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AV-8B at the range , having fun with CBU`s and testing the new AN/ALQ-164

We're Jammin'

Final 6 Stormo skin.

"La Muerte Negra"

Tornado S.1 - No.617 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1982

RAF Meteor FR.9

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A subtle one here... there are changes to the Vixen as well but none are visible bar the missiles. Knocked the jet into an FAW.3... pinched the engines from a Lightning, the radar from a Phantom and a nerw pit from a Lightning F.6. Also turned the Firestreak into a Blue Dolphin by ini tweaks and a crude over paint of the seaker head. she'll now do Mach 1.2 and really is all weather capable.

I found some interesting MiG -21 data online so did a mini review of the ThirdWire flight model to see if there was any room to improve the performance a bit. Regarding the aerodynamics everything looked good and any changes that would have been made based on the data would have resulted in slightly worse performance so I left it as is. Best areas to improve performance were some adjustments to rack weights, some potential adjustments to empty weights on some versions but not the Bis, implementation of a combat flap set up for the later versions, and a work around for the Bis series to model the very large emergency thrust setting that was available below 4km/13123ft. There was a 3 minute limit on that system but it's not modeled. Might try something in the future to get an engine blow up at some point past 3 minutes but it's low priority. Here's some info on the changes: Engine Boost: I've been aware of this capability for a long time but didn't think it could be modeled. Turns out, it can! The engine afterburner mach tables use the same altitude table as the dry mach tables so what I did was add a second engine to the Mig-21Bis, but it supplies thrust in afterburner only. It adds additional thrust bringing the total thrust to 21825lbs static. At 13000ft the altitude table included with the second engine starts cutting down on the thrust until it's completely gone at 14000ft. The additional fuel consumption with the added thrust is modeled but it's not as bad as I suggested in a screen shot. After fixing a mistake the fuel lasts around 4 to 4 1/2 minutes but the fuel consumption and thrust can vary quite a bit depending on mach number and altitude. The additional thrust activates at about 98% throttle so to conserve fuel you will want to use the AB with discretion. It just occurred to me now I might be able to set the main engine up so it gets it's max thrust around 90-95% which would leave a bit of a dead zone between the main and second engine. Will give that a test at some point. Combat Flaps: This system appeared on the later versions, possibly first appearing on late production PFM's but not 100% sure about that. A graph showed the additional lift from the combat flaps that was available at speeds up to mach 0.90. I'm not sure how they worked in RL but these ones are just set to automatic mach and are fully deployed at 0.30 mach and fully retracted at 0.90mach with a continuous variation between points. The combat flap system worked between 0deg and 25deg flap angle. With the automatic combat flaps the landing flap setting is no longer available. Rack and empty weights: With the smallish low lift delta wing the MiG-21 suffers badly from increased weight. Any legitimate weight savings would help a lot. Anyway, from the info I was looking at the weight of the main racks was considerably lighter than the TW values so I made some adjustments. Aircraft empty weights need more research but the Bis looks about right and the MF looks too heavy by about 240kg. Any further information on these topics would be appreciated. Here are beta test FM's for the Bis and Bis-B: MiG-21BisFM's0.95.zip

Would that fin fit below deck?

And finally, a few shots of the F-15SE flight I was in (including my wingman limping home after a missile hit):

F-15Cs with 16 AIM-120Ds and 4 AIM-9Xs (plus the 2 CFTs).

Inspired by the F-15X, I loaded up an F-15SE with 20 external A2A missiles (4 AIM-9Xs, 16 AIM-120Ds). The only weapons pylon suitable for the CFT stations that I could find was one produced by the F-14Z team that I had to tinker with slightly. Even then, the undercarriage does slightly clip the CFT missiles. Still, it's one heck of an arsenal bird!

Lockheed Shooting Star FB.2 - No.79 Squadron, RAF South East Asia Command, 1947

The TA-4-Model isn't getting any younger, but that's what we have...Getting there. TA-4H of TNI-AU (Indonesian Air Force).

Hello friends, This week was a hard one - we had to let you play during the weekend without problems, so we released another update that continued the work started in 3.010. The majority of the changes are in the GUI and are required for the new Marschal multiplayer mode that is coming this Spring and will concentrate on the interaction with the map. Other important improvements were made for tank weapons and damage calcualtions. We hope that now the basic damage model is adequate and we'll start working on more particular tasks in the tank systems and combat damage department next week. This week we finished the map of the Southern part of the Kursk salient while two next tanks, M4A2 and PzKpfw III Ausf.M, will follow soon. The new tanks and the map will be released into Tank Crew Early Access after beta testing. Today we can show you the first in-game screenshots of them taken near Prokhorovka: You can discuss the news in this thread

The engine "Sonderregime", special regime of the R-25 engine, increased the thrust from 69.6 kN to 97 kN. The climb rate increased from 180m/s to 225m/s. The limit of 3 minutes was caused by cooling problems. Overheating was possible. Combat flaps were not used on MiG-21. If the pilot forgot to "pull in" the flaps, the wind would do the job from a certain speed. I forgot the correct speed when this happend. Perhaps i can find it in my archive. To release the flaps in dogfight was common for skilled MiG-21 pilots. I have heared it from some pilots of LSK (East German Air Force). The main problem for the MiG-21 was the air intake. The design was not the best. In certain flight regimes the air intake was unable to let in enough air to operate the engine properly. Then the problem of "Pompage" (may be "pumping" in english, sorry dont know the correct term) appeared. Or even worse the engine got a stall and stopped operating during a sharp curve. The design of the wing was as good, that the MiG-21 could have a much smaller circle radius, but the air intake ... In the 80th a different air intake with additionally openings was tested. The plane got a much better agility. The Ye-8 successor of MiG-21PF had the same wing, but a different air intake. The plane was nearly as agile as the F-16A, but 10 years earlier. Flare dispensers were included in some types of ECM pods like SPS-141 for MiG-21bis.

Lets say it has an extending oleo strut on the nose... nose goes up, tail goes down... problem solved

Should be great in RN livery.

It was actually easier than I expected, although only certain weapon racks work without clipping and the gear doors for the rear undercarriage always seems to get clipped. F-15Es with 16 AIM-120Ds and 4 AIM-9Xs

This one of the few models with not a single flaw. Simply perfect. Thanks!

Most likely. It's what I would do - go into Air Combat Mode once in a dogfight, verify the target locked on is a true bandit then fire.

Panavia Tornado FGR.2 - No.41 Squadron, RAF, 1991

And now the most 'funny' part. they ofc MUST have different camo scheme ;-)

Just finishing up a new mission for the JASDF 203rd Fighter Squadron... patrolling over a sudden thunderstorm over the southern Kurils. More details below:

The older analog radars using the Avionics60.dll always have green graphics. It is hard coded in the library and no provision was made to customize the color.

Each time, better and better. I love to look at these pictures. Sometimes I look at the picture once in the morning, and then look out the window - it's already evening there ...

Eye in the Sky

An AI controlled CF-100 fires some air to air rockets and actually hits what he's aiming at. I got the one in the lower left corner. I also hit some hangars and barracks and destroyed a friendly fuel truck but they can't prove it.

Just another rocket test........................

Flaps.

F-101A Voodoo...

It's been a while... and I still get that tingly feeling in my trousers when I do some toying around...

and it must be stopped.

Glad to have you back, Geezer, and a Happy New Year to everyone at CA!

Yes, when I have had two flights, I have usually had an Air to Air flight and an Air to Ground flight. I think that's why I hadn't noticed this before. Thanks for confirming this is normal. However, we're flying Eurofighter Typhoons, with Helmet Mounted Displays. We can look down and see through the cockpit. We can off-boresight target. We're carrying AMRAAMs. The DASS system protects against incoming missiles. Once the enemy is within AMRAAM range, first flight should launch, do a gradual turn away and then the second flight launches. 8 AMRAAMS; 8 dead Fulcrums. Now first flight is turning back to mop-up. Then onwards to the Ground targets.

I was leading 8 Typhoons on a strike mission into Libya from Sicily. We were carrying Mavericks and a mix of Amraams and Asraams, and I had a couple of Paveways for the Main Target. On the way there, we encountered quite a large force of enemy aircraft. I selected a target for my wingman. locked one up myself, and ordered the rest to engage air. We whittled them down to nothing, and then continued to the Libyan coast. I started to clear a path with my Mavericks, gave my wingman a ground target, and ordered everyone to "engage ground". By the time I had got to the target and dropped the Paveways, there were only three of us left. Absolute disaster. What happened? I did a refly to see where we went wrong. And I am still shocked, because I have never seen the AI aircraft do this before. When I ordered them to "engage air", they dumped the tanks and all the mavericks. So after we had sorted the air attack, they had no ground weapons, but blithely followed my "engage ground" order by attacking Sam sites with bullets. In my experience, this is not normal behaviour. I have never noticed this before in any other aircraft. What am I missing?

Can you imagine engaged in dogfight with a few tons of bombs ? It makes you less maneuverable, it makes it risky because you're taking the risk of the attach point/pylon/wing breaking under the stress, and if you're not breaking anything and survive the engagement, you have a high risk that the release or detonation mechanism will not work as intended. It's normal behaviour for the period covered by the sim. As the mission leader, it's up to you to give relevant orders, you order them to attack, only their guns qualify for ground attack, therefore they resort to suicidal strafing. Of course that creates problems when you are flying modern swing-role aircrafts with modern ordnance.

Hi, Von S. Why do you think that the engine doesn't rotate to yet on the Nie.23 series? It seems to me that the engine blurs dut doesn't rotate on the Nieuport23_Lewis only. Maybe we have different LODs? By the way, the Nie.23 series is just that case (along with both Pfalz D.III and D.IIIa planes) when the distant LODs are working normally. Nieuport23.OUT Nieuport23.LOD P.S. And what's wrong with the Nieu.27? It seems to me that this is a completely finished model, no worse than Geezer's N17 or N23...

I'm loving it 😁😁