February 2011
In its class, the Su-30 MKI has no competition. Those who tried – the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet and General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon – have failed. Ask the most experienced Su-30 pilots in the country. They’ll tell you why. Ashu and Parag Lall, who are flying the Su-30, said: “No other aircraft in the world can perform the yaw turn and the tail slide, or do a vertical climb at 80 degrees and ...
Category: Russian Aviation
After a decade of wrangling and fierce lobbying, the Pentagon today awarded Chicago-based Boeing a $35 billion contract to being replacing the Air Force’s aging aerial refueling tanker fleet. The contract, which could create 50,000 jobs, primarily in Washington state and Kansas, was awarded to Boeing over Europe-based EADS, which planned to build the tankers in Alabama. The battle between Boeing and the European airplane conglomerate EADS has had many fits and ...
Category: Military Aviation
Russia has unveiled the biggest rearmament program since the fall of the Soviet Union, saying that it intends to buy 600 planes, 100 ships and 1,000 helicopters within the next decade. The ambitious overhaul will cost the equivalent of $644 billion and comes at a time when other countries such as Britain are cutting their defence spending to try to balance their national budgets. But with oil prices rising, Russia, ...
Category: Russian Aviation
More than 1,800 errors by air-traffic controllers including 43 most likely to cause a midair collision between planes were reported to the Federal Aviation Administration last year. The agency says that points up the need for greater safety steps. The higher number of air-traffic errors reflects better reporting, the Federal Aviation Administration says. Air-traffic errors that allowed planes to get too close together jumped 81% from 2007 to 2010, according ...
Category: General Aviation
The Indian tender for 126 MMRCAs (medium multi-role combat aircraft) to replace its ageing MiG-21s was announced long ago, but only now is the real intrigue unfolding. Competition between two main rivals – the United States’ F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and Russia’s MiG-35 has been stiff. The intrigue heightened after Russia announced its MiG-35 would not be on display at an air show in Bangalore. Many experts took the absence of a ...
Category: MiG News
