Retracting Head Ter Ter

For those of you who like to be able to pose/play with the zoids and are sick of Kotobukiya's 'exploding' products, Yamato has a 1/72 die-cast (just like the good old KFMs) toy out. It combines playability with excellent detail and diecast.

http://www.hlj.com/product/YMT34849

Dammit, I really did not want to spend several hundred bucks on another space consuming toy but the pictures you guys are posting.....

What a porker!

This seems to be from a Taiwanese or HK source (from the traditional character set used), so not sure how accurate the info is.

I am starting to like the looks of the J-20. Like Graham, I think if it had F-22 (or better YF-23) style nozzles it would look pretty nice.

Waiting for the Dragon/Trumpeteer kits/ready mades!

I saw a J-10A 1/48 diecast while I was in China last week. Quality was about 80-90% of Dragon Wings quality(wheels down only though, can't seem to remove, and missiles not detachable). But the damn thing about these Chinese diecast aeros is that the damn box never ever says who made it. Considering that it wasn't a knock-off (since no one else made one), I wonder why they don't bother. Wanted to buy it but it was 700 rmb and I didn;t have half the cash on me at that time.

David : What is that yellow airbrake thingy on the J-20 about and why is it deployed on takeoff?

IMPO the landing gears and covers look awful. One thing the Russians and Chinese don't do well is make good looking legs for their fighters.

Well, the Russkies tended to have large wheels during the Cold War for their jets for rough field handling (WW2 holdover?). I guess they go for the 'Simple and tough' approach.

Apart from the engine nozzles, I think the J-20 looks much nicer than the F-22.

Graham

Even the underwing actuator(or whatever they are) clutter?!?!?

The F-22 and Super Flanker are among the largest fighter jets ever---and they're debatably the most agile ever.

Well yes but they had the advantage of until then, rarely seen combination of TVC, canards (SFlanker) and massive thrust weight ratio(F-22). Well, in any case, the Superflanker and Raptor looks agile just sitting there. The J-20 just looks phat.

If the J-20 is going to weigh like it looks, it's thrust/weight isn't going to be anywhere near the F-22/Su-35. Unless the pie in the sky dream spec WS-15 comes to reality.

On that subject, did you guys see the frontal pic of the amount of deflection the J-20 tail fin can pull? There is this one pic of it almost perpendicular to the axis. Could the YF-23 do that?

That thing is freaking huge. I wonder how agile it is compared to the rest of the 4.5/5th gens.

My first thought is that the PRC is just going for a stealthy long range missile boat and placing less emphasis on the 'dogfight' part of the package but then why bother with the stealth hindering canards?

Even better pictures. Bill Sweatman is having multiple orgasms about this even though all the stuff he keeps saying about it turns out to be untrue (It's got a lamda wing clearly it's extremely stealthy! No wait it turns out it's just a straight backed delta that's not stealthy at all. We know the Russians have sold the Chinese 117S engines, it will supercruise for sure! Well maybe we don't know that but it would be really cool if that were true right? Besides WS-10s might let it supercruise anyway! And on and on). I've already seen this pointed out elsewhere but I noticed it as soon as I saw it: it looks like nothing more than a stealthified Mig 1.44. You're right it is pretty ugly, in fact it might just be the ugliest aircraft built in the last decade (and before anyone mentions it the X-32 was build in the 90s so it doesn't count).

I found better pics too. Only good looking view is the 1st one from dead frontal.

http://bbs.tiexue.net/post_4754120_1.html

Looks like a huge plane. At least 22-23m?

I can already see the flame wars between the Indian and Chinese forumboys.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2010-12/29/c_12929585.htm

First real pic of the J-XX prototype(or J-20 according to the article)???

Looks real. Pretty fugly. Like a F-22 and F-35 mish-mash with canards.

The hands are too big! Damn you Yamato! You mone... opps wrong manufacturer...

http://jalopnik.com/5715336/how-to-fly-the-harrier-jump-jet/gallery/?skyline=true&s=i

Harrier manual!

I like the new Stratos. Retains the original look pretty well. And it doesn't suffer from too much 'model bloat'.

The pilot for that '190 was still listed as missing. Sad, but that's just the way it is and there was many more with that same fate. 2 places in WWII you didn't want to be downed aircrew: Eastern Front, because we know how brutal things were between the Germans and Russians, and in the Pacific for the same reasons... with the added bonus of all that ocean to be stranded in.

So they did not find his remains in the cockpit then? Looking at the pic, the canopy appears to be in the closed position, so I assume he crashed landed, and bothered to slide the canopy shut before going off?

I am a fan of the F-16s' with CFTs and bumps and humps too. Gives a a very Macrossy FAST Pack look.

Always found the base F-16 a bit too curvy and non-muscular looking enough. Sure it was sleek, but it did not have that muscular yet graceful look of the F-15s and F-14s.

Would have thought David would have given the 'sleekest mass production' title to the F-5 though.

Back to that Fw-190 : So they found that thing just sitting there in the Russian forest? Nearly 70 years of sitting in the open and they managed to get that 801 fired up again?!?! Wow! Canopy looks like it wasn't flung off, was there a skeleton sitting in it?

I just wish they could get a pair of Jumo 004s fired up again. Always wondered how the original 262 sounded.

Rare pic:

Actual Fw190A using actual BMW801 engine. Photo taken this Tuesday.

I believe that takes the world-wide total of airworthy Fw190's from 0 to 1 now...

Ohhh, whats the story behind this one? Is it an A4/5/6/8? Frankenwulf?

Just bought a MY08 Legacy GT (the fourth gen.) Going to miss my W124...

Anyone here has one?

Confused by various articles/posts I've read recently regarding the F-22.

So does the F-22 actually have a working datalink or not?

Graham

It does. But it links only to other F-22s. So it won't share with say, an F-15E or even ground controllers. I think the USAF is working on it though. Think Northup-Grumman is working on it. Some thingmagik called BCAN or sumthing.

How does the SA compare to the SG? I am getting lost with all these F-15Exxxs

BTW, whats this I hear about HMS Astute running around?

Quick question.

Given that they are only making 500 of the LFA's, are they all going to be LHD/RHD or both? Must be quite a bitch to make both versions for a 500 car run.

BTW, 2011 model year GT-R has been announced. 530hp. Larger inlet,tweaked engine map, new honeycomb strut,slight mod to exhausts and new wheels.

Yep to negate all aspect seekers. A/F-X grew out of the ATA and NATF cancellations. With no true Tomcat replacement, and no A-6 replacement, the Navy needed something and decided to go for a stealthy A-6 replacement with fighter capability. Whereas NATF put emphasis on fighter with strike/attack 2nd, the A/F-X was the other way around. Plans were to incorporate the AIM-152 as a Phoenix replacement too. The A/F-X was also proposed as an F-111/117 replacement.

Design-wise, it pretty much grew out of the NATF.

Did the A/F-X go beyond paper requirements/studies? Given that there wasn't even a prototype, there isn't much basis to discuss it VS the F-14D.

At the risk of oversimplification (okay, pretty much a sure bet):

I've felt that the US is following a dangerously similar path to that of WWII era Germany--STRICTLY MILITARILY SPEAKING!

The US military doctrine seems to be one of hedging their bets on superiority through advanced design. The Army, Navy et. al. field weapons that are certainly some of the most technologically advanced anywhere and second-to-none. But as a natural consequence, they are: very expensive; produced in relatively small numbers & at a slow rate; require high levels of training to operate and maintain.

I disagree on this. If anything, the US is using BOTH technical superiority AND numbers. At no time is the USAF going to be only dependant on those 170 F-22s. They are being backed by 1000+ F-15s/16s and in future, the F-35. And the best C3 system in the world. And US Naval Aviation. And whatever the USMC and its Assault Ships can chuck in. There really is no country out there even close in terms of numbers or quality anytime in the forseeable future. You can't just always talk about "170 F-22s VS 400 Flankers/J-11s and 400 Fulcrums/J-10s and dream amounts of J-XX/PAK-FA" without considering all the other huge & significant US military assets.

You want to use WW2 to compare? Well, to me, its like going back to Dec 1944 and saying OMFG! We only got a handful of M-26s Pershings against several hundred Tigers/Panthers and soon hordes more of the King Tigers! We are in trouble! The US brass had been sooooo shortsighted!!! This is totally ignoring the gazillion Shermans, Wolverines, the Bajillion P-38/47/51 & B-17s/24/29s, RFC equppied BBs, dozens of CVs, many dozens more CVL/CVEs yadda yadda into the equation.

I wonder, is it because most of you guys in the US are so used to having 1000 B-17s vs half a Gruppe of Bf-109s that you don't realise how huge stuff like 180 F-22s, 11 Supercarriers, 12 Amphibious Assault Ships etc etc(probably more capable than most carriers in other nations)are compared to the rest of the world?

I mean, I hear guys screaming about the PLAN and their plans to build like 2 carriers (which probably won't be that capable given their zero experience in naval aviation) but how is that going to stack up against 11 Carrier Battle Groups and the supporting cast. I mean, the casualty figures in Afghanistan and Iraq already exceed what would probably be the casualty numbers if all-out non-nuclear air/sea warfare against the PRC was to take place right now, so shouldn't the budget be spent there instead of the fancy Overtechnology Silverbullets? You already got enough Super Star Destroyers, maybe the $ is better spent on a better Stormtrooper helmet or something.

Just me rambling but I really wonder.

Nana Masaki for Mai!

Might be getting a bit old now though.

And yes, the outer-world dimension thing just sucks monkey scrotum! It will just feck up the storyline, cost more in (bad) CGI and further piss off all the fans.

First feeling when I saw it was --- P-38!

Sweet! Somebody has to make a 1/72 die-cast replica of this soon.

Russia has the best paint schemes. USAF & RAF paint schemes are so boring these days.

Graham

Agree, the Russians have really nice camo (because of the GIUK gap/Siberian/Artic target operation areas?). USAF & RAF might not be as nice but they sure beat the PLAAF which has hands down the most boring schemes.

As for that PAF-FA, the engine nacelles really spoil the look of the camo.