kalvasflam

Ah, WWII, the great tank battles in Kursk, Kharkov, and so forth. Imagine if we had a bird's eye view of those, and imagine, Leos and T-90s replacing the Panthers and T-34 of those days. But I just can't imagine that happening today though. With air support and modern artillery, these battles would not really be tank battles but more of a combined arms fight. I like the M1 myself, but only because it has seen more combat over the last decade than the other tanks here. But these others could work just as well or even better.

Customers are lied to on a regular basis, so I'm not surprised that Boeing has other problems. If the insides of how each company operates is actually shown, I bet no one would ever buy from a lot of these so called world class companies. As for the ship dates, I'm sure a lot of these airliners have some draconian penalties attached to late delivery and out of specs products. (i.e. still too heavy)

True enough, the fastener problem was known, but the problem is that Boeing stalled until the last minute practically to tell people of a two to three months delay. Had they put it in front of the world about a month ago, it becomes less of an issue. This is exactly the kind of image problem that got Airbus into trouble. They kept stalling until the last minute to break bad news. I agree that Boeing isn't where Airbus is half a year ago. But it's a slippery slope they're on. Even after the flight, the key question is whether they can make the ANA delivery dates. Yeah, I saw the sacrifice goat story too... it was hilarious.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/boei...62B8EE9CD961%7D And so it begins.... how much will Boeing end up like Airbus. Well, they still have a couple of months, but if they have delays like Airbus, it will really hurt.

Nice pictures, must be a hell of an airplane to see up close. Would be fun to finally fly in one later.

Should've negotiated the prices up to 1 billion, make sure the critical gears (weapons and such) are not onboard. Then turn around, and buy 4 F-22 with that money.

well put... besides, has anyone looked at Leia lately? Sure, she was a glamour girl with the drug runner, but look at the level she stooped to get her fix. Dressed up like a sl*t for that criminal Hutt, and after that, well, let's just say she's let herself go. (and she didn't go to Hawaii, if you get my drift)

Wow... I'm tempted to pick the Empire just because of the relative intelligence of their supporters. Convincing arguments, the empire is good for the economy (see death star), doesn't force its religion on anyone (see jedi), and aren't working with criminals and poo bearing rugs (Solo and the Wookie). Nicely put.

Yep, at least until direct energy weapons become available.... another reason I really don't like the F-35.... too much sci-fi... Guns are definitely still needed, if nothing else, the day may come when an F-22 is called on a gun run, it's awfully sad that the F-35 carries so little ammo, for the number of rounds it's supposed to carry, why even bother. The plane is supposed to be ground attack... it's strange that a ground attack plane carries so little ammo, and basically doesn't even carry that much ground attack ordinance. Stealth I think is becoming highly overrated, after all, there are still good reasons to have B-52s around even though they're not stealthy. They fulfill a needed role when air defenses are suitably suppressed.

Ah, the cold war may be starting up again. Good.... they need to buy another 300 F-22 anyway, that might bring down the unit cost of the fighter. Although I wonder what the next stage of development is after the F-22; they better get started soon I think. And the F-35 doesn't really qualify... to me, that's just a bastardized F-22.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/...to-october.html Here is the first sign that all is not well at Boeing. Let's see if they slip back further.

The Russians are our friends; they're providing the US with future target drones. remember, practice makes perfect.

The biggest vulnerability to stealth aircraft is typically during the weapons release. During that time frame, as someone said, the RCS is dramatically increased. But the window of vulnerability is fairly brief, since the time it takes to drop a weapon is probably measured in seconds. Not enough time for a missile to reach the plane unless it's flying very low; which is something that stealth aircraft don't do. So, even if there is a lock on, it most likely gets broken the second the bomb bay door closes.

Meet the new boss.... same as the old boss.... what a waste of time. But still, they could've done with BA did about a decade ago, and paint their aircraft all different colors.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/...er-economy.html And I command thee to sleep.... (gotta handed to the Germans, efficiency and ... uh... well, not exactly comfort) What an interesting idea. wonder how they might handle carry ons...

Saw it yesterday, definitely a good movie, better than Cars from last year. With this one, it was easier to relate as an adult. Definitely one of the better movies I've seen all summer so far, one of the few I thought worthy of my money.

Really, when did Revan stop the Ebon Hawk from lifting off... for the life of me, I can't remember it, and KOTOR is one of my favorites. Yeah, this guy was way too powerful, i mean, apprentice, how about Vader calling him MASTER. The funny thing though, why was this guy killing storm troopers... should he be on the same side as them?

One additional thought about the composite material for the 787, I wonder what test protocols it has gone through at this point. Knowing the amount of stress it'll go through in a life time, that's going to be very interesting to see what type of accelerated age testing they did for the plane. I wonder how much of this learning can from other composite aircraft, and looking at their airworthiness over time.

Well, Boeing has just had its A380 moment; the show off. They better do a good job, and not emulate the next A380 moment, the DELAY, if they do, it really is gonna hurt the company like they wouldn't believe. Supposedly, Qatar airlines has put in an order with the 787 as well. It's the rumor at least, although no solid confirmations from anyone yet. It's really bad that the A350XWB launch customer decided to go with the competitor as an interim.

Well, the 787 is really going to make or break Boeing in a lot of ways. If they execute well, a lot of the airlines still sitting on the sidelines are going to jump in on their bandwagon. If they screw it up, Airbus gets a huge breather.

Rolling out is one thing... how hard could that be... but flying in late August, now that's a totally different story, remember, the A380 flew too, and then what happened, they discovered some minor errors which didn't really compromise the flight characteristics of the plane but forced it to wait two more years anyway.

Oh I know what they meant, but let's face it; if a minor thing like this is getting under the allies skin; then may be they aren't allies at all. Same difference right? You got a guy that is an enemy to both, why the hell would something silly like nose art take precedence over the death of the enemy in the mind of the ally? Sorry, delving too much into a philosophical argument on this. Apollo Leader, In terms of the B-2; the peace dividend that came out of the end of the cold war has been in many cases a disaster. Look at the armed forces today, it's a farcry from what it was at the end of the 80s. And I beg to differ, it is management that caused the problem, in this case, management is at a higher level, called the politicians in Congress and the White House. Somebody once said the price of peace is eternal vigilance, to the politicians eternal means about the time it takes a sound byte to get out to cable news.

On the RAF paintjobs... If it offends people, so be it, everyone is offended by something in this world, be it the oil sheiks in the mid east or the fat kid next door. Who cares if the paintjob is offensive, the thing it's painted on is meant to be a weapon, and weapons in general are offensive. If the paintjob in question happens to offend your enemy, so much the better I say.

I wonder how much money Bandai makes every year with their models...

B-2.... But unfortunately, it's not a bad plane, but just poorly managed, and of course, if they actually bought 200 planes, the cost might have been better.