David Hingtgen

Few things show up on radar better than spinning jet engine blades. I'd imagine a helicopter's rotor would be the same. But staying low to the ground is a big help, fighter radars always have problems with picking up stuff low to the ground.

Who knew the Su-27 had engaged the MiG-29 in combat (and won, big time)? http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_189.shtml For that matter, that entire war went unreported, I don't recall ever hearing about it.

F-15's have bombed choppers in mid-air, I bet a Super Hornet could too. Though an Apache's a lot faster than most choppers.

Actually I have been quite out of the loop as of late, when it comes to Red Dwarf. I mean, I live in Iowa, it's amazing they air it at all. Occasionally. Out of order. In the summer. I knew Trek was big in Japan, but I really wondered if the humor of Red Dwarf would carry over well. (Trek has little/no humor, no translation worries--fake technobabble is fake technobabble in any language)

Starbug! With Mini-Rimmer! Who knew Red Dwarf was even known in Japan? http://www.hlj.com/showreports/ths04/scifi...os07331-01.html

I'm just going to make a special mention for Yu-Gi-Oh, for having no semblance of plot whatsoever. It is nothing more than a very long, animated manual/tips/strategies for playing the game. In a 1,000x more blatant way than Pokemon/Beyblade are. "But if you had acquired the red-eye dragon card, available in expansion set 4, you would be able to counter that attack in only 2 moves!!! Now watch as I rearrange my deck to include more ice-elemental attacks. Mwah ha ha ha" Tune in tomorrow to learn how to defeat armored harpies if you don't have any lightning counter-attack cards... I am fully aware of cartoon/toy tie-ins (it all started with He-Man and the retraction of an FCC ruling AFAIK), but Yu-Gi-Oh is so far beyond all the others. He-Man, and all other "80's toys-toons", no matter how inane and toy-istic, still had stuff happen/plot.

And I've just been waiting a long time to post this somewhere on MW.com, and this is a good enough chance. Late in the game, my 4-plane squadron (with me at the lead) will probably look something like this: (God I wish I could see a Russian airshow someday)

Hopefully they'll let us fly higher this time! Need 80,000ft for an anti-satellite shot. Anyways---one of the disappointments for me in AC4 was the lack of "normal" Flankers. Yes, most games have too many, but AC4 had only the most advanced, not-in-service-and-might-never-be-in-service Super Flanker prototypes, etc. Su-27 would have been welcome, as would the Su-33. Su-32/34 have good export chances, and the 30MKK and 30MKI are in service. So anyways---what Flankers in what schemes do you want in the game? IMHO, one of the all-time coolest camo schemes period, is the Ukranian splinter camo which is slowly being applied to their Flanker squadrons. It fades rather quickly, so this one looks much more "rich" than the usual in-service ones. Amazing that this is "everyday" camo.

Will have a post later once a certain site is working again, but in the mean time I thought of something: AC always has "hidden" planes in missions---like the SR-71 and XB-70 which are worth BIG points if you can find and shoot them down in AC4. Any ideas/wants for this kind of stuff in AC5? Cool "what-if" XB-70 schemes: http://www.jsfedwards.com/b70.html

That's a new one for me. But if nothing else, it looks cool. "New trend replaces painted brake calipers: disc patterns! "

I was just thinking, a perfect way that we wouldn't "mind" wingmen so much: If we get credit for their kills. Or partial credit. Or if unlocking new planes can also count kills/exp from your other squadron members. Think how awesome this would be: You fly an F-14A, and work towards getting the F-14B. You assign your wingmen to fly F-15C's, and their kills count towards unlocking the F-15E! That'd be great. Just make wingmen kills worth less than your own, to encourage unlocking planes "yourself".

I dislike a lot of the 3rd colors in AC4. I do like the F-14, F-15, Su-37, and X-02 one though. Anyways, it's coming: http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/sim/acecombat5/news_6110309.html Also--lol, "air to ground AND air to surface" attacks.

Just looked it up: RB01 is the designation for the 2-seat non-naval Rafale PROTOTYPE. AC has always mixed up "specific aircraft designation" with "model type" for the Rafale family. It's like if they said "F-14 AB204". Well, that's a specific plane in a squadron, not a type. Same for "RB01". Quick Rafale list: Rafale C: Standard Rafale. Rafale B: 2-seat Rafale. Rafale M: Naval Rafale Rafale N: 2-seat Naval Rafale Yes, B and C are 'backwards' for their names. And I don't know why AC says "80% parts commonality" for the B and M, I figure it'd be like 95%---they look about as similar as a US Naval and a Canadian land-based Hornet.

I'll pick up on the F-20 vs Gripen after I re-read my main Gripen info. (Too late tonight, gotta go to bed, already up later than I planned) Gripen's great and as modern as it gets, but the F-20 is just so darn lightweight and agile, and has its 30 sec start-up. Might want to add in the X-29 too, another plane with a single F404. I've got to read up more on the Rafale too, since AC5 has the RM01 and RB01. I honestly hadn't heard of a "RB01" until I saw it on the AC site!

Going to have to look it up. I know one does, and one doesn't. ::looks:: Ok it seems (according to WAPJ), early ADV's didn't have auto-sweep, but later ones did, and early ones are were retrofitted. Checking more, they specifically mean F2 vs F3. Upgraded F2's are F2a's, but are now out of service (since they never got the engine upgrade--it's possible they simply couldn't). So all F3's were built with auto-sweep, with F2's being retrofitted.

I don't think the ADV has auto-sweep, only the IDS does. As you can imagine, manually selecting from 4 positions is far inferior to the F-14's constantly changing infinite positions. ADV with ALARM: often said to be "Finally, a role the ADV can be good at!" BTW--anyone know if the ADV is in AC5? I've always wanted it much more than the IDS. Would be nice to have, maybe inbetween the F-16 and F-18 purchases, instead of a Mirage 2000 or something.

Tornado ADV's not a good dogfighter because: 1. Wingsweep doesn't have "infinite" positions like the F-14. It has 4 positions--fully swept, fully unswept, and 2 more inbetween. 2. It's a heavy bomber with a new nose. 3. Low engine power, especially at high altitude. Again, the airframe and engines were designed for low-level flight. 4. Tremendous drag. Same problem as the F-111 had---the back end produces WAY more drag than calculated/expected. Really no fix for that. Back-end drag is hard to predict, especially when the back end just "stops". Both the F-14 and Flanker have a lot of rear fuselage between/behind the nozzles to prevent this--adds a bit of weight, but prevents the possibility of finding 30% more drag than you expected... All in all, the Tornado ADV (though I love the design) is little more than a fighter bomber with an air-to-air radar and medium-range missiles.

AFAIK, Su-33 has same engines as standard Su-27. Improved engines rumored for the later-built ones, but no confirmation. And as said--more weight/drag. However, it does have canards which are an automatic bonus. Plus, it has a wholly redesigned roll-control system. Most Flankers have a wing identical to an F-16 for control---one big LE flap, and one big trailing edge flaperon. Su-33's have inboard flaps, center flaperons (though more flap-like than most flaperons), and outboard flaperons. Can mix and match as necessary for roll/lift generation. Remember, Su-33 is air-to-air only, it's optimized for dogfights, and has 2 more underwing pylons than the others to have 8 AA-10's and 4 AA-11's as the standard load.

That's nothing, you should see how Hasegawa does aircraft. 1/72 F-16's and F-18's cost 2 or even 3 times as much as they did in the late 90's. Why? New decals! At least the Macross ones don't double their price every time they change decals.

For almost all of AC4's planes, the first is Mobius 1 color, the 2nd color is another ISAF color, and the 3rd usually is "anything", but often the FEAF. Su-37 Yellow 13 is the only definite bad guy, and their insignia is a hollow red circle. EASA is different.

Nied---been wondering where you were! Haven't seen a post from you in a while. Make it to Oceana's show? J-12: I actually like how it looks. From the side, very nice, almost YF-23-esque. From above--better than JSF by far, better than the F-22 by a bit. Looking at it more--I don't know if it'll fly. Tail-less non-delta? That much reverse sweep on the wing trailing edge with that much structure ahead of the wings, and with such a broad, non-lift-producing fuselage (it's not even blended wing/body)---I doubt the center of gravity and center of lift will allow a tailless design, even with FBW. And it doesn't really have LEX's or a chine, it's just got really wide fat intakes on the side. Finally---close the main gear doors, no need to let them just hang open like that--massive drag. MKI vs Shornet: Su-30MKI. AA-11's are far better than AIM-9M's, and could easily be better than the AIM-9X. And it's got a 30mm cannon, and can point its nose like no other plane.

Ah. (I really don't follow PC games---my current computer actually has ZERO games installed, and my last only had 1). I used to be pretty big on PC games, but not any more.

::reads preview:: Hey, F-4B through J, yet only one type of Crusader? (F-8E) Do they have any idea how many types of Crusaders there were, and how different their performance was? I mean, I like F-8D's and F-8H's myself... That's like having only F-16A Block 10's or something...

The expected "Phoenix replacement" is to be either a boosted AMRAAM, or an AMRAAM with Meteor-style ramjets. Either way, Super Hornet gets it first, since they NEED a long-range missile with the Phoenix gone. And Tomcats still can maintain higher ingress and egress speeds with the same bombload as a Shornet, and don't need to tank on the way home either.

I meant that's the only game with an F-8. Ever, AFAIK.