Eurofighter offers Typhoon for Polish air force

The Eurofighter consortium has made its debut appearance at Poland’s International Defence Industry Exhibition (MSPO) in Kielce, with the Typhoon being promoted as a potential replacement for the nation’s RSK MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-22M4 strike aircraft.

With sources suggesting that Poland’s defence ministry plans to upgrade some of its current assets, Eurofighter representatives say: “The price of the [Typhoon] aircraft, its servicing and maintenance costs during the next 30-40 years would be not higher than extending the life of ex-Soviet aircraft until 2028.”

A campaign to sell the Typhoon to Warsaw would be supported by EADS and Finmeccanica, which would each offer industrial partnerships and technology transfer. Poland could also access the training and logistics lessons learned by Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, plus export user Austria, sources say.

The Polish air force should retire the last of its remaining 48 Su-22s in 2011-12, but there have been suggestions that this could be extended until 2016. Their removal would leave a fighter gap between the service’s current 31 MiG-29s and 48 Lockheed Martin F-16C/Ds, as the defence ministry has outlined a need to retain a strength of eight frontline squadrons equipped with 120 modern combat aircraft.

A planned acquisition of 16 advanced jet trainer/lead-in fighter trainers with some combat capabilities would only slightly narrow the capability gap.

The Typhoon is also being offered to other central European countries, including the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.

America's Flying Aircraft Carriers

Imagine a fleet of warships able to cruise at 100 knots, out of reach of marauding submarines and surface craft. Consider further these same vessels launching waves of bombers and fighter planes from her massive bowels, striking unsuspecting foes before they can react. Such was the expectations of the US Navy's fleet of rigid airships in the 1920's and 30's, as instigated by America's "Father of Naval Aviation" Admiral William Moffet. Despite having lost two giant airships to tragic accidents, including the mighty Shenandoah, the Navy forged ahead with her plans for "flying aircraft carriers".

The new ships were the ZRS-4 and ZRS-5, more famously remembered as Akron and Macon. Before they were ready, aircraft hook-on experiments were conducted by the fleet's sole remaining airship, Los Angeles, made on July 3 1929. Success was achieved by using a"trapeze" apparatus to catch the planes in-flight, a practice which soon became routine. The first planes so utilized were Vought UO-1s, soon followed by NSY-1 trainers and Curtiss Sparrowhawk fighters. With the premise of flying aircraft carriers proven, the first vessel with a hangar was received. The Akron (built in Akron, Ohio) was christened on August 8, 1931. At 785 feet long, she was the largest airship in the world, though she could carry only two aircraft in hangar plus a third on the trapeze. Trials with the Sparrowhawk in June 1932 proved unsatisfactory; the plane was replaced by an improved version.

Throughout that year, Akron conducted a strenuous series of exercises proving the value of aircraft from airships for scouting purposes. Macon joined the aerial fleet in 1933 (hangar-less Los Angeles was soon retired), as Admiral Moffet's concept seemed assured. So confident was the Admiral in his ships that he took off with Akron in a dense fog, for a cruise up the New England coast. Caught in a storm, the giant vessel crashed in the sea, with only three crew members surviving. William Moffet was not one of these. With the airship's primary backer gone, their future was in doubt. All hope rested on Macon. The new ship was much the same as lost Akron, save for being faster and carrying double the aircraft. She was commissioned on April 23, 1933 by future World War 2 Navy Chief Admiral Ernest King. Homebase became Sunnyvale California, in the newly named Moffet Field.

Like her predecessors, Macon's early years were utilized in practicing with her Sparrowhawks, as well as conducting operations with the fleet. On one such exercise over the Pacific, she made a surprise attack on a group Navy cruisers, including the Houston with President Franklin Roosevelt onboard. Her planes accurately "bombed" the ship with magazines and newspapers, to the astonishment of the sailors. Macon's captain received a slap on the wrist by his superiors for the unscheduled attack, and a "job well done" from the President. Macon's star was on the rise as she continued to astound the public and the fleet with her versatility.

As always however, just when things were going well for the airships, disaster struck soon after the flying carrier let Moffet field on February 11, 1935. An earlier accident had weakened the great ship's superstructure, unknown to her crew, and the old wound came back to haunt her. Returning home after a rigorous training exercise in which her fighters located and tracked fleet units, the aft section suddenly ruptured. Macon hit the water tail first, with most of the crew escaping to life rafts. Only two perished, but with them went the dream of flying aircraft carriers. The basic premise as devised by Moffet and others had been sound, as the launch and recovery of Sparrowhawk fighters in fleet trials proved. Their majestic appearance at air shows and media fascination may have kept the idea alive longer than it should. It was the inherent instability of rigid airships and their vulnerability in almost any adverse weather which finally doomed them, plus taking the life of their most ardent supporter.

My name is Mike Burleson and I currently reside in historic Branchville, SC. Last year I completed my first book also titled "New Wars-The Transformation of Armies, Navies, and Airpower in the Digital Age", available for purchase from Blurb.com As a freelancer my articles on military issues have appeared in The American Thinker, The Washington Post, Sea Classics Magazine, Townhall.com via Opeds.com, Buzzle.com, and Strategypage.com. My blog title New Wars concerning military issues is updated daily.

A Brief History of Aircraft Carriers

An aircraft carrier acts as a seagoing airbase. The aircraft carrier was designed for one thing; it was designed for deploying and recovering aircrafts. It allows the navy to go great distances and not have to rely on local bases to for staging aircraft missions.

Aircrafts have come a long way when they first started to use them they were used to deploy balloons. Now they are nuclear warships that are able to carry dozens of fixed and rotary wing aircraft.

In the article we are going to discuss how the aircrafts have evolved. From the first aircraft to the strong ones they are today. The first ships that deployed a manned aircraft were the balloon carriers. They were used during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. During this time it was mainly used for just observation.

The development of flat top vessels produced the first large fleet ships. During World War II was when the need for the these type of ships. There were ships that were built just for WWII. For example one of them was the Escort aircraft carriers and the USS Bogue. Some of these ships were built just for carriers, but most were just converted. They were converted from merchant ships as a stop -gap measure so that they could provide air support for the convoys and amphibious invasions.

There were light aircraft carriers it was a larger more militarized version of the escort carrier. The light aircrafts had a great advantage to the escort carriers they could carry the same size air groups and they were also able to move at a higher speed.

There were Merchant carriers these could launch but they could not for retrieve fighter aircraft from an attack. The merchant carrier was used as an emergency measure during the World War II. There were other emergency methods that was used which was they used cargo carrying merchant ships with flight decks.

The modern Navy now uses the aircraft carriers as the "capital ship" of the fleet. When before the battleship was considered the "capital ship". Having the ability to have such great power in the air is a great tool to have during the time of war. This became really popular during WWII. Most of the aircraft carriers are powered by nuclear reactors and form the core of a fleet designed to operate far from home.

Since then the aircraft carriers have only gotten bigger and stronger. Today there is Supercarriers which can now able to displace seventy five thousand tons or greater.

Navy apparel, Navy clothing

A Place in Florida - Plane Crash Hidden For 47 Years

There's a place in Florida that's so remote that the wreckage of an Army plane that crashed wasn't found for 47 years.

This place in Florida, Apalachicola National Forest, is the state's largest national forest, with 560,000 acres. One of its main claims to fame is that it is home to the world's largest population of red-cockaded woodpeckers. Bears, too. Aligators, yes. And a myriad of other animals you'd expect to find in a remote forest.

It's also the weekend home of many Floridians who love the outdoors. Located a few miles southwest of Tallahassee in Florida's Big Bend area, the forest contains two rivers - the Ochlockonee and the Sopchoppy - that are part of the nation's recreational trails system.

The 31-mile Apalachee Savannahs Scenic Byway is on the forest's western flank, offering scenic views to motorists. And, on foot, it's easy to get lost (and never to be found again) in its two wilderness areas: Bradwell Bay (24,000 acres) and Mud Swamp/New River (8,000 acres). Filled with muddy swamps, Bradwell Bay is regarded as one of the toughest hikes in the U.S.

For the less adventuresome, the forest has many campgrounds offering everything from cleared areas for pitching a tent to parking your RV camper. There's also great fishing. The rivers have 35 boat launches and landings.

The forest is believed to be 12,000 years old, but it has been a national forest only since 1936. Over the last 30 years or so, forest archaeologists have found evidences of the land's various occupants dating from prehistoric times to a half century ago. These include campsites, homesites, turpentine and logging camps, fire towers, cemeteries, cattle dip troughs, sawmills, resorts, towns, sawdust piles, historic roadways, trams, bridges and trash piles.

And one airplane crash.

During World War II, the Apalachicola National Forest was used as a training ground for the Army Air Corps. On March 29, 1943, a plane piloted by Everett R. Edwards disappeared in the forest.

The wreckage of his plane wasn't found until 1990 - on the southeast side of Cow Swamp north of Crawfordville. Edwards died that day in the forest, even though he is believed to have ejected from the plane.

Once the wreckage was found, forest archaeologists and Florida State University students began trying to learn details of the crash. They first found a plate showing the plane's serial number, and that led them to search the plane's historical records.

Here's what they learned:

The plane had crashed on a previous training mission - and had been destroyed. But during the war, to obtain parts for a plane, mechanics had to use parts from another commissioned plane. So they used the serial number from the crashed plane to order enough parts to build a new plane - the plane that Edwards crashed in the Apalachicola National Forest.

What went wrong remains a secret the forest never will reveal.

Copyright (c) 2009 Gene Ingle, an award-winning editor-writer-cartographer, is an expert on places to see in Florida. He has driven nearly a million miles in Florida researching places on maps you probably never heard of. This place in Florida is one of 213 featured in "The Famous Florida Trivia Game" available free at http://www.ebookserendipity.com - Test your knowledge of Florida - free.

Nuclear US Bomb Lost in Ocean

Recently declassified US documents reveal a disturbing and thankfully unequaled incident during the cold war.

Thule Air Base in northerly Greenland has been of great tactical significance to the US ever since it was created in the early 1950s, enabling a radar to survey the skies for missiles approaching from the North Pole. The US government believed the Soviet Union would destroy the base as an opener to a nuclear strike against the US. Persuant to this, the 1960's saw the US undertake the aptly titled 'Chrome Dome' missions in an endeavor to provide a viable deterrent. This deterrent took the form of B52 bombers armed with several nuclear explosive devices routing over the territory being able to navigate immediately to the Russian capital Moscow, to deploy their payload should the Soviet Union strike the base at Thule.

However, the plan did not work out quite as smoothly as they had anticipated.

In late January 1968, one of these missions ended in near disaster when a B52 bomber carrying four nuclear armed explosives caught fire and crashed onto the ice several miles from the Thule base. The pilots recount that a fire was reported in the cockpit which quickly spread to other sections of the plane making a scheduled and safe landing impossible. A few minutes after the fire broke out the two pilots and four crew members took the decision to eject themselves from the stricken aircraft before it crashed into millions of pieces on the ice below.

Following the crash, military personnel, local Greenlanders and Danish workers rushed to clean up the debris and to retrieve the nuclear explosives. Unfortunately, only the US military personnel were aware of the existence of nuclear materials meaning the local islanders were not wearing any protective clothing during the clean up exercise. Upon hitting the ice during the crash, the four nuclear devices detonated but given the bombs were not armed the nuclear triggers did not function and simply broke up along with the rest of the wreckage. Millions of gallons of ice were taken from the crash site from which the US government later confirmed that all the explosives had been 'destroyed'.

This is where the story somewhat darkens. The US sources were technically correct in their statement around the bombs being 'destroyed' however, what was not revealed at the time was that only 3 devices had been accounted for from analysis of the debris. Documents reveal that officials concluded that one of the devices must have become extremely hot during the crash and melted through the ice into the freezing waters below.

A rescue mission was then launched (without the knowledge of the Danish authorities) to recover the missing device. In April 1968 a US submarine was dispatched to the area. The underwater search was beset by technical problems and, as winter encroached and the ice began to freeze over the search was abandoned. The US papers reveal that they held the opinion that if the weight of the US military could not locate the device it would be extremely unlikely that any other country could either and therefore, no further searches for the device were undertaken.

For what of the consequences of leaving a nuclear device sitting in the ocean? The declassified papers reveal that scientists believed the radioactive material would simply dissolve in such a large body of water, making it harmless....

UK Area 51 is a website dedicated to unexplained events and emerging sciences concerning a wide variety of topics. Our aim is to provide rich, diverse and stimulating articles around the issues that face mankind now and in the future. Please visit our main site for many more intriguing articles and to view the original article please visit Lost Nuclear Bomb. You can also contact James Hewson directly at ezine@ukarea51.com

Decisive Turning Points During the Falklands War

Interested In Making Money On The Internet? Find Full Or Part Time, Easy Proven And Successful Methods, At http://www.keys2prosperity.net/

Sovereignty of the Falkland Islands had long been a point of dispute between Britain and Argentina. Events came to a head in 1982, when planned cut-backs to the British Royal Navy convinced Argentina's ruling military junta that Britain no longer had the will or capability to defend the islands. The Falklands War, fought over these remote South Atlantic islands were the result.

Here are 13 decisive points in the conflict.

1. South Georgia (19th March 1982) - A group of Argentines, ostensibly on a scrap metal salvage mission, land on South Georgia and raise the Argentine flag.

2. Operacion Azul (2nd April 1982) - The Argentine navy lands a military force in the Falklands Islands proper, overwhelming the tiny British garrison of Royal Marines.

3. Dispatch of the Task Force (3rd April 1982) - First Sea Lord, Sir Henry Leach, convinces Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to send a naval task force with the words, "because if we don't do that, in a few months we will be living in a different country whose word will for little!"

4. South Georgia (25th April 1982) - British Special Forces and Royal Marines recapture South Georgia. The Argentine submarine Santa Fe is crippled during the fighting.

5. Operation Black Buck (1st May 1982) - A Royal Air Force Vulcan bombs the Port Stanley airfield runway, denying use of the airfield to Argentine fast jets.

6. General Belgrano (2nd May 1982) - The Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano is sank by the Royal Navy nuclear submarine, HMS Conqueror. The Argentine Navy withdraws to port and plays no further part in the war.

7. Sheffield (4th May 1982) - The Argentine airforce sinks the Royal Navy's HMS Sheffield using an Exocet missile. It is the first of many British naval losses to Argentine air attack.

8. Pebble Island (14th to 15th May 1982) - British Special Forces raid the Argentine airbase at Pebble Island, destroying 11 Argentine aircraft.

9. San Carlos (23rd May 1982) - British troops land at San Carlos Water. Although, British ships come under severe Argentine air attack in "bomb alley", the Argentine's are unable to dislodge the British bridgehead.

10. Goose Green (27th to 28th May 1982) - British troops defeat Argentine forces defending the settlement at Goose Green in the first major land battle of the war.

11. Bluff Cove (8th June 1982) - British troops landing from the RFA Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram at Bluff Cove, come under Argentine air attack and suffer horrific casualties. However, even these losses are unable to stop the British advance on the ground.

12. Mount Longdown, Two Sisters and Mount Harriet (11th to 12th June 1982) - British troops capture these three peaks in bitter fighting with Argentine ground forces.

13. Mount Tumbledown and Wireless Ridge (13th to 14th June 1982) - British troops capture these peaks which overlook Port Stanley in the last major land battle of the war. Argentine forces in Port Stanley begin to raise white flags, and a surrender of all Argentine forces in the Falkland Islands is negotiated soon after.

For more information about the Falklands War, please go to: http://www.operationcorporate.com/

For more information about the Vulcan bomber raids during the Falklands War, please go to: http://www.operationblackbuck.com/

Interested In Making Money On The Internet? Find Full Or Part Time, Easy Proven And Successful Methods, At http://www.keys2prosperity.net/

High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire - Home to the RAF

From 1940 to 1946, High Wycombe was the headquarters of the RAF Bomber Command. From 1942 through July 1946 High Wycombe was also home to the U.S. Army Airforce's 8th Air Force Bomber command. While the 8th Air Force is no longer at High Wycombe, since 1968, all RAF commands are based there.

Wycombe Air Park is the current name for Booker Airfield. Wycombe Air Park is on the western edge of town and is one of the busiest general aviation airfields in Britain. The airpark is home to a gliding club and two flying schools. Vintage replica aircraft that were used in the motion pictures, Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines and the Blue Max were built in High Wycombe and flown from the Wycombe Air Park.

During the 19th century High Wycombe was a center of manufacturing. The most noted product of this period was the manufacture of chairs. In 1875 it was estimated that 4,700 chairs were fabricated daily in the furniture factories that were located in the town. As a manufacturing center, social and economic problems arose in the 1960's when manufacturing operations declined.

High Wycombe is currently undergoing an urban renewal process in the town center. The existing shopping center district has undergone extensive renovation and the recently completed Eden shopping center has opened. Buckinghamshire New University has undergone an extensive remodeling and renovation process and has been awarded full university status.

One quirk in High Wycombe is that the mayor is weighed. The mayor undergoes a weigh in on scales that date to the 19th century. When the mayor leaves office he is weighed again to determine if he has gained weight at the expense of the taxpayer.

High Wycombe is no different than any other industrial centered town that has fallen upon hard times when industry declines. However through its extensive urban renewal policies and the creation of new opportunities looks forward to a bright future.