Siempre he considerado el vuelo como el sumum del trabajo en equipo, como la culminación del trabajo de muchos para la obtención de determinados resultados. Dicha impresión se encuentra perfectamente resumida en la conversación que sostienen Kenneth Kenny O’Donnell y el piloto del Dragon Lady que aparece en los primeros 45 segundos de este video.
En dicha conversación, el asesor de la Casablanca Kenny O’Donnell telefonea al piloto del U-2 que va a sobrevolar Cuba, con el fin de tratar de obtener imágenes sobre la retirada de los misiles cubanos. El tal Kenny, interpretado por Kevin Costner, le comenta que si algo va mal, los EEUU no podrán ofrecerle ningún tipo de protección, a lo que el piloto le contesta que cuando vuelas a esa altura, un millón de cosas pueden ir mal y depende de uno mismo, de su preparación y su fe, el salir de ella o no. No recuerdo la conversación punto por punto pero recuerdo el excelente sabor de boca que me dejó. Por cierto que quien no haya visto dicha película, 13 días, es una de las que recomiendo vivamente por cuanto tiene de histórico y por las escenas de vuelo, algunas de las cuales podéis apreciar en el video, realmente buenas.
Viene ésto a colación por la sencilla razón de que un desastre de proporciones cuasi cósmicas (al menos, yo me atrevería a definir así la pérdida de más de 1.400 millones de dólares en escasos segundos) puede depender y, de hecho, depende de los factores más peregrinos y las casualidades más inverosímiles. En el caso que nos ocupa, el accidente que sufrió el B-2 Spirit of Kansas, todo dependió de un poco de humedad en las tomas estáticas y dinámicas que proporcionaban los datos para el computador de vuelo. Podéis ver la secuencia de acontecimientos a continuación.
Este tipo de accidentes es lo que se conoce como Mishap A o accidente o incidente de aeronave con pérdida de vida(s) humana(s) y/o con daños económicos superiores al millón de dólares. Podéis ver el resumen de la investigación en este enlace:
http://usaf.aib.law.af.mil/B-2A_Andersen_23Feb08.pdf
El porqué los B-2′s despegan con el piloto automático activado queda abierto a las especulaciones que todos podamos hacer. El hecho cierto e innegable es que dicho proceder produjo, en febrero de 2o08, un golpe poderoso en el poder aeroespacial norteamericano, disminuyendo su capacidad de 21 a 20 bombarderos stealth. Y el motivo no pudo ser más humilde que un poco de humedad en determinado sitio. Quizás éso nos podría hacer reflexionar acerca de la fragilidad de los avances y de esa extraño equilibrio que existe en cada vuelo entre lo que va bien, lo que puede ir mal y de lo que no soy consciente.
“No queda sino batirnos…” – Arturo Pérez-Reverte
El segundo prototipo del PAk Fa ya ha volado, aunque no he podido encontrar ni videos ni fotos de momento. A ver si este foro que es tan majo se lo curra y nos presenta algo cuando lo haya. No es por abusar pero se agradecería.
Tengo un poco oxidado el cirílico, pero al final hay unas fotos -vía el ‘hangar de tj’-
http://sukhoi.org/news/company/?id=3939
Un saludo.
¿Golden Eagle para reemplazar a los F-5? Solo es un acercamiento, pero sería una alternativa al “abandonado” Mako:
http://www.infodefensa.com/?noticia=espana-y-corea-del-sur-firman-acuerdo-para-la-cooperacion-entre-sus-ejercitos-del-aire
Un saludo.
Uno por otro: que nos compren EFA y compramos T-50, en ese orden. A ver si así abrimos el mercado asiático.
Le veo cierta semejanza con el F-5: timon de profundidad, alas, cabina. También al F-16 en el timón de dirección y al F-18 en la prolongación de las alas hacia adelante.
Echo en falta otro motor, le daría más garantías aunque supusiera mayor coste de mantenimiento.
El padre es el Falcon, su madre el Hornet:
http://www.flightglobal.com/airspace/media/militaryaviation1946-2006cutaways/images/11667/kai-t-50-golden-eagle-cutaway.jpg
El fisico es el del padre, el corazón de la madre…
Un saludo.
El avión, a pesar de parecer un “refrito” ,es bonito. Según “campanadas” que uno ha oído por ahí tiene grandes posibilidades de volar en Talavera. El condicionarlo a la compra del Typhoon por Corea, del Sur, sería lo lógico ,igual de lógico que darle en los dientes a los italianos, que se lo han buscado,lo que no deja de tener su morbo.
Saludos
esto si que es stealth, lleva una carga útil de 75 g avelocidades de 80 km/h y no gasta combustible. Lo schinos nos lelvan la delantera en todo, si hay un guerra en la que haya que recurrir a piedras y palos nos superan tecnológicamente:
“Carrier pigeons have been retired by most armies. The last European country to do so was Switzerland, in the 1970s (at the same time it got rid of its bicycle units). China, however, has continued to maintain thousands of homing pigeons for military communications duty. A pigeon can carry up to 75 g (2.5 ounces) for several hundred kilometers (at speeds of about 80 kilometers an hour). The Chinese use them to carry coded messages to offshore island bases, and plan to use them in future conflicts where so much electronic jamming is used that carrier pigeons are the only reliable means of communicating.
Carrier pigeons have been used for thousands of years, but declined in usefulness as the telegraph was introduced in the mid-19th century, and radio in the early 20th. Despite that, carrier pigeons saw lots of use in the two World Wars, particularly in hilly areas that interfered with radio signals. Many nations found it cheaper to use carrier pigeons than radios or telephones.
Modern military radios can better cope with terrain and atmospheric problems, as well as jamming. But there are still some electronic jamming methods that can shut down all radios, although most nations are reluctant to use it (since it shuts down everyone’s radios.) The Chinese, however, consider the carrier pigeons as a backup device that might come in handy. “
Why Eurofighter Gets No Respect
March 7, 2011: Faced with more large cuts in its budget, Britain’s Royal Air Force fears the worst. Over a decade of cutting corners because of similar economy moves is catching up with RAF. For example, a recent government investigation revealed that a lack of spare parts for the new Eurofighter limited the amount of time pilots could spend in the air. This, in turn, led to only eight pilots being certified as qualified to perform ground attack duties in the Eurofighter. While the Eurofighter is mainly an air-superiority (“fighter”) aircraft, there is very little call for that sort of thing at the moment. Ground attack, on the other hand, is very much in demand. The RAF currently has 62 Eurofighters, an aircraft that will replace about 120 remaining Tornados.
Two years ago, Germany and Britain decided to cut back on the number of Eurofighters they will buy. Thus the final 37 Eurofighters Germany agreed to buy for its Luftwaffe (air force), will instead be offered for export. Germany would have preferred to just cancel the final 37 aircraft, but this would have resulted in over a billion dollars in cancellation fees. But the export option will hurt the Eurofighter project, as Germany will sell their 37 aircraft for whatever they can get, thus denying the Eurofighter consortium export sales.
Also in 2009, Britain decided to not take all of its third batch (or “tranche”, as they like to call it in Europe) of 88 Eurofighter Typhoon fighters. This will cost Britain $2 billion in increased maintenance costs and penalties. Britain will take 40 of the fighters from the third batch, and resell another 24 to Saudi Arabia. In effect, Britain is pulling out of the Eurofighter program, and cancelling 16 of the aircraft if was to have received from the third batch. The British government believes that 184 Eurofighters will be sufficient, and that it cannot afford any more than that.
Originally, Britain planned to buy 232 (Germany was to get 180, Italy 121, and Spain 87.) Britain already has 144 Eurofighters on order from the first two batches, and will end up with 184. There are currently 260 Eurofighter Typhoon fighters in service, four years after it first entered service.
Development of the Eurofighter began in the 1980s, and the first flight took place in 1994. Each aircraft costs over $120 million, including development costs. Current estimates indicate that about 600 will eventually be built. The Typhoon is a somewhat stealthy multi-role fighter. It is fast, maneuverable, and carries a lot of weapons. It also can be used for attack missions. This 23 ton aircraft will be the principal fighter in the air forces of Britain, Spain, Germany, and Italy. The Typhoon is closer in capability to the F-15, than the F-22, and is competing with the F-35 for many export sales. The Typhoon was recently purchased by Saudi Arabia, mainly to provide protection from Iran.
But some users, like Britain and Germany, see no urgent demand for the new Eurofighter. So when it comes time to make budget cuts, spare parts for the Eurofighter, and fuel to get pilots in the air for training, are among the first things to go.
¡Vaya tela! ¿De dónde sale esta noticia Felix?
Yo la he leído en Strategypage.
Pues si la delos ingleses te sorprende, verás esta:
“March 8, 2011: Two Sri Lankan Kfir jet fighters recently collided while practicing formation flying for the upcoming celebration of the Air Force’s 60′s anniversary. An autopsy of the 28 year old pilot, who failed to eject, found that the young man had suffered a heart attack. That was very unusual, but so is the Sri Lankan Air Force. ”
No sólo los golfistas los futbolistas caen presa del infarto… Lo que no sabemos es si el accidente fué por el infarto o éste por el susto…
Parece qu ele maremoto ha arrasado una de la sprincipales bases aéreas de Japon:
“The recent earthquake and tsunami (tidal wave) in Japan did considerable damage to the Japanese Matsushima Air Base at Miyagi (on the northeast coast of the main island of Honshu.) While the quake itself (the most powerful ever recorded in that area) did some damage, it was the seawater that hurt the most. The air base was hit by the 7.3 meter (23 foot) tidal wave. Among the aircraft hit with the wall of seawater were 18 F-2 fighters. Most of the other vehicles, and electronic support equipment on the base were also inundated. Most of this gear will be too expensive to repair, and thus a total loss. This may include several of the F-2s. About 20 percent of Japan’s 98 F-2s were stationed at Matsushima Air Base. Worse, the 21st Fighter Training Squadron at Matsushima was the site of most F-2 pilot training. This is going to be interrupted for months, if not longer.
The F-2 fighter is very similar to the F-16, uses much of the same technology, and has been in service for eleven years. Because of the Japanese policy of building high-tech weapons locally, the F-2 costs over $100 million each (more than twice as much as a comparable F-16E). Japanese pilots get a lot of air time to maintain their flying skills, but don’t get to fire weapons often. It was only four years ago that an F-2 dropped a live bomb for the first time. This is so because Japan has no training facility in its own territory for live bombings. Thus it’s only when Japanese warplanes are flown to foreign training areas, that they can they practice using real bombs. For this particular practice bombing, the Japanese F-2 aircraft flew to an American air base in Guam, in the Central Pacific.
This Japanese policy is nothing new. In the last sixty years, there have been only three times where Japanese warplanes dropped live munitions. The rest of the time, they practice with inert munitions, and simulated (by computer) bombs. Japanese aircraft have not been in combat since World War II, so there’s no way of knowing if their training practices have had an adverse effect on combat effectiveness. Still, the Chinese and Russians respect Japanese fighter pilots, because the increasingly frequent incursions into Japanese air space by Chinese and Russian air space are always met by fighters flown by what appear to be very skilled pilots.”
China amenaza a la India, pero los avidores tienen problemas con la altura:
“India believes that China now has five airfields in Tibet (Gongar, Pangta, Linchi, Hoping and Gar Gunsa) that are bases for military aircraft. India is also seeing more Chinese warplanes being based full time in Tibet. This was somewhat unexpected, and it’s all about thin air.
It was less than a year ago that, for the first time, Chinese J-11 jet fighters were seen training over Tibet. J-11s are the most modern Chinese made fighters. More than 200 have been built since they were introduced in the late 1990s, they are appearing in more unexpected places (like the Chinese naval air force). For a long time, the Chinese Air Force had no combat aircraft stationed in Tibet, except for some older (MiG-21 clones) J-7s that were flown in regularly, for temporary duty at major commercial airports. Some of these J-7s now appear to be there permanently.
The main reason for not stationing fighter squadrons in Tibet probably has to do with the high altitude of the area, and the expense of moving the large quantities of fuel and other supplies needed to maintain air units. There is only one rail line into Tibet (recently built) and few heavy duty truck roads. In all of Tibet, there are only 58,000 kilometers of roads.
China also has a serious problem in Tibet with altitude sickness among its troops. This illness occurs when people who grew up near sea level (most of the world’s population) move to altitudes greater than 2,100 meters (7,000 feet). Below that, the air contains 21 percent oxygen. Above that, the weaker air pressure lowers the amount of oxygen the body can absorb. That produces “altitude sickness”, manifested by shortness of breath, disorientation, nosebleeds, nausea, dehydration, difficulty sleeping and eating, headaches and, if you stay up there long enough, chronic disability.
The average altitude of Tibet is 4,100 meters (14,000 feet). Most people can adapt, sort of, to the altitude sickness. Some can’t. But the Tibetans have evolved to deal with it. The majority of Chinese soldiers coming to the Tibetan highlands (which is most of Tibet) require a few days, or weeks, to acclimate. But they are still susceptible to altitude sickness if they exert themselves, especially for extended periods. This makes Chinese military personnel in Tibet much less effective, especially in an emergency or combat.
Researchers recently discovered that most Tibetans evolved in the last 3-6,000 years to deal with this problem. It appears that the most of the people moving to, and staying in, highland Tibet, where those with the rare genes that made them resistant to altitude sickness. These people became the dominant population in Tibet, mainly because they were healthier at high altitudes. Nearly all Tibetans have this gene (which controls how their red blood cells operate, to maintain sufficient oxygen levels). Very few lowland Chinese have these genes.
The Chinese military is spending a lot of time, effort and money trying to solve this problem. Chinese troops operating at the highest altitudes (4,500 meters, on the Indian border) now have access to exercise rooms (one of 1,000 square meters and another of 3,000 square meters) that are supplied with an oxygen enriched atmosphere. Troops exercising in these rooms increase the oxygen in the blood, and are much less likely to get hit with a case of altitude sickness. Thus the troops can stay in shape without getting sick. For border patrols at high altitudes, troops usually carry oxygen bottles and breathing masks.
So far, the Chinese have only been able to limit the attrition from altitude sickness, not eliminate it. Given the alertness required of aircraft maintenance personnel, and pilots preparing for flights, plus the logistical problems, the air force has declared Tibet fit to visit, but not to base aircraft units in. Still, the Chinese air force may one day have to fight in the air space over Tibet, so some training up there is in order.”
Si algún técnico cualificado tiene interés en un empledo bien pagado en un clima cálido y soleado, BAE está buscando algunso hombre buenos:
“Saudi Arabia recently bought 72 Typhoon jet fighters from Britain. The manufacturer, BAE Systems, is energetically recruiting qualified maintenance personnel to keep these aircraft flying. Few Saudis will be recruited, most of these technicians will come from the West. Why is that? “
Israel fabricará UAVs en Azerbayán para evitar las reticencias de algunos musulmanes a comprar en Isarel:
“Azerbaijan and Israeli firms have formed a joint venture to build Israeli designed UAVs in Azerbaijan. Two models of UAVs will be built. One is a lightweight model, the Orbiter 2. This one weighs 9.5 kg (21 pounds) and its battery powered motor can keep it in the air for about three hours per sortie. Maximum altitude is 3,200 meters and top speed is 120 kilometers an hour. But since the UAV can’t operate more than 80 kilometers from the controller, top speed is rarely needed. The Oribiter is launched by a catapult. It lands via parachute, and is waterproof and floats. One of the three UAVs each system has can then be launched while the other has its battery replaced, and the parachute repacked, and be ready for another sortie in under ten minutes. The day/night vidcam transmits video back to the handheld controller, where the images can be stored. The Orbiter can also be used at sea, and Israel uses them on some of its patrol boats.
The other model is the Aerostar TUAV (Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). This is a 210 kg (460 pound) aircraft that has a 50 kg (110 pound) payload, and endurance of up to twelve hours. It can operate up to 200 kilometers from the operator, and at altitudes of up to 5,800 meters (18,000 feet).
By manufacturing these UAVs in Azerbaijan, a Moslem country, Israel will be able to sell these UAVs to other Moslem nations (which normally will not buy anything from Israel.)”
A la larga, lo barato sale caro:
“India and Russia are once more feuding over the cost of Russian upgrades. India wants to modify its Russian made Su-30 fighters to carry the Indian made 2.5 ton BrahMos missile. While India would not release numbers, it appears that the Russian manufacturer wanted much more money to do the job than an Indian military aviation company. When the Indians told the Russians that the Indian company would get the job, the Russians said this would be illegal, because it would violate a technology transfer clause in the Su-30 sales contract. The Indians called this nonsense, and simply another example of Russian price gouging. This is not the first time the Russians have done this, and not just with aircraft. The Indians are not amused,
For example, last year, India agreed, after five years of haggling, to pay Russia an additional $1.3 billion to have the Russian aircraft carrier Gorshkov refurbished to Indian specifications. The original deal was the for about a billion dollars. But once the Russians got to work, things got complicated, and out of control. Indians were not happy with the cost increase.
Because of these problems, India is increasingly turning to Western suppliers. Israel, in particular, has received a lot of Indian business in the last decade. More Western firms are now competing for Indian business, as It’s clear that Russia no longer has a lock on these deals. During the Cold War, Russia got most of India’s arms import business. The Russian stuff was cheaper than Western models, and good enough to deal with the primary foe (Pakistan.) But now the major threat is from China, and the Chinese have bought or stolen most Russian military technology, and even improved on some of it. So India is looking for better weapons, and more straightforward business practices.”
Mira si todo importa. Los pilotos de la RAF que bombardean Libia, sólo cobrarán el plus de peligrosidad si los libios les derriban:
“Britain is pleading poverty for not paying their Typhoon and Tornado pilots in Libya the $48 a day “dangerous duty” bonus that pilots receive in Afghanistan, or anywhere they are getting shot at. This has not helped pilot morale, because the dangers from ground fire are actually higher in Libya than in Afghanistan. While the Taliban have some old Russian heavy (14.5mm) anti-aircraft machine-guns, a few 23mm automatic cannon, and occasionally some shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles, none of these weapons can reach the altitude (over 6,000 meters/19,000 feet) that NATO fighter-bombers operate.
Libya is a different story. There, the hostile government forces have far more anti-aircraft weapons than the Taliban, including some larger anti-aircraft missiles that can hit high-flying fighters. While NATO, especially American, aircraft have gone in and found many (hopefully all) the Libyan missile radars, and many of the missile launchers, there’s still the possibility that some of these high-altitude missiles could still be put into action. NATO aircraft carry countermeasures against these missiles, but these devices don’t make you absolutely missile-proof. You are still at risk, more at risk than you would be in Afghanistan, and $48 a day poorer.
The Royal Air Force RAF) says it is constantly monitoring the situation. This apparently means that if a NATO aircraft gets shot down by Libyan missiles, the RAF will start paying the thousand or so dollars a day that the bonuses would cost. “