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F-ZeroOne

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Everything posted by F-ZeroOne

  1. It may have been AnimEigos UK publishers "Anime Projects" that did that screensaver...
  2. Me also on the latest book in "The Expanse" series.
  3. Didn't AnimEigo do a Bubblegum Crisis screensaver once? I seem to recall owning it but have no idea what happened to it...
  4. Uh oh, Japan may have lost a F-35A: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190409/p2a/00m/0na/026000c
  5. It was fun seeing which famous SF authors wrote which episode.
  6. I'm not so sure its the US specifically, but the usual argument is dubs pull in a larger potential market share as people don't like reading (or, fairly, have trouble reading and watching at the same time). Though I've always admired "Evangelion" for the way it shook things up a bit (mecha shows were in a bit of a rut at the time, though having said that I've also never quite forgiven it for what it did to mecha pilots either), its never been a personal favourite of mine. It also seemed a bit less clever once I finally got to see some of its inspirations, like "Ideon" and "Dunbine".
  7. The first one will all be kinky Sith hanky-panky and they'll introduce all that boring space opera stuff later. Hey, it worked for them the first time right?
  8. To be fair, its not exactly a new threat, though the nature of it has changed a bit. The Luftwaffe did damage accidentally to the RAFs radar control network during the Battle of Britain that caused some real difficulties on occasion to the defenders (the Luftwaffe didn't realise the value of the network and though there were some attempts to target it directly, most of the worst damage was caused by bombs being jettisoned that then by pure chance knocked out power cables or the like).
  9. I think what made Stringfellow Hawke stand out from all his other contemporary super-vehicle operators is that he was that absolute scariest of all fictional tropes - the professional. If he wanted you dead, then you were dead. He did love wasting ammo by strafing the ground in front of his targets for seconds at a time, though. Regards Airwolfs "infinite ammo" - well, it did run out of ammo in the pilot, after overkilling Moffet. OTOH, among its many and varied weapons loads were Copperhead rounds - which were actually laser guided artillery shells. And yet it swings back the other way because you could argue that its deployable weapons bays aren't that far removed from how modern stealth aircraft - including the Comanche - do it...
  10. To be fair, that article does claim that the canopy is based on that of the Apache, though I don't really see the resemblance other than thats its angular and vaguely insectile looking. I'm not completely certain, but I think "Blue Thunder" may have made a cameo in the "Doctor Who" episode "Dalek", where its used in a very brief shot of "Bad Wolf One" landing.
  11. Wow, that looks like a rather "Heath Robinson" arrangement...!
  12. Did I see a F-14 firing unguided rockets at one point in that trailer? Did they ever do that in the "real" world?
  13. I think I need to go play the cello whilst weeping into the setting sun now. So long, String. Of all the 80s crusaders for justice who used super-vehicles in their fight against evil, you were by far the coolest.
  14. Its probably an issue for most democracies, I guess. Theres so much pressure to get "bang for the buck" that theres a tendency to stuff as much as possible into one package, because that might be all the package you're going to get. And most democracies have competing pressures for funding, Though again, I'm not sure its entirely a new issue - we developed the MK. VIII Spitfire, but the Mark IX got built in bigger numbers - because it was much more suited to the immediate requirements at the time.
  15. Was there a time when aircraft were "designed, manufactured, and sent into action within the span of a year" though? World War I, maybe, but if you look at some of the aircraft from World War II - usually the period held up as the era when aircraft design was "right", compared to the current age with its doohickeys and cost overruns - I'm not entirely certain that applies in many cases. The Supermarine Spitfire prototype first flew in 1936. It didn't go into combat until three years later, and production was only just bought up to speed in time (in fact, one could almost argue that at the time it was seen as the F-35 programme of its day, a near endless procession of production bottlenecks), The Hawker Hurricane, the "simpler" of the two, first flew in 1935, entered squadron service 2 years later and 2 years after that was already being regarded as just barely capable against its main opponent and increasingly obsolescent after that. The P-51 prototype may have been rolled out just over a hundred days after an order had been placed, but they didn't enter RAF squadron service until 1942 and the "war-winning" models with Merlin engines not until late 1943/early 1944. North American also had the benefit of being able to obtain combat data that was unavailable to R. J. Mitchell or Sydney Camm and their teams. All these aircraft - especially the Spitfire and Mustang - were on the cutting edge of their day but they were also more basic than later jet aircraft, I'm not going to disagree that defence procurement isn't borked - I'm British! - but I'm just not sure things were as simple "back in the day" as is sometimes made out.
  16. You... have some serious trouble with sheep rustlers in the US, don't you?
  17. On the note of F-16 variants, Japan lost another F-2 today, though thankfully both pilots are safe: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190220/p2g/00m/0na/053000c
  18. Oh, thats easy. You launch it from a bigger flying aircraft carrier...
  19. A flying aircraft carrier? Where have I heard that idea before... DUNDUN-DUN-DUNDUN-DUN!
  20. I originally bought mine for "Elite: Dangerous"(which I never did play that much in the end, just didn't have time to learn to fly a spaceship... ) and it certainly made a difference there, but then the general opinion is that a flightstick was pretty much a requirement for that game...
  21. Warning for PC users hoping to use a HOTAS setup - there is currently a bug that prevents use of many flightsticks with the game (including, initially, the official Thrustmaster tie-in sticks - this is apparently fixed now). At least, its claimed its a bug, others are claiming that Bandai/Namco and Thrustmaster are telling you to go fly with the angels, mister!: (PCs being PCs, there will probably be a fan workaround made in the next 24 hours that resolves the issue anyway... ) :
  22. And now, sadly, another 200AD great - Ron Smith, also best known for his work on "Judge Dredd": https://comicbook.com/comics/2019/01/10/judge-dredd-artist-ron-smith-dies/
  23. Somewhat to my surprise, I just found out today that the PC version (which I ordered to possibly finally get some use out of my Thrustmaster) isn't released until the 31st January. Nuts. First review is in: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-01-18-ace-combat-7-review-a-stellar-return-for-the-skybound-series
  24. I can pretty much guarantee that whatever they build, it will look nothing like that image. Lots of concept art floated around in the late 80s after the ATF competition was announced, virtually all of which was about as accurate as that Testors "F-19 Stealth" fighter model...
  25. Okay, Argentinas Skyhawks got the F-16 radar. Other countries, including Brazil, Australia and Singapore all had their own upgrade programmes that differed from Argentinas in various details.
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