Tag Archives: Russia
Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers set new WORLD RECORD for range & duration of non-stop flight
pair of Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers have spent more than 25 hours in the air and covered over 20,000km, setting a new world record for non-stop flight range, and duration, for this type of aircraft, it has been revealed.
The Defense Ministry, in Moscow, made the announcement on Saturday with Sergey Kobylash, the commander of Russia’s long-range aviation service, saying that “nobody has flown this type of aircraft longer.”
The record, which was set on Saturday, saw two Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers (NATO reporting name ‘Blackjack’) “staying in the air for more than 25 hours and covering a distance of over 20,000km (12,427 miles),” the commander added.
The landmark flight took place above the neutral waters of the Arctic and Pacific oceans as well as the Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, Chukchi and Barents seas, and was performed in full compliance with international rules governing use of airspace, he pointed out.
The Tu-160s refueled three times in the air during their mission, which required six Il-78 tanker planes to be mobilised. At some points along their route, the bombers were escorted by Russian Su-35 fighter jets as well as “aircraft of foreign states,” Kobylash said.
The previous record was also set by Tu-160s, which spent 24 hours and 24 minutes in the air back in 2010. In the case of passenger aircraft, a Qantas Airlines flight from New York to Sydney last year is considered to be the longest, as it saw a Boeing 787-9 with 49 people on board staying the air for 19 hours and 15 minutes, covering a distance of 16,200km (around 10,066 miles).
TU-160s Visit South Africa last October!
Last year October a pair of TU-160s traveled to South Africa landing at Air force Base Waterkloof, City of Tshwane. This was the first time this type of aircraft had landed on African soil for the first time.
Sukhoi SSJ100 Production Facility Celebrates Its 15th Anniversary
On 1 February, SCAC Branch in Komsomolsk-on-Amur (KnAF) turned 15. During the official ceremony held to celebrate the anniversary, a jubilee SSJ100 was handed over to the Flight Test Centre. This aircraft starts the third hundred of jets produced by the company.
“We have put state-of-the-art technologies in Superjet 100, not only concerning aerodynamics, airframe design and systems structure, but also with regard to production. At present, SSJ100 aircraft are operated by airlines and various agencies within the Russian Federation and internationally. As of yet, Superjet 100 is the only brand-new Russian passenger jet produced domestically and certified in our country and abroad,” explained Ravil Khakimov, SCAC’s Director General.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade awarded two engineers and one technician of KnAF with Certificates of Appreciation.
As stated by Sergey Denisenko, Minister of Industry of the Khabarovsk Krai, “Komsomolsk-on-Amur Branch is Russia’s unique production facility. The principles of quick improvements are implied here. KnAF is one of the largest and the most advanced machine-building enterprises in the Khabarovsk Krai.”
“Nowadays one third of all globally-produced 100-seaters are manufactured in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. For our employees, we’ve made habitual a lot of best practices in the sphere of production – Kaizen culture, Kanban and QPDCA methodology, and the Gemba principle. We value commitment of each employee to his work,” said KnAF Director Andrey Soynov.
To date, the total flight time of SSJ100 fleet is more than 700 thousand hours. Superjets in operation have performed about 450 thousand take-offs and landings.
Russian Airforce Antonov A124 lands at JFK International Airport.
A Russian military plane carrying medical supplies arrived in the United States Wednesday last week, the Russian mission to the UN said, as the Kremlin flexes its soft power during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Antonov-124, landed at JFK Airport in New York — the epicenter of America’s coronavirus outbreak — pictures and video posted on the mission’s Twitter page showed.
Russia’s defense ministry had earlier announced that the plane “with medical masks and medical equipment on board,” left for the US overnight, without providing further details.
Video released by the ministry showed the cargo plane loaded with boxes preparing to take off from a military airbase near Moscow early Wednesday morning.
“We have to work together to defeat #COVID19. This is why the U.S. agreed to purchase urgently needed personal protective equipment from #Russia,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted Wednesday evening.
The supplies, also including ventilators, were given to the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in New York, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.
Russia’s defense ministry refused to provide AFP with any further information on the delivery, which came after Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with US counterpart Donald Trump on Monday.
Russia has previously sent medical supplies and experts to coronavirus-hit Italy as part of a humanitarian effort that analysts said carried geopolitical overtones.
Moscow said the aid for Italy included about 100 virus specialists with experience dealing with Ebola and swine fever, but Italian media have reported that much of the aid was not useful in the fight against the virus.
In March, Russia said it had sent nearly 1,000 coronavirus testing kits to ex-Soviet states and countries including Iran and North Korea.
The US now has more than 215,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, by far the highest of any country, according to a Johns Hopkins tally, and more than 5,100 deaths.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Putin expected the US to return the gesture if Russia faces a similar crisis and US producers have increased their capacity to produce medical supplies.
“Today, when the situation touches absolutely everyone and is of a global nature, there is no alternative to acting together in the spirit of partnership and mutual assistance,” he said.
Trump said earlier this week that “Russia sent us a very, very large planeload of things, medical equipment, which was very nice.”
Health officials in Russia have registered a sharp increase in the number of infections, with 2,337 cases and 17 deaths confirmed, according to the latest figures last week Wednesday.