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The Giant Beluga Fleet Keeps Airbus Jet Production Humming

Bill Walton
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The Giant Beluga Fleet Keeps Airbus Jet Production Humming

They are Airbus’s delivery ships of the sky.

The Airbus A300-600ST Beluga is built using many of the components from the standard A300-600 wide-body airliner. The ST in the designator stands for the original name: Super Transporter. It is a super transporter, but the name Beluga stuck and hasn’t let go.

 

There are a total of five operational Belugas flying aircraft components between factories spread around Europe. Unmistakable for their size and appearance, the A300-600STs have been incrementally updated, upgraded, and improved during their 21 years of service. Belugas have performed charter flights to carry outsized cargo such as a huge chemical tank for a merchant vessel, two complete NH90 helicopters and a single Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter from France to Melbourne in Australia for the Avalon Airshow, and large / voluminous space vehicle components and satellites for multiple national space programs including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the former Soviet Union. Belugas have also flown relief supplies to areas devastated by tsunamis and hurricanes.

Replacement coming soon

a330The Beluga is due to be replaced by a similarly modified version of the A330. The Beluga has carried components of Airbus aircraft since it took over from four even more-modified Super Guppy transporters in 1996. But rather than locate the forward loading door behind the cockpit like the Guppies, the Beluga relocated the cockpit to a location below the loading door, which means systems don’t all have to be disconnected every time the door is used. First deliveries of modified A330 will begin in 2019.

Watch the video and become enlightened about how Belugas work.

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Air Canada’s New Livery Looks Sexy on 787-9 Dreamliner

Bill Walton
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Air Canada’s New Livery Looks Sexy on 787-9 Dreamliner

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner entered service in 2014. The aircraft are manufactured is multiple locations and assembled at Boeing in Seattle. Subcontracted assemblies arrive from Japan, Italy, South Korea, France, Sweden, India, the UK, and Kansas, Connecticut, and South Carolina in the United States. The larger components are carried by the four Boeing 747-LCF (Large Cargo Freighter) Dreamlifters. The prototype 787 first flew on December 15th 2009. More than 500 of them have been produced (all variants) and they are operated by more than 40 airlines around the world.

Air Canada has taken delivery of 26 787s, the majority of which (18) are the “stretched” 787-9 version. Over the years Air Canada has used several liveries for their aircraft, but Avgeeks, plane spotters, and fence checkers seem to agree their new white paint scheme is one of the more attractive looks for the 787.

The 787-9 Dreamliner in the video, registered as C-FRTG (callsign Air Canada 300), was captured during its first appearance at Montreal’s Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport (YUL / CYUL) on its way from Vancouver International Airport (YVR / CVYR). Both the approach and departure are included in the video. Enjoy!

Video and screen shot by CYUL Plane Spotter.

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Brigadier General Robin Olds Tells His Story in This Rare Video Series

Bill Walton
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Brigadier General Robin Olds Tells His Story in This Rare Video Series

The Mustachioed Hero Shares the Keys to His Abundant Success.

Brigadier General Robin Olds served his country in the Air Force for thirty years. A football player at West Point, he flew Lockheed P-38 Lightnings and then North American P-51 Mustangs in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) during World War II. Olds was credited with a total of 12 aerial victories and another 11.5 enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground. After returning to the United States at war’s end as a 22 year old Major in command of his squadron, he was instrumental in the creation of the first jet aircraft demonstration team. He was then assigned to the fledgling Air Defense Command (ADC). He married movie star Ella Raines in 1947. As a result of his ADC assignment Olds did not make it to the Korean War. During the 1950s and early 1960s Olds was assigned to duty in places like Wheelus Air Force Base (AFB) in Libya, RAF Bentwaters in the UK, and Landstuhl AFB in Germany. Then…Vietnam.

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Official Air Force Photograph

Becoming the Dynamic Duo

Olds was perhaps most famous for his exploits as 8th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) Wing Commander in Vietnam. When Olds took over command of the 8th TFW, based at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base (RTAFB) in Thailand, he brought in fellow Air Force legend “Chappie” James to be his deputy commander for operations. As a result the 8th TFW became one of the most successful Air Force units to fly combat missions in Southeast Asia.

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“Chappie” James (left) with Colonel Robin Olds (right). Official US Air Force photograph

The Man Tells His Own Story…With a Laugh or Two Along the Way

Olds flew a total of 259 combat missions (107 during World War II and 152 in Southeast Asia. Later in his career he was Commandant of the Air Force Academy and Inspector General of the Air Force. He retired from the Air Force on June 1st 1973. In the videos below, shot during an hour-long Air Force Association event in 1998, Olds shared memories of his career with his trademark humorous delivery. Enjoy all three parts of the discussion linked below. You Avgeek bookworms will undoubtedly enjoy his book Fighter Pilot, written with his daughter Christina. The General passed away at the age of 84 in 2007.

Part One

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Part Two

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Part 3

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Robin Olds.
Official US Air Force photograph

WATCH: Delta A319 Has a Close Encounter With a Mic’d Up Weather Balloon.

Avgeekery
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WATCH: Delta A319 Has a Close Encounter With a Mic’d Up Weather Balloon.

Have You Ever Wondered What an A319 Sounds Like When It Flies By at FL380?

It was an incident likely to cause ‘Light Chop’ for the Delta Airlines A319.  Delta flight 159 from Boston to Detroit faced some rather unique traffic back on March 26, 2017.  A weather balloon known as an OLHZN or ‘Overlook Horizon High Altitude Balloon’ had taken off from Honeoye, NY near Rochester New York.  Over Newark, New York (not New Jersey), the balloon and the airliner had a close encounter at 38,000 feet.

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In the video released by the OLHZN team, you can see that the balloon is less than a thousand feet below the Airbus. This video is really unique for a couple of reasons.  The balloon is nearly stationary and doesn’t have a motor. Therefore, the balloon is able to capture the native and typically serene sounds of the world. In this case though, the passing Delta jet sounds like a fighter aircraft buzzing by a crowd at low altitude.  The jet passes by the balloon at 400+ knots.

This is a very different perspective than most people who observe jets at altitude. Pilots frequently see crossing traffic. But they see traffic from their perspective where they are also moving through the sky at hundreds of miles per hour.  They also never hear the other aircraft’s engine noise(or if they do, its a very bad day!).

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Airliner encounters with weather balloons aren’t all that common. They occasionally occur as the balloon rises above the flight levels where airliners typically fly. Air traffic controllers are aware of these balloon flights and do their best to route traffic around them.  In the video post, the OLHZN team had this to say about the flight, “All of our flights follow FAA Federal Aviation Regulation requirements outlined in FAR 101 and have NOTAMs filed with the FAA and coordination is performed with the local ARTCCs and airports to ensure safe operations.”

The balloon eventually climbed to an altitude of 102,544 FT. and landed northwest of Syracuse, NY.  If you are interested in learning more about this weather balloon flight, watch the video below:

A Mig and a Sabre Fly Together At The Gathering of Warbirds

Bill Walton
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A Mig and a Sabre Fly Together At The Gathering of Warbirds

The annual Gathering of Warbirds event takes place at Waukesha County Airport (KUES) near Waukesha in Wisconsin. It is an event that most warbird aficionados will tell you is one of the highlights of the Midwest summer airshow season. The 2017 Gathering took place on May 27th and drew scores of vintage and veteran aircraft and thousands of fans. The Commemorative Air Force Wisconsin Wing sponsored and hosted the event. The next big deal in that part of the country will be the 65th Annual Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture Fly-In at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh (KOSH)- just a few miles up the road from Waukesha.

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One of the highlights of the show was the demonstration of two 1950s-era jet fighters- the North American F-86 Sabre Jet (flown by Jeff Kaney) and the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 Fresco (flown by Paul Keppeler). They were joined during their flight by an Aero L-39 Albatros photo / video plane. The video alternates between views of the pilots in their cockpit and their points of view out the front of each of the aircraft. One thing you Avgeeks might pick up on is the difference between sound pitch and volume between the MiG to the Sabre. Watch Sabre pilot Kaney work those rudders during takeoff!

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The Ingenious Swedish Plan That Keeps Their Planes Flying Even If Bases Are Attacked

Bill Walton
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The Ingenious Swedish Plan That Keeps Their Planes Flying Even If Bases Are Attacked

Roads can be runways too!

Air Base System 90 is a dispersal and alternate deployment plan developed during the 1970s and utilized by the Swedish Air Force. The system was developed from the Air Base System 60, which was intended to protect and preserve as many of the available aircraft as possible in the event of a nuclear attack. Base 90 was conceived after the Six Day War during 1967. Israel had knocked out the majority of Egypt’s aircraft on the ground due in large part to lack of dispersal or affective protection for those aircraft. The Swedes took a look and decided to put a plan in place to modify some 22 of their airbase installations ASAP. NATO implemented similar contingency planning for German autobahns as well.

Swedish Air Force jets on the tarmac.
Photo Credit: Rune Rydh

Rather than maintain revetments (hardened or otherwise) in the two or three locations generally utilized at a given airbase such as near the ends of runway(s) or near the center of the installation, the Swedes devised widely dispersed revetments for their aircraft and widened sections of nearby public roads, turning them into makeshift runways. Centrally located hubs for fuel, lubricants, ordnance, and oxygen allowed Swedish ground crews to service the 20 to 40 widely dispersed Saab 37 Viggen and other combat aircraft at each expanded base as efficiently as possible. The result was that it would take several more sorties, to knock out the same number of Swedish Air Force assets than if they were dispersed in the traditional manner. No single conventional bomb would damage more than a single Swedish fighter.

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WATCH: The Day the Colonel Got Back In the Jet One Last Time

Bill Walton
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WATCH: The Day the Colonel Got Back In the Jet One Last Time

Bud Day Probably Was a True American Hero and a Hell of a Fighter Pilot

Colonel George Everette “Bud” Day was shot down while flying a North American F-100F Super Sabre “Misty” forward air controller (FAC) mission on August 26th 1967 and spent the next 2,027 days as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. Day was the last Congressional Medal of Honor recipient of the war. Though he was badly injured while ejecting from his F-100F, he bravely resisted the attempts by his captors to break his will and spirit. Day first served his country during the last 30 months of World War II and flew fighters in Korea and Vietnam. Day is the only recipient of both the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Air Force Cross.

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After he recovered from his injuries and long confinement Colonel Day returned to flying and eventually accumulated about 8,000 flying hours, of which 4,900 were logged flying single-engine jets. Bud Day “slipped the surly bonds” in various models of the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star, Republic F-84 Thunderjet, North American F-100 Super Sabre, McDonnell F-101 Voodoo, Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, Republic F-105 Thunderchief, Convair F-106 Delta Dart, McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, Vought A-7 Corsair II, Canadair CF-5 Tiger, and McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle jet fighters. After his retirement in 1977 the Colonel practiced law and wrote “Return with Honor”, an autobiography about his experiences as a prisoner of war, followed by “Duty, Honor, Country,” another autobiography which included his post-service life. Far too soon after he was honored by the Collings Foundation on March 29th 2011, the Colonel passed away in Florida on July 27th 2013.

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Photo Credit: Wikipedia-Network54

Top Aerobatics and Historic Warbirds to Highlight Atlanta Airshow

Charles Atkeison
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Top Aerobatics and Historic Warbirds to Highlight Atlanta Airshow

ATLANTA — Historic warbirds and today’s top aerobatic pilots will help celebrate a century of aviation at Peachtree-DeKalb Airport on Saturday during the Good Neighbor Day Open House and Airshow.

Great weather is forecast as a crowd of nearly 40,000 is expected to turn out to see the flight demonstration’s of Team Aeroshell and the Lima Lima Flight Team. Aerobatic pilots Greg Koontz, Gary Ward, and Larry King are a few of the top performers scheduled to attend the one day airshow.

The pilots of Team Aeroshell will provide the crowds with a heart pounding, fast paced performance as they take their aircraft through a dozen dizzying maneuvers.

“We do the same thing as the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds except we do it in propeller driven airplanes,” Aeroshell pilot Steve Gustafson stated as we spoke on the flightline on Thursday. “We’re like the earlier version of that before we had all the jets.”

Watching Aeroshell’s four red and white AT-6 Texan aircraft cut across the blue sky of north Atlanta will give the airshow audience a true look into history as the team performs in what the aces of the second world war called The Pilot Maker.

hist1“We perform close formation lops, wing overs, barrel rolls, and break up and rejoin maneuvers,” Gustafson explained. “People must enjoy it, we’ve been doing it for a long time and people keep inviting us back.”

Team Aeroshell’s thirty-two year tradition nevers gets old for Gustafson who holds the title as the only original member of the team still flying. “It’s a lot of fun and the Texan is a good airplane,” he added.

The family fun afternoon will also feature a jump-n-slide, large inflatables, and sand castle building for the children plus food and snack concessions. Everyone can also enjoy $40 aircraft flights, such as the Waco bi-plane or a helicopter, from the airfield most of the day.

Admission is free to the public and parking is $10.00. Guests can enjoy MARTA as trains deliver you to either Chamblee or Decatur stations and then bus over to the airshow site.

(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace and technology. Follow his updates via social media @Military_Flight.)

F-15 Shoots Down Drone in Syria, Scores First Air To Air Kill In 20 Years

Mike Killian
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F-15 Shoots Down Drone in Syria, Scores First Air To Air Kill In 20 Years

U.S Air Force F-15s over Syria (USAF photo).

A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle shot down a drone this afternoon over Syria, after the unmanned “predator sized” aircraft dropped a munition near U.S. ground and coalition forces.

The incident occurred in the town of At Tanf, an outpost close to the Jordanian border where U.S. special ops, Syrian rebel forces and other coalition partners train to fight ISIS.

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Check Out This 4K Aerial Video of SpaceX’s Latest Falcon 9 Landing

Mike Killian
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Check Out This 4K Aerial Video of SpaceX’s Latest Falcon 9 Landing

SpaceX is checking off milestones at an impressive pace lately. Their 12th resupply mission for NASA (CRS-11) to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 3 marked the 100th launch off historic Kennedy Space Center pad 39A, former launch site of the space shuttle and Apollo Saturn-V moon rockets before, and the mission also employs the company’s first reused Dragon capsule, flown previously on the CRS-4 mission in the fall of 2014.

But SpaceX also aimed for a secondary objective after putting Dragon on intercept for the ISS; landing the rocket’s first stage booster back at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station “Landing Zone (LZ) 1”, just a few miles south of 39A, and today they released some spectacular 4K aerial footage of the Falcon coming in to land.

The company has done so previously 3 times already, in 3 tries, and nailed it again June 3 shortly after launch.

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SpaceX has also nailed offshore landings on their ‘drone ships’ six times, something they do when the mission being launched requires so much fuel there isn’t enough left for a landing attempt back at the launch site.

Looking ahead, the company is aiming to launch several commercial satellites this summer, both from Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., starting with launch of BulgariaSat-1 from 39A as soon as June 17. The launch will employ another reused booster too, which previously launched the first wave of ‘Iridium NEXT’ satellites last January from Vandenberg. This also makes it the first booster to launch missions on both coasts.

At the same time, preparations for their highly-anticipated inaugural launch of the mammoth Falcon Heavy rocket, a triple-barreled version of their current Falcon-9, are well underway, with testing on the individual rocket cores being conducted at SpaceX’s proving grounds in McGregor, TX.

Would You Charter A 767 To See The Southern Lights? These Avgeeks Did!

Bill Walton
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Would You Charter A 767 To See The Southern Lights? These Avgeeks Did!

On March 27th 2017 a chartered Air New Zealand Boeing 767 took off from Dunedin in New Zealand and headed south toward Antarctica. The eight hour flight’s origination and destination were to be the same airport but the flight itself, and the view, was the thing. How could a 767 night flight with 134 seats (selling for an average of about $2,500 each) and going nowhere sell out- in five days no less? No doubt you’ve heard of the Northern Lights- the Aurora Borealis. Well there is a similar phenomenon, known as the Southern Lights or Aurora Australis, that occurs in the Southern Hemisphere when conditions are right…and right the conditions were that night.

1280px Aurora Australis From ISS

The seat math doesn’t quite work out does it? Simple enough…when you charter a jumbo jet just to look out the windows you don’t sell the center aisle seats. The 767 flew south to just over 60 degrees south latitude. This afforded the passengers / skygazers approximately five hours of uninterrupted Aurora viewing time. The organizers selected an evening close to the equinox and when the phase of the moon would allow for minimum lunar illumination. The Northern Lights are observed more often simply because more eyes are there to see them, but the Southern Lights are every bit as mesmerizing and memorable.

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Bonus Video: Here’s what the Aurora Australis looked like from New Zealand

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Watch The Massive Boeing C-17 Globemaster III Lands On Ice…NBD!

Bill Walton
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Watch The Massive Boeing C-17 Globemaster III Lands On Ice…NBD!

C-17s Are the Largest and Heaviest Aircraft to Regularly Operate in Antarctica

Boeing’s C-17 Globemaster III entered service with the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1995 after 14 years of development work. The airlifter replaced the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter and took some workload off Lockheed C-130 Hercules and C-5 Galaxy transports too. During their 22 years of service C-17s have delivered a whale to Iceland, been hit by a surface-to-air missile (SAM) in Iraq (and landed safely), carried pallets and paratroopers and tanks and patients and VIPs over millions of air miles to thousands of places on every continent. But one particular continent presents more of a challenge than the others- Antarctica.

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OFFICIAL US AIR FORCE PHOTO VIA DVIDS

Down Under to Way Down South

C-17s tasked with supplying American scientists in Antarctica as part of Operation Deep Freeze usually stage out of Christchurch in New Zealand. Lockheed LC-130 Hercules transports are also used to resupply those “wintering over.” C-141s have landed there as well. Australian C-17s and contracted Airbus A319s land on the White Continent occasionally.

C 17 Globemaster III 4a
image via US Air FOrce/DVIDS

Over 500,000 Pounds of Airlifter…Landing on Ice With the Cold Sea Below.  All That Weight Distributed Through Just 14 Tires!

It isn’t unusual for a C-17 to land in Antarctica since the first successful winter resupply airdrop took place on December 20th 2006. However, provided a runway long enough can be smoothed off the ice, Globemasters are more than capable of operating from “austere” ice runways. They have also flown missions to Antarctica during winter. In the video, watch carefully how much the wings and engine pods flex as the airlifter lands and rolls past the camera and down the McMurdo Sea Ice Runway.

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Bonus video- Takeoff from the same ice runway.

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