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Wonder why the two Strike Eagles had drop tanks last week
Might have been doing a petrol delivery to earn an extra few quid
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Good spot! I thought most F-15s had the wing and/or centreline tanks as a semi-permanent installation (even if they've got the conformal tanks fitted?).
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That’s because it was an almost exact copy of the VC-10, thanks to the Soviet Union’s extensive industrial espionage department. The only visible difference is the undercarriage pods in the wings to give a wider stance (for dodgy Russian runways) and the sawtooth leading edge on the wings.
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it was an almost exact copy of the VC-10, thanks to the Soviet Union’s extensive industrial espionage
This accusation has been made many times about various superficially similar developments, but very rarely supported by any actual evidence of the supposed espionage or a properly detailed examination of the engineering.
There were a lot of tail mounted engines in those days, and it's not surprising that the VC-10 and Il-62 looked similar since the laws of physics are unaffected by the iron curtain, just as Buran and STS were bound to bear a superficial resemblance despite the massive differences in detail once both teams had decided on vertical launch and runway recovery.
There are genuine examples, the most obvious being the Tu-4 which was literally reverse engineered from the B-29 by dismantling captured samples, but most of the real examples of espionage are related to detailed technical matters which don't materialise as the so-called copycat aircraft.
In general, most such accusations are little more than racism by people who are either ignorantly or wilfully blind to the fact that aeronautical engineers in the former Russian and Soviet empires have often been the global leaders in their fields rather than the followers.
In certain aerodynamic details, the VC-10 became more like the Il-62 when upgraded to Super spec, not necessarily because Vickers owned a camera but more likely because they were simply years behind TsAGI in their understanding of the finer details and took a while to arrive independently at similar conclusion
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In general, most such accusations are little more than racism by people who are either ignorantly or wilfully blind to the fact that aeronautical engineers in the former Russian and Soviet empires have often been the global leaders in their fields rather than the followers.
Good points. I was once in the market for a specific Soviet military wristwatch, and the amount of bs I received was incredible. I’d say most people who look down on soviet science just haven’t thought things through, and haven’t thought to challenge very effective Western propaganda.
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This is very pleasing to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To-xsGHm3C8&ab_channel=AviationItaly
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It’s an established fact that design details of the Concorde were leaked to the Soviets. My uncle worked for de Havilland and it was pretty much common knowledge in the design teams that people were being touched up for details of whatever they were working on, in pretty much all of the industry.
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BEEEF.
Here's one for ya.
The symbolic elliptical Spitfire wing design so quintessentially British was cribbed from German designs...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptical_wing
https://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/perfect-airplane-wing-180971225/
It's human nature to copy.
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design details...were leaked to the Soviets
Nobody is arguing that the Soviet Union didn't spy extensively through all areas of industry in the west, and presumably the east too. We're just saying that in aerodynamics particularly, which is the field which generates the external profile of air vehicles and thus gives rise to inevitable similarities of outcome when the design requirements are similar, they are unlikely to have learned much if anything which they didn't already know.
The weak areas of Soviet industry are still the weak areas of Russian industry, no amount of espionage has allowed them to catch up. The conclusion we might reasonably draw from this is that espionage is a rubbish way of getting technology compared with native invention.
Every time you properly examine the details of one of these so-called "Productski", you find the best elements are those in which Russia is natively strong, and the worst elements are those in which Russia is natively weak. Sometimes the strengths are so strong and the weaknesses so weak that Russia builds a radically different solution which the west says cannot be done, but only because she is incapable of building the thing which the west has mastered.
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BEEEF.
УСОБИЦААА!
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Such is life in Russia
Bound to be in a country run by gangsters.
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@GA2G
They came past Chelmsford again afterwards too - did two passes for good measure as well.
Also there has been a Spitfire coming and going in the area all weekend...