The Aviation Thread [Contains Lots of Awesome Pictures]

Defence Talk - China?s Aircraft Carrier Is A Highly Vulnerable Extravagance
Did you guys know about this?
I didn't know about this. :?

Seems it may run with Chinese equipped Sukhoi SU-33s.

Wiki - Shi Lang

It will be a big ass flag waver for the Chinese, but nothing much for the US Navy to be bothered about, as I suspect the SSNs will be pleased to have something new to play with and track.

:)

Old news, originally bought by a private concern to be turned into, get this, a casino, of course that was just a front but it was towed from the Ukraine to China almost a decade ago. It has since been in heavy refit since they had to install engines (none were installed), pretty much the entire interior (the hangar elevators were left open and the interior was exposed to the elements) and the Chinese have been ripping out all the old Soviet era weapons since as originally designed it was more heavy cruiser with a flat deck than an aircraft carrier.

This ship and her sister the Kuznetsov are the worst carriers in the last 50 years, only able to launch lightly planes since it doesn't have catapults or "jump jets".
Even after its long refit and removal of the Soviet equipment it will have lots of limitations compared to even Korean war era Midway's and refitted Essex class ships and modern small carriers like the French Charles De Gaulle. There are several ways to launch aircraft off a ship. The "best" is catapults and arrestor wires, it allows for large, heavily armed aircraft but it is expensive to maintain especially if you have a small number in service. Next is using a VSTOL type plane like the Harrier or F-35B preferably with a ski-ramp but that has range and payload implications but it is better than nothing. Lastly you have what this POS has, a ramp and arrestor wires, so you need a larger ship than if you went with VSTOL planes since you need a fairly long runway, a nice big space hogging ski ramp and arrestor wires, the down side is that the planes need a lot of room to take off, they can't carry much (the Russian's just put some air-to-air missiles on their planes since it was an air defense platform for the SSBN bastions) and you can't do simultaneous take off and landings.
 

That has been an entertaining tale of woe that has strained Russian/Indian relations. The ship itself was "free" but India was to pay $1.8 Billion US for the conversion from a Kiev to a real carrier and over a dozen carrier modified MiG-29's. It was also supposed to be finished and delivered by 2008, it is only now just starting the various trials.
The Russian's severely underbid the project, they didn't have plans for the ship (Ukraine had them either they didn't ask for them or Ukraine was not willing to give them up) and the yard doing the work didn't have the experienced ship yard workers to even do the job. After much debate and the Russian's threatening to stiff the Indians and just commission the ship into their own navy the Indians agreed to pay an ADDITIONAL $1.2 billion US (for a 30 year old Soviet era hull!). At the price the Indian's paid they could of bought a new midsized carrier from a European shipbuilder (Spain could of easily scaled up their Principe de Asturias) or a conventional version of the Charles De Gualle.
The ship will have the same problems as the Chinese carrier, regular planes launching off a ramp with no catapult, except on a smaller scale. Also that nice new ramp is just welded onto the original bow and I can't wait to see how that thing slams into the water in heavy seas.
 
Pew pew pew!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CH-47_Chinook#ACH-47A

The ACH-47A was originally known as the Armed/Armored CH-47A (or A/ACH-47A). It was officially designated ACH-47A by US Army Attack Cargo Helicopter and unofficially Guns A Go-Go. Four CH-47A helicopters were converted to gunships by Boeing Vertol in late 1965. Three were assigned to the 53rd Aviation Detachment in South Vietnam for testing, with the remaining one retained in the US for weapons testing. By 1966, the 53rd was redesignated the 1st Aviation Detachment (Provisional) and attached to the 228th Assault Support Helicopter Battalion of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). By 1968, only one gunship remained, and logistical concerns prevented more conversions. It was returned to the United States, and the program stopped.

The ACH-47A carried five M60D 7.62x51 mm machine guns or M2HB .50 caliber machine guns, provided by the XM32 and XM33 armament subsystems, two M24A1 20 mm cannons, two XM159B/XM159C 19-Tube 2.75 in rocket launchers or sometimes two M18/M18A1 7.62?51 mm gun pods, and a single M75 40 mm grenade launcher in the XM5/M5 armament subsystem (more commonly seen on the UH-1 series of helicopters). The surviving aircraft, Easy Money, has been restored and is on display at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.


Lots more photos and details here: http://translate.google.com/transla...ystems/&hl=en&langpair=auto|en&tbb=1&ie=UTF-8


vNyBM.jpg


https://pic.armedcats.net/v/vi/viper007bond/2011/07/01/94.jpg_w_550_h_353.jpg

 
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YX57S.jpg
 
YaZWL.jpg



Rollout of new B-25 bombers, 1942, Kansas City plant of North American Aviation. Kodachrome.

lotNA.jpg
 
Gotta make sure your missiles are locked in properly:

(okay, so it's a training missile, but still)

E861h.jpg
 
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I don't know, but isn't that jet just being brake by the wire? Maybe the missile wasn't mounted properly and continued its journey when the plane came to a sudden stop...
 
The movie Bullit (1969) IMDb, has possibly the most famous car chase in screen history.

It also has a pretty good airport chase, with lots of 1960's Boeings getting up close to "the cool one", Steve McQueen. :cool:

The Preamble: Part 1


The Chase: Parts 2 & 3



No CGI back then, just total coolness from himself. :cool:
 
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Any one know the story about the picture two posts above? How did the missile fire its self?

I don't know, but isn't that jet just being brake by the wire? Maybe the missile wasn't mounted properly and continued its journey when the plane came to a sudden stop...

This is exactly what happened. The Sidewinder wasn't mounted properly and got ripped off the rail when the plane was arrested. Here's another picture where you can clearly tell the rocket motor isn't firing:

attachment.php
 
By the look of the markings, that looks like a live round too... oops
 
Here is something you don't see every day. A P-2 Neptune, land based ASW plane being launched off the deck of an old straight deck Essex using JATO bottles.

P2V_launch_CVB-42_1951.jpg
 
By the look of the markings, that looks like a live round too... oops

You reminded me of a very serious incident on a US carrier in a documentary I saw ages ago, but I couldn't remember the name of the USS carrier.

Bit of Googling and:

USS Forrestal Incident 1967 (wiki)

Please be advised, this is a difficult video to watch during an incident where 134 serivicemen were lost.

 
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