In a first for Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), No. 82 Wing Training Flight fighter pilot Squadron Leader Daniel Grealy has flown 4000 hours on F/A-18 aircraft. The milestone, achieved on May 23, 2022 at RAAF Base Amberley, includes 1500 hours on F/A-18A/B Hornets and 2500 hours on F/A-18F Super Hornets. According to a Royal Australian Air Force news release, while he is not the first pilot...
Australian company to restart production of the iconic Albatross flying boat with the improved G-111T Variant – The Aviation Geek Club
Australian company Amphibian Aerospace Industries (AAI) will build a new version of the legendary Albatross flying boat. Named G-111T, the “new Albatross” will feature new Pratt & Whitney PT6A-67F engines providing substantially improved performance, fuel economy and reliability. As reported by Aviacionline, the announcement of the project’s progress, including the engine selection, was made...
US Navy Aircrewman that was deployed to NAF Atsugi tells the story of the Japanese Military Helicopters tha… – The Aviation Geek Club
For a helicopter, hovering means that it is in flight at a constant altitude, with no forward, aft, or sideways movement. In order to hover, a helicopter must be producing enough lift in its main rotor blades to equal the weight of the aircraft. The engine of the helicopter must be producing enough power to drive the main rotor, and also to drive whatever type of anti-torque system is being used...
Bell Completes First AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter for Bahrain – The Aviation Geek Club
Bell celebrated the completion of the first AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter for the Kingdom of Bahrain on Sep. 30, 2021. The company delivered the first of 12 production aircraft to Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) as part of the 2019 foreign military sales (FMS) contract. Foreign military sales of the AH-1Z bring the advanced, dedicated capabilities of the aircraft directly to international...
Two Tu-160s staged a flying display for US observers having the first close look at the Blackjack. But they… – The Aviation Geek Club
Developed as the answer to the American B-1, the Tupolev Tu-160 (NATO codification: Blackjack) was the Soviet Union’s most potent strategic bomber. Several project versions were rejected, and a highly controversial contest involving some of the Soviet Union’s top-class aircraft design companies took place before the Tu-160 variable-geometry bomber reached the hardware stage. Its...
Slovakia secretly delivered four Mil Mi-17 Hips and one Mil Mi-2 Hoplite to Ukraine – The Aviation Geek Club
The Minister of Defense of Slovakia, Jaroslav Naď, announced that the nation has donated five helicopters to Ukraine. According to information he has given, Slovakia donated four Mil Mi-17s (NATO reporting name: Hip) and one Mil Mi-2 (NATO reporting name Hoplite), adding that the helicopters are already “after safe delivery,” meaning they have been delivered already days ago under...
Former Naval Aviator explains how he was able to find the Aircraft Carrier at Night, with no Electronic Tra… – The Aviation Geek Club
Aircraft carrier air operations include a launch and recovery cycle of embarked aircraft. Launching and recovering aircraft aboard aircraft carriers is best accomplished nonconcurrently, and cyclic operations are the norm for US aircraft carriers. Cycles are generally about one and a half hours long, although cycles as short as an hour or as long as an hour and 45 minutes are not uncommon. The...
Last F-14 Tomcat in US Navy service will be moving from Bethpage to Cradle of Aviation Museum – The Aviation Geek Club
Felix 101, F-14D BuNo 164603, the last Tomcat in US Navy service, currently in front of a vacant office building in Bethpage will be moved to the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale, Newsday reports. The F-14’s fate had been uncertain after a California company, Prologis Inc., agreed to purchase the former Grumman Corp. office and surrounding land for a proposed 218,150 square foot warehouse...
The failure of Air Power during the Russia-Ukraine War – The Aviation Geek Club
This article concentrates on analysing air warfare by the Ukraine Air Force and the Russian Air-Space Force (VKS). Can’t help it, but — after watching at least two dozen of videos released over the last few days — I remain unimpressed by the performance of both air forces involved in this war. This foremost because of what are Su-25-pilots on both sides doing ‘over’ the battlefield. What am I...
“Little boys want to be fighter pilots. Fighter pilots would rather be COD pilots.” US Navy Flight Offi… – The Aviation Geek Club
Although the US Navy C-2A fleet is in process of being replaced by the CMV-22B Osprey, the Greyhound still provides rapid airborne logistics capability to the carrier strike force across a full range of sea basing military operations. As a derivative of the E-2 Hawkeye, the C-2 has a common wing with the Hawkeye but has a widened fuselage and a rear loading ramp. The interior arrangement of the...
