Heatblur Facebook

[Czechnology]

https://fb.watch/ev-tCX5Cxl/

No pictures of a model yet, but we do infact have MENTION of the Phantom on the Heatblur facebook.

[Mike Force Team]

@Czechnology Thank you so, so much for posting the Heatblur video.

When I saw the video showing the German Air Force's F-4e, I know countless Europeans, along with Americans, will buy the jet.  When the Phantom is available, we will have so many gratifying dogfights between the Migs and the Phantoms.  We impatiently wait for Heatblur to do their work.

Mike Force Team

[Ziggy123]

Is that the aircraft weight chalked onto the seat?

Edited July 27, 2022 by Ziggy123

[Yannick Pancake]

It looks more like the aircrafts identification. The German Air Force used 37+ and 38+ for their Phantoms. So it might be just the Jet from wich the Ejection Seat (?) was removed from.

[DSplayer]

25 minutes ago, Yannick Pancake said:

It looks more like the aircrafts identification. The German Air Force used 37+ and 38+ for their Phantoms. So it might be just the Jet from wich the Ejection Seat (?) was removed from.

Well the Facebook post does mention that they went to the Slovakian Air Museum to capture this footage and references and that museum has a former Luftwaffe F-4F Phantom. 

[Czechnology]

Ladies and gentlemen I did not edit my topic I am being OPPRESSED by the moderators give me back my "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

Edited July 27, 2022 by Czechnology

[LanceCriminal86]

Anyone have a solid reference for the differences between the E and F? Visual differences, systems, antennas, slats, anything that would differentiate the two?

[Yannick Pancake]

3 hours ago, LanceCriminal86 said:

Anyone have a solid reference for the differences between the E and F? Visual differences, systems, antennas, slats, anything that would differentiate the two?

I don't have a solid reference for it but I know a few differences for sure... First of all wich E's and F's are we talking about? From the externals F's and later E's are pretty similar. Early E's had the different gun nozzle for example. 

These are the differences I know without looking them up,  But I can try to find some sources.

Later E's have the sloted stabilizer, F's don't have this feature
F's always had the agile eagle upgrade (slats)

F's where initally unable to do aerial refueling (It was removed once they where in germany), but the AAR capability was restored in the Peace Rhine (?) Upgrade (this one also gave them Mavs and the AIM-9L and so on.
F's never carried Sparrows, they were Sidewinder only until early 90's with the KWS/ICE Upgrade (the launchers/ejectors were'nt installed and the APQ-120 wasn't able to support AIM-7's)

F's lacked the aft most fuselage tank (Nr. 7 ircc)

F's never hat the TISEO

F's and Late E's had different formation lights than early E's, they're a bit wider.

And then for the armament, the initally F lacked most of the guided/smart a/g weapons and sensors (no Mav, no TGP, etc.) it was pretty much only capable of dropping dumb irons and fire rockets

 

[Czechnology]

Another update from Heatblur. Again nothing big, but it's still Phantom related. Updated their cover photo.

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by Czechnology

[Heinlein]

Two teasers in two days after six months of radio silence. We must be getting close. 

"You're teasing it! hihihi"
- Jester

[Czechnology]

29 minutes ago, Heinlein said:

Two teasers in two days after six months of radio silence. We must be getting close. 

"You're teasing it! hihihi"
- Jester

I'm keeping skeptical unless a heatblur dev is about to message me and tell me a release date (which I'd sign an NDA for you should definitely tell me), I'm sticking with earliest release October, latest December.

[Heinlein]

hace 4 minutos, Czechnology dijo:

I'm keeping skeptical unless a heatblur dev is about to message me and tell me a release date (which I'd sign an NDA for you should definitely tell me), I'm sticking with earliest release October, latest December.

same here. But one can dream. 

[sparrow88]

IMHO if we would get it in October, that would be close. 

[Manhorne]

15 hours ago, Czechnology said:

I'm keeping skeptical unless a heatblur dev is about to message me and tell me a release date (which I'd sign an NDA for you should definitely tell me), I'm sticking with earliest release October, latest December.

Heatblur on the FB page posted a response to a comment to someones question and the comment was "Still a while yet; but we're working hard!". So from that I take it that it is no where near being anything that can be considered "close" for release. I feel its a year or more off at this point . It will sure not before the end of this year. I lost any optimism after seeing that comment and putting it with some other comments made a few months ago. Take this for what its worth. I am always the glass half empty type of personality so I hope I am wrong but I doubt it.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Manhorne

[LanceCriminal86]

5 hours ago, Manhorne said:

Heatblur on the FB page posted a response to a comment to someones question and the comment was "Still a while yet; but we're working hard!". So from that I take it that it is no where near being anything that can be considered "close" for release. I feel its a year or more off at this point . It will sure not before the end of this year. I lost any optimism after seeing that comment and putting it with some other comments made a few months ago. Take this for what its worth. I am always the glass half empty type of personality so I hope I am wrong but I doubt it.

 

I don't think your pessimism is founded, and you're looking for the worst interpretation of a statement.

[Czechnology]

I gotta agree with @LanceCriminal86. It was either a statement like that or the teasing "soon :)" which translates to like "OH HOLY <profanity> IT'S ABOUT TO COME OUT LIKE RIGHT NOW BRO".

To give my most pessimistic view I think it might come out by Feb of next year latest, if it gets really badly delayed, but I think Heatblur will keep their initial statement of this year. The F-4 has probably been on the chopping block for quite awhile and has been the big focus of their development, given we've seen very little about their other proposed modules.

Obviously all speculation, and the pessimism might be right, or it might drop literally tomorrow. It might not drop until 2030. Who knows.

[Manhorne]

3 hours ago, LanceCriminal86 said:

I don't think your pessimism is founded, and you're looking for the worst interpretation of a statement.

Like I said I did not base on that one single statement but several from them that have been made over the last few months. In any case its just my feeling on it reading the tea leaves and my experience of similar situations on other modules over the years. I think their tight hold on any kind of information on where it even stands is not a good sign for it being released anytime within the next year. If nothing is said by them by November on it I do not expect to see it before next summer at the earliest. There is a history of such things in the past.

[MiG21bisFishbedL]

Given the experience with the F-14, the statement of this year has all but assured that the FM programmers will be laid up in a hospital bed because of a wayward bus, now.

[Southernbear]

8 hours ago, MiG21bisFishbedL said:

Given the experience with the F-14, the statement of this year has all but assured that the FM programmers will be laid up in a hospital bed because of a wayward bus, now.

You have to understand the F-4 was being worked on for the better part of a decade under the subsidiary company of ED, BilSimTek. The reason HB would have the right to feel confident on a 12 month release from announcement would be due to his fact. 

[WinterH]

Just now, Southernbear said:

You have to understand the F-4 was being worked on for the better part of a decade under the subsidiary company of ED, BilSimTek. The reason HB would have the right to feel confident on a 12 month release from announcement would be due to his fact. 

It was worked on by Belsimtek for like a year or two, then binned when ED gobbled Belsimtek up and decided to go "nah fam... we'll go full low hanging fruit and do F-16". Then, in early 2021 Heatblur started doing theirs, from scratch, and they did say it a few times, that theirs is from scratch.

Heatblur is probably my favorite 3rd party, but Aerges has a decent chance of ousting them from the spot, we'll see. Regardless though, they are notorious for their modules taking a looong time to arrive, and missing at least 2 release estimations, or 5  I'm ok with that so long as we get a- aircraft I subjectively consider cool (which they always do make), b- result is of a high quality already from arrival (which they also do).

But Viggen, Tomcat, and if we extend the lineage to MiG-21 all seen multiple long delays, sometimes even multiple calendar years. Is that proof that everythnig will? No. But I'll err on the side of caution for F-4s arrival, I don't think it will be around within this year. I'd love to be proven wrong, and F-4E is what I want the most in DCS right now among the upcoming modules, and I'm glad it is Heatblur making it.

[MiG21bisFishbedL]

5 hours ago, Southernbear said:

You have to understand the F-4 was being worked on for the better part of a decade under the subsidiary company of ED, BilSimTek. The reason HB would have the right to feel confident on a 12 month release from announcement would be due to his fact. 

I've seen no indication that Belsimtek/ED has handed over any work to HB in this regard. 

I still have doubts we'll see it this year.

Edited August 1, 2022 by MiG21bisFishbedL

[Czechnology]

My thing with all of this speculation is they've been working on the F-4 probably as their proprietary module for a good while. They have stated on Facebook when asked that all the other modules they've announced have been planned for release after the Phantom since the beginning. 

Just because Heatblur is being a bit mystic I feel like has caused a negative kick. People usually expect announcement for a module's development years before the ground is even broken. In the case of the F-4 indications are they've been working on it for awhile, and have broken the norm of "its coming out in a few years". 

As for HB missing release dates, I can only hope they've learned some lessons,  I didnt experience it because it was before my time. Only got into DCS when the Tomcat dropped and I wasn't biting my nails waiting for the release, I just heard it released and got into DCS.

I will say they are given a unique advantage in that they announced whenever they wanted within their time-frame. The plane could of been in a near complete state at the announcement and they are just ironing it out and waiting for their time slot to release it given by ED, assuming ED has that power over them.

But yeah, given the lack of pictures for all we know it's an incomplete kit bash. No way to know for sure. Hopefully we'll hear soon though, with the slight rumblings from HB's Facebook I think we'll get pictures or videos sooner than later, but keep release dates tempered lads. I cringe at the people saying 2 weeks in the comments of their FB

[Czechnology]

Also, combed their FB posts because I wanted to make sure I read it right before posting it, they've replied that it's still slated for this year.

[WinterH]

41 minutes ago, Czechnology said:

My thing with all of this speculation is they've been working on the F-4 probably as their proprietary module for a good while. They have stated on Facebook when asked that all the other modules they've announced have been planned for release after the Phantom since the beginning. 

No speculation here, when the soft-announcement took place early this year, they've given an almost exact date regarding when they have started developing the F-4E, which was "early 2021". It was also known pretty early on that F-4E is the first in the line for release among the 3 new modules we know to be coming from them. 

With all that, my stance on F-4 in 2022 is "I'll believe it when I see it". This isn't negativity by the way... Just saying what I feel like as an accurate-ish expectation for when we can see it. Now if it doesn't arrive this year, and people start throwing tantrums about it not being "on time", that's what I'll call negativity :P.

That time period would be 2 years to slightly less than it even, and no one released a quite complex jet in that timeframe in DCS yet as far as I can recall, including ED themselves.

Anyway, between Mirage F1, Hind, Viggen, A-4, and newfound love Mirage ignited for old favorites like MiG-21 and F-5, I do have quite enough to tide me over until we get the Phabulous Phantom

[Heinlein]

From what I've heard, The F-4 have been in development since early 2021 so by release it has been in the works for a little under two years.  Thats not a lot of time compared to other modules like the mirage F-1 that have been in works for three years. But Heatblur at this point consists of like ten people (?) in total in contrast to Aegers that only have two or three people. In adition HB at this point have a lot of experience in making modules. And some of the systems in the F-14A Early is the same as in the F-4 so that means they kill two birds with one stone in development. I still think we won't see the Phantom until sometime late Q4 but until then HB have said we will receive the last two F-14A versions this fall which is nice