wzm posted:

I've met someone who was involved in moving Russian planes into the US in the early 1990s, I think mostly Sukhoi su-26 and Yak 55 style aircraft, but some Wilgas, old MiGs, and other stuff. He said that all of them had intentionally small fuel tanks so no one could defect, and since I heard that, I always check the range when I look up specs on Russian planes. The An-3 had a 300 nm range.

Supposedly the An-3 was part of the tightening up of the rules around experimental-exhibition category planes, someone brought a load of An-3s into the US to be skydiving planes, and the FAA got nervous about the idea of having a ton of ancient Russian stuff carrying passengers and became more strict about what was written into experimental letters of authorization.

Murgos posted:

Apparently the USAF resurrected a couple of OV-10 Broncos and have been using them in Syria. According to the bronco Wikipedia page anyway.

PT6A posted:

Honestly though is it really that dangerous? There's a fuckton of An-2s that are or were operating, and honestly not so many fatal accidents considering the roles the aircraft was put into.

LibCrusher posted:

The OV-10 is a turbine twin! The c208 is a turbine single! My argument was that that Northrop abomination was an idiotic ISR platform because in manned configuration it’s a piston single, and a lovely drone because it has double the frontal area required of an unmanned aircraft.

RandomPauI posted:

Is there any way to see past flights of drones going around in circles?

Plinkey posted:

random internet find

https://i.imgur.com/r2KbQbM.mp4

Lightbulb Out posted:

The AN2 I saw last at Oshkosh had a couple cases of oil in the back.

quote:

Bat bombs were an experimental World War II weapon developed by the United States. The bomb consisted of a bomb-shaped casing with over a thousand compartments, each containing a hibernating Mexican free-tailed bat with a small, timed incendiary bomb attached. Dropped from a bomber at dawn, the casings would deploy a parachute in mid-flight and open to release the bats, which would then disperse and roost in eaves and attics in a 20–40-mile radius (32–64 km). The incendiaries, which were set on timers, would then ignite and start fires in inaccessible places in the largely wood and paper constructions of the Japanese cities that were the weapon's intended target.

...

A series of tests to answer various operational questions were conducted. In one incident, the Carlsbad Army Airfield Auxiliary Air Base (32°15′39″N 104°13′45″W) near Carlsbad, New Mexico, was set on fire on May 15, 1943, when armed bats were accidentally released.[7] The bats roosted under a fuel tank and incinerated the test range.

BIG HEADLINE posted:

Flying Foxes are nature's loving little angels. They're *flying dogs*. I only ~passively~ care that they carry diseases (I actively care). Bundle one up in a blanket and let me pet it.

david_a posted:

I was kind of disturbed to find out they scream like pigs though. I saw some vet show where they untangled one from a net and it made some horrifying noises.

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb

quote:

See also

• Anti-tank dog
  
• Explosive rat
  
• Japanese Balloon Bombs
  
• Military animals
  
• Olga of Kiev (using "pigeons or sparrows" as offensive weapons in the 900s AD)
  
• Project Pigeon
  

quote:

After Igor's death at the hands of the Drevlians, Olga assumed the throne because her three-year-old son Svyatoslav was too young to rule. The Drevlians, emboldened by their success in ambushing and killing the king, sent a messenger to Olga proposing that she marry his murderer, Prince Mal. Twenty Drevlian negotiators boated to Kiev to pass along their king's message and to ensure Olga's compliance. They arrived in her court and told the queen why they were in Kiev: "to report that they had slain her husband...and that Olga should come and marry their Prince Mal."[14] Olga responded:

Your proposal is pleasing to me, indeed, my husband cannot rise again from the dead. But I desire to honor you tomorrow in the presence of my people. Return now to your boat, and remain there with an aspect of arrogance. I shall send for you on the morrow, and you shall say, "We will not ride on horses nor go on foot, carry us in our boat." And you shall be carried in your boat.[14]

When the Drevlians returned the next day, they waited outside Olga's court to receive the honor she had promised. When they repeated the words she had told them to say, the people of Kiev rose up, carrying the Drevlians in their boat. The ambassadors believed this was a great honor, as if they were being carried by palanquin. The people brought them into the court where they were dropped into a trench that had been dug the day before under Olga's orders where the ambassadors were buried alive. It is written that Olga bent down to watch them as they were buried and "inquired whether they found the honor to their taste."[14]

Olga then sent a message to the Drevlians that they should send "their distinguished men to her in Kiev, so that she might go to their Prince with due honor."[14] The Drevlians, unaware of the fate of the first diplomatic party, gathered another party of men to send "the best men who governed the land of Dereva."[14] When they arrived, Olga commanded her people to draw them a bath and invited the men to appear before her after they had bathed. When the Drevlians entered the bathhouse, Olga had it set on fire from the doors, so that all the Drevlians within burned to death.[14]

Olga sent another message to the Drevlians, this time ordering them to "prepare great quantities of mead in the city where you killed my husband, that I may weep over his grave and hold a funeral feast for him."[14] When Olga and a small group of attendants arrived at Igor's tomb, she did indeed weep and hold a funeral feast. The Drevlians sat down to join them and began to drink heavily. When the Drevlians were drunk, she ordered her followers to kill them, "and went about herself egging on her retinue to the massacre of the Drevlians."[14] According to the Primary Chronicle, five thousand Drevlians were killed on this night, but Olga returned to Kiev to prepare an army to finish off the survivors.

The initial conflict between the armies of the two nations went very well for the forces of Kievan Rus', who won the battle handily and drove the survivors back into their cities. Olga then led her army to Iskorosten (what is today Korosten), the city where her husband had been slain, and laid siege to the city. The siege lasted for a year without success, when Olga thought of a plan to trick the Drevlians. She sent them a message: "Why do you persist in holding out? All your cities have surrendered to me and submitted to tribute, so that the inhabitants now cultivate their fields and their lands in peace. But you had rather tide of hunger, without submitting to tribute."[15] The Drevlians responded that they would submit to tribute, but that they were afraid she was still intent on avenging her husband. Olga answered that the murder of the messengers sent to Kiev, as well as the events of the feast night, had been enough for her. She then asked them for a small request: "Give me three pigeons...and three sparrows from each house."[15] The Drevlians rejoiced at the prospect of the siege ending for so small a price, and did as she asked.

Olga then instructed her army to attach a piece of sulphur bound with small pieces of cloth to each bird. At nightfall, Olga told her soldiers to set the pieces aflame and release the birds. They returned to their nests within the city, which subsequently set the city ablaze. As the Primary Chronicle tells it: "There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames, because all the houses caught fire at once."[15] As the people fled the burning city, Olga ordered her soldiers to catch them, killing some of them and giving the others as slaves to her followers. She left the remnant to pay tribute.

hobbesmaster posted:

I can understand being terrified of bats before modern microbiology and ubiquitous rabies vaccines.

BIG HEADLINE posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZB4_-tiRt0

Arson Daily posted:

Most AFMs will specify some kind of inspection interval if you use a fuel other than regular jet-a or whatever jp- fuels normally used. At first I thought they were going to use that terrible bunker sludge ships normally use to power the main engine and that gave me the willies

Arson Daily posted:

Most AFMs will specify some kind of inspection interval if you use a fuel other than regular jet-a or whatever jp- fuels normally used. At first I thought they were going to use that terrible bunker sludge ships normally use to power the main engine and that gave me the willies

slidebite posted:

coffman starters best starters

MRC48B posted: