David Hingtgen

Well I didn't know it wasn't going to focus until the pics came back. I've never photographed bare titanium before in a museum. That camera (now retired) had never not focused on anything, even stealths, but it didn't like the M-21. Nowadays I have a digital, so I can more easily adjust stuff, and get instant feedback on the pics. Will be a while before I'm in Seattle again though.

Is her eye color fixed? Blue eyes are best with pink or red hair. Green eyes are good with green or purple hair. If she has purple hair (my fave) than magenta eyes are really good. (of course for real life, nothing's better than a blue-eyed redhead)

There's one M-21 left, it's in Seattle. In fact, it is the EXACT plane in the photo above. Hard as hell to photograph though, the bare polished titanium finish with matte black stripes really messes with the camera. Every pic I took came out horrible. Has a D-21 mounted on it, too.

That's because that's how about 99.9% of Americans (including me until I found out it was wrong) pronounce Fokker. I need to meet more Fokker pilots etc. and see what pronunciation variations I find....

Real world stuff: 12 fighters per squadron. 3 squadrons per wing. A group is generally a wing as well, but some big wings are split into two groups, (and each group might have several squadrons), thus making a HUGE wing. Usually, a wing will 3 squadrons of the same thing--3 F-15C fighters, 3 F-15E, 3 F-16's, etc. But if there's 4, you'll usually split it into 2 groups of 2 different things-- 2 F-15E's and 2 A-10's, or 2 F-16's and 2 F-15's. So if there's 3 squadrons, it'll be a single group/wing, but if there's 4, it'll be split into two groups that make up the single wing. Then there's multiple wings per air force, then all the air forces together make up the US Air Force. (Main air forces are 8th, 9th, and 12th. 1st is the ANG, 10th is the reserves, most of the others are overseas, primarily Japan/Korea, and UK/Germany/Italy) Navy squadrons are however big they need to be, usually 10 or 12 planes each. A Naval carrier air wing is huge though, 6-9 squadrons.

Yes, both.

It depends. For any formal announcements (to your squadron, ground, AWACS, etc) it'll be the flight's call sign plus flight number (Air Force) or squadron call sign plus modex number (Navy, and I think Marines). Thus, if you were flying the Jolly Roger's CAG plane, you'd report in as "Victory 101". (Call signs aren't the squadron names, and are often TOTALLY unrelated). If it was an Air Force F-16 or something, it's usually something like Wolf, Viper, Stiletto, Hammer, etc. "Viper 52" for the flight or something. Now, as for personal call signs, they're used all time time, for one-on-one, etc. If you're just calling your wingman, or talking to the RIO, they seem to use the callsigns ALL the time, at least from what I've read. Finally--people don't pick their callsigns, they're given to you, and are often derogatory. Callsigns aren't Iceman, Viper, etc. They're Stinky, Greasy, Dogboy, etc. If you're lucky, it'll be something like Smiley, Gizmo, or Froggy. Though my all time fave was a Lt Royce. Call sign "Rolls". Also fond of Cmdr (I think) "Race" Bannon. (Though so few people get that nowadays, but it's so perfect if you get it). Just saw a call sign "Psycho" a few days ago on TV. (F-15 pilot).

Ironically, "Fokker" was actually "correcting" the name to a real-world aviation name. But Focker was, IMHO, an INTENTIONAL miss-spelling from Kawamori, like the dozens of other "almost spelled like" aviation names throughout all of Macross. Either due to a joke, or avoiding copyright infringement.

I always mainly refer to Fokker's commercial planes. They ALL rock and always have. Combat planes--only their really early ones were good, they fell behind after WWI. Their final aircraft was the F70, a shortened version of the F100 but with just as much power. Here's one of the few that was in service in the US: (I have personally seen this exact one, there was only 2 like this)

Sweden's always done well (SAAB), though it's always been considered surprising how a small country can make world-class planes alone. Even the UK and Germany haven't gone alone for a while. France just keeps modifying the Mirage XKR2M01 2000 Mk 6 ver 9.0 Platinum edition. (The Rafale's a Mirage with canards and we all know it)

Yeah, but where can you gloves like this for a young boy?

Hmmn. Jupiter's not bad, but Mars was the best. (There was a thread about this a while ago)

Yup, Fokker=very famous Dutch aircraft manufacturer. Big obvious hint: Hikaru is playing with a FOKKER toy plane, and it breaks when Roy dies. Unless it's a total coincidence written into that episode for no reason. Anyways---Fokker is pronounced "Fock-er". Yes, 99.9% of Americans (including Fokker pilots) pronounce it "Foke-er", but I asked a Dutch guy who was interested in aviation, and he says it's "Fock-er". And I'll trust a Dutch guy who knows planes on how to pronounce a Dutch aviation name. So Fokker is the right spelling, but Focker is the right pronunciation.

Don't you mean the salmon pink Comet? Anyways, wow, a rocket in a hour. I couldn't build an Estes Alpha that quick, and you guys got a 8-footer! Anyways, (maybe a stupid question) is the K530 a K-class motor?

It's from 1/67 to 1/70 I think. Don't recall if Graham ever got the EXACT number. Anyways, the canopy was slightly changed for the heatshield, hip bars are said to be strengthened, and I think there was a slight change to the shoulder slider bars to prevent them from scraping pain on the calf sides in fighter mode. No holes were added/removed/changed to accomodate FAST packs, it's always been able to.

The VF-11MAXL and MAXL Kai only have the ENGINES of the VF-16, they're not based on it. VF-11 modified to VF-11MAXL is exactly the same situation (on purpose) as the F-16 modified to F-16XL. (unless you think it's pure coincidence that aviation enthusiast Kawamori used "VF-16" and "XL" to explain the new VF-11, and it just happens to look like an F-16XL) http://www.anime.net/macross/mecha/united_...vf11/index.html

FAST packs came with the F-15C, not the E. They were in service long before Macross came about. It's just that the E has them 99.9% of the time, and has almost no bombing capabilities without them, and is HEAVILY associated with them. The C rarely uses them, usually only North Atlantic intercept missions. ::quick check:: First FAST packs were flying by 1974--plenty of time for Kawamori to learn about them before Macross.

Yeah, might want to toss the VB-6 (it isn't even a VF, it's a VB ) and add in the VF-0. (My fave's the -19 BTW)

I sure would complain(had there only ever been short stack MPC's seen). Prime's stacks should be long, no matter what. Especially since he hauls a trailer. Short stacks not only look really stupid (both my opinion and truckers I've asked regarding the subject---yes, truckers are aware there's a very famous TF named Prime that's a truck) but they're impractical on one which hauls a trailer of any height. (And Prime appears to have your standard trailer, if a bit short---more like a 45-footer at best, rather than a 48 foot) (Semi's aren't universal, they are equipped to haul either trailers *or* tankers---while the exact same model of truck can be configured either way, you generally do not switch once it's been built, since it takes a lot of time and money to change equipment, and you may need also to change the stacks)

100th reply! And I'm 23.

Anyone love the "Ep 20" opening at the beginning? Anyways---huh, wha? I lean more towards the "Truman Show" explanation than anything else. They've been showing there's no sky for a while in zoomed-out shots of the city, it's a LOT like the Truman Show's upper level. Heck, having it all a show gone wrong explains a lot. At least Macross shows make sense at the end. Usually everything's been blown up to save someone, and people head off to further reaches of the galaxy.

Just me being anal, (as I always am with planes), but the color's off. You want more of a tan, not orangey brown. SEA camo (the standard Vietnam camo for most everything) is Dark Green FS34079, Medium Green FS34102, and Dark Tan FS30219. (Unlike most colors, these don't have names, merely "dark" or "medium"---they're so common they're the defacto standard)

Yup, micro-etc only for decals. About the only thing you can do to stickers is heat them with a hair dryer, so they'll conform better.

Wow, Sea Harrier schemes work great on the VF-11. And I love the 899 anniv. style one, have a Corgi 1/72 like that. Ah yes, the Pukin' Dogs. 2nd-greatest name of all time, after the Flamin' Hookers. (But the 143 has SUPER Tomcats)

Oh man, an aviation question that I missed out on answering...