Exclusive: Budanov gave me a few insights into his new role at Zelensky's chief of staff.

Oleksa comes up with some really interesting photos every day. Today's shots of target tugs are very welcome, and rarely seen. Great follow.

The sole produced Dassault Mirage 4000, which first flew Mar1979. As no customers were interested, the program was dropped in the early 1980ies. The prototype kept flying for experiments until Jan 1988 and is now in the Le Bourget museum. #Aviation #Aircraft #History #Aerospace

Merry Christmas!

"Tsgt. Charles A. Barbier Of Wallace, La., Checking Gun Mount Bolt On A B-17, Waves To Msgt. George Grose Of Tallahassee, Fla., As He Rides By On A Unicycle. England. (U.S. Air Force Number K2400)" 📷📑 catalog.archives.gov/id/205002431...

Impressive images. "Interferometric synthetic aperture sonar images of the seafloor. (a) Wreck of a barge on a sediment substrate with boulders. (b) Offshore energy production infrastructure. » 🔗📷📑 tos.org/oceanography...

🧵 An MNV (Mine Neutralization Vehicle) of the AN/SLQ-48 MNS (Mine Neutralization System) on USS Avenger (MCM-1). 1988. 📷 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mi...

Recently digitised - Op Dracula, May 1945; an amphibious landing against Rangoon in Burma. Troops and vehicles struggle with the muddy conditions, and engineers demolish an obstacle. Filmed by Mohammed Afzal Khan. #filmcataloguing #history #ww2 Full film: IWM JIN 50 www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001). Notice how the halyard for the signal flags is set up, with three ropes holding the halyard block in place. 📷 www.dvidshub.net/image/938640...

🧵 An interesting idea: "THE HIP SLING STRETCHER / Original wartime caption: This picture shows the method of slinging the stretcher from a belt worn round the waist." 1941 📷📑 www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

🧵 The 'bar torpedo sight' / 'torpedo sighting bar'. "Flight deck duty squad member hanging on to the wing of a Fairey Albacore that has just landed from anti-submarine patrol. The precaution was needed because gale force winds were blowing at the time." 📷📑 www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

"Demonstration of a method to extricate a casualty from the turret of a Matilda tank using slings and a hoist, 7 August 1941." 📷📑 www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

"Signals Display Team (1953)" 🎞️📑 www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxK3...

"Empire Celtic was a ferry which was built in 1945 as Landing Ship, Tank LST 3512 for the Royal Navy. In 1946 she was chartered by the Atlantic Steam Navigation Company Ltd, converted to a ferry and renamed Empire Celtic." 🔗📑 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Empi... 🎞️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFSf...

"1946 Curtiss Wright Aircraft Ad Navy SC-2 Seahawk Airplane Rescue Reconnaissance" 📷📑 www.ebay.com/itm/23392797...

How many engines did you want? Yes.

Canadian Army engineering unit recovering damaged Landing craft during Operation Overlord on Juno Beach 1944

🧵 The Mk 41 VLS (Vertical Launching System Modular: Launcher → Modules → Canisters → Missiles - Each launcher is a collection of modules. - Each module contains cells (rails). - Each cell houses one canister. - Each canister houses one or more missiles. 🔗📷 apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/A...

🧵 Unusual carrier elevator. "A U.S. Navy Vought SB2U-2 Vindicator (BuNo 1376) from scouting squadron VS-72 pictured on the deck edge elevator of the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7) at Quincy, Massachusetts (USA), in June 1940. » 📷📑 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US...

Jet-Assisted Take-Off (JATO ) units on B-25, F4U, PBM, and TBM. 1945 📷 archive.org/details/USAN...

"SCOTT 486 cc twin cylinder motor cycle with its two man crew, troops of the Motor Machine Gun Corps unit, aiming their Vickers gun skywards at enemy aeroplanes, 1915." 📷📑 www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

🧵 Question: Why does this bulldozer carry a stack of tires? You can often spot such a bulldozer roaming the beach during USMC amphibious operations. Answer in the next post. 🎞️ digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/coll...

🧵 Maintenance of Invaders. "Three-quarter left rear view of a Douglas RB-26C Invader (s/n 44-35651; c/n 28930) getting its wing attended to by a maintenance man standing on a jeep." The "jeep" actually appears to be a Clarktor 6 aircraft towing tractor. 📷📑 catalog.archives.gov/id/176888908

"Sgt. Ben A. Robertson, Henderson, Texas, from his perch astride the propeller of this Fifth Air Force RB-26 light bomber of the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, waves a greeting to an anti-aircraft unit on the way to …" 1951 📷📑 catalog.archives.gov/id/542365

"This U.S. Air Force B-29 gunner coming through the 35-foot tunnel connecting forward and rear pressurized compartments on his "Superfort" is A/2C James J. Prater, Beaver Creek Drive, Powell, Tenn. Wearing a parachute and "Mae West: life preserver adds to …" 1953 📷📑 catalog.archives.gov/id/542362

These gravestones belonged to members of the Perry Expedition. Commodore Matthew Perry (brother of Oliver Hazard Perry) had established this cemetery for foreigners in the Tomari area of Okinawa almost a century ago. "Marines Mopping Up South of Naha" 1945 🎞️📑 catalog.archives.gov/id/542320390...

🧵 Vertical foregrips. A BAR with an improvised vertical foregrip. "Invasion of Aguni" 🎞️📑 catalog.archives.gov/id/542319876...

"PAN of bulldozer moving along beach. Wrecked Jap tanker is seen just off shore in BG." Circa 1945. 📷📑 catalog.archives.gov/id/542320218...

"A series of low alt. shot over Pisa, see leaning tower." 🎞️📑 catalog.archives.gov/id/165042779...

🧵 Aircraft with BOMARC noses. A modified B-57B (S/N 52-1497) with a 17-foot nose section of a Boeing CIM-10 BOMARC ground-to-air missile spliced on. It was used during the development of the guidance system for the BOMARC long-range, surface-to-air missile. 📷 nationalmuseum.af.mil/Upcoming/Pho...

They're not kidding! 😅😂 youtu.be/SNtA1cbIUSA?...

NATO, before the NATO we now know. "The North African Theater of Operations (NATO) included French Africa, Spain, Portugal, and Italy." "The Mediterranean Theater of Operations, United States Army (MTOUSA), originally called the […] NATOUSA" 🔗📑 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediter...

🧵 A Jeep with an "A" frame tandem hitch tow bar replacing the front bumper. "Infantrymen of the 30th Division, Stand by the Jeep in the Snow-Covered and Battle-Scarred Town of Thirimont, Belgium" 1945 📷📑 catalog.archives.gov/id/280956056...

"Six Unarmed Minuteman III Mark 12 Reentry Vehicles Are Shown Approaching Targets Near Kwajalein Atoll in the Western Pacific Ocean" 📷📑 catalog.archives.gov/id/280957199...

"Boeing IM-99 "Bomarc", USAF Area Interceptor Missile, Being Launched at Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex, Florida" 📷📑 catalog.archives.gov/id/280957196...

"High Angle, 3/4 Front View, of a U.S. Air Force F-4E Phantom With Bombs, En route to a Target in Southeast Asia" 📷📑 catalog.archives.gov/id/280957188...

The D.342 was the last transport aircraft produced by the manufacturer Dewoitine. It had a more modern fuselage than its predecessors, the D.338, as well as a maximum speed of nearly 400 km/h. It made its maiden flight in 1938 and was operated by "Air France" during the WWII.

Aviator humor. 📷 archive.org/details/sim_...

The Potez 566 was a three-seater observation aircraft from 1938 based on the Potez 56 civil aircraft. Only three examples of the 566 were ever built. © British Pathé

🧵 Screencaps from a film from Operation Brassard—the Invasion of Elba in 1944. This is an LCM(3) Smoker fitted with a smoke generator using chlorosulfuric acid (CSA) and an aircraft engine. "OPERATION BRASSARD - THE ASSAULT ON ELBA [Allocated Title]" 🎞️📑 www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

An improvised targeting system, using a crosshair drawn (probably with a grease pencil) on the windshield of a UH-1 Huey. Vietnam, 1966 "Helicopter in Flight Firing Rockets, A4B on Bomb Run and Civic Action / PXY-WAR Action and …" 🎞️📑 catalog.archives.gov/id/542324272...

These are excellent reads: ① "Mapping the dark side of the world (part 1): The KH-5 ARGON geodetic satellite." www.thespacereview.com/article/5104/1

𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗 Lets talk about… Humanitarian Daily Rations, and how to get them to people quickly by airdroppping

Rockphoons

🧵 A Lockheed U-2R in Navy markings. This aircraft was converted to the EP-X (Electronics Patrol eXperimental) configuration and evaluated by US Navy for the ocean surveillance role during 'Project Highboy'. The story is here: 🔗 www.twz.com/16936/decade... 📷 www.history.navy.mil/content/hist...

🧵 TBD-1A was a Douglas TBD-1 Devastator with twin float landing gear added by the Naval Aircraft Factory. "(Bureau # 0268) In low-level flight during torpedo drop tests at the Newport Torpedo Station, Rhode Island, 10 October 1941.…" 📷📑 www.history.navy.mil/content/hist...

I read a post about the discovery of Kevlar, which claimed that when Stephanie Kwolek formulated it, "a supervisor told her to throw away the 'useless' experiment." That is not quite accurate. The following is an account in her own words from a filmed interview: youtu.be/L1pepaAdkWA?...

Some amazing footage here: (especially all the experimental stuff) "THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FLEET AIR ARM [Allocated Title]" 🎞️ www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

🧵 1954 footage from development of Mk 39 torpedo, which was a Mk 27 Mod 4 modified by ORL and Vitro Corporation with the addition of a wire dispenser, appropriate controls, and improved propulsion. 🔗 archive.navalsubleague.org/1997/u-s-nav... "BU AID VITRO PROJECT" 🎞️ catalog.archives.gov/id/81400