F-ZeroOne

The more pictures I see of the J-20 - well, its always difficult to judge on incomplete information, and it would not be the first time the West has been "surprised" - but the more it looks to me like a relatively conventional airframe design given a bit of a stealth makeover (also bearing in mind that prototypes can sometimes be a bit removed from actual, finished articles). Thats purely on visual impressions, though, if hordes of these things suddenly materialise over the Channel and destroy all the worlds supply of Devon scones I'm fully prepared to eat my hat. With butter, jam, and cream on of course.

A lot of that sort of stuff seems to end up on Yahoo! Japan, but a lot of the sellers will only sell to Japanese buyers. There are ways around that, such as proxys like Celga: http://www.celga.com/ Mandarake also have an English language web presence and have held auctions for cels in the past: http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/ Or, given the shipping charges usually involved, buy a plane ticket. Its probably cheaper.

Pah. Our new Artificially Intelligent Quiz Show Overlord has yet to meet Stephen Fry and Q.I.. (link has a little swearing).

...because one of them is reported to have said "The best place for canards is on someone elses airplane!"...?

Again, off the top of my head - you still have to acquire the targets, which presumes either some sort of sensor system on the airframe or on an airframe linked to all the drones (and its unlikely one modern multi-engine sensor platform would be able to handle, in the very best case, about two hundred or so "friendlies" all at once - theres a reason you have squadron leaders after all. Or, I suppose ground control - better hope they don't work out where you're transmitting from and send a few cruise missiles into the control bunkers, eh?), with "pilots" who probably haven't been trained (regardless of on-line experience) in modern multi-linked fighter combat techniques (Oops, due to sensory overload Drone pilot 67 just flew into your AWACS!). And, although I've only been at the controls of a light aircraft for about 5 minutes total, my lasting impression was, wow, real flying isn't like Ace Combat! Not to mention also finding all the control set-ups, bandwidth and accommodation for the "XBox Air Force"...! I know you're probably not being entirely serious, sorry, just can't help replying...!

Immediate thoughts that spring to mind off the top of my head is that drones still need fuel, possibly someone to fly them so bandwidth, with modern sensor systems might be easily distinguished from more modern platforms/airframes, still require somewhere to take off from, and if presumably you're going to put them all in the air at once, even the stupidest fighter jock is going to work out that maybe he'd best wait until the real threat gives itself away. Plus what are the drones armed with? If its fairly short range IR guided missiles, you could just keep your distance until they run out of fuel. Oh, and the cost; it might be cheaper to make thousands of drones but thats not the same as cheap. Oh, and the F-35 carries four missile internally - if you suspect thats what the bad guys are doing, break out the wing hardpoints or send up the F-18s with 10 AMRAAMs each (I know David is going to point out about maximum carrier take-off weights somewhere here... )and get them to do the dirty work... Its not entirely a bad idea - overwhelming the German radar with chaff ("window") during World War II, along with concentrating the bombers into a "stream" of aircraft did work, but...

Canards can have other uses rather than just agility; the Viggen used them to help shorten take-off/landing runs, though its worth pointing out that the Viggens canards weren't like "modern" canards; IIRC they even had their own ailerons...

I'm not sure if the Czech and Polish squadrons were specifically formed as "crack" squadrons, but they did have one invaluable trait that certainly made them pretty damn good - experience. That put them one up on many RAF pilots who often had plenty of flying experience but not so much fighting experience (they also had a rather obvious hatred for their opponents, and this may have encouraged many of them to invoke one of the principles of that eras air-to-air combat - get closer!). They were so good that the RAF became a bit suspicious about their claims during the Battle of Britain, and sent a RAF observer up with them during action to find out. Upon return, its said he rather shakily pointed out that "What they claimed, they did indeed get!".

Well, its certainly the loudest I've heard personally - I once saw a F-14 make a flyby and I don't remember that being as loud, but that could just be selective memory...

Well, thats it for Harriers in the UK. Last "operational" mission today, which was basically a flypast of several RAF bases. No longer will airshow crowds have to worry about being deafened by Pegasus engines...

Yes, as far as I know there aren't any other Figma UY figures. Bit of a shame for a series that had a cast of thousands. It'd be great to have a Ran, Benten and Oyuki to go with her...

Max Hastings has pointed out in Nemesis that the Japanese rulers did not do much to discourage, and almost cultivated, a "culture of death" though, particularly towards the end of the war. Although the kamikazes [1] were indeed voluntary, the Japanese leadership did seem to encourage the throwing away of life, often to little practical effect. To quote Cryptonomicon: "When are you going to learn that 'Banzai!' charges don't <bleep> work?!" "All the people who learnt that were killed in 'Banzai!' charges... " [1] There was, in fact, a kamikazes survivors club. Its not quite as odd an idea as it sounds; leaving aside those who couldn't carry out their mission for whatever reason (for example, the great ace Saburo Sakai, who was thwarted by bad weather), there was at least one kamikaze who survived his aircraft being completely destroyed by flak. And if that sounds even more unlikely, the same thing happened to a RAF pilot over Malta once...

For zombies, "World War Z" is pretty good, a book which took me a bit by surprise. More Neal Stephenson - "Cryptonomicon" is one of those books that sort of falls between genres, but I think at least one reviewer did call it "the Citizen Kane of SF", or words to that effect, so it probably sneaks in here. If SF is a question of feel, then I think it qualifies. I'm in a mixed mind about whether or not to mention Terry Pratchett - hes mostly known for his (wonderful) fantasy but he has written SF, probably the easiest one of which to start with would be "Only You Can Save Mankind". Though aimed at a slightly younger audience, I defy anyone not to read the passage about the "derelicts" and then look down at their hands and think "What have I done...?"...

Killing them. It what he does, and hes the best at what he does and what he does is...

Oh, Iain M. Banks definitely - you've got love a kilometres-long sentient starship that can destroy solar systems with a name like "What Are The Civilian Applications?"; "Player of Games" is essentially want would happen if "Magic: The Gathering" tournaments were how you decided who gets to run a planet and "Use of Weapons" has one of the best laugh-out loud jokes in SF, though it needs the context of the events to work...

Peter F. Hamiliton, Alistair Reynolds and Neal Asher all have multi-book, hard SF series that are well worth a read (the last even including "Prador Moon", in which Giant Enemy Crabs actually do attack for Massive Damage). Charles Stross is another favourite, even if he will make your head hurt occasionally. Classic Arthur C. Clarke short stories. And though I haven't read much of his SF, Isaac Asimovs many, many, many non-fiction works are always worth a read, if only to marvel at the kind of wide-ranging intellect and popular communicator we just don't seem to see much of these days. Towards the more bonkers end of the scale, theres China Mieville, who doesn't exactly write SF but then its not exactly fantasy either. His book Perdido Street Station starts by introducing you to a man who is in love with a beetle-headed woman. And because that sentence often causes confusion, allow me to clarify - thats a beetle-headed woman, wings, legs, the lot. And it only gets stranger from there on. Also on the bonkers end, theres Philip Palmer, who somehow manages to turn ideas from 50s pulp SF magazine covers into whole books.

Both at the same time? Wow, guess you chose the Red Pill and the Blue Pill...!

Can't believe I didn't think of this one earlier, possibly the greatest quote (with context) in the history of third person shooters: "Theres blood in my mouth and it not mine!" - Gears of War 2.

Ah, thats Bird and Fortune of Bremner, Bird and Fortune fame - they're well known political satirists in the UK.

Not strictly speaking aircraft, but the UK and France have just signed a military co-operation deal. This could mean Rafales operating from HMS Queen Elizatbeth and F-35s from Charles de Gaulle...

Also GTA, but Vice City this time: "I touch myself." - Fernando.

Okay, good point about the brands cachet back then. There is another example, though - I was with a friend trying to find a Japanese language school where he had some contacts. My friend speaks Japanese to a fair level and we had the address of the building and we still couldn't find it, after probably a good half an hours search and another enquiry at a Police box. We eventually wound up using a public phone to ring the place and ask for directions. Turns out the phone was located just across the road from the building...

I think I might need to clarify about the whole "Lost in Tokyo" thing I appear to have started... Its difficult to be completely lost in Tokyo, in the sense that you begin to wonder why you didn't pack the survival radio and if those vultures circling overhead are as tasty as they're beginning to look... its a comment based on experiences of trying to find specific locations in Tokyo. As an example, my brother is fond of the fashion brand "BAPE". Back when he first asked me to visit their shops whilst in Tokyo, there was a lot less information available on-line than there is now. There was one store in particular I had a hell of a lot of trouble finding. After walking around Harajuku about six times, and despite having a map showing its rough location, I still hadn't found it. I stopped for a breather by a railing and happened to look down. And there the blasted place was, just below eye level. I must have actually walked past it at least three times. I had a similar experience finding a hotel I stayed at near Ueno once; it was 5 minutes walk from the station but took the best part of half an hour to find, including stopping to ask two police officers where it was, and I had a photo of the place as well. Again, I must have walked past it at least twice... ...or maybe I'm just an idiot! But thats what I mean by "lost".

"Are those... body fluids?" - Earth Defence Force 2017. "Lets do this, Garuda One!" - Ace Combat 6. "I remember when all this was fields... " - The Agency Controller, Crackdown "I know what the ladies like... " - Sgt. Johnson, Halo 2. "Fleshy meat-bags!" and the many variations thereof, HK-47, Knights of the Old Republic. "Snake? Snake?! SNAAAAAKKKE!" - Metal Gear Solid "..." - every Final Fantasy game ever, but especially VII.