Lecce - a little gem in Italy - May 2016

[boff180]

Evening guys,

Together a few other UKAR staffers and a bunch of good lads, I visited Italy back in 2016 on a FAT tour.

One of the absolute highlights of the week was a visit to Lecce - Italy's Valley. We saw everything and a few even got to play with the T-346 simulator - the technology that aircraft has to train pilots is immense... you can be flying a digital T-346 on the computer and be dogfighting a real T-346 on a mission 60 miles away - your digital aircraft even appears on their sensors.etc and vice versa!

Here's a few shots from a memorable day.

Andy

T-346A MM55154 by Andrew Evans, on Flickr

F-104S by Andrew Evans, on Flickr

MB-339CD by Andrew Evans, on Flickr

MB-339A MM54513 by Andrew Evans, on Flickr

T-346A by Andrew Evans, on Flickr

Apha Jet AT01 by Andrew Evans, on Flickr

T-346A MM55145 by Andrew Evans, on Flickr

MB-339A line up by Andrew Evans, on Flickr

T-346A Depart on Mission by Andrew Evans, on Flickr

Statue by Andrew Evans, on Flickr

[Chucky]

Nice opportunity, I like the M346

[chek]

The T-346 seems to share a lot of DNA with the Yak-130

[boff180]

The T-346 seems to share a lot of DNA with the Yak-130

Thanks guys.

The 346 and 130 were the same aircraft up until 2000, even having common prototypes flying in 1996. It was co-developed until 2000 when the partners split (Yak and Aermacchi) mainly down to Russia not keeping up its funding commitments and Italy having to pick up (pay) the difference. Both parties continued development and the result was the M-346 and Yak130, both similar externally but very different in every other aspect.

Andy

[chek]

Thanks for the background Andy!

Btw, I omitted to say your photos are really good.

[Lloyd H]

The 346 is such a good looking aircraft, especially head on. First shot is really nice, Andrew.