Read the forum code of contact
By: 18th December 2009 at 14:46 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Not necessarily shot down...I think they were semi-expendable and had a demolition charge if 1960-era RPV control technology went wrong.
By: 18th December 2009 at 15:31 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Not necessarily shot down...I think they were semi-expendable and had a demolition charge if 1960-era RPV control technology went wrong.
I'd read that the drone itself was supposed to be expended after use, with just the camera being released for retrieval.
Edit: Just read some more on these D21's. Only 4 were properly used, one of which crashed largely intact in China after a spy mission, it was recovered by the Chinese and apparently handed to the Russians.
By: 19th December 2009 at 00:51 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-It looks likely that this is the wreckage from the fourth flight over China in 1971.
The first D-21 flight over China in 1969 apparently ended up crashing in Russia.
http://www.spyflight.co.uk/d21.htm
The Russians examined the wreckage which led to a design study of a clone named Voron. Ben Rich (Skunk Works) reported that he was given a piece of the crashed D-21 during a visit to Russia.
http://www.sergib.agava.ru/russia/tupolev/voron/voron.htm
TJ
By: 19th December 2009 at 08:12 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Yes this was the fourth D-21. It soft landed in Yunnan province and is described as having important impact on Chinese aerospace engineering.
By: 7th January 2010 at 07:07 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-I checked the Chinese and English Wiki, which (IMO surprisingly) have fewer details about the D-21 series than in the Jap Wiki,
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-21_%28%E8%88%AA%E7%A9%BA%E6%A9%9F%29#.E5.AE.9F.E6.88.A6.E9.81.8B.E7.94.A8
esp about Operation Senior Bowl, between 1969.11.09 to 1971.03.20, when four D-21Bs were (duh) operationally launched towards the Chicom nuclear experiment site at Lop Nur.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AD%E3%83%97%E3%83%8E%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB#.E6.A0.B8.E5.AE.9F.E9.A8.93.E5.A0.B4
By: 9th August 2010 at 05:26 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-I wouldn’t totally rule out that the dense air defense actually attribute to the final losing of the D-21 UAV #527:
The fourth and last operational flight attempt took place on March 20 using D-21 #527. This mission too would end in failure, when the drone was lost three-quarters of the way through the flight over a heavily defended area. This also turned out to be the last flight for the D-21 program. Out of the 21 D-21 missions flown, only four were modestly successful.
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-2707015/Tagboard-Senior-Bowl-The-D.html
Now, The Chinese formally put the relic of the D-21 crashed in China on show in museum.
By: 9th August 2010 at 11:27 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2010-08/09/content_13988696.htm
to
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2010-08/09/content_13988696_21.htm
Photos of D-21 wreck at Chicom aviation museum. 22 pages.
Article says from November 1969 to March 1971, four sorties flew into Red China, esp the test site at Lop Nur. Three sorties successfully took intel photos, but all recoveries failed.
The fourth and last sortie became MIA. The displayed D-21 wreck is the last sortie in 1971.
Made with titanium, each costs US$ 5.5 mil (1970 US$), same as an A-7 attacker.
Posts: 1
By: Pays-Bas - 18th December 2009 at 14:44