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MILAVIA
Monthly Newsletter |
January
2004 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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CONTENTS
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Introduction |
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Welcome to another MILAVIA monthly
newsletter!
 First of all, I wish all of you and your families a
happy new year!
Hopefully I will be able to add many information and
pictures of military aircraft to the website in 2004. Of course there will
be a newsletter or newsflash each month to keep you informed about changes
and updates. And also in 2004, there will be a new quiz every month. In
this month's newsletter we have a featured website again. In the rest of
the newsletter you will find the regular contents as normally. Read
on!
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Problems With Newsletter
Mailing |
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It seems that many of the subscribers are not
receiving the newsletter. This is probably because I have been sending the
newsletter to the entire mailing list at once using BCC to keep your
e-mail addresses private. Unfortunately a lot of internet providers and
e-mail providers see it as SPAM and block the message or they will send it
to your junk or bulk mail folder. This month I will
send the newsletter to each one of you separately. This way all of you
will receive it! It just takes me more time, but it's worth
it.
However if you did receive the November and December
issue without any problems, please send me a message so I can put together
a list of people that I can mail at once. Saves me a lot of time! I would
appreciate it. If anyone has another solution (at no cost) for me,
please e-mail me webmaster@milavia.net and let me
know.
If you have any other problems, for example pictures
that are not working, or you cannot receive html e-mails, please contact
me so I can come up with a solution.
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Website
Updates |
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In December 2003 the website has been updated several
times. These updates included 3 new aircraft and lots of new
links!
*** click on the
 behind
the update to visit the page | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Military
Aviation News |
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A few news stories from November/December
2003:
JAS 39 GRIPEN FOR CZECH
REPUBLIC
After the severe flooding in Eastern Europe in 2002, the
Czech government was forced to cancel its order of the new Saab Gripen. In
2003 it was decided that a number between 10 and 20 fighter aircraft would
be leased until a new candidate for Czech fighter selection would enter
service. The competition included the Swedish Gripen-A, Tornado F.3,
old US Navy or Canadian surplus F/A-18 Hornets, old USAF F-16s, surplus
F-16MLU from Belgium and also from the Netherlands. Later offers
included brand new Gripen-C aircraft, Lockheed would upgrade the USAF
F-16s to MLU first and would support the F-16MLU from Belgium and
Netherlands.
On 17 December the Czech government selected the Gripen.
A total of 14 (12 single and 2 two-seat) new aircraft will be leased
for up to 10 years as an interim solution, which enables the retirement of
the MiG-21. The offer includes a logistic package, training of pilots and
maintenance crews. Sweden offers an offset programme, which is reported to
be 150% of the overall cost, and a low-interest loan. The aircraft will be
delivered in mid 2005.
FIRST OF THIRTEEN C-5A
RETIRED
On November 11 the first of thirteen C-5A Galaxy heavy
transport aircraft of the US Air Force was retired. All
13 aircraft will have arrived at Davis-Monthan Aerospace Maintenance
and Regeneration Center in 2005. The selection the C-5As to be
retired will be based on the aircraft's health and remaining
flying hours. The remaining C-5A aircraft are undergoing continuous
updates to the fully digital cockpit C-5M. In 2006 the entire C-5 fleet
will be fully updated and serve until at least 2040.
HARRIER GR.7A OPERATIONAL
In late November the first two upgraded Harrier GR.7A
arrived at RAF Wittering. And between 10 and 27 November six GR.7As were
operated from the carrier HMS Invincible to take part in the
Joint Force Harrier exercise Harry Funnel. The GR.7A features a
new engine, the Pegasus 107, which delivers extra thrust. The Harrier GR.7
used to be forced to jettison weapons before landing, the additional
thrust enabling the GR.7A to return with two 1,000lb (454kg) laser guided
bombs. A total of 20 aircraft will receive the GR.7A upgrade, which
is part of the overall GR.9 upgrade programme. The first two GR.7A were
displayed at the Dubai Air Show between December 7 and 11 to promote
foreign interest in the aircraft.
LAST EUROPEAN HOUND
HELICOPTER RETIRED
On November 27, 2003, the Albanian Air Force's last
Harbin Z-5 helicopter was withdrawn from service. In 1967 Albania
took delivery of 30 of these Chinese licensed-built Mi-4 Hound
helicopters, originally designed by Russian Mil. Albania received a total
of seven ex-Italian Army Air Cavalry AB.206 to date and seven
AB.205 helicopters will follow in 2004.
EUROFIGHTER TYPHOON FIGHTS FERRARI
F1
On 11 December, Eurofighter Typhoon IPA 2, flown by
Alenia's test pilot Maurizio Cheli, raced the Ferrari F1 F2003-GA car,
driven by Michael Schumacher. Three race challenges over 600m, 900m and
1200m took place at Grosseto AB, Italy. The memorial event was organized
by the Italian Ministry of Defense to celebrate 100 years of manned flight
and to commemorate 50th anniversary of the death of Italian driver
Nuvolari. In 1931 the first challenge took place between an Alfa Romeo
8C2300 driven by Nuvolari and the Tiger Moth aircraft. The Alfa Romeo and
Tiger Moth also re-ran their historic challenge to mark the occasion.
For the race results, see http://www.eurofighter.com/News/
FIRST F-16I DELIVERED TO
IDF/AF
The first F-16I has been accepted by the Israeli
Minister of Defense in a ceremony at Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth
facility, Texas. Israel has ordered a total of 102 F-16I aircraft
in early 2000. The F-16I "Suefa" (Storm) is a specialized
two-seat variant for Israel equipped with F100-PW229 engine,
AN/APG-66(V)9 multi-mode radar, conformal fuel tanks, LANTIRN,
Helmet Mounted Displays, multi-function colored displays and
many Israeli avionics, sensors and weapons.
RUSSIAN CARRIER READY
The Russian Navy's sole remaining aircraft carrier
RNS Admiral Kuznetsov has completed a 3-year refit in late
November. The carrier will now undertake sea trials, after which it will
be ready to receive its aircraft. Seven Su-33 Flanker fighters, one
Su-27UB trainer and four Su-25UTG trainers are reported ready to be
transferred to the ship. However pilot training has been delayed because
of financial difficulties between Russia and the Ukraine, which hosted the
training on the special simulated deck facility at Ukrainian naval
airfield at Saki. Russia wants to transfer training to Russian territory
and is planning its own deck simulator. The carrier will also be equipped
with up to 16 Ka-27 helicopters.
Update to November news: India's new
Hawks will be designated Mk.132, replacing the temporary designation of
Mk.115Y as reported earlier.
More news next
month!!
News Sources:
Air Forces Monthly, December 2003
Air Forces Monthly, January 2004
Air Force Link, www.af.mil
Eurofighter Typhoon, www.eurofighter.com
Gripen International, www.gripen.com
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Featured: Area00 Online Air Combat Multiplayer
Game |
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 Area00 is a free online multiplayer air
combat strategy game. You can sign up and play for free using just your
internet browser. You can buy, equip and arm one of the 30 aircraft and
take off to fly against other human players or destroy ground targets. The
aircraft are based on real specifications and so are the huge selection of
weapons. You are a mercenary joining one of the wings, each wing has
between 10 and 20 other pilots who are your wingman. Your wing will be
attacked by other wings. Defend your wing or scout the enemy wing and bomb
their infrastructure. I would recommend everyone to have a try at this
game, it is very different from the PC or PlayStation games of nowadays.
Even if you are not interested in aviation or playing games, you might
like this. It's free and related to military aviation, what more do you
want?!
Click here to visit the Area00 website -
www.area00.com
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Quiz
Results |
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The correct answer to the December 2003
quiz was McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet of the U.S.
Navy. The following visitors submitted the correct answer.
Congratulations!
The number of participants has increased to
41 last month, of which 33 answered correctly. For most
visitors, this quiz was too easy. Check out the new picture at
http://www.milavia.net/quiz for
a bit more challenging quiz!
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Picture
of the Month |
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Picture of this month is a fine photo of
two Chengdu J-10 China's next generation fighter-bombers. More
pictures can be found in the new J-10 photo gallery at http://www.milavia.net/aircraft/j-10/j-10_pics.htm
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A Word
from the Webmaster |
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First of January 2004, exactly two year ago I
launched the MILAVIA website. Since then the design has changed several
times and a lot of content has been added. It wasn't until October 2003
though that the MILAVIA website was really becoming a valuable resource of
military aircraft information and pictures. The latest design, launched
just two months ago, proves be a great success and has had good feedback.
I'll give the designing part a rest now and focus all my attention on
adding content.
Any feedback? Feel free to contact me!
Niels Hillebrand
MILAVIA Webmaster
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