Super Tucano

Super Tucano A-29C - Sierra Nevada Corporation

Sierra Nevada has delivered three of these aircraft to the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). Defense Blog has the story, such as it is. It's basically just a press release. They say the airplane is built in the USA, but who knows what that means. The aircraft comes from Embraer which is in Brazil, so 'built in the USA' might just mean that Sierra Nevada installs the Air Force specific communication gear.

The Long Way Round Part 2

First of six Embraer A-29B Super Tucanos landing in Gran Canaria on a delivery flight for the Philippines Air Force - thortelde

Flying East from Brazil on the way to the Philippines? That's doing it the hard way. I would have expected them to take the wings off of the airplane, but it in a big box and load it on a ship. I mean that's how we did it with fighter aircraft in WW2. But times have changed and there could be any number of reasons to undertake a long flight like this, the primary one being that we don't have a world war going on right now.

Super Tucano Delivery Flight

I picked up a few clues as to the route they are taking and then made some guesses as to where else they might stop after they leave the UAE and plotted the results on the above map. The range of the aircraft (1700 miles) is the first constraint, and then there are political alliances. Some countries can be real persnickety about letting warbirds fly over them, much less touch down. 

The first stop after leaving mainland Brazil is Fernando de Noronha, a place I did not even know existed. You can't even see it on Google Maps unless you are zoomed in on it, and why would you zoom in on a featureless bit of ocean?

Back at the start of WW2, a Boeing 314 flying boat made a similar trip flying the long way around the world to get home from Australia. They crossed the Atlantic around the same place landing at Natal on the coast of Brazil. Fernando de Noronha probably wasn't high on their list of places to stop. It had a prison, but didn't get an airport until 1942, courtesy of the US government.

Covert action in Colombia

A Colombian Air Force member cleans an A-29 Super Tucano, a turboprop aircraft typically involved in strikes on FARC targets. (Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images)

The Washington Post has a story by Dana Priest about the civil war in Columbia. The more I read about the war on drugs, the more I think it is being encouraged by the participants. I doubt that we will ever really know who is at the top of the food chain in the drug cartels, but they are the ones making the big bucks, and they wouldn't be making that much money if drugs were legal, so it is in their best interest to ensure that drugs remain verboten.
    The "war fighters" and their suppliers are all in favor of it because it keeps them busy doing what they have been trained to do. Plus it keeps them employed, which can't be discounted in these days of rampant unemployment.
    The pharmaceutical industry in the USA is in favor of it because illegal narcotics are undercutting the price of legal pain killers, which can't be good for their bottom line. Stamp out enough heroin so that price rises and Oxycontin becomes price competitive again.
    I am sure there are some people who believe that the war on drugs is the only way to 'save the children' and prevent people from ruining their lives with drug addiction. I don't think it will do either of those things. Oh, with draconian enforcement I suppose it could, but the impact on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness would be crushing.
    On the other hand what are we going to do with all those people fighting the war on drugs (from both sides) if we were to stop prosecuting this war? Put them on dole and have them sit around and watch daytime TV until it's time to pick up their daily ration of intoxicants?
    I know North Korea is a horrible example, but have you seen some of these mass dance performances they put on? Maybe we could stage something like that, just to give people something to do, keep them occupied. Kind of sad that we have all these people with all their talents and abilities just sitting around watching daytime TV. There has got to be a better solution, I mean a better solution than outfitting them with a gun and sending them out to kill other people. I just wish I knew what it was.