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The Space Shuttle Enterprise flying over New York City

April 27, 2012, 11:00 am
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On Apr. 27, Space Shuttle Enteprise, atop a NASA  B747 SCA (Shuttle Carrier Aircraft) N905NA, from Washington Dulles airport, using radio callsign “Bovic 15 Heavy”, flew over New York City as done on Apr. 17 when Discovery performed a fly over on Washington DC. Photo Credit: (NASA/Smithsonian Institution/Mark Avino) Since the modified Boeing 747 is [...]
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These are the Iranian “Navy SEALs”. Really.

April 27, 2012, 1:54 pm
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Update Apr. 27, 2012 21.55 GMT Looks like the user who uploaded the video has denied the possibility to embed the video. Hence you can’t watch the footage directly on this blog, but you need to visit Youtube. Just a few screenshots are enough here, though. The soldiers you can see doing base jumping from [...]
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This memo (and a couple of 5.56 mm rounds) killed Osama Bin Laden

April 28, 2012, 7:59 am
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Even if the main U.S. media outlets have already published it, I still think the paper shown below deserves some attention: it is the memo by the (then) CIA Director Leon Panetta, giving the go ahead to the May 1, 2011 raid, dubbed “Operation Neptune’s Spear” that killed Osama bin Laden at Abbottabad, Pakistan. Image [...]
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Chinese fighters’ pyrotechnic performance during Russia – China war games

April 28, 2012, 1:25 pm
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An interesting fleet review of the Russia-China joint naval exercise in the Yellow Sea took place on Apr. 26. Chinese and Russian warships, warplanes took part in the final event of the drills that included also live ammunition firing. The war games (dubbed “Joint Naval Drill 2012″) seem to be a Moscow and Beijing response [...]
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If you thought the Presidential helicopter had tinted windows, you were wrong.

April 29, 2012, 7:00 am
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The following AP picture took me by surprise. Taken on Apr. 27 at Andrews AFB, shows Barack Obama through the window of the Presidential chopper. Image credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin I’ve always thought most VIP vehicles, cars and helicopters had tinted windows. First of all because they are cool. Second, for quite obvious security reasons: [...]
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Photo: RQ-7 Bravo drone launched at night from Kandahar (as it can’t fly much on hot days).

April 29, 2012, 1:05 pm
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The following AP photo shows an RQ-7 Bravo UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) being prepared for launch at Forward Operating Base Pasab, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. It is particularly interesting because it was taken with a long exposure: the headlamps and bodies of a crew from the 508th Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd [...]
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Video: This is how fuel supplies are air-dropped by C-17s in Afghanistan. And sometimes get wasted.

April 29, 2012, 5:30 pm
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The following video shows how fuel (and many other things) are usually delivered to ground recovery teams in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Notice what happens at 0:42 s: it looks like something is falling faster than the rest of the supply; a couple of pallets stacked with fuel barrels with a failed [...]
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Exclusive: What nobody else will tell you about the U.S. F-22 stealth fighters deployed near Iran

April 30, 2012, 7:00 am
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The news that multiple F-22 stealth fighters were deployed “near Iran” has already been reported by the most important media outlets all around the world. However, nobody has been able to provide some important details that could be useful to better understand the scope of this overseas deployment: when did the Raptors deploy? How many [...]
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The M-346 flying with a “weird device” at the base of the canopy

April 30, 2012, 10:00 am
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The following photograph was taken by Roberto Zanda last week. It shows the M-346 currently involved in a testing campaign at Decimomannu airbase with a strange device installed on the right hand side. Most probably it is something like a camera used to film the weapon delivery tests or a large mirror that gives the [...]
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30 years ago today, one of the RAF’s greatest missions of all time: a long range surprise attack to the Falklands

April 30, 2012, 2:42 pm
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At 22.30, on Apr. 30, 1982, the first engine of some 13 Hadley Page Victor K2 Tanker aircraft spooled into life and announced the start of one of the RAF’s greatest missions of all time. It all started a few weeks previously, when some Argentinean scrap metal merchants had claimed some remote British Islands called [...]
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Here’s the (updated) shape of the badass Stealth Black Hawk chopper revealed one year ago by the Osama Bin Laden raid

May 1, 2012, 7:00 am
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As many readers of this blog already know, I’ve begun studying the possible shape of the so-called “Stealth Black Hawk” or “Silent Hawk” since the first pictures of the helicopter that had crash landed at Abbottabad, in Pakistan, during the Osama Bin Laden raid (officially named “Operation Neptune’s Spear“), appeared on line. Based on the [...]
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Photo: U.S. F-22 Raptors landing at Moron airbase, Spain, on their way to the Persian Gulf.

May 1, 2012, 8:47 am
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The following pictures, taken by Antonio Muñiz, show the F-22 Raptors from Holloman landing at Moron airbase, in Spain, on Apr. 17, 2012. As already explained with many exclusive details, the six 49FW F-22As were on the first leg of their scheduled deployment to the Gulf. The stealth fighters departed again for their final destination, [...]
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You won’t believe it: UK considered bringing back one aircraft carrier and the Harrier for Libya

May 2, 2012, 6:00 am
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Can you remember the famous possible, reportedly imminent, UK’s U-turn on the F-35 version that we already discussed here? It looks like another resounding decision could have been reversed during last year’s Libya operations, when London considered bringing back to operative service the aircraft carriers and Harrier “jump jets” axed by the much criticised Strategic [...]
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Soyuz spacecraft’s search and rescue helicopters

May 2, 2012, 10:00 am
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Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft with Expedition 30 crew members landed at Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, on Apr. 27, 2012, when the capsule brought Commander Dan Burbank and Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin back to Earth from more than five months on the International Space Station. A fleet of Russian Mil-Mi 17 Hip helicopters provided search and [...]
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482 such planes have crashed in 30 years. There is someone risking a lot more than F-22 pilots.

May 2, 2012, 11:06 am
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As already explained in a previous post, there’s a very small number of U.S. combat pilots who have asked not to fly the F-22 Raptor fighter jets, or to be reassigned to other units, because of the oxygen-deprivation problems with the fifth generation stealth fighter. However, there’s another community of aircraft pilots risking much more [...]
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Sooner or later we will all be spied upon by a drone like this.

May 2, 2012, 1:52 pm
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TV coverage of sport events once relied on helicopters. Today, live video is provided by cameras carried by micro-drones like the one depicted in the image below. Used to film auto or skiing races, such “Octocopter robots” are slightly becoming distinctive features of our lives and, sooner or later, they will be used for surveillance, [...]
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Video: Best or Craziest helicopter pilot in the world?

May 2, 2012, 2:39 pm
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This might be the best or even the more dangerous helicopter show you’ve ever seen. The video, most probably filmed years ago (based on the poor image quality), shows an Australian OH-58 Kiowa performing stunts inside what looks like a packed stadium, at low level around a man acting like a sort-of chopper tamer. Such [...]
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Photo: President Barack Obama inside a CH-47 in Afghanistan (without flak jacket)

May 2, 2012, 4:05 pm
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Just released by the White House, this photograph, taken on May 1, at Bagram airfield, shows Barack Obama talking with Ambassador Ryan Crocker aboard Marine One moments before the helicopter took off to bring the President, just arrived from Andrews AFB on board the Air Force One, to the Afghan Presidential Palace in Kabul. Seated [...]
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Photo: IndyCar Sao Paulo 300′s insane fly-over

May 3, 2012, 7:00 am
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The following photo was taken on Apr. 29, 2012, during the IndyCar’s Sao Paulo 300 auto race. Although quite blurry, it shows a Brazilian Air Force AMX A-1 buzzing what I initially thought could only be a helicopter but I later identified as the rooftop of the Holiday Inn Sao Paulo Parque Anhembi, during the [...]
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Ready for a 9/11-type of attack: RAF Typhoons based in London will shoot down suspect aircraft to protect Olympics (if required)

May 3, 2012, 9:00 am
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Four RAF Typhoon fighter jets have landed at RAF Northolt airbase, in west London, on May 2, 2012, ahead of a nine-day military exercise aimed to test security for London Olympic Games. The arrival of the RAF Typhoons marks the first time fighter planes have been deployed at the air base in London since the [...]
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