iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

æck @aeck.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

go watch Combination-K's excellent new video on the best MiG-27 variant: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EChd... I made some short animations that are featured in it:

youtube.com

The Untold Story of the Soviet Union’s Most Advanced Fighter-Bomber

YouTube video by Combination-K

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

I don't disagree in principle, but MiG fighters already have a bug on the machometer to show the commanded mach from Lazur ground control. A new wing sweep gauge was needed anyway, so putting the limits there instead of having to make a bespoke variant of the other instruments was more practical.

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

serious answer: a dremel or handsaw should work, then throw it in a vise and file the rough surface flat. I think it'll hold way better now with the flange taking the force instead of the sealant.

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

here's a better way: (do not do this)

an endmill and ER collet arbor attached in unholy matrimony to an angle grinder. image source unknown

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

i could see it being useful for photogrammetry if it can run continuously. regular old flash tubes are bright enough but are fragile and tend to overheat after like 100 shots.

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Ken Shirriff @righto.com · 11/07/2025

The Globus is a navigational instrument that uses a rotating globe to show the position of the Soyuz spacecraft above the Earth. Inside the Globus, a complicated system of gears and motors positions the globe. @jonbruner.bsky.social at Lumafield created a three-dimensional X-ray scan for us. 1/4

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

the mandate of heaven has officially moved from russia to china

traces of a more advanced civilization continue to be found in Russia
[beached ekranoplan left to rot]

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

anyone brave enough to do a supersonic dogfight at 12000m deserves every last deg/s they can get

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

I've heard there were apparently multiple versions of the instrument. I think it's one of those things that was silently revised throughout the aircraft's service.

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

(MiG-23) all ISK-1A mach/airspeed limits. changes with selected (not actual) wing sweep as denoted by the little triangle on the scale. pretty convenient instrument as you'll know exactly when your wings will fall off at any sweep. also cool that they let you go mach 1.5 at 30° sweep. (1/2)

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

изд. 72 is R-73, pretty funny that it's just drawn on the end there. I guess from the pilot's perspective the launch procedure is the same, so they appended the ML manual so they could reuse it.

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

that's nuts, what does the color channel come from?

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Reposted by æck

LOWρUFO 🇺🇦🇵🇸🌍 @lowrhoufo.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Stolen from the other site

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Rocky Flats Chimney Sweep 🇺🇸 @midlifesuezcrisis.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

We're gonna talk about something fun, cool, not political tonight. The stuff I wanted to use this account for and have degrees and papers and a career in. We're gonna talk about why steel is a wonder material, probably the material of the future, not just the last century. Yes, there's a graph.

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

If it has SPO-15 and N003E then it must be 23-19 - as 23-22B has N008E by definition. As a side note it always hurts a little to see these pristine aircraft completely abandoned, hope at least some of them end up in museums instead of being vandalized.

The technical operation of the 23-22B aircraft should be carried
out in accordance with the instructions given in the "Technical Operation Manual No. GK-442B" and this "Supplement".
The armament system of the 23-22B aircraft differs from
the military armament system of the 23-2B aircraft as follows:
- - a jamming system is installed in the P-23;
- the B-8MI unit is installed;
- instead of the SUV-2ML-0ZE weapon control system, the SUV-2ML-
02E weapon control system has been installed;
- instead of the PVI-I-03E remote control, the PVI-I-02E remote control is installed
, which is used when using ed. 62, as well as when checking the start circuits
products 62 - the sign of ed. 62 is indicated by the URB index (instead
of the index 62);
- instead of the N003E station, the N008E station is installed.

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

if I had been there the entire thing would have been yoinked out of the plane

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

internals: similar spinning drum mechanism to TP-23

MiG-31 IRST with the front window smashed open

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

like N008 had 120(!!!) doppler filter bins

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Pretty modest from what I've heard. Better automation, ECCM and close combat modes. Also a mode for tracking helicopters and other slow targets against the ground. It has some digital components too but they were kinda brute forcing it compared to N019 which had a completely fresh new architecture.

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

(this is specifically for N003, the radar i'm most familiar with. Early variant radars might not have been coherent at all.)

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

it's externally coherent, so it uses ground clutter as doppler reference. It automatically switches modes depending on conditions - if the current scan bar is above the horizon it will disable PD filtering. At low altitude look-down against a fighter sized target, detection range will be 11 to 23km

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

crackhead theory: they can fully close up the lower intakes and do subsonic stealth ingress with only the middle engine and top intake

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

history repeats itself en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...

en.wikipedia.org

Battle of Los Angeles - Wikipedia

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

pro tip: russian military aerospace teachers really just be dumping their lesson of the day publicly on studfiles

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

every thread about the bolt action pistol:

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

there's a specific example where this came in handy in the excellent book "The MiG Diaries". Where during a night search for covert C-130 drops inside Angola, the MiG-23 pilot spotted the dimly lit flares of the enemy drop zone while looking for the C-130 radar contact.

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

They used the radar HUD display on every subsequent fighter except for MiG-25/31, though MiG-23 was the only one where the HUD is literally the only display in the cockpit. It has the advantage of letting the pilot's eyes rest at infinite focus outside the cockpit while looking for targets.

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

i wonder if they just straight up reused TP-23M's cryo pump on OLS-27

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

here it is in "action" (a simulator but a real one used to train pilots) www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrbd...

youtube.com

MiG 23 Peenemünde Abfangen Nacht Simulator

YouTube video by petzi55

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

It was used from ASP-23L in MiG-23 edition 1969 right up until MiG-23ML (23-12) in its final ASP-23DTsM variant, until it was replaced in 1978 by my beloved ASP-17ML in MiG-23MLA (23-12A) Note in the right pic the famous Lazur "harmonica" on top shoutouts to kubackiewicz and foxbat155 for info

ASP-23DTsM "Размещение органов управления на головке прицела АСП-23ДЦМ самолета МиГ-23МЛ"

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

The gunsight mode has much in common with the ASP-PFD from MiG-21, but the HUD mode was new tech for the time so there is much jank In order to have different phosphor fade times for the radar display and symbology, they had the HUD CRT hooked up to a camera that optically combines 3 other CRTs (!)

schematic diagram of the ASP-23D in polish, "synchronous" refers to the HUD mode while "asynchronous" refers to gunsight mode.

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

🧵 the design of the ASP-23 (MiG-23M) HUD is pretty funny to me. It's essentially an oldschool gunsight and a genuine heads up display crammed into a single unit Simultaneously very ahead of its time with its display of radar/IRST contacts, and yet still clutching to the electromechanical past

Amber HUD symbology of the ASP-23D, (night filter)
Display shows an altitude of 1.4 km, a locked target below and right at a distance of ~12km

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

my animation of the mechanism: (based on photos of the linkages)

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

and a little known fact about the ASP-17ML is that it automatically tilts the combiner glass when Metka is used. This shifts the projected lens FOV upwards for better coverage in dogfights.

ASP-17ML with the combiner glass in the "up" position

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

some of my photos of Su-27S 🇺🇦 "58 blue" from the 2018 airshow in Aalborg always been curious who the pilot here was (maybe Oksanchenko?)

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

highly sensitive cameras with algorithms to detect aircraft? man if only someone had thought of that before - like 50+ years earlier

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

if we're lucky we might see them used on 6th gen platforms too, France was doing some wind tunnel testing for the NGF featuring LEVCONs

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æck @aeck.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

i unironically do kinda like LEVCONs though, it's a lot of functions combined into one surface. they improve flow attachment at high AoA, like LE flaps for the fuselage helps recovery from post stall regimes by moving the CoL back (like canards) they even shield the intakes from radars when needed

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