 | ||||||||
|
MILAVIA
Monthly Newsletter |
September 2003 | |||||||
|
CONTENTS
| ||||||||
|
Introduction |
||||||||
|
Unfortunately I have not been able to send
you a newsletter last month. Sorry that I didn't send a newsflash like I
usually do. This month I have this newsletter for you. I hope you will
enjoy it. If you have any comments or suggestions for the newsletter,
please e-mail me! I love to get feedback so I can improve the newsletter.
Same goes for the website of course.
| ||||||||
|
V4
New Design |
||||||||
|
Yup, I am working on a new design. I know
content is more important than the design for most of you. But I am not
satisfied with the old design, I hope version 4 will give me more
incentive to start adding new content. The website will remain as it
is now, the menu will change, colors will change, all to make the website
fit the new logo I have already introduced to you in the latest
newsletters and of course on the welcome screen of the website. http://www.milavia.net
Another change will be a 'specials' section, which
will replace the current article page. Specials gives me more flexbility
towards the content. I hope I will be able to add some interesting stuff
here! For this section all kinds of contribution are welcome.
Some of you already offered me to use your pictures,
thanks a lot! I will look at your work more carefully and select what I
want to add, of course with your permission, name, copyright, and
website/e-mail.
| ||||||||
|
Website
Updates |
||||||||
|
Unfortunately I have been very busy again
with other things, so I have not done much updating.
- New logo and layout for the welcome
page.
- Some links and banners were added:
- http://www.swind.nl (photography, guide Dutch airbases)
- http://www.jetfighters.dk (photography,
Denmark & Malta)
- http://www.tornado-data.com
(Panavia Tornado information)
- http://www.aircraftrecognition.com
(Recognition, pictures, quiz, and lots more)
- http://www.3elt.com (Polish
squadron, beautiful MiG-21 pictures, only in Polish you
have to improvise a bit to navigate the site)
- http://www.31tigersqn.be
(31 Squadrons, Belgium, F-16s in tiger colors)
- http://www.flyingmule.com
(shop for diecast models)
- Picture of the AB-412 helicopter added to
the Royal Netherlands Air Force pictorial, thank you Robert for your
contribution! (http://www.milavia.net/airforces/netherlands/pictures/klu_ab412_01.jpg)
- July quiz answers, August quiz answers and
a new quiz September
- New banners for site promotion:
- http://www.milavia.net/promo/milavia2.jpg (F-16, blue)
- http://www.milavia.net/promo/milavia3.jpg (Tornado, green) | ||||||||
|
Military
Aviation News |
||||||||
|
30 June - Greece
retired Mirage F1
After 28 years of service the Mirage F1 was
retired from Hellenic Air Force service on June 30 this year. The Mirage
F1 entered service in June 1975 when 40 aircraft replaced the
Convair F-102 in the interception role. The Greek Mirage
F1s accumulated a total of 160,000 hours and 12 aircraft
were lost over the years. Of the probable 15 aircraft that
remained in service in 2003 two will go to Air Force musea
in special colors while the remaining aircraft will be put into
storage awaiting possible sales to countries that remain
operating the type, such as South Africa. July 30 - BAE SYSTEMS Hawk
128 for RAF
UK Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon announced the
selection of the Hawk Mk 128 as the next generation advanced jet
trainer for the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. The order will
consist of 20 aircraft plus an option for up to 24 more. The announcement
came just in time to prevent up to 400 redundancies at BAE SYSTEMS.
The first new Hawks are expected to enter
service in 2008 gradually replacing the currently operated Hawk
T.1/T.1A trainers. The new Hawk has a digital cockpit with multi
functional displays so it is well suited to train pilots for the
Eurofighter Typhoon, Tornado GR.4 upgrade, Harrier GR.7 and of course
the Joint Strike Fighter. Mk.128 will probably have the same
configuration as the Mk.127 currently in service with the Royal Australian
Air Force.
August 26 - Two Mi-24V Hind
helicopter collide mid-air
Two military helicopters collided in Russia's
Far East on Tuesday. The two Mi-24 helicopters were taking part in the
Vostok 2003 military training exercises that began in the area last week.
According to preliminary information, five people were killed in the collision. One pilot was hospitalized with severe injuries. According to the Russian Emergency Ministry, the
helicopters collided at about 6:30 Moscow time while attempting to land at
the Chernigovka airfield in the Primorye region, about 80 kilometers from
the town of Ussurisk.
A bird flying into an engine may have caused the
collision of two military helicopters in the Russian Far East on Tuesday,
the Defense Ministry flight safety service told Interfax quoting
eyewitnesses.
According to an eyewitness, when they were at an altitude of about 50 meters, a bird got caught in the engine of the following helicopter. "As a result, its lifting rotor collided with the tail boom of the leading helicopter. Both helicopters lost control and spun to the left where they crashed, exploded and burst into flames," a source at the flight safety service said. Source: interfax via Russian Aviation
Newsletter
August 28 - Indonesia needs
more Russian Sukhoi jets
Indonesia needs to buy as many as 12 more Russian Sukhoi warplanes,
despite a brewing controversy over a purchase of four of the jets earlier
this year, the armed forces chief said on Thursday.
Indonesia bought the first batch of two Su-27 jets and two similar Su-30s, along with two Mi-35 helicopters, in counter trade deal with Russia in April. Two of the four planes have been delivered so far. "We want more (Sukhois) because four are not enough (for operations).
I will talk with officials about more for next year," armed forces chief
General Endriartono Sutarto told reporters. "We want at least one full
squadron which contains between 12 and 16 planes."
Aircraft of all types, especially complex warplanes, are efficiently operated in large homogenous groups that offer economies in maintenance. Indonesia's state logistics firm, Bulog, agreed earlier this month to buy crude palm oil (CPO) at $360 per tonne form a local firm for August shipment to Russia as part the deal. Bulog has said it planned to buy CPO worth $15 million through a tender to help fill the counter trade deal worth $187 million. Source: gazeta.ru via Russian Aviation Newsletter Dutch Apache fleet suffers
from defense cuts
Recently the Dutch government
announced more defense cuts. After reducing the number of F-16s,
early retirement of the BO-105 helicopters and a large number of
redundancies, more drastic measures were announced. The fleet of 10 P-3C
Orion patrol aircraft will be taken out of operation, two airbases will
have to close down, and six AH-64D Apache
attack helicopters will be sold. In the late 1990s 30
Apaches were ordered, the last ones delivered last
year.
More news next
month!
| ||||||||
|
Quiz
Results |
||||||||
|
The correct answer to the July 2003 quiz was
Lockheed-Martin P-3C Orion. Every answer with either P-3 or Orion was good
enough to have your name listed.
Although I did not send a newsletter in
August, there were some regular visitor that revisited the website to take
part in the new quiz. I am really pleased to see you revisting the website
to take part in the quiz! The correct answer was Panavia Tornado ECR. ECR
is the electronic warfare and recce variant of the Tornado. You can
distinguish the ECR from the IDS on the picture because there is no
visible gun, and also because I used the picture on the Tornado page to
illustrate the ECR.
But I didn't ask for the specific variant, so
everyone that answered Tornado is correct.
I hope more people will take part in this
month quiz! Which is a little bit more challenging for most of
you.
| ||||||||
|
Picture
of the Month |
||||||||
|
Just to give you an idea of the terrain in
Afghanistan: C-17 Globemaster III at BAGRAM AIR BASE,
Afghanistan. In the background you can see another
C-17 climbing away from the base.
(U.S. Air Force photo by
Maj. Dave Honchul)
| ||||||||
|
A Word
from the Webmaster |
||||||||
|
The summer went faster than I expected! The
weather was much better than anyone expected, I think. The result was only
some minor updates. I am still here though, and I still want to make this
website more complete! Keep reading the newsletter to be informed of
updates! Next month version 4 will probably be up and running.
Thanks,
Niels Hillebrand
MILAVIA Webmaster
| ||||||||
