Wednesday 20 July 2016

Farnborough 2016 B727 Oil Spill Response







Launched and displaying at the Farnborough Air Show during the weekend of 16-17 July.  I used to dispatch B727 with Air France during the 1980s. We operated the first UK-CDG departure of the day at 06:30, sometimes with just 6 passengers on board! Although on busy days this would be at least 166 passengers IIRC. These new newly out-fitted B727s must though must be two of the very few B727s still flying in the UK today. It's role is to disperse oil spills via a spraying system and tanks of dispersant in its fuselage. It can be called out very quickly to deal with emergencies.

OSR have two B727s on strength, G-OSRA and OSRB. Both are ex-FedEx and both painted at Air Livery Manchester. 'RB was in fact the last B727 constructed.






" ....The aircraft, two Boeing 727-SS2F (RE), are now central to OSRL’s aerial dispersant capability and will be officially launched during this year’s Farnborough International Airshow, 11th – 17th July 2016. Fitted with internal tanks, pumps and a spray boom to deliver dispersant liquid, the specially adapted Boeing 727-2S2F (RE) aircraft are truly a first-of-a-kind capability for the oil and gas industry. The Valsan engined 727-2S2F (RE) proved to be an ideal aircraft for OSRL, offering greater stability, adaptability and an almost unrivalled power to weight ratio. "OSRL’s main requirement was to acquire a more up-to-date asset that could travel further and faster than its extant capability offered by the organisation’s L-382 Hercules” says Andy Offer, former RAF Harrier and Red Arrows pilot, the Owner and Director of 2Excel Aviation Ltd...." via OSR.com



Above and below; two from Neil Cotten seen during Saturday's display


More screen captures via planesTV.com live coverage









" ..The Boeing 727 is highly distinctive because of its three engines and a high T-Tail design. The middle engine, or engine 2, is stationed at the very rear of the fuselage and obtains air from an inlet ahead of the vertical fin through an S-shaped duct.

...The aircraft has a built-in Auxiliary Power Unit (APU), which is mounted in a hole in the keel beam web in the main landing gear bay. This allows the aircraft to have power for electrical and air-conditioning and not to have the main engines running while sitting on the ground; the APU is also used to restart the engines.

..To be able to use the required shorter runways the Boeing 727 has a unique wing design. With no wing-mounted engines, leading-edge devices (Krueger, or hinged, flaps on the inner wing and extendable leading edge slats out to the wingtip) and trailing-edge lift enhancement equipment (triple-slotted, aft-moving flaps) can be used on the entire wing. Together these high-lift devices produced a maximum wing lift coefficient of 3.0 (based on the flap-retracted wing area).
The 727 is very stable at very low speeds compared to other early jets. A key feature is the aircraft’s ability to use a very short runway. The nose wheel brakes are available as an option to reduce braking distance on landing which provides reductions in braking distances of up to 150m. Another important feature is that the 727 is equipped with a retractable tail skid that is designed to protect the aircraft in the event of an over-rotation on take-off..." via OSR.com

Friday 15 July 2016

DC 10 firefighting tanker dropping retardant -aeronautical insanity (4)







Tanker 911 seen in action over a Californian fire a few days ago. '911' is a DC 10 firefighting tanker - a converted airliner carrying an external tank- used to drop fire retardant over high ridges in southern California. The DC 10 carries some 11,600 gallons per load. The company operating the DC 10s - 10 Tanker Air Carrier - claims the DC 10 can carry up to four times more retardant than any other firefighting aircraft. The 'tank' itself is positioned along the centre line, is V-shaped and gravity fed. 10 Tanker recently began an exclusive use contract with CalFire for the remainder of the 2016 fire season. Tanker 910 will be flying on the contract, and will be based near Sacramento at McClellan Air Park





Wednesday 13 July 2016

final displays of the Lafayette Ramex Delta Mirage 2000N display team RIAT 2016 -superb RIAT 2016 (4)



..aside from the F-35 Lightning II and the F-22 Raptor one of the most popular items at RIAT 2016 was almost certainly the French Air Force Lafayette squadron Ramex Delta Mirage 2000N duo. Sunday 10 July saw their last ever display. I was lucky enough to watch them on the Thursday rehearse and the Friday show..



above; Nico Charpentier pic




Above; credit Rob Yates





Sunday 10 July 2016

339 Sqn Hellenic Air Force F-4 Phantom spectacular RIAT 2016 Wednesday arrivals 06 July with Team Zeuss F-16 Greek display team -RIAT 2016 (3)



..Wednesday afternoon 6 July 2016, around about tea time, in the 'park and view' at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, I was lucky enough to see an F-4 in the air! Two in fact. Tad Dippel photo. Didn't ask Tad if he had a shot of the two together. Anyone got that ?





Nigel Woolley video via youtube embed code. A single click to view here












chatted to the Greek F-4 pilot;

 " how much longer are you going to be flying the F-4?"

 "..oh ..err ..at least 40 years I think .."

 "no, how much long-eeerr..?!"








Below; superb Michael Legg photo




and below, Monday departure pic from Kevin Skilton



Below;   that's Duncan Ansell. what on earth is he doing on my blog ?!

F-22 Raptor rampage - spectacular display at RIAT 2016 (2)






 Above; Tad Dippel photo from the Thursday morning practise. Below; neat video of Friday morning's display at the 2016 Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford. The F-35 gets airborne ahead of the F-22. The Raptor displays before returning to perform several flypasts with the F-35 together before they both landed. This was to be a US Air Force Heritage flight with a P-51 D Mustang joining the F-22 and F-35 but wasn't able to do so due to the wind. F-35 Heritage display pilot was Will Andreotta who I was able to chat to on the pre-show Thursday here

 

Lots of F-35 coverage at RIAT 2016 on this blog here




Alpha Delta 210 photo coverage on britmodeller.com is here

Below; superb Barry Moore photo






Above; Nico Charpentier photo and, below, Rob Yates from Thursday's practise " cloud burst "


Below; Andrew Critchell photo ; " ..Raptor Rampage at RIAT... this is from Saturday taken to the left of FRIAT - missed the wonderful vapour pull up from the take off (wasnt ready for that so have some lovely pics of the bottom half of the a/c surrounded by vapour!) but this is the second pull up showing the new hidden, stealthy cockpit!.."



..and last but not least; on Saturday morning the Raptor went to Duxford for the 'Legends 2016' display. Neil Cotton photo. The only RIAT day that saw the full Raptor display was Friday - there was low cloud on the Saturday and a technical issue on the Sunday both of which caused a curtailment of the displays...






F-22 on the taxiway near the 'Green' entrance. Exceptional Jon Harris photo via the Aviation Photographers FB page here