Noyhauser

Okay here is a little challenge for you guys. I'd like you to do a Vs comparison between the F-35 and any contemporary light weight aircraft, preferably a Gripen, or in a pinch, the Eurofighter. As you guys know, Canada is a lvl 2 partner nation in the project. I think its a waste of our money so I'd like a bit of feedback from you guys on it. Also If you could do it, I'd like citing from sources. It may come in handy.

In the same vein as the question above, will a Super Ostrich be able to fill in? I've never been a fan of the variant and I'd like to use the model for it.

meh, I think the franchise needs some new thinking. I think Goldeneye was Brosnan's best film, with the world is not enough a passable second (remove the flying hedgeclipper and Christmas Jones and it would have been good). Personally i'd rate Goldeneye one of the best bond films. It wasn't hokey over the top (surfing a tsunami anybody?) with gimmicky sequences and had a believable storyline.

Every time, Bambi's mom gets shot... I just get, so.... emotional

^^^ uhh take heart, thats not the end of Kenshin. Nobuhiro never sanctioned that ending. The Last two reflections OAVs never had anything to do with the story that Nobuhiro laid out. At least with the four prequel OAVs they stuck to the story that was outlined in the Revenge arc of the manga. The last two had no basis in any of Watasuki's manga's and was not sanctioned by him. Think of it as a Macross II of kenshin. If you have seen the last four pages of the manga Kenshin is destined to live a happy life, not one where he goes and dies from leprocy or cholera or whatever fighting for Japan. the ONLY way that Kenshin would have ended up the way he did was if he didn't learn his succession technique and learned to value his life, and the ones of others. After that point you see Kenshin completely change, he understands that he himself is important. The Reflections didn't understand that.

Kircheis was just such a good man, he was loyal to a fault, intensely intelligent, but naive at the same time. You couldn't help but to like him. His death actually put me off the series a bit afterward because he was such a great character. Reuenthal was another character I deeply emphasized with. His life was one of tragedy and triumph.

I have yet to see a more heroic death than Guld's. except for Helgensagen Vom Kosmoneif's *spoilerwarning* Sigfrieg Kircheis's death is particulary tragic and terrible. You don't see it coming at all (although the episode before is about how kircheis moderated Reignhart Von Musel's tyrannic tendencies), but the way it was portrayed you thought it was going to end up as a political duel between him and Oberstein for Reighnhart's ear, not his sudden death in stopping an assassination attempt.

not awesome. I want to see a VF-1, not some Minstrel operation with a VF-0 and a Ghost do the fighting.

At the time the F-14 was seen as sluggish and compltely not Don't quote me on this because Im not at the office, but in tiral mock dogfights f-86s beat it ( think, or some other similarly very early jet fighter). To many it was seen as more of the same hubris that had brought interceptors instead of fighters into the Navy's home. Also , The Navy was on a tight string at that time, and Manufacturors aren't some entity that just magically creates planes without support. They only build when a statement of requirements is issued by the government, which contain Milspecs or tightly definded needs that manufacturer must follow. The Light weight fighter mafia was insensed when the Navy made completely different specifications for the F-18 , from the original Light weight fighter project. What would MDC do? They can't break milspecs otherwise they would lose the contract, and building a F-18 L would just burn a larger hole in their pocket. . I know you have some deep distate for MDC because of the Tomcat but its not their fault. Milspecs have been largely abandoned after I think it was William PErry made special justification needed for using Milspecs, a reversal from when when previously not to use milspecs needed special aproval.

NO it wasn't. Again It was the navy tacking on usless stuff like the Sparrow, and an Air To ground role to its statement of requirements that was never originally envisioned in the Light weight fighter project. These things were actually purposely avoided because they would increase the weight and detract on the capability. In Procurement management lingo we call that "Gold plating". The original YF-17 was designed to be a pure dogfighter incorporating the lessons of Vietnam. Also, there was some question about the ability for the navy to purchase complete wings of F-14As which were deemed to be less than satisfactory overall at the time. Also the F-14 was not designed as a dogfighter, it was designed purposely as a Fleet Defender, a role that had developed from the 1940s and defence against Kamikazes. It was expected to use its heavy radar and Pheonix missiles to take down a soviet cruise missile/bomber threat. The Lightweight fighter mafia pointed out that the Fleet Defender role did not make for a good fighter aircraft as what occurred over Vietnam, where IFFs often failed and Blue on Blue situations occurred. The Original YF-17 was designed to be a purpose built dogfighter that would not have the sparrows and the larger radar that had to be encorporated. The addition of the crud that the Navy wanted ruined the design. Macdonald douglas is a contractor, they had to comply. Morever, the YF-17 lost for a reason. It was judged to be the loser against the YF-16 in a competition that was fairly impartial. What the Navy did was then reject the YF-16 on trumped up technical grounds (they claimed it didn't have enough landing clearance, even though the F-14 had even poorer specs and that two engines was needed, when they had the A-4 and the A-7 kicking around).

But the lightweigh fighter mafia disowned the F/A-18, because it did the things they never wanted. The LFMs never wanted the sparrow on the F-18, which necessitated a larger radar dish which slowed down the fighter. They also never inteneded it to be a multi role fighter, because it was designed to be a pure dogfighter. That was a navy change. The navy was worried in the early 1990s that with the end of the cold war, they would not get a replacement for the F-14, or the A-6. The Cancellation of the A-12 and Navy ATF, it did not believe it would get a new fighter for quite some time, so it pushed hard for the super hornet. IT was the Navy's initiative to build the F/A18E not the Office of Secretary of Defence. The Navy insisted on the F/A-18E by purposely subverting the procurement process, by classifying it as a modification of a new fighter, not by redesignating it the F/A-19 since in reality the 18E is a very different fighter than its predeccesor. The Navy snubbed Congress when it demanded a Cost and Operational Effectiveness Analysis, on the new fighter pointing out that it was only a modification. If the Navy was really interested in Getting the super tomcat over the super hornet they would have immediately complied with a COEA request, and offered the tomcat as a choice . Rather the Navy chose to lie and say that there was no real alternatives out there for the F/A-18E so we don't need a COEA at all. really if the Navy really wanted to get the Super Tomcat they could have done so. They excel at geting what they want. They got the F-18 over the F-16, they even got the F-14 over the F-111 in the first place. I'm not letting the Office of Secretary of Defence off the hook either. It was negligent because it did not provide proper oversight and it did support the Super hornet, but it was not the prime drivers of the series of events that did occur, that was all the navy's doing.

The only reason why the F-18 exists today is because the Navy didn't want to share a fighter with the Airforce and killed the navaltilzed version of the F-16. I could go on about the procurement history of the F/A-18, but maybe another time. A lot of assumptions being thrown around here (like it was Cheney who pushed the hornet for everything, when it was really the Navy who pushed the idea). BUt I don't have time now.

have you watched LOGH beyond episode 40? also the FPA wasn't really inept. They suffered from one terrible battle plan that the admirals themselves condemned. Admirals like Ulafu, Bulock were certainly a match for their counterparts like Reuenthal and Bittenfield, and the FPA's forces were never shown to be inept tactically. As someone pointed out before political leadership was lacking as well.

This sounds disturbingly familiar to what the Protoculture Evil series was attempting to do (from what I remember.) They were attempting to derive power from an alternate sub universe. I took this from the compendium. PC 2868 On the [aforementioned] scientifically advanced planet, the existence of a sub-universe is confirmed. According to survey results, this sub-universe is abound with super high levels of extra-dimensional energy, and this energy is discovered to have the potential for application. The trial production of super dimension energy gates which can supply energy from the sub-universe is begun, and genetically engineered biological super dimension organs are developed. These biological super dimension organs are extremely compact, and they are expected to supply enormous amounts of energy. Because of power problems, the trial production begins implementing the technology from the terminated "Evil Series." No problems are uncovered in simulations. The internal conflicts within the Stellar Republic revives the development of the "Evil Series." http://www.anime.net/macross/story/chronol...0000/index.html I think it correlates neatly with your theory, no? edited to post citation link

BAHAHAHH I totally forgot that one. What really got to me is when emperor palpatine says "my best legion of troops are guarding the facility" then not a minute later they are getting killed by furry creatures. Man if this was the best the empire had to offer.....

Thats sort of a mismash of stuff I read over a period of time. An old copy of either Protoculture Addicts or Mecha Press had done a series of articles on the Macross II mecha. IIRC, the VF-XX was either a set of schematics from a captured Zentran Factory or it was built using new technology gleaned from this factory. I think I remember this being connected with the Neld Space Fleet Crisis. It was mecha press. I've long lost the magazine but they had a huge thing on it, which immediately came to mind when I read your post.

If you think about it, the only true "victory" the Empire ever had was blowing up defenceless Alderran in Episode IV. They couldn't even crush the Rebels on Hoth, leaving tonnes of them to escape.

Unfortunately that would be a correct statement if HG wasn't preventing us from aquirng what we want, but they are. My local hobby store won't carry this Hasegawa VF models because the distributer is unable to carry the product due to HG. What does HG have that is even equivalent? nothing. I don't want toys I want my models. If I did want toys why shouldn't I be able to buy Yamatos? Until HG stops forcing me to buy their products I and most people on this board are going to bitch about it because we are getting the shaft.

Wow, what a coincidence, I started watching LOGH a few weeks ago, and right now it stands in my mind actually ahead of Macross as the best series I have ever watched (and I watched DYRL back in 1987 or thereabouts). I think the storyline is actually better than Macross (with all the intrigue and death), Character development as well (like with Lohengrahm's changes). And its not like a typical anime series that has j-pop, no it uses classical music that fits the moods. Death is realistically portrayed, and in a way more realistically than Macross or any other series I have ever seen. Furthermore, the battles just seem realistic. The use of formations and tactics is just beautiful the only thing that I think macross has going for it is of course vehicle design, and visuals. But to be honest, when i go to movies I don't like special effects as much as stories, and LOGH is just beautiful in these respects. It reminds me a lot of my favorite novel, War and Peace by Tolstoy, and it is a cinematic masterpiece.

Most people Aren't going to like to hear this, but the decision to build the Arrow was about the biggest error ever in Canadian Procurement, and deserved the end it got. It's current reputation has been the result of mythologizing by the Canadian press and honestly it doesn't deserve any of the hype it gets. #1 The Avro Arrow was not the most advanced fighter of its day, sure it was fast, and had a lot of gadgets, but in the end it was a useless useless program. When it was concieved in the early 1950s, it was during the height of the Red bomber scare, where there fear was that Russia would send thousands of bombers over the north pole to nuke north america. Well by the late 1950s the Americans through the CIA and reconnaisance Flights figured out that the soviets had a mere pittance of bombers that was first imagined, and none had the range to reach north america's cities. Also the rise of the MRBM and the ICBM loomed a lot larger. So really the need for the Arrow was no there. #2 The Arrow was not exceptional fighter. In actuallity it fell victim to the same interceptor blinders that US fighters had in the pre-vietnam era, only the Arrow was just that much worse off. Since the Arrow was to take on soviet bombers, it had to be fast, carry a lot of missiles and a radar large enough to guide them - ie be interceptors. As a result it suffered the same flaws that the F-4 would experience over vietnam. It was big, fast, and very unmanuverable. It had absolutely no cockpit vision, and relied upon radar and untested missiles as weapons. It had no cannons or machinegun. It was to carry a missile called the Sparrow II which was a new version of the Sparrow that was a radar guided fire and forget missile. However it was canceled by the USAF because it was deemed unfeasable. So it would have to carry the notoriously bad Sparrow I missile. The Arrow's radar was untested as well. In a theoretical situation, had the Arrow ever got into a dog fight over vietnam, it would have been eaten alive by nimble Mig-17s and 21s. They would have a field day against the ungainy fighter that relied on poor missiles. The thing was fast as hell, and may have been even faster than anything in the world at the time in 1960 with the Orienda Iroqois engine, however it had abysmal range, less than 600KM. #3 The worst part of the project.- Cost. The thing was a money pit, and was about to get a lot worse. the cancelation of the Sparrow II would require a complete redesign of the system. The Radar system showed constant faults. The development costs for the Iroqois engine were insane. In many cases Canada did not have the industrial base to build its systems required and had to design them from scratch. Nobody was willing to buy it outside of canada, because it was so expensive and had little utility. Sure the fighter may have been the most advanced of its time, but pour enough money into something and you can have the best of anything. Prime Minister Diefenbaker rightly culled the project, and bought cheaper less capable fighters instead. It is kinda sad about what happened to the Canadian Aircraft industry afterwards, however in all honesty, the Arrow was an incredible disaster. Had it gone through, the Government would have been in such debt, and have an incredibly useless fighter for its troubles. So much the better.

This begs the question.... Has he watched Macross Plus yet?

Then the creators have it wrong. The daisy cutter is not a FAE (it doesn't even have a shape condusive towards good dispersal of an agent. The effect they portrayed in the OAV could only have occurred from an FAE bomb, the mushroom cloud seen before a detonation is the gaseous mixture being oxidized (mixed with air). the Daisy cutter is a big conventional bomb, that does not disperse its agent before detonation. Any way you can tell them of their error?

But what have they done is the question? This isn't even much of an accomplishment. In the realm of the capability, its not really even space as we think about it, rather its the technical barrier into space. Okay, maybe the realtively low cost is a one advantage, but beyond that its not really that great of an accomplishment. To be perfectly frank, I think of it as a waste of money, and over hyped at that. If you want to talk about "commercialization of space" look at the billions invested in satellites. This market has effectively promped a virtual six way race in the construction oh heavy lift rockets including the Delta IV, the Ariane V, Titan IV, H-IIA, and the Long March 3. With the exception of the Long March the rest of the rockets were built to service the commercial market for satellites, especially for Geosyncronous orbit. (The Delta, Ariane and Titan, have similar ability to put 10,000 Kg into Geosyncrous orbit). Other progams like the Sea Launch Vehicle and the Pegasus are designed to be cheaper alternatives to getting things into space. Putting people in the space is really not much of an accomplishment compared to that market. I rank the Ansari X prize on the same level as mark Faucette trying to go around the world solo in a balloon... thats it.

I think its kinda cool and all, but in all honesty, I don't think its going to be the watershed event that some people are proclaiming. In capability its limited, being a suborbital flight (and not even close to the capability of the first mercury capsules). Its basically an X-15 with passengers in what it does. The idea of "space tourism" today is so farfetched its mind boggling. Development of rockets have hit an effective technological plateau since the in 1970s, and progress since then has been incramental to say the least. And that is a government funded venture. What public funds are available for space tourism? Are there honestly thousands of people with billions of dollars clamoring to fund this? Not even close. And yet that is precisely what is needed. Look at commercial airlines, what is the type of development scheme has gone. There have been no "technological breakthroughs" in the private sector, instead there has been a distinct move towards efficiency and profitability in technological developlment. Are there billions of dollars just lying around for people to go further? Likely not. The greatest innovations for commercial travel were publically funded, like the Concorde and even the first jet airliners where R&D was effectively covered by government expenditures. I just can't see all of a sudden this field taking off, or even in the next 20 to 30 years. Im sure this will make some money, and people will spring for this, but not much more. The money is barely there for it. The real commercial market is in Satellites, which is already well served. This prize is barely profitable. And really, if someone wanted to go to space, rather than a brief suborbital flight, they will probably pay to get a ride on a Soyuz capsule for a REAL ride in space. Some guy was proposing the creation of a "space hotel" We can't get a frigging space station together internationally, and doing it piecemeal with our largest lifters, and some guy believes that a "space hotel" can be constructed? Give me a break.

I don't think Anime is "looked down upon" at all, and is supported by a small group of fanatics. I never said it was widescale, but it definately has a larger following than in north america. What we get here isn't what the Japanese watch at all. Of course dordamon isn't shown or that poorly drawn one with the boy, but stuff like Lupin come to mind. Also as I alluded to earlier, Manga sales are BOOMING, this I believe is having an effect on the market. I think there will be an implosion of the market, but not a siginficant decrease in titles. Thre will be definately more done in CG as well. It will be interesting to see how it plays out..