Fighter jets, helicopters, future concept planes, etc

Discussion in 'Cars, Motorcycles, Boats, Airplanes Talk' started by rhythmdevils, Oct 7, 2020.

  1. Bobcat

    Bobcat Friend

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    Rob
     
  2. farbinator

    farbinator Facebook Friend

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    You never realize how big the Tomcat is until you see it in person. The National Naval Aviation Museum aboard NAS Pensacola has one out front on a stick.

    If anyone is ever in the Pensacola area (once Covid dies down, currently open to those with base access only atm), it's well worth a visit. Totally free and lots to see. One of the best aviation museums in the country besides the USAF museum in Dayton.
     
  3. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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  4. sphinxvc

    sphinxvc Gear Master (retired)

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    I nominate TurboKat.

     
  5. Tchoupitoulas

    Tchoupitoulas Friend

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    An interesting article on the U-2 spy planes, especially the details about why they're so difficult to fly:

    "Like any plane, the U-2 has to fly fast enough that the plane doesn’t stall and not so fast that the plane breaks up – the challenge for the U-2 pilot is that at 70,000ft there may be only a few miles an hour difference. An accidental nudge on the controls could spell disaster."

    "The U-2’s lightweight design makes the plane liable to float over runways, bounce back into the air if the landing is too hard and very sensitive to cross winds."

    "The visibility from the cockpit is so limited that when landing the pilot has to rely on instructions from another U-2 pilot driving a car that races on to the runway when the plane is coming into land."​
     
  6. farbinator

    farbinator Facebook Friend

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    The U-2 chase cars are legit. They used to use late 90s Camaros, and then got a taste for imported Australian muscle in the form of 04-06 GTOs (Holden Monaro) at one point, followed by some Pontiac G8s (Holden VE Commodore). I actually got a ride in one of the G8s a number of years back on a whim. Not really much different from a production car apart from the typical array of light bars and a vehicle mounted UHF radio.

    James May did an excellent two part documentary for the BBC where he took a ride in a U-2 several years back called 'At The Edge of Space'. Well worth a watch.

    No joke if I could grab an incentive ride in any current craft in the USAF inventory, U-2 without a doubt.
     
  7. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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  8. A Child of the Jago

    A Child of the Jago Facebook Friend

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  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Ninja Bomb - Flying GInsu - Hellfire R9X - doesn't officially exist.
    [​IMG]

    No explosive warhead to minimize collateral damage. I hadn't realized how accurate missiles have become. It's like getting hit from an anvil with blades from above.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2021
  10. M3NTAL

    M3NTAL Friend

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    Hopefully I can share a few neat things from my life to this thread.

    My grandfather was part of the team who designed the helmet system for the Apache. It's all hush-hush type stuff and I don't think he was actually in the US when it was being designed. Him and my grandmother (who also has "neat"? Hugh Heffner status) used to be 'stationed' quite a few places. I actually was gifted their personal car from when they lived in Greece. They only needed it for the Greek traffic/lifestyle. It was a '93 Eagle Summit Wagon/Van thing. I put the biggest stereo I could in it with a Vifa XT 3-way front end to try and keep up with a pair of 15"s in about 9 cubes of ported madness.

    I believe my dad has been in most every transport there is. From pond-hoppers to the the AC's. He's had to jump from a couple in situations of battle. I don't ask much out of the respect that I wasn't there to earn his stories, only his brothers in arms can understand all the things he has seen.

    My mother is responsible for helping keep the ISS running. When they built the ISS, they still had lead based solder. They sent my mom out to Canaveral to go and clean all the damn spider legs so that Porker could keep running up there. They can't reproduce the chips from that era so it was just a slow period of cleaning it all up.

    There is too much to write about how I got into audio and the music I like, but I owe most of it to my mother. When my dad was on operations, she tried her best to be at home. She did contract work, board assembly for local Phoenix companies. Those companies were Fosgate / MTX / PPi, etc... when they were hand assembled in my house. Then flow soldering came and then outsourcing became quite the lucrative business.

    Before she was building amps, she was assembling hearing aids with balanced armatures. We have a laugh when I show her my balanced armatures and amplifiers. We worked on the Torpedo 3 together, but she is starting to get too old and has passed her equipment on to me.

    Nobody has flown in my immediate family except my cousin who ran a flight school for a very short bit. Someday I'd like to get a private heli license, but currently - a moto is my earth orbiter. EDIT (That I know of, Uncle is a tank pilot)
     
    Last edited: Aug 31, 2021
  11. penguins

    penguins Friend, formerly known as fp627

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    Mmmmm sweet taxpayer dollars. I get not wanting collateral damage for moral reasons - but would any other organization, group of bandits / terrorists, or actual country go through this much trouble and money to pull off clean kills? Very cool though. And I also suspect that for some this would hit much harder psychologically.
     
  12. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    I suppose not blowing up your own and/or your allies in the process of eliminating a target is of high value. Furthermore, payload effective range likely comes at a cost of fuel and delivery platform which in the end may end up costing more sweet taxpayer dollars if the kill is to be assured using a much larger (and expensive) weapon.

    However, terrorist do have much more economic means of delivery, such as a pissed rando willing to blow himself up. Such an approach would indeed save some sweet taxpayer dollars. I can see that explanation:

    "Ma'am, your son is a hero to us all. He carried out his orders to deliver this large explosive to the enemy and blow himself up along with them. We could have use a long range precision guided munition, but that would have cost sweet taxpayer dollars. We honor the memory of your son, our fellow warfighter, and the taxpayers whose wallets he saved." - Lt. Penguins

    Or that recruitment officer taking to the youth:

    "Son. Would you like to blow yourself up and save some sweet taxpayer dollars?" - Sgt. Penguins

    Bandits usually do not have the economic justification or means to procure such long range weapons. But if some "bandit" organization wanted to go big and were able to get away with it, I guess giving some billionaire a call to do a wire transfer or make the morning news as a long range precision weapon casualty is of consideration. Problem likely is two fold here: 1) procurement of such a weapon and 2) getting away with it.

    In regards to countries, I believe they do go through this much trouble and money to pull off this in as much as they can. Big time.

    And more importantly. SR-71 is the sex.
     
    Last edited: Aug 30, 2021
  13. penguins

    penguins Friend, formerly known as fp627

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    Yes, SR-71 still the sex. A 2021 SR-71 flight would still be my stereotypical "silly rich man dies in airplane of questionable safety" choice of death.

    W/ regards to shelling your own guys though - I can't think of very many instances where you would drop bombs or call down artillery in an immediate area that you're in or friendlies are in. I get going from 2000lb bombs at the start of Iraq / Afghanistan (these did cause a lot of collateral and kill innocents next door so to say) to 500lb bombs that were also able to be more focused and precise (pretty much only blow up the target building or vehicle, although yes, I imagine it's not pleasant being next door when a 500lb bomb blows up your terrorist neighbor's home / hiding place).

    As for a terrorist blowing themselves up - yep, that's part of why they're terrorists. It's different too IMO - they choose to do this knowing it's death for themselves, their targets, and everyone else in the area. We developed this knowing it's still death for the target, but will spend a ton of money to mitigate death of a stranger and of ourselves. Never mind all of the other parts of the process that still results in lots of innocents dying - i.e. choosing between this vs the 500lb bomb was probably not the weak link in the chain in most scenarios.

    Lastly, I don't see any allied nations, much less "I can actually afford this" allied nations, working on the same thing. If anything, I expected the modern EU mindset to come up with something like this first, not the modern US mindset.

    I may also be wrong about all of the above as I wasn't there dropping bombs. This is just limited to 2nd hand info from guys who were there.
     
  14. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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