MiGs

Four MiG-17s
2025 Defenders of Liberty Air Show at Barksdale AF

From Wikipedia:

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a transonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 was license-built in China as the Shenyang J-5 and Poland as the PZL-Mielec Lim-6. The MiG-17 is still being used by North Korea's air force in the present day and has seen combat in the Middle East and Asia.

It wasn't used in the Korean War, but it was used in the Vietnam War. The Soviet Union built 10,000 of them. 

RCAF F-18

RCAF F-18 over British Columbia

Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star

Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star

Jet trainer, first flown in 1948. Over 6,000 were built.

From Military use by other nations:

Some T-33s retained two machine guns for gunnery training, and in some countries, the T-33 was even used in combat: the Cuban Air Force used them during the Bay of Pigs Invasion, scoring several kills including sinking two transport ships.

Su-30 Intercept

Su-30SM “81 Blue” with tail number RF-81885. (Spanish Air Force pic)

The Russians regularly fly over the Baltic in International Airspace and NATO dispatches jet fighters to follow them around. This photo is from one such encounter. I suspect that the Russians make these flights as a matter of 'freedom of navigation'. It's like if you don't exercise your rights, you are liable to lose them. Also flying (or sailing) over the Baltic is the only way to get from mother Russia to Kaliningrad. Both sides get to exercise their pilots and aircraft which is essential if you are going to bother about having jet fighter aircraft in the first place.

Excerpt from Defence Blog:

The interception was carried out by F-18M aircraft from Spain’s Wing 15, currently deployed to Šiauliai Air Base in northern Lithuania under the Vilkas detachment. . . . The intercepted aircraft included Russian Su-30SM multirole fighters armed with air-to-air missiles and cluster munitions. . . . markings visible on the tail show the aircraft belongs to the Naval Aviation branch of the Russian Navy.

Russian Be-200

Russian Be-200 and Italian Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft

Not something you see everyday. From Wikipedia: The Beriev Be-200 Altair is a jet-powered amphibious flying boat. It has a capacity of 3,200 US gallons of water, or up to 72 passengers.

Ämari Lennubaas Military Air Base Estonia

The Italian Typhoon took off from the Amari Air Base in Estonia.

Beriev aircraft have appeared here a couple of times.

Su-57

Su-57

Those leading edge flaps are impressive.

Pics

Reuben

New mural by Banksy

MIKOYAN MiG-27 Bahadur

Indian on the King Cruise 2025 at Louwman's, Raamsdonksveer

1978 Mom walking with her family in Salisbury, Rhodesia, carrying an Uzi

Dassault Mirage

Dassault Mirage 2000-9DAD - United Arab Emirates Air Force

The Dassault Mirage 2000 first flew in 1978. France built 600 of them. They are in use by several countries.

F-84F Thunderstreak

F-84F Thunderstreak

From the cover of a Special Hobby plastic model kit. Several are available on E-Bay. Special Hobby was founded in 1989 in the Czech Republic. 1989 ring any bells? Like maybe the year the Soviet Union Collapsed? Don't suppose there is any connection, do you?

The Thunderstreak is a swept wing version of the F-84 Thunderjet. They built 3,500 of them, which is roughly half of the number of the straight wing F-84s. It sounds like most of them went to our allies.

Exercise Bright Star - Egypt 1983

U.S. and Egyptian aircraft over the Pyramids during Exercise Bright Star '83
Click to embiggenate

I came across this photo while skimming the news this morning. It was at the top of a story on Geopolitics about Egypt. I glanced at it and thought 'cool, a bunch of jet fighters flying over the pyramids', but then I looked closer and realized that all of the airplanes were different. Left to right we have:

• McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom
• General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon
• Dassault Mirage 5
• Grumman F-14 Tomcat
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19
• Vought F-8 Crusader
• Grumman EA-6B Growler

This photograph is phenomenal. Whoever managed to get all these aircraft to fly together and then managed to capture this photo as they flew over the pyramids deserves a medal.

The Bright Star exercises started in 1981 and are still going on every couple of years.

Effing F-35

F-35

I never liked the F-35. The idea of dragging around a giant fan that only gets used for VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) seems like a really dumb idea. They should have built the thing to land on it's tail like a Flash Gordon rocketship. Yes, it would have been a trick, but with modern electronics and controls it should have been cheaper, lighter and easier than carrying around this stupid fan. Modern jet engines are plenty powerful enough to support vertical takeoffs. In any case we have a story about a couple of problems the F-35 is having with heat:

F-35’s Cooling Crisis: Design Flaws Fuel $2 Trillion Dilemma for Pentagon by Mike Fredenburg

Then again maybe I'm just jealous that I wasn't in on the development of all the fancy software that went into this machine.

Previous posts about the F-35. I was surprised there were so many.

Italian Harrier

Italian Two Seat Harrier Trainer

Operating out of an Air Force Base near Milan, Italy.

Wikipedia knows the difference between the various types of Harriers.

Jet Fighter Dream

F-86D

This dream may have come in two parts. The second part I remember fairly clearly. The first part is kind of vague. Did I dream earlier last night, or did I just dream that I dreamt it during the second part?

The essence of the dream is that I bought an old jet fighter, probably for the price of a car. It had some problems so I took it to my automobile mechanic to get one simple thing fixed, like a small pump or latch or something, but he couldn't find the parts, no surprise there. So now it's sitting on his lot clearly visible from the street, subject to visits from riff-raff, so I need to move it somewhere more secure.

Blue Angel and Sea Dragon

CH-53K King Stallion and a Blue Angels F/A-18E Super Hornet - Ed Jones

MiG-17

MIKOYAN MiG-17 - Carson Zabel

Shot over Camarillo, California, home of the Southern California Wing of the Confederate, er, Commemorative, Air Force. First flown in 1952, the Soviet Union built 10,000 of them. North Korea still uses them. Wikipedia article here.

 

Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (FEG610)

Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (FEG610)

There were several jet fighter aircraft in the 1950's that had straight wings:

Model First flight Retired Number built

P-80 / F-80 Shooting Star 1944 1959 1,715

T-33 Shooting Star 1948 2017 6,557

F-89 Scorpion 1948 1969 1,050

F-94 Starfire 1949 1958  855

F-22

Lockheed F-22 Raptor

Via FlightAware

Reflector Gunsights

Reflector Gunsights: the Fighter Pilot's Friend
Our Own Devices

This guy does a good job of tying all the bits on a complicated subject together. Only problem is I can't figure out how to pronounce his name. Near as I can make out he pronounces it 'Guy Messy' which makes me want to call him the messy guy.

F-15

Why The F-15 Terrified The Soviets
Mustard

Good video about the F-15, it's so good you want to see the next one, but you have to subscribe to something to see it. The last minute or so of the video is an ad.

Su-57

Su-57 -  Boris Semyonov

Best part of the story is that the photo was taken in Novosibirsk, Siberia.

Novosibirsk, Siberia

Novosibirsk is also the home of Garage 54.