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Looking for an evental replacement for their extensive F-4 Phantom fleet, Iran was an early partner (and major finacier) of the development of the F-15. The Imperial Iranian air Force was the first overseas customer for the F-15 in 1973, beating even those loyal allies Israel and Japan. The IIAF purchased extensive numbers of both single- and two-seat versions, with the F-15As (soon upgraded to F-15Cs) being primarily operated in the air to air role, and the F-15B/D versions taking the the strike, CAS, SEAD and other air to ground roles. The F-15C squadrons had a friendly rivalry with the F-14A Tomcat squadrons over who could make the most intercepts of Soviet MiG-25 overflights, and gained the type's first kills, shooting down 2 Iraqi MiG-21s for no loss in a brief clash over disputed Shatt-al-Arab waterway soon after coming into service. The Iranians also took delivery of a number of the new FAST packs and those F-15Ds permanently fitted with them were termed the F-15D+ With the revolution in 1979 and the subsequent war with Iraq the plans for shelving the F-4s were dropped and as attrition of all types took it's toll, both single and dual seater F-15 versions of the renamed IRIAF fought hard in all of the roles given to them. the F-15D+ was especially sought after for SEAD missions and long range strikes deep into Iraqi territory, and ultimately became legendary in Iranian media and culture after it's part in the precision strike on the H3 airfield complex. As the Iranian F-15 fleet soldiered on into the 1990s and then the new century with international sanctions continuing to bite, a combination of Iranian espionage against US companies (leveraging the relationships between Iranian and US aerospace engineers going back to before the revolution), component purchases from China, a daring operation by Iranian Special Forces to recover the wreckage of a USAF F-15E downed over Iraq during OIF, and the defection of a Saudi pilot with his F-15S (and the body of his WSO, killed in his seat by the pilot as he leaned over to help strap the WSO in) enabled the Iranians to replicate, in looks if not full capability, the sensor/targetting pods of the F-15E Strike Eagle on their F-15D+ models. The upgraded aircraft were termed F-15D++ or 'double plus'.. In the late 2010s and into the 2020s the fleet was further upgraded with additional ECM and weapons capabilities and, like the rest of the IRIAF's combat aircraft, received a new grey camouflage scheme... At the time of writing the IRIAF F-15 fleet continues to serve, and negotiations with both China and Russia for it's relacement by a package of either J-10/J-16/J-20 or Su-30/Su-35/Su-57 respectively are still ongoing...

Honestly, there is no need to insist on the reasons why tk dedicated itself to the mobile world (they are very obvious). The question is, what could have been done with the SF so that its development did not stop? I think selling the game in a single exe was an obsolete concept, possibly due to piracy but also because it came late to projects like lomac and bms (at that time very attractive graphically), the dlcs tried to rescue the game but they were from the same developer they made very few and they also got stuck in the idea of the sim set in the 60s... look what happened with DCS, they opted for a base sim that moves paid content, in SF, TK can sell their simulator with a good engine game and a base to carry out various missions. On the other hand, it also offers its platform to independent developers to produce paid add-ons to keep the sim updated (just like the consoles that are sold for the hardware but also for the catalog of games they attract)… I insist. Would it also have been a bad deal? Think that SF also created or was an important part of a market niche that is now fashionable: a light simulator that does not fall into the arcade but at the same time with realistic notions takes you to the action without tedious manuals... this same concept , take it to the dlc developers: cool planes but without the complexity and need to pay teams to model 1000 functional buttons, small modders could collaborate alone and at the same time be financially sustainable with their talents; you build the plane, weapon or terrain you want and earn based on what you sell contributing to the exuberance of the catalog (actually nothing new that FSX hasn't done during the last decades) Possibly TK has been left alone in this, I do not doubt that as a developer he had to get into debt to carry out your projects and survive with it, but when the idea is good and the strategy is clear, he can get the resources outside, there are companies willing to invest, the thing is if you want to share profits... Well, I think I went too long on this... although I'll repeat it over and over again, I think that SF itself has a good concept, very sellable even today, (that's why you're reading this)... anyway It is my humble opinion, the idea is to generate debate about what was or could be, I do not claim to be a know-it-all, (I am light years away from being a simple grasshopper) so please, nothing personal and understanding that my English is not very polished (and helped by a blessed automatic translator) so don't be surprised if something is not completely understood.. regards

K-56 SHADOW

just another day over Bosnia. although why the Reservists brought the tanker sightseeing is a mystery...

Vietnamese F-5E vs chinese J-6. 1979, Border War.

Barksdale tankers are way down the road, probably not this year heres a BUFF to tide you over

I was expecting "Voodoo Chile"

couldnt find any piper cubs but the NE-1 from sf1 does the trick more iaf camos probably in the future

I will be working on JAT81500 amazing Dassault Rafale model to add some minor improvement to bring it to my last release standard of the Typhoon. I am really honored to be working on the Rafale model that wad made by our talented friend JAT81500 and his amazing model. I will be learning a lot from JAT81500 work. Also I would like to thank ravenclaw_007 for helping me get the 3ds Max files.

French airfield of Desvres. Its an "What-if". What if the French would reactivate the old german airfield near the village Devres in a potential war against UK. Its fictional, in style of 1960th, with concrete runway, concrete taxiways, dispersal areas with open aircraft shelters.

F-15D++, IRIAF, 2023

well, i thought there was one at DAT but seems not. at least not that i could find in a 5 min search mandatory screenie, plus a Jimi Hendrix song

KAI-LAH

little side note on the F-14/F-15 flyoff: the Tomcat team cheated the F-15 went first. while they were doing their demo the Tomcat team burnt off fuel at high engine settings so that when they took off they only had enough in the tanks for the demonstration plus about 300 lbs. it made them several tons lighter than the F-15 and made them seem much more sporty than the Eagle the Eagle was more mature and the better technical pick for their need. but the Tomcat/Phoenix potential, mixed with some superior showmanship, won the day

I did debate on whether or not to eliminate the F-14 from the story, but I figured that with huge oil money spending power the Shah may have opted to hedge his bets and go for the long range AIM-54 advantage of the F-14 as a counter the MiG-25 overflights as in real life. However, the Tomcat's radar/missile package plus the variable geometry wings in a fighter were largely new technology, so the F-15s were a backup in case that didn't work out and, of course, were primarily purchased with an eye on replacing the F-4 fleet. As to timelines on when the various models were delivered, maybe the massive Iranian investment enabled the F-15 development programme to be more accelerated than in reality, such that the C/D models came on-stream a little earlier than 1979. Hope that satisfies any alt-history anomalies

true, but a first rule of alt history is to make the initial change as minor as possible in this case, i would've had the Eagle selected over the Tomcat rather than both serve together also the C/Ds wouldve been coming online right about the time of the revolution and probably wouldnt have been delivered. but one could go around that saying the FAST packs were originally developed for the IIAF, then later carried over to the USAF C models and say that some of those were delivered again, its great skin work and i know im counting ficitous rivets.

wickedly awesome. the historian /alt history purist in me has a few nitpicks on the story but the skins are great

gassin up over the Adriatic

Vicon 70 modular recon pod by Vinten. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/816_Shorts_312_Tucano_Kenya_Air_Force._(5644171399).jpg (I cheated by reading the placard in the link above )

I fixed that shadow issue a few year back, when I re-issued the A Bronco's as a stand alone mod (new FM too). Didn't do anything with the D, as the model itself is so fucked up. Too many issue that can only be fixed with a new complete LOD

well thats one way to confirm or deny heres another

Mue created a Blender exporter, it is available here:

For those who aren't on Facebook or don't have me on Facebook, I write too. Just like Gepard and Skyviper I've put out some books. Most of the time when I'm not gaming I'm back to writing, and working on some fantasy books right now. My links: Kindle: https://amzn.to/2Q4Kuaa Smashwords: https://bit.ly/3bjkhfA Website: https://ericjohnsonauthor.com/ Books2Read: https://books2read.com/ap/xeowZv/EricJ562 KIndle Vellas (US Only): For the Coin: https://amzn.to/2X9zz27 Operation Outreach: https://amzn.to/3zEhMxA In The Pit of Vipers: https://amzn.to/3eQsQQg Meanderings: https://amzn.to/3Rjja1k Streets of Destiny: https://amzn.to/3oCp6uo LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/ericj562 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3hVMug5 I'm self-published unlike Gepard, so I spend more money and could use the sale of course (wink wink)

Anyone know what this pos was? Look like a camera of some sort...

Just goes to show the old Iranian desert pattern (Was it called Asia Minor?) works on anything!

Why do not to tell how it really was I like fiction hostory disussions, ha-ha

Funny bit this Iranian camo fits F-15. it looks good. Interesting story fiction.

Shar-p!

Yeah, I see that...LOl...

Fix to get rid of the right-click menu ghosting bug in 3DS Max 2009: Navigate to your 3ds Max installation folder (under Autodesk, in Program Files) Copy and paste 3dsmax.exe into the folder, creating 3dsmax - copy.exe Edit your 3ds Max launch shortcut's 'Target' field to launch 3dsmax - copy.exe (right click, go to Properties) Run the shortcut as Administrator (very important) The issue should be fixed, or should occur much less frequently

Thank GKABS, I am struggling mightily to get this reinstalled. Just trying to get the license code reactivated has been incredibly difficult and a day's work still ongoing. However, even when I'm getting it to load, it immediately crashes on the loading splash screen, trying to load the mentalray plug in (e.g., Loading plug-in: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\stdplugs\ Mentalray.dlz). If anyone has run into this and can provide some support, please let me know! @Nuni Yes, Blender.

FAE

I too put up with this bug for years, but this fix worked for me: https://forums.revora.net/topic/113681-fixing-the-right-click-bug-on-3ds-max-8-on-windows-10/

Updated......

I added in certain planes some skids on proper positions so is possible to make belly landings If you do it slow and flat enough.

In theory yes. But I've had a little try at 125kph and I exploded on the water. Eider have another but it got me down.

nuevo perfil, bump y mas mejoras

Grumman Duck Mk.I - 724 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1945

F-15EJ, 306th Tactical Fighter Squadron, JASDF

If that is the case, then where is SF3 and why did TK make SFMC instead? I am willing to guess it wasn't for fun, he has a business to run and that requires revenue and tough decisions to be made. SF2NA; by far the most advanced in the series, brought a load of new features over the previous SF2 titles and even that still didn't earn him anywhere near enough money to cover the costs of making it and to continue developing PC based sims... hence the move to mobile games. Here's another challenge for SF3... his last couple of PC sim titles have taught him that the income profile from his PC flight sims simply didn't cover his costs BUT,... let's imagine he did have the funding to develop it, is it really realistic to expect him to punt it all on the hope that it might break even, or would he invest it into something else which is far more likely to generate a steady stream of income? The fact that the recent crowdfunding project reached 16% of the required target showed him that there simply aren't enough people to justify it. If there were, it would have been over subscribed and it would probably be on the digital shelves by now. Please don't get me wrong in anything I have said above and in my previous post, I would absolutely bloody love for the SF* flight sim series to be revitalised and continue being developed into bigger and better sims (there's a reason we all continue to play and mod it, because it's still a really enjoyable series), but unless circumstances were to drastically change in the near future I just can't see it happening. (I really want to be wrong on this).

For the Battle of Britain 2 1960th terrain i will make two nations.ini. One for the usual Soviet vs NATO setting and a second one for an UK vs France and allies scenario. I love the blue vs blue or red vs red scenarios. No advantage by superior weapons, only the skill of the pilots decide the outcome of an battle. Screenshot: Dutch Hunter F.6 shot down by a british Hunter FGA.9

Hello Gentlemen, I've been having fun researching the Skoshi Tiger programme and have tracked down most of the pilots in the "provisional" 4503rd Tactical Fighter Squadron- and have assigned their names as decals on the aircraft.. and have also added decals for some "outliers" including this particular aircraft which "borrowed" nose art from a marines Skyhawk aquadron! Not long to go now; would've been great to add a little more authentic capability to the F-5C, like the ability to jettison all weapon pylons; but this just isn't possible in game. I've got the documentation left to do now and it should be ready soon ..