Happy Birthday: Aircraft

[Lordroel]

Happy birthday to:

58 years ago, company test pilots Richard Johnson & Val Prahl took the GD F-111 Aardvark into the air for the first time (Dec 21, 1964). The F-111 with its slender fuselage, side-by-side seats, and swing wings was a radical design for the time.

[Lordroel]

Happy birthday to:

58 years ago, test pilot Bob Gilliland made the first flight of the Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird at Palmdale, CA (Dec 22, 1964). The Mach 3 SR-71 became a symbol of US aviation prowess, and to this day, remains one of the greatest aircraft designs of all time

[jemhouston]

If the SR-71 first flew today, it would be impressive. Skunk Works rarely missteps.

[pandion]

The VL Humu. The project started in 1942 (when Brewster was heading down the drain...) and the aircraft - they built one only; the major design modifications wer a wooden wing and a M-63 engine (as the plan was to power them with motors salvaged from downed Russian planes!) - flew in 1944. It turned out overweight and underpowered.

I think the Germans captured significant stocks of Soviet aero engines during their advance in 1941-42 that was supplied to Finland. Apart from the M-63 for the Humu the Finns also did a job on their MS-406'es, installing the Klimov M-105P in some of them (same as in the LaGG-3). This boosted available power from 860 hp to 1 100 hp. They were named "LaGG-Moranes". Generally speaking, the Finnish aero industry was allowed to run wild, developing ingenious fighters (Myrsky) instead of concentrating on repairs and overhaul of the existing stock of aircraft. But of course, designing was much more fun than maintenance ...

[Belushi TD]

If the SR-71 first flew today, it would be impressive. Skunk Works rarely missteps.

Mainly because they have enough budget and a lack of congressional pressure to deliver on a set date so they are able to test until they figure out the various problems that are encountered.

Belushi TD

[Lordroel]

Happy birthday to:

48 years ago, test pilot Col. Charles C. Bock, Jr., along with assistant pilot Col. Emil Sturmthal, and flight test engineer Richard Abrams, made the first flight of the Rockwell B-1 Lancer from the Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California (Dec 23, 1974).

[M.Becker]

Look what Soviet Santa pulled out of his bag on December 24th 1982:

The AN-124 Ruslan heavy strategic military transport airplane capable of carrying up to 150 tons of cargo took off from the factory aerodrome in the Sviatoshyn region.

[Lordroel]

Happy birthday to:

50 years ago, 120 B-52s, supported by 113 tactical aircraft, attacked targets in and around Hanoi and Haiphong during Operation Linebacker II (Dec 26, 1972). The Boxing Day strike was the single largest B-52 raid in history.

[Simon Darkshade]

Not really a birthday then, is it? An anniversary, certainly, but close to every dashed day is an anniversary of some sort of development or occurrence in aviation.

[Lordroel]

Happy birthday to:

75 years ago, the Mikoyan–Gurevich MiG-15 “Fagot” made its maiden flight over Ramenskoye Aerodrome, Moscow (Dec 31, 1947). Powered by an unlicensed copy of the Rolls-Royce Nene engine, the small, agile, fast-climbing MiG came as a rude shock to the West in Korea.

[Lordroel]

Happy birthday to:

33 years ago, the Sukhoi Su-30 "Flanker-C" made its maiden flight (Dec 31, 1989). A multirole derivative of the Su-27 family, the Su-30 was specially developed for long-range, long-endurance air-to-air and air-to-surface operations.

[Lordroel]

Happy birthday to:

12 years ago, the Chengdu J-20 "Mighty Dragon" made its first flight (Jan 11, 2011). In March 2017, J-20 became only the world's third operational fifth-generation air superiority fighter (after the F-22 & F-35).

[Belushi TD]

It has always struck me as odd how first the USSR, and now the Chinese, happen to field planes that look suspiciously like previously fielded US planes. MiG-29 looks a great deal like the F-15, the J-20 looks much like the F-35 and so forth.

I know there's espionage involved, but how much of it is secret stealing, and how much of it is "similar problems demand similar solutions working from similar tech"?

Belushi TD

[Poohbah]

It has always struck me as odd how first the USSR, and now the Chinese, happen to field planes that look suspiciously like previously fielded US planes. MiG-29 looks a great deal like the F-15, the J-20 looks much like the F-35 and so forth.

I know there's espionage involved, but how much of it is secret stealing, and how much of it is "similar problems demand similar solutions working from similar tech"?

Belushi TD

Yes.

[Philistine]

The J-20 looks like the F-35?

[Johnnie Lyle]

It has always struck me as odd how first the USSR, and now the Chinese, happen to field planes that look suspiciously like previously fielded US planes. MiG-29 looks a great deal like the F-15, the J-20 looks much like the F-35 and so forth.

I know there's espionage involved, but how much of it is secret stealing, and how much of it is "similar problems demand similar solutions working from similar tech"?

Belushi TD

Yes.

Not just “ similar problems demand similar solutions working from similar tech,” but following a prototype.

Any given problem is infinitely easier to solve if you know it can be solved; seeing someone else’s prototype isn’t just telling you the problem can be solved, it actively gives you hints on how to solve it. Why squander a line of development you know works?

[Poohbah]

It has always struck me as odd how first the USSR, and now the Chinese, happen to field planes that look suspiciously like previously fielded US planes. MiG-29 looks a great deal like the F-15, the J-20 looks much like the F-35 and so forth.

I know there's espionage involved, but how much of it is secret stealing, and how much of it is "similar problems demand similar solutions working from similar tech"?

Belushi TD

Yes.

Not just “ similar problems demand similar solutions working from similar tech,” but following a prototype.

Any given problem is infinitely easier to solve if you know it can be solved; seeing someone else’s prototype isn’t just telling you the problem can be solved, it actively gives you hints on how to solve it. Why squander a line of development you know works?

To steal from one is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

[Belushi TD]

The J-20 looks like the F-35?

Sorry... Looks like a combination of the F-22 and F-35. My bad. Somehow lost a chunk of edit.

Belushi TD

[M.Becker]

Lot's of birthdays on the 15th to choose from.



So a happy one to the French fast medium bomber Lioré et Olivier LeO 45. In service from 1938-57.

[Lordroel]

Happy birthday to:

49 years ago, company test pilot Phil Oestricher took the prototype General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon up for its first "official" test flight (Feb 2, 1974). The legend was born.