The A220 program, now owned by Airbus, still isn't in the green yet. It's got years of production to go to manage to become cash positive per frame. I don't see Airbus wanting to put any additional development work into it to make a new revision for the military. Heck, there's a project plan that's ...
Jump to postEntirely unsubstantiated, but I noted on a twitter thread on this incident, someone posted a cropped screenshot of a partial maintenance listing for the aircraft in question indicating that the thurst reversers were listed as INOP for the flight. I speculate that the flight crew may have discovered ...
Jump to postIf they have ANY sense at all, they'll spend the extra few bucks it takes to expand the deck edge elevators enough to carry larger fighters to at least give them flexibility on what they procure in the future to fly off of them (and potentially retrofit to the Vikrant in it's first maintenance avail...
Jump to postChina is not going to run out of boats. It is a well known fact that much of their ferry fleet (that is continually being expanded in public/private partnerships) is designed for dual use as what is essentially serviceable RO/RO transports. They are pumping them out at a fantastic rate and show no s...
Jump to postThere's only one thing that will prevent Taiwan from being rapidly overrun by China, and that's a significant second-strike capability featuring WMDs that China can not easily neutralize. Anything less than that is going to cost a ton of lives, lots of destroyed equipment, massive amounts of money, ...
Jump to postSK industry HEAVILY embraced digital engineering and prototyping years ago and has gotten really good at it as a result. From what we are seeing about the prototypes and their performance, it seems that there aren't a lot of unexpected issues so far. One thing that we don't know is their appetite fo...
Jump to postSo India wants to build a 6th Gen compatible variable cycle jet engine... They don't have a high mach wind tunnel. They don't have a high altitude test facility. They don't have the experience in applied material science in constructing the types of structures needed in a CURRENT generation jet engi...
Jump to postIt's in the main lobby of the terminal in a corner, opposite the helo desk. Oddly enough, KNEW has an FIS for international passenger processing, so the Jamaica flight can clear on arrival. Personally, I wish that they had a flight to Shreveport as I'm tired of making that drive on the regular for w...
Jump to postIn case anyone might be interested, while at KNEW, New Orleans Lakefront Airport today, I noted newish signage from "City Jet" claiming that they would be starting passenger servive from KNEW to Houston, Dallas Fort-Worth and Birmingham. This is not reflected on their webpage, flycityjet.c...
Jump to postAir Force: We have decided that we want this new advanced engine for our fighters. Congress: How much will the program cost? Air Force: $$$$ Congress: Wow, that's a lot of money. We think it needs to wait. Air Force (to itself) How do we get what we want without resorting to cannibalizing other thin...
Jump to postIt feels like, to me, that the Air Force is both bowing to the realities that they are now facing with the "pivot to the pacific" and having slightly loser purse strings in congress to support it. Supporting any sort of military activity in the pacific will push the refueling assets to the...
Jump to postMy father was in the USAF for a 4 year during the Korean conflict then went on to a 30+ year career in the airline maintenance industry. During the last 20 years of his life, he fought skin caners characteristic of long term sun exposure and eventually died from metastasizing prostrate cancer. While...
Jump to posta 7% increase in range and thrust won't make a huge difference for the A model. The C will enjoy the range to be sure, but the B model will be the biggest winner as it's the most restricted in range and performance. That should be a notable performance and capabilities upgrade for users all over the...
Jump to postI managed to find a diagram at nola.com (the old times-Picayunne newspaper website referencing the project... https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/1/48/1489ba32-0f81-11ed-b0da-dbe42af7545a/62e449eed6a0b.image.jpg?resize=620%2C500 This appears to be ...
Jump to postOver the long run, Poland won't really care if Germany won't sell them more Leopards (or the new Panthers). They are getting VERY close with the South Korean arms industry. I will not be surprised to see Poland be the first customer for the KF-21 in Europe as a result of this relationship. In additi...
Jump to postGiven all the warts, bulges, panels and other oddities that you often find on these electronic surveillance and patrol craft, it isn't absolutely beyond the realm of sanity to imagine that a lower fuselage bulge could be created that could house an ASW cruise missile or other equipment. Granted, for...
Jump to postFull video from inside here . Warning : might be disturbing. I'm afraid to ask, but what caused the movement after the phone initially came to rest? A few seconds after the fire is on the screen with the stick(?) In the foreground. I didn't think the cameraman would've held on to the phone the whol...
Jump to postVega is really proving to be a problem child for Arianespace... Which is somewhat ironic since it was designed to be a relatively simple and cheap launcher. I guess it is just one more proof that 'simple' and 'cheap' just don't belong in space. Add that to the Ariane 6 delays and ESA is looking at ...
Jump to postPoland sounds like a much better partner than Indonesia. Might Poland take over from unreliable Indonesia in this project? Poland would make a good partner because they would be happy with the tech transfer and not demand an unfair share of parts production. France and Germany by comparison would s...
Jump to postThe US and Canada did develop the ADATS (MIM-146) for essentially the same role. It is an octuple missile (and secondary 25mm cannon in one configuration) platform that was designed to be mounted on the M113A2, and later the Bradley with a few other platforms. Canada did actually deploy a small numb...
Jump to postI'm still disappointed that they didn't bother with a ski-jump for the two aviation gator carriers. The advantages of having one are non-trivial and the excuse of planned vertical shore landings needing an extra helo landing point is pure fantasy with the expected survivability in a contested landi...
Jump to postI suspect that they were trying to hit any of the fully armed and fueled bombers prior to take-off. Ukraine has demonstrated that they have good intelligence on a lot of Russian military operations and would have likely known that the next raid was being prepared. As they stated in a release, at lea...
Jump to postI'm still disappointed that they didn't bother with a ski-jump for the two aviation gator carriers. The advantages of having one are non-trivial and the excuse of planned vertical shore landings needing an extra helo landing point is pure fantasy with the expected survivability in a contested landin...
Jump to postThey were first deployed in the 1970's to provide the West German ground forces with AA defence that could keep up with their armoured units. In 2022, they had been out of service for 10 years, like most (even the US) NATO forces, this kind of system had been neglected, as in phased out/not replace...
Jump to postUnderstood, thedrive.com had previously reported on a small number having been delivered many months ago and a video surfaced of one in action. My point is that it, or something very much like it, is going to be the near-term best fit for the task at hand. I feel that a better, future, solution will...
Jump to postA couple of points to what I was saying: 1) Not every cell tower in the country will need a radar. So far, the drones that we're talking about have a relatively limited range. In reference to Ukraine, they would need to cover the border area with Russia and Belarus in addition to some edge area. Yes...
Jump to postWe're vastly overthinking this. We need to keep the costs significantly lower, effectiveness higher, and also keep things more in the realm of possibility. There are high points with decent visibility all over developed countries: Cell phone towers. They are typically spaced about one to three miles...
Jump to postAnd, in most of those situations that don't call for stealth, you can use FAR cheaper airframes than any of the current 4.5 gen aircraft. A mix of F-35 and militarized T-7 red hawks or other current light fighters could cover all the low intensity conflicts you can think of while being sufficient fo...
Jump to postI believe that the final solution that was considered the most promising was the Rapier. It died with the XB-70.
Jump to postI mean, if we're really getting into pie in the sky thinking, why don't we kill two birds with one stone? Let's just build a 767-400 with 4 x PW1000G GTF engines for the KC-Y AND the E4-B replacement?!?! It'll meet the new engine emission standards, give ample space for cargo and fuel, and have mode...
Jump to postOn engine choices, what about a variant of the PW1000G with an even smaller fan than the 1200/1700? That could bring the bypass ratio down to something more appropriate to the application. Given the fact that it's a GTF, it might be flexible enough to make the concept work without there being a mass...
Jump to postOr broker the same deal that the Israelis did as they seem to have significantly more control over their F-35s than most other countries...
Jump to postIn my opinion, there will be three distinct 6g platforms: high end manned, fully autonomous unmanned, and loyal wingman semi autonomous platforms. The manned platform and fully autonomous platforms will be drastically more expensive than the loyal wingman semi autonomous platforms, but all will be n...
Jump to postEveryone likes the new shiny plane, until they get a really good handle on the price tag of getting it to do what they want it to do...
Jump to postUnless GE can work some materials science and mechanical wizardry, there's just not a way of putting an AETP engine in the F-35 that is enough of an improvement and also financially viable enough to justify its existence. A PIP to the existing F-135 that takes advantage of the last two+ decades of a...
Jump to postWhat is it that a modestly upgraded B-52 can't do going forward that an all-new platform can that is going to cover it's planned mission set? It is a stand off cruise missile launcher and a permissive airspace heavy bomber. Anything that large won't be stealthy enough to matter. Anything much smalle...
Jump to postI suspect that it is rapidly becoming apparent that Turkey will be buying the Rafale at some point as it will be the only worth while option. I don't see Turkey's administration wanting to be beholden to China for anything as important as fighters. France is willing to sell the Rafale to almost anyo...
Jump to postWhile there are competing upgraded engine projects for the F-35, I still see the only real answer as being an upgraded F-135 that has enhanced durability, a modest SFC reduction of, at best, 10%, and perhaps a very slight thrust bump. Going with any other engine that's even being considered excludes...
Jump to postMy take on the environmental impact of the Boom Overture aircraft: The existence of a supersonic transport between big cities may be attractive enough for the "super rich" to be willing to fly on them instead of using their own private aircraft. If a single overture flight can prevent four...
Jump to postA quick look at RR's engine portfolio shows that their most recent development in the 15-20K lb range is the Pearl10X that was destined for the latest Dassault Falcon. The Pearl 700, an engine in the same range, is/was destined for the Gulfstream 700. Given that a fair chunk of the staff at Boom are...
Jump to postIt depends on how much they want to be dependent on US export restrictions. I suspect that they will still try to get an engine free of US restrictions at some point.
Jump to postYou still need to have your crews fly them often to retain their currency on the platform. You can fly holes in the sky doing nothing and effectively wasting money, or, you can use them for refueling, get the same hours on the frame and also keeping up to date.
Jump to postF-16XL as is had superior maneuverability at altitude to the F-16 and F-15. It never needed canards or thrust vectoring, just more thrust. Also, the current F-16 blocks 50 and above weighs only 500 lbs less than the XL. Talk about a pig. Where did you learn the F-16XL has better maneuverability? Ca...
Jump to postThere are, to my knowledge, four paths: 1) Buy the existing C-130 model with its latest upgrades. 2) Buy the KC-390 3) Buy the C-2 at a likely very high cost 4) Develop their own platform. To reduce costs, they could do something akin to the C-27J Spartan but patterned on the A400. So, a scaled down...
Jump to postI don't think that four turbofans meets the "must have four turboprop engines" requirement either...
Jump to postChina has three major hurdles to cross: They need to master sustained emals operation with their full variety of aircraft. They need to get their indigenous carrier aircraft through development and into sustained high frequency operations. They need to get the logistics tail for a full carrier strik...
Jump to postMost militaries only operate and maintain the minimum equipment they need, usually due to budget constraints. A few writers at DailyKos, of all places, have continuing in-depth coverage which has been excellent. This was an amusing note from today: Got that? The entire active U.S. Army has 330 arti...
Jump to postOnce you've gotten to damage mitigation and fire fighting, you're past a mission kill level for the asset. I'm focusing on keeping the vessel in the mission.
Jump to postAs with all things naval, it comes down to three things: Evasion, Targeting and finally magazine depth. A CVN isn't going to evade the ever present eyes in the sky, unless we violate our own policies on orbital debris and take out their intel sats. If we do that, so will they, then everyone is blind...
Jump to postunpopular opinion. i found them clunky and lumbering. takeoffs seemed to struggle ,esp at altitude. Byproduct of a short and swept back wing. Once at cruise, the 727 would "smoke" just about everything. ATC will confirm that! While its certainly possible that you're privy to special infor...
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