Nied

We didn't have the facilities to properly support a BB floating meuseum in the city, nor the spare money to build them. That more than anything else is what determined it. No loser Supervisor Chris Daly whined about the Blue Angels after accusing Gavin Newsom of being a cocaine addict did nothing for Daly's mayoral campaign. Of course his whining was about as effective since his bill to ban the Blue Angels was shot down by the board of supervisors (SF's name for city council) twice by overwhelming margins. No tried to remove JROTC as an official school program to protest the fact that DoD policy discriminates against a non-insignifcant portion of our popluation. Again see my comments about mistaking foreign policy disagreements for being anti-military. Supporting the troops does not equal supporting the war in Iraq. This is the first I heard of it. Do you have a news story? Again have a news story to back this up?

If you don't want nookie on your airplane why are you showing it off with champaigne strawberries, and frigging rose petals! I'm sorry but that combo of items is not desinged to put you to sleep (although I suppose in a round about way you will get tired )

I don't want to veer too much into politics so I'll keep it brief. People on both sides of the political divide should be careful not to mistake disagreements over foreign policy with being anti-military.

Well again that's the story you see pushed a lot in certain circles but having lived here for over three years now I haven't seen it. Defencetech seemed to think the lack of a carrier was an FU because the navy thinks SF is anti military (of course their own inaccurate reporting on the subject wouldn't have anything to do with it), but I'm inclined to believe it had more to do with being stretched to thinly right now.

It was even more awesome in person. Especially when the second solo comes in right over your head at about the same speed/altitude (god I'm so happy I showed up early and got a good spot right at show center).

A very few. The bill trying to ban the Blue Angels from Fleet Week was shot down twice by a 2-1 margin. Of course while places like Defensetech love to bring up the fact that one grandstanding board supervisor trying desperately to get attention for his hopeless mayoral run brought up an anti Blue Angles bill, but they stay silent when it fails miserably. It doesn't fit with their ZOMG! TEH LIBRULS HATE TEH MILATARY!!!!!11!one preconception.

I think Boeing's problem is that their marketing department gets ahead of the rest of the company. Remember the Sonic Cruiser? It was going to cruise at Mach .98 but still have better fuel economy than older airliners, have lower operating costs, meet stringent new European noise regulations, have supersonic dash capability, and be a delicous desert topping. That should be a good show which IIRC will feature a Raptor. Let us know how it was.

I didn't mean to imply that Boeing is as bad as Enron or Worldcom. I'd put thier problems closer to Airbus' (maybe a hair short of where Airbus is). I'm still estimating that they won't make be able to make the first 787 delivery until sometime in 2008.

And it keeps going. They've admited the systems integration thing now too, though once again they are downplaying it. If this keeps dribbling out I can actually tell you guys how I know this stuff. I can say that Boeing has put thier engineers into "Death March" mode to get things finished anywhere near in time. Fun thing about the fastners: If you look at some of the close ups of the 787 roll out there are more than a few missing.

Ah ha! I knew it came from Egan so I looked up his old posts and found this:

Nuts, having gone through my notes I can't find anything either. I do remember it coming from Egan Loo though. I'll have to do some more digging.

Actually IIRC the liner notes for that episode in the Anemeigo DVD set say that variant was hastily desinged by Ichiro Itano. It was realized they had Max destroying a Quel-Qualie with a regular VF-1 while a few episodes earlier Hikaru was barely able to scratch one with a full barrage from his GBP armor. The scene was hastily re-animated by Studio Nue at the last minute which is why it looks kinda like an animefreind mistake. Windjammer/Nanashi/Nanshino had some lineart up of the design at one point but it disapeared after one of his many revisions of macrossmecha.org.

I honestly didn't know it was coming until I was standing in front of Ghiradelli square watching the show and a woman asked me when the new Airbus was supposed to fly. From what I can tell on the Fencecheck forums it was only slated to appear yesterday and today. Although I'd still recommend driving up. Having watched three Fleet Week airshows now IMHO it is absolutely the best way to watch the Blue Angels. Just make sure you bring a good sweater and hat, the wind coming off the water has been really cold lately.

To use teh internet lingo: The Tiffy is made of win. However the Raptor is made of awesome plus win.

And here I was just logging on to brag about it! First impression: it's big! Living in San Francisco I see 747s in the air fairly regularly, and even the occasional C-5 out of Travis AFB but the A380 definitely was one of the most impressive things I've seen in a long time (I think partially because it was a lot lower than the other aircraft I mentioned). I could tell that it handled like a pig though, it took them forever between passes to set up for a new one. Also it was interesting that it had a photo chase plane in tow at all times (to get those great publicity photos over the Golden Gate bridge). I would have some photos for you guys but unfortunately my camera is kaput. I'm trying to convince my wife that we need to buy a Nikon D40 by telling her that we can take great pictures when we have kids (and a 300mm telephoto lens so that um... we can get great pictures of them when they're really far away).

The Raptor is also faster in supercruise (Mach 1.7-8 vs Mach 1.2-3 for the Typhoon) and has a far more advanced radar. An AESA radar like the APG-77 is going to have longer range, the ability to track more targets and do it all while being much harder to detect than old fashioned pulse doppler radars like the ECR-90. That's not to say the ECR-90 isn't a good radar, it's probably the most advanced pulse dopler radar ever to be mounted on a fighter, but the Typhoon is at a decided disadvantage compared to the F-22 until AMSAR/CEASAR is installed (it's rumoured it will be installed in Tranche 3 if it gets built).

There's a neat article over at DefenseTech about the possibilities for a two seat Raptor variant going into service. Sounds like a good idea to me. A dual seat Raptor with the FB-22's bulged weapons bay doors and the F-35's EOTS system in the nose would make for one hell of a strike plane. Add in the FB-22's proposed stealthy weapons pods and it could even escort itself with a full air to air load in addition to a decent strike load. On a different note I just have to say how much I love living in San Francisco sometimes. Today is the start of Fleetweek here, and I spent this afternoon sitting at an outdoor cafe near my apartment munching on a pastrami sandwich while watching the Blue Angels practice their routine for this weekend. If I had a better camera I'd have some great pictures already (the weather is perfect for an airshow this time of year: chrystal clear but with just enough moisture in the air to make for some awesome vapor trails)

And an IRST, and Meteor missiles. While the Typhoon may not be quite as awesome as the F-22, it's still all kinds of incredible. Especially once they get the CEASAR radar up and running (maybe in Tranche 3) it should own just about anything out there short of the F-22.

Is it supposed to be the first actual KC-30 or the first A330 based tanker? Remember Australia, the UK and a few others are going for A330 tankers roughly similar to the KC-30 (Australia will even get the flying boom).

The dips are the best part! I'll echo David in saying the most fun I've had in a jetliner was in a 757 that hit a Thunderstorm over Philadelphia.

Awesome pictures! Looks like teh EAF did an amazing job with that plane, inside and out. Wondering how smooth the ride was? The Trimotor fits right in the gap wieght wise of what I've ridden in (lots of lightweight singles and twins then a big gap to the smallest airliner I've been in which was a 717). From the looks of your pictures there should have been a fair amount of chop, I wonder how a plane of the Ford's size would deal with it.

I see no constitution. At this point I'm impressed with how much travelling you've been able to do without ever boarding an airplane.

It looks like the exhaust pipes are a little longer so there's definitely something going on there (and would explain how the aux intakes still line up) but yeah my assumption was that they somehow incorporated a miniaturized version of the TF-30 core into the J85. Honestly I'm surprised that they kept trying to use the J85, as long as they are making radical changes to the aft fuselage they might as well put a J79 (which the Iranians have also claimed to have reversed engineered) or the RD-33 (easily obtainable from Russia and maintains commonality with their Mig-29s) either one would help make a better F-20 analogue. Tom Cooper is adamant that Iran has a well developed composite industry, it's possible the extra weight of the twin tails is offset by the use of composites (it's tough to tell from the published pictures but the wing is supposed to be new as well).

Two things I missed on this topic. Blinding Lasers are banned by the latest draft of the Geneva conventions (though I'm not sure if we or Iran are signatories to that draft). Also F-16.net has a thread with new pictures of the Sageh in new "not the Blue Angels" colors. The poster there mentions the enlarged intakes, implying that the engies need sigifcantly more mass flow (rumour has it the Iranians have crossed the J85 with the TF-30 to make a new more powerful engine), but I'm more interested in the re-shaped nose, and the deletion of one of the 20mm cannons. Maybe the Iranians have put a better radar in thier plane. If they could get something that equivelent to even the APG-66 and goose the J85s enough they could have a decent F-20 analogue. They do seem to be rather averse to BVRAAMs (they don't seem to be in any hurry to develop or buy one beyond reverse engineered Pheonix's and Hawk SAMs on thier F-14s) which gives us a decided advantage over the IRIAF should any conflict occur.

I see your B-2 and Raptor and raise you by a Blackbird, Space Shuttle, Concorde and the Enola Gay. I'm telling you the new annex at Dulles airport is worth the price of admission alone. Plus you've got the Naval Air Museum a very short drive away at Pax River. Also the Constitution.