Fates

FORGET Riverfire – the upcoming Ipswich Mayor's Christmas Carols by Candlelight will feature the final F-111 dump-and-burn. The RAAF Base Amberley-based jets are set to be decommissioned next month and their replacements, the F/A-18F Super Hornet, cannot perform the crowd-pleasing stunt. Wing Commander Micka Gray, Commanding Officer No 6 Squadron, said a dump-and-burn would be performed at the carols event as a thank-you to the Ipswich community. He said the city had always supported the jets and all RAAF Base Amberley personnel. “It's a good way for the Ipswich community to see the F-111s for the last time,” Wing Commander Gray said. “We just want to thank the people of Ipswich for their ongoing support for the F-111.” >>>Full Story<<<

Had to drive to Indy last night to pick up my truck. Caught some nice shots on the way down. Almost wish I had my big lens with me and was able to stop. There was some guy flying a Para-Sail into the sun. Wish I had his view.

They were taken somewhere around Marion, Indiana off I69. Guess I'll have to get the GPS sensor for the camera now..hehe

Sept. 14 -- The U.S. Air Force expects to start working on a new bomber in the next budget, the first such warplane since Northrop Grumman Corp.’s B-2 Spirit was developed almost three decades ago. “It’s my conviction that the nation benefits from a long- range strike capability,” General Norton Schwartz, chief of staff for the Air Force, said today at the annual Air & Space Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. The service plans to keep using its B-2, B-1 and B-52 bombers while working on a “new platform,” Schwartz said. The program could initially produce a “modest” aircraft that eventually would incorporate more-advanced capabilities, Schwartz said. Adding a new bomber would sharpen the competition for Pentagon dollars as Defense Secretary Robert Gates moves to slow a “gusher” of spending since 2001, capping annual growth at the inflation rate. The bat-wing-shaped B-2, which went into development in 1981, costs about $1.2 billion each. Such expenses have helped spur upgrades to current models decades after they began flying. Boeing Co.’s first B-52 entered service in 1954, and the B-1, developed by a company now owned by Boeing, became operational in the mid-1980s. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-14/u-s-air-force-to-work-on-first-new-bomber-since-b-2.html http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4776771&c=AME&s=AIR

Excellent! About the only thing I've been able to capture is Seagulls and Wild Turkeys.

Welcome to CombatAce's Digital Photography Forum. Please feel free to create your own album here at CA and upload your Military Aviation Images, Event Photography, Aerial Shots, any image you feel appropriate for our community. This forum is for your personal photographic skills to be displayed and not to re-post pictures that you did not personally take. Feel free to discuss member submissions, but keep your critiques professional. There are some great photographers amongst us, and the goal of this forum is to let them display their work, as well as let others enjoy the hobby of digital photography and learn how to improve their own skills to capture that unique moment. Enjoy! Fates

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp is getting a $424 million U.S. contract modification for advance purchases tied to the next batch of F-35 fighter jets, the Pentagon said on Thursday, even as a much bigger deal for the aircraft themselves remains under negotiation. The radar-evading warplane is the U.S. military's biggest acquisition program, projected to cost up to $382 billion for 2,457 aircraft through 2036. The add-on combines purchases for the U.S. Navy ($62 million; 15 percent), U.S. Air Force ($135.7 million; 31 percent), U.S. Marine Corps ($194.5 million; 46 percent), and international partners ($32.2 million; 8 percent), the Pentagon's daily contract digest said. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=11658393

Well... The TOPIC states: "What's wrong with this Picture?" I would have to say it's the Mechanic on top of the aircraft working on the GPS Antenna. GPS obviously didn't exist at the time. M

There's got to be one or two of ya out there?

Arlington, Virginia, September 14, 2010 – EADS North America announced today that the company has demonstrated, in flight, that its offering in the KC-X tanker competition fully satisfies the U.S. Air Force requirement for high fuel offload rate via the refueling boom system – the only tanker in the competition to do so. “Our tanker has proven that it can refuel other aircraft at a rate of 1,200 gallons per minute, which is a critical requirement the Air Force has set forth for its tanker,” said EADS North America Chairman Ralph D. Crosby, Jr., during a meeting with reporters at the annual Air Force Association conference outside Washington, D.C. “We aren’t just making claims about what the KC-45 can do, we are demonstrating it in the air every day,” Crosby said. “And 48,000 Americans are ready to start building the KC-45 here in the U.S.” EADS North America will build and modify the KC-45, along with A330 commercial freighters, at a new aerospace center of excellence in Mobile, Alabama, with a supplier team of more than 200 American companies. The fuel-flow milestone was demonstrated in a recent refueling operation between two Airbus Military A330 Multi Role Tanker Transports, the aircraft that is the basis of the U.S. Air Force KC-45 configuration. The A330 MRTTs were completing certification flights for the Royal Australian Air Force, which will accept delivery of its first two MRTTs – under the designation KC-30A – in the fall of 2010. The A330 MRTT is in production for four U.S. allies, and has completed almost 800 flight hours and more than 1,300 refueling contacts with the same advanced refueling boom and hose-and-drogue systems on the KC-45. “The KC-45 we are offering the Air Force is the same tanker that we have flying and refueling today, with 95% common systems, including the refueling systems we are offering the Air Force,” Crosby said. http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/archives/221316.asp http://www.kc45now.com/news-press-releases/14-09-2010.asp

Errant drone near DC almost met by fighter jets By LOLITA C. BALDOR (AP) – 13 hours ago WASHINGTON — The U.S. military almost launched fighter jets and discussed a possible shoot-down when an errant Navy drone briefly veered into restricted airspace near the nation's capital last month, a senior military official said Thursday. The incident underscores safety concerns with unmanned aircraft as defense officials campaign to use them more often during natural disasters and for homeland security. Navy Adm. James Winnefeld Jr., head of Northern Command, said Thursday that the August mishap could hamper the Pentagon's push to have the Federal Aviation Administration ease procedures for drone use by the military in domestic skies. "It certainly doesn't help our case any time there's a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) that wanders around a little bit outside of its controlled airspace," said Winnefeld, who also is commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command. "We realize the responsibility on our part to include the technical capability and proper procedures. We'd just like to be able to get at it quicker." Read Article

A really odd Sim I came upon was Against All Odds. "Against All Odds" is an online Refugee Simulation game created to increase students’ awareness and knowledge about refugee situations by putting them in the position of a refugee.

Apparently it's illegal for the Lions to put both feet down, take one step, land on their butt, and score .....while in Illinois.

It's Michigan, what did you expect? BTW...love how the OP has his LAT/LONG coordinates in their profile.

I get Bombed at a hotel all the time, glad I wasn't at this one though

For years, top U.S. Defense Department officials have tried to cancel the F136 engine being developed by GE and Britain's Rolls-Royce Group PLC (RR.L) as an alternative to the F135 engine built by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp (UTX.N). Then each year, Congress has defied veto threats and White House pressure to keep the program alive. The struggle has taken on new significance this year, amid a major Pentagon cost-cutting push and growing concern among lawmakers about widening U.S. deficits. "We've nicknamed ourselves the Groundhog Day program. Come February we get to do it again," Russell Sparks, vice president of military strategy at GE Aviation, told the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit. David Hess, president of Pratt & Whitney, said the comedy movie "Groundhog Day," starring Bill Murray, provided an apt analogy for the fight over funding for a second engine for the F-35 fighter, built by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N). In that film, Murray plays a television weatherman who wakes up to relive the same day, February 2, over and over again. "There is a bit of a 'Groundhog Day' feel to it," Hess told the Reuters Summit. "You know, we've been battling this for 4 years and for 4 years we've had a customer who says he doesn't want it, and for 4 years Congress has put it back in. So it does seem to be deja vu all over again." Together the two companies have at least 33 lobbyists working on the issue, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group. Read More: http://www.reuters.c...E68802820100909

I see it more like Boeing vs. Airbus and the Tanker Contract.

Emerging technology can ease the problem of wind farms causing interference with air-traffic control systems. But deployment of that technology in the U.S. has been slowed by questions over authority and cost. Since 2006, radar maker Raytheon and National Air Traffic Services, which provides air traffic control in the U.K., have been working on a project to upgrade air traffic radar so it can distinguish between aircraft and wind turbines' spinning blades. Concerns over the disturbances turbines can cause on air traffic control systems are already stunting the growth of wind power: radar and wind turbines conflicts derailed nearly as much as the total amount of installed wind power capacity in the U.S. last year. In the test, due for completion next spring, Raytheon and NATS are seeking to certify a combination of wind turbine mitigation techniques, including upgrading radar hardware and changing signal-processing algorithms. "When you start putting a set of turbines across an area, what it looks like to the radar is a whole great field of moving objects," said Peter Drake, Raytheon's technical director for Digital Airport Surveillance Radar, the radar system used for airport terminals. "It's a very real problem." Read more: http://news.cnet.com...l#ixzz0ytQqFigP

The Ilyushin IL-78 has been stuck in Marquette County, Michigan for 13 months. A company that sells used military aircraft says it was bound for Pakistan, but a legal battle over maintenance costs from its time in Texas has kept the plane grounded. (Marquette County Sheriff's Office) From The Detroit News

Just finished September Calendars, standard and widescreen formats. This month we have the a reminder that winter is right around the corner, and incredible member shot (Thanks XRay), and threading the sound barrier with an FA-18. Enjoy. LINK: CombatAce Gallery