mikoyan

Why would it be worst? They still testing the airplane; I don't remember seeing the raptor doing an air show at full performance a year after its first flight.

look at this stuff!!!

That boring gray is to make the airplane harder to see. Incredible that a machine as old as the Eagle still looks super cool! an even better; still one of the best; if not look at the raptor; grounded; reinstating the eagle as the supreme ruler in the US air force!

check the nozzles on the su-35

that su-35 is something else! now the b-52 on russian soil who could have imagined that few years back!

I said it before; it looks like an anti-spin parachute; at least that is the rumor.

Telemetry Lost During Hypersonic Test Flight http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/awx/2011/08/11/awx_08_11_2011_p0-358394.xml&headline=Telemetry%20Lost%20During%20Hypersonic%20Test%20Flight&channel=defense

Dude the tu-144 was faster and a bit bigger than the concord; it was very different if you look at them closely. Different wings; with totally different shape engines where not as separated as the concord and it had folding canards; was it better? I don't know; one got the chance to work as it was intended; the other never got to do commercial flights. Both where killed by the fact that airlines wanted cheaper and efficient instead of faster; cool and very expensive. If the tu-144 is just a ripoff of the concord they would not have modified a mig-21 with a single delta wing to test the wing design. I don't understand why everything made in Russia ends up refereed as cheap copies. As far as I know the only true copy made in russia was the tu-4 and it was not because the engineers could not came up with something different; they where order to copy it; it was a situation of "you copy or else gulag for you" another that I remember is the licensed version of the dc-3.

I read a wile back that the tvc on the su-37 where actuated by fuel! I don't know if this is true and the article has been removed. The article also said that if one engine fail the tvc would deactivate; again I can't verify this. Also the tvc from the su-37 is not the same as the su-30 which appeared after the su-35 and su-37. Some people are saying that the added tail section houses a parachute for anti spin maneuvers; I figure they want to test the aircraft flying characteristics before implementing the tvc control.

Where are they getting rpgs and missiles? maybe cracking down their suppliers could change things.

You guys better take good video material.:thumbup:

Any rotor bumping crash?

yaw stability is an issue and also stalls; they tend to flip like a strip of paper when they stall; Probably that is why the germans made the center section extend further back. I beth that loosing on engine could be catastrophic specially when you are using spoilers to keep the airplane straight.

who?

Most of the key performance values are classified; you will get mixed results depending on who you ask.

The vista modifications also had adverse effects on some parts of the performance of the eagle; like lower roll rate due to the canards; lower top speed, some stability decrease and increased cost; but what I can't understand why on earth the russians where able to do it on their su-30 and America can't. I figure that boeing could add tvc without canards (since the short runway take off may not be needed ) to the silent eagle with more powerful engines. Instead of buying more raptors they could build more vista eagles with the all the pertinent avionics updates; that way you would have a fighter capable of covering the gap created by the lack of raptors. Look at it this way; no one other than the US has operational stealth jets. Probably China is the the only country capable of building as many and provably more stealth jets than The US; but no matter how good they are; it will take them some time to accomplish that. The problem with canceling programs like the raptor is that you loose the know how and you could get caught with your pants down like it happened in WWII; where several allied countries had less advanced weapons than the germans because no one though that a conflict could erupt.

I also forgot to say; Lockheed is also working in too many military programs; it is like putting all the eggs on the same basket; what if one project gets cancelled? it would most likely affect the company capacity to deliver results in other projects; was't that one of the main reasons why the yf-23 was not chosen against the raptor. Look they are even building the hummer replacement!

I'm with Pilotasso this is not going to be an f-16 replacement; it is too costly; just put it simple; extrapolate how many f-16 have been lost around the world due to pilot error and accidents and replace f-16 to f-35; then calculate the costs! I know the f-35 is supposed to be safer and less complex to maintain; but you can't eliminate mishaps out of the equation. I wonder if the Air Force made the math correctly. I think that they need to develop a less complex version for export. The cost of the f-35 will limit its sales and people would look elsewhere. China is eager to sell their new jets; also don't forget the Grippen and the revitalized Rafale. Why it cost so much to build these airplanes; I tend to think that aircraft manufacturers charge too much for their jets; maybe is the cost of the labor? I saw a video about American Airlines maintenance practices; and it showed that mechanics are opting to build some parts of the airplanes themselves instead of buying original parts; one example is the cone on the tail section of the md-88s; instead of buying new ones; the make them from composite materials because it cost way less than buying it from Boeing. Is it a project management issue? why most of this project end up over budget and delayed. Isn't there clauses that protect the buyer if the manufacturer fails to reach the project goals?

Namenlos the I-16 is my favorite on IL-2 it flights almost like an su-31 but convertible! I wonder if there are bigger pictures of that bad boy. that mig-3 looks sharp

Blue Angels Mustang http://www.autoblog.com/2011/07/06/blue-angels-themed-mustang-to-be-auctioned-off-at-eaa-airventure/#continued

How do you know stalled the airplane if you can't rely on your instruments?

no shame at all

I suspect the problem is not limited to just the f-22; there a lots of accidents on which pilots inexplicably hit the ground for no reason. Provably the raptor is more susceptible to this problems since it can fly higher than most fighters. I don't think the raptor sucks; this kind of stuff happens; after all it is humans who design the machine; sometimes the unexpected occur; or several things interact to create a situation not anticipated by anyone. I beth that both raptor crashes could be linked to the same issue.

There is something wrong here... there are not f-15 with anime characters in here! isn't this japan? PSD: I like that red eagle; looks badass!

are those two subs here operational? they are awfully rusted! http://ru-submarine.livejournal.com/17486.html Even the exercising machines are rusted! What are the square panels on the skin made of?