Aircraft Super Thread Mk.VII

[David Hingtgen]

Kicking off a new thread with awesome pics:

http://defensetech.org/2012/03/10/awesome-new-pics-of-chinas-stealth-fighter/

[505thAirborne]

That J-20.is one big ass fighter. You wonder how it would handle going toe to toe with a F-22 or even a F-15 (My personal favorite).

[pfunk]

I think it could be formidable to maybe a F-35 IF its everything we are told it is. I would think a Raptor is out of the question

[Ghost Train]

What has been speculated so far, and it's mentioned in the above article, is that the J-20 was not designed as a direct challenge to the Raptor per say, but more of a stealthy 5th generation interceptor or strike fighter designed to hit things behind the front lines.

[electric indigo]

Go

to see it whooshing around. The rudder test at around 2 minutes looks totally cool.

[Shadow]

God that thing is big. Still looks like a pure AWACS killer to me.

Good video of Hornet carrier ops.

[Vifam7]

Kicking off a new thread with awesome pics:

http://defensetech.o...tealth-fighter/

Awesome pics, ugly fighter.

I don't see the J-20 being even close to the F-35's stealthiness with those canards up front. But I'm no expert.

[electric indigo]

Speaking of awesome:

Cross-post from here

[Chewie]

Gizmodo gets major kudos today.

http://gizmodo.com/5892971/this-may-be-the-coolest-night-landing-scene-in-the-history-of-aviation

[Bowen]

http://gizmodo.com/5889737/top-gun-2-is-real-and-stars-a-plane-that-doesnt-fly

Afraid it'll be just another CGI-fest (assuming it's true of course), not to mention the severe lack of '80's soundtrack...

[Shadow]

http://gizmodo.com/5...that-doesnt-fly

Afraid it'll be just another CGI-fest (assuming it's true of course), not to mention the severe lack of '80's soundtrack...

An F-35 as the star plane means no Goose character.

Granted, I'm not seeing this movie ever making it.

[reddsun1]

God that thing is big. Still looks like a pure AWACS killer to me.

Good video of Hornet carrier ops.

So, was anybody else visualizing VF's in place of those Hornets in that vid? eh? eh? Seriously--there are like, so many shots in the first couple mins of that video that are nearly identical to ones from the various Mac series that it's not even funny...

[Ghost Train]

I don't totally buy the F-35 being the star of Top Gun II. This is how I think it will play out:

The Navy pilots are high-fiving each other over their shiny new F-35C's, until a dangerous technical fault with the tailhooks grounds the whole fleet !...But then, OH NOEZ an unholy cabal of the 1% working with Mexican drug dealers, Russian ultranationalists, and the Venezuelan North Korean haters be hatin association hire a PMC air force to invade America. They are led by the enigmatic Troll-Face Squadron flying all black SU-35BM's

Nope... can't spare any Hornets. That only leaves ONE OPTION... a few remaining F-14's that have not been turned into scrap are brought back into action. Maverick will have a new WSO callsign Warlock-Ninja played by Charlie Sheen. These antiquated but powerful fighters slowly turn the tide of battle. Maverick's squad then faces off against Troll-Face squadron and it's revealed that their leader is none other than Goose flying a PAK-FA.

Goose is naturally upset that Maverick almost got him killed until his body was rebuilt with robot parts by the Illuminati, and the two have one epic dogfight. Just as the PAK-FA lines up the F-14 for the kill, Mav pulls the brake (no one saw this coming)... Goose desperately tries to Pugachev the PAK-FA, but it's too late...

In the final scene, Mav and Goose have a Newtype moment where they are floating in space playing volleyball, and Goose finally forgives Mav, before the PAK-FA explodes.

The F-14's land aboard the carrier and there is celebration, etc. In the horizon, alien UFO's suddenly appear and start attacking all of Earth's major cities. The stage is now set for Top Gun III: The Independence Day Chronicles.

Edited March 15, 2012 by Ghost Train

[renegadeleader1]

I don't totally buy the F-35 being the star of Top Gun II. This is how I think it will play out:

The Navy pilots are high-fiving each other over their shiny new F-35C's, until a dangerous technical fault with the tailhooks grounds the whole fleet !...But then, OH NOEZ an unholy cabal of the 1% working with Mexican drug dealers, Russian ultranationalists, and the Venezuelan North Korean haters be hatin association hire a PMC air force to invade America. They are led by the enigmatic Troll-Face Squadron flying all black SU-35BM's

Nope... can't spare any Hornets. That only leaves ONE OPTION... a few remaining F-14's that have not been turned into scrap are brought back into action. Maverick will have a new WSO callsign Warlock-Ninja played by Charlie Sheen. These antiquated but powerful fighters slowly turn the tide of battle. Maverick's squad then faces off against Troll-Face squadron and it's revealed that their leader is none other than Goose flying a PAK-FA.

Goose is naturally upset that Maverick almost got him killed until his body was rebuilt with robot parts by the Illuminati, and the two have one epic dogfight. Just as the PAK-FA lines up the F-14 for the kill, Mav pulls the brake (no one saw this coming)... Goose desperately tries to Pugachev the PAK-FA, but it's too late...

In the final scene, Mav and Goose have a Newtype moment where they are floating in space playing volleyball, and Goose finally forgives Mav, before the PAK-FA explodes.

The F-14's land aboard the carrier and there is celebration, etc. In the horizon, alien UFO's suddenly appear and start attacking all of Earth's major cities. The stage is now set for Top Gun III: The Independence Day Chronicles.

Sounds almost like the plot of half the Ace Combat games.

[kalvasflam]

God that thing is big. Still looks like a pure AWACS killer to me.

I don't know about that, AWACS is definitely important, but if you consider China's geography, and the likely mission of its air force, compounded with the relative difficulty involved in approaching such a big radar platform without being spotted, then it's a much more challenging target than say, tankers. If I were in charge of the missions, that's what I would target after. The strategy for China is anti-access, from that point of view, it means area denial for carriers (anti carrier ballistic missiles), anti US air force. In the case of the US air force, the damage multiplier comes from the tankers, take those away, there are still B-2s, B-1s, B-52s with stand off weapons, but you reduce the number of F-15s, F-16s, and F-22s.

If I had to bet, not even the F-22 or the B-2 could approach within 60 miles of the AWACS without triggering something, and those are more stealthy platforms.

[David Hingtgen]

Who wants the front 1/3 of a Tornado ADV?

http://www.ebay.co.u...id=324156485475

[buddhafabio]

I don't totally buy the F-35 being the star of Top Gun II. This is how I think it will play out:

The Navy pilots are high-fiving each other over their shiny new F-35C's, until a dangerous technical fault with the tailhooks grounds the whole fleet !...But then, OH NOEZ an unholy cabal of the 1% working with Mexican drug dealers, Russian ultranationalists, and the Venezuelan North Korean haters be hatin association hire a PMC air force to invade America. They are led by the enigmatic Troll-Face Squadron flying all black SU-35BM's

Nope... can't spare any Hornets. That only leaves ONE OPTION... a few remaining F-14's that have not been turned into scrap are brought back into action. Maverick will have a new WSO callsign Warlock-Ninja played by Charlie Sheen. These antiquated but powerful fighters slowly turn the tide of battle. Maverick's squad then faces off against Troll-Face squadron and it's revealed that their leader is none other than Goose flying a PAK-FA.

Goose is naturally upset that Maverick almost got him killed until his body was rebuilt with robot parts by the Illuminati, and the two have one epic dogfight. Just as the PAK-FA lines up the F-14 for the kill, Mav pulls the brake (no one saw this coming)... Goose desperately tries to Pugachev the PAK-FA, but it's too late...

In the final scene, Mav and Goose have a Newtype moment where they are floating in space playing volleyball, and Goose finally forgives Mav, before the PAK-FA explodes.

The F-14's land aboard the carrier and there is celebration, etc. In the horizon, alien UFO's suddenly appear and start attacking all of Earth's major cities. The stage is now set for Top Gun III: The Independence Day Chronicles.

sounds better then the movie with Jamie Fox and Jessica Biel in it.... Edited March 16, 2012 by buddhafabio

[buddhafabio]

crazy ass low pass of a B-52 on the uss ranger in the 90s http://gizmodo.com/5894077/b+52-low-pass-flyby-is-even-crazier-than-you-thought

[David Hingtgen]

IIRC, that pilot is famous for showing off and eventually getting his crew killed:

http://en.wikipedia....Base_B-52_crash

http://youtu.be/sjFIB1L3BPU

BTW---due to a B-52's high amount of incidence, they can fly level or even climb while nose-down. Yes, you can even see them go nose-down immediately after takeoff for initial climb-out... So many low passes look more dramatic than they are because it looks like the plane's descending when it's not.

[reddsun1]

this bloke got himself grounded for his trouble, according to the news blurb...

http://gizmodo.com/5...-ground-updated

but ferchrissakes--couldn't he come up with something better than "it was just for fun" when asked to explain himself? Jesus, buddy; you were asking for it. He could have at least fudged it a little: "...we wanted to demonstrate a *ahem* planned precision maneuver, as required for the Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System method..."

Edited March 18, 2012 by reddsun1

[Beltane70]

IIRC, that pilot is famous for showing off and eventually getting his crew killed:

http://en.wikipedia....Base_B-52_crash

BTW---due to a B-52's high amount of incidence, they can fly level or even climb while nose-down. Yes, you can even see them go nose-down immediately after takeoff for initial climb-out... So many low passes look more dramatic than they are because it looks like the plane's descending when it's not.

I just read the entire article on that pilot. I think it's criminal that his superiors continued to let him fly. It wouldn't be so tragic if his actions resulted in only his death and not the deaths of three other men.

[Bowen]

Return of the biplane?

http://gizmodo.com/5893768/new-bi+plane-design-promises-all-of-the-sonic-none-of-the-boom

[electric indigo]

It's an inverted X-Wing!

[pfunk]

Return of the biplane?

http://gizmodo.com/5...one-of-the-boom

That would totally change air travel if its cost effective as they say

[reddsun1]

It's an inverted X-Wing!

Let the "...lock S-foils in attack position" quotes commence ad-nauseum!

[F-ZeroOne]

Who wants the front 1/3 of a Tornado ADV?

http://www.ebay.co.u...id=324156485475

"May require cement"...?

[Bowen]

Airborne pirates on the way (sort of): http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/03/19/the-pirate-bay-to-fly-server-drones-to-avoid-law-enforcement

[David Hingtgen]

Awesome, the Gripen will get kills before the Raptor or Typhoon!

[Graham]

IIRC, that pilot is famous for showing off and eventually getting his crew killed:

http://en.wikipedia....Base_B-52_crash

BTW---due to a B-52's high amount of incidence, they can fly level or even climb while nose-down. Yes, you can even see them go nose-down immediately after takeoff for initial climb-out... So many low passes look more dramatic than they are because it looks like the plane's descending when it's not.

I remember seeing that crash on the news when it happened.

Reading up on that guy's career, he seems a real dick and should have been grounded long, long before.

Graham

[David Hingtgen]

When you're towing a pink Mirage down a road with a tractor, you're the coolest guy in the world at the moment:

[reddsun1]

[reddsun1]

Wow. There's no talking your way out of something like this one....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfFnNfszY9M

Edited March 23, 2012 by reddsun1

[Coota0]

Wow. There's no talking your way out of something like this one....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfFnNfszY9M

That guy is a moron, he mushed his way right into the ground.

[505thAirborne]

Guys are lucky to be alive, but thats what you get for showboating like that at high altitudes.

[Coota0]

They weren't really show boating. He was performing a low pass to a pitch back turn, very normal maneuvers. He attempts to convert his airspeed into a climb, but mushes through the climb losing a bunch of airspeed and gains almost no altitude. Then after executing a poor pitch back turn he tries to continue an agressive maneuver instead of swallowing out the dive and regaining his airspeed. Any one of three things would have saved him 1) Better Judgment, 2) More power or 3) More altitude.