David Hingtgen

That's just what I'm talking about--there's a whole bunch of little slots and flaps around the sides of the engine, and I want to know what they do. The most intriguing theory is that they can move enough to actually vector the exhaust for yaw, not just "tweak" it. If so, then the F-22 actually has 3-D vectoring, or thereabouts. (Or the oft-said "2.5D") And something like "pssst..it actually has 3D vectoring" could be tried to kept secret for a while...

No, I meant only the ventral bay. Inside that, it can hold either 6 AMRAAMs, or 2 1,000lb JDAMs, or 2 500lb JDAMs and 2 AMRAAMS. Since the F-22's stealthiness w/external ordnance is on par with that of a UPS truck, most people only talk about the internal carriage. And 2,000lbs are surely not going to fit. It was designed to hold AMRAAM's, nothing else. They BARELY got the smaller JDAM's to fit, so they could call it an F/A-22 instead of an F-22. If you want to count external ordnance, the thing could carry practically anything you want. It's bigger than an F-15E. As for vectoring--I need close-up, interior, angled shots of an installed, final engine in an actual F/A-22. No prototypes of any kind. Most F119 shots are test engines, and in YF-22's. Nozzles tend to change a LOT before a plane's in service. And I do not know whether what I'm looking for is actually part of the engine, the vectoring nozzle, or the plane itself. Most drawings do show that they exist, but not exactly how they work, or if they even do anything other than sit there. (As in, do they move, rotate, pivot, translate, etc? All of them, half of them, etc) And if so--how/when/why? Vectoring only, counteract yawing action, general nozzle control, afterburner control, etc?

Hey, nobody else takes tailpipe shots, the world needs to know! (Actually, I'm in it more for COLOR, than anything else---"jet exhaust" simply isn't specific enough a color of paint) Of course, I need to know if the the side-mounted supplemental flaps really do exist, that'll take a GOOD shot of the interior of the nozzle... Official site: http://www.f-22raptor.com/ Unofficial site: http://www.f22-raptor.com/ Anyways, air-to-ground maxes out at 2 1,000lb JDAM's. But the preferred load is 2 500lb JDAMs plus 2 AMRAAM's. (it'll fit) F-22 is heavily AMRAAM-optimized, it'll take them if at all possible.

I believe Italeri has an actual F/A-22, 1/48.

F-22 was "uglified" from the YF-22. YF looks better... (And of course, the -23 beats all, coolest-looking plane EVER) Anyways, OT is another tailcode for Eglin. The wargames/testing part, not operational squadrons.

So far, only Smokescreen's out AFAIK. So I too will hold out until Sideswipe's been found. Normally, Iowa is quite good at getting new TF's, but lately it's been pretty poor. Silver(blue)streak is just so cool however, I might import him from Japan.

Yellow/brown is pretty much world-wide for all armed forces. Red's about the only alternate color you'll see--I think Norway does red... They're intl' warning safety-stripes. I could look up all the colors if you want, but yellow means live warhead, brown means live rocket motor. Overall body color was white for about 30 years, which is what you see on screen most of the time for Macross. Now that they're 36375 grey, Macross has changed to follow suit--thus you see grey missiles in M Zero. PS--fins are bare steel, nosecones usually white. (Until we make grey nosecones---nosecones are made in color, not painted--and we've got a LOT of white ones to use up)

I've played too many games to list anything less than "top 50 for each genre" so I'll just list those with the best story, IMHO. Not in order: Xenogears Ace Combat 4 (short but very good) FF6 FF7 FF10 Chrono Trigger Valkyrie Profile (must..have..sequel...) Ninja Gaiden (hey, for 8-bit, it was deep) Shooters that are simply cool: Thunderforce 5, Darius Twin, Panzer Dragoon Zwei

Well, about the ultimate Tolkien site is: http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/default.htm Everything, every book. As I recall, there's multiple blue wizards originally (as in, like 4,000 years ago), but I get the feeling that in the time of LOTR, most wizards aren't around anymore. Either dead, gone somewhere else, or simply don't care about mortal's problems, etc. There is no account for most wizards. Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast are about the only ones we know much about.

Fairly common mistake on recent JP TF's. World's Smallest TF's have it all over their boxes.

ewilen---those aren't contrails. Basically the opposite--only visible at low altitude. Contrail=CONdesation TRAIL. Not vortex trails. If you see something coming off a wingtip, or strake, or even flaps, it's caused by a vortex. This is also the "cloud" enveloping the Concorde's wings at high AOA. (Concordes fly via vortex-generation, unlike most aircraft) Now as for a sonic-boom-style cloud: well that's yet another thing. For that, as you approach Mach 1, the air gets SO compressed it literally squeezes the water vapor out of the air and all the vapor has nowhere to go so it condenses, thus making a visible cloud. The end results all look the same, but the reasons are different.

Contrails are ice crystal formations (actually a cloud, just an unusual shape), formed by when the hot vapor exiting an engine's exhaust encounters the cold dry air at high altitude, and it takes the right temp/pressure/altitude to do so. Also, the vast majority of water vapor in contrails comes from the surrounding air, not the plane itself. No contrails in warm air/low altitudes. And no contrails at extremely high altitudes. Thus, no contrails in space, since the pressure is zilch, and water vapor is zilch. PS---contrails are nearly identical to when you can "see your breath" in cold weather---warm moist air from your mouth condenses when exposed to cool dry air.

Awesome---especially for those of us who don't like stickers/decals on their cars: http://www.hasbro.com/transformers/pl/page.../dn/default.cfm

Yes, but that's not my point. My point is that how quickly they are reached is also a factor, and can be a GREATER factor than simply how many G's there are. Yes, 10G's will knock most anybody out. But pilots who can hold normally hold 8 or 9 G's with few problems, will find themselves knocked totally unconscious from only 5 or 6G's, if the onset is rapid enough.

If you're trying to make an FS model, I suggest getting the Macross Design Works book. Page 98 shows how -19 gear works. Hard to describe, but I'll try: To retract, the main strut retracts back and to the side, to lay diagonally across the well. There's a small horizontal strut that connects the main strut and the wheel. This facilitates a "Z-fold" so that the wheel can fold up close to the main strut and lay flat across the wheel well. Here's a bad, quick, drawing showing it folded up.

Heh heh. My latest character was the buffest ever--I should see if I can do 2 rounds without stims, too.

Yeah---I never had any menu/load/save problems. But had serious money problems as a light-sider! Hint---use all those stimumlants/adrenal stuff etc. Especially bosses. I can kill the final boss in TWO rounds if I just use everything. (Use one of everything, and it's like +20 to all stats, +120HP, etc) You can use the basic, hyper, and battle version of everything all together. Ok, one more hint. While most places tell you that the lightsaber is unique among weapons in that either dex or strength determines its hit(whichever is higher), that doesn't affect damage. Regardless of what your other stats are, the lightsaber depends on strength for damage. So really high dex still isn't as good as really high strength, despite the "dex vs str" trying to even it out for non-Soldier jedi. Final hint: customize a character, don't dare go with a created one. Intelligence=utterly worthless. Also, charisma DOES affect most force powers, though just not quite as much as widsom. If you're going dark, bump up both. Weak Force Lightning is no fun at all, versus zapping entire groups in a single shot for instant death.

Yeah, Valk-Exchange has like time-warp shipping. I once got a VF-1J BEFORE the shipping notice got to me.

Love KOTOR. Played once as a light guy (wanted to be like Qui-Gon but nobody was to close), and like 3 times as a dark female. (Way more fun). Also, started many games and only played enough hours to see how various character models looked when "totally dark". (Fastest I've ever been totally dark is like 3:20) bugs: well, a guaranteed bug is playing KOTOR, then resetting the Xbox without powering off, then starting a new game of KOTOR. There's really no need to reset, since you can re-load at the save screen, but if you happen to reset(due to FMV's stuttering, voice clips being off, etc), it'll happen. Once or twice the game took like 20 secs to load a voice clip in a cut scene, but strangely, ALL bugs only happened in my first game. Everything since has been fine. The infamous "Carth bug" is easily avoided by picking Juhani. (I mean c'mon, the only 2 choices are really Juhani or Mission----and I'll always go with the Jedi Guardian vs 14-year-old-girl) FMV playback is dependent upon planetary alignment, time of day, and room humidity it seems... (Having played though several times, and the first few hours many times, FMV's can either stutter like crazy, or be silky smooth---it's just how the Xbox is feeling that day) And replay value is insanely high. Finally, this is about the only game for which I prefer the old huge controller. Start/black/white button placement, since you use them SO often in this game.

I often think I'm the only one who's read the books, but like the movies even better. See, I've read the whole thing like 3 times. When I was about 12, 16, and 20. Not 550 times, every week for the past 20 years and run www.lotrtotallyrules.com. So I know it, but I haven't memorized it. I don't notice minor deviations in the story (or heck, even pretty major ones). And I honestly think LOTR the movie is better. A lot of the "junk" that simply wasn't that good/boring was cut out (especially the first book) and the good parts (Moria etc) were expanded.

Yup. You'll note that a lot of the premier air-to-air Tomcat squadrons (Black Aces, Tophatters) are being replaced with F-18F's, not E's. No subsitute for a 2nd crewman.

Yup, pretty good summary of the F-14D/Cheney.

EA-6 will be around for a little while longer. My main point is--they're much older than Tomcats, and have been out of production for a long time. But the lines/jigs are still ok, to make new parts. And literally, new wings, since they wear out after 35 years... But Cheney ordered the F-14 jigs destroyed, to specifically prevent new parts. That's just unheard of. You never destroy the jigs, not until the design is so old nobody would need parts/the manufacturer can't support it. F-4 jigs are gone, but most everything else newer is still around. I think you can still get C-2/E-2 parts for example. But 1990+ build F-14's could fly for 20 more years, if they had parts. So instead of the Navy being able to fly planes for decades and get their money's worth, they'll be forced to scrap relatively new, modern planes (newer than the F-16C and F-15E for example) as soon as they run out of parts. I mean, think of it this way: Buy a new 2004 car. Then, in 2005, the manufacturer stops supporting it (not because they want to, they've got orders for many more--but Cheney says no)---so no parts, no repairs, nothing. Just what's left at the dealership's warehouse. You're pretty screwed if something happens to it, and out of a lot of money. And your only option is to buy a new car that costs twice as much. It may be better in some ways like fuel economy and trunk space, but it's smaller and not nearly as fast, with less power. That's the F-14D vs F-18E story. F-14D's are pretty new and in good shape generally. But there's no parts available, and major repairs can't be done (since you generally need to send back to the factory for anything really serious). Many squadrons which had switched to F-14B/D's had to switch back to A's because there weren't enough parts available to keep them flying. (A's were made for 20 years, plenty of spare parts for a while back then--but the B and D were killed off as soon as they started making them). So D's were restricted to like 1 squadron per 2 wings, to ensure enough parts to keep a fully operation squadron at all times, rather than multiple squadrons with half their planes out of service wanting parts.

Older planes need more maintenance, unavoidable. 5 year-old 747-400's need less maintenance than 10-year-old 747-400's, even if built to identical specs as part of the same large order. Also, the F-14 is simply a much older design "ease of maintenance-wise". The F-14 was the last "old-style" with the F-15 being the first "new-style". F-15's will be around for a LONG time because of that. F-14's were basically designed so that "maintenance is possible", while the F-15 is "maintenenace is quick and easy". Want to open just about any hatch to get to a component on an F-14? Undo 3 latches, get out a screw driver, undo 30 screws, and disconnect every single wire by hand. On an F-15 or F-16? Open a latch, 2 or 3 screws, and quick-disconnect the one big wire/cable bundle. 20 secs instead of 20 mins. F-15's can have an entire engine+afterburner removed and reinstalled in under 20 mins. Of course, it's a lot cheaper to keep your maintenance-intensive F-14's than buy a bunch of new planes... (Since Navy planes need constant maintenance anyways, due to the environment---paint and primer, 24/7). Also, F-14D's are a lot better than A's, new reliable engines, new reliable electronics, etc.

Well, the OVA actually kind of has an F-14A/D. It's MOSTLY a D, but has some A parts, most obviously the cockpit of an A. (Which makes it very hard to model).