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| First Iranian Warplane Completes Successful Test Flight | |
| 2006-09-06 | |
| Teheran, 6 Sept. (AKI) - Iran declared on Wednesday that an entirely Iranian made warplane - named 'Saegheh' (thunder) - has become operational, after successfully finishing a test flight during a major ongoing military exercise being held in the northwestern part of the country. "The test flight, during which Saegheh launched an air-to-surface missile, was a total success," said the head of Iran's amed forces, Ayatollah Salesi. "Saegheh is 100 percent Iranian made and no foreign country has collaborated in its development," Salesi added. Iranian state television reportedly broadcast images of the plane taking off and said that it is "similar to the American F-18 but stronger." And now, another view... State media in Tehran say Iran's military has carried out a successful test flight by a new fighter-bomber - a jet that actually is a remodeled version of an American warplane Iran acquired decades ago. The reports say the remodeled plane, called the Thunderbolt (Saequeh, in Persian) was redesigned and upgraded using only Iranian expertise and equipment. The jet carries a locally built missile with the same name. Iran's army chief, Ataollah Salehi, is quoted as saying the new fighter carried out a mock bombing mission Wednesday, in northwestern Iran. He added that Iran received no outside help for the project. Televised pictures indicate the new plane is a modified F-5 fighter jet - a U.S.-made aircraft that was supplied to Iran before the Islamic revolution in 1979 that led to a break in relations between Washington and Tehran.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #30 The test flight ended in a prefect landing as would happen in an operational situation when the Thunderbolt* crashed abd burned Are they cloning P-47s and can I get one? |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2006-09-06 23:57 |
| #29 Iran is now making an all purpose, all weather fighter-bomber better than the Superhornet. In their |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-09-06 23:56 |
| #28 "similar to the American F-18 but stronger." Now that's a hoot. Iran is now making an all purpose, all weather fighter-bomber better than the Superhornet. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2006-09-06 23:54 |
| #27 First Iranian Warplane Completes Successful Test Flight What's the over/under for the first successful shootdown of one? |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2006-09-06 20:42 |
| #26 Now updating a B-58 Hustler - THAT would be awesome. borgboy, I don't know what your fascination with the B-58 Hustler is all about ... but I share it. It was the quintessential delta wing aircraft. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-09-06 19:12 |
| #25 Mike, Northrop made three key errors in selling the F-5G / F-20. It designed, with Air Force encouragement, an affordable airplane that, unlike the F-16, could be operated and maintained by friendly air forces. This left it with the perjorative "export version" label. Once the Air Force agreed to sell F-16s to anyone with cash, the F-20 was doomed. Countries like Thailand beggared themselves trying to buy, operate, and maintain F-16s squadrons. Even Singapore bought some. They have to make a hard right turn immediately after takeoff to keep from broaching foreign airspace. No one wanted to be thought of as second rate for buying "export" aircraft. Second, Northrop had successfully markedted the need for TWO engines on its F-5s for years. Customers didn't believe Northrop when it pitched the single engine F-5G. Last but not least, the marketing effort became increasingly desperate as the end approached. The Koreans had repeatedly told Northrop they were going to buy the F-16 and to quit harassing them. In spite of that, Northrop twisted the collective arms of the ROKAF generals to watch a demonstration of just how good the F-20 could be. The pilot went into a loop too low and fireballed right in front of every general in the ROKAF. Game over. Tom Jones, then CEO, of Northrop told stockholders that he had invested $1.8 BILLION of their money in developing and marketing the F-20. |
| Posted by: RWV 2006-09-06 18:46 |
| #24 Now updating a B-58 Hustler - THAT would be awesome. |
| Posted by: borgboy 2006-09-06 18:42 |
| #23 Now the truth can be told. That's why we never had a F-19 |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-09-06 16:43 |
| #22 "similar to the American F-18 but stronger." What, they called it the F-19 or something? Next thing you know, they're going to claim to have fixed AIDS or something like that! ;-) |
| Posted by: gorb 2006-09-06 16:38 |
| #21 6- The F-20 originally started out as an upgraded F-5 (IIRC it was for some time designated as the F-5G)but eventually became a whole new airplane. The -20 was a damned good airplane, and the equal of the then-current versions of the F-16 - not to mention considerably cheaper. The problem was threefold: First, the -20 had zero room for future upgrades, a serious problem in the eyes of the USAF - but one that might have been worked around. Secondly, General Dynamics (then facing the second big purchase of -16s for the USAF) was very determined not to let Northrop take one dime away from them. GD lowballed the price on the second contract -16s pretty badly - I've heard that at least in theory, GD lost about 3.5M USD on every airplane. It appears though that they simply spread the missing costs out to the USN submarine contracts that they were running at the time. Third, the USAF didn't want to do anything that could run up future costs on the -16, so they did a fair amount of leaning on foreign air forces to buy the -16, which in turn would lower their future unit costs. Those three strikes, plus the loss of two protoypes on demo flights, pretty much killed the program. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2006-09-06 16:08 |
| #20 First Iranian Target Drone Completes Successful Test Flight There, all fixed. What's not to like? The Iranians are diverting massive amounts of money to imitate decades old American fighter jet technology that our pilots can shoot down in their sleep. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-09-06 16:02 |
| #19 What was the upgrade that General Yaeger was selling? F-20? Or was that entirely new? |
| Posted by: 6 2006-09-06 15:01 |
| #18 someday we might point a lot of air to surface (or sea to surface or surface to surface) missiles toward Mecca but it would be a hoot if the Persians did it first |
| Posted by: mhw 2006-09-06 15:00 |
| #17 A friend of mine was involved in training the Sha's air force pilots when they got those F-5's. The training took twice as long as it should have due to the automatic solution to any flight problem being: Point the plane towards Mecca. #3 flyover nailed it. |
| Posted by: Phineter Thraviger1073 2006-09-06 14:25 |
| #16 Good question on the engine. The RSAF bought some of the F-5s about 1970. At that time, the Saudis were having trouble getting Freedom Fighters to fly from Khamis Mushayt,elevation approx. 7000 feet, with a full combat load in the hot temperatures. I don't know how long the runways were then. Back to the Saegheh. Doesn't everyone launch missiles on the initial test flight? |
| Posted by: GK 2006-09-06 14:12 |
| #15 BP they always try to copy Western tech. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-09-06 14:07 |
| #14 If this Mullahdom don't boast big(they have been doing so big time for more than a quarter century)their heads will implode under i-slam. |
| Posted by: Duh! 2006-09-06 13:05 |
| #13 I didn't know they still made bi-planes. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-09-06 12:50 |
| #12 A remodled F-5? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHahahahahahaha... Can you say "dead meat?" |
| Posted by: mojo 2006-09-06 12:42 |
| #11 "A Religion, or an inferiority complex?" No, Islam has a smashed SUPERIORITY complex. Koranimals are motivated by the fact they beleive that following the Koran will create a paradise on earth. The evidence of their own eyes is that it only creates total shit holes. They want to remove the evidence of the west which shows so clearly how the paedo prophets religion only creates dystopias. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2006-09-06 12:07 |
| #10 Based on the name, this is probably the plane that was supposed to launch on Aug 22 as the 'answer to the Security Council'. Apparently the Air Force's Mullah-in-chief oversold this to the President. |
| Posted by: mhw 2006-09-06 11:47 |
| #9 Dear Iran: Welcome to 1955. Love, The USAF Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2006-09-06 11:33 |
| #8 Good. More realistic for our pilots to practice on manned aircraft rather than drones. |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-09-06 11:27 |
| #7 Interesting to know if the Iranians reversed engineered the engines or bought Russian (more likely). As far as avionics, surely Russian. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-09-06 11:17 |
| #6 A Religion, or an inferiority complex? |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-09-06 11:12 |
| #5 And only 40 years behind the times. Wikipedia: The F-5 Freedom Fighter (or Tiger II) was a low cost entry level supersonic fighter aircraft, designed and built by Northrop in the United States, beginning in 1962. Originally designed by Northrop (designated N-156) as a low-cost, low-maintenance fighter, there was little market for such a craft. The U.S. Army expressed interest in it for ground support, but operating fixed-wing aircraft was a U.S. Air Force responsibility. The Air Force would neither agree to operate the N-156 nor to allow the Army to operate fixed-wing combat aircraft. The F-5 proved to be a successful combat aircraft that never entered frontline service with the US due to diverging priorities of the US services. The USAF did adopt the T-38 Talon trainer version of the airframe as the world's first supersonic trainer. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-09-06 10:57 |
| #4 How many do you have to down to get the stuffed teddy bear? |
| Posted by: Darrell 2006-09-06 10:51 |
| #3 A compass which always points to Mecca? |
| Posted by: flyover 2006-09-06 10:28 |
| #2 But it has top notch avionics, no doubt. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-09-06 10:10 |
| #1 They never did get their F-14s working again after the revolution, did they? |
| Posted by: Mike 2006-09-06 10:03 |