Messages

1

Irish Air Corps / Re: RTÉ Nationwide, IAC Vampires

« on: October 15, 2010, 02:44:17 am »

That's not entirely true. One Israeli Fouga was credited for an Egyptian Mig-21 CFIT (Controlled Flight Into Terrain) which had been pursuing it at low level in some valleys during the 1967 six day war. That Israeli Pilot was a very lucky guy! The Fouga is like a vintage mini cooper to a Mig-21's Ferrari.

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Irish Air Corps / Re: New book on IAC

« on: July 18, 2010, 08:49:40 pm »

So, have bought a copy on Friday and started reading it straight away.
None of the catching story telling and one would be disappointed if one is looking for some fancy pictures in it although there are some very good sketches and diagrams and few more or less known photographs. So far.... I'm loving it.

Likewise - it's an excellent book.

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Irish Air Corps / Re: RTÉ Nationwide, IAC Vampires

« on: July 13, 2010, 11:39:45 pm »

Sorry Bluefox, I wasn't trying to suggest the Vampire was a credible fighter by 1956, as you point out it was well exceeded by other aircraft in that role.  I was only suggesting that it was a credible jet trainer which happened to be based on an older fighter design, performing this role at the same time as selected by the RAF in the same role.  Obviously there was artistic licence in assigning 'Fighter Squadron' to the T55's.

Don't worry, I didn't take any offence

And thanks to ''Short Finals'' for the correction regarding the Folland Gnat, I also did not know that the twin seat Hawker Hunter was used for advanced training of taller students in the RAF... interesting information, you learn something new every day.
I'm sure most of you already have it by now but I bought a copy of this months ''Flying in Ireland'' magazine today and there was a good article on the Vampire reunion which also had good interesting information regarding their Air Corps service.

Best Wishes

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Irish Air Corps / Re: RTÉ Nationwide, IAC Vampires

« on: July 12, 2010, 11:06:05 pm »

Naive, not really - just informed. Given that the De Havilland Vampire was a subsonic aircraft and originally designed for service in World War 2 which had ended before it eventually went into mass production I don't think I'm at all wrong by saying that it was obsolete as a fighter aircraft in 1956. In fact if you read old issues of the Irish times etc from the mid 1950's even they criticize the Department of Defence at the time for selecting an obsolete fighter design.
 
By 1956 far more technologically advanced fighter aircraft had superseded the 1940's vintage Vampire such as the North American F-86 Sabre and F-100 Super Sabre which had been already introduced to service in both the USA and other NATO member states, the Hawker Hunter in the UK with the English Electric Lightning to be coming online a couple of years later,  the Mig-19 in the USSR, along with the Dassault Mystere series in France and the soon to be online super mystere etc etc.

RAF Fighter aircraft from the 1940's and 1950's that were found no longer deemed suitable for day time fighter operations(because their performance had since been superseded by enemy designs) usually ended up as night fighters where manouverability and performance was not as major an issue hence large numbers of Vampires in RAF service ended up as ''night-fighters'' as well being used as ground attack aircraft(in lower intensity conflict areas where the threat of much more capable enemy fighters wasn't really a factor).

As far as the RAF using the Vampire T11 trainers the arrangement did not last all that long as they were replaced in the early 1960's by the supersonic Folland Gnat.

Any way one looks at it it simply cannot be justified that the De Havilland Vampire T55 was a state of the art fighter aircraft in 1956 I'm sorry to say!

And having talked to two former Air Corps Pilots who actually flew them in the 1960's they were largely hangar queens compared to the rest of the fleet at the time due to the expense of the engine replacement, maintenance and cost of operation. One of the two had to complete his Wings course on the Piston Provost after only flying about 10 hours on the Vampire as all the Vampires then went for maintenance and it turned out that they didn't have the budget to get them up and running for the forseeable future at the time....

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Irish Air Corps / Re: New book on IAC

« on: July 12, 2010, 07:50:00 pm »

Hi there, the book is out now - I obtained my copy in ''Hoggis Figgis'' on Dawson Steet in Dublin yesterday. It's an excellent book.

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Irish Air Corps / Re: RTÉ Nationwide, IAC Vampires

« on: July 11, 2010, 09:14:58 pm »

No. 1 Fighter Squadron (which by the time the Vampires were in service was a fighter squadron in name only given that the Irish Vampires were the T55 training variant) was established in 1939 and was disbanded in 1980 with the restructuring of the Air Corps of that same year.

I suppose it had become very hard indeed by that time to even pay lip service to it even being a real fighter squadron now that it was using Fouga Magisters - the world's first purpose built jet trainer - so it was renamed  the more appropriate title of ''Light Strike Squadron''.

But again it should be remembered that both squadrons doubled as the advanced flight training school for roughly half of the year to teach the Wings and Instructor courses. In fact LSS had no full time flying staff from 1994 onwards.

So there are some discrepancies with Nationwides information but I suppose it wouldn't seem as exciting to the average viewer if they had just said that the Air Corps got some by then arguably obsolete Vampire trainer jets in 1956, designated to a fighter squadron in name only and over the course of their career actually did very little flying in the grand scheme of things due to their expensive fuel and maintenance costs.... The real facts just don't sound as exciting and they probably needed a hook for viewers to watch the segment.

It was nice to see the old flying footage of them though.

7

Irish Air Corps / Re: Some Points.

« on: May 01, 2010, 12:42:09 am »

I have some points of my own. For someone who proclaims to be a 40+ year old teacher your grammar and spelling leaves a lot to be desired. And weren't you supposed to be a University student as well a few weeks ago?

Unfortunately the only way you will ever see a fighter aicraft in Irish Air Corps service is if you manage to either build a time machine and go back to the 1940's or start World War III in mainland Europe sometime.

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Irish Air Corps / Re: Would You Ban Lootenant Pigeon ?

« on: April 15, 2010, 07:33:04 pm »

You will  be easier talked to when I get the Air Corps 10 new jets. We will get 8 ALCAS and two Gripens, cos Bluefox is right we need a couple of real interceptors. I love them Gripens man !

Eh, I never said that the Air Corps needed interceptors since that would be frankly a ridiculous proposition for this country right now financially and totaly pointless to our particular security enviroment in any case.

If anything I think that the Air Corps should become more of a focused helicopter support arm exculsively for the army's use while having the rest of it's civilian functions outsourced to private agencies as it makes no sense for the Dept. of Defence to have to foot the bills for non defence related matters. The Air Corps has been a jack of all trades since it's inception and this needs to be adressed particularly now since the rest of the Defence Forces has reinveted itself over the last 10 years with little financial support from our current pathetic government. In terms of value for money the Army is one of the best public services we have at the moment and the Air Corps should really be following suit.

I don't think you should be banned as it's a free country but I do think you should educate yourself more as you are coming across like a 15 year old with your current mentality. If you want to visit Baldonnel just pick up the phone and call like the average adult does.

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Irish Air Corps / Re: Why, how and what jets the IAC should get.

« on: April 11, 2010, 03:00:31 am »

Further to my last post and getting off topic a bit I looked into the origins of aircraft transponders and it turns out that the ''identification friend or foe'' equipment used by the RAF from 1940 which I mentioned was actually the earliest form of transponder.  Lucky guess on my part!

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Irish Air Corps / Re: Why, how and what jets the IAC should get.

« on: April 10, 2010, 09:35:06 pm »

L. P, If you read back over your own posts you will find that you did indeed inferr that the RAF is still in N. Ireland which it is not anymore.

I don't really have the time nor am I probably qualified enough to properly explain the differences  between ''Primary'' and ''Secondary'' radars in full but their are books on the subject under the banner of Radio Navigation which you can seek out for further understanding. Suffice to say a transponder responds to SSR radar interrorgation and sends back a signal which flashes on the radar controllers screen and gives a/c information. With PR this dosen't happen as transponders aren't used so stonger interrorgation pulses are needed to overcome this ostacle and other important factors thus making PR a more expensive proposition.

I don't know if transponders had been invented in 1940, they most probably had but regardless the RAF installed identification friend or foe systems in their aircraft which indicated whether an unidentified aircraft was an enemy or not.

As you said we need jets in case of civil war in the North. Chances with the Torries being the next government in the  U.K they probly wont pull out of there. Also in fairness no one is going to go unless the majority of the people of Norhtern Ireland vote on it as set out in the Ireland Act 1946. 

A bit of a reality check is obviously needed here - If the Irish Government and Army was planning on invading the North anytime soon then I doubt they would have just closed down nearly all of their border duty barracks last year as they have already done. 

Education is the Key.

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Irish Air Corps / Re: Why, how and what jets the IAC should get.

« on: April 10, 2010, 12:46:44 pm »

Speaking as a Pilot (not in the Irish Air Corps btw) I absolutely concur with the poster who said that it is very difficult to spot other aircraft when airborne unless they are very close below about 10,000ft due to ''big sky'' theory.  At increasingly higher altitudes it becomes a little easier due to there being less atmospheric pollution, heaped cloud formations etc to degrade visibility and also aircraft tend to start giving off condensation trails at these altitudes and the higher strength of sunlight refecting from aircraft fuselages. This is all during the hours of daylight, night-time it's impossible with lights off.

Therefore it is vital to have a Primary radar system to vector aircraft for target intercepts. Here is a link to a poorly written article about the RAF scrambling to intercept targets that makes the point about the importance of Radar in these situations http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1263840/The-Kremlins-taunting-Britain-Blackjack-bombers.html?ITO=1490

Primary radar has been critical to air defence since the Battle of Britain in 1940!

As for Ireland not having a Primary radar system and civilian aircraft along with the miniscule number of military aircraft flying safely in Irish airspace - there are secondary-surveillance radars based at several civilian airports in the state. These work on the basis of said aircraft using a functioning transponder with applicable band-widths. Turn it off and the the radar controller may or may not be still able to observe you depending on your altitude, aircraft size, surrounding terrain, local weather etc. but more likely than not he or she will no longer be able to observe you any further.

As for using L159's for air defence purposes - they are not true interceptors being subsonic and you haven't factored in the time it takes for aircraft to climb to altitude and radar controllers to identify belligerent aircraft. Neither is it possible to just blow an aircraft out of the sky just like that killing hundreds of innocents even if it were possible for an L159 to intercept an Airline jet at speed which I highly doubt. There are internationally recognised intercept procedures which have to be implemented first to identify the nature of the situation first.

As for having two jets patrolling the sky permanently - kiss the entire Defence Budget goodbye and tell all the 10,000 personnel that they are not going to be getting their wages because of this. The USA is the most paranoid country in the world apart from perhaps Israel at the moment and even they don't have a situation such as this in place unless their is an actual terrorist alert.

And just so you know - the RAF have already withdrawn their presence from Northern Ireland.

Really OP, you do need to educate yourself more on such matters if you are going to comment on them as well as work on your current affairs knowledge too. I'm sure you mean well in your own mind but I sense a big lack of maturity and the ability to see the big picture here.