Tag: Airplane

DEI? WTF?

We all have heard about the air tragedy in DC….two planes collided and fell into the Potomac and everyone has died. As usual the world is looking for reasons and answers…..and the most damn absurd reason has come from Trump and his idiot minions and supporters….

President scapegoats diversity and inclusion initiatives while addressing air traffic disaster that left 67 dead

Donald Trump used the plane crash in Washington DC to attack his political enemies, claiming Democrats were responsible for declining standards in air traffic control and that the disaster “could have been” caused by diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies at the Federal Aviation Administration.

Trump turned what might have been a sombre a press conference into a baseless rant against DEI, despite no evidence of a link with the crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National airport, which involved an American Airlines jet and a US military helicopter.

The president was backed by the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, who said “we can only accept the best and the brightest” in positions affecting passenger safety, and the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who said: “The era of DEI is gone at the defense department and we need the best and brightest.”

Then came the vice-president, JD Vance, who claimed, “we want to hire the best people … actually competent enough to do the job”, and said without offering evidence that hundreds had sued the US government because “they would like to be air traffic controllers, but they were turned away because of the color of their skin”.

Trump claimed that “very powerful tests” for competence in air traffic control were “terminated” by Joe Biden. He also claimed that when he was president between 2017 and 2021 the US “had a much higher standard [in air traffic control] than anybody else”.

Pressed on his citation of DEI as a cause of the crash, Trump said: “It just could have been.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/30/trump-washington-dc-plane-crash-dei

Dems fault?  This is what morons do when they try to sound intelligent.

DEI?  Seriously?

And this claim will fly around social media and idiots will regurgitate it over and over until it is believe by the mental midgets that support conservs and His Majesty…..

Just when you thought their stupidity was as low as it could go…..BAM!  you have this.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Boeing Dodges A Bullet

Who does the government work for?

Any ideas?

After hundreds of deaths, shoddy safety measures, lousy construction and let’s not forget the whistleblowers that mysteriously dead after coming forward, Boeing was set to face a trial for their actions or are they?

Last week federal prosecutors recommended the Justice Department bring criminal charges against Boeing over its failure to keep the terms of an agreement sparing the company from legal action in 737 Max crashes that killed a combined 346 people. A lawyer for the families of those crash victims say what’s in the works is a “sweetheart plea deal.”

Reuters reports the DOJ plans to criminally charge Boeing, with sources saying the company can go to trial or take the deal, which is said to include a $487.2 million fine (Boeing would be credited for a previous settlement and only pay half) and the assignment of an independent monitor to audit the company’s safety practices for a three-year period. The DOJ is said to have briefed victims’ relatives on Sunday. More:

  • Standout lines: “The memory of 346 innocents killed by Boeing demands more justice than this,” victims’ lawyer Paul Cassell tells the BBC, saying the “families will strenuously object to this plea deal.” He adds, “The deal will not acknowledge, in any way, that Boeing’s crime killed 346 people. It also appears to rest on the idea that Boeing did not harm any victim.”
  • What the families want: Per a letter Cassell sent to the DOJ in June, the families of victims of the October 2018 Lion Air and March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crashes wanted to see Boeing’s then-top executives prosecuted and a $24.8 billion fine levied.
  • Next steps: USA Today reports that should Boeing accept the plea offer, US District Judge Reed O’Connor of Texas will be the one to decide whether to accept the plea agreement in the public interest. Lawyers say victims’ families plan to fly in from around the world to attend any hearing and voice their opposition.
  • The timeline: CNN explains that the DOJ in June let Boeing know that the safety failures it has racked up lately put the company in breach of the 2021 agreement through which Boeing avoided criminal charges (specifically, criminal conspiracy charge to commit fraud) related to the 737 Max crashes. The DOJ said that meant Boeing is subject to criminal prosecution, but it had not announced whether it planned to prosecute the case. The DOJ has a July 7 deadline to file charges, so Boeing will have until week’s end to decide whether to accept the plea deal.
  • Side note: Reuters reports it’s atypical for the DOJ to loop in third parties (in this case, the victims’ families) about its plans prior to alerting the company it intends to charge. Reuters sees the shift as a reaction to the relatives’ outcry over the original 2021 agreement, which they learned about after it had been reached.
  • The anger: The Guardian reports that “on a conference call on Sunday, one official is said to have been asked by a family member how he sleeps at night.”

You realize this will go to the Supreme Court and we know how that will work out with the political hacks on the court, right?

Chevron gets pass, dark money gets a pass, so forth and so on….

The court has become a huge joke….those people have NO business using the Constitution and law has toilet paper.

Impeach all of them and start over without political hacks…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Where’s The Need?

This post is about the massive amounts of cash being spent on aircraft that is not needed….first it was the F-35, a plane that has doubled in price for all the fixes that are needed to repair all the problems that pop up almost daily for the last 5 years or so.

A bit of background on the F-35….

The following essay is reprinted with permission fromThe Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.

The F-35 was billed as a fighter jet that could do almost everything the U.S. military desired, serving the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy – and even Britain’s Royal Air Force and Royal Navy – all in one aircraft design. It’s supposed to replace and improve upon several current – and aging – aircraft types with widely different missions. It’s marketed as a cost-effective, powerful multi-role fighter airplane significantly better than anything potential adversaries could build in the next two decades. But it’s turned out to be none of those things.

Officially begun in 2001, with roots extending back to the late 1980s, the F-35 program is nearly a decade behind schedule, and has failed to meet many of its original design requirements. It’s also become the most expensive defense program in world history, at around US$1.5 trillion before the fighter is phased out in 2070.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-went-wrong-with-the-f-35-lockheed-martins-joint-strike-fighter/

Now we have a new stealth bomber, the B-21, another massive spending bill for the Pentagon…..again I ask where was the need?

Consistent with today’s trend to render all defense as performance art, the unveiling of the new Northrop Grumman B-21 “Raider” bomber at the Northrop plant in Palmdale on December 2 was designed with the care and production values of a Superbowl commercial. 

The blue backlighting, the sonorous music (One Day, by Caleb Etheridge) the shiny shroud strip-teased off the partly hidden aircraft by shadowy figures, the flyover by the bombers the B-21 will allegedly replace, were military-industrial showmanship at its best, giving us not a scintilla of worthwhile information about the plane. Fittingly, its primary selling point, according to its promoters, is “stealth” – a supposed ability to remain invisible to radar and other sensors. Given that earlier systems advertised as being cloaked from radar scrutiny, such as the F-22 and F-35 fighters, have turned out to be visible after all especially to decades-old low frequency radar systems, the prospects are not hopeful. We do however know that it has the most important characteristic of stealth: invisibility to the taxpayers.

For many years the Air Force declined to release a cost figure for the B-21, claiming the figure was classified on grounds that our enemies would learn valuable secrets if they knew just how much of a wallop it was going to be on our pocketbooks. Now, thanks to Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg, we know the official estimate of the projected cost to develop, produce and operate 100 B-21s for thirty years is a cool $203 billion. However, back when the Air Force were telling us we had no right to know exactly what we were paying for, they did release the most important fact of all: the major corporations – Pratt & Whitney, BAE Systems, Orbital ATK, and others – who would be the major subcontractors in the Northrop-led program. By absolutely no coincidence at all, these turned out to be in congressional districts and states represented by senior figures on important defense committees in the congress. This is known as “political engineering” in which defense programs are rendered politically invulnerable to cancellation or funding shortfalls thanks to the salting of key constituencies with rich contracts. Brazenly, the Air Force announced at the time it was naming the prime contractors on the bomber “in a sign of transparency to gain public trust.”  

The B-21: another Air Force diva that can’t deliver?

With all the problems these models are having how does the defense industry con nations like Germany, Japan, Australia, etc into spending this type of cash on a flying brick?

How and why?

This country needs the money more for our nation than we need another stealth bomber….but lobbyists with buckets of cash will make sure this type of waste continues.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

The Mystery Of Those Polish Planes

About a week ago there was much buzz about Poland sending some of the Soviet era MiGs to Ukraine for their air defense against the forces of ‘Vlad the Invader’…..

Whatever happen to that idea?

The saga so far…..

Kamala Harris is in Warsaw Wednesday to thank Poland for receiving masses of Ukrainian refugees, reports the AP—and to mop up a late-developing diplomatic headache. The Polish government on Tuesday evening offered to hand over Soviet-era MiG-29 jets to the US, which would then give them to Ukraine. The Pentagon replied by calling the plan “not … tenable,” and it turns out Poland didn’t float the idea with the Biden administration before going public with it. The exchange was quickly branded as “a rare sign of disunity among NATO allies.” Context and analysis:

  • The Boston Globe explains that Vladimir Putin has made clear that if planes used by Ukrainians use a neighboring country’s base, it will view that country as being involved in the conflict. Should that country be a NATO member and should Russia retaliate with force, Article V of the NATO treaty would kick in. “It stipulates that an attack on one allied country is an attack on all of them.”
  • At the Guardian, Patrick Wintour writes the issue comes down to a subtle but crucial shift. The original idea the US put forth would have seen Poland supply Ukrainian pilots with its MiGs; the US would supply fighter jets to Poland to occupy the resulting gaps. With its Tuesday suggestion, Poland tweaked things so that it would have the appearance of a “US, NATO, or EU scheme but not a Polish one … [as] Poland felt the plan unduly exposed its citizens to Putin’s ire.”
  • As for why these planes, the AP provides some background: Soviet-made MiG-29 and Su jet fighters like those used by former Soviet-bloc NATO members Poland, Bulgaria, and Slovakia are what the Ukrainian air force uses; its pilots aren’t trained to fly US-made fighter jets. Polish pilots can fly those and sees the possibility of the US replacing whatever it directs toward Ukraine.
  • But that still leaves open the question of where the MiG-29s would be based (“it isn’t clear if Ukraine would be able to safely house and service them in the long run, given the warfare on its territory,” per the AP) and how to get them there. Polish pilots are NATO pilots, so flying them in would be a risky proposition. Poland’s Tuesday night offer would have seen the jets flown to the US air base in Ramstein, Germany.
  • Wintour’s take: “Russia retains air superiority. Ukrainian pilots who were being trained in Poland to fly the planes are now grounded with no machines with which to defend their country. An opportunity has been squandered.”
  • At the Telegraph, Nick Allen writes that Harris won’t just be tasked with smoothing things over, but also with working to find another method of getting planes into Ukrainian hands. He points out that Ukraine’s defense attache in Washington, Maj. Gen. Borys Kremenetskyi, reiterated that his No. 1 priority is strengthening his nation’s air defense: “It can be ground-based air-defense systems. It can be fighter jets. Whatever possible.”
  • CNN reports that prior to Harris’ morning departure, “intensive conversations” took place within the administration about how to coordinate with Poland in a way that would end up with Ukraine getting jets

Why is this such a sticking point, you may ask…well I can offer a small amount of help….

The Pentagon said Wednesday that the US does not support sending Polish warplanes to Ukraine since the move is too “high risk” and would not significantly improve Ukraine’s ability to fight Russia.

“We assess that adding aircraft to the Ukrainian inventory is not likely to significantly change the effectiveness of the Ukrainian air force relative to Russian capabilities. Therefore, we believe that the gain from transferring those MiG-29s is low,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

“The intelligence community has assessed the transfer of MiG-29s to Ukraine may be mistaken as escalatory, and could result in significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO. Therefore, we also assess the transfer of the MiG-29s to Ukraine to be high-risk,” he said.

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Poland had the “green light” to send MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine despite the obvious risk of escalation with Russia. Poland responded by offering to send the aircraft to a US base in Germany, giving Washington the option to send the planes to Ukraine.

(antiwar.com)

Confused?

Join the club.  I have studied conflict for years and none of them make much sense because of treaties, agreements and BS….Ukraine is proving no different….just the most recent.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–21Jul20

You know how much the conservatives hate socialism…..but only when it is applied to the downtrodden of this society…..it is acceptable as long as it will benefit the wealthy and preserve profits….

What?

I read a piece the other day about the idea of nationalization of one of America’s industries…..

With the US the world’s largest military, by far, it makes sense that their own armsmakers often have a level of capacity far beyond overseas competitors. The Air Force is finding this is limiting to the competition for US business.

Air Force acquisition head Will Roper has suggested the solution for this may ultimately be having the US nationalize chunks of the military aviation industry outright, to ensure that a few different armsmakers survive.

And yet they’d survive only nominally. The nationalization would give the government an effective monopoly on those parts of the industry, but the US might spare the expense to prop up multiple design and construct facilities just for the sake of “competition.”

The nature of these many billion dollar plane projects means only a few could ever compete to begin with. Many have responded to the mounting cost by merging to share expenses. The Pentagon wants more than one contractor to choose from, even if they have to own them all.

Yet doing this necessarily will lead to consequences for state-run monopolies, replacing the profit motive at the company level with a new layer of bureaucracy. The companies traditionally seek Pentagon deals with lobbyists, and by hiring former Pentagon figures to gaudy contracts. It isn’t clear how well the military will be able to sustain this if they nationalize the companies.

The legality of nationalizing US industries remains shaky, with President Truman’s failed bid to nationalize the steel industry in the 1950s. The Obama Administration, however, did successfully nationalize General Motors, temporarily, under the guise of saving jobs.

Nationalizing to ensure competition is a very unusual notion, and that’s going to make advancing the case all the more difficult. Expect the big armsmakers to resist, as these huge plane deals tend to be wildly profitable.

(antiwar.com)

For more in-depth report…..https://www.defenseone.com/business/2020/07/us-may-need-nationalize-military-aircraft-industry-usaf-says/166894/

I wait for the reaction from conservs…..so far I have heard.read NOTHING!

Why is that?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–31Jan19

A-10 vs F-35  Mash Up!

The Pentagon has had a brain fart and wanted to replace the close support plane A-10 with this high tech brick, the F-35.

The A-10 Warthog…..

I have been following this story in support of keeping the A-10 as the primary close troop support plane…….some of my thought…..https://lobotero.com/2018/03/05/a-10-vs-f-35-remix/

There has been an evaluation going on with the A-10 and F-35…..and the next stage will begin soon…..

The Pentagon-led F-35 vs. A-10 Close Air Support assessment is nearing its next phase of evaluation, following an initial “first wave” of tests in July of this year — designed to test which of the two aircraft might be best suited to confront heavy enemy fire when performing high-risk CAS missions.

“Mission performance is under evaluation,” Vice Adm. Mat Winter, Program Executive Officer, F-35 program, told reporters earlier this year.

Pre- Initial Operational Test & Evaluation test phases, are currently underway at Edwards AFB and Naval Air Station China Lake, officials said.

https://defensemaven.io/warriormaven/air/pentagon-f-35-vs-a-10-close-air-support-evaluation-hits-next-phase-qXj6tgp6g06nCJvtEMrzKg/

Personally, there is NO contest….the ‘Hog has been saving troops lives for decades and should keep doing what it does best.  I mean the Pentagon keeps upgrading the old B-52 and the same can be done with the A-10 and it would be cheaper than a fleet of flying bricks, F-35.

The A-10 does not need a replacement…..it carries out its duties just fine.

Closing Thought–01Oct18

I have not been a supporter of the new jet fighter the defense department has spent billions on…..I have not very lovingly called it a “flying brick”…….I have written numerous times how much I dislike this airplane……

https://lobotero.com/2018/03/05/a-10-vs-f-35-remix/

Well it seems that news about this plane has been anything but good….and recently the plane did what I predicted…..flew like a brick.

The F-35 is the US military’s most expensive fighter jet, notes Foreign Policy, and the aircraft just had one of the best and worst weeks in its controversial history. The good part came on Thursday, when the Marines conducted the first-ever airstrike with its version of the jet—a successful hit against a Taliban target in Afghanistan, reports CNN. The bad part came Friday morning, when another of the Marines’ F-35 jets crashed during a training mission in South Carolina, causing the pilot to safely eject. The $100 million-plus stealth jet is a total loss, and the cause is under investigation, but as the Washington Post reports, this is the first “full-blown crash” of an F-35 in the program’s 17-year history.

The Marines’ version of the aircraft is called the F-35B Lightning II, and it’s capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings, reports the AP. Friday’s crash occurred near Marine Corps Station Beaufort, where pilots from militaries around the world come to train on the jet. The F-35 program has been besieged by cost overruns and delays, but the Pentagon announced a milestone of sorts on Friday: It struck a deal with Lockheed Martin that will bring the cost of the most common version of the jet, the F-35A, to its lowest total yet: $89 million, notes the Post. However, the Marines’ version will go for $115 million and the Navy’s for $108 million.

This weapon was a huge waste of time, money and resources……all it is doing is making the M-IC more wealthy selling this “Brick” to our allies.

This thing costs billions to develop and it continues to cost billions to “get it right”….time to cut the losses and scrap this “Brick”…..spend the money on something useful….like education.

Closing Thought–28Jun18

………….Flying to your destination……not in this lifetime…..for when I left the service of my country I had an airplane removed from my ass (that is a joke about all the travel I had to do, in case you missed it)….

It is bad enough that if something goes wrong in-flight I cannot flap my arms enough to save my life….and then I read a report that is just goddamn disturbing…..

“Sexual assault on an aircraft is a federal crime,” the FBI warns in its new Be Air Aware campaign—and it’s a crime that the agency says has increased “at an alarming rate” in recent years. The bureau says there has been a steady rise in reported mid-air incidents, with the 38 investigations it opened in 2014 rising to 63 last year; the true number of incidents could be much higher, reports CNN. The FBI says it’s not sure what’s behind the increase, but it urges passengers to “hit that call button” and notify the flight crew immediately when there is an incident. Too often, passengers either fail to report the assault or only report it long after the flight, when it is harder to investigate and prosecute offenders, the bureau says.

The FBI says sexual assault is more common on long-haul, overnight flights and often happens when a passenger is asleep. Brian Nadeau, assistant special agent in charge of the Baltimore division, tells the Washington Post that alcohol is often involved, and it is common for victims to be in either the middle or window seats. “We find offenders will often test their victims, sometimes brushing up against them to see how they will react or if they will wake up,” Nadeau says. “Do not give these offenders the benefit of the doubt.” (This airline has created a service to help women flying alone.)

Seriously?  Women cannot be safe even on a metal tube flying through the atmosphere?  What a great time in which we live (sarcasm in case that was missed also)…..

That is it for me for the day…..if you fly take precautions……

The Spruce Goose

I had a brain fart yesterday and posted one of today’s posts early…..sorry about that…..

I seem to be having some historical moments this weekend…..my daughter and I were talking about Howard Hughes and the subject of the Spruce Goose came about….how many are old enough to know what the Hell the Spruce Goose was and why was it built…..

Stop hurting yourself with the Google button……I will put it here for you……..

It was a cool California November afternoon in 1947 when the HK-4 Hercules, also known as the Spruce Goose, finally flew. It was supposed to be a simple taxi test, nothing more than motoring through the water of Long Beach Harbor to show off its speed and test out the plane in open water. But having endured years of people mocking the project and himself for trying to build a plane so massive it had no hope of flying, Howard Hughes decided to take the opportunity to extend his middle finger at them all in the most poignant way he could.

No doubt with a twinkle in his eye as the Hercules cruised through the water, Hughes turned to the 30 year old hydraulic engineer, David Grant, who he had chosen as his co-pilot that day despite him not actually being a pilot, and unexpectedly told him to “lower the flaps to 15 degrees”- the take off position.

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2018/06/when-the-spruce-goose-flew/

I just had to share my history stuff this weekend….please go out and enjoy your day….be well, be safe….chuq

Now You See It, Now You Don’t

Back in the 1990’s the US built an airplane that was virtually invisible on radar….our stealth technology…..it was held as the grand achievement in warfare tech……basically it was a flying wing.

But in reality the low profile of such an aircraft is what made it almost invisible……but years before the US had built a flying wing, the YB-49.

….we tend to associate the flying wing design of aircraft with stealthy planes like the B-2 and the upcoming B-21 bomber. But the world’s first jet-powered flying wing emerged 70 years ago, and it was not designed to be stealthy but instead to conquer the problem of drag.

The Northrop YB-49 “Flying Wing” bomber prototype flew flight tests with the Air Force for several years before a fatal crash and basic problems with the aircraft led to its cancellation in 1949. A documentary from the late 1940s shows the optimism around the fresh design as the Northrop aviation company tried to explain the new YB-49 bomber to the masses.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a20874478/yb-49-northrop-first-flying-wing-jet/

The year was 1949 and it was a marvel according to some in the day…..but this idea was NOT an American idea.

Ever heard of the HO-229?

Probably not for it was conceived by those bastards of the day, the Nazis and the Horton Brothers.

Some historians claim that if the Nazis had put this into production sooner it could have well made all the difference in the outcome of WW2….in Germany’s favor.

America’s flying wing was not the first of such aircraft. In fact, one such plane nearly darkened the skies over Washington at the end of WWII with a nuclear present from the Fuhrer.

The head of the German Luftwaffe, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, was a notorious stickler, often demanding exceedingly stringent performance standards from the aircraft under his command. In 1943, he unveiled his most ambitious requirement set to date, quickly dubbed the “1000/1000/1000 rule”. It dictated than any future aircraft purchased by the German air force must be capable of hauling a 1000 kg load over a distance of 1000 km at a speed of 1000 km/h. And given the state of jet engine technology at the time, that requirement eliminated just about every aircraft currently in development.

https://gizmodo.com/the-first-flying-wing-jet-could-have-won-wwii-for-the-n-1649401748

After the war, the latest scientific improvements prompted the idea of planning an airframe that could sidestep radar. It was found that a jet-powered, flying wing design, just like the Horten Ho 229 will have a little radar cross-area to traditional contemporary twin-motor aircraft. This is because the wings were merged into the fuselage and there were no extensive propeller disks or vertical and horizontal tail surfaces to give a locatable radar signature.

Reimar Horten said he blended charcoal dust with the wood paste to soak up electromagnetic waves (radar), which he accepted could shield the aircraft from identification by British early warning ground-based radar that worked at 20 to 30 MHz (the top end of the HF band), which is called Chain Home radar.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/military-vehicle-news/the-only-surviving-horten-ho-229-hitlers-stealth-fighter.html

The Nazis were great innovators and it they had a leader that was more anchored in reality then we all might be speaking German to this day.

Fascinating stuff…..history is so much more informative than anything else these days…..but then it takes commonsense to appreciate this stuff and that is sadly lacking in today’s American society.