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F-ZeroOne

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  1. F-ZeroOne
    I did indeed mean a space combat game. I'm aware of "Battlefront II" and the starfighter combat is quite good fun (if only I could stop ramming asteroids) but it'd be nice to have the kind of truly epic space dogfights and batsh*t crazy story "Ace Combat" is known for... "Sir! Its the Rebel Fleet! And... and... " "And what Lieutenant?!" "They... appear to be singing, sir!".
  2. F-ZeroOne
    That or "Star Wars"...
  3. F-ZeroOne
    Heh, I learned about that one quite early - when war comics were still a thing in the UK there was a story one of them ran occasionally about a two-seat Harrier with an A.I. fitted (Harrikaze?) and in one the pilots encountered some Tornado pilots who were quite sniffy about their aircraft; the Harrier retaliated by bringing up the "Blue Circle" [1] story! [1] For those unfamiliar with this part of the Tornado ADVs development woes, there were major issues with the planned Foxhunter radar, which couldn't be installed in the early models; a ballast weight was installed in the nose instead, which was partly made of concrete - the term "Blue Circle" comes from a popular cement product of that time.
  4. F-ZeroOne
    I vaguely recall reading that one of the possible issues with the F-15 for what the RAF intended to use it for was that it was a little short on endurance (and bearing in mind the RAF tanker fleet wouldn't have been as large as the USAFs). Not sure how true that is, but it may have been one factor,along with the usual politics and the always seductive and often fatal kiss of "commonality"...
  5. F-ZeroOne
    Wot, no Fairey Battle? I recently read a neat story about the Beverley; a RAF aircrew were on approach and monitoring the radio behind a USAF jet that was itself queuing behind one; air traffic control advised the USAF pilot that he would be next to go in after the Beverley had landed and the RAF crew overheard the pilots reply: "I don't know what a Beverley is, but theres a goshdurn [1] combine harvester in front of me!". The Roc gets a lot of stick but then it was probably never intended to go mano-a-mano with Me109s; it was a Fleet Air Arm aircraft and its intended use was probably to intercept and shoot down lone enemy "shadowers" operating hundreds of miles away from land-based air cover; it was never envisaged that the Luftwaffe would wind up living practically next door (we'll leave aside the fact that most of those shadowers could probably have outrun it anyway... ). The Tornado F2/3 also gets beaten up a lot for not being a F-16, but the it was never intended to be; its job was to shoot down the Soviet bomber hordes, again hundreds of miles out between Scotland and Norway... its interesting to consider what people would now be saying about the F-16 if it had never been revised from the original design intention of a day-only "dogfighter" armed only with two short range missiles and a cannon... [1] The original story uses an alternative for "goshdurn" here.
  6. F-ZeroOne
    Sad to say both crewmembers in the GSDF AH-64 crash are now confirmed to have died. Its also being reported that the AH-64 had its main rotorhead replaced a couple of days before the incident.
  7. F-ZeroOne
    Its possibly a hangover from the days when artbooks would be printed showing the inner "workings" of the early giant robots like Mazinger Z...
  8. F-ZeroOne
    Obviously until theres an official report, its going to be speculation but the original English-language Japanese news reports about the incident mentioned that they had learned of a shortage of maintenance staff for the Japanese AH-64s and overwork of the existing staff. Its also worth pointing out that its possible the AH-64 started falling and the rotor detachment was a result of that, not the cause. I'd also heard that AH-64s are maintenance intensive, anyone know if the newer variants are a bit more upkeep-friendly?
  9. F-ZeroOne
    Minor update to this incident, house AH-64 hit was in fact occupied but resident managed to escape.
  10. F-ZeroOne
    The Japanese GDSF have lost a AH-64 - they only had 13 of them. According to eye witnesses, the main rotor "detached" and footage exists of the helicopter falling out of the sky; it crashed into a fortunately empty building. Reports are that one of the two crew members were killed; if its true that the other survived then it says something about how tough AH-64s are.
  11. F-ZeroOne
    I was so tempted to enter "Stringfellow Hawke" but went with Maetel from "Galaxy Express 999" instead.
  12. F-ZeroOne
    Also not Macross related, but again if you're in Akiahbara and you like Gundam, visit the Gundam Cafe. Its right next to the AKB48 Concert Hall/Sacrifice Centre; even if you don't want to eat anything the small gift shop next to it has lots of interesting Gundam knick-knacks, like artful Gundam cup saucers and Gundam Coffee. Its Gundam Coffee! You want Gundam Coffee, right?!
  13. F-ZeroOne
    If you do visit Akihabara, and want to see it at its otaku-culture best, visit on a weekend when maids prowl the streets and people queue round the block to see AKB48. If you want to get anything done in Akihabara, visit on a weekday, just after the shops start opening from 10:00am on.
  14. F-ZeroOne
    Spot the deliberate mistake in this article: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/17/heathrow_new_radios_northrop_grumman/ "Heathrow Airport is to get new air traffic control radio systems with a surprising amount of internet connectivity baked into them. Northrop Grumman, of "horrendously expensive F-35 fighter jet" infamy, is supplying Britain's busiest airport with its Park Air T6 air traffic management product."
  15. F-ZeroOne
    I think I'd better point out that before I start getting a reputation as some sort of elite rare aircraft spotter, that all I did was type "Griffon engined Lancaster" into Google and notice the similarity of an image of a Lincoln to the one depicted here on one of the results...!
  16. F-ZeroOne
    Its a pretty obscure one, isn't it? I know I've heard of it before but its a name that seems to be virtually unmentioned in the Lancaster family, even the civilian versions seem to be better known. As you say, I'm also not aware of any British designs that had belly turrets in the US sense. There were a few that had ventral gun positions and a few that had the odd machine gun fitted in that position (often removed, then once the threat of "Jazz Music" - upwardly firing guns mounted on nightfighters attacking from below - was realised sometimes reinstated).
  17. F-ZeroOne
    Aircraft in question may well be an Avro Lincoln: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Lincoln "Ventral turret" is probably actually a housing for ground-mapping /bomb-aiming radar. Edit: The Lincoln doesn't appear to have been fitted with Griffon engines either, but it had larger, more elongated engine nacelles that look like Griffon installations.
  18. F-ZeroOne
    Okay, thats for clarifying about Haynes in the US - I wasn't sure if it was one of those British things like the Clangers or the words "West Ham" just being intrinsically funny that just baffle non-UK residents [1]. I knew that they still did car manuals but perhaps the fact that I hang out in bookshops more than car-accessory shops has skewed my perceptions a bit. [1] For "Harry Potter" fans who might recognise the name of this English footba - soccer team, it is probably not an accident that one of Harrys schoolmates supports them...
  19. F-ZeroOne
    If you're in the UK and looking for a last-minute Christmas gift for the aviation-minded in your life, I noticed the other day that Haynes [1] have two new manuals out - one for the X-15, and the other for the F-117 Nighthawk (!). [1] Not sure how well known this brand is in the US - basically, they became famous for publishing books on how to take a car apart and then put it back together again, with a volume seemingly covering every British-available car in existence. As cars have relied more and more on sealed black boxes recently, they've branched out to cover a wide variety of subjects from tanks, aircraft and even the U.S.S. Enterprise... (Star Fleet incarnation). Please note that the publishers take no responsibility if by following their guidelines, you take your personal F-117 to bits and then find yourself with a FLIR leftover after reassembly...
  20. F-ZeroOne
    One thing I forgot to mention about ZZ is the animation quality - its pretty good generally, which surprised me (despite having seen the series before). Also forgot that Haman went to the stylists after Zeta...
  21. F-ZeroOne
    I think I'm getting old... "ZZ" was recently released in the UK (the first half so far, anyway) and I've been re-watching it... and you know what? Its not bad. Oh, as far as being a Universal Century "Gundam" show goes, its a disaster but... if you take it as a standalone parody mecha show that just happens to have some very suspiciously similar-looking "Gundam" characters in it (hey, look - I see what they did there, the captain of that ship looks almost exactly like Bright Noa, but it can't be Bright because hes chasing chickens! Genius!)... and a religious colony of neo-Luddites that live in a giant space station actually would fit right into any other Tomino show... Like I say, I must be getting old... I'm interested to see how I'm going to feel once the tone starts shifting back to "normal" in the second half...
  22. F-ZeroOne
    Faith, Hope, Charity and Desperation? The A330 AWACs in an interesting idea...
  23. F-ZeroOne
    'twas ever thus. France was one of the initial partners for what became the Typhoon, and left in a huff, and the Royal Navy was originally a partner for a pan-European warship design before leaving and developing the Type 45 on their own... the obvious answer to "European entities" is BAE Systems, though to the best of my knowledge they've never created a fighter aircraft entirely on their own before. (Or maybe... SAAB?).
  24. F-ZeroOne
    Worth bearing in mind Germany already operates both the Tornado and the Typhoon - something that seems to be overlooked in this news is that just because Germany may favour the F-35 as a Tornado replacement, it doesn't mean that they might not also be interested in another future aircraft to compliment it, such as the proposed Airbus fighter. I'm not saying thats what they'll do, or that it would make sense operationally or financially, but as we all know the F-35 can't dogfight (at least according to the internet forums on which all military purchasing decisions are made... ) so the Germans might be interested in a 7th Gen 5D thrust vectoring hyper-agile mind-controlled Mach 4+ fighter to go alongside it...
  25. F-ZeroOne
    Its not clear from that image, by the way, but the Doctor is now rockin' a couple of pretty distinctive earrings.
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