Tag Archives: military

NH-90 Encounters

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With over 400 helicopters in service, the NH-90 is a widely used type. Built by a consortium of European manufacturers for many nations, the programme has not been covered in glory. Australia was not happy with theirs and retired them early. Similarly, Norway got into a dispute which involved them saying they wanted to hand them back. A settlement has now resulted in them being bought back. Despite these two, there are other countries making plenty of use of the type.

However, I have only seen them at one place and that is RIAT. The Dutch Navy and the German Army have brought example to the show, and these are the only ones I have been able to photograph. Now I live back on this continent, I might have more opportunities, but we shall see. In the meantime, I decided to go through my shots and see what I have of the type.

There are a couple of things that I like about the airframe. The angular shaping makes me wonder whether they were looking to be stealthy. However, with all of the other features bolted on the outside, I suspect this thing really shows up on someone’s radar. It also seems like quite a low profile. The rotor head is low down. I suspect that this is designed to make it air transportable in a variety of aircraft. Whatever the design choices, I think it looks like a purposeful type and hope to photograph many more soon.

Why Does the Black Widow Fascinate Me?

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In my early teens, I got into model making. One of the things I used to look forward to was when Airfix released their catalogue for the year. This included the new releases and, one year, they released a kit of the Northrop P-61 Black Widow. I had never heard of this type at the time. WWII aircraft weren’t really my thing then. However, for some reason, this plane really caught my attention. Not enough to buy the kit though – too many modern jets for me to focus on!

For some reason, this fascination with the P-61 has stuck with me. There aren’t many of them in preservation so, when I see one in a museum, I am drawn to it. There is one supposedly being restored to flight but that is a multi-year effort which will take a while yet. The NASM has on at the Udvar-Hazy annex. I was keen to get shots of it. However, they do seem to have done a decent job of tucking it in between other airframes that makes getting a clean shot tricky. I did the best I could with angles between other planes or getting elevated.

Another Look at the BOAC 747 With the Reds

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This is an old shot from 2019. I came over to the UK for a visit that included a trip to RIAT. As part of the display, a British Airways 747-400 painted in the retro BOAC markings did a couple of flybys with the Red Arrows on one of the weekend days. A few weeks before, this 747 had come into Seattle and I got a lovely evening shot of it in front of Mt Rainier.

A year later and the onset of the pandemic had resulted in BA retiring their entire fleet of 747s. This wasn’t the last time I photographed one of their jets, but it was probably one of the more impressive ones. In one of the shots, you can see Red 10 flying offset from the formation – presumably acting as whipper in and providing a photo platform. I came across these shots recently and figured, since these hadn’t been on the blog before, they were worth a look again.

Storm Shadow

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The Storm Shadow is a long-range strike missile that was jointly developed by the UK and France and is in service with the RAF. An example is on display at the RAF museum in Hendon. When I first graduated, there was a predecessor programme to this called REVISE. The Research Vehicle into Inflight Submunition Ejection was looking at a similar airframe but that would dispense munition rather than have a large warhead like Storm Shadow. It was dropped from Tornado BT6 over the West Freugh range where, unfortunately, the parachute recovery system failed, and it hit the water at some speed.

When I saw it afterwards, it was rather mangled. Others had been built but the programme was scrubbed. REVISE Plus was supposed to follow it and I ran a wind tunnel test programme to understand the handling impact of the missiles on Tornado. It was a really fun thing to manage when you were a young aerodynamicist. I don’t know whether any of that data was used when Storm Shadow came along but I doubt it. Still, it does feel like a connection of some sort to me.

Sally B

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The lighting was far from ideal at Cosford when B-17 Sally B did its display, but the display itself was a good one. After a couple of decades in the US, I have seen a variety of B-17s at air shows. Sally B will still be the first one I saw, though. She has been part of the UK display scene for as long as I have known about it and was one of the five that were used for the filming of Memphis Belle. Good to see her again and glad to know that they have continued to keep her active.

Busy Ramp at Brize

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I was at Brize Norton earlier this year. I had a brief chance to look at the ramp both as we taxied out and as we returned. A combination of A400Ms and Voyagers were about with some holding to depart as we came back and others awaiting their next mission. Here are a few shots of the residents.

The X-35B and Its Propulsion System

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The F-35 is in widespread service in considerable numbers with many more to come in due course. However, before the F-35, there was the X-35 – the Lockheed Martin contender in the JSF competitive fly off. Up against the Boeing X-32, two X-35s were built. One of them was initially used to demonstrate the proposed Air Force configuration before it was modified with the vertical lift system proposed for what became the F-35B in USMC service.

With the competition complete, the demonstrators were superfluous and the X-35B airframe made its way to the National Air and Space Museum. Here it sits on display. What is the most interesting part – at least to me – is that they have taken the propulsion system out of the jet and put it on display separately. You can see the main engine as well as the lift fan module, the shaft coupling the two, the nizzle that both have to direct the flow and the roll posts that are used to provide both additional lift and roll control in the hover.

It is a cool demonstration of the basic configuration that is now operational in the F-35B. it has certainly been developed since this design, but the basic principles remain the same. Unlike the Harrier that had the engine in the centre of gravity of the aircraft (not a very convenient location) and redirected all thrust through four nozzles, this configuration has a mighty engine at the rear which can be vectored down when required through a three bearing nozzle that is both simple and ingenious but then a shaft drive from the same engine to a fan module that sits behind the cockpit drawing air from above and directing it down with some ability to vector it too. This forward fan balances against the rear main nozzle. It provides a significantly higher amount of vertical thrust than the Harrier ever managed and allows a larger and more capable aircraft to land vertically at the end of missions. Quite a smart piece of design.

Holding Down the Swordfish

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During the Cosford air show, the Royal Navy Swordfish was part of the display. While it might not be the fastest aircraft from that era, it still has a pretty meaty engine up front. Once started, time is needed to get the oil up to temperature and to run up the engine to check its performance before it goes flying. The ground crew needed to keep the plane anchored while this was done and the way they did this was to hang on to the tailplane. Watching them getting battered by the prop wash while the engine was cycled was rather amusing.

Naval Wildcat Being Thrown Around

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I shared some images of the Royal Navy’s Wildcat in formation with the Swordfish. The Wildcat also did some solo demonstration manoeuvres and, while the lighting was still a bit difficult, I quite liked some of the angles it was possible to get on the airframe. While the Wildcat is quite an evolution of the original Lynx, it is nice to see that it still has the agility that the Lynx was renowned for.

Photographing a helicopter, I am looking for a more dynamic angle on the airframe. Their ability to keep the speed low and have things close to the crowd line means you can get head on shots, underside shots and topside shots as they throw the helicopter around. The topside is the one I want the most. Things went pretty well and I am overall quite happy with the results. Oh, to have something like this on a summer evening with the light behind me.