Caesar

Well, the Navy C-model has to be heavier/stronger in both gear and airframe to withstand catapult launches and upwards of 50-tons of pull on the tailhook every time it lands. It has a bigger wing to hold more gas, but possibly more critically, to allow for lower approach speeds, although I have no idea why the gun isn't internal. As a result, the Navy and Air Force versions really can not be the same, unless the Air Force was to go with the C, and then it'd have needlessly strong landing gear/reinforced airframe for what types of flying/landing it'd have to do, keeping it heavier than need be. Just the same, if the Navy went with the A, it would HAVE to be modified because it would have too weak landing gear and an airframe without the structural design to withstand that pull on the tailhook, not to mention a faster approach speed, leading to a stronger pull to get from x-knots to 0. Those mods would make it become heavier anyhow. The "Jointness" of the JSF comes from the fact that the designs are highly similar, but there are certainly divergences because there has to be.

Uh, Jedi, that's VIOLENCE, not violins. On topic: One less a**hole to deal with. Diabolus te aufert, irrumator!

Well, I wouldn't consider the MiG-17 a bad airplane at all. Just don't get into a fast fight with it, try to drag the speed down and turn with the enemy. The 4477th found both the Fresco and the Fishbed to be vicious planes when they were handled well, so I think the designers needn't be shot. The Flogger on the other hand...

LtCol "Jose" Oberle, who flew the MiG-17 with the 4477th said of the plane: "We had to teach them [the pilots being exposed] that if they could - as a defender in an American airplane - get the MiG-17 into the 450-knot regime, and then start to turn, then the MiG pilot would have to overcome this huge aerodynamic load on the tail without any hydraulic assistance. He may have had the potential to pull 7Gs, but he could probably pull no more than 2Gs because he simply didn't have the physical strength to overcome the loads on the tail. In order to get the best turn, the MiG-17 pilot had to decelerate into the 300-330-knot regime, that was ideal for the MiG-17...Out at 450 knots it was more of a lead sled." (Red Eagles, p.121)

S!

Felix XXXIII Natalis Tibi

Dels, many thanks to you for putting in a lot of time and effort to make these mods (and the many others you've worked on). Those 'pits are gorgeous - actually got me flying heavies in SF2!

Night Fight

Freakin' Awesome!

Hey all, Now this is something I've never noticed before. I've been playing SF2 a bit recently and did a recce mission in an F-14 with a T-38 on the wing. As we're approaching the objective point, I get contacts and send the T-38 home. I shot down two Fishbeds with AIM-9's, one with the gun, and the last crashed. After that, I get four more Fishbeds headed for the T-38. Four Phoenix later, the T-38 is safe (every missile worked) but two more Fishbeds come up from the base I'm supposed to do recce over, and this is where it got interesting. They open up on me with heaters (mission was set in 1977, so they weren't tough to defeat) and I have a lot of energy (I was at around 1.4M) so I figure I'll just get a bunch of altitude with that energy and they won't be able to follow. I do an immleman, and they're still on me; I do a second, and as I complete it (I still have about 350kts) I see one Fishbed nose-down recovering airspeed, the other is spirialing down towards the earth without the canopy or the pilot. It crashed and I zorched back to base, leaving the remaining Fishbed in the dust. So my question is, when was this feature added, or has anyone else ever had this happen? This is the first time I've ever encountered an AI punching out of an out of control aircraft.

RobK, Yes, I converted it from the first generation series. It isn't too tough, just follow the steps in the Knowledge Base.

That's the opening of Fighter Fling 2004. If you haven't yet, you should check out the rest of the video, it's good!

For Navy F-14's if the tanks were on at launch, they stayed on during flight with little leeway for jettison. "Unlike WWII and Korea and even Vietnam, intentional jettisoning of external tanks was not SOP with the Tomcat. As soon as [there] were enough tanks to go around, everyone carried them and the ship did not carry enough to allow them to be jettisoned on a combat vector breaking with practices of the past. You literally had to get permission of the embarked flag to punch them off unless it was an emergency. The aircraft obviously maneuvered better without them, but some COs decided that pilots needed to know how to fight with them on so as soon as workups began, they'd go on and stay on through deployment. Other COs would pull them off whenever opportunity allowed it, but it was SOP for them to be on whenever Tomcats were deployed as that 4000 lbs of gas went a long way." -LCDR "Hey Joe" Parsons USN (Ret.), F-14 RIO.

Like Dave's encounter with Tu-16's, it's happened to me on several occasions as well. Most recently I did an 8-plane Fighter Sweep with me in an F-14A, then my flight in F-15C, -16A, -18A, E, F, -22, and -35A (just for kicks) and we got jumped while on the runway by 8 Flankers. I got airborne, as did the -15 by the time they reached us, but they bagged most of the planes while they were still taking off. I think there were three that made it through that including myself, the F-15 and one other plane (can't recall if it was the -22 or one of the bugs) but it certainly wasn't the first time it happened either.

CONGRATULATIONS!

I've done both as well. Missile evasion in a Bug after the Sept patch where I put the stick "in my lap" and wound up tearing off both wings. I don't remember which plane I blew up from going too fast for too long, might've been the Talon when I was first checking it out, but you can definately overstress the engines and airframe.

NOBODY FECKS WITH THE T-6! NOBODY!

Yeah, no limit I know of. One of my favorites from Middle Ages Brewery (XIII Anniversary) is 9.5% IIRC, another from Ommegang (Three Philosophers) is 9.8%.

I heard some folks talking about it while I was in the Medical Building. It's a damn shame.

The BUFF pit is looking great! Looks like I'm gonna have to try my hand at heavies!

Bobrock's AV-8B+ Harrier II pit HUD in A/A mode

Sweeeeeeeeeet!

In Hard mode, the radar is far from all-seeing; the aircraft's data.ini indicates its scan, blind spots, azimuth, etc. but you won't be able to do things like switch from a 4-bar to an 8-bar scan, or change how far up or down it looks in game. Radars are also not uniform - an F-4's radar is going to tell you that something is out there, take a while to lock it up at range, and give you otherwise very little information on the target. An F-14 or F-15's radar can tell you a lot more by using Track While Scan, and are quite a bit faster to lock the target at range. Radar ranges are also dictated by the aircraft's Avionics.ini to be accurate - you might get into an F-16 and be able to scan 80mi, but an F-8 is limited to 10mi (IIRC), while an F-14 will see up to 200, and there are different range settings so you won't always be seeing 200 or 80 or whatever miles. Jamming is modeled, but burnthrough is a bit different. In other words if an aircraft is jamming you, you have to get within a certain range to lock it up depending on your radar's strength vs. jammer strength, rather than just focusing the beam on it. The radars/missiles also can be beamed, and the enemy will try to do so every chance it gets to make you waste your Sparrows. Campaigns are dynamic, and you will end up having to engage ground targets, if you pick a plane capable of doing so, and supply levels are part of the campaigns. Not sure how the Harrier works, but IIRC, it does use the thrust vectoring control. Heloes, no idea because I hear reports of them working and not working. There are literally hundreds of addon aircraft, including the Tornado and the Strike Eagle, which work well and have good FMs, just check the downloads section - not all aircraft have been updated to the SF2 standard, however, so if they're not out yet, you can either make the changes to make them work yourself, found in the knowledge base, or wait till someone gets around to them. Hope this helps!

Felix Natalis Tibi!

That's kind of strange. How far away are you when you're trying to fire it? Depending on the model, it's maximum range goes from about 12mi to over 20, but it also has a minimum range as well; if you're trying to shoot it too far away, it won't come off the rails. You should have a light telling you when you are in range to fire. Does it come on? The AIM-7 also doesn't have a "tone" because it is a radar-guided missile; tones are produced by infra red guided missiles like the Sidewinder.