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Jaguar crash: Black box found | idrw.org

The black box of the Jaguar fighter aircraft that crashed in Dilahi Firozpur village, killing a pilot and a girl, was found on Saturday. The black box or digital flight data recorder, which was essential for probing the cause of the crash, was located by the village youths in a pit filled with water this afternoon and was handed over to the IAF personnel, police said.

The debris of the aircraft was scattered in a radius of about a kilometre across agricultural fields which had a standing crop and were inundated with rain water.

After the direction of the IAF team, which had arrived here from Gorakhpur on Friday, locals emptied a pit filled with water and found the black box.

Around 70 personnel of the IAF had arrived at Mau to look for the black box in the agricultural fields.

The IAF personnel had also brought a dummy black box to show to the locals to help them locate the original device and had sought their help in this task.

The single-seater aircraft had crashed on August 4 in an agricultural field, killing the pilot, Flight Lieutenant S Pandey. A girl who was hit by a splinter on ground from the crashed aircraft also died while two others were injured in the incident.
 
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Does anyone know what is happening with the Mil-17V order from Russia? The First deliveries were mention to be in "early 2011" and is now AUGUST 2011 and NO news!!
 
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Another Picture of the MiG 29 UB-UPG(Nice colour!)
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Can anyone tell me about the strange "thing" above the cockpit?!

It is a mirror that allows the GIB (guy in the back) to see what the guy in the front seat is doing.
 
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It is a mirror that allows the GIB (guy in the back) to see what the guy in the front seat is doing.

Nice bit of Russian ingenuity .. reminds me of the famous joke about American astronauts using the million-dollar Space pens while Russian Cosmonauts using pencils :)
 
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I've marked it(Red circle).Is that IRST?
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That is mirror, Usually in training aircraft trainer sits behind, To keep track on trainee it can be used.. By the way I have not seen it in action... You can see this mirror more clearly in MiG25 (twin seat version). MiG25 seats were poorly made, due to which mirror was needed. MiG25 mirror is inside the cockpit...

@ color: this is primer coat, above it, there will be another color.. may be gray ...


Oops! some one already answer your query...
 
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Tarmak007 -- A bold blog on Indian defence: Sing is King! Baldy crowned HAL’s marketing boss

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The fixed wing clan of HAL is sure to miss the soft-spoken Sqn Ldr (Retd) Baldev Singh (Baldy) in flying overalls, after he was formally crowned as the Company’s new marketing head. Baldy too will miss his undying tryst with the throttle. An HAL release says that he took over as the new Director Corporate Planning & Marketing on August 16 – to be seated at its HQ on Bangalore’s famous Cubbon Road – now defaced by the metro rail work. Baldy was Executive Director Flight Operations and the Chief Test Pilot (Fixed Wing), prior to the new assignment.
While the IJT-related incidents might have dented the spirit of Baldy and his team, insiders say that he has often kept himself out of the race from director-level opportunities in the past. “He was very much involved with the flying activities be it the IJT or Hawk. And, there could be other reasons, only he would know as to why he chose to stay away from holding top posts. Now, with him being appointed as the Director, he is sure to miss flying,” sources said. Baldy’s first task would be to chart a new flight-path for HAL’s marketing and corporate planning wings. With HAL sitting on a pile of projects, corporate planning becomes a vital cog in the wheel. He will also have to deal with an extremely mediocre head in Nayak, whose term will finally end on October 31 this year – a keenly awaited day by many in the Company. With defence minister Antony making a statement in the floor of the Parliament that the IAF is not trying to take control of HAL, it is now certain that a civilian is sure to take charge, try and save the sinking fortunes of the Company. By the time, hopefully Baldy would have got a grip on his men and machines!
THE MAN: Sqn Ldr Baldev Singh did early schooling in Bangalore at St. Joseph European High School and later joined St. Joseph College. He joined the National Defence Academy in 1970 and graduated from the academy in December 1972 and was commissioned into the Indian Air Force in June 1973 as a fighter pilot. After doing operational flying on Hunter, Mig-21 and Mig-23 aircraft, he qualified as a Flight Instructor in July 1983, and was posted to Air Force Academy at Hyderabad for Instructional Flying Duties on the Kiran Aircraft. In 1984 he did his experimental test pilots course and was deputed to HAL in 1986. He retired from the Indian Air Force in 1989 and joined HAL. He was involved with the LCA Programme from 1990 onwards and was deputed to the Aeronautical Development Agency for this purpose. On the LCA programme he worked extensively on the development and flight testing of the flight control laws of the Light Combat aircraft. He carried out the flight evaluation of these flight control laws at the Real Time simulator at BAE Wharton in UK followed by the flight evaluation of these control laws on the F-16, Lear Jet and NT-33 aircraft in USA. He holds a diploma in Aviation Flight Safety from the Naval Post Graduate College, Monterey Bay, California, USA. He has extensive test flying experience on five prototype programmes and carried out the first flights of the HANSA aircraft and the Intermediate Jet Trainer. He has a Total Flight Test Experience of over 6000 hrs on over 55 different types of aircraft. He is a Qualified Flying Instructor and holds a diploma in Aviation Flight Safety from the Naval Post Graduate College, Monterey Bay, California, USA.
 
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26 IAF fighter aircraft crashed in last 3 years, says defence minister AK Antony-Twenty six Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter aircraft have crashed in last three years resulting in the death of 12 persons, including six service personnel and injuring 25 civilians, government said.

In his written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Defence Minister A K Antony said, "During last three years (Financial Year 2008-09 to 2010-11) and current financial year, 26 fighter aircraft of IAF have crashed."

A maximum of 10 fighter aircraft crashed in 2009-10, while the number of crashes for 2008-09 and 2010-11 were eight and six respectively. This year, up to August, two incidents of air crashes took place in the force.

On number of people killed in these crashes, the Minister said, "Six service personnel and six civilians were killed. 25 civilians were also injured in these accidents."
 
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Don’t worry, 5G combat jet still best for India

Is Delhi losing interest in Russian combat aircraft? The Indian newspapers have been lately replete with a spate of bleak reports suggesting that “the Indian military are looking for alternatives to reinforce the air force in case the joint Russian-Indian programme to develop a fifth generation fighter aircraft falls through.”



An article published in The Times of India cited an anonymous source in the country’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) saying that the MoD is considering an opportunity to buy an additional 63 medium fighters alongside the 123 it is tendering for a contract for MMRCA (Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft). The military have reserved the option in case the deadlines for the two key defence programmes overrun. These include development of the joint Russian-Indian 5G fighter PAK FA (advanced tactical frontline fighter) and launch of serial production of India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).



“If the timelines for the Tejas LCA and the stealth Indo-Russian PAK FA projects are not met, we will go for more MMRCA to retain IAF’s combat edge,” said the article, quoting the source. Notably, the three types of aircraft in question (PAK FA, MMRCA and LCA) actually constitute different aircraft classes and can’t be regarded as perfect substitutes for one another for purely technical reasons. The only thing they all have in common is, if anything, the financial interests involved, both on the part of India and other countries.



Incidentally, Russian experts tend to ascribe negative reviews of the Russian aircraft in the Indian mass media precisely to those financial interests. If we look at the structure of India’s combat air force, we see that Russian fighters have remained the mainstay of five of India’s regional air commands. According to Britain’s The Military Balance-2011, the local air force commands 112 MiG-29 and MiG-29UB fighters, 122 Su-30MKI multipurpose fighters, 223 upgraded MiG-21 Bison and MiG-21 bis fighters, 127 MiG-27 ML swing-wing supersonic fighter bombers, and just 52 French Mirage-2000E fighters and 90 training and combat Jaguar IS aircraft.



Not unlike MiG-21 fighters, Jaguars are, to put it mildly, quite obsolete. Dating back to the 1960s, the English-French fighter is of the same age as the MiG-21. At the turn of the century, however, MiG-21 was seriously upgraded and rigged out with Kopyo antenna radar which, as some experts maintain, even brought the fighter more in line with the fourth-generation combat aircraft. While this assertion is debatable, some Indian pilots have nevertheless been able to win mock combat exercises in this highly manoeuvrable and fast fighter, even against the US F-15 and F-16 aircraft. Even so, the fleet certainly needs to be replaced. There have been some disastrous crashes recently. Although they were largely caused by human error and not just technical deterioration of the fighters, the need is obvious.



What is there to replace the aircraft? First and foremost, there is the Russian multi-purpose Su-30MKI fighter, which Delhi has bought from Russia’s Irkut and which it is even assembling on the premises of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The Indian Air Force is poised to increase the fleet of these fighters to 350 planes but the command may not even stop at that. They like the fighter a lot: manned by Indian pilots, it has won all mock combat exercises involving its competitors and rivals, including the US F-18, Europe’s Typhoon and France’s Rafale which, incidentally, were shortlisted in the tender for 126 MMRCA for India’s air forces.



Yet, in addition to such a heavy-class fighter as the Su-30MKI and such a medium fighter as the Typhoon or Rafale, India certainly needs a lightweight one, along the lines of the MiG-21 or Jaguar. This spot is to be taken by the LCA Tejas, which India has been developing for many years now. The project was launched in 1985 in collaboration with France’s Dassault and the final product emerged, ready to be supplied, in early 2011. It is already being upgraded. Specialists are invoking problems in the development of the Indian engine for the Tejas, which, incidentally, translates from Hindi as “radiant.”



Naturally, just like any other highly industrialised country with a measure of self-respect, India wants to obtain a fifth-generation multi-role fighter. It is now developing such an aircraft in conjunction with Russia’s Sukhoi on the basis of the existing Russian prototype of the plane, the PAK FA T-50 tactical frontline fighter, which is now being flight-tested in Zhukovsky near Moscow and which will be shown to the public and experts at the MAKS-2011 international air show. The difference is that the Indian aircraft, dubbed FGFA (Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft), is initially conceived as a two-seater, unlike the single-seater Russian prototype, and will also be fitted out with Indian avionics – like the Su-30MKI.



Sukhoi representatives say the project is on schedule. India has been allocating the funds to run it on a regular basis (according to some reports, roughly $8bn), and it will certainly receive 250 fifth-generation fighters by the deadline. After this, it will be able to produce them domestically.



As for the talk of Delhi “losing interest in Russian combat aircraft” or India searching for “alternatives,” some experts tend to link this to certain people within India’s air force command, who, just like anywhere, are looking to ensure their future financial standing through large-scale and costly long-term projects. Just as happened with India’s Arjun tank: with the project launched in 1972, the tank did not enter into service with India’s Land Forces until 2011. But then, no country is prohibited from developing its own high-tech, state-of-the-art, military equipment.



If India is keen to develop its own single-engine, fifth-generation, lightweight fighter, it is free to do so. It is even better positioned for the task, since Indian specialists will receive certain experience and expertise from working on the FGFA together with Sukhoi experts and will be able to modify this to fit their national research and production environment. A fifth-generation aircraft is not just about stealth and high manoeuvrability. It is also about new radio electronics, avionics, airborne radars, powerful new engines, composite materials, missiles and many other things. Any such project will engender numerous concomitant inventions and breakthroughs, which may then be applied outside the aircraft building industry.
 
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