F-ZeroOne
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The irony of these agreements is that - like Concorde - they were originally created by us, in case our European cousins got cold feet and decided to spend the money on high speed train networks or weekly rubbish collections or something equally useless... Instead, they often come back to bite us in the ars - posterior. I've kind of got mixed feelings about this. I'd love to see Typhoons in Japanese service, but possibly not at the expense of ones with RAF roundels on. Guess it might improve the chances of getting a decent air-to-surface missile on a Typhoon for the next Ace Combat game though...
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...when it really should have been "Achtung, Hurricane!" [1]. Poor old Hurricanes, they get no love. Its said that many Luftwaffe pilots who were shot down by them would always claim they were actually shot down by Spitfires, as Hurricanes just weren't sexy enough. Mind you, its always easy to see why... [1] There were more Hurricanes than Spitfires (approx twice as many) serving in the Battle of Britain, and nearly as many arguments about it. If the Spitfires incredibly complicated production problems could have been sorted out sooner, it might have been different. on the other hand, the Hurricane was easier to repair by fitters more familiar with wood and fabric construction, but conversely also more prone to damage from fire as a result. Hurricanes were more stable gun platforms, but the Spitfires speed and agility gave it an edge in fighter to fighter combat. And on and on...
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Today, 4th August, is the 70th anniversary of the entry into RAF service of the Supermarine Spitfire.
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Yes, probably more accurate - I first saw the design a little while ago and was going from memory; I revisited the design after posting that and yes, it does have more of a FW about it - or, as I say, a Ta. 152.
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The aircraft is undoubtedly based on the Shinden, but a somewhat upgraded one, rather like how a Spitfire Mk. XXII was practically a different aircraft to the Mk. I, though still sharing some of the classic line. The same goes for the "Mustang-a-like"; to me it looks like a Ta. 152 crossed with a Mustang.
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Nope, it ain't a Lynx... Blue Thunder taught me that helicopters can't do that...!
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At the time of introduction, the F-2 was pretty high-tech - it had a Japanese developed AESA radar, AFAIK one of the first in service in the world. However, along with other modifications to the aircraft, this made the F-2 very expensive compared to the F-16 it was based on and the radar has initially proved unreliable in service. Personally, I hope the Japanese will buy the Typhoon, as then we might get some spare cash to spend on some additional Type-45 destroyers and the like.
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"HARKNESS". Coming to a theater near you, Fall 2008...
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"Chap with wings, five rounds, rapid!"
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Theres a lovely story doing the rounds in the U.K. at the moment that some British script writer walked away from £500,000 for a Steven Spielberg script deal in order to work on some British T.V. show no-one in Tinseltown has ever heard of. The writers name is said to be Moffat-something-or-other. A Hollywood insider has been quoted as saying "What is this doctor series anyway? Sounds a bit silly... " (as often happens with the British print media, the details have been a bit obscured in the telling - heres the "official" version: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7517423.stm )
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Looking for a good sci-fi/fantasy book
F-ZeroOne replied to Morpheus's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Don't neglect your classics, either - Wells, Clarke, Asimov, Bester (no, not the Babylon 5 one...! ) , Heinlein, Walter M. Miller Jnr... -
Looking for a good sci-fi/fantasy book
F-ZeroOne replied to Morpheus's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Old Mans War by John Scalzi is pretty good, and theres at least three more books in the series. Peter F. Hamiliton, Dan Simmons, Charles Stross, Neal Stephenson, Neil Gaiman and Alistair Reynolds are names to watch out for. If you haven't read any Terry Pratchett, correct this deficiency as soon as possible. Good Omens, written with Neil Gaiman is a good standalone starting point, or if you wish to get into his famous Discworld series, I would suggest beginning with Guards! Guards! followed by Men at Arms and Feet of Clay. Other Pratchett fans opinions may differ. (Small Gods will almost certainly be mentioned... ) Some very good SF is written in comics these days; Warren Ellis is a name that can seemingly do no wrong at the moment (try Planetary or Global Frequency), and get ready for the Watchmen movie with the original graphic novel by scary bearded eldritch comic god Alan Moore. -
Heh. That one reminds me of a story somewhere about some pilots on actual operations that did the same thing (put out fake radio calls to make it look like their formation was larger than it was), but I can't remember the details, not even which war though it might have been during the Battle of Britain...
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Ah, thanks! I've been after that answer for a while.
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I can't help but feel Microsoft are a bit late to the party. Yes, Worldwide its probably good for them, but if its another attempt to crack Japan they perhaps should have been thinking about this sort of thing some years ago...
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I know, I wasn't trying to imply its an all-British project, just looking at it from a humourous British point-of-view.
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"Chaps? Hello? Rolls-Royce here? We built the Pegasus, the engine that powered the only other successful S/VTOL fighter in the World? You know? The blokes you're not returning calls from? I say? Hello?"
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"Sharkey" Ward [1] would be most annoyed, but yes, most people in the U.K. of about my age would probably recognise the Vulcan. [1] Author of "Sea Harrier Over The Falklands" and not overly impressed with the "crabs" contribution. [2] [2] Fleet Air Arm term for the R.A.F.
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Thanks, David and Phyrox. Bowen, the Vulcan is one of those aircraft that always looks like it dropped out of the future...
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Cool - is that a vintage shot or has someone restored one?
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yes, it makes more sense now that Davids posted the other angle. My bad with SeaRAM and the Sea-Sparrow; I meant RAM and I missed the Sea-Sparrow launcher at first, I thought it was just a deck fitting after only glancing at it.
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"X-Ray Hotel 558... " http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7494406.stm "... glad to see you back. And, oh, Gravitys just wet itself."
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This isn't Engrish as such, but I recently caught an internal flight in Japan with a friend. When using the toilet, I noticed it had a sign on it saying "Please do not flush foreign articles down the toilet". As one of exactly two foreigners on a plane full of Japanese, I hadn't previously realised the danger we were in...
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You know, there are times when I miss the days when all I had to worry about in anime playback terms was Dub vs Sub. I use VLC generally, though by the time I've posted this, it will probably have been replaced with something else.
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Regards old Doctor Who episodes - it might be worth noting that due to various clear-outs of the BBC archives during the 60s and 70s, some episodes are currently lost in Time. Some of these episodes are highly sought after, so if you happen to have a dusty broadcast version of the first Doctors regeneration scene from the fourth episode of The Tenth Planet hidden in the basement...