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Posted

That museum with the Spitfire/V1 - wow, thats a really imaginative display! (for those wondering, the Spitfires wings are "clipped" to improve rate of roll at lower altitudes, important when going up against Fw190s).

For those of you who like your airliners, the BBC has a new documentary series you might like, "City in the Sky" which you may be able to get on iPlayer depending on where you are. It focuses on all aspects of modern international air travel; I've only seen a few minutes but it was much better than I was expecting.

Posted (edited)

You know, for just a split second, I thought YF-23; Wow, a lot of movement on the tail plane too. It literally looks like it builds on a pivot.

Edited by kalvasflam
Posted

If it has a FBW system which it more than likely does, the tail plane is mounted on a bellcrank mounted to an ISA mounted in the frame fairing area. FBW makes mounting a flight control surface fairly easy. The surfaces are mounted on a pivot point (mainly the horizontal stabilator and rudderons or rudderators not sure what the Russian term for them is). But I bet those frame bearings the tail plane is mounted through are seriously stressed.

Posted

I am curious as to whether or not they have notched the corners of the LEF's. That angle surface the LEF forms between it an the frame is a major RCS draw back. That is why the F-22 has notched LEF corners. In the photo it is hard to tell from the forward angle. I found this pic of one without the paint getting ready for a test flight. The LEF's don't seem to be notched. bUt you can get a better view of how far the LEX's move down ( it looks like about 25 degrees).

T50 13

Posted

Wow, that Dutch museum is awesome! Really good displays!

Posted

As I'm sure we all know, the very best way to analyse a fighter aircrafts performance is through videos on the internet:

Insert "F-35 can't keep up with 70 year old Spitfire" comment here... :)

Posted

Eh. F-35 bashing is getting as old and tiring to read as new Star Wars movie rants.

It's flawed, badly. It's stupid expensive. It has a lot of potential, though, and like most warplanes its flaws will be fixed, tactics will evolve, and it'll be at least effective, at best very good indeed. It'll never be as good as its ardent supporters claim, and never as bad as its worst detractors say.

One thing for sure: it's too far gone to be canceled, and so it's what we have to work with.

"The quality of the crate matters little. Success depends on the pilot who sits in it."

Posted (edited)

You are absolutely correct Sildani. We are to far along now to canx the program. Always liked Baron Von Richtofen............

Edited by grigolosi
Posted

One thing for sure: it's too far gone to be canceled, and so it's what we have to work with.

That's what Avro Canada thought in the 60s...

Posted

I'll give the F-35 this, from the few minutes of footage that have emerged, it does seem to be pretty quick in a straight line though given that monster of an engine that shouldn't be much of a surprise.

Posted (edited)

Unfortunately with the restrictions they put on the airframe it will be a while before anyone gets to see what it is capable of. When I was at Edwards the F- 22 ' s were restricted from any fancy maneuvering at the airshow. All they could do was pretty much what you saw that F-35 doing in the video.

Edited by grigolosi
Posted

THe two planes looked fairly impressive when I saw it at Leeuwarden AFB. I hope the F35 is the new F16 for the 21st century, but I fear it's the new F104...

Posted

That's my point exactly. The 104, after years of teething issues, training, and retraining, became fairly effective. It most likely was never a pilot's first choice, but it wasn't a failure. It took years, though, I'll give you that.

Slide: you're right, but that was a different time and country. Plus, it's probable the US pressed Canada to scrap it. For the F-35, there's no more influential country that can do that to us.

Only way the 35 can be derailed now is if F-22A production is found to be feasible and cost-effective. Which is doubtful.

Posted

Unfortunately with the restrictions they put on the airframe it will be a while before anyone gets to see what it is capable of. When I was at Edwards the F- 22 ' s were restricted from any fancy maneuvering at the airshow. All they could do was pretty much what you saw that F-35 doing in the video.

Yes, I remember reading that the Typhoons early airshow performances were a bit limited as they hadn't cleared some of the limitations yet, which meant that the Rafale (which was further along in its development programme) could put on more impressive displays at the time.

Posted

That's my point exactly. The 104, after years of teething issues, training, and retraining, became fairly effective. It most likely was never a pilot's first choice, but it wasn't a failure. It took years, though, I'll give you that.

Let's hope it doesn't take a couple of hundred crashes this time...

Posted (edited)

Ayeahp. Let's hope not!

Edited by Sildani
Posted

So... does anyone know the flight status of the YF-19?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36650848

Impressive yet scary stuff! so in time regardless of how good a fighter you have, if you going up against a A.I. controlled fighter then you're not going to stand much of a chance being a lowly human pilot..

So you would think that in 25 to 50 years a good majority of air force fighter jets will definitely be piloted by A.I. systems!?

Posted

Impressive yet scary stuff! so in time regardless of how good a fighter you have, if you going up against a A.I. controlled fighter then you're not going to stand much of a chance being a lowly human pilot..

So you would think that in 25 to 50 years a good majority of air force fighter jets will definitely be piloted by A.I. systems!?

likely, but they'll never be 100% autonomous

Even the US Gov't won't be silly enough to let a 100% autonomous Warplane off the leash... It'll have to request weapons-release/engagement clearances etc.

someone will develop jamming tech which will render EM communication effectively useless... jamming tech is usually not far behind the latest RADAR tech, and modern RADAR is very impressive...

once that happens it'll be telephone wire and carrier pigeons all-over-again...

Posted (edited)

likely, but they'll never be 100% autonomous

Even the US Gov't won't be silly enough to let a 100% autonomous Warplane off the leash... It'll have to request weapons-release/engagement clearances etc.

someone will develop jamming tech which will render EM communication effectively useless... jamming tech is usually not far behind the latest RADAR tech, and modern RADAR is very impressive...

once that happens it'll be telephone wire and carrier pigeons all-over-again...

UNIVERSAL CENTURY GUNDAM! Edited by renegadeleader1
Posted

Now I've had some time to think about it, this situation isn't that unusual - A.I. controlled aircraft, tanks, combat vehicles and the like routinely match or beat human minds all the time.

In video games. :lol: Apparently one problem many games developers run into is that during early builds the A.I. is often too good and needs to be dialled down a bit for the puny meat sacks to stand to a chance...

Posted (edited)

First UK F-35B arrives in UK for airshow. It got across the Atlantic without catching fire, being unable to keep up with the tanker or being shot down by MiG-17s; however, given the current exchange rate it might be the only one we'll actually be able to afford...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36670106

Supposedly in a recent exercise, several F-15Es were unable to intercept a flight of F-35s and prevent them carrying out their mission objectives in an exercise, though details are a bit limited (varying from "F-15s couldn't find F-35s in recent exercise" to "F-35s shot down entire rest of worlds air forces and the Kodan Armada in recent exercise").

Edited by F-ZeroOne
Posted

I wonder if it would be better to leave the pilot in the seat along with the AI. That way if jamming does occur, or some other nefarious activity, the pilot can just take over with a flip-switch. Developing a tandem relationship with our future Overlords can be a good thing!

Posted

I think part of the appeal to an AI pilot is that the aircraft can pull high g maneuvers that would knock out or kill even the best human pilot. When the time came to switch over to human flight the pilot would be a pile of mush :lol: .

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