Nied

Yes but like I said, dumping extra reaction mass into the exhaust would create less thrust than dumping that same reaction mass into the the normal intermix chamer. Thermonuclear turbines work by using a fusion reaction to superheat a reaction mass instead of combusting flamables, dumping fusion plasma into the exhaust stream wouldn't heat the reaction mass as much as keeping it in the intermix stage, and dumping raw reaction mass into the exhaust would actually cool it giving you less thrust. I'm at work at the moment but there is line art of the Valkyrie's throttle quadrant clearly showing that it has no Afterburner detents only overboost (up to IIRC 130%).

What David said. Because thermonuclear turbines work by heating reaction mass (air in the atmosphere or something else in space) instead of burning fuel, just dumping reaction mass into the exhaust stream afterburner style would create less thrust than simply dumping more fuel into the primary reaction chamber.

Actually you can see the slits clearly in several scenes in DYRL too. I've loaned my copy of DYRL to a freind so I can't pull a screen grab, but if you freeze frame the shot of Hikaru swiching to GERWALK at the begining of the movie (right after Skull team fires thier first salvo of misiles) you can see them pretty clearly. I'm not sure why most 3-d representations now feature the afturburner rings (which is just damn odd since the VF-1 doesn't have afterburners). IIRC that's from TIAS Macross Plus, and might be the first time we see the slits replaced with afterburner cans.

I always figured the slits were there to difuse the exhaust somewhat to prevent ground erosion. Without them a VF-1 would make a great tool for digging holes for telephone poles.

Like most trainers it probably has the capability to carry weapons on hardpoints, though I doubt it's ever used in actual combat (inaccurate docu-dramas aside). Looking at my copy of the Macross design works the VT-1 carries no arm armor at all. Better seating arrangement for the instructor pilot, more fuel, simplified design (AFAIK the VT-1's tail fins are incapable of folding), and lower power engines (might make for more forgiving performance). This is speculation but I'm willing to bet the VT-1s FCS is programmed to be much more forgiving than the VF-1's. The VF-1D having nearly identical performance to the VF-1A/J would be more of a conversion trainer in the mold of the F-16D F-15D F/A-18D etc. etc. while the VT-1 would be more of a basic/lead in fighter trainer like the BAE Hawk. Wherever the Spacy trains their pilots. I don't know if the VT-1 was in production when the Macross made her voyage (in the official timeline that is, obviously in they were on board the Macross in the DYRL docu-drama). Being trainers they'd probably fly missions far away from any possibility of enemy contact which would mean in and around the neighborhood of Earth or similarly safe colony world. I could see there being a "training ARMD" where VT's could perform carrier qualifications, but I doubt you'd see any on vessels destined for combat aside from deep space colony missions. Others have already answered this but I seem to remember an overall grey color scheme being featured in one of the modeling magazines, I'll see if I can dig it up. The VT-1 only ever appears in DYRL and MD7. It's not clear if the VT-1 was even in service during SW1.

Because the F-35 is only as good as the F-16 or F/A-18 in a dogfight. Never mind that both planes rarely if ever perform air to air missions. Also its only stealthy if it carries a warload similar to an F-16, if it carries more it's not stealthy anymore. Those are the big arguments I hear against it. I think people hear "multi-service" and just check their logic at the door.

IIRC Singapore went with the F-15E over some of the other eurocanards because it's cheaper, and it can do what the RSAF wants right now. The Eurocanards (Rafale and Typhoon) could only promise that their offerings would have the capabilities that the RSAF wanted by the time they got the planes (I believe neither plane has AG capability in service at the moment). Given the delays that have plagued both the Typhoon and Rafale it appears Singapore went for a less capable sure thing rather than gamble on more capability that might or might not appear.

The RAAF mainly uses thier Aardvarks in a maritime strike and recon role. The F/A-18F was designed to do that from the begining, while only the newer (and more expensive) Strike Eagle versions have clearance to carry the Harpoon. The F-15K/SG/FX might have slightly better range and more payload options, but the Aussies aren't really going to use those. At roughly $40 million a pop cheaper, the Rhino is a better deal, and it lets them buddy tank their Baby Hornets to boot.

Here's something a little more official from Lockheed on the F-35's first flight.

It flies.

Good lord 6 years!? Wow. Like JsARCLIGHT I lurked for a month or two before finally joining in late January. It's hard to believe that when I started on this forum I was a sophomore in college and now here I am almost six years later a married man living on the other side of the country... I feel old.

Interesting to see Flankers in a new Air Force. The grey and white camo scheme is pretty sharp. Looks like the FAV opted for the wet tail fins but not the canards (IIRC no TVC either). I wonder what kind of avionics fit they have.

IIRC they just re-used a scheme that originally appeared in TIAS: M+

The VF-11 is roughly the same size as the VF-1. If they made 1/60 version it'd be midget next to the new YF-19. They should make it a 1/48.

It has. Most reports from when this dust up first started state the "plan B" is either a navalised Typhoon (Sea-Typhoon?) or Rafale M's purchased from the French(!). That of course would require a slight re-design of the Invincible class to giver them proper catapults instead of ski ramps, there's a good chance that might lead to delays since the UK is keen on using EM cats instead of steam and those systems aren't fully developed yet. Interestingly enough there's a very good chance that the Invincible class will be fitted with arresting gear no matter what so that it can accommodate Hawkeyes for AEW (tests are reportedly under way launching E-2s off of Ski ramps).

Absolutely. The next Macross series shouldn't have any of that stuff, it's over played. As is this whole "animation" thing. The next Macross series should be a live action show about a plucky band of orphans who solve mysteries in 1920s Chicago.

Both Japan and Australia have need for an extremely good air dominance fighter to defend against threats from neighboring air forces equipped with advanced Flanker variants, and a secondary requirement to replace Vietnam era fighter-bombers in the Sea control role (F-111F in the RAAF, and F-4EJ Kai in the JASDF). The Raptor is easily the best choice for the air dominance role, and could actually perform the sea control role pretty well right now. A F-22A at super cruising at 50,000ft would be able to attack a ship with JDAM or JDAM-ERs from about the same effective range as the current Harpoons and ASM-2s in RAAF and JASDF service, but using a much bigger warhead (1000 lbs vs 488 lbs). Since it would be cruising at 50,000ft it would be able to survey a much larger area than either services current fighters which have to make sea skimming attacks.

Over in op4_delta's Asuka thread Egan Loo made this enigmatic comment: So what is Kawamori's opinion on the VF-4? Does he love hate, thinks he could have done better? Inquiring minds (and the cult of Lightning) want to know!

Nanashi (or whatever he's calling himself now) occasionally posts stuff like this, but then he'll put up his new "coming soon" banner on Macrossmecha (or whatever he's calling it now) and it all disapears. I love that he goes through the trouble (both in time and money) to translate the stuff but it's frustrating how he doesn't leave it up. On a related note, I seem to remember a project from a while back to translate some of the text accompanying the various Valkyrie color schemes in TIA:M+. Whatever happened to that?

And already people are saying it wouldn't have happened to a Tomcat!

Call signs for pilots started among American pilots as a way of quickly identifying pilots over radio in the heat of combat, they aren't generally used in the air arms of other countries. The UN Spacy uses two way video in its communications making the actual reason for using call signs redundant, that and the fact that there was no tradition of using call signs (except among the American pilots inducted into Spacy service) would explain why we don't see them in Macross.

Not only that but most of Earth's defense fleet was made up of Zentradi vessels. While it's likely that a lot of equipment was made to be serviced by micron (or micronian in Robotech) personnel, humans weren't in good supply after the war and it's likely Zentradi personnel in the UN Spacy were issued repair kits. Those same kits could have easily made it into Kamjin's possession either through theft or defection of personnel (likely both).

All of those examples are from after SW1 and all of them are likely examples of Zentradi trained in repair by humanity before joining Kamjin's insurgency.

If there is any routine maintenence I'd imagine it would be done with LRUs and a really good diagnostic computer, something similar to how the Saab Grippen handles things. The computer tells some Zentradi grunt, "box X needs to be replaced" and he goes down to the sotrage deck and gets the required box and puts it where the computer tells him to. He'd never need to know how the system worked or why it worked just that the computer told him to put a new box in the hole.

I'm willing to bet that as originally designed the Zentradi would return to a Protoculture base for regular maintenance. After the Protoculture went extinct I could see the Zentradi simply ditching old ships after they'd need too much maintenance and replacing it with a brand new one from a factory satellite. That would mean most of the Zentradi ships that we see aren't operating at full capacity, but then we see Britai's impeccably maintained starship totally pwn the flotilla guarding the factory satellite so that seems to jibe.