Nied

Given some of the scorn that was heaped on him here during his life, it's heartening to see such a classy response from MW to his death. Like (I think) most here I wouldn't have even been introduced to Macross if it weren't for Macek coming up with the Robotech "wrapper" and for that he definitely has my gratitude.

That big single piece touch-screen MFD always reminds me of something (with apologies to Mr. March for the hotlink).

Apparently the actual milestone is that it finished ground testing and is ready for its flight test battery. I'm really curious whether this is going to be the final F-35 scheme (it is pretty close to the F-15E's color), or if service aircraft are going to get something like an F-16 or F-22 scheme. Since I doubt the Marines are planning on using F-15E schemes for their aircraft I have to think we'll see F-35s flying around in something else once their in line squadrons.

First production representative F-35A (finally) get's a paint job. I was originally going to complain about how slow things seem to be going for the F-35 program (this plane was rolled out at the end of 2008 and first flew last November), but then I realized that this is the second F-35 milestone bit I've posted about this week and it's only Wednesday, so maybe I'm being overly pessimistic.

Where'd you hear that? I haven't seen anything in any of the trade publications.

Nice article on what it's like to fly the Blackbird. A lot of it is stories that have been told before but it's still a decent read.

Yeah but the F-15E demo is nearly identical except for a few simulated bombing and strafing runs (often with pyro!) so you get much of the same effect. I'm really disappointed that I haven't seen more of the QF-4E/Gs painted up in various old paint schemes. I know they were flying them everywhere for a while, except every airshow I happened to be at it seems. The one I did see one year at Andrews was really cool though. It's a damn shame they'll be used up soon.

As usual I'm planning on combining a trip to my parent's house with the Andrews open house, but man does it look like it's going to be pretty lame this year. Only a F-22, Super Hornet (VFA-122 again too) and the Blue angels. Most years you could have looked forward to at least an A-10 or Harrier added to that and it wasn't that long ago that you could expect an F-16 and F-15 on top of both of those. Although from other shows I've been too I really think I got spoiled growing up outside of DC ("only a F-22? Lame!").

I had thought the A321's problem was more a lack of power than wing area, which is why I was advocating flat out stealing the 757's engines (that and the commonality with the C-17). I would recommend Boeing do the same thing with the 737-900 but it barely has enough clearance for CFM56s let alone the bigger P&Ws. Really this was a thought experiment on how to get what IMHO would be the ideal KC-X proposal which is a KC-757. Final thought: Imagine the type of performance you'd get from a PW2000 powered A318!

You know if Airbus/EADS wanted to really compete in the newest KC-X round, they could pick the PW2000 for the A320 re-engine project, slap the MRTT's boom on an A321 and have their very own version of a KC-757 (which IMHO is what Boeing should have offered all those years ago when the USAF first approached them about a KC-135 replacement and the 757 was still in production).

Those are some incredible pictures, from all the BS India has been getting from Russia I fully expected the Vikramaditya to still look like the first couple of pics. Vifam you have to keep in mind that Russian carriers are a lot smaller than US style super carriers. Technically speaking the Kiev class isn't even an aircraft carrier at all but an "aircraft carrying missile cruiser," you can see the missile tubes on the bow in some of the early pictures there. Post re-fit the Indians will use it as a more traditional aircraft carrier but they can't afford something as big as American ships, although IIRC their domestically built follow on the Vikrant will be closer in size to the Queen Elizabeth or Kuznetsov class.

They also had Basara flying around in the Fire Valkyrie with it's wings folded back and some crude FAST pack replicas stuck to the back of it, I don't think the producers of that docudrama were all that concerned with accuracy. In continuity DYRL was supposed to be a huge hit so it's likely whoever produced the City-7 show skewed towards the recognizable production design of that movie. Millia's VF-1 and flightsuit on the other hand really are the ones she flew and wore during SW1 just as we see them in SDF:M.

I think a lot of people tend to over-think this. There's no reason to not accept all of the various depictions of Zentradi. We know that there were at least two Protoculture factions using Zentradi for proxy warfare before the Protodevlin showed up, couldn't the different uniform styles etc just be a result of a lack of standardization between the various factions once they united against the Supervision Army (hell we see what could be a few "Meltran" ships inside Bodolzer's flagship in ep 27 of SDF:M). Why can't there simply be two versions of the Quedeluun-Rau and Nousjadel-Ger in service with the various Zentradi fleets roaming the galaxy (with the DYRL designs being more prevalent to explain why we rarely see the TV designs show up post SDF:M)? Hell Vrlitwhai may have just gone bald between SDF:M and the filming of DYRL and the producers just went with the look everyone was familiar with.

I think you're mis-identifying the stator vanes for a variable radar blocker. Compare Joseph's picture to the 117C's close cousin the AL-31FN which we know doesn't have a radar blocker and it's pretty clear we really are just looking at the vanilla engine without any RCS reductions. I'm willing to entertain the idea that a radar blocker may be added later or that they have applied RAM to the first stage blades (neither of which is going to lower the RCS as much as an S-shaped duct), but the fact that other pictures clearly show a variable intake ramp tell me that Sukhoi just isn't as invested in lowering the craft's RCS as the fuselage shaping initially led everyone to believe.

New image of the T-50 kills two birds with one stone. One, it's pretty clear it's wearing the same paint scheme as the "photoshopped" picture I posted the other day. Two, if you fiddle with the levels a little you can see that the engine faces are exposed, no S shaped ducts, not even a Super Hornet or Bone style radar blocker; just the bare engine face. Even with the rumor of RAM applied to the first stage engine blades, I don't see how the PAK-FA can even match the Super Hornet's RCS let alone something like the F-35 or F-22.

Actually the new door is a bit heavier than the bi-fold doors on the X-35. The new design was chosen because it helps direct more air into the lift fan intake, increasing thrust enough to more than counteract the extra weight.

I think we went over this in another thread. While the VF-1/VF-0/VF-25 are superficially similar to the F-14 in that they have variable geometry wings, the deletion of the tail planes makes a pretty huge difference in aerodynamics. I doubt there's much you could learn from an F-14 without some really serious structural modifications

You ever seen a grown man naked?

You ever been in a cockpit before?

On a slightly more serious note I offhandedly said the gladiator line just after telling my wife that Graves had died, and got in quite a bit of trouble for making her laugh that hard about a dead man. I just figured he'd take it as a compliment, celebration of his works and all that.

Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?

Joey, have you ever been in a... in a Turkish prison?

I confess that I can't for the life of me remember where I first heard that nickname. A quick Google search turns up this column that at least proves I haven't gone crazy.