18 February 2013

Air Force confirms Russian jets near Guam? Nah...

The general info in the Fox article is, most probably true:

The Air Force confirms that two Russian bombers on Tuesday circled the U.S. island territory of Guam, prompting U.S. jets to scramble and respond.
But the headline is quite wrong, as can be easily deducted from the picture attached to the article:



The point is that Tu-95 is not a jet but a very old turboprop, as the picture ascertains. As it ascertains the fact that somebody in Fox News should take a refresher course on the identified military flying objects.

As for threatening Guam - or any other USA military installation:  that old beast is so slow that the jets that were scrambled had to do some serious throttling to stay with the pair around Guam.

Most probably the crews of these relics came by with a few telephoto lenses to take some candid camera shots of the Guam beaches, like that one.

And, thanks to the Sennacherib, here is another example of the same kind:

Global video gaming company that backed search for WWII fighter jets says no planes in Myanmar

No wonder they can't find anything...

(And no, if you want to be a wise guy, they are not looking for Me-262 or He 162)

11 comments:

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Try this from the AP.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/16/global-video-gaming-company-that-backed-search-for-wwii-fighter-jets-says-no/

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Sennacherib,

Many thanks for the link. Truly someone in Fox is seeing jets all over history ;-)

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Though I am somewhat of a Fox news prerson, it tells alot they believed AP.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Well their standards' remain incomparable. Heh

SnoopyTheGoon said...

That one was a very successful plane. I still remember its civilian version, quite huge for that time.

And by the way, its speed, which is pitiful for today, is very high for a turboprop, due to good engines and double propellers.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Counter-rotating propellers, I believe, which is pretty amazing. bThe American air force tried them but wasn't ever content with performance or longevity.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Yes, in this Russian succeeded. The longevity of this plane is amazing indeed.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

They seem to be tops in space station communications, too: http://tinyurl.com/apup2jc

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Interesting, many thanks for the tip.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

The jets were probably scrambled to be on hand to render assistance in case one of Tu's wings fell off


Several years ago a Russian naval squadron made a visit to Venezuela. The US Govt was amazed by the fact that the squadron made a round trip sea voyage from Russia to Venezuela and back without any of the ships blowing up or sinking!

SnoopyTheGoon said...

And they got a lot of fuel for the trip back there. Although, the fuel was produced from Venezuelan oil by US refineries, which they don't appreciate, not really.