edwin3060

Ok, so does all this mean that they actually have 2 prototypes flying now? Or just 1, and they flew it, painted it, then flew it again?

Doesn't discount the fact that the US and India have opposing interests over the Pakistan. US and India just have some common interests now that China is rising. You will note that despite buying lots of US equipment they are also maintaining their close ties with Russia-- the PAK FA is a good example of that, if you want to talk about economic linkages between tech and aerospace companies.

Moving on-- how far along the developmental path is the X-47 anyway? Has it done actual carrier landings yet?

Mr Kopp is convinced that all that would be required to make the F-22 a carrier capable fighter would be bigger landing gear struts and welding some small fins to the nose gear doors. That should give you an idea of how believable the rest of his analysis is. The Russians aren't likely to be able to field more than 150 PAK-FAs, meaning in a stand up fight the Raptor would have a quantitative advantage to go along with it's qualitative one (that's ignoring the fact that any direct conflict between Russia and the US would quickly devolve to a Nuclear exchange that would make the use of either aircraft moot). India probably will end up buying the full planed amount of two seat PAK-FAs but those aircraft are more likely to end up fighting along side the Raptor or JSF than against them (India is an ally that grows ever closer to the US as time goes on).

At the same time, the PAKFA would be a new aircraft while the F-22 airframes would be at least 5 to 10 years old. Would the USAF be able to maintain aircraft availability rates at high enough levels to provide that quantitative advantage? The 95%+ availability rates for the F-15 and -16 in GW1 came about partly because non-mission capable aircraft deployed in the war could be replaced from a much larger fleet afterall.

Also, India is much closer to the Russians than they are to the US, historically. We have a common adversary in China, but there are some situations over which we differ i.e. Pakistan.

Eh, I assume you might not have too much contact with Far Eastern society Chinese... correct me if I'm wrong. There's two part to this. The first is propaganda -- remember that much of the official PRC releases are propaganda meant for both external and internal consumption. The line about "it's our own work!" is meant to be fed to the internal public for morale purposes.

The second part is about "saving face" (but is tied to the first). If the PRC government admits to copying a design, traditional Chinese views have a tendency to see it as "losing face". Doesn't quite work out in a traditionally minded Chinese society. Individually they may all be willing to admit and credit as you said, but collectively they'll all toe the party line to avoid making the whole country "lose face".

And you would be wrong in your assumption. I'm chinese myself, and I think that it is an absolute disgrace that they have to stoop to such a level-- a greater loss of face; than if we came out and said that we needed help and we got it. A chinese proverb goes: paper cannot contain fire. False pride is dangerous.

...the Russians are wary...

Maybe because the PRCs totally ripped them off with the J-11? Anyway, with the J-10 it isn't really the copying of the Lavi that pisses me off, its the fact that they copied (or bought it from the Israelis) and yet they loudly trumpet it as their own work. They should at least give credit where it is due!

12 percent drag isn't small, when Boeing sells $250,000 packages that'll reduce drag by 0.1% on an MD-80...

Looking at it from another perspective, you are carrying 50% more fuel with 88% less drag compared against a centre line fuel tank. If reducing drag by 0.1% is worth $250,000, how much is it worth reducing drag by 88%*(drag of centreline fuel tank) ?

I want the Yammie 1/100 scale VB-6 to go with my VF-100 series Messiahs...

Great minds think alike! Good luck getting one! I bought one of a fellow MW member but I think he doesn't have anymore up for sale

That rifle is oversized, just like on the VF-11B GNU-DOU. How come no pics with the wing speaker pods? I wonder how fragile that part will be?

Yep I was referring more to the hiding of the compressor face with the F-35 reference-- and possibly the coating of the inlet with RAM. Either way the J-10B would be an impressive improvement over the baseline J-10.

Edit: Another view of the J-10 showing E/O and targeting pods on the inlet chin ala F-16 style. I'm not sure whether these are indigenous or Israeli-made/derived.

"Plastic kit" is most likely a mistake by Hobbysearch, sice they also list the Mave resin kit as "plastic kit".

I saw that they also have the F/A-27 still on their list

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10063748a2/20/2

Awww. I'll pass then.

I don't understand all the hate for these designs. I'm glad I got my pre-order in for the BOP YF-19 and VF-22S when I did! Otoh, could it be because of the poor pre-order response that they decided to make these limited editions?

Pass... especially since I'm already invested in the 1/100 line, which, even if you keep it to fighter mode only, has the added features of VG wings and TVC.

Alittle off-topic, but maybe they are holding off the M&M till they can do a grand release, ala VF-1, VF-11B and VF-22S? That would just about make the M&M fans go crazy.

@CF18: What issue of Model Graphix is that, please?

I've been finishing my VF-25F for almost 2 weeks. I put all the parts together and since then it's been nothing but adding small details, hope to be finished by the end of this week, i'll post some photos by then.

In the meantime i started putting the RVF-25 together.. Big question: F and S canopies are bluish purple, G is blue. But what have you guys been using for the canopy of the RVF?

RVF- canopy should be yellow, IIRC.

Re: VF-25G boxart: I guess they ret-conned the design to make the DX toy more accurate, rofl.

I would be happy with a 1/60 monster kit. That might be more doable than a 1/60 resin or toy monster.

New DLCs announced for Fallout 3: Point Lookout (Beach resort) and Mothership Zeta( alien ship). Looks like we can finally get more alien power cells for our alien blasters!

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Wiki

I thought I saw an F-16 at about 1:20 in the video though. I wonder what character that will be.

Why do all the fighter jets have to be decepticons?

Well, I just wish they would go COPY THE YF-23. That design needs to see production.

Well one of their concept 5th gen aircraft does look a little like the YF-23 with canards, pictures below of the concept J-14.

The J-10B/Super J-10 looks alot like a mix between the Lavi, the F-16, the SU-27 (which they rip off as the J-11) with the F-35 style DSI-- which means that frontal RCS could potentially be less than the ~ 1.0 m^2 of the Eurofighter and closer to the ~0.3 m^2 RCS of the Rafale. Discounting the avionics and weapons, the aerodynamics and stealthiness of this fighter would put it on par or better with a Block 50/52+ F-16, especially if they have solved the FADEC problems they had with their WS-10 rip off of the CFM-56. I'd guess that whatever they managed to hack/steal from the US about the B-2, F-22 (Stealth technology/coatings?) and F-35 (DSI) would be put to good use in this and any future projects. Even on the avionics side, with reports of chinese made electronics being installed into the F-15, I really wonder how far ahead the US actually is.

One common observation I have seen about non-US VLO aircraft developments is that countries with no experience in VLO will take a long time to develop such capabilities i.e. the US took years to go from the SR-71, to F-117, to B-2/F-22, hence other countries must follow the same developmental path and timeline. They forget that the nuclear bomb was very quickly proliferated around the world, mainly through espionage, short-cutting the developmental process. I guess the J-10B will prove this observation to be wrong once it enters production.

Edit: Found that article about Chinese made chips in US military equipment: http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine...03034193886.htm seems like the situation is a combination of political cost cutting pressure from the Clinton era, DOD incompetence in vetting suppliers, and American citizens who want to make a quick buck, allowing for possible exploitation by the Chinese.

Oooh it's listed as a plastic model kit on hobbysearch: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10063747 I hope they do the whole series!

Is this the model for Alto?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taichi_Saotome

Jackpot! The similarities are uncanny!

I'm loving the fact that it can be displayed in fighter mode with the sniper rifle attached! Looks like the VF100s series will be displayed in fighter mode for me! (Like Vifam7 )

I wish they moulded in a pilot figure though, even if it is just a featureless blob like the DX toy.

I can see a few problems in Battroid mode with a thinner gullet-- for one the crotch piece would be further recessed, making the chest stick out more. The crotch piece would also have to be thinner to match the thinner gullet. It would also reduce the vertical space available to split the upper intakes and the main intakes like some people are wanting. However, I agree that a locking chest (and locking gerwalk mode) is a must, if Yamato ever produces a 1/60v2 YF-19, and some of the mods that have been shown on this forum can provide examples of how it can be done!

The hole/loop that would click into place for the wing at the root look fragile though-- I wouldn't keep swapping between the normal and speaker wings too much.

The 777 is still selling well, as is the 737.

As for 787---in addition to Boeing admitting it, everyone already knew it based on supplier problems etc. If the parts going into the plane aren't right, the finished plane's not going to be right.

That's good to know.

We all do. We ALL do.

I'm an excellent flying sniper with that gun.

Would you like to XBL sometime? Actually, never mind, I don't have Gold anymore...

All this talk reminds me of the, what was it, XFA-27? The one from AC2 or 3 with the VG wings...

Aha! This is it!

It pioneered COFFIN, for starters.

And COFFIN pioneered the VF-27...

So, the XFA-27 is like the VF-27... Hm...

The XFA-27 looks kinda like the VF-11B, to be honest, and the cockpit view on that page looks like the cockpit of the YF-19.