Coota0

It's the Marines! Every aircraft*!

*yeah, they included drones

I thought the different sizes of Hornet squadrons was interesting. Had no idea the Red Devils were that small, relatively.

They left out the Hueys, the USMC has several UH-1Ys.

I just assumed, the A-wing and B-wing weren't used until DS2 as a matter of needing all available fighters.

DS1 it made more sense to have the Y-wing for bombing runs, and the X-wings for cover fire.

Y-Wings would've been really useful if they had been the BTL-S3 Y-Wings (the traditional Y-Wing with a second seat.) Being able to shoot the TIEs behind you in the very confining trench would be extremely useful.

I think the issue is that the F-35B was a bridge too far. There is a long history of Navy aircraft being successfully adapted for the Air Force (F-4, A-7, A-1,etc.), but trying to shoehorn in a S/VTOL aspect into the plan is just too much compromise. Incidentally all of the successful examples I can think of were Naval aircraft adapted to the AIr Force, not the other way around (maybe YF-17 to F/A-18?) and not a joint program.

If Rogue 1 is about Rogue Squadron, could Felicity Jones be Mirax?

It's politics. Even if Iran somehow managed to get spare parts from USN demonstrator squadron or USNR squadrons, they wouldn't be able to wage any kind of meaningful combat against anyone with those planes. Otherwise, they might have actually tried at some point in the 42 years they've owned the planes.

Just a quick fix.

Now you know I'm crazy, because I always liked the X-32. To my eyes, it was the A-7 "SLUF" reborn for the 21st century.

If i recall correctly the X-32 out performed the X-35 in the STOVL role and was preferred by test pilots for that role. Unfortunately there could only be one. I think trying to come up with a fighter to be used on the carriers and one for the USAF would have worked, look at the A-1, F-4, or A-7. (Although all were originally Navy birds) Adding in the V/STOVL requirement for the USMC was a bridge too far, just too much specialization required.

Hometown of Fort Worth right there! Good pic!

Meacham is near downtown and they have an aviation museum there (it has the A-12 Avenger mockup,) maybe the pilot stopped in for a photo op

Why was this pilot performing these maneuvers over a Base/village and not in a uninhabited mountain area?

It's called boosting morale. A low pass is not unusual, the only time I fly above 700 ft AGL is for instruments and cross country stuff, I usually fly at 300 ft or below because that's wear Army helicopters do their job. Yup, he was a dumbass for mushing into the ground, but being a dumbass isn't against the rules and sometimes ends up on youtube.

They weren't really show boating. He was performing a low pass to a pitch back turn, very normal maneuvers. He attempts to convert his airspeed into a climb, but mushes through the climb losing a bunch of airspeed and gains almost no altitude. Then after executing a poor pitch back turn he tries to continue an agressive maneuver instead of swallowing out the dive and regaining his airspeed. Any one of three things would have saved him 1) Better Judgment, 2) More power or 3) More altitude.

Wow. There's no talking your way out of something like this one....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfFnNfszY9M

That guy is a moron, he mushed his way right into the ground.

When would YOU have ejected?

He didn't know he was on fire until the flames hit the cockpit, probably thought it was a bad landing that he could ride in up to that point. I'm more interested into what led to him misjudging his airspeed so badly on approach.

I wouldn't be surprised if it has WWII bomb bay style ventral doors for the air assault role either.

That would really limit you for convetinal landing assaults and we've been fast roping and airborne insertions out the side doors for years now, why change something that works. Cutting a huge hole in the floor for an extra door, would require rerouting systems that go through that area and mean having to reinforce the aircraft somewhere else, I assume you're suggesting losing the side doors to do this.

I wanted to watch this, but, with the crappy time slot, I won't be seeing this ever on t.v. What sucks is that they moved the original ani-monday to thursday, and now they don't even have that. Sucks.

It's on youtube also.

It thought the myth was you couldn't loop a helicopter unless Roy Scheider was flying it.

They'll loop and roll, it's all a matter of altitude and airspeed (and an aviator that is willing to get his ass nailed to the wall if he gets caught...so you won't be getting any video of me doing it anytime soon)

Must be why Northrop and Mcdonnell ditched it for their NATF YF-23 proposal(which looked a lot different than I thought it would look).

Got a picture? I did an image search of NATF YF-23 proposal and didn't get anything.

I'm definitely no expert, but you might want to look into Grummans "Tomcat 21" proposal - this was to be an updated Tomcat proposed as a cheaper (for a given value of "cheap"!)alternative to the now aborted Naval ATF (essentially, naval F-22 or F-23) requirement. One of the things they proposed was making the Tomcat easier to maintain. In fact, I believe a swing-wing F-22 was even proposed for that requirement as well!It is also possible to update aircraft designs to a degree; the Strike Eagle is a similar shape to a "standard" Eagle but rather different structurally (designed to carry heavier payloads).

My concerns stems from a training and force generation standpoint (and maybe yours does too?). Not is there a ten year gap in capabilities, but the FAA is adopting an entirely new technology they haven't used since the early 1970s. The pilots they will use for the QE class will all be fresh, unless they receive some sort of training from their coalition partners, which is tough to pull off. Even more difficult is how to establish flight operations with a deck crew, with no prior knowledge of these systems. The people who will carry this out haven't even left grade school yet... its likely not to go well at the start.

You'll probably be seeing a lot of FAA Personnel around US bases over the next ten years, as the Brits try to relearn something they invented. At the same time you could have FAA aviators learning the basics at the Joint Squadron at Tyndall, so that when the F-35Cs come online the pilots would then just need to learn carrier operations, or it could be continually trained in simulators until the F-35s come online.

Could the Brits alternativley lease F/A-18s from us in the interim?

Are the Brits planning on cross decking either with us or the Australians or Canadians to bolster the 12 aircraft airwing?

If there is ever a large flare up somewhere with a somewhat equal enemy those FAA pilots are going to be worn down real quick.

Couple of more of the Hammerhead just because I like her.

I liked this take on an attack Viper, kinda reminds me of an A-7

And the blue viperish looking ship here

Personally, I love how they act like HOTAS is something new and big...

Absolutley, my Kiowa,that abounds in mid-eighties technology, even has HOCAC (like HOTAS, but Cyclic and Collective instead of Throttle and Stick)

What does the Big Red Button on the right do?

Weapons arming switch

I'm heading down to Eglin's next week. Looking forward to the F-22 and V-22 (especially the static) it will be my first time to see both.

I wonder if the bomber crew and the interceptor pilots give each other a thumbs up through the glass ... Hurray for employment! Same time next week?

In the States the the thumb is not our finger of choice when running into other aircraft

So they actually want to replace the A-10 with the F-35 in the 2020s? Can't picture the Lightning going low and slow to support troops on the ground. Atleast not in situations where it has to linger over a potentially hot AA area.

The idea is to use a different tactic instead of low and slow, you use higher speed passes at a higher altiude and smart small diameter bombs. Will it work? Don't know, I just fly helicopters, when we do CAS it's a tad more direct.

I fail to see how a Top Gun fanboy playing Ace Combat is awesome, maybe if he had a nice simpit, and not just a dressed up desk and flight suit

I second Knight 26, my first thought was "loser."