JediMaster

Columbia broke the sound barrier directly over my head once, at ~30,000 ft. At that distance the double boom was enough to suck the air from your lungs, although no windows were broken because the area had long ago been hardened to such things. Had it been at low alt, though, like under 1000 ft, it would've shattered everything and possibly induced cardiac arrest in frail people!

My guess is that's actually a mockup where the wings aren't so easily removable, perhaps for RCS testing or other fittings.

Frankly, I'm not sure where TK can go with SF2. Since SF2's first release dropping MP came out, I've been calling for a SF2.5/SF3/SF Online that had limited (if any) modding support but had MP with a little more ability than SF1 series had. I liked the random missions, although I didn't like not being able to fly against AI-only planes. If there's no human in that slot, why can't it be a nonflyable? I also wished for single mission support, and with release of the mission editor making it so simple I felt its absence more. I thought the campaigns lent themselves to it perfectly as well, but obviously TK never had it in his plan. Forget mobile gaming, the games I like on my phone are nothing like SF and never will be. If TK needs to diversify to pay the bills, so be it. He'd probably need to have a larger team for it, of course, but enough profits in that arena could possibly fund development of "SF3" with better graphics and MP even if modding is lost.

More recently there's EECH with its great mods, but even that is pretty old now.

He was one of those rare actors who never failed to entertain, even when what he was in did not. However, it's obvious he greatly enjoyed his life and we shouldn't feel too bad it's ended. I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted any other life.

With all the releases, I do find myself playing more stock than I used to, up to 50% of the time even. I still play the mods more, partly for the planes/terrains available that are NOT stock, partly for the more accurate way they're generally done, but that used to be almost NO time flown stock. Ironically, the mods are a victim of their own success. Other than my total conversion mods like ODS, Vietnam+, and NF4+, I just have one modded install (SF2 in this case) with EVERYTHING. Partly for simplicity (post-patch), and partly so I don't have to remember where each mod lies. However, with that mod folder nearing 70GB now, loading times are a big PITA! Plus some of the mods don't seem to work right with recent patches (many date from the early days of SF2 or even are ported from SF1), so I never know if I'm going to get a CTD or some other odd behavior...so if I only have a few minutes to fly, I usually pick stock.

I first read this thread as "surrounded by lasers" and thought it was going to be something REALLY cool. Ah well, disappointments abound. I get irked by big pay for crappy job performance, like that woman who ran HP into the ground but was given like $40m just to GO AWAY and let the company recover. I mean literally anyone else in that position could've done no worse, yet they picked HER. They could've spent 1/10 of that money on someone else from inside the company and I bet it would likely be in BETTER shape than it is now.

Not to mention if the answer is too easily Googled and then it just becomes reaction-time testing.

No, no chance I'd forget mine! It's always the day AFTER the fireworks, how can you forget that?

Eh...hard luck is very subjective. We need something a little more objective I think. No idea WHAT though.

The fish must suck.

!

I remember in the mid-90s there was this big "oh, the Russians have bistatic radar, stealth is useless" dustup that happened. Just because theoretically or in a lab you can do something doesn't mean it's easily done in the field by troops. Besides, even today I think bistatic radar is mroe search-only, not track. A stealth plane that can be seen on search but not tracked is almost as good as not seen at all. It's still immune to ADA for the most part, just have to watch for interceptors closing in using guns or IRMs.

I was almost born on the 4th. Labor started a bit too late for it.

Plasma stealth should likely be called "active stealth" while what the US has used to this point is "passive stealth". The problem with plasma is...what happens if it breaks? Real fighter pilots have tons of stories about planes aborting because of a bad radar, screwed up HUD, fuel flow problem, etc. What are the odds your plasma generator is going to work that reliably? Would you necessarily know if it is or not? Might you fly into enemy ADA thinking you're invisible but your generator is fritzing and you show up just fine? I don't know that I'd trust it that far.

Well, I skipped May and went right to June albeit with some trepidation. No issues so far for me, no studders with any aviation60 planes I can see. Missiles seem fine, 3rd party and stock.

No, democracy worked just fine over there. The mistake was in the correlation "Democracy = Love the West". If a majority of the population hates the West, and the elections are fair, then the majority of the gov't will hate the West! Simple!

While it looked good, I think it represented a good gen 4.5 design at best. It wasn't very stealthy and I can't see resources being put into that design anymore when it was still so far from production. Instead, they've been updating the Fulcrum as it's just as (un)stealthy but at least is proven and known. It will need a replacement at some point, however, and if the PAK FA represents the Flanker replacement, they will need one for the Fulcrum as well eventually.

Yes, in "real life" they'd not be conducting cat launches and traps simultaneously, but that's part of the problem of having the limited carrier ops modeling.

If the F-4 was under 200 ft, there's no way it traveled very far after getting hit.

Making a bunch of prototypes isn't that hard. You can use the same engines (because if the prototype is underpowered, who cares?), same landing gear, etc etc etc. Taking a design you think you'll like and then making it into not only production-ready but also living up to the image it gives (ie 5th gen, integrated avionics, etc) is a lot harder. The Russians built two MiG 1.44s, too. They never built another. Right now they have two PAK FAs. How long till it enters service? How long after the YF-22 flew did the F-22A enter service after all?

Wow, that Helix is almost touching the hangar ceiling.

I wish I could send you some of ours. TS Debby has made this area a soggy mess.

My area also has a large bald eagle population, although I've never had a camera handy when I see them. Sigh...

I've got to figure out what's going on with the Spad XIII's "balloon guns". Worked fine for me offline, went online and they wouldn't fire...