could pick a glider up on radar (without putting the sensitivity so high there's a lot of clutter) as I didn't think they had much of a radar return?Quote:
Originally Posted by Whiternoise
With that huge wingspan?Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerrard
Yeah, but they're mostly built from very lightweight materials and, bar the wingspan, are built with as low a profile as possible to reduce drag.
= Low radar reflection
I came across this article last night when I got home and ended up reading up more on the Tu160... awesome plane! Nice to know it's still being used :)
My understanding was that the (relatively) newer gliders are made from glass reinforced plastic (or similar) which doesn't affect radar waves, which is why aircraft use GRP as covers for various radar devices (eg, nose cones). Remove all that from a glider and there's very little left to reflect radar! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by kalniel
How does carbon fibre effect radar? You could build the whole super structure on a glider from that with a fibreglass skin. Leaving you with probably just a few KG of metal in there for fixings etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerrard
If carbon fibre was to be picked up on radar, you could always use kevlar in your GRE/GRP (glass reinforced epoxy), which I'm pretty sure wouldn't be and would still be very strong :)
Even though it's skirting our airspace it's nice to see a Blackjack up in the air to be honest, it's usually the Bears they use for excersises like this.
Radar devices use a wide range of wavelengths to detect objects, different materials reflect diferent wavelngths. During the various conflicts in which the US deployed stealth aircraft, it was found that some naval radar systems could detect stealth quiet easily.
The White Swan is one of the most beautiful combat aircraft ever made. Ten of the eleven Tu160 aircraft in Ukranian hands were destroyed and it would have been nice if a few had ended up in Museums! :(
Seems a waste to turn an expensive aircraft into scrap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-VJCZCx-pk
AFAIK the plane was over international waters and the Russians have been doing this for yonks. Even now the US is probably doing the same and you only have to look at the shooting down of flight 007(a US RC135 was suspected to be nearby) to see this has been happening for decades.
Our submarine fleet(and the US and French ones) frequently shadow the Russian submarines and their surface fleet so why people are making a big deal of this I don't know!!
The comments in the Daily Fail article are hilarious!!
Great, lets shoot down the aircraft so we can all have a nice nuclear winter soon. If the UK and Russia wanted to attack other they would not be using manned aircraft flying near their territory would they!! It would be more likely to be an SLBM,ICBM,cruise missile or a long range stand off missile.
It's not so much that they don't have a radar cross section (just about everything does), it's that a lot of radar systems are soft programmed to ignore anything below a certain speed. That way they don't scramble jets when a flock of geese is spotted (it happened during WWII). I imagine the cross section is pretty small too, the only metal in most gliders is the basic tubular structure that's covered in fibreglass.
Plastic/Wood/Cloth are in general pretty invisible to radar though, radomes are typically covered in plastic so that tells you a lot! So the old wooden gliders probably are invisible to radar. There have been cases where people have landed gliders in airfields and the controllers have literally not seen them coming either visually or on-screen. If you fly through controlled airspace you still need to radio your position as well as the fact that you're a glider. I'm guessing they'll track you if you identify yourself...
Nowadays people who are really serious about going cross country fit their gliders with transponders so that they're picked up automatically. It's being discussed as a possible legal requirement in the future too as well as fitting devices like FLARMs.
im pretty sure that british fly in to russian airspace to with exactly the same perpose as stated here, just russians arent fused to report it so much
They are probably just trying to frighten Boris Berezovsky :D Like has already been said, The Russians built some great stuff during the CCCP.
All countries do this kind of thing, It just seems that the UK and USA cannot leave the cold war where it belongs - In the past.
Lovely looking aircraft for sure, but is it just me or does it look a lot like the American B1?
http://www.deroeck.co.uk/plane-pictu...er-(84)-09.jpg
I would read this thread:Quote:
Originally Posted by Tumble
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread199317/pg1
didnt want to start a new thread, soo
oops
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-9oW...layer_embedded
totally unrelated
Russian magic wand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbG75akOvBo&fmt=18
my ...Quote:
Originally Posted by Flibb
SWEET....speaking as a russian
I spent a few hours looking through the Russian section of militaryphotos.net there are some great photos an vids there. I always had an interest in Russian military kit, dating back to the cold war and the air and sea intercepts. Would love to visit Russia one day.Quote:
Originally Posted by Georgy291
I could rant on for hours about the quasi-Cold-War sillyness of the situation, and how the Tu-160 is ****ing awesome but an irrelevance in the ICBM age- but I won't do that. Instead I'll just post this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGLRoBSydJ0&NR=1
I saw the MIG29 OVT at Farnborough and it was one of the most amazing air displays I have ever seen.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flibb