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| Putty Put Copies Bush: Putin takes supersonic flight in long-range bomber plane |
| 2005-08-16 |
| Putty says, Help, I'm a dork in space (photo) President Vladimir Putin took off from Moscow for a supersonic flight in a cruise-missile carrying Tupolev-160 bomber jet, the latest in the Russian leader's action-packed public appearances. After a health check, Putin donned a flight suit and took the commander's position in the strategic bomber, which was piloted by Major General Anatoly Zhikharev, with a colonel and a lieutenant colonel in charge of navigation, Russian media reported. The Tu-160 flew west from Moscow's Chkalovsky military airport toward the region of Nizhny Novgorod, where it was due to break the sound barrier, before slowing to make a test firing of cruise missiles over a range, Interfax news agency said. Putin was then to witness a mid-air refuelling before returning, with a final thrill of flying at the aircraft's lowest allowed height of 200 metres (656 feet) at a blistering 900 kilometres an hour (560 miles an hour), Interfax said. A second Tu-160, with a lieutenant general at the controls, was accompanying the president's plane. Putin was earlier attending the MAKS 2005 aerospace fair at Moscow's Zhukovsky aerodrome. He has made strengthening the country's troubled armed forces a keystone of his two terms in office and is well known for his morale-boosting appearances in military roles. In 2000, while still acting president, Putin landed a Su-27 fighter in Chechnya, where Russian forces were mounting a fierce bombing and shelling campaign against the rebel-held capital city Grozny. In 2000 and 2004, Putin also took trips on navy submarine. |
| Posted by:Captain America |
| #1 The ballsy part was sailing in a Russian sub. |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2005-08-16 19:13 |