During my visit to the USS Nimitz in the Indian Ocean last month, I had the opportunity to see the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets in action. The Super Hornet is a 4.5+ generation naval multirole aircraft that was delivered to the US Navy in 1999 to replace the F-14, the S-3 and, in the long term, the F/A-18C and D Hornet.
Even if the “Rhino” (as the aircraft has been dubbed to distinguish it from the “legacy Hornet”) is the most advanced aircraft in the USN inventory, its replacement is already flying and undertaking flight testing: on Nov. 15, the first Lockheed F-35B Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) landed at Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Md. The test aircraft, known as BF-1, after departing from Lockheed facility in Fort Worth, landed at Pax River after a stop in Dobbins Air Force Base, Ga.
BF-1 is the first of five test F-35B STOVL (Short Take-Off Vertical Landing) variants to be assigned to the air station. BF-2 is expected to arrive by the end of this year and BF-3 will follow shortly behind that, Lockheed spokesman John Kent said. The air station also will be home to three Navy carrier test variants. Before the aircraft can complete its first vertical landing, it must go through a transition phase. When regular airplanes fly, lift is created from the wing. But for hovering jets such as the F-35B, it is created from the jet itself. The transition phase is expected to include a series of flights, during which the aircraft will practice slowing down and transitioning lift from the wing to the jet — a critical step before an actual STOVL flight. Additional testing will include flying with different weight loads and ordnance payloads, according to a Marine release. “I’m anxious to have our engineers, our test pilots and our operators get their hands on this jet, and then see what we can do to turn test points and sorties at a rapid rate during the coming months,” said Lt. Gen. George J. Trautman, the deputy commandant for aviation, in a release. Eventually the Joint Strike Fighter will replace the F/A-18 Hornet, AV-8B Harrier, and the EA-6B Prowler. Marine Fighter/Attack Training Squadron-501, the first squadron that will train Marine JSF pilots and maintainers, is expected to stand up at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., in April 2010 as part of the Joint Integrated Training Center. The first operational squadron will stand up in 2012. Even the Marina Militare (Italian Navy) is expeceted to receive 22 naval JSF that will replace the AV-8B+ Harrier and will operate from the new Italian aircraft carrier Cavour (that can accomodate 8 – 10 F-35B).

An F/A-18F of the VFA-41 and an E of the VFA-14 overflying USS Nimitz (courtesy USS Nimitz)

The BF-1 arrives at Patuxent River (Lockheed)

The BF-1 arrives at Patuxent River (Lockheed)

Airline Manager is an addicting Facebook game (http://apps.facebook.com/airline_manager/index.php) developed outside the Social Network, that let you create and manage your own airline; buy aircraft; choose routes according to the aircraft type and endurance, and to the demand for a particular destination; pay for catering and maintenance; purchase fuel (whose prices depend on the global market and change); invest in advertising and buy and sell other companies stocks. The goal of the game is to increase the value of the company by expanding your fleet and routes. Interestingly, the game is in real time, meaning that you can follow in “live mode” a flight in progress and if a flight lasts 14 hours (as my Rome – San Diego does), you have to wait all that time before the return flight can depart. Incidents, failures and personnel strike can occur, so you have to spend your money carefully because you could need some hundred thousands US Dollars to fix an aircraft or to give you pilots a pay raise.
But, first of all, you have to think to a name for your airline. The one I chose is EcoLux, from Ecological and Luxurious: Ecological because, today, both airlines and aircraft manufacturer are compelled to address environmental issues with a “green vision”; Luxurious because a modern airline with the ambition of growing fast has to provide first class services to its passengers to cope with important challengers like the rich Middle East airlines (Emirates, Ethiad, etc.). I created a logo (that you can see on the right image) for ECOLUX and a colour scheme according to it.
My virtual airline is expanding very fast so, if you have your own company on Airline Manager, I suggest you to invest on ECOLUX soon!

Between 2003 and 2004, Piercarlo Ciacchi, a former F-104 pilot currently flying with the Frecce Tricolori display team, produced a series of videos he took flying with the Starfighter from Grazzanise, where its squadron, the 18° Gruppo, was temporary deployed. The following one is dedicated to the world famous 9-99, the red special colour of the 9° Stormo; the first and only Starfighter in special colour scheme ever made by the wing based in Grazzanise. The video is titled “Un aereo speciale” (“A special plane”) and you can watch it all by clicking the below image:

Swedish Affair

(Swedish Catalina vs. Soviet Mig-15s)

Are you sure that neutral countries have never been involved in military clashes?

In the years following the end of WW2, despite the long-standing neutrality, Sweden began to undertake reconnaissance activity along the Baltic Sea, in order to minimize the possible threat posed by the Russians.

The early sorties began in the autumn of 1945 and were flown primarily by SAAB B18B, a local version of the well known Junkers Ju-86.

Reconnaissance planes usually took off during the night so that they could focus on their targets at dawn. Once they reached the Baltic coast, the planes would climb to 200-300 meters to take photos of any vessels they encountered and frequently they had “face to face” encounters with Soviet fighters.

In 1946, it was reported about some rockets flying through Swedish airspace, so it was promptly decided to set-up a reconnaissance mission towards the Penemunde peninsula where it was suspected that Soviet rockets research centre was based.

This mission was assigned to a SAAB B17 single engine dive bomber converted into a recce aircraft when on August 1946 it made the first attempt to make aerial photos of the facility but on its way to the target it had to turn back after being intercepted by a bunch of Soviet fighters.

After several other unsuccessful missions, it was therefore decided to devolve upon a higher performance aircraft so to chose a single Swedish P-51D equipped with a high number of reconnaissance cameras borrowed by the US.

These last missions were operated by the Mustang were known as “Operation Falun” and began on July 1948, and results were given and shared with the US Government.

During the following years the sorties did not stop and Swedish Air Force dedicated specific aircrafts to carry on several important and high-risk missions.

Between 1948 and 1949 around 15 reconnaissance missions were flown along the Soviet Baltic coast but avoiding major centers.

Unfortunately, not all the sorties had a happy end.

It was June 13th, 1952 when a Swedish military DC-3 carrying out a radio surveillance flight over the Baltic Sea disappeared East of the Isle of Gotland.

Three days later, a couple of PBY Catalina were sent to search the lost DC-3 when they got intercepted by Soviet Mig-15s and one of them was shot down. The seven crew members managed to ditch near the West German freighter “Munsterland” and were rescued immediately.

But how did these events really happen?

Once again what we are going to explain is only the description reported by both opponents, since it is really difficult to piece together the truth after many years, especially when you get involved in matters often hidden by military secret.

It seems that, due to bad weather, the Catalina accidentally entered the Soviet airspace through the Estonian island of Dago, when it was intercepted by a couple of fast Mig-15s jets; it was pushed west under continued firing and was finally forced to land.

The transmission reported by the Catalina crew is clear and give no doubts of what happened that day on the sky:

-“…Feigned attack by two Mig planes…” and two minutes later:

“We are being fired upon with tracers, 20mm…it’s hitting to the right”.

Six minutes later the Swedish Air Command received such a message: “I have been fired upon and hit several times!”

In the post-fact analysis of the events, the crew members reported that before being forced to make the emergency splashdown, the Soviet planes made several attacks as by following details:

- under the first two attacks, the Catalina plane took no hits;

- under the third attack, the fuselage and the left wing were hit;

- the fourth attack came straight from behind and damaged heavily the elevator;

- the fifth and the sixth attacks damaged the left engine and by hitting the cockpit they wounded the pilot and the navigator.

The crew managed to perform a successful ditching and while the life boats were being lowered into the water, the couple of Mig made another attack, but did not fire again.

Picture by: Radomił Binek

After ten minutes the damaged plane sunk into the deep waters, as the crew members were going to be picked up by the German ship “Munsterland”.

The reaction by the Soviets was similar to those related to the previous incidents involving their own Air Force: the foreign plane – this time a Swedish aircraft – had violated Soviet airspace and after being intercepted 40 kilometers inside the territorial waters it was fired upon by the Mig-15s, compelling the Soviet pilots to fire back and shot down the threat.

On the other side, the Swedish Government denied this statement and claimed the Catalina was unarmed and was flying around 15 miles off the Soviet Baltic coastline.

The Stockholm Government also pointed out how the rules of interception were substantially different between the involved countries, giving the public opinion the common impression how Soviet rules were out of the common wisdom and practice:

“…In fact, there are fundamental differences. While the orders of the Swedish Air Force are to turn off foreign aircraft by means of a warning, the Soviet Air Force has, according to its orders, to try to force the foreign aircraft to land. While the instructions of the Swedish Air Force mean that the foreign aircraft is not fired upon if it changes its course and flies away, the Soviet instructions seem to imply that the foreign aircraft is fired upon if it flies away instead of landing”.

But the international right for all the nations’ aircrafts to fly over the high sea was once more admitted by the involved Governments.

On a Soviet diplomatic reply of July 1952 to a Swedish note it was stated that:

“The Ministry of Foreign Affaire of the URSS does not deem it necessary to begin discussing the Swedish Government’s statement that Swedish military planes have full freedom to fly over the open sea and will, in future as hitherto, make use of this right, since the USSR…has never disputed this.”

Even this time the main diplomatic dispute lays upon the exact location of the intercepted plane at the time of the incident. No one called into question the widespread principle of freedom above the high sea; indeed, this statement will be strengthened later in 1960, when a US RB-47 will be shot down by Soviet warplanes.

This incident brought the matter before none of the members of the UN Security Council – included US and USSR – tried to justify the shooting down of a plane flying over the high sea, even if close to the territorial waters and engaged in reconnaissance activities or espionage.

A few months later the Catalina incident, the Soviets were involved into another similar incident, when an American B-29 was shot down by fighters in the North eastern part of Japan, into a sector that embraces the islands of Habomai, Yuri and Akiyuri, making the reconstruction of the facts more difficult than usual, since it was a long time that USSR was claiming its territorial sovereignty above Akiyuri.

© David Cenciotti & Simone Bovi

On Nov 12, the EH-101 of the Marina Militare that had been unable to depart on Nov. 11 (read here), because of a minor failure, took off from the Circus Maximus and Giovanni Maduli was again there to take the following pictures of the “Merlin”.

The following images, showing the departure of the helicopters attending the exhibition in Rome for the Armed Forces Day celebration, were taken by Giovanni Maduli on Nov. 11, 2009. All but the EH-101 of the Marina Militare (Italian Navy, ItNy), that experienced a failure, and the A109 of the Guardia di Finanza, that returned to its homebase via ground transportation, took off from the Circus Maximus; the ruins of Ancient Rome on the Palatine Hill provided a striking background to the pictures.

Following the article dealing with the Italian Armed Forces Day celebrations, below you can find some close up pictures of the aircraft and equipment displayed at the Circus Maximus exhibition, taken by Giovanni Maduli on Nov. 8, 2009.

Again, Boris Aguilar provided the description of the flight gear worn by CVW-11 during my visit to USS Nimitz:

Pilot and NFO in the cockpit of this F-18F from VFA-41 Black Aces. They are equipped with different helmet setups, the pilot wearing a JHMCS helmet with an MBU-16/P oxygen mask, and the NFO possibly an HGU-68/P helmet with an MBU-23/ P oxygen mask. The mounting bracket used to connect the NVG (night vision goggles) to the helmet, can be seen just above the corner of the black leather panel of the helmet worn by the NFO.

After publishing some images I took on board the USS Nimitz, Boris Aguilar, a flight clothing collector and expert living in Australia, sent me the detailed description of the  flight gear worn by the CVW-11 pilots.

VF-14 Tophatters pilot wearing a JHMCS helmet and MBU-23 mask. Note that the helmet is taped, and front section called relay optics mount assembly, a composite shell that houses all electronic and optical components of the display units, is left in its original grey colour.

Both pilot and Naval Flight Officer in the cockpit of this F-18F from VFA-41 are both wearing JHMCS helmets. The MBU-23 mask and LPU-36 life peserver can be seen in the photo. Also note the AIM-9X air-to-air missile fitted to the right wing’s wingtip launcher.

Pilot wearing current US Navy flightgear including tan CWU-27 flight suit, CMU-33 type I survival vest, torso harness, LPU-36 life preserver, CSU-15/p g-suit, helmet bag and brown boots. Note the two officers wear different coloured boots. The one on the top left wears a pair of Belleville M790 in tan. The housing for the upper helmet vehicle interface appears as a bump at the back of the JHMCS.

The Italian Armed Forces celebrated the 91th Anniversary since the end of WWI with a series of events involving bases, airports and military installation all around the country. As happened in 2008, Circus Maximus (Circo Massimo) in Rome hosted an exhibition with equipment belonging to the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force), Marina Militare (Italian Navy) and Guardia Costiera (Coast Guard), Esercito Italiano (Italian Army), Guardia di Finanza (Custom Police) and Carabinieri (Military Police). As the following pictures I took there on Nov. 7 show, aircraft, helicopters and much more (including flight gear) was displayed in each Armed Forces’ booths.

As happened last year (read http://cencio4.wordpress.com/2008/11/29/on-board-the-cavour-aircraft-carrier/) the second and largest Italian aircraft carrier Cavour was again in Civitavecchia harbour and could be visited by anybody who wanted to “embark”. Unfortunately, there were few photo opportunities, since unlike 2008, the aircraft inside the hangar could not be photographed. On the other side, many images could be taken on board the “Caio Duilio” (D554), that was next to the Cavour. The “Caio Duilio” is a brand new Anti-Air Warfare destroyer belonging to the Horizon Common New Generation Frigate (CNGF). The ship was taken on charge by the Marina Militare on Apr. 3, 2009 and it is equipped with a Sylver vertical launcher for 48 Aster 15 and 30 missiles, autonomous Command and Control capabilities, LRR S-1850 M long range radar, and PAAMS (Principal Anti Air Missile System) based on Windows 2000 software with an EMPAR multi-function radar. Interestingly, the ship was designed with straight lines that give the unit stealth (low observability) capabilities. The following pictures were taken by Giovanni Maduli.

On Sunday Oct.  30, 2009, Sarzana Luni airport hosted an interesting event to celebrate the 40 years of the 5° Gruppo Elicotteri of the Marina Militare (Italian Navy, ItNy). The event was attended by a few hundred visitors that found an interesting static display and no fences around the aircraft. Among the most interesting aircraft displayed at Luni, there were a high-visibility EH-101 (MMX605/PP6) and an NH-90 in Dutch Navy markings (CSX81697/N-088). Matteo Marianeschi was there and took the following pictures of both the local based helicopters and visitors.

On Nov. 2, I typed the URL http://www.aeronautica.difesa.it to get the latest news from the website of the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force, ItAF) but I got the following message:

Looks like the website has been report as being compromised with some malware injected on the page. According to Google, in the last 90 days, suspicious activity has been reported 3 times. 135 out of 563 pages visited by Google, caused the download of malicious code.

The last time the website was checked is Nov. 2, 2009, while the last time malcious code was detected on the site is Oct. 30, 2009 (again, according to Google).
By ignoring the message I got access to homepage of the ItAF website that is temporary unavailable because is currently under maintenance as you can see from the below screenshot. What is not clear right now is whether the ItAF website is being updated because it was hacked with malicious code or it is undertaking maintenance that has nothing to do with the malicious code inserted in some of its internal pages.

Following the post about the patches I took on board the USS Nimitz during my visit on Oct. 18 and 19 (http://cencio4.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/cvw-11-patches/) some readers and visitors of this site requested me to upload some pictures of the flight helmets and flight gear worn by the crews of the CVW-11.

Images obtained by stitching respectively 8 and 6 pictures taken on board on Oct. 19, 2009.

The following patches were among those worn (and sold) by the crews of the various squadrons of the CVW-11 aboard USS Nimitz during my recent visit. The CVW-11 composition was:
100 VFA-41 F/A-18F
200 VFA-14 F/A-18E
300 VFA-97 F/A-18C
400 VFA-86 F/A-18C
500 VAQ-135 EA-6B
600 VAW-117 E-2C
610 HS-6 SH-60F/HH-60H