Russian Air power on Show at Zhukovsky airfield. MAKS 2007
It was on July 7th that we noted .... Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky honoured - massive Moscow airport / airbase / research centre named for him .. and looked forward to MAKS 2007 airshow.
It has and Mr Putin has not stinted on spending roubles to demonstrate the expansion in number of new aircraft and technical skills that have been developed.Or on his Ray Bans either.
The Russians build components for the A320 in Voronezh and Irkutsk. In a newly formed joint venture with Airbus, they will convert about 30 A320 passenger aircraft into cargo planes at facilities in Dresden and Siberia beginning in 2011. The Russians hold a five-percent stake in EADS's problem child, the new A350 long-haul jet.
Alexey Fyodorov, 55 responsible for that 5% holding is anxious to have more involvement and a bigger share in the Airbus parent company, EADS. "But you'd have to ask the German and French shareholders about that," he is quoted in der Siegel , shrugging his shoulders. "Sometimes they tell us one thing, sometimes another." Then he adds: "But if the Europeans want us, we will react swiftly and positively."
The Air Show is well under way and the Knights aerobatic team with their stunning Su-27 (NATO "Flanker") wows the crowd. This long-range air superiority fighter and interceptor performs the same role as the F15-Eagle. This was the direct result of the PFI (perspektivnyi frontovoy istrebitel, Advanced Frontline Fighter) program to design an aircraft to match the F15 Eagle.
The Su-27's widely spaced twin Lyulka AL-31F turbofans, help provide greater lift, and reducing wing loading. makes for an exceptionally agile aircraft, controllable even at very low speeds and high angles of attack.
The Russians love showing it off at airshows (Dubai last year) demonstrating the famed Cobra (Pugachev's Cobra is named both after the first pilot who perfected the idea and after the sinister and lethal hooded snake) see in pic topmost plane is in this "stalled" mode of dynamic deceleration (note dirty exhaust as engine strains to hold the huge plane) the - briefly sustained level flight at a 120° angle of attack which it is claimed makes pursuers overshoot and then they follow in for the kill.
Thrust vectoring has also been tested (and is incorporated on later Su-30MKI and Su-35 models), allowing the fighter to perform hard turns with almost no radius, incorporate vertical somersaults into level motion and limited nose-up hovering. (Go here for stunning Cobra video and lengthy detailed and authoritative correspondence on the Su-24 aerobatics)
Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who is also now in charge of Russia's military and industrial policy, (and set to follow Putin) plans to capture 10 to 12 percent of the world market for passenger aircraft by 2024. Russia's current market share is less than one percent.
The head of Russia's state arms export monopoly Rosoboronexport, Sergei Chemezov,told reporters that Russia had a "strong second place" in the military aviation market after the United States.Rosoboronexport has already signed contracts worth US$ 2.5 Bn. this year for military aircraft will be supplying the air forces of China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Venezuela.
On the sidelines of the airshow, Chemezov signed a deal worth US$330 Mn. (Euros 244 Mn.) with Indonesia to supply six Sukhoi fighter jets in the biggest ever defence contract between the two countries.
2 comments:
The long-range airbase has also just taken delivery of some relics of St Alexander Nevsky.
Bishop Amvrosy of Bronnitsy was also busy on the behalf of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and all Russia handing out to the the head of GlavUpDK (The Russian Diplomatic Corps) a certificate of honor on behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church - this is Ivan Ivanovich Sergeyev who is also one of the founding fathers of Russian Golf and founder of Moscow Golf Club.
The first deputy head of GlavUpDK, A.S. Zinovyev, and the head of the real estate section, V.P. Liyaskin, were awarded the Order of Sergiy of Radonezh, 3rd degree, and O.S. Ryabova, section head of the Secretariat, the Order of St.Olga the Princess respectively.
http://www.diplomatrus.com/article.php?id=701&l=eng
(That is NOT Diplomats 'r' us - but it could be)
An adroit aligning of the spiritual with the temporal powers... and perhaps a worthwhile investment seeing that the State has spent a great deal in refurbishing so many church buildings.
Likewise the handing over of bits of St Alexander Nevsky whose eponymous Prospekt features so much inthe life of St Petersburg from where Mr Putin derives so much power and influence.
It is to St. Alexander Nevsky (canonised in 1547, 5 centuries after his death)that the Russian people are wont to address their prayers at times when great misfortunes befall the nation and threaten its existence.
The Order of Saint Andrew, the most important order of the Russian Empire was the Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky.
Peter the Great founded this order in 1725 to honor those who had distinguished themselves in battle.
The bits supplied by Patriarch Alexy II for the bombers to benefit from are presumably those collected by Peter the Great and installed in a great Sarcophagus in St. Petersburg that bears his name.
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