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How the Granddaddy of US Recon Planes Is Helping Search for Flight 370
The mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 off the coast of Vietnam has prompted a massive multinational maritime search for hints of the plane's fate. Among the growing armada of surface and aerial search vessels is the US Navy's venerable P-3C Orion, a long-range surveillance platform still just as effective today as it was in the early Cold War. (gizmodo.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
So that would make the U-2 Dragon Lady the Great Granddaddy of US recon planes?
The first military tactical/recon acft I ever flew in was an EP-3B Aries out of a little island called Diego Garcia. We went an grab some polaroids of a brand new Russki warship names "Minsk" that was headed over to the PACFLT at Vladivostok. The Aries had a cracked windshield and leaked stuff ALL OVER. The crew said that it was the oldest airframe in the fleet. The preflight brief said we'd be in the air for a little under 14 hours. aboyt 2 hours in, the flight engineer comes running back into the ops spaces pulling up floor tiles and looking inside the guts of the plane with a flashlight and a look of deep concern. I almost ruined my fruit of the looms when he let out a scream and then looked at us with a look of amazement on his face and then held up a styrofoam box "We got fried chicken in our box lunches!" then he smiled and I started breathing again. NAVY Aviators. Fun guys. I am keeping the folks associated with MH370 in my prayers. I hope they find something soon.The funny thing abouth this seems to me, is that that is not a very "lonely" part of the Worlds seas. I am beginning to think it may not have come down in the water. just a gut feeling, don't know why.
does anyone here know which defense contractors are supporting the radar and sensor systems, and also operator consoles on these planes, it used to be Lockheed Eagan and now Eagan is no longer, thanks for any info
The P3 is still used during Hurricane Season in the Tropics. This bird is flown into the Eye of a Hurricane to obtain real time data telemetry. Thus called "Hurricane Hunter"
There's Gonzo, Miss piggy, and Kermit. With Kermit being the Learjet they use. Miss Piggy was laid up for maintenance last I heard.
The only way they are going to find the wreckage is getting ships on the water equipped to read whats going on under the surface. The Strait isn't very deep.
Two other reasons xpdrs need to have an OFF switch:
- On the ground. ATC does not want to clutter their screen with taxiing aircraft.
- To prevent congesting or swamping the ATC system. Standard procedure arriving and departing the Oshkosh airshow is xpnder OFF. The flood of aircraft will slow or crash the computers at ATC, misassign targets to data tags, and cause nonstop conflict alerts on the controller's screen.
- On the ground. ATC does not want to clutter their screen with taxiing aircraft.
- To prevent congesting or swamping the ATC system. Standard procedure arriving and departing the Oshkosh airshow is xpnder OFF. The flood of aircraft will slow or crash the computers at ATC, misassign targets to data tags, and cause nonstop conflict alerts on the controller's screen.