hellohikaru

I notice the gunpod sounds different in every show. I like the DYRL sound best. It does sound like a vulcan or minigun.

The Commanchero(spl) resembles the Hind and the helicopter from Dovalk in some ways.

I find the Hughes LH-2000 rather cute. Reminds me of the Robinson.

I assume you mean the Maxl Custom, since we haven't seen the Standard Maxl yet, which might not have boobies.

The UN Spacy's Navy F-14A+Kai is one of the normal fighters upgraded with overtechnology. I am not sure where this upgrade is applied to except perhaps the pilot life support system.

DYRL however seems to use the Current U.S. Navy system. I have to disagree with that. When Max became leader of Skull Flight(Skull Sho-tai) he was referred to as Tai-Cho but that does not indicate his subtitled rank as commander(0-5) but rather captain like one who leads a football team. And a squad/flight is now much less than a squadon, which is nothing like the US Navy or JMSDF for that matter.

I think it has been mentioned before that the Macross Valkyrie pilot rank system is based on the one use by the Imperial Japanese Navy/Army. And IJN CAGs are normally Lieutanant Commanders/Commanders which are can be non-pilots. Squadron pilots seldom exceed the rank of Lieutenant(Chu-i). Just like in Macross, many aviators were in fact Petty Officers. http://www.j-aircraft.com/faq/ijn_ranking_system.htm

Is a going 1/48 VB-6 impossibly large ? If only it were larger i am sure they can fix the weak joints.

I guess we have yet to see the end of F-22 force size trimming. Who knows he might just canned the whole programme altogether. Then the USAF will have nothing but F-35 derivatives and unmanned platforms.

Think the VF-0S and A never had the instructions scanned.

Is FCK-1 a very good fighter ? The purchase of M2K-5 and F-16 suggest it may not be as good as the RoCAF had hoped. And it was designed with tons of help from US industry. As for China, they do recycle their older hardware as they can always find new roles for them. In fact IL-28 were still built in the 80s. Expect unlicensed copies of the J-11 to come up in the future with chinese developed enhancements. Note that license production has been halted for the J-11. http://www.sinodefence.com/news/2004/news061104.asp As for the very basic unguided air to ground stores of chinese Su-27SK/J-11 flankers, that's because priority is given to the counter-air role. China has tons of other types it can use for surface attack like the MKK and JH-7.

I heard the Chinese manufactured J-11 handles quite differently in the air from Sukhoi made Su-27. This is presumebly because of slightly different materials used. Anyone knows ? As for the J-10...never heard of the use of an F-16 engine...is Kunlun derived from F100 ? The FC-1 AKA JF-17 OTOH does look slightly like an F-16 and could have benefitted from China having access to Pakistani Vipers. Russian made RD-93 is the likely engine to be chosen.

The is the last one.

Namco's Ace Combat 5 website has got some new wallpapers up. Be sure to check them out. http://www.acecombat.jp/ There is a cool S-32 wallpaper with botswana defence force markings.

I was aware of that exception Ewilen, but the navy has a tradition of reserving presidents for aircraft carriers, cities for cruisers, states for battleships,etc. The last 8 or so carriers were all named after presidents or secretaries of navy/defence, though some of the presidents were in fact army men. Wonder will they ever give names like Ticonderoga, Midway, Coral Sea, Kitty Hawk.etc ever again.

Silkworm Anti-Ship Missile http://www.sinodefence.com/navy/weapon/c201.asp

The use of 286 chips on the F-22 is hardly suprising. Planes usually have their whole avionic suite built around a certain model of hardware/software..so continous trying to play catchup wouldn't be very cost effective.

They are naming the new carrier USS Bush ?! And how bout the other one ? USS Carter or maybe USS Bill Clinton

Following Canada's lead i guess. At least some of the democrats will be happy. At least keep one conventional aircraft carrier. Some countries(New Zealand for instance) don't allow nuclear warships to enter their ports.

Damian Don't just look at F-14 schemes only...do look at Navy F-4 of the 60s and 70s for inspiration. VF-51 is a pretty colorful unit too. Also the scheme needn't be navy style all the time. Think about a SE Asia or european lizard camoflauge...they could look good on your valks.

That's Wing Commander David Hamilton's plane. But yeah wrong aircraft. Interestingly enough RAF IDS were painted in a low-vis ADV type scheme during the Iraq operation. Perhaps thats how this beloved manufacturer got confused

I think if anything should be canned it should be the walmart fighter F-35. If they didn't pour so much money into it, they would have purchased more Raptors at lower unit cost. I doubt the USAF will do anything more than minor upgrades to a small portion of the F-15 fleet. I heard some of the older F-15Cs are still using the old engines and spend alot of time in the shop. Lack of parts for the unreliable engines the cause i heard.

Actually i like your valk girls alot BakeArt. How bout a Regult girl, how does one look like ?

The Tomcat's cockpit is actually very roomy. One pilot commented that the tub is so big that they can use it to take cover from enemy fire or simply run around in. And a new frameless canopy would have been easy to change. Same for the glass cockpit and HOTAS(Though F-14 already had a good HOTAS). And the kill ratio is believable IMO given the time period over which the conflict was waged. The Iraqis provided tons of targets and the F-14 were mostly deployed in a defensive role.

Sort of like riding on pogo stick