Hi,
From the official IAF-website: F-16D Barak 041 is rebuild.
http://www.iaf.org.il/6468-38625-he/IAF.aspx
regards,
Maurits
Issue 203
No. 203
27/02/12
Abstracts are presented to you three stories that open each section. The current issue can be read out when the next issue.
6 years after the crash: the lightning fly back
Tags: Aircraft Maintenance Unit (Ia"a), Lightning (F-16)
Barack plane crashed at the base level - David in 2005 passed a comprehensive overhaul Aircraft Maintenance Unit and returned to flying
Michael and Dana Tal Russo
Routine practice at the end of the summer of 2005, approached the plane Lightning (F-16D) Squadron No. 041 of the "valley" to land at the base level - David.
Seconds after touching the ground, right wheel broke off and the crew lost control of the plane.
Later, while lightning racing on the track, the pilot and navigator managed to leave in peace.
Now, more than six years after the plane flipped over and breaking apart, he has to get back into the air.
The years "spent" the few remaining parts of the plane Aircraft Maintenance Unit (Ia"a) base Tel - landscape.
"When he came, did not believe that we can correct it. The front end was completely smashed, broken tail, wings buckled and ruined the engine was full of mud, "says Sergeant Major Eldad, the rehabilitation project manager.
But Sbia"a not given up. "We built aircraft almost from scratch," recalls Lt. Col. Haim, Aircraft Engineering Division Commander unit. "We used the books of maintenance and any tool at our disposal.
The elements brought warehouses and old planes, and we had to renovate them. Than once we had to improvise and invent solutions that even the manufacturer had not thought about."
Despite some delays in the assembly process, and despite moments of despair non - few have experienced, the only people that agree with the amendment process was especially important.
"I've never built a plane ourselves. This important lesson for future generations, and experience is important to us to work done in the future," concludes Colonel Gonen, head of aircraft Bia"a.
Barak is currently in flight testing center 041 of the Force - the air, there is already successfully passed the first test flight.
In the coming months he will be examined in depth, and only after the plane officially declared completely normal - good to come back at his home squadron, in the valley.
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