IAD

(0:00) ~Luke

Ah, thanks! I think the problem was I had the gear up. DUH! Ok, I'll try and see what I can do. I had the controlled descent down cold, so I think I'll be OK now. My SV is a hanger queen at the moment, after doing the check flights on HWR's ship (which had upgraded motors) I got spoiled. However, I've got a 5 ft. long printout of the SV sitting in my room, and two 64mm dia. fans and matching motors to go with it. (The original is only 3' long.) It'll be a long project that isn't really even started yet, but my aim is to hit 1:1 thrust/weight ratio, with full pitch/roll/yaw thrust-vector, and then perform the Yukikaze diving flip in real life. Schizophrenic: Here's the RC-SV thread... Lots of info. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=15665 ~Luke

Download these... I think the handling is really close to the 'real thing'... I even was able to pull off a Yukikaze diving-backflip with the VF-27, so... Yep, very fun to fly! I am having a hard time landing in GERWALK mode, though? Seems to want to blow up, whenever I touch tarmac? ~Luke

I can't help it, I was never in the market, but... THE WHEELS! OH THE HUMANITY! ~Luke

I think most of the VF-0s and SV-51s were shown being destroyed during the engagement against the Birdman... There's that zoomed-out scene where it's firing a sustained beam, and you see a whole bunch of small explosions... Just in that one-second clip, it looks like there are enough explosions to account for all the SVs. ~Luke

Ok... I know, it's all been said before, but... That last picture of the Alto... WHY can't they get the legs in the right place?! It would make it look so much better. ~Luke

Well, I fiddled with the lines a bit more... Still too thin, but I think it'll stay that way for now. Threw some colors (if grey counts...) on it, though... Blackwater, circa 2059. ~Luke

Dunno if this would come in handy here, as a starting point for a proper VF-25 side-view... It's based on a photo of the Bandai 1/72 model, and was then slimmed down to my personal taste. (Might have stretched the nose a little far...?) Oh, and the gunpod is definitely a work-in-progress, hence the lack of details. Almost certainly not CG-model accurate; better to think of it as a "Hasegawa-erized" VF-25. But, if somebody wants to play around with it, feel free. ~Luke <Edit: Just compared it to the actual CG model... And yikes, I really shaved a lot off the nacelles (see attached.) So, definitely not CG-model accurate. I'll have to go back and rescale some lines, I think.>

Definitely looking better. Much better. I'm a bit mystified as to the design process they go through, though... I mean, this doesn't seem to share much with the first prototypes, besides the basic transformation; I'm almost at a loss to see how the earlier iterations would really contribute much to the development overall, aside from finding out just what people will scream and yell about.... ~Luke

Just a physics note: "G-forces" exist in space... You can still pass out, pulling too tight a turn at too high a speed, because you're accelerating away from a straight line course. However, this can be circumvented by simply rotating in space to achieve a guns solution, instead of maneuvering "airplane style". The only reason airplanes as we know them have a turning radius larger than zero (rotation in space) is because of aerodynamic considerations. Since 'flight' in space lacks gravity, aerodynamic stall/buffeting, and generally speaking, any terrain to crash into, achieving a good guns solution would conceivably be significantly easier. (The catch is that almost ANYBODY can rotate their vehicle in space, to point their guns at a target. Tactics that depend on the limited minimum turning radius and flight speed of an aircraft become irrelevant... You'll never see a 'flat scissors' in space. ) My thinking is that dogfighting in space would be really boring, and have an appallingly high fatality rate, due to the relative ease of maneuvering for a guns kill. Luck would keep you alive more than skill. Thus, back on topic, Ivanov, Roy (M0), Polyansky, and Shin are probably the top-slot pilots, from a "totally realistic" standpoint. They had a lot to cope with, plus they were flying first-gen aircraft, barely out of the lab, so-to-speak. ~Luke

Dunno, probably not... I'd sooner do one of the green wingman VF-27s, but even that's a long shot. Maybe I should try my hand at making a master for a fighter-mode-only 1/72, and get somebody to cast it for me. ~Luke

Oooh.... But the VF-25 is supposed to be so sleek in fighter mode! ~Luke

No, not at all, but... At what point does conviction become reality? I think that's happened already. I mean... Say, in the name of interspecies touchy-feely-ness, SMS and NUNS stand down, when the V. fleet from Gallia 4 defolds? One-sided slaughter of Frontier would presumably result. Obviously, this is way beyond mere conviction. The reality is that given the status quo, Frontier has no choice but to engage the threat, or face annihilation. How one-sided the "slaughter" becomes after that point is, in my opinion, just a measure of relative combat effectiveness. (The Vajra used to have the upper hand, now they don't.) If the weapon is sentient..? Both the weapon and the user. If the weapon isn't sentient..? Only the user, but there's nothing wrong with destroying the weapon. Well, again, we need to decide whether or not the Vajra are sentient to a point where it is ethically reprehensible to kill them. No, the wasps aren't to blame, but I'm going to have no problem with pulling a can of RAID on them, either. Likewise, if somebody deliberately threw a wasp nest at me, again, killing off the wasps would be my first task. (Needless to say, the second would be to boot somebody's rear. Galaxy has it coming, no doubt. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Galaxy fan.) ~Luke

Am I the only one who doesn't feel any sympathy for the Vajra? I mean, comm. jamming/psy-ops is fair game in war, and even if they are being 'manipulated'... Let's face it, I don't think the kill ratio is in human favor yet. (What was the crew count on the frigate that ate it in Ep. 1? Plus the Galaxy escort that got hit by the Vajra mothership... And the hull breach on Island 1... Ahhh, even the 117th... An entire fleet wiped out. Few million casualties?) So, SMS et al. figured out a method to reduce Vajra combat effectiveness... Why is that a reason to feel sorry for the V.? (Alternatively, why does it suddenly make "the heroes into bad guys"? Would the heroes still be heroes, if they were needlessly sacrificing their own people, just to keep the fight "fair"/not-shooting-fish-in-a-barrel?) ~Luke

But I would estimate the center-of-gravity on the -27 is similar to that of the SV-51, which would put it right at the LE of the wing root. (This is balanced for stable, non-computer-augumented flight, so it could be even futher back, as per the F-16.) This places the fins quite close to the CG, and thus, with little leverage, I doubt they would be very powerful. The SR-71, with its long nose strakes, balances much further forwards, (well ahead of the 'wing' as I recall) resulting in a significantly longer moment arm. ~Luke

Yeah, pretty much the same reaction here.... "UHG! Speakers! With lights!" I wouldn't have minded so much if they were a little smaller, and mounted in fairings, with four-petal 'ports' that open on the front... And maybe only two of them. And no lights. (Picky enough? ) ~Luke

Whoa, wait... It has vertical stabilizers! ("Rudders", see attached.) Again, pretty small for a plane that big, and quite close to the presumed center of gravity, so they don't have a large moment arm at all... That being the case, in real life, they wouldn't be all that effective. What it doesn't have is horizontal stabilizers. It's basically a flying wing. No separate tailerons/elevator. The 'canards' are so small, I'm thinking they're large antennas or vortex generators, rather than pitch control surfaces. ~Luke

I think the -27 has the potential to be just fine, in terms of in-atmosphere maneuverability... 3D thrust-vector on twin engines gives you the ability to control all three axes purely by thrust, with no concern for aerodynamic forces (i.e. zero-indicated-airspeed maneuvering.) This is a huge advantage in a dogfight. It really depends more on what the storyline demands. Once you have thrust-vector like that, in some ways, fins, etc. are necessities for stable flight, more than anything... They're called stabilizers for a reason; they stabilize. And a highly stable aircraft is not maneuverable. FWIW, the X-31A was tested in a "quasi-tailless" configuration, where the stabilizing effects of the tail was actively cancelled by the flight-control computer, allowing simulation of tailless flight, without having to chop the fin off the plane. Yaw stability was achieved purely by thrust-vector. The conclusion was that a tailless fighter, (or taken one step further, a fighter with no aerodynamic control surfaces whatsoever) is feasible, and has significant benefits to offer. (Reduced weight, reduced drag, improved stealth...) I wouldn't dismiss the -27, just because it lacks fins. (And for all intents and purposes, it does; those canards are NOT worth beans in terms of aerodynamic maneuvering. They're TINY!) ~Luke

The Zentredi really need to take some marksmanship courses! Also, while I know music is part of Macross lore, I was really hoping to see Michael go in swinging....... Or at least use some sort of fairing on the speakers... Those things are aerodynamically offensive! ~Luke

I thought the SV could do 90 deg. thrust-vector on the main engines..? That, plus the lift fans, would have been more than enough to land vertically, sort of like a twin-engine version of the F-35... In the Compendium, it's stated (I think) that the SV can perform a non-transformed vertical landing... Now, how it got back inside the submarine is up for debate. Also, just a footnote, canards don't necessarily equal stability... It depends a lot on where the center of gravity is located. FWIW, I've flown radio-controlled flying wings (no stabilizers) that are more stable than some conventional (wing + tail) setups, and I had a canard ship that actually was completely unstable (divergent)... Which, without a flight computer, was bad. ~Luke

Nobody's mentioned that the VF-27 is apparently fold capable, without an external fold booster? And that cockpit must really improve situational awareness. ~Luke

Oh, that is just too funny! Any YouTube footage of that? Bet a GERWALK VF could do better than 80 ft.! ~Luke

Yep, that's basically it, but more important than recoil mitigation, a secure mounting prevents any other unwanted movements. Like I said, anything mass being moved (gunpod, arms, legs, gimballed thrusters, etc.) would induce an opposite movement (though of smaller magnitude) of the entire vehicle. What I don't get is why Mihkail has to work so hard to snipe... I mean, in real life, the THEL (tactical high-energy laser) turret can slew an IR laser onto a mortar or artiliery round in mid-flight, at a range of several miles, and automatically track the projectile for the 3-5 seconds required to destroy it. Mind you, these targets are only ~24" long, and maybe 4" in diameter. If Macross was real, Mihkail would only have to lase the target, designate a strike-point, and sit back, and let the -25 do all the hard work. ~Luke

Dunno, precision stabilization like that is much harder than stability augmentation, like you find on an F-117... I mean, automated mid-air refueling is just starting to be developed, and that's a lot easier than trying to fully stabilize an object in space, such that it has zero motion relative to another object... I mean, if we want to pretend this is real.... Keep in mind that any accelerations (movement of arms/legs/head, aiming of the rifle, opening of the rifle's cooling array, etc.) would cause linear and/or angular accelerations of the aircraft as a whole. Those would be a real pain to counteract in real time (i.e. NO movement), given the locations of the maneuvering thrusters, vs. the possible acceleration vectors. Plus, you'd really end up burning through a lot of thruster reactant. The grapple is a simple and effective method of achieving a stable firing position, and pretty neat-looking, too. ~Luke

Given their nuclear nature, it might be more dangerous to pull the engines, than leave them in the shielding in the nacelles... Which, in turn, explains why it was still functional. Alternatively, it could be accepted that it IS just a work of fiction... ~Luke