Keith Thomson's Blog, page 9
August 11, 2014
Best Landing Ever—or Best Nap
Last month in Germany, a plane came in for an emergency landing and…
This just in: Video of same:
Related Link: Harrier crash at beach
August 9, 2014
The World's Largest Miniature Plane
I recently found out about radio-controlled model planes that are bigger than some actual planes—a growing trend. If you want info, here's the story I wrote for The Huffington Post. Below are links to tons of photos and videos. First, here's are some photos and flight video of the world's largest supermodel, a 1/9 scale C-17 with a 21-foot wingspan and four Jetcat P-120 turbine engines. Constructed primarily of balsa wood, it weights a
Another (relatively puny) C-17 model
Links to more photos of "giant scale" rc planes:
http://keiththomsonbooks.com/blog/supermodels
Laser Nose
If you thought trucks that shot lasers were cool…
…check out the Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser.
Basically it's a 747 with a high-energy (megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine) laser in its nose for the purpose of taking out enemy ballistic missiles.
In 2010, the Airborne Laser was sent up against two test missiles. It dispatched them both. Here's some video:
Yet the program was cancelled in 2011. Among other reasons, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) like the X-37B can do the same job for pennies on the dollar. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been testing its own airborne laser above B-1 bombers, and last week, the U.S. Air National Guard began testing similar lasers mounted on unmanned attack drones in North Dakota.
X-37B sends a ship to see Davy Jones
Related links: Captured Alien Spacecraft?
August 4, 2014
The Art of War
Flares are a countermeasure against heat-seeking missiles. They're also pretty:
Related Link: Once a Spy
August 2, 2014
This Week in Superhuge Model Planes
Below, photos of "giant scale" radio-controlled planes. If you want to learn specs or why the heck these exist, check out the story I wrote for The Huffington Post here.
July 31, 2014
UFO
This was an actual verifiable unPhotoshopped UFO photo, taken in international airspace in 2002. Then the craft was identified. Know what it is? There's a better view below. Scroll down past the filler to see it.
And now, a better view of the UFO…
It's a 747.
Related Link: My true Area 51 story
July 29, 2014
The Concordski
This is the Tupolev Tu-144, the world's first commercial supersonic transport aircraft (SST). Does it look familiar?
Yeah, it draws frequent comparison to the Concorde, which first flew in March 2, 1969. The Tu-144 first flew two months earlier, on the last day of 1968. Here are the two together. Could this be a case of industrial espionage?
As it happens, Sergei Pavlov, a KGB officer named who doubled as Aeroflot's representative in Paris, was arrested in 1965 while in possession of detailed plans of the Concorde's braking system, landing gear and the airframe. Earlier, another Soviet agent, Sergei Fabiew, was believed to have stolen the Concorde prototype plans. The Soviets countered that they would do no such thing, that the Tu-144 was yet another instance of advanced Soviet aviation technology, and that the affair smacked of a Western counterintelligence op.
At the 1973 Paris Air Show, the second production Tu-144, known as the Concordski, crashed, resulting in the deaths of the entire crew and eight French spectators. After just 53 flights and several additional failures, the entire passenger fleet was grounded, lending credence to the Soviets's claims that they had been the victims of a counterintelligence op: The Concorde team, aware of the KGB's intention of stealing the plans, printed dummy blueprints with deliberate design flaws.
A Tu-144 in Russia today
Related link: Once a Spy
July 27, 2014
The World’s Largest Miniatures
At the rate hobbyists are outdoing one another, actual airplanes will soon be thought of as mini versions of model planes. I only became aware of "giant-scale" radio-controlled planes recently (not sure how I could have missed them) when reporting on an rc fly-in near St. Louis. That story, which is here, has the basic facts and figures and dollar amounts. This post is largely a repository for pix and videos.
Before
After [for tons more like this, check out this guy's site. He's built around 30 supermodels.
An incredibly/painstakingly-detailed SR-71 cost more than $100,000 to make, a process chronicled in detail here.
No, not really. Maybe soon, though.
Here's a video of the world's largest RC plane -- not a happy ending, as the title suggests: are
Here's one of the B-36 shown being built above:
In the event, you still want to see more, here's more:
Related links: Blackbird; 7 Grams of Lead
July 25, 2014
July 23, 2014
Birdwatching 7/23/14
Ever spend a chunk of afternoon surfing aviation blogs when you're supposed to be writing a spy novel? Long story short, here's my afternoon's output:
Northrop F-5
B-1B
SR-71
Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
F-14 Tomcat
Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star
B-52
F-22 Raptor
Panavia Tornadoes
P-47
Boeing Bird of Prey
B-25
Related links: SR-71 Blackbird; Area 51; Supermodels (giant-scale rc planes)
