JediMaster

Wait, so you're actually assuming that a media report of a gov't deal is 100% accurate? Usually these packages include training and logistics for the life of the plane (which is usually 30 yrs), including several spare engines which cost a good amount. Just because the article doesn't say it does you can't assume it doesn't. To put it another way, that article is 8 paragraphs and the actual proposal is likely more than 8" THICK. Flyaway cost is NEVER the price when planes are bought because they're never bought by themselves. The only time in recent memory I can recall is there was a line item in the budget a couple of years ago for a single replacement F-22 that was listed as $141.9m or something, which was literally its flyaway cost. The rest of the time they include all this other stuff in the total price but the news always just says "for XXX planes".

Playing the demo, I noticed it was hard to control the plane with the gamepad using any flight model other than arcade. The realistic and simulator ones usually resulted in me spinning quite easily which I'm sure is because of the difficulty of using the gamepad precisely. Does Il-2:BoP fully support other controllers like the Saitek AV8R, which I'm considering getting?

Minis are expensive for their size, yes, but I've no idea what they feel like to drive or any of that other stuff. I've driven them in racing sims, though!

Certainly glad he didn't have children. The question is what about the driver?

Uh...that just seems stupid. It's a screen cap! Is someone going to take a screen cap for every frame of the disc to reassemble it or something??

I didn't think that signal would carry over a cell phone. Interesting. Anyway, the only time I ever did it (where I needed someone to come and open the doors for me) was in high school when the GF left the keys in the car and locked it behind her. So technically it wasn't me at all but I needed to call AAA to unlock it.

Also, if the cost is very close (between refurb and new build) it makes more sense in this case (where you're addressing shortfalls in numbers) to buy new. While being refurb'd the plane is out of service for a long time, so you actually decrease the active inventory to do it. That's why the USMC went with a mixed new build/refurb for the H-1 program instead of total refurb. I think the same thing is happening with the CH-47s?

I think it's safe to say they won't go with nuke power. The French built one and then decided not to for their 2nd carrier because of the costs.

MS: May we interest you in the Xbox 360 then??

According to that site, it was already down in 1997. The odd thing is I thought it was around later, too. I've been many many times since the mid-90s and I never noticed it was gone because I never looked for it! Not until when I was there a few months ago, that is, and I noticed the Pooh Playground.

I don't hear any violins either. What's with people complaining about all the violins on TV anyway?

That's also the reason why Not Another Teen Movie is my 2nd favorite spoof film after Airplane...while it makes some passes at modern film, it's mostly a Hughes-fest.

It's a nice what-if plane, no such plane ever really existed.

I wonder if it would be different with Vista? MS has all but screamed "stop using XP already!!"

The USMC has a number of vessels designed around Harriers. The F-35B is the only variant that will operate off it. Buying new vessels would waste far more money. If you want to argue if the Harrier replacement should've been folded into the F-16/18 replacement program, that's different. However, while the USMC could use F-35Cs to replace their Hornets, they couldn't replace the Harriers. In fact, you could probably argue it was silly to meld the F-16 and Hornet replacement programs in the first place. The last plane that both USN and USAF used largely the same was the A-7 and it wasn't anything spectacular, just a bomb truck. In addition, the F-35C is also notable in that it will be the first single-engine plane the USN has had on a carrier since the A-7's retirement. Anyway, whether or not it would've been cheaper to build 2 or 3 separate planes or 1 plane with 3 variants is a moot point now, the F-35 is what we've got.

I've seen it written that way, yes. There's also this crazy "F-16CG" and "F-16CJ" naming, but I prefer using the numbers.

Don't confuse the NAACP with some of these outspoken people. It's nothing like the KKK or skinheads, but in the words of one black American--"Jesse Jackson isn't the emperor of black people."

Really? I always heard that any program that tries to access more than 2GB (just open task manager and watch the process) will crash. I seem to recall Company of Heroes doing that to me when I would play with ultra detail. There's a "large address" flag or something that I think allows up to 2.5GB used if the devs compiled it for that, but usually it's not. That's why I'm still only using 2GB of RAM with my 32-bit Windows, since I never multitask and only really play games or mess with my MP3s.

I believe part of the limitations of 32-bit Windows is no one application has access to over 2GB of RAM. Crossing that line will often lead to crashes. I would think you would post a pic of a true 1080 image instead of an upconverted one! I also have the BSG series on DVD, not BD, but I don't have BD for my PC yet. Just don't see the need now.

*drumroll* gwar, huh, what is he good for? Absolutley nothin Say it again y'all!

Bah, a real man doesn't need any of that! I was unemployed when I met my wife and didn't actually get a job until we moved in together 6 months later!

The A-10s are being converted to the A-10C as we speak, they're not going anywhere. Also, we tend to lose a lot fewer of those, in peace and combat, than you might expect!

While that's good, technically this was about GT Legends, not Grand Prix.

You're looking at today. That's nice, but it's not the point. The F-15 first flew over 35 years ago. We're still building them, brand new, for forces around the world. The B-52 first flew in the 50s. It was "replaced" by the B-1, but we still have B-52s on the front line. The B-1 first flew in the 70s. It was "replaced" by the B-2, but we still have B-1s on the front line. What's going to replace the F-22? Not the F-35, wrong design. Usually you stop building one generation when you start designing the next (if you look, F-15C production actually stopped around the time the ATF program started in the late 80s). If you think we won't have F-22s still flying in 2050, think again. We may still have Super Hornets then! We built hundreds of B-52s in 15 years, of which around 50 are still in service. We're building 187 Raptors...how many will still be in service in 2050? Don't talk about a hypothetical UCAS which may never come, we're talking about building TODAY what has already been paid for in R&D and literally only costs us parts and labor now vs spending a ton more money for R&D on a new (unpiloted) plane that may be cancelled. So for all those wondrous numbers about what other countries have TODAY, what will they have in 2040, when all we'll have are 180+ (if we're lucky we've lost less than 7...not) Raptors and a larger number of less stealthy, less capable, less expensive F-35s. One last thing that people CONTINUE to ignore. We don't need F-22s just because "they" have J-10s. They could have MiG-21s and 23s only for all it matters. What counts is do they have old SA-6s still, or are they using modern S-300 and S-400 and whatever else SAMs in 2040? Just because our F-15s can beat their whatever-they-are over OUR airspace, what about if we're fighting over THEIRS? Remember the F-22 has officially been given the F-117s mission, so it will be sent in where the F-35s can't even be sent to take out SAMs (because you always will send an F-22 before a B-2). We're paying today for our security for decades to come. Don't think it's so easy to restart F-22 production in 20 years when we're going to "need" them, because it won't be and it will be too late then. We paid for F-22 development during the 90s when we had the money to spare. The country is now broke until 2050 pretty much, so we need what we can get.

In this book: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Book-Modern-Wa...k/dp/0760308934 there is a diagram in the chapter on the evolution of the YF-17 from the F-5 showing all the unbuilt design iterations inbetween. When you look at that diagram it becomes forehead-smacking obvious!