2017 Is Commencing With MiG-35 Flight Testing In Russia

This machine is so smart that it can define the most threatening target by itself. This fighter jet is equipped like a jet from a futuristic movie; it can bear laser weapons under its wings. This is the plane which was highly anticipated! And January 26, 2017 was the day of its first test flight.

We are talking about Mikoyan MiG-35 Fulcrum-F -
a Russian fighter 4++ aircraft.

MiG-35 Full View, January 2017

According to experts, it surpasses the foreign counterparts in its characteristics. The entire jet is manufactured in Russia. All systems are domestically-designed. The pride of the engineers is the onboard digital computer. The fighter can “see” everything within a radius of 300 kilometers and control 10 targets simultaneously as well. It automatically defines which target constitutes the most dangerous threat. Its missile can destroy air, ground and surface targets.

MiG-35 sideways

On the other hand, it will be difficult to shoot down this MiG. The fighter possesses several protection levels. They can deceive guidance systems and make the fighter invisible for the radars of the enemy.
The fighter is specially designed for war-fighting within high-intensity conflicts as well as for the withstanding a high-density antiaircraft defense. The strong performance of the aircraft is achieved due to the new first-ever complex of onboard defense as well as the new infrared search and track system.

This 4++ Generation fighter is close to the fifth generation. This aircraft has a good export potential, we mean that another aircraft – MiG-29 (Fulcrum) – is intensively used in more than 30 countries.
MiG-35 outweighs its predecessor MiG-29. Now the flying range is not 2,000 kilometers but 3,500 kms. This new fighter can bear twice as many missiles including weapon, which is just being developed at the present time – laser.

According to the test pilot, all goals and results are completely achieved, all onboard systems function normally, the power unit and integrated flight control system function normally as well.

The qualitative evaluation by the test pilots is positive.

MiG-35 will enter the service with the army in 2019.

MiG-35 take-off

Kavkazskaya Plennitsa or Kidnapping, Caucasian Style - 50th Anniversary!

Kavkazskaya Plennitsa or Kidnapping, Caucasian Style - 50 years of great humor!

One of the most beloved movies of the Soviet era is celebrating its 50th anniversary this 2017 year. The official and full name of the movie is Kavkazskaya Plennitsa, ili Novye Priklyucheniya Shurika. Russian to English translation of the film is Kidnapping, Caucasian Style. 

The Coward, the Fool and the Pro of Kavkazskaia Plennitsa

This is the classics for the ages. The mountains, sun, songs and jokes. The new sightseeing attractions appeared in Crimea after the shot.  

We don’t know for sure where this story took place, but some of the rumors suggest these places: Alushta, South Demerdji, Yalta, Bakhchysarai district. 

The story of the girl kidnapped by the loving dzhigit laid the foundation for the nationwide adorable comedy film. Captured by the beauty of Crimea, he organized the shooting location in preserved area “The Valley of Ghosts”. It’s all here: both the mountains and the sea.

The phrases and even the scenes from the film have been widely quoted for so long. The most famous stairs site is where “an athlete, a member of the Komsomol, and a beauty” went downstairs so gracefully. This staircase in Alushta is still called – Ninochka’s.

Yuri Nikulin scratching  from beneath the blanket

As legend has it, Gaidai gave a bottle of champagne to actors for each joke they proposed. In that scene, which was proposed by Yuri Nikulin, the heel was scratched by the director’s very hand from beneath the blanket.

Tens of Crimeans had been engaged in minor casts of the “Kidnapping, Caucasian Style”. 

Both the prosecutor’s house from where Shurik was taken to the psychiatric clinic and tovarisch Saakhov’s dacha are located in the very center of Alushta near Genoese fortress. And the militsiya department was in fact the building of the local Civil Status Registration Office (it's a place where Russian marriage certificates are issued to the newly-wed couples).

In the “Kidnapping, Caucasian Style” it was the last time when the Coward, the Fool and the Pro appeared in public together.

In 1967, the year of the film’s release, more than 70 million people had watched it – every third citizen of the Soviet Union. The film is so adorable that even fifty years after its release, the excursions in the footsteps of the “Kidnapping, Caucasian Style” are being arranged in Crimea all year round. 

Translation Mistake That Caused Mars Fever

Is there life on Mars? 

140 years ago, maybe for the first time ever, scientists started to research the Red Planet, having assumed that a civilization had existed there in the past. Mars owes such an increased attention to a translator’s mere mistake. It was the translation mistake which caused the so-called “Mars Fever” all around the world.

Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory, St. Petersburg, Russia

This whole Martian mess was caused by an Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli. Almost 160 years ago, he worked as a trainee at Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory which is located 19 km (11.8 miles) south of St. Petersburg. In 1877, Giovanni made a discovery which turned the world upside down.

Italian Canali

Channels of Mars sketched by Giovanni Schiaparelli

The scientist discovered the structures which he called the channels of Mars. He sketched the complete geometrical network of these straits-channels or 'canali'. Italian word 'canale' (plural form canali) can be translated as 'channel' in English language.

During the publication of the newly discovered material about Mars, Italian translator had made a mistake and used the word 'canals' which mean 'channels of artificial origin.' Due to this mistranslation, the rumors about the Martian civilization sparked.

The War of the Worlds

At the end of XIX century, this novel by Herbert Wells had brought up the topic of an alien invasion. The War of the Worlds inspired fantasy authors for a hundred of years into the future. Wells himself read too many newspapers. This topic was in the air at that time and the existence of the Martians was taken for granted.

In 1911 “The New York Times” announced that 'Martians Build Two Immense Canals In Two Years.' The society was shocked. It was shocked not with the fact that the newspaper declared the existence of the Martians, but with the fact that the aliens turned out to be far more technically advanced than us. For example, Panama Canal alone had been being built for decades with a lot of difficulties. 

Later on, someone thought – what if the canals were the Martians themselves. The gigantic sentient plants!

The Martian Boom still goes on; the missions have been scheduled for decades into the future. We have not unearthed the mystery of the Red Planet yet. Who knows which way the space exploration would have developed if it were not for that mistake with the Martian canals 140 years ago. For example, Sergei Korolev got into the space theme because he dreamed about the flight to Mars most of all!