CanadaDave

IIRC Ubi acquired the rights to Clancy's name when they bought Red Storm. I doubt that he's had much more to do with the development of this game than you or I.

You've got to hand it to the Russians, they sure can build one hell of a model.

I haven't been in a couple years or so, but it's one hell of a museum. Beyond the F-22 (actually a YF-22, IIRC), they also now have a full scale mock up of a B-2 that was used for destructive testing (and subsequently restored). It's quite the sight. I imagine there must be a ton of other new stuff since '99, too.

Yeah, Windsor isn't all that exotic a destination from Ohio, eh? That's ok, Ohio makes for a better flight sim drinking location anyway what with the booze being cheaper and the Wright Patterson museum over in Dayton.

Windsor, Ontario, Canada at the moment, but was born and raised a ways north of here in a little city called Orillia.

Aviation Week says it was the Spirit of Kansas. http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/b2crsh02238.xml&headline=B-2%20Crashes%20on%20Takeoff%20From%20Guam&channel=defense

I thought this was interesting: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/05/f15.grounding/index.html

Support for that would have to be specifically coded into the game, so no, it wouldn't do anything. I haven't seen any mention of support for it in BS, so I doubt that will support it either, at least in the initial release...

I hope you're right. The media, however, is reporting that some of the aircraft being shredded conducted airstrikes in Afghanistan in 2001. I would assume such aircraft wouldn't be As and would have A to G upgrades installed as a bare minimum. That being said, it wouldn't be the first time the media got the facts wrong. Hell, in the video I posted they show F-18s being launched while the narator continues talking about F-14s.

In a lot of ways it was lucky for the US and unlucky for the Tomcat that the Shah went with the F-14 and not any other fighter of that generation. Had they gone with the F-15, F-16, F/A-18 (timing would have been a little tight on that one), or any MiG or Sukhoi fighter then the US government would have a next to impossible task in controlling spare parts and supplies. But with no other export customers they can just smash what they have and voila! no more parts. That said the smashing of the existing fleet is one thing, and is sad in and of itself, but what they're doing to at least some of the samples provided to museums is arguably worse. As I mentioned earlier, not being able to have a look in the cockpit takes a lot away from seeing the aircraft, in my opinion. An aircraft with a blacked out cockpit is missing a whole lot. It would have also been nice to have seen Tomcats in private hands on the airshow circuit in years to come. Admittedly it would have been a huge maintenance challenge before, but with the part supply being decimated like that I imagine it won't be possible at all.

Some will, yes. How intact those that get to the museums will be is another question. Not being able to peer into the cockpit kind of takes a lot away from the museum experience, in my opinion.

Don't think it matters that you're not from Iran. If they won't give Dale Snodgrass an intact one then I'd say that your odds of getting one are a little on the low side..

http://video.ap.org/v/default.aspx?g=8033f640-8e12-489d-9e4a-df32d00d5e28&f=ilchs&fg=email Tragic that they have to do that. I wonder if anyone in the US will have a flyable Tomcat in 20 years.

I saw a documentary on the YF-23 a while ago that mentioned the hourglass. If I recall correctly (and assuming the documentary got it right) the team put it on in the middle of testing as a fun thing to make it look more like its namesake spider. It took the USAF a while to notice, but when they did they insisted it be removed since it was viewed as unprofessional and potentially embarrassing if the press noticed. Probably the same sorts of killjoy brass that that frown on nose art, IMHO.

How hard is that to do? I've got an old Force FX sitting around somewhere that I'd love to use again. That thing was a great stick.