Military AI Works

That I certainly will, I've spent far too much time and effort on the beast to give up on it any time soon

The main reason I decided to preview it here, even though most of them aren't military, is because they do move a lot of military equipment, and the charter work they do is probably more suited to military flightplanners. (hint hint)

Dark Morelia wrote:Yep, I saw and posted in it.
There won't be any military ones, so I guess I'd better stop previewing it here then

No way. Keep working on it and keep the 'heads up'. It could always be used in a retro pack. And I bet the Russian AF will rent them from the private sector. It seems strange that they are getting rid of their only strategic transporter. Knowing the Russians, it may not be as it seems. I did read that Putin had authorised work to start again on the AN-224 so may be that's going into service?

Tupolev 144 wrote:This plane is much needed since the model of PAI is totally crap and the only other alternative is a very high poly UI model from Tomas Ruth. I'm really looking forward to it's release.

And the AN-124 is actually a military cargo transporter. It's in service with the Russian Air Force 224th Transport Detachment based at Tver-Migalovo (UUEM) and the 566th Transport Regiment based at Seshcha.

It would be nice to have this airplane together with some good AI An-22, An-12 and Il-76 so we can make the complete transport fleet of the Russian Airforce

Peter

Funnily enough I'm just spinning my wheels until my computer arrives in the U.K.
Can't do the full fledged (final version) stuff on this laptop it's real slow, especially when you add textures.
So can't finish either the Gripen (99% done) or the T-6 Texan II (LOD 1 done) at the moment.

So been "playing" just to keep my hand in, did someone say IL-76? (well ok it's an A-50, but it comes from an IL-76)

That is very nice. Both versions will definitely be wanted. Any chance of a Midas as well ?

That looks damn nice !
I was tossing up between that and the 'nov at one stage, but decided the SKJ IL-76 is more bearable than the PAI AN-124, lol.

Cool!

Want to Buy a Soviet Transport or Two?

Norman Polmar | August 09, 2007

The Russian Air Force is preparing to sell off its entire fleet of giant An-124 heavy cargo aircraft. Given the NATO-U.S. code name “Condor,” the Antonov An-124 aircraft is slightly larger than the U.S. Air Force C-5 Galaxy transports. There are 21 of the An-124s available for commercial sale.

The An-124-100M-150 model is capable of transporting single or multiple items of cargo weighing up to 150 metric tons (330,000 pounds) including such outsize items as construction vehicles and missiles. The An-124, for example, is the only aircraft that can carry the Boeing 777's new GE90 engines.

The civil An-124-100 was certified in 1992, and meets all civil standards including ICAO Stage/Chapter III noise limits and modern navigational equipment requirements. From a commercial viewpoint, the efficiency of the An-124 can be seen by its ability to carry roughly twice the cargo of a U.S. C-17 Globemaster at a significantly lower operating cost per aircraft. The An-124 has more than 14 years experience of intensive, global commercial operations.

The major problem with Russian commercial aircraft in the past has been the poor after-sales support in comparison with Western manufacturers. The Antonov organization is developing a support capability similar to those of Western aviation firms and an Antonov support facility was recently opened in Leipzig, Germany.

Aviation industry sources indicate that Russian Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov has offered four An-124s for sale in the near-term, with the remainder to follow before the end of 2007.

The Russian Air Force ceased flying its 21 An-124s in December 2005 and the aircraft have been grounded since that time. Currently, NATO leases six other Russian and Ukrainian An-124-100 cargo aircraft under an arrangement known as the Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS).

In the future NATO will use C-17 cargo aircraft to help relieve its severe airlift shortage.

Cheers Jason, there was already a thread about it in the real life military forum.

Latest update:

I knew there was something not right about the nose !

Comparing it to some photos, I discovered it was just over a foot 'not right'.


I fixed the model, but haven't fixed the textures yet so they've stretched with the nose.

I reckon that foot makes an appreciable difference though.

Lesson learned: don't trust the 3-views entirely !

Just as a "further" to current -124 ops.

The RAF lease them now and again - either from Heavy Lift Cargo or from Antonov Design Bureau.

In the past they've been used for transporting Tornado aircraft to and from the Falkland Islands and also Nimrod fuselages from Kinloss down to Bae for upgrading to MR4 variants.

So there is scope for for having them popping up now and again and adding colour to Mil. Bases.

Cheers

Stew

They certainly pop up all over the place. They visit RAAF bases too, such as Townsville and Darwin. As well as the larger airports doing civilian stuff.

It's an odd day when one is not at Brize Norton at some point during the day or night

Stewart Pearson wrote:
In the past they've been used for transporting Tornado aircraft to and from the Falkland Islands and also Nimrod fuselages from Kinloss down to Bae for upgrading to MR4 variants.

I saw my first one at EGHH (Bournemouth) when one brought Nimrod fuselages to Flight Refuelling in 1998 IIRC, who originally got the contract but was so slow in doing the work the Govt took the contract them off them and handed it BAe.

The Nov looked like an apartment block and it seemed to do a fast taxi to take-off. It must have been an illusion caused by its size.

John

VulcanDriver wrote:The Nov looked like an apartment block and it seemed to do a fast taxi to take-off. It must have been an illusion caused by its size.

John

I remember the first time I saw one. It was at Aldergrove, they used to come in quite frequently from somewhere in Europe outbound to Toronto, allegedly packed with cigarettes. We weren't allowed to fly within a mile behind the aircraft because they had to do a three minute full-power engine run-up before releasing the brakes! We could hear the noise of the -124's engines even over the sound of our own whistling chicken leg. An awesome beast.

I've actually only ever seen a few AN-124s IRL. The first would've been the bicentennial airshow at YSRI in 1988, but I was a wee bit young to remember that.
IL-76s were a much more frequent visitor, until the RAAF got their first C-17.
I can still remember seeing one of those for the first time. Imagine a nice quiet peaceful afternoon fishing on a river, interrupted by an IL-76 screaming low overhead on it's way to YSRI


This might be a fun game: spot the difference


It's rather subtle, I admit, but anyone familiar with the features of the FSP airbus widebodies might spot it

Dark Morelia wrote:That I certainly will, I've spent far too much time and effort on the beast to give up on it any time soon

The main reason I decided to preview it here, even though most of them aren't military, is because they do move a lot of military equipment, and the charter work they do is probably more suited to military flightplanners. (hint hint)

Want me to do some flightplans ? Pass the regs you are working on or would like to have and if you have known routes/destinations and I will do that job. Otherwise I will look up destinations from airliners.net and other sources.

Currently 26 An-124's are in active service, another 10 are on order. They're in use by the following airlines:

- Volga-Dnepr - 10 (5)
- Antonov Design Bureau - 7
- Polet Airlines - 6 (5)
- Libyan Arab Air Cargo - 2
- Kiyiv Aviation Plant / United Arab Emirates Government - 1

there is an Il76 and A50 for traffic just apppeared on avsim.ru. Author is Rulexy. Hope it has LOD.

will donload and try out tonight

http://avsim.ru/files.phtml?fileid=10359

Andras

andras1 wrote:there is an Il76 and A50 for traffic just apppeared on avsim.ru. Author is Rulexy. Hope it has LOD.

will donload and try out tonight

http://avsim.ru/files.phtml?fileid=10359

Andras

I seem to be having problems getting the validation code to work, so the thing won't download!

I just downloaded the file if you would like I can send it to you.

Those codes are a bugger, I had to try about 10 times before I got one I could read.

They're fairly high poly, with only 3 LODs.
Variants include the standard IL-76TD, IL-76-90, IL-76MD, and A-50.

IL-76TD has...

LOD1 - 11,296
LOD2 - 4,704
LOD3 - 514


A-50 has...

LOD1 - 11,702
LOD2 - 5,002
LOD3 - 1,126

Visually, they're a vast improvement over the SKJ model though.
An IL-78 would've been nice !