Airliners at Williamtown.

[RHB785]

A few airliners approaching Williamtown. The first is a JetStar A-320.




Next a Virgin Blue 737, also approaching Williamtown.




An Aeropelican Jetstream also approaching Williamtown.



And finally an Antonov An-124 also at Williamtown. This one was dellivering a pair of F/A-18 fuselage barrels back to Williamtown after overhaul at Boeing Canada.





Regards,
RHB.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Lot of activity up your way! One of my clients is BAE. I look after their weigh systems for the Hawk 127's - recalibrations, etc. I got to look around their hangars some time ago - fascinating! At the time, there was a Hawk fuselage in a jig and I asked about that. Apparently a pilot had flown it through power lines almost tearing the wing off - one main spar severed! It was a multi-million dollar fix - opps! for the driver involved! Wonder if it was a career ending moment?

Love the big Antonov? Have you ever had a chance to go inside one? I have at Richmond and Avalon. Aside from it's gigantic size, It's the "little" things that interest me. I from time to time work on load measuring systems on big cranes, mainly in the metals industry. Inside the Antonov I remember seeing 10 & 15 tonne capacity gantry cranes - how cool I thought to myself!

Great pic's once again - keep 'em coming!

Cheers

Adam

[RHB785]

G'day Adam. Yes the Antonov is a huge beast. I have been inside the one that came to the Bicentennial Airshow including the cockpit area and the upstairs cabin behind the wing. I was tasked with providing their external power requirements for the duraton of the show. Those big internal gantry cranes also fascinated me as we think we're so advanced here in the west pushing cargos in and out by hand. They also had a hydraulic cargo winch which they used to steady the Ka-32 helicopter as they unloaded it. It was sort of like a Herc cargo winch only hydraulically powered and had a level wind mechanism which the Herc electric winch doesn't have and the Antonov winch was a lot bigger than the Herc one.

Until that time I'd gone along with everyone else in believing that the Soviets were far behind us. When Capt. Kurline landed and pulled her up in 1,000 feet he left everyone speechless. He then had to taxy to the other end of the runway to turn around and come back to the eastern tarmac outside Air Movements. The next day I was temporarily on the An-124 tow crew and the flt eng who spoke good English was on the tug with us and I asked what his landing weight the day before was. He said quite larconically :Oh, about 195,000 kg".

They have a lot of simple but clever ideas that we seem to think are outdated. For one example, the front and rear pair of mainwheels on each side turn in the appropriate direction once the nosewheels go past a certain point in either direction. On the An-225 it's the front and rear 2 pairs each side that turn in the appropriate direction. So simple but so effective in reducing the turning circle of such large aircraft.

Regards,
RHB.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Amazing how many of we A/CAM'ers were there at the Bicentennial. Our intrepid leader here Ray was there too, plus a couple of others - what an airshow! I almost crashed my car in the carpark driving in watching the Antonov do a super low beat up, then zoom up and do that incredible wing over (looked about a 135 degrees of roll - probably less though).

I believe Russia has produced the best competition aerobatic pilots in the world. I've also read up a bit on the Su-27 (which I love). It's all about that incredible wing with the big Suk. I missed seeing the Su-27 at Avalon in 1995 as I was working in China for two weeks over that time . My father was dying at that time, so would have missed it anyway. The Russians do have a love for mathematics, they are very smart people - pretty good chess players too. I do think the West has been fed a lot of propaganda regarding the Russkies, not a good thing to underestimate a potential opponent. They have slipped behind in aerospace though, as USA just spends gazillions on R&D relative to what Russia and China spends. USA draws in all the smart people from around the world. One of my cousins is at Berkley Uni doing laser stuff, as the money for research and grants is just so great over there. That's why USA will remain the "ideas" country. Still, what the Russians lack in money, they make up with in creativity - they can often find solutions by tackling problems from another direction - great lateral thinkers.

[Nicolas_Fantich]

And finally an Antonov An-124 also at Williamtown. This one was dellivering [sic] a pair of F/A-18 fuselage barrels back to Williamtown after overhaul at Boeing Canada

Ah, not quite Ross. The centre barrels went to L-3 MAS who have no Boeing affiliation, and never did. They have had a significant role in supporting the Canadian Forces' F/A-18 fleet. BAE Systems in Australia, having a significant role in respect of the RAAF 'Classic' Hornets, utilised them for their expertise in Hornet structural refurbishment (i.e. centre barrel refurb for selected RAAF aircraft).

"In 2009, L-3 MAS successfully completed the last delivery of the CF-18 Modernization Program Phase 2 and the completion of the RAAF Center Barrel Replacement program."

Here's more:
http://www.mas.l-3com.com/history.asp

http://www.mas.l-3com.com/fleet.asp

In an interesting turn of history, L-3 MAS in Canada is now part of the former E-Systems (L-3 Integrated Systems), based in Greenville, Texas. Which is an interesting organisation in its own right. I was fortunate to be afforded a cook's tour of the flight/hangar line many years ago. I saw aircraft that I never saw before and will never see again

[tor lives]

And finally an Antonov An-124 also at Williamtown. This one was dellivering [sic] a pair of F/A-18 fuselage barrels back to Williamtown after overhaul at Boeing Canada

Ah, not quite Ross. The centre barrels went to L-3 MAS who have no Boeing affiliation, and never did. They have had a significant role in supporting the Canadian Forces' F/A-18 fleet. BAE Systems in Australia, having a significant role in respect of the RAAF 'Classic' Hornets, utilised them for their expertise in Hornet structural refurbishment (i.e. centre barrel refurb for selected RAAF aircraft).

"In 2009, L-3 MAS successfully completed the last delivery of the CF-18 Modernization Program Phase 2 and the completion of the RAAF Center Barrel Replacement program."

Here's more:
http://www.mas.l-3com.com/history.asp

http://www.mas.l-3com.com/fleet.asp

In an interesting turn of history, L-3 MAS in Canada is now part of the former E-Systems (L-3 Integrated Systems), based in Greenville, Texas. Which is an interesting organisation in its own right. I was fortunate to be afforded a cook's tour of the flight/hangar line many years ago. I saw aircraft that I never saw before and will never see again

Ahhh yes....E-Systems have done a lot of "work" with the 707s of different military operators. Their Tarmac would have hosted a most interesting assortment of strange and exotic aircraft over the years.
TOR