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Russian Air Force An-26 Cargo Plane Crashes in Syria, Killing 32

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A Russian Air Force An-26, similar to the one seen here in this stock photo, crashed in Syria on March 6. (Wikimedia)

A Russian Air Force Antonov An-26 “Curl” cargo plane crashed on descent in Syria on Tuesday, killing all 32 people on board, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, as reported by the Associated Press.

The An-26 was landing  with 26 passengers and six crew when it crashed 1,600 feet short of the runway.

The cargo plane was landing at the Hemeimeem military base, which Russia leases from Syria. The base is along the Mediterranean coast, far from the front lines of the ongoing Syrian Civil War. The plan did not come under fire, according to the Russians, who are blaming a “technical error” for the crash.

The An-26 is a venerable Soviet-era cargo plane in wide use throughout the world in military and civil service. More than 1,400 were built from 1969-1986 when production ceased. While the plane is a workhorse for many agencies, it is aging equipment and is quickly breaking down, with 17 reported crashes in the last 10 years. This incident is the sixth reported AN-26 crash since the beginning of 2017.  In October 2017, a French An-26 crashed while landing in the Ivory Coast, killing four and wounding six. The French plane was Soviet built and 42 years old.

This is the second Russian Air Force An-26 lost in the Syrian Civil War. In 2015, another An-26 crashed while trying to land at an air base in Idlib Governorate.

The continued use of the An-26 is one of the many little chinks in the myth of modern Russian armor and armament. While Russia’s military has made great strides in recent years, the backbone of its military is still decades behind the U.S. and Europe. The majority of the several hundred Russian military cargo/transport planes are propeller-driven and were built when the Soviet Union still existed. Even its jet transports like the venerable IL-76 “Candid” has been around since 1971. Another problem for Russia is that Antonov is a Ukranian company. The modern, AN-148, introduced in 2009, has stalled for Russia because of slow production times and the cooling of diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Russia. As a result, the Russian military only has 12 of the modern passenger/cargo jets in service.

By comparison, while the United States Air Force still maintains and uses more than 300 C-130 “Hercules” variants of the Cold War prop-driven cargo plane, it has switched to the modern C-17A “Globemaster III” for much of its logistical work. The “Globemaster III” was first deployed in 1995, and the U.S. has more than 200 in service today.

While not commonly armed, interestingly, the An-26 was used as a bomber by the Sudanese Air Force during the Second Sudanese Civil War and the War in Darfur. Russian pilots also train with the AN-26 as a bomber simulator.

The twin-engine turboprop has a typical crew of five and can seat up to 40 people and carry cargo.

An-26 cargo cabin (Credit: Dmitry Belov)
An-26 cargo cabin (Credit: Dmitry Belov)

The Chinese transport  Xian Y-7 is a derivative of the An-24 and An-26.

 

Scientists have found life in space … and it’s not what you think

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I’m not kidding.

It’s not quite little green men, but Russian cosmonauts have found microscopic organisms living on the outside surface of the International Space Station.

The microscopic lifeforms, identified as a type of sea plankton, were found during a spacewalk recently.

“Results of the experiment are absolutely unique,” Russian ISS Orbital Mission Chief Vladimir Solovyev told ITAR-TASS. “This should be studied further.”

Phytoplankton similar to what was found on the surface of the ISS
Phytoplankton similar to what was found on the surface of the ISS

Gizmodo reports that there’s a chance that this life not only survived in the vacuum of space, but it might have multiplied and grew!

Neither NASA nor the Russian space agency can account for how sea plankton ended up on the outer hull of the ISS. One far-fetched explanation says that atmospheric currents might be lifting the lifeforms up from the ocean all the way to the ISS — which is 205 miles in the sky.

The lifeforms were found when cosmonauts on a clean-up mission analyzed engine gunk that had dirtied the surface of the ISS.

MiG-3

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A restored MiG-3 at an airshow - Mochishche Airfield, Novosibirsk Oblast. (Wikimedia)
A restored MiG-3 at an airshow – Mochishche Airfield, Novosibirsk Oblast. (Wikimedia)
Failure is not the right word to describe the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3. You’ll, almost exclusively, hear about the airplane’s failures in a WWII air combat documentary. It was hard to fly. It was not a capable fighter at low altitudes. It was a poor fighter bomber. All true, but none of these things are the fault of the first mass produced MiG.

The MiG-3 was born out of design problems with the MiG-1 experimental fighter. It was faster than its contemporaries, and it was meant to fight at high altitudes, where its speed would be vital. In this sense, it can be compared to the fast interceptor jets would arise during the cold war, including the American F-106 “Delta Dart” and the Soviet MiG-25.

It is similar in another sense: All three of these aircraft were built to fight a war that would never come. The F-106 and MiG-25 were designed to be extremely fast, climb extremely high, and take out enemy nuclear-capable bombers before they could wipe out entire cities back home. This, of course, never came to fruition.

Similarly, the MiG-3 was designed to fly at high altitudes and engage the enemy, using speed as its weapon. The the war that came to the Eastern Front was a low-altitude war. It was a grittier, less streamlined role that the MiG found itself pressed into service for in 1941, and the airplane was ill-equipped to dogfight at low altitude. The Soviets also tried, and failed, to convert the MiG-3 into a fighter-bomber. The MiG-3 was an interceptor, and it was at a serious disadvantage against Germany’s rough and tumble Messerschmitt Bf 109.

The MiG-3 was designed, on paper and in wind tunnels, to be an improvement over the MiG-1. Changes included improved cooling, more ordinance, a second oil tank under the engine, streamlined supercharged air intakes, an armored cockpit, improved instrument layout, upgraded gunsight, and underwing hardpoints that added nearly 500 lbs. of increased ordinance carrying ability. On paper, it was a vast improvement. In reality, the MiG-3 was 500 lbs. heavier than the MiG-1, and safety oversights led to inferior airplanes being delivered to Red Army Air Forces units.

In service in WWII, the MiG-3 was difficult for veteran pilots to tame and deadly in the hands of an inexperienced pilot. It also faced a primary opponent in the Bf 109 that was faster at low altitude, more maneuverable, and more than 1,300 lbs. lighter.

The MiG-3 entered service just before the German Invasion, but the state of war that existed during this time meant that Soviet fighter pilots did not have time to properly train on the new, heavier fighter. VVS pilots were accustomed to the Polikarpov I-16, a light, highly maneuverable fighter. While it could turn on par with a Bf 109, it was older and had less engine power, reducing its rate of climb, dive, and top speed compared to the German fighter. None of that would soon matter, anyway. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, the Luftwaffe focused its attention on I-16 bases. Roughly 1/3 of the Red Army Air Forces’ 4,226 aircraft just prior to Operation Barbarossa were I-16’s. Within 48 hours of the Luftwaffe assault on their bases, more than half of all Soviet I-16s were destroyed on the ground or in the air.

The world got just the slightest taste of the MiG-3’s potential in June 1941, just prior to Operation Barbarossa. Pilots from the VVS’s 4th Fighter Regiment shot down three German high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, but this was about the extent of high-altitude combat.

The MiG would be retired before the end of WWII, largely supplanted by the Yakovlev Yak-1, which was much better suited for low-altitude combat.

Few MiG-3 survivors exist today. Some have been restored and are in private collections and museums. Some are flown in airshows all over the world.

Specifications

General

Crew: One
Length: 27 ft. 1 in.
Wingspan: 33 ft. 5 in.
Height: 10 ft. 9 7/8 in.
Empty weight: 5,965 lbs.
Loaded weight: 7,415 lbs.
Engine: 1 × Mikulin AM-35A liquid-cooled V-12, 1,350 hp

Performance

Maximum speed: 398 mph at 25,600 ft
Maximum speed at sea level: 314 mph
Range: 510 mi
Ceiling: 39,400 ft

Armament

  • One 12.7 mm UBS machine gun
  • Two 7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns
  • Up to 220 lbs. of bombs, 2 spray containers for chemicals, gas or flammable liquids or 6 × 82 mm RS-82 rockets on wind hardpoints

Essential Reading

Amazon.com Widgets

Online Resources

Photo Gallery

Cosmic Coincidence: the Russian Meteor and the Asteroid

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Friday, February 15, 2013: A 50-foot wide meteor streaked across the skies in the Chelyabinsk region of the Russian Ural Mountains at day break this Friday morning, 9am Russian time. The meteor entered the earth’s atmosphere at 32,800 feet high (11,000 meters), traveling at the speed of 40,000 miles per hour, or 10-20 miles per second. The meteor streaked and whistled across the sky, with an awesomely large bright round light, brighter than the sun for its head, and a long white thick smokey tail, before crashing about 7 minutes later.

Fearful eyewitnesses never before experienced this. Was it a rocket crash, the power of 33 Hiroshima atomic bombs, a military attack, or the end of the world? Stopping to observe the phenomenon in amazement, many including school children, were drawn to the windows. As the meteorite crashed and ended its journey, it unexpectedly generated wind and a shock wave that shook buildings and broke windows in a radius for miles. The impact on windows rained glass on the bystanders, injuring over an estimated 1100 people, and resulting in 48 hospitalizations. People took cell phone photos and videos and posted images on internet immediately, including memes such as one photoshopped image of a bare-chested Putin riding the tail.

Also Friday, another coincidental but unrelated event was taking place: a 150-foot wide rock, an asteroid known as “2012 AD 14”, passed earth. This predicted event occurred within two hours of the unpredicted Russian meteorite crash. The asteroid passed quite close to earth just inside the outer ring of high-earth orbiting satellites. The trajectories, the travel paths, of the asteroid and the Russian meteorite originated from different directions, hence their earthly passing is a cosmically curious coincidence, yet like ships passing in the night, the two events are astronomically unrelated.

The people of Chelyabinsk had quite a scare initially before learning the cause of the event, and during the response to locate family members and tend to injuries. Schools and offices in Chelyabinsk closed for the day, and will likely close tomorrow, while the massive undertaking to cleanup and replace windows proceeds. With the windows open, the indoor spaces are exposed to the cold winter air.

According to NASA, this meteorite compared to the power of 33 Hiroshima atomic bombs, and was the largest hit since the Tunguska incident in Siberia in 1908 that scorched 825 square miles of forest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEptPr0jVxw

Take away definitions:

  • Asteroid – a mineral-rich rock, or mixture of rock and ice, in orbit around a star. Here, in orbit around our sun in our solar system.
  • Comet – an object consisting of a central mass (asteroid) surrounded by dust and gas that may form a tail, orbiting a star, usually in an eccentric orbit.
  • Meteoroid – small space debris, such as parts of asteroids or comets, on a collision course with earth.
  • Meteor – a meteoroids that enters the earth’s atmosphere.Most meteors burn up in the atmosphere, sometimes causing a visual or streaking effect from the dust as it dissipates.
  • Meteorite – a meteor that survives and strikes the surface of the earth.

Russia, Italy will jointly develop maritime patrol aircraft

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Russia and Italy will jointly build a maritime patrol craft, the two countries announced recently after signing the agreement at the UK’s Farnborough Air Show.

The deal calls for the aircraft to be Russian-built with Italian navigation, communications, systems, and weapons, including WASS lightweight torpedoes, RIA Novosti reports.

“This is an agreement on the promotion of products for third countries. Italian equipment will be installed on Russian-made patrol and special-purpose aircraft,” said Alexander Mikheyev, deputy chief of Russian arms corporation Rosoboronexport. The deal was signed by Mikheyev and the heads of Italian defense contractors. “It took three years to prepare the agreement.”

WASS parent company Finmeccanica is also hoping to strike a deal to modernize the Russian Beriev Be-200 “Altair” amphibious aircraft. The “Altair” is mainly used for firefighting as an aerial tanker. The Italians also see uses for passenger or cargo transport and search and rescue.

There is no word on what the new joint aircraft will look like. The primary American maritime patrol aircraft has been the P-3 “Orion” for many years. It is set to begin being replaced by the Boeing P-8 “Poseidon” this decade.

A P-8A and P-3 (right) near Naval Air Station Patuxent River
A P-8A and P-3 (right) near Naval Air Station Patuxent River