kalvasflam

I tend to think that the swing wing geometry adds in a lot of extra complexity for stealth aircraft. Part of the features on a stealthy vehicle is based on its surface and whether or not it reflects the incoming radar waves back to the radar in question. That's why you see all the funny angles on the F-22s, and F-117s. The RAM (radar absorption material) is another component of stealthy characteristics. The final component (if it exists) would be some type of active cancellation device which destructively interferes with radar waves. (This was talked about, but don't know if such system actually exists, considering that there are lots of difficult issues involved such as frequency agile radars, angles and distances involved, all making active cancellation difficult) This said, variable wing adds in a lot of components, if you assume two wing configuration on swing wing, there is still a lot of work to do to figure out how stealth characteristics is affected in flight while the wings swing from one position to another. Angular surfaces aren't as good as people might think by the way, I recall hearing something called a Bistatic radar back a decade ago, which is said to be able to defeat the geometric portion of stealth feature, something about locating transmitter and receiver to different locations. How such a system is supposed to work is beyond me... but that's what I remember hearing about. Finally, there are some parts of an airplane that give off more signature than other parts. For example, on F-15s, you could count the engine blades if you had a good enough radar, and that was one of the biggest signatures from the front aspect of the plane. (meaning, it was the thing that generated the most radar return)

Well, both TF and GI Joe were toy driven. The comics were nice and original, but unfortunately, TV automatically meant toys galore. Then unfortunately, Marvel decided to pump their toy rights, and what better way to do that than to kill old characters. Goodbye Optimus, hello Rodimus... huh? Rodimus... sounds like a sex toy. And the GI Joe movie was a disappointment, good animation, but the plot with the idiotic snake people sucked. If only they had followed the plot with the opening, that would've been nice. Say what you like about the comics, I liked it better than the TV. I was glad they killed off people, including those idiots in BF2K. Too bad they went so far with the ninja crap.

I don't know how anyone can say the side stories are done for UC. There is a lot of extra stuff you could focus on, various parts of 0087, and events prior to CCA, i.e. Char's miraculous return. And so forth.

And forming Cobra was a step toward reform for him....

You know, the epitome of F-14 for me has always been two squadrons, the Jolly Rogers and the Black Aces. I just wish those were the last two retired squadrons...

Good points: Bauer getting tasered Audrey getting tortured Aaron still alive Robocop still alive and kicking Funny psychopath from Caltech Bad points: - I'm really getting sick of the screwing over of the real time format. - What is wrong with CTU response team, up till now, they had been carrying MP5s. But in this episode, the two extras carried silenced pistols? Jeez, what happened to all of Curtis's people, and don't tell me the nerve gas affected their armory. And their effectiveness was zero. Come on, they weren't ordinary red shirts. - How did Wayne Palmer get an M4?

Come on... how could you not like 'THE TERMINATOR' I bet some Frontal Aviation (are they still called that?) pilots got a good laugh out of that. I wonder though, what kind of Mirage was it?

Mirage... Mirage... Mirage... oh yeah, isn't that the planes that the Iraqis owned in great numbers that got shot down on a regular basis? just kidding... heh heh.... they may as well make a movie about Migs, or F-5s... oh wait, they did. It was called Top Gun.

Although these laser/lightsaber equipped snakes still prefer to biting you and making you die slowly and painfully. They only activate their lightsabers and turn on their head mounted lasers when Sammy Jackson shows up. But... for the sequel, there will be a big surprise. Sammy Jackson will have back up in the form of Urkel and Martin Lawrence. Ha ha, didn't expect that, did you.

Hmmm, can't wait for a sequel. Snakes in a Plane II, snakes with frigging lasers strapped to their head and light sabers tied to their tails.

A new Buster eh? Heh, funny, you know Bandai should just release a few Evolved with new models and sell things that way. Or better yet, just sell the models and don't even bother releasing the anime. Heh heh.

Ouch... FOD sucks, but in this case, it seem like one of those more avoidable incidents. Not a surprise though given maintanence will also need time to get familiar with new gear. Fortunately no one was injured.

I kind of think the whole problem with Lucas is he is stuck on the Ep I to Ep VI time frame. It gets really annoying. I kind of hope he gets over the Skywalkers and just move on. heh, but if he is insistent, why doesn't he do a show on young Leia. We can show her as a little girl, growing up into an angsty teenager with boy problems, experimenting with little girl love, and then moving to the mature adult that gets chased down by and bitchslapped by daddy.

Looks like this guy did fine: 382606[/snapback] Dumb question, where is the rest of his cockpit? Never mind, I understand, he punched out his RIO....

I can see it now, the theme of the show, Tattooine 90210.... We get to see Luke growing up, the trauma of his girl friends rejecting his dumb ass, what he and Biggs really did in those canyons... poping womp rats.... yeah, sure, (brokeback tatooine anyone?) and learn about the long road it took from young skywalker in a canyon with Biggs to french kissing his sister. All courtesy of Lucas. What I wouldn't mind them doing is a series in the knights of old republic. Liked that one a lot.

Awwww... how cute, they all dressed up.

Impressive, this blows away the LEGO stardestroyer. Absolutely amazing.

What is the current operational status of the Typhoon? I'm kind of curious about the European defense requirements, since the Typhoon is supposed to be for both the Brits and the Germans, I wonder how many units they'll be buying eventually.

To update to LGBs would be easy. All you need the aircaft to do is get the bomb to the target, once there the target can be designated from the ground, or I've read accounts of Phantom backseaters designating with hand sets from the air, one aircraft would orbit and designate while the others bombed. 379340[/snapback] That's not necessarily true, you'll need the proper ejector racks for the bombs. There are aerodynamic considerations or so I've heard on putting bombs onto planes. Then there are updates in software so you can properly drop these weapons. It's not that easy. Remember for LGB need to be launched in the proper direction in the proper way. It's not that easy. Skull leader... So, they use the Sea Eagle. Good ASM. Anti-radiation missiles don't make that much sense anyway. For Japan, most of their offensive would be based on maritime requirements. Anti-ship missiles fits better than LGB. LGB means you'd have to get close, and these days, SAMs preclude attack aircraft from getting that close. I wonder though if they have weapons like Maverick and equivalents like SLAMs. Those would be useful, especially consider SLAM is based on the Harpoon airframe.

Thanks for the detailed information. Very nice to read about some of this stuff. This of course lead too other questions. The anti-ship missile the F-2 carries, is it the Harpoon? That would be neat. As for the smart ordinance, I wonder how much alterations will be needed to use those. From what you've said, it doesn't seem like too much changes will be required. Would it be mainly software or are we talking lots of hardware changes. The information on the F-4EJs were also very interesting. I almost thought they would be used in a WW function much as the USAF converted a majority of its Phantoms to that role after the introduction of -15s and -16s. But then it occurred to me that over the water, any HARM type missiles would just be supplanted by anti-ship missiles anyway. The smart weapons part is pretty interesting because given the geography, I think Japan has two primary needs. Air defence, and maritime capabilities. Air defence is nicely filled by the -15s, and from our information, it sounds like F-2s are great anti-ship types. It would match the role their constitution provides, which is primarily defensive. Besides, in this day and age, no one really has any ability to invade an island country. There isn't nearly enough amphibious type ships to do the job. Thanks for the interesting update.

I wonder where that was taken.... such a nice picture. As for the superbug vs F2 argument. What does the superbug bring that the F2 doesn't already offer in terms of capabilities.

Amen, brother... but the three 15 minute OVAs kind of make that kind of quality show unlikely. Pretty boys should fight with each other, but they'd probably be fighting over other pretty boys at the rate GS was going. In the end of GSD, it started to look like Kira and Athrun was gonna get married, now that would've been a first for a Gundam series. And it would have ensured that the producers get burned at the stakes.

You should listen to the podcasts.....I think Moore has cited the budget once every other episode. Just last week, (as noted previously), they were planning on using the Cylon Heavy Raider for the jumping sequence but they didn't have money to build a set for it. He even responded to a question about the Marines equipment they use on his blog. Why do the Marines use the same equipment each time we see them? Because of the budget. They can't afford to rent or buy new equipment so they reuse stuff every time. Why not more shots of the Centurions? Can't afford it. They try to fit in more shots but I don't think they have the money for it. I'm sure there would be more shots of various ships...if they could afford it. 379098[/snapback] It's sad that BSG is so limited on budget. Reminds me of how Babylon 5 had to fight for funding, one reason why I thought season 5 truly sucked was that they had to wait until the last minute for TNT to jump in. And of course TNT killed the show. You would think that NBC has learned the lesson about sci fi by now given the examples like star trek, the old BSG, and even watching through the struggles that B5 went thru. It's truly sad. The new BSG had a good storyline, and definitely worthy of more attention, but I bet if the makers of the original mindless sitcoms had anything to say about it, BSG will eventually get moved over to NBC and get killed. Which is too bad. I almost hoped that BSG could've been funded like the stargate shows.

Stargazer.... hmmm sounds an awful lot like starblazer.... Anyway, as far as the MS is concerned, I don't really care if it's a gundam or if it's fancy looking. In fact, I would've rather had the MS be a Windam instead. It's the story that counts, although one wonders how good a story might be told in 3xOVA of 15 minutes each.

The boyfriend cracked me up. He is like one of those guys who has been spending too much time in his office and never stuck his head out into the real world. A Jack Bauer pummeling I think would've been a nice introduction to reality for this guy. And jeez, talk about not knowing when to bud out. He probably is pissed at Kim for sending him out, not knowing how much a favor Kim did him by telling him to go. I think he and the shrieking hobbit needs to go together.