Public Domain Photo: An F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter-bomber aircraft from the 115th Fighter Wing, Wisconsin Air National Guard sits on the runway in Madison, Wisconsin on June 28, 2008, during an American Independence Day celebration and fireworks display - DoD photo by Joe Oliva, U.S. Air Force. Dimensions and size: 3000×2300 pixels, 597 KB.
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Public Domain Photos: Major John Klatt, a pilot from the Minnesota Air National Guard’s 148th Fighter Wing and a civilian aerobatic pilot, flies a Staudacher S-300D, a world class aerobatic stunt plane crafted by John Staudacher (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Don Nelson, 115 FW/PA).
Major John Klatt is a pilot from the Minnesota Air National Guard’s 148th Fighter Wing in Duluth, Minnesota. Klatt partners with the Air National Guard to assist in their recruiting efforts at air shows across the United States. In addition to his performances at the air shows, Maj. Klatt provides incentive flights to recruiters and Guard volunteers to promote the Air National Guard. When Maj. John Klatt is not flying the C-130 turboprop transport aircraft around the world or the F-16 Fighting Falcon in air support and combat operations for the U.S. Air Force, he serves as a first officer with a major U.S. commercial airline. Each year ‘The John Klatt Air Show’ participates in 18 to 20 air shows contracted by the Air National Guard (ANG).
The Staudacher S-300D (in the photos above), which is capable of pulling more than 20 G’s, which is twice the load of the F-16C Fighting Falcon, is a world class aerobatic airplane, and each plane is differently crafted to suit the pilot’s requirements by John Staudacher in the Bay City, MI area.
Public Domain Photo: Four U.S. Airf Force F-16C Fighting Falcons from the 115th Fighter Wing, Wisconsin Air National Guard over Wisconsin's capital city of Madison on October 18th, 2008. In flight lead is aircraft 87-278 with a unique tail flash that was designed to celebrate the unit's 60th Anniversary. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Master Sgt. Paul Gorman)
Photo: by Arpingstone Adrian Pingstone shows Aer Lingus Airbus A320-200 landing at Heathrow Airport, London on 28 July 2007
Aer Lingus, the former national airline of the Republic of Ireland, is one of the airlines based in Ireland, apart from Ryanair, Aer Arann and CityJet. The country has five main international airports; Dublin Airport, Belfast International Airport (Aldergrove), Cork Airport, Shannon Airport and Ireland West Airport (Knock).
A United Arab Emirates Air Force F-16E Block 60 takes off after taxiing out of the Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth, Texas, adjacent to NAS Fort Worth JRB. (Date: February 28, 2007; Author: David Raykovitz.)
The single-seat F-16E and twin-seat F-16F are the latest versions of the F-16. They do not exist in the US Air Force inventory, but they are an export version. The F-16E/F now belongs to a special version developed especially for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force and, hence, they are sometimes unofficially called the Desert Falcon.
Photo: Three U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon Block 30 aircraft from the 80th Fighter Squadron fly in formation over South Korea during a formation training mission on 9 January 2008; U.S. Air Force, photo by Tech. Sgt. Quinton T. Burris.
Photo: This Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter plane was conducting a mission over Afghanistan on May 28, 2008 after receiving fuel from a KC-135R Stratotanker aircraft. The KC-135R is assigned to the 22nd Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, 376th Air Expeditionary Wing deployed from Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, USA. Author: Master Sgt. Andy Dunaway.
The rough mountainous terrain of Afghanistan can be seen in the background, well below the fighter plane, as you see in a relief map.
Fighter planes of the class F-16s have been used by the United States in Afghanistan since 2001. In 2002, a tri-national detachment, the European Participating Air Forces, consisting of Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway forces, of 18 F-16 fighter planes in the ground attack role deployed to Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan to support Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
Here is a bit of history of involvement of F-16s in Afghanistan. Since April 2005, eight Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16s, joined by four Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16s in February 2006, have been supporting International Security Assistance Force ground troops in the southern provinces of Afghanistan. On 31 August 2006 a Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16AM crashed in Ghazni province and the pilot, Capt. Michael Donkervoort, was killed, but the cause of the crash could not be determined. However, the investigation report referenced the fact that a camel spider and other creatures had been found recently in the cockpits of Dutch aircraft in Afghanistan. Could it be that the spiders and other creatures in the cockpit had bitten the pilot of the crashed aircraft?
Camel spider is also known as wind scorpion, jerrymuglum, sun scorpion, red Romans, haarskeerders, baardskeerders and sun spider. Scientifically, they are Solifugae, an order of Arachnida with over 1,000 species in about 140 genera.
Camel spiders have appeared in many urban legends. In the Middle East and to some extent in Afghanistan, it is rumored among American and coalition military forces stationed there that camel spiders will feed on living human flesh. The foreign forces there believe that the creature will inject an anesthetic or venom into the skin of its sleeping victim, and then feed voraciously, leaving the victim to awaken with a gaping wound. However, they do not have such an anaesthetic or poison, excepting some species found in India. And they do not attack humans unless threatened.
Other stories about camel spiders say they leap into the air, disembowel camels, scream, and run alongside moving humvees. The greatest threat they pose to humans is their bite in self-defense. There is no chance of death directly caused by the bite, but, due to the strong muscles of their chelicerae, they can produce a proportionately large, ragged wound that is prone to infection.
Click HERE to view Camel Spider.
Photo: A U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon warplane flies a mission in the skies near Iraq on March 22, 2003 during Operation Iraqi freedom. The F-16s are from the 35th Fighter Wing "Wild Weasels" at Misawa Air Base in Japan. The photo is a U.S. Air Force photo taken by Staff Sgt. Cherie A. Thurlby.
Chilean Air Force is about 12,500 strong, and the air assets of Chile are distributed among five air brigades headquartered in Iquique, Antofagasta, Santiago, Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas, and an airbase on King George Island, Antarctica. The Air Force took delivery of the final 2 of 10 F-16s, all purchased from the U.S. in March 2007, and in the same year Chile also took delivery of reconditioned Block 15 F-16s from the Netherlands, bringing to 18 the total of F-16s purchased from the Dutch. F-16 stands for the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon, a multi-role jet fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force. F-16, a success on the export market, serves in the air forces of 25 nations, though no longer being purchased by the U.S. Air Force.
