Nied

Must see more pictures of this stealth weapons pod, I've been doodling stealth sidewinder pods for years, some of which were "borrowed" by a friend of mine from Raytheon. Mine were strictly one and two winder pods, but still, I want to see how close this is to my ideas.

I would love an underside shot of this for the same reason. Also it looks like there's a housing for an EOTS like sensor under the nose. Combine that with what looks like apertures for an EO/DAS like system in that triangular bump on the spine, and it looks like Boeing is going after the F-35 market hard.

I've spent most of my life picking routes/airlines by the planes you get. Currently, the best way to check planes IMHO is Orbitz.com. (I miss Sabre/easysabre--never had access to Apollo)

As airlines change their website every day, it's hard to suggest/know how they are at the moment--but typically, requesting a schedule just lists all the TIMES, but never the plane. You usually have to "select this flight" then "click for details" then click yet again for "more details"--THEN it'll usually say what type of plane. Takes forever. Some airlines will display the type of plane right in the "basic" results, but as I said--airlines constantly change their websites. Thus, I use Orbitz, as it will show all the airlines, with the exact type of plane.

Now, if you're looking for a specific plane (and not what planes are on a specific route), try to find the PDF of an airline's schedule---they almost all still have them, even if a printed timetable no longer exists. This is the best way to find out what routes a specific type is on.

Finally---if you want an A380, you can ignore most all of that, as there's very few in service and they only fly a few routes, and most of those don't go to the USA. Currently:

Qantas, Melbourne-Los Angeles, Sydney-Los Angeles.

Air France, Paris-New York.

Added to that SAL runs flights to Melbourne that depart SFO in a 777 and have you change to an A380 in Singapore. So basically it looks like you'll want to fly to Australia, and not mind changing planes.

How would one go about choosing to fly on an a380? I read an article saying people were picking the plane specifically. Can you do that with an airline?

Well you're fortunate to be near an airport that (last I heard) operates the A380, I know at least they tested one during fleet week a couple of years ago. I haven't seen any airline that lets you pick the type of plane you want to fly in, but almost all tell you what kind of aircraft a particular flight is before you make your reservations. You will be somewhat limited in your destinations though as right now only Air France, Emirates, Lufthansa, Qantas, and Singapore Airlines fly it.

The data on that video is inaccurate, that fighter is clearly a MIG-28 doing a negative 4G pushover.

Do you deny the engineering prowess of the People's Republic? It's clearly a J-28 doing a negative 5g pushover.

It's been a rather busy weekend in aviation news. Boeing began testing the F-15 Silent Eagle, proposals were submitted to the new, we really mean it this time, final KC-X competition including new shoe in winner Antonov's, and China's new naval fighter was caught on stills and video during flight testing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trYUWQvKees

Don't let the fact that it looks identical to an Su-33 with new missile rails added to the wingtips fool you. As the caption says it is NOT based on the Su-33, it is a semi stealth strike fighter! Who are you going to believe, the People's Republic Ministry of Culture or yer lying eyes?

A-12 Blackbirds very classified (until now) first flight. In HD even!

It really looks badass in that completely bare titanium finish.

Dude, how could you forget Tracy Reed as Miss Scott? She was probably the only sane character in the film. And she was hot during the time.

He also left out Peter Bull as Ambassador De Sadesky.

'Doctor Strangelove: Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb" (1964)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Sarring

Peter Sellers (Gr. Capt. Lionel Mandrake, President Mirkin J. Muffley, Dr. Strangelove)

George C. Scott (Gen Buck Turgidson)

Stirling Hayden (Gen Jack T. Ripper)

Slim Pickens (Maj. 'King' Kong)

Keenan Wynn (Col. Batt Guano)

James Earl Jones (B-52 Bombardier)

That's what we're talking about.

That doesn't sound like the type of movie you could mine for signature quotes.

Wait a minute - does anyone else here know what movie we're talking about?

No.

Ah, right I forgot.

The F3H Demon's failure was due to a poor engine. Had it had a good engine, it might have lasted longer in service?

Wasn't the performance of the F4D Skyray was considered superb but that the problem was that it was asked to do multi-role when it was designed for high-altitude interception?

On a second look you are correct about the F4D, I think I had it mixed up in my head with it's delta winged (but far less attractive) contemporary the F7U Cutlass.

True, but when was the last time there was an airplane that looked good but was a complete bust in it's ability to do it's job?

Both the F3H Demon and the F4D Skyray were real lookers who's performance was considered sub par.

F-35C makes it's first flight. I wasn't expecting this from the CGI three-views Lockheed had published before but the C model is easily the most attractive version of the F-35, even wearing the key lime pie primer scheme it has right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZUo99e8wCg

I think the 35C looks best.

Speak of the devil and he shall come. It's in taxi tests right now, which means it could be flying as soon as tomorrow.

I always thought the production F-35 looked a lot better than a lot people gave it credit, I think the less refined shape of the X-35 got stuck in a lot of peoples head. I will say with that short nose and bulbous canopy I can't help but think of my brother's chihuahua from certain angles.

cool man, what section would i find it in? i guessing the anime/magna? i ask this because i always feel lost in japanese bookstores

It was a year ago when I bought it at the SF Kinokuniya, but when I was there it was in the anime manga section on a table set aside for new Robot anime books like Gubbaba described. In the SF store that's downstairs which actually threw me when I first went there.

Iran has the world's only 747 tankers. Possible they want a couple more with even greater capacity and range. They just need to reverse-engineer the original mods that Boeing did.

My understanding was that the IRIAF hasn't found much use for them, and their KC-707s see a lot more work. If they're looking for new tankers they'd be better off buying some old 767s, A300s or 757s and trying to mate a boom to them. I could see them trying to throw a radome up on top for a home-grown AWACS, the extra space of a 747 might be an advantage if you're trying out different configurations.

This article doesn't specifically say they're -400's, but they are: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/uk-firm-fined-2-million-after-pleading-guilty-to-illegally-exporting-boeing-747-aircraft-to-iran-93423974.html

Thanks, that's interesting. I wonder what they're going to use them for? Three jets seems like too few to even fly one route, especially when they'll likely have little to no support from Boeing. I can't even think of a military application they'd need a 747 for.

In other news the F-35 just completed it's 200th flight, and the first two production standard F-35As flew to Edwards to begin testing which presented the opportunity for a very nice photo op.

First, Iran acquires multiple 747-400s. Now, China's got mil-spec surveillance 737s. Whoever's in charge of "making sure modern Boeings don't go to sanctioned nations" really sucks at their job.

Now now David, that's clearly an original design that looks nothing like a Boeing 737 and any suggestion to the contrary is merely a transparent attempt to downplay the glorious technical achievement of the People's Republic.

I hadn't heard anything about Iran buying 747-400s, got a link?

The F-23 goes to sea.

Took 20 years, but a look at what the Northrop NATF would have looked like has finally been revealed. Other then the diamond wings, it otherwise looks like a totally different aircraft.

Wow. I never put much stock in the theory that Northrop lost because Lockheed's had a stronger NATF proposal, but if that really is their proposal for an F-23N I may have to re-think that. I think David might have to eat his "Nobody else could make planes that ugly," remark.

Any new link? The link provided is broken

Aviation Week's lack of default permalinks sucks.

David beat me to the Super Duper Hornet, but Boeing has also unveiled a new 1/16 model of it's F/A-XX concept which looks pretty cool. At the same time they've also unveiled a refined version of that same concept which looks pretty ugly.

Your weekly piece of F-35 news. That's two production standard A models flying now, it's a damn shame the photo isn't from the other side, I'm curious to see what the gun port looks like.

Also here's a bonus article from Air & Space magazine about Lockmart's efforts to drop the extra weight of the B model. Very interesting read.

In other news it looks like Airbus is going to be bidding directly for the KC-X program again. While I like the A330 for aesthetic reasons and the bigger cargo load, I'm frankly just tired of the whole damn thing. Pick on or the other and start building it fer crisakes!