Russian "Raptorski" debuts at Moscow Air Show ...

CNN:
Russia's new stealth fighter jet made its public debut Tuesday, according to state-run news source RIA Novosti.

The Sukhoi T-50, developed collaboratively by Russia and India, appeared at the MAKS 2011 air show in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow.

Gen. Alexander Zelin, head of the Russian air force, told RIA Novosti he expects the T-50 prototype to be ready in 2013, with "mass-produced aircraft" arriving in 2014 or 2015.

The aircraft is expected to become a staple of airborne defense for both Russia and India, Mikhail Pogosyan, head of Russia's United Aircraft Corp., told RIA Novosti.

"The T-50 will be the newest main plane both for the Russian and the Indian air force," Pogosyan said.

The article from the state-run media source says the Sukhoi T-50 cost the two governments about $6 billion to develop, with India shouldering about 35% of the cost. It is intended to match the U.S. F-22 Raptor.

B-52 mission to Moscow!

An Air Force Global Strike Command B-52 bomber will make an unprecedented flight to Moscow, taking the shortest and fastest route over the North Pole.

The Minot Air Force Base bomber will be one of several U.S. military aircraft to take part in the MAKS 2011 International Aviation and Space Salon in Russia.

"It's a milestone for the B-52," AFGSC spokeswoman Michele Tasista said, noting it will be "the first time to fly directly over the geographical North Pole followed by a landing in Russia, according to available mission records and our historian."

The polar route is new but the notion of an exchange or warcraft with Russia isn't, with Barksdale and 8th Air Force, headquartered here with AFGSC, historically front and center in past swaps.

In World War II, when the United States and the former Soviet Union were allied against Hitler, 8th Air Force B-17 bombers staged in shuttle missions to and from Russia and Italy. These were from June to September 1944.

The International Aviation and Space Salon will feature more than the B-52. Various models of U.S. military aircraft, equipment and approximately 100 aircrew and support personnel from stateside and U.S. bases in Europe are scheduled to provide static displays and aerial flight demonstrations. In addition to the B-52, U.S. aircraft will include the P-3C Orion, A-10 Thunderbolt II, F-16C Fighting Falcon, C-130J Super Hercules, C-5 Galaxy, F-15E Strike Eagle and KC-10 Extender.

B-17 "Texas Raider" makes stop in Amarillo

A WWII vintage B-17 bomber Texas Raider made a stop in Amarillo yesterday for an oil top off. The B-17 (based in Houston) was on it's way from an Air Force Reunion at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. A select few photographers were allowed to photography and inspect the rare bird as it sat on the tarmac at Rick Husband International Airport.



All photos (C) Steve Douglass

Report: Pakistan lets China take samples of bin Laden raid stealth chopper.

Pakistan may have allowed the Chinese military to examine the US stealth helicopter downed in the operation to kill Osama Bin Laden, reports say.

US officials are quoted as saying there is evidence Pakistan invited Chinese military engineers to the site in Abbottabad in the days after the raid.

The Black Hawk helicopter was blown up by US Navy Seals after it crashed, but the tail remained largely intact.

The covert 2 May raid has strained relations between the US and Pakistan.

The two countries - allies in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the region - have been involved in a tit-for-tat row for the last few months, although they have tried to prevent a breakdown of relations.

Pictures and samples
Pakistan enjoys a close relationship with China, which is a major investor in telecommunications, ports and infrastructure in the country.

"The US now has information that Pakistan, particularly the ISI [Pakistan's intelligence service], gave access to the Chinese military to the downed helicopter in Abbottabad," the Financial Times quoted a source in US intelligence circles as saying.

He said Chinese engineers were allowed to survey the wreckage and take samples of the "stealth" skin that allowed the Seals to enter Pakistan undetected by radar, according to the paper.

Both the FT and the New York Times quote intelligence officials as saying they are "certain" the visit took place, although the NYT said officials cautioned that they did not have definitive proof of it happening.

One source said the US case came mostly from intercepted conversations in which Pakistan officials discussed inviting the Chinese to visit the crash site.

In the immediate aftermath of the raid on the compound in Abbottabad housing Osama Bin Laden, US officials had asked Pakistan not to let anyone view the remains of the helicopter.

It was brought back to the US two weeks later following a trip by US Senator John Kerry.

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Hypersonic Falcon goes silent ...

An unmanned DARPA hypersonic glider — a prototype for a global strike weapons program — launched on its second test flight Thursday (Aug. 12) in a bid to fly at the mind-blowing speed of Mach 20.

The DARPA glider, called the Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California atop a Minotaur 4 rocket at 7:45 a.m. PDT.


According to DARPA updates, the test flight appeared to go well until the glide phase, when monitoring stations lost contact with the HTV-2 vehicle. [Photos: DARPA Hypersonic Glider's Mach 20 Test]

"Range assets have lost telemetry with HTV2," DARPA officials wrote in a Twitter post about 36 minutes after launch.

The HTV-2 vehicle was expected to reach suborbital space, then re-enter Earth's atmosphere and glide at hypersonic speed to demonstrate controllable flight at velocities of around Mach 20, which is about 13,000 mph. At that speed, more than 20 times the speed of sound, a vehicle could fly from New York City to Los Angeles in 12 minutes, DARPA officials said.

A video animation of the HTV-2 flight test depicts how the the hypersonic vehicle was expected to pop free of its rocket, then soar through Earth's atmosphere for an inevitable, and intentional, plunge into the Pacific Ocean at the end of its mission.

"Assumptions about Mach 20 hypersonic flight were made from physics-based computational models and simulations, wind tunnel testing, and data collected from HTV-2's first test flight — the first real data available in this flight regime at Mach 20," said Air Force Maj. Chris Schulz, HTV-2 program manager, in a statement. "It's time to conduct another flight test to validate our assumptions and gain further insight into extremely high Mach regimes that we cannot fully replicate on the ground."

Read the rest of the story at SPACE.COM