2009-10-04 ~ SKY BEAUTIES

Oct 5, 2009

* NEWS - Pilot killed in Bangkok Airways ATR-72 crash

10:27 PM SKY BEAUTIES by SHAN FX No comments

Bangkok Airways ATR-72 HS-PGL is seen after it

skidded off the runway while attempting to land

during heavy rains on Samui island,

Surat Thani province in southern Thailand

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009

BANGKOK — A passenger plane skidded off the runway

and crashed into a building after landing on the Thai

resort island of Samui on Tuesday, killing the chief pilot

and injuring at least seven people including foreign tourists.

The Bangkok Airways flight landed in stormy weather and hit

the airport's old air traffic control tower, which had been converted

into a fire station, said Kanikka Kemawutanond, director-general of

the Department of Civil Aviation. The co-pilot and six tourists were hurt.

"The heavy damage was at the front

of the plane where the pilot was.

It looks like he suffered from the impact,"

police Maj. Col. Sayan Sartsri said.

The co-pilot, who was stuck in the aircraft

for more than two hours,

was among the last evacuated from the stricken plane

. Television footage

showed rescue workers pulling him from the aircraft

and into an ambulance

on the runway.

Kannikka, who earlier reported that 34 people were injured, said

only seven were hospitalized while others sustained bruises and shock.

Samui, located 298 miles (480 kilometers) south of Bangkok,

is an island in the Gulf of Thailand popular with foreign tourists.

Puttipong Prasartthong-Osoth, managing director of Bangkok Airways,

said the foreign passengers included nationals of Italy, Spain, Switzerland,

France, Germany, Great Britain and Israel.

He said four passengers — two Britons, one Italian and

one Swiss — suffered broken legs, while two other Britons

suffered less severe injuries. The co-pilot also had leg injuries.

Kanikka said the ATR72-500 twin-turboprop had 68 passengers,

two pilots and two crew members on board and was flying from Krabi,

another popular resort area in southern Thailand.

"Initial reports indicated that the weather was bad with heavy rain and wind.

We do not know what the pilot did or did not do that led

to the incident at this point and I would rather not speculate," she said.

Puttipong said the chief pilot had 19 years of experience.

In 1990, a Bangkok Airways turboprop crashed into a coconut grove

short of the airport during heavy rain, killing all 37 people on board.

The French-Italian manufactured ATR72 has been involved in a number

of incidents in recent years.

One in South Korea skidded off the runway while landing at the

resort island of Jeju in 2006, injuring six people. Two years earlier,

an ATR72 of Thai Airways had to make an emergency evacuation

of passengers when its front landing gear collapsed during a landing

in northern Thailand.

A Cambodian airliner slipped off a runway and got stuck in the mud

near the ancient temples of Angkor in 2001. And in 1994,

a Chicago-bound American Eagle ATR-72 crashed in northern Indiana,

killing all 68 people aboard.

Militory Aircraft Insignia Of The World... [PART 1]

1:30 PM SKY BEAUTIES by SHAN FX No comments

India

History
   The Indian Air Force was first formed on 1 April 1933. Normal RAF markings were used. In 1943, owing to confusion with Japanese markings, especially in regard to the upper wing roundel it was decided to outline all the roundels with a thick yellow line. This was not implemented, although a few aircraft may have been so marked. With effect from 24 June 1943 South East Asia Command markings were used. These initially dispensed with the red in the markings and later adopted a small roundel and fin flash in two shades of blue.
   The force became the Royal Indian Air Force in March 1945 and began to use standard RAF roundels once again. On independence, in 1947, Indian aircraft used the blue on white Buddhist wheel of life, the 'dharma chakra', as a wing and fuselage marking. The fin flash used the Indian national colours of saffron yellow, white and green. In 1948 a roundel in the national colours replaced the wheel.
   It is believed that an Indian National Air Force was being organised by the Japanese to fight the 'occupying colonial power'. If these aircraft carried any markings there is no record of them.

Indonesia

History
After the Japanese defeat in 1945, the former Dutch East Indies became a battleground between the colonial power attempting to regain control and the Indonesian nationalists. The Indonesian People's Security Force, Aviation Division, was formed on 9 April 1946, The motley collection of mostly ex-Japanese aircraft were marked with the traditional colours of red and white, This entailed painting over the lower half of the red Japanese marking, and a red over white rudder. Ex-Dutch aircraft, carrying the flag insignia, simply had the blue portion painted out. With the full independence of Indonesia on 27 December 1949 an air force was formed. Various red and white markings were used, culminating in a plain two-colour roundel and fin flash, By 1954 this was changed to a white pentagon with a red border, The red over white national flag was used as a fin flash. Navy and army aviation units were formed in the 1960s, Navy aircraft carried a black anchor on the white pentagon, army units a yellow or black five-pointed star; the paramilitary police had their own badge. Current low-visibility markings feature a black outline pentagon.

Iran

History
When the Imperial Iranian Air Force was established in the 1920s a version of the national flag, green over white over red, was used as a wing and fuselage marking. The rudder was also painted in these colours. A roundel form was soon adopted, with red in the centre. In 1979 the air force became the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, but the markings have not changed, with the exception of some alteration to the national flag fin flash.

Iraq

History
   With very few, slight modifications the wing and fuselage marking of aircraft of the Iraqi Air Force has not changed since its formation in 1931. This has been a green triangle with a black border. Superimposed on this has been a representation of the Arabic word 'Jaish', for army, in red.
   It is in the fin and rudder markings that the many political changes in the country have been mirrored. Between 1931 and 1958, when the monarchy was overthrown, the rudder was marked with vertical stripes of the four national colours: green, white, red and black. This later became a fin flash. The fin flash in use between 1958 and 1962 was vertically striped in black, white and green. On the white was a red eight-pointed star. In 1962 horizontal striping of red, white and black was used. Three green outlined eight-pointed stars appeared in the white. Since 28 August 1963 three green five-pointed stars have been marked on the white. Initially these represented the proposed union of Egypt, Syria and Iraq, which never took place.
   Recently many Iraqi helicopters have carried large versions of the national flag on their sides instead of the normal insignia.

Ireland

History
Ireland's military aviation commenced with the establishment of the Free State in 1921. Ex-RAF aircraft were marked with the new national flag of orange, white and green, which represented the Protestant and Catholic communities and the hope for peace between them. In 1922 a roundel form of the national colours was used on the wings and vertical rudder striping. By 1923 a standard insignia had been adopted. This consisted simply of stripes across the wings in the national colours, and the normal rudder striping, Ireland was neutral in the Second World War and used a 'Celtic boss' insignia in green and orange on tops of wings and fuselage, while retaining the stripes on the lower wings and dispensing with the rudder markings. The fuselage insignia was placed on a white square on camouflaged aircraft. In 1954 the boss became three colour with the addition of white.

Israel

History
The ancient Jewish symbol of the Star of David has been used on Israeli military aircraft since the state's independence in 1948. It has been used on wings and fuselage almost always on a white disc. Some very early aircraft in a silver finish dispensed with the white disc. No rudder markings have been used, except occasionally in the 1950s when red and white diagonal stripes were marked.

Italy

History
   Italy was one of the first countries to use aircraft in war, in 1911. Aircraft up to 1914 sometimes used the arms of the ruling House of Savoy as a fin marking. Between August 1914 and the entry of Italy into the First World War markings consisted of a simple black ring and various combinations of black stripes. From 1915 the lower wings of aircraft were painted red on one side and green on the other, the national colours. With the full involvement of Italy in the war markings followed the Allied pattern of a roundel and rudder striping in red, white and green. Between 1918 and the Fascist government of 1922 roundels were sometimes used, but the basic marking was a rudder striping with the arms of Savoy on the white area. The Fascist regime added its emblem -the fasces, a bundle of brown wood around a silver axe head on a small blue disc forward on the fuselage.
   Italy joined with Germany and declared war on the Allies in 1940. The rudder striping was painted out, and a simple white cross, usually bearing the arms of Savoy, was marked across the fin and rudder. The small fasces emblem was retained on the fuselage. Each wing was marked with a black circle, and inside these three representations of the fasces in black. The background to the circle was either white or clear, and occasionally the colours were reversed, white fasces on a black disc with a white border. Some captured French aircraft featured the fasces across the original roundel.
   Italy surrendered in 1943 and split into two separate areas, each with its own air force. In the south of the country, occupied by the Allies, a Co-Belligerent Air Force was formed. This used red, white and green roundel without fin or rudder markings. Some US supplied aircraft retained the US style bars to the roundel. In the German occupied north, the Italian Socialist Republic adopted a square version of the fasces insignia. The Italian flag was marked on fuselage sides and across the fin rudder.
   After the war the Co-Belligerent marking was used for all Italian aircraft. From 1964 Italian Navy aircraft were marked with a black anchor in a black circle as an addition to the roundel. The need for low-visibility markings has seen the introduction of a smaller roundel with a very thin white area.
Aircraft of the independent Sovereign Military Order of Malta, based in Rome, have occasionally carried the orders cross insignia on the fuselage, retaining standard Italian roundels on the wings.

Ivory Coast

History
This ex-French colony gained its independence in 1960 and formed its air arm in 1961. Aircraft are marked with a roundel and fin flash based on the national colours of orange, for the north of the country, green for the south, and white for unity between them.

* Aerospatiale / British Aerospace Concorde

12:00 PM SKY BEAUTIES by SHAN FX No comments

The world's first supersonic passenger transport was pulled from service in October of 2003.

One of the great aviation stories to come out of a post-Cold War world, the British and French-made Concorde stands as the only supersonic passenger transport ever designed and flown on a regular basis. The system offered upper-crust passengers the ability to cross distances around the world in a matter of hours as opposed to the overnight flights experienced by standard passenger transports of the time. In the end, however, a changing world and economic pressures forced the retirement of the Concorde fleet, leaving most never to have traveled one of the finest technological marvels of the twentieth century.

The Concorde originally began as two separate projects being fielded by the British firm of British Aerospace (which now also controlled British Aircraft Corporation) and the French bureau of Aerospatiale (which now also controlled Sud Aviation). With other nations trying to field their own individual supersonic designs, Britain and France entered into a formal agreement to save cost and development resources by producing a joint product. As early as 1962, the Concorde was being developed with the first two prototypes - one British and one French - flying in 1969.

British contractors handled construction of three portions of the main forward part of the fuselage. Additionally they were charged with the vertical tail assembly, engine ducts and their corresponding nacelles and the rear portion of the fuselage. Other work including the installation of the four powerplants, electrical, oxygen and fuel control systems. Conversely, French contractors were charged with handling the construction of the delta-wing assembly, avionics, communications and hydraulic controls. Engine development was split between the two firms of Rolls-Royce and SNECMA. The resulting powerplant was the Olympus 593 Mk 610, offering nearly 40,000lbs of thrust each with up to 17 percent afterburning potential. Four such engines would be fitted underneath the wings, two to each wing.

The Concorde was designed to offer up the slightest in the way of air resistance, with designers settling on a slim fuselage with a low-wing monoplane delta wing layout. A single vertical tail surface was mounted at rear with elevators added to the main wing system instead of on the empennage. The high speeds of supersonic flight required that the design be of a pencil-type shape, obscuring the flight crew's view below when taxing. As such, the nose cone was made into a positional assembly, allowing it to be positioned down when the aircraft was taxing or flying at low-speeds/low-altitude.

Ingenuity throughout the design did not take a back seat either. The fuel tanks mounted throughout the large-area delta wings served double duty as heat sinks for the wing assemblies themselves during high-speed flight. Titanium - a popular component of high-speed/high-altitude flight - was utilized throughout the design. Internally, the Concorde was crewed by three standard personnel with four flight crew attendants. The standard seating configuration allowed for up to 100 passengers though as many as 128 (some sources show 144) could be allowed.

From the outset, the dream of supersonic flight had specifications for the Concorde reaching speeds at around Mach 2.5. Unfortunately this was deemed non-practical in terms of construction materials proposed. As such, the maximum speed was sacrificed to a still-impressive Mach 2 and an equally impressive range of over 4,000 miles with an altitude ceiling of around 60,000 feet.

In the end, the Concorde lived up to expectations but failed to create enough of an international buzz to warrant continued production for export orders. Only 14 examples of the Concorde were produced during its production run, allocating seven to the British and seven to the French. The only other operator of the system was Singapore, which had leased a few examples. As impressive as the Concorde was, economic and environmental pressures set in. The aircraft was proving difficult to maintain in a fuel-strapped economy and many countries disallowed use of a supersonic aircraft, generating sonic booms with over-flights over populated areas, limited the Concorde to traveling over large spans of open water - particularly the Atlantic. An accident in 2000 grounded the fleet for a year until the British and French jointly decided against continuing flights of the Concorde series. Such was the end of the supersonic era of passenger flight.

* Ababil (Swallow)

11:43 AM SKY BEAUTIES by SHAN FX No comments

The Abibil is sent airborne via a launch rail attacked to the back of a utility truck.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) were once considered primarily the domains of Israel and the United States Military. Throughout the 1990's, however, every major military power has seen fit to fund their own UAV developments for a variety of battlefield-related services - from reconnaissance, surveillance and assault. UAVs present some optimal advantages even in the age of digital communications and satellites: they are relatively cheap to produce, operate and maintain when compared to fielding a modern multi-role fighter, they do not require the senseless exposure of a pilot to enemy air and ground defenses and they provide real-time battlefield assessment capabilities (satellites must be in orbit over the area of the earth to be monitored, with this option reoccurring only once every 24 hours). In this way, UAVs are really the method of warfare for the near foreseeable future and beyond.

The Ababil takes on a conventional aerodynamic form, reflecting more the look of a winged rocket than anything else. The body is a tubular frame capped with a nose cone. Wing canards are high-mounted at the forward section of the fuselage while the main wing spans are low-mounted fitting to the vehicles extreme aft. The engine is rear mounted and features a "pusher" type two-bladed propeller system (conventional propeller and engines "pull" and are therefore traditionally mounted forward of the fuselage or in wing nacelles). A single vertical tail fin rounds out the design elements. Performance specifications report maximum range of up to 150 miles with a radius of just over 93 miles. The service ceiling is listed at 14,000 feet with a top speed of up to 186 miles-per-hour. This UAV system is not going to win any design awards based on looks alone but its operational involvement in the region has garnered the attention of the United States Department of Defense and regional American allies.

The Ababil is launched via a pneumatic-type launcher from the rear of a specially-configured Benz-911 utility truck. The UAV is also capable of being launched at sea with the use of rockets. Though no visible undercarriage is apparent, the Ababil is recovered via skids and an Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries parachute system. Operationally, the Ababil can sport a variety of surveillance-minded equipment configurations depending on the Ababil model and its defined mission role. An integrated communications package allows for a direct datalink between the ground-based operator and airborne vehicle system. The Shahid Noroozi guidance system is an indigenous Iranian product while an IR-based flare system along with a CCD Television camera are part of the internal workings. In the assault role, the Ababil can also sport an 88lb warhead munition. This particular version takes the warhead payload all the way to its target resulting in the entire loss of the UAV (unlike American Predators/Reapers that air-launch their Hellfire missiles). A few other specialized variants are known to exist.

As of this writing, the Ababil has been fielded by both Iran and Hezbollah. Hezbollah received 12 examples from Iran (according to Israeli sources) to which three were shot down by Israeli fighters in the 2006 Lebanon War. An Iranian Ababil was also shot down by a United States General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon over Iraq on March 16th, 2009, just 60 miles northeast of Baghdad near Balad Ruz. Speculation persists as to the UAV's motives in the area but it did nothing to lessen the tension between Washington and Tehran.

The 120 production example quantity stated on our website is an estimated value.