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F-ZeroOne

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  1. F-ZeroOne
    Just a few more thoughts on the "simple fighter beats EVERYTHING! school of thought" - the F-16 was originally conceived as a simple dogfighter with a simple radar, and a simple armament system. As it happens, there was already a fighter that was very similar, with the exception of top speed. It was called the Sea Harrier FRS.1. Agile, simple radar, close-range dogfight missiles and gun. It gained a very favourable exchange ratio in close-range combat. Despite this, the opponent air force, operating under difficult circumstances which meant they could not use their own aircraft to the limit of their capabilities managed to inflict great damage on Royal Navy ships during the Falklands using "dumb" bombs and a handful of modern anti-shipping missiles. What they might have achieved with different equipment is a touch sobering. If the Royal Navy had been operating F-14s - big, heavy, complex - though, would they have even tried...?
  2. F-ZeroOne
    Sprey does tend to forget occasionally that all the best fighters of their respective eras were, with few exceptions, the very best and most expensive that their nation could provide. The Supermarine Spitfire had such a protracted development process that it was very nearly cancelled. The F-14 was very nearly unaffordable, even for the U.S, and that was, at first, a single-mission fighter.
  3. F-ZeroOne
    Nekko Basara, at least one Pucara ground attack aircraft was shot down by gunfire from a Harrier by the (in)famous Commander "Sharkey" Ward. I used the word "couple" though now I think of it that may have been the only definite kill, but there were also several gun passes made without success. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FMA_IA_58_Pucar%C3%A1 Dogfights occurred during the Falklands because of the way the opposing sides were equipped; I mentioned what would have happened if the Argentinians had had long-range missiles - its also common to speculate on what would have happened if the Royal Navy had still had a fleet carrier in service with F-4 Phantom IIs embarked, as well as Gannet AEW aircraft.
  4. F-ZeroOne
    There were a couple of air-to-air guns kills, plus a few gun attempts, during the Falklands conflict though its worth bearing in mind that in a number of ways it was a rather atypical conflict to start with (though aren't they all?) - its often overlooked the great ranges the Argentinean pilots were having to fly to reach the combat area and their general lack of air-to-air refuelling (as well as eventually running out of drop tanks) which tended to dictate their tactics to a great extent. If the Argentineans had had even SAR missiles and more time over the target area, they could conceivably have done much better in air-to-air combat.
  5. F-ZeroOne
    Its reasonably likely we're never going to find that direct link; leaving aside that the "human" fossil record is notoriously patchy (though always improving with new discoveries etc), most accounts of biology point out that it doesn't really work like that (direct link to direct link to direct link etc).
  6. F-ZeroOne
    Isn't the first time anime has taken that sort of thing as an inspiration; "Gatchaman II" was heavily influenced by "UFO Culture". And then, of course, theres "Mysterious Cities of Gold"...
  7. F-ZeroOne
    Its worth doing so to find out a little bit about where artists can take inspiration from. I was doing the British equivalent of high-school biology then so it was really striking at the time. For the really curious, spoiler alert:
  8. F-ZeroOne
    Thing that always got me about the "Dominion" manga was that I read it just after having learnt what a "T-4 Bacteriophage" was. (it makes sense in context... ).
  9. F-ZeroOne
    Bandai - they announced a western Turn-A Gundam Blu-Ray release, but it disappeared into the void when they wrapped up their US operation. As a bit of a convert to the series, I was... annoyed. Regarding Lum figures, there was a pretty good Figma release a couple years back.
  10. F-ZeroOne
    Just for the record, Freema Agyeman also appeared as Martha Jones "cousin" who was turned into a Cyberman before Martha Jones appeared in the show...
  11. F-ZeroOne
    Remind me again about that line that goes something like "canards are nice on someone elses fighter"...?
  12. F-ZeroOne
    Now I think about it, ships in the West End Games books also had a rating for "consumables" i.e. fuel, oxygen etc (a concept I've always felt never really fits with the "Star Wars" feel, despite the Trade Federation ships being revealed to have "fuel tanks" - I think they should have referred to them as "power cells" or "explodey ship parts" or something). An X-Wing had 1 week of consumables, so that gives us a cricket pitch (excuse me, I mean "ballpark") figure for the distance from Hoth to Dagobah - 1 week or less; similarly for Dagobah to Bespin (Luke apparently finding a space gas station somewhere en route). Some of the larger starships have consumables ratings listed as "years". And of course, Bespin must be really close to Hoth for the Falcon to get there without a hyperdrive...
  13. F-ZeroOne
    They still promised!
  14. F-ZeroOne
    The distance covered in a "one week hyper journey" is the distance covered in a "one week hyper journey". Sorry, couldn't resist - some of the sourcebooks had travel times listed between various systems but I don't have access to them anymore.
  15. F-ZeroOne
    In the West End Games RPGs, starships had a hyperdrive "multiplier" which represented hyperspace speed; say you had a x1 multiplier hyperdrive, a one week hyper-journey took exactly that, one week. But with a x2 multiplier, it took exactly twice as long. The "Falcons" multiplier was "x.5"... sounds very similar to the outline above. And I'm still pretty sure the whole parsec thing is because sci-fi writers have no sense of scale, or indeed, astronomical units.
  16. F-ZeroOne
    I think I'm past my "Must have wants!" stage, though the odd item will still catch my attention. But I got into anime in the relatively early "Akira" days, and almost all of the information available at the time was through magazines like "Anime UK" or "Animerica". I read about some series for years before I actually got to see them, and the 80s/early 90s is still sort of "my" era of anime. I don't generally keep up with what all the kids are watching these days, though I recently subscribed to Crunchyroll which allows me to at least keep an eye on stuff. People of my age are, essentially, the "Star Wars" generation of anime and we still see the odd "for us" release (for example, the recent Bandai "Gunbuster"), but lets face it, anime has always been trend driven (I sometimes joke with fellow fans that I recall the days when anime wasn't about mobile phones... ) and its a different world now than when a nth-generation VHS copy of "Gundam: 0080" was the only way to get your heart broken by Zaku. Even so, though... Turn-A Gundam on Blu-Ray. Damn it Bandai, you promised!.
  17. F-ZeroOne
    "Impersonating a Judge is a crime, citizen. Three years in the iso-cubes."
  18. F-ZeroOne
    I once met a veteran in the Bovington Tank Museum, who talked a little about facing a Tiger tank. His comment was something like "If you saw one of those coming, you made sure your shoelaces were tied!".
  19. F-ZeroOne
    Couple of points: the West End Games RPG books predate most of what appears to be termed the "Expanded Universe"; as I said, they were used to fill in a lot of background material for what came later (at least in the original "Thrawn" trilogy, I'm not very familiar with what came later). Also, as far as Stromtrooper tongues go, bear in mind the sourcebooks for the RPG would have been originally written in the late 80s/early 90s and thus were a product of their technological background at the time. Today we'd probably be talking about retinal tracking technology, like in "Macross Zero"...
  20. F-ZeroOne
    In the West End Games Star Wars RPG (from which a lot of the EU background material was derived), the Stormtrooper helmets did indeed include visual sensors - and also came complete with tongue-operated controls for various suit functions... ...OTOH, Luke couldn't see a thing in his. Couldn't reach the switch marked "VISION ON" with his tongue?
  21. F-ZeroOne
    The opening titles are apparently based on a fan-produced work; when Mr. Moffat saw them he basically said "Lets use that!". There is a bit of a comment over the reworked theme though...
  22. F-ZeroOne
    How I explained it to a friend, who also made a "Top Gun" comparison (with tongue very firmly in cheek! ): "Its more that the trouble is that the Chinese haven't been doing this very long, so they don't know the rules. In the good old days of the Cold War, handlebar-moustachioed plucky RAF lads would form up on potato-munching vodka-sniffing Comradely Tu-95s at sufficient distance to let each other know they knew each other were there. The Russians would then take photos of the latest state-of-the-art RAF equipment (which in those days, meant English Electric Lightnings dating from 1953) and the Byrlcreem Boys would in return take photos of the latest state-of-the-art Soviet equipment (which in those days, was a Tu-95 that still had Igor Sikorskys personal, handwritten signature on the builders plate). The RAF pilots would then show the Russian crewmen any interesting pr0nography they happened to have lying around the cockpit, and the Russians would return the favour by not displaying any Russian pr0nography they happened to have lying around the cockpit. Both sides would then break off and return to base, happy in the knowledge that the forthcoming nuclear holocaust would be fought by friends. Actually colliding with the other guys aircraft, as the Chinese have been known to do, was considered very bad form.".
  23. F-ZeroOne
    You're welcome, technoblue. There are two longer trailers - one for the new series as a whole and one for the first episode specifically. I haven't posted them because, y'know - spoilers. I suspect they won't be too hard to find elsewhere...
  24. F-ZeroOne
    One week to go! Saturday 23rd August, 19:50GMT, BBC One in the UK. First episode is 80 minutes long! There was a press/preview screening a couple of weeks ago; early reports are that Mr. Capaldi is going to be just fine.
  25. F-ZeroOne
    Worth bearing in mind that the article appeared on "The Mail Online" (the web version of the UKs "Daily Mail" newspaper), which has something of a... reputation. Lets just say that the kindest way critics usually refer to the "Mail" is as "The Daily Fail".
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