The sky-high aircraft and aviation thread

Putin's latest shenanigans: Another fake from the Russian press.

Summary:

This one claims to show a satellite image of a Ukrainian AF jet shooting down the ill-fated MH17. The "Ukrainian fighter" pictured doesn't even match the one the Russians claim to have fired the missile and the photo puts MH17 50km West of the crash site.

This is what the Russians claim is MH17 in their image. The flashing is comparing the Russian news channel's "MH17" with a stock image of a Boeing 777 with the Boeing house livery. You can find the stock image the news team used for yourself - as Bellingcat noted, it is the very first result you get when you type "боинг вид сверху"^note Boeing top view into Russian Google images. Comme ci.

The Boeing one has "Boeing" written just forward of the front of the wing root, whilst the Malaysian Airline livery◊ is the word "Malaysian" over the wings.

This fake is so clumsy that I wonder if it was done in an excess of loyalty by an underling - it seems fairly amateurish for the boys from Yasenovo.

The Bellingcat open-source intelligence site is brilliant. It's run by the guy who used to run the Brown Moses blog (that debunked Sy Hersh's brainfart about Turkish sarin in Syria). Check them out. Clever bunch, and a joy to watch in action.

edited 15th Nov '14 9:06:08 AM by Achaemenid

According to the comments the Stock Boeing was a 767.

So both aircraft are the wrong type entirely.

767 indeed.◊

Tiny list of unusual aircraft, found via Imgur.

Know some of these, others I didn't.

Whatever the case is, the Stipa-Caproni may be the only plane cuter than the Yak-130

I love the looks of that Tacit Blue. Looks like a giant sized paper dart.

Since the picture in the gallery of the Stipa-Caproni is awful, here's a nice shiny one.◊

Embrace the cuteness.

Also the Aerocycle is probably the most hilariously unsafe object I have ever seen.

Ah, the Caproni-Stipa is wonderfully daft. Yes, in theory a ducted prop can provide increased performance but, as the good book says^* that book being The World's Worst Aircraft, placing a Tiger Moth in a fat tube doesn't cut it.

It looks like he's trying to fly a beer can

No Edgley Optica?

My favourite US Army assessment is the Aberdeen Proving Ground verdict on the Marmon-Herrington MTLS-1G14 export tank, after the original purchasers (the Royal Dutch Army) cancelled their order on account of being invaded by the Japanese.

This the thing you mean?

http://worldoftanks.com/en/news/21/The_Cheiftains_Hatch_MTLS/

Thing sure had a lot of guns hanging off of it.

Went to the air museum at March Field yesterday. They had an SR-71 Blackbird on display, which was pretty neat, but I was thrilled to see they had a Bell P-59 Airacomet, one of the most impressive jet fighters of World War II^note  Well no, it wasn't. The museum display's description placard preferred to state that the fighter provided valuable data and experience for later jet fighter designs, which I think is military historian for "The stupid thing didn't work very well."

Found this on wikipedia. It's probably Mi G's next bird:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan_LMFS

Which, if you paint it black, will look an awful lot like this:

http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2013/02/firefox-what-happened-to-clint-eastwoods-soviet-super-fighter-mock-up/

Those Russian articles at the bottom of the wiki page are a pain in the ass to read. I knew I should have studied the language more.

So that makes 3 new Russian fighters in development if you count the PAK-FA. The other being this new Mi G and whatever they're building the 3rd Su-47 prototype for.

...Hold on, if I'm reading this right the Russians want a single engined multirole jet. With multiple versions of said jet with at least a few being capable of vertical takeoff...

This is just too fucking rich

edited 17th Nov '14 4:26:22 PM by LeGarcon

Looks like a potential new partner to invest in the F-35!

I see Mikoyan didn't quite give up on the smexiness that is the Mig 1.44.

And chances are, it'll squash the F-35 like a bug in a fight. Just like the Mig-21 did to the Thud in Vietnam.

This article is a nightmare to parse. Translating didn't help because now it thinks the plane is actually a car.

Anyway, it seems to be mostly speculation. Not sure if they want some fat super armored plane to replace the Su-25, a light attack craft with vertical takeoff that can be launched from helicopter corvettes, or a super long range interceptor.

This whole thing is just weird. Would it be multiple versions of the same plane? A modular thing maybe? I really can't tell.

The LMFS is a ghost, no reports, pictures or articles aside from Russian Fan Wank...

A single engine stealth plane with vertical takeoff, a heavy CAS armament, and the ability to be launched from helicopter corvettes plus a massive range for intercepts is also a ghost?

God damn. We'll never catch up to Ivan at this rate.

^ I don't think the LMFS is single-engine. The Russians know better than to do that crap anymore. If it's based off the Mig 1.44 project it'll be a twin-engine bastard like the Mig-29 it's going to replace.

edited 17th Nov '14 5:56:25 PM by MajorTom

If they're smart enough to not use single engines why aren't we?

As with every design choosing one over the other often has little to do with "being smart" so much as the usual game of balancing out various design features. Might as well say designs like the Mustang were stupid when the P-38 existed.

Every design is an attempt at a balancing act with varying degrees of success.