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.

To be fair, the nice looking desktop is the second "WOW". The first is the price of the OS. Especially if you want the "Ultimate" version.

Once upon a time they did. The CH Force FX was a great stick back in the old DOS days. Basically a Fighterstick with an enormous force feedback base. It was a fantastic stick and I haven't found anything that I like nearly as much so far. Sadly it only sort of worked with Win95 and the force feedback doesn't work at all with any current game under XP.

They're a small company and you posted on a Sunday night... What do you expect after 12 hours?

IMHO, there are really two issues here. First of all, there are some malcontents out there. Don't know what their problems are. Perhaps they were potty trained too soon, possibly their mothers didn't hold them enough. Whatever the reason, some people always have something to complain and rant about. We really ought to just ignore them and encourage them to go hang out with their own kind over at Bard's forums. Starforce is the second issue. I think in the end ED will do right by their customers, but it would be nice if they outright said a couple things. Firstly, while I don't think they'd ever leave a customer out to dry if they run out of activations, it'd be nice if they'd say so. Of course, there would have to be some limitations otherwise customers could install FC for half their squad Monday and the other half by Wednesday. The other thing is what happens should ED or Starforce go out of business. Again, I don't think ED would abandon their customers. It'd be nice if they'd outright say that they'd remove Starforce after a specified period (say five or ten years) or promise that should the worst happen that they will release an unprotected version before the last person turns out the lights.

Care to share your sources on that? Your information seems rather detailed and contradicts any account I've seen. Every account I've read has something being not right with the Phalanx system. I seem to recall the captain being severely criticized for it in the aftermath. Either way, you're still comparing apples and oranges. It's still has no bearing on what the AEGIS system can or cannot do. Other than the fact that both the OHP and AEGIS are US technology.

IIRC, the ship's captain had ordered the Phalanx system switched off since it kept firing for no good reason... Not exactly something you want happening... The Stark incident has nothing to do with the efficacy of the AEGIS system, though it does show why you might want one around....

C6 is sneaky. I can't find it, but I believe last year they posted shots of the French CV Charles de Gaul imported into the game. Looked pretty real at the time...

What are you saying here? I read it that you saw 169th members using AEs on a server that allowed them, then you went on their server (where AEs are NOT allowed), used a loadout featuring AEs, got banned and now are bitter. If that's the case, they're in the right, and you're being an asshat. If it's not, please enlighten the rest of us on what the story actually is.

I have no connection to the 169th, and don't fly online, but if the server allows the use of the R-27AE then how is using it cheating?

If he's using the Mirage mod, then he may not even realize he's doing anything wrong. Even if he is aware he's using the mod, he may not realize that everyone else sees him as a MiG with inappropriate weapons. There's a big difference between maliciousness and incompetence. Of course, either way the problem will soon be solved.