reddsun1

Found this while surfing, some pretty neat viewing. It's an old WWII training film on flying the P-40. About 30-min long. Man, there's a helluva lot more to this business than just "stick and rudder," that's for sure... http://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com/realg2/P-40SS.ram

One of my fav warbirds is actually the P-40. Much maligned as "obsolescent" by historians, I still like these birds. I remember seeing a program hosted by the late Jeff Ethell [on Speedvision? or Discovery Wings?] once featuring the P-40; IIRC, he said it was actually much more maneuverable than people give it credit for, nearly as much so as the Zero. Hmm, __ vs __ eh? Well, I'll concede this is strictly subjective; the biggest factor always being the skill/training/experience of the pilot at the controls of the given plane....buuuut, here goes: --ME 109 vs P-51: Mustang, easy--especially at higher alt's. Greater speed, greater agility [arguably], and range enough to loiter/fight longer. Plus, the P-51's heavier, had greater dive speed--German pilots couldn't dive away to escape the way they could against Spitfires --P-51 vs P-47: depends on what you wanna do with it. For tough-as-nuts reliability, the "Jug" hands down. Stories of P-47 pilots coming home with glowing-hot chunks of engine [literally] flying out from under the cowl, yet still making it to base definitly inspire confidence in their toughness. Plus more firepower [8 guns as opposed to 6] P-51 on the other hand? One slug to the radiator, an' she'll bleed to death in a few minutes' time. If I were going after ground targets, I'd want the Jug; if going after airplanes, gimme a P-51 --Spit vs Seafire: dunno; don't know enough about the Seafire --Corsair vs Hellcat: toss-up; probably the Hellcat. Weren't the Corsairs somewhat tricky/unforgiving to fly, or more specifically land? I think the Hellcat had a much higher kill ratio Don't have anywhere near enough room/funds to collect 1:18 warbirds, but still think they're cool as h-ll. Almost as cool as Valkyries! Yup, I keep 21st Century Toys' w'site bookmarked myself...

Dang, this article's a bitter pill to swallow. Somewhat irrelevant, given the Eagle's imminent replacement. But still; IIRC there was a program on the Military Ch[?] on some of the greatest fighter designs ever. One of the speakers was one of the designers of the F-15 Eagle [forgot his name], and he didn't think too highly of "whiz-bang" high-tech designs like the Raptor/JSF/etc. Said something to the effect that it tries to "wear too many hats," and isn't really optimized for the parameters of fighting [energy mgmt, maneuvering, etc], thus it won't likely make a truly great dogfighter...anyways, on to the article. "RUSSIAN FIGHTERS SUPERIOR, SAYS PENTAGON MOSCOW, RIA Novosti's military analyst Viktor Litovkin The American military amazed Moscow and the Russian media by saying that Russian-made fighter planes were superior to their American equivalents. How can these flattering revelations be explained? General Hal M. Hornburg told USA Today that India's Sukhoi Su-30 MKI multi-role fighters have been successful against F-15 C/D Eagle aircraft in mock combat. In fact, the Indians won 90% of the mock combat missions. USA Today reported: We may not be as far ahead of the rest of the world as we thought we were, said Gen. Hal Hornburg, the chief of the Air Combat Command, which oversees U.S. fighter and bomber wings...The F-15Cs are the Air Force's primary air superiority aircraft...[and] the results of the exercise [were] wake up call. The Inside the Air Force official newsletter also discussed the "Russian victory," and reported even more details. F-15 C/D Eagle fighters were pitted against not only Su-30 MKI fighters but also MiG-27s, MiG-29s, and even the older MiG-21 Bisons, which also performed well. The fighters not only defeated the F-15s but the French-made Mirage-2000 as well. According to the Washington ProFile Web site, the results of the exercises surprised the American pilots. Meanwhile, Russian military experts and aircraft designers did not seem surprised by these victories. The Sukhoi general designer, Mikhail Simonov, has repeatedly told RIA Novosti and other news agencies the Su-27 Flanker and the Su-30 MKI, a modified version of the Flanker, which are now in service in the Indian Air Force, were developed in the 1980s in response to the F-15 Eagle. Moreover, Soviet designers had stipulated far superior specifications. Consequently, Russian experts were not particularly surprised that the performance of the fighters matched their specifications. Why did an American general publicly admit this fact four months after the exercises? India's Su-30 MKI fighters and F-15 C/D Eagles from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, engaged in mock combat exercises in February 2004. However, no one mentioned that India won three of the four exercises at the time. Russian fighters first defeated their US rivals when Sukhoi and MiG fighters had just started being shown at international aerospace shows in the early 1990s. At that time, several Su-27 fighters, under the command of Maj.-Gen. Alexander Kharchevsky, the head of the Lipetsk center for retraining air force pilots, went to Canada to demonstrate their impressive potential. (President Vladimir Putin flew in a Su-27 to Chechnya.) Instead of missiles and artillery shells, Russian and American fighter planes used aerial cameras to record their mock air-to-air battles. American fighters were disappointed to learn the results of exercise - their cameras had not captured any Su-27s. The Russians, however, had filmed their rivals' vulnerable points from just about every angle. Russian pilots owed their impressive success to the Su-27's spectacular performance and its substantial thrust-to-weight ratio. The fighter's unsurpassed performance has already become well known throughout the world because no other fighter (except MiG fighters) can execute such impressive stunts as Pugachev's Cobra and others. The F-15, the F-16 and the F-18 have wide turning radii. Russian fighters, on the other hand, can turn on a dime by merely switch on their afterburners. Apart from in Canada, MiG-29 fighters also fought mock air battles with South Africa's Mirage-2000s. Again, the Russia planes defeated their enemies. Chief designer Arkady Slobodskoi, the supervisor of the MiG-29 program, said, "if our plane is within range of an opponent and has a direct shot, the enemy can be considered destroyed. It only takes 5-6 machine gun bursts." The United States, which is aware of the impressive combat potential of Russian fighters, had even purchased a squadron of MiG-29s from Moldova after the Soviet Union disintegrated. (That squadron was deployed at an airfield near Chisinau.) Germany, which had obtained a number of MiG-29s after reunification, helped repair the Moldovan fighters. Both Germany and the United States now use these aircraft to train their pilots, so that the pilots can cope with the 7,000 Russian fighters in the world. Britain's Military Balance magazine estimated that India had more than 500 Russian-made fighters. It was therefore not surprising that Indian pilots could defeat their American rivals, despite the U.S. Air Force's intensive combat-training programs. On the other hand, American pilots have not confronted any serious adversaries for a long time. The U.S. Air Force dominated the skies over Yugoslavia in 1999 and in Iraq in 1991 and 2003. Iraqi planes were grounded during both campaigns. Therefore, mock combat is the only way to amass experience. The long standing American Air Force mentality prevents its pilots from confronting their Russian counterparts because any possible setback would be detrimental to morale. An American Air Force pilot must be convinced that he can and must defeat the former "theoretical enemy." At the same time, these problems do not exist for mock combat exercises against Indian pilots because any defeats can be explained by inadequate training. Why did the United States inform the world about its setbacks? Neither Russian, nor U.S. generals like to do this. The explanation lies on the surface: The U.S. Congress discusses defense spending for the next fiscal year every June and therefore, top American military officials started talking about events in February 2004 now"

Yeah, the Regults in particular seemed to shrink and expand from ep to ep. Perhaps the best example of their relation in size was in the ep. in which Max/Misa/Hikaru/Kakizaki make their escape from Dolza in the stolen battlepod; the scene when they're picked up by the 3 VF's and taken back to the Macross shows a nice view of all the mecha in perspective. Wish there was a screen cap somewhere.

Being a child of the 80's, and a big fan of the original trilogy, it does kinda "spoil the magic" a little bit. But only a little. These are fuggin' hilarious! Some fans of the films may wish to pass up on this, allowing some of their memories to remain unspoilt. Aw hell, this can't do any worse than those "special edition" releases with all that behind-the-scenes stuff from Lucas himself--not to mention all the crap that's been changed/edited/hacked at his hand anyway... Oh what the hell. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVti1v-7yls...rch=star%20wars I think Lando's a bundle of nerves. He needs himself a Colt 45!

Damn, those are some wee-ierd avatars, sure 'nough. Creepy. Yet. Can't. Look. Away.

Oh yeah. Simply "Pimp-a-licious." The hell is that thing? I'm guessing it's got a very small disp. motor, for economy's sake? Which begs the question: does that thing even make enough torque to handle the extra rotating mass of that wheel/tire pkg? 0-60 must take around 8.6......minutes. Don't get me wrong. It's actually not too shabby looking. Except that dog di-k w'shield decal: "FABULOUS" Crosses the threshold of overkill to just plain tacky, self-satire. True coolness shouldn't have to be "broadcast" in such an overt manner, I'd say. Makes me think of that parody actor from the UK, Ali-G, is it?

There's only one discrepancy with the last linked chart. Note the size of the Daedalus pic down below the Macross; it's actually larger than it is as pictured docked with the Macross! What's up with the scale?

Yeah, it's all cool and everything...until that fu--er throws a conrod! My first thought too was: what happens if you have to get on the binders real hard? LOL, instant spin-cycle.

Never know what you'll find, between that youtube dot com and google video. Thought this was pretty neat, in that somebody had to put a substantial amt of time and effort into it. Kinda kewl...

Even as I look at this pic, the theme from Star Blazers keeps playing in my head over and over... Simply awesome. Now if only this thing was R/C and seaworthy. Isn't there a community somewhere in Europe that has a "miniature" city with a harbor, complete with mock battles between big-scale R/C ships?

This will almost certainly assure you a place of renown and admiration amongst Macross fans and modelers everywhere. I too can't wait to see the finished model. Of course, this begs the question: will a Prometheus model follow?

I saw the "breaking news" report on one of those so-called all-news-networks earlier today. I don't know what disgusts me more: the pompous, talking heads they have in front of the cameras, or the sensationalist nature of the networks' reporting. The way they kept showing the crash clip over and over and over again was sickening; that, plus that sanctimonious broad's patronizing the spokesman she interviewed. "...oh, just look at that crash..." They kept slowing the clip down more and more, as though some arsehole director was telling them to try to capture the actual "moment of death" or something. The fu--ing ghouls. "...and we bring you some breaking news this hour; sources at CNN are currently trying to confirm the story, but we bring you this news first...." Oh, so in other words you sickening fu--s aren't even sure that what you're reporting is fully acurate and true--but you're gonna report it anyway, just to be the first, huh?! Irresponsible is not the word to describe the general state of incompetence of the majority of these so-called all-news networks. Call me jaded, but that's why I generally can't stomach more than 2-3 minutes of watching those channels at a time. That, plus the fact they usually recycle the same 5 or 6 fu--ing stories every half-hour, over and over again throughout the day... Sorry, but I take offence at the way some of these networks hawk and peddle on death and tragedy they way they do. I was at Homestead in '03 when driver Jeff Clinton was killed in practice; saw the aftermath of what it did to his car [and him]. That s--t ain't nothin to take lightly. This is a serious, dangerous business, this racing. In spite of all the safety measures and advances, these guys are still dancing with death when they do what they do. There are only three sports--mountain climbing, bull fighting and motor racing. All the rest are glorified children's games. --Ernest Hemingway

Oh, okay I see now. Just went back and watched that scene; saw the 3 little "projectors" in the top of Roy's helmet this time. That's what's so neat about works like these that pay so much attention to details. There's so many little things to see and to catch. You notice something new/different each time you watch these. That's the difference between good cinema and great cinema--it's the ones that pay that extra amount, put that extra effort into the little details that rise above the rest.

I'm still having a bit of trouble working out some of the "what-goes-where" between modes on the SV-51. It looks like a LOT of stuff has to do some serious stretching/contorting to accomodate TF'ing from Battroid to Fighter; seems similar to the VF-19 though. Not as easy to picture as with the VF-0. But hey, I'm biased--I just like the VF better anyway...

Ah, thanks for the clarification. So, we're pretty much "tampered goods" eh? It figures as much. Damned aliens, with their anal probes, and thier cow-butchery, and their crop circles... Oh, wait a minute; they've got them cool ass transforming robots and such. Guess they ain't all that bad.

Don't be fooled by the stellar cast and pseudo big-budget trailer--this is B-movie cheese at its best! The fact that Samuel L. is in it is probably the only thing saving this flick from being relegated straight to the end of the rental rack at the video store.... Not at all surprising how larger studios are trying to cash in on the cult-status niche that is the B-movie. *best Samuel L. voice* "Snakes mother fu--er, do you see them?!" Oh, you know they're gonna work the dialogue some way so he can bellow out a line like that in there somewhere...

Roy was the man. The fact that he could turn and face/shoot down incoming barrages of missiles headed straight for him--as he does multiple times in MZero--affirms this. What injured him and eventually cost him his life was simply "the golden BB," as referred to by pilots of years-past. It was a random thing; it was simply his time, that's all. Somewhat overdue, considering his vast experience in combat, in 3 different conflicts, no less. Sucks donkey's balls, but that's war, and that's why war is so deplorable. Good people who by all other accounts shouldn't fall sometimes do. At least, that's what I gathered that SK was trying to impress upon his audience. But yes, Roy should have lived, dammit! "How can you be ready to fight if you're scared to drink?!"

Oh yeah, I meant to ask for clarification on something in ep. 1, I think: when Roy's fighting DD and has to fend off a missile barrage, we see a close up of him glancing quickly from target to target. Are we to take it that Roy's skill is so great and his reflexes so fast in combat that his eyes are actually moving faster than the computer's own little red targeting dots? or is this some sort of target tracking interface that follows his head/eye movement, similar to the Apache chopper's?

Macross Wars: A New Hope. I been meaning to rent that one. As near as I can make out, the whole premise of MZero is that some many thousands of years ago, an alien culture [not the same "proto-culture" responsible for the Zentraedi, Supervision Army, etc. I gather?] came to Earth and "helped along" man's evolution to some degree, altering human DNA, etc. as is stil evident in the Mayan islanders' blood samples. Perhaps they deemed mankind too violent and warlike in nature, and apparently upon leaving Earth, the bird man Kardun [or "Carlton" as some subtitles called it, LOL] was left behind as a sort of safe-guard? I think the bird man was left behind to make sure man couldn't spread his wicked ways to other civilizations, should he ever become capable of space travel. Just a theory based on this. When Kardun awakes, he asks Sara if man has managed to make space ships yet, and if they are still fighting wars. When she affirms, he says something to the affect of "precautions must be taken" and promptly begins blasting the nearby ships. I don't think this alien culture was meant to be taken as the same that's responsible for the Macross. After all, in all the vastness of the Macross universe what are the odds of there only being one or two other cultures besides human?

Oh yeah, I forgot about that part; in fact, I tried to forget that. What's that game called? Doesn't matter. I know, it owes to cultural differences and what-not--but straight up, to the honorable and good people of Japan: seriously, y'all need to stop that sh-t. Man, that'd be like, grounds for starting a fight in some cultures. I suppose in others, it'd get you a date....

Most likely order of production [if sales are good enough to warrant]? 1. VF-0S 2. VF-0A 3. VF-0 GPB armor *maybe* 4. VF-0D After watching MZero, it begs the question: if Roy's GPB armor was tough enough to deflect all those rounds from DD's cannon [rounds were bouncing off his shield too], why didn't they just make the whole damned plane out of GPB armor? Sort of like that old running airlines "black box" joke...

It's not so much what they said, but the whole Shin-flying-off-into-space thing that had me thinking: hey wait just a dang a minute! didn't Sara just ask you to watch out for Mao? Where do you think you're going? Yeah, it was funny when at certain parts bits of the dialogue was obviously "lost in translation" for the subtitles. LOL, by pt. 5, they were calling Mao "Mayor," and poor Roy was called everything from "Rooylu" to "George" at one point. And apparently, the alien is named Carlton? It was funny how they translated the air traffic controllers too, even though they spoke some English [albeit, through seriously heavy accents]. "Skull one, Skull two, cata-pult ready!" C'mon guys, why even translate for the subtitles? we can make that out; no need to make work where it isn't necessary. The story wasn't all that bad to me, even if it was pretty familiar: 1. You've got the young "hero" in the form of Shin, who gets taken under Roy's wing so to speak, and gets somewhat involved in a love triangle with Sara and Mao. While it doesn't really develop into anything with either girl, it's apparent that there's some attraction to both. But it's good that nothing did come of Mao's attraction though; she just seemed too dang young. How old is she supposed to be? 14? 15? That woulda just been foul. 2. And there's the importance of music. Apparently it played a critical role in Sara's being able to tap into the alien powers, and its correlation to human emotions had something to do with awakening the bird man, didn't it? 3. There's your female ace and her equally skilled male counterpart; only this time, they're already lovers, and they're both on the "enemy's" side, in Lali and DD. [And boy, did they both die gruesome deaths!] 4. And of course, if you're gonna have anything Macross, you've got to have a scene in which a big-ass alien ship fires a big-ass gun and obliterates a bunch of ships in spectacular fashion, which we got. Straight-up peeled them destroyers! But hey, at least Roy lived all the way through this one--I'll take that as a small victory! Sure, there are inconsistencies with the "official" Macross timeline [i thought Destroids didn't come online 'til 2007, VF's until '09?]. True, the mecha did in some ways look more advanced than those that came "after" them in Macross [the Cheyenne looked like a really-advanced Tomahawk/Spartan cross]. Okay, so there are plotholes you could drive a pickup through [like, why would the Anti-UN want TF mecha anyway? did they have access to Ataria Island post-'99 too?]. Yes, there are some parts that don't make sense; like if the VF-0's use turbofans "tuned to the max" 'cause thermonukes aren't available yet, how the h-ll did Shin fly the 0D underwater? I do kinda wish the CG could blend a little closer with the hand drawn--maybe it's the color palettes used, or something. But all-in-all, I won't knock it. I got to see VF's in amazing detail, doing amazing things, which for a Valkyrie lover like me is one helluva good fix. Now obviously, some of these are self-answering questions, I know. Why did the Anti-UN need TF mecha? So there'd be somebody for the Valkyrie pilots to fight, of course! Yes, I realize a lot of these things are plot-device concerned. Was the SV-51 meant to be seen as superior to the VF-0? I know Lali and DD scoffed at them when they learned of them in the series; but they seemed pretty evenly matched in all the combat scenes. Naturally, I'm biased towards the Valkyrie. But was the Anti-UN's technology actually superior to that of the UN gov't or something?

Just finished watching ep. 5 last night; the very end was a little bit fu--ed up. "...Shin is the bird man"? WTF is that?! I think the series more than fulfilled its mission; i.e. giving us early Macross-era mecha [or at least, near equivalents], making much better use of high end animation and CG technology to provide visual punch that SK wouldn't have dreamed possible for his creations back in '82. A lot of the central themes from the first Macross are here, but with lots and lots more eye candy. And the details! The beautiful, beautiful details of the Valkyries in flight. Glorious... I know if Yamato does go further with the VF-0 toy line, the A model is likely to come next. But I'd actually like to see a VF-0D more. I've grown attached to that one somewhat. It's overall shape brings to mind other canonical jets of that "era" like the Dragon and the MiM from Macross. It "fits" in that era of Macross best of all, I'd think...

okay, so I'm d'loading/watching pt 5 now [again, crap-tastic load times], and all I can say is: Marvellous. Bloody Marvellous! I guess now I can go back and search the Zero-related threads, now that I can put what people said into context. Before, I figured "I probably won't watch this," so I never followed them closely before. Now people's discussions about "flying rocks," "bird man" and such make much more sense, and the series isn't nearly as abstract and nonsensical as I thought it might be. In fact, I love it! Thank you, Kawamori-san!