Retracting Head Ter Ter

I wish this issue would get brought up more often in the Western media. The Nazis didn't invent or design the swastika. It was in use for hundreds of years in the East. You find them all over Chinese/Korean/Indian places of worship.

I think the toy collectors market has changed due to the make-up of the customers. In the 80s, many who buy were kids who had to beg dad/mom for the $. Rare is the kid who can make mummy buy him the whole shelf. Nowadays there are many working adults and toylines are also being geared towards working adults. Working adults have the $ to buy up the shelf in multiple stores. And I suppose the pure number of different toys coming out (just look at Star Wars?!?!) makes it pretty difficult for one store to stock every damn thing for an extended period.

I don't think they intended it to be flown off carriers. The IJN had more land based planes then carriers based planes at any one time anyway. As for the non-contra rotating P-38. England wanted ease of maintenance and they were already using the same engines for the P-40s as well.

I think that 'fork tailed devil' thing is a myth. I don't recall any reliable source ever confirming it from the Axis viewpoint. My bet is that the P-38 was more effective in the Pacific because it went up against mainly A6Ms and Ki43s etc etc. It could use its superior sustained climb and dive and firepower. Against the Bf-109s and Fw190s, it couldn't outclimb or outdive them like it could against the lighter Japanese fighters.

Haha! Wouldn't it be hilarious to turn up there in a Godzilla suit?

Sunk on the way to the big fight at Leyte. Battle of the Sibuyan sea. The Yamato was there too, but turned back after the Musashi sank. I think Musashi holds the record for absorbing the maximum number of torpedoes and bombs before blowing up/sinking. Bismarck should hold the records for shells.

Here I go again. That line about Vietnam and the Phantoms with no guns etc etc keeps popping up everytime someone on a public board mentions the paradigm shift in fighter combat. Its not the 60s/70s anymore. This is 40 years on. In the 1930s, if you told people to leave defensive guns off the heavy bombers, they would think you are nuts. In the 20s, if you told people to forget about battleships, they would think you are nuts. IMHO, the 70s was not the time of the BVR missile yet. Why cant it be possible that in 2010, the BVR missile and its associated avionics has finally come of age? As an analogy BVR missile in the 70s = Torpedo Bombers in the 1920s BVR missile in 2006 = Torpedo Bomber in the 1940s

I'd bet that 'loss' to the Indian Air Force was purely designed to get more F-22 money from Congress. As for the Bf-109, I never flew them things but looking at it, its pretty antiquated by late ww2 standards. The streamlining was really primitive by late-war standards. It only kept pace by hot-rodding itself with bigger engines. And the armament was also bad by late war standards. As for those wing gun tubs, all indications show that the German pilots hated them due to the performance penalties they imposed.

Not to mention that having a turret bulge and barrels sticking out can't be good for stealth. And having them fixed like in a Raptor would be dumb since the B2 can't dogfight. Having the turret pop-up would have insane weight penalties too.

Scaled levelling? So if I stumble onto a cave with badass ogre while having str 10 and wielding longsword +1 and I get my ass mauled. I go spend 2 hours getting str 15 and a flaming longsword +3, go back to cave and will find that the game automatically made the ogre tougher? I hate that! Reminds me of the 'catch up' feature in the arcade racers. BAH!

Am I the only one bothered by the rather irregular 'rectangular' vents along the side? Whatever those things are. Battlepod hanger exits?

You can always say 'GUARDIAN' mode... **runs for macross city bomb shelter**

Quick question. I understand that the F-15E has a throttle and stick setup for the back-seat? Is it the only non-trainer 2 seat fighter with that setup? And are the F-15 weapon officers then given a full flight training? As in, are they qualified/rated to sit in front and fly if need be?

Somehow, I'd bet C3P0 and R2 will appear.

Nice. I never knew the Concorde engines had such dirty looking exhausts though.

100 episodes of Darth Vader stomping around force choking the remaining Jedi and terrorising the Galaxy in his brand new Imperator Star Destroyer would be interesting.

I read that part about the gun upsetting the balance and a lead or concrete ballast still needing the same shape and weight distribution as the original gun in order not to upset the flight software. I am not too sure how much of that story is true though. I mean, if the removal of that sub 1000 lb gun (its sub 1000lb without the ammo IIRC) screws up the weight distribution, how does one factor in that 20000 odd lbs of fuel, ammo rounds, bombs, missiles and that yorkshire pudding plus chip butty the pilot had that come and go during a mission?

Is the gun hooked up to the software and the joystick though? Did they try to save a few quid more by not installing the wiring from the cockpit to the gun? Or leave out some software which controls the ammo feed or something like that? If the stuff is all there, I can pretty much imagine some pilot or squadron will _SOMEHOW_ get their hands on some ammo.... even if its just 1 shell to prove a point. Imagine the bragging rights. It'll be about as effective as the those Soviet officials telling the Mig-25 pilots not to go above M2.8

Not sure if you guys heard. Saudi's are buying the Eurofighter. They will get the Tranche 2 aircraft (no diff in weapons from Tranche 1, just some better software and bits) even before the RAF gets theirs it seems. No mention on the gun though.

They removed the link! I hope its temporary! Anyone saved a copy?!?! edit : OK its temporary only... phew. Thanks Moose!

Please?

The first pic is a photoshop of a computer game fighter. X-02 I think.

For aircraft under U.S. and U.K. designation setup it probably would out of respect for it's namesake. 380051[/snapback] Hmm, since the original Cheyenne never entered service. The guy actually followed the rules when coming up with the name. Like how the F-15 is called the Eagle and not Eagle 2.

Question, unless there are some restrictive engagement parameters; if the guy in the hot-rod F prefix just kept his speed up and boomed-and-zoomed, even if he couldn't get the A-4, the A-4 wouldn't be able to get a reasonable shot in either would it? I can understand the novice getting his butt kicked if he tried to do the 'drop flaps and gear and let him shoot past me' movie trick or tried to get into a turning fight or tried to do a loop-behind-the-guy-at-your-six party trick but I don't see how an A4 can get a shot in on something like a F-14D if the tomcat pilot didn't slow down. Or were the novices really that raw?

Another thing, I think Knight26 already mentioned it earlier. With sophisticated FBW and lotsa thrust its possible to make virtually any of the anime designs fly. BUT... its just darn inefficient because they cause more drag then necessary or have other features which don't make an efficient case. Basically, all the _cool_ looking features which make an anime plane stand out just causes DRAG which limits range, top speed, acceleration, virility and world peace. e.g. Take the VF-1. With no elevators, the damn thing is going to have a really low pitch rate. It compensates by having 2D thrust nozzles but in the real world, the weight and complexity of having the thrust nozzles installed would be better spent on a set of elevators. In addition, the shape of the rectangular thrust nozzles don't make sense. Turbines are round and the rectangular nozzles don't fit the airflow coming out of the engines as well as round ones. Take the VF-0. Same problem of having not v stabs. And the h stabs don't look nearly big enough to give it any stability. The Superslyph. Double bubble cockpit doesn't help drag. And that big arse under fuselage fin requires a long reinforced landing gear which just plain wastes payload ability. The FRX mauve/mave?.. All the squarish protruding bits and lumps and that gaping space beneath and behind the cockpit pod would cause stupid amounts of drag. With current materials technology, the damn thing probably wouldnt go past Mach 1 and if you installed hot-rod engines to push it, it would probably break up or the red hot glowing bits would burn the pilots butt. Plus the crazy dihedral looks too extreme and would cause lousy roll rates. The VF-22S? That stupid bubble doesnt make sense. If you need to raise the pilots view, just move the whole cockpit up rather then part of the cockpit jutting out. It doesnt even look nice! That one feature pisses me off severely because the YF-21/VF-22 is otherwise my favourite anime fighter. Not that it otherwise works in real life due to the squarish protrusions and gaps.