F-ZeroOne

Tally ho, chaps! Finally got the UK release of AC6 today, though I haven't had a chance to play it yet and I've also got Mass Effect to work through... Just a question out of sheer curiousity - on-line, has anyone tried pairing up as a lead and wingman...? I suspect the AC style of combat makes "lone wolfing" easier, and I guess there might be technical problems, but I'm just wondering if anyones given it a go...

How to own if you're in a SR-71: "One day, high above Arizona, we were monitoring the radio traffic of all the mortal airplanes below us. First, a Cessna pilot asked the air traffic controllers to check his ground speed. ‘Ninety knots,’ ATC replied. A twin Bonanza soon made the same request. ‘One-twenty on the ground,’ was the reply. To our surprise, a navy F-18 came over the radio with a ground speed check. I knew exactly what he was doing. Of course, he had a ground speed indicator in his cockpit, but he wanted to let all the bug-smashers in the valley know what real speed was. ‘Dusty 52, we show you at 620 on the ground,’ ATC responded. The situation was too ripe. I heard the click of Walter’s mike button in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walter startled the controller by asking for a ground speed check from 81,000 feet, clearly above controlled airspace. In a cool, professional voice, the controller replied, ‘Aspen 20, I show you at 1,982 knots on the ground.’ We did not hear another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast." Quote taken from an item on Defence Tech (http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003869.html#comments).

If it helps, that was very much a problem for real fighter pilots too... Meanwhile, at a remote airbase in a green and pleasant land... "Control, this is Fury Squadron. Any trade for us yet?" "Checking... negative, Fury Squadron. Remain on stand by until called for." "Don't wish to cause a fuss, old chap, but thats what you said last week. Its getting to be a bit of a frightful bore, what?" "Fury Squadron, transmission coming in. Stand by... " "They're killing us! They're killing us! They're all over us! Help us! Someone please help us, for the love of - BBEEEeee... " "Finally! Control, this is Fury Squadron, ready to scramble... " "Negative, Fury Squadron. Your assistance not required at this time. Stand by." "Oh, for the love of... this is a jolly poor show, really. Fury Squadron, standing by... " Yes, AC6 has been postponed another week in the UK...

Speaking of cool UK hardware names, I forgot that one of the missiles in the inventory is the Storm Shadow. That right, evil-doers - we can fire NINJAS at you!

Indeed there is. And the UKs premier military research and development organisation is called QinetiQ, and if you don't get the significance of those Qs, you don't watch enough Bond films. However, the best people for names are the British squaddie; after problems with the Armys new BOWMAN radio system, they decided it stood for "Better Off With Map And Nokia"...

It seems that any UK-based Ace Combat pilots really are going to be "the Few"; AC6 comes out here on the same day as Mass Effect and seemingly every other triple-A title thats planned for release EVER. Still - target rich environment, what?

UK to get unmanned fleshy one aerial destroyer units: http://www.baesystems.com/ProductsServices...onstrators.html And if you're not worried by that, then you should perhaps know that the communications system they'll be using is called Skynet...

The release of Ace Combat 6 in Japan has meant an upsurge in X-Box 360 sales there - in fact, it actually sold more (by a few dozen) then the PS3 during the week of AC6s release!

A thought has just occurred to me. If I was in charge of BAE Systems, I'd be paradropping salespeople into Tokyo right the heck now...

Interesting little tidbit resulting from the F-15 grounding - because the JASDF has recently had to ground its F-2 fighters due to a crash and now its F-15s, the air defence of Japan currently rests in the hands of a young, hotheaded, emotionally charged but skilled orphan and his giant, blue and white robo - - oh, hang on, thats Gundam. No, the air defence of Japan currently rests on F-4 Phantom IIs...!

Dash it all, you beat me to it. This used to cause problems for the great Fleet Air Arm test pilot Eric "Winkle" Brown, who would often find himself landing some never-before-seen prototype at a RAF base and then have to explain why he was wearing a Naval uniform...

The UK satire show "Have I Got News For You" had fun with this - "Behave, President Putin, or we'll send in millions of our invisible tanks! In fact, they could already be there!"

Yes, I saw a bit of this a couple months ago and liked it quite a bit too.

Recent discoveries in the RAF film archives have revealed that certain assumptions about "the Few" may have to be revised: (possibly NSFW due to language).

I have the ghost of Reginald J. Mitchell and his rather famous Lady companion here and they'd like a word or two with you...

WAAANNNNNTTTTTTTTTTT.

Its fine, I just want to be next to you when the first Ghost fighter veers off the testing course and strafes the observing fleshy-goo sacks.

You're posting on a Macross forum and you're in favour of more unmanned fighters?

If it helps, they did do a little model demonstration to show how the race was set-up. They used a Concorde toy and... er... a SMART car for that.

6.5 Editors rating on 1-up, but some of the criticisms seem to be those of someone not familiar with the way previous games in the series played. They also make a comment about your cannon never running out of ammo, but I'm assuming that this varies with the difficultly setting - seems an odd thing to miss...

Top Gear did the Veyron vs Typhoon race this evening. I won't spoil who won. I will say, though, that the Tiffy climbs like a homesick angel. One with a rocket up its... They also featured a new Lamborghini, which apparently was inspired by the F-22. Hope that doesn't mean its going to have corrosion problems as well...

More missile decoys, you mean...

"Blank blank blank blank blank blank blank blank blank blank blank, and, oh, blank, in blank."

Oh dear me, yes. Heres one of my favourite Spit pictures, though I'm not in front of it, unless you count the "holding the camera" clause!

Now theres something to get my teeth into! Biggin Hill, 2003, next to one of the twenty-two thousand odd "bloody silly name for an aeroplane"... [1]: Winnipeg, Canada, 2007: how about a little black magic - or Voodoo, at any rate! Thats my father on the right; as you can tell by his expression he totally shares my passion for fighter aircraft... <NOT!>