Fahhh

Happy birthday mate! A glass of Bulgarian rakia for you :)

That's a hornet ;)

X-man, your turnnnnnnn :)

well it would be easier if you post a short list of your installed mods... then we could pinpoint the one causing the problem...

old, but great video, however it was edited by a tv crew that didn't had a lot of knowledge about fighters and dogfights and inserted some sounds and clips that are not from that actual fight... The hud footage though is beautiful :)

Ricardo's HD cockpit mod probably has nothing to do with you being unable to alt+tab. Probably you've also installed the famous HDR mod, which is the cause for this... :)

Damn again :D ... went through the M-4 and 3M a good number of times, but could not find pictures showing the engines in detail, and didn't wanna start naming without some sort of proof :)) good job X-man!

Як-28?

I'm fairly certain, that's a Mikulin AM-3 engine... or at least one that looks quite like it. Searching now for all the planes that use such engines...

Great work Case!

Tu-16?

damn :) it went through my mind today, but rejected it as Sov13t had already proposed B-29... waiting for the next one :)

erm..... Tu-4? :P

AFAIK no exports will be available, including ATC. So we will have to rely on our own communication and organization skills :)

Well, we've been, and we have put ourselves intentionally in so called 'lost battles' - fighting ARH equipped F-15s with MiG-29A's, and we did ok. I'm already having some ideas on as GGTharos said 'anti-F-15 tactics'. :)

Correct - Laz-7M, I knew it wouldn't be a hard one :) Your turn.

Ok, my turn then... Name this aircraft:

Bolkhovitinov DB-A ? ;)

I have a blurred memory that I have seen this plane in a documentary about russian WW2 bombers... Am I getting closer?

+1 for 80's only scenarios :) SARH duels/fights are so much more fun. What is more, often the fights end up in close air-combat = even more fun! :)

The manual says that the batteries require higher recharge voltage than the generator is able to provide, and thus it cannot be used for this... Another fact is that the fulcrum holds a huge advantage over previous russian birds in the relatively easier maintenance and access to aircraft systems. Replacing an engine in the Fulcrum by a well prepared team should not exceed few hours, while in the MiG-21 for example at least a day is required. The engines however have always been problematic. While they perform very well in the air(apart from smoking too much :P ) their life is short, and require frequent maintenance. That is why they are often tuned down by a further 5-10% in thrust in exchange for longer lifespan.

Let's come back to the MiG - maybe you've noticed the gills-like openings on top of the fore-wing(don't know if my terminology is correct so sorry if I made a mistake...). And you've noticed they open when you start spooling your engines, while the main air-intakes are closed. This is a safety feature allowing the plane to taxi and take-off from roughly prepared air-fields. Modern variants use nets but back in the 70-80s, this was an unique design decision. I've been at air-shows where the Migs just taxi and take-off, and a bit later when the time for the F-16 comes, the entire runway is inspected for small stones or any other kind of debree. The gear is also rigid, I've seen photos of an emergency landing of a 29 in a grass field, and all went fine, the gear didn't collapse. There were also experiments I believe with Su-7/9s, equipped with skiis rather than wheels, to be used on grass fields. All this shows the depths the russian engineers tried to achieve to make their planes work on unprepared fields in all kind of weather. The americans did it too, if you've watched Discovery's Great Planes about F-5, you can also see that small but agile fighter taking off and landing at grass fields. It's all about what the requirements are. The F-16 has a somewhat lightened and not very wide spread gear, which saves weight, but limits the load it can take. I hope you get my point... There is a lot to talk about, maybe we should start with a certain plane and discuss its design and interesting features more widely. I'd prefer this to be the 29, as I happen to know some interesting things about it...

Just when I read CSL I wet my pants :P As Jeremy Clarkson once said, who needs a stereo when you have that gorgeous inline-6 cylinder ///M engine :)

Whenever I have the option and a team-mate to fly in a two-ship I take the MiG-29A or the Flanker. Fighting with SARH missiles is great fun even against enemies carrying ARH missiles... When alone though, I mostly fly the Fulcrum-S. I've tried the eagle, but I prefer the russian birds over it :)

The Ultimate Driving Machine... M3 E46, getting old, but still gorgeous :)