BUFF

File Name: Third Wire WoI Kfir C2 Skin Template File Submitter: BUFF File Submitted: 19 Mar 2008 File Category: Skin Templates / Decal Sets File Version: No Information Website: No Information Skin templates are layered textures useful for painting your own custom skin of our aircraft. These are all saved in Adobe Photoshop PSD format, so you'll need a paint program that can read PSD format to use these. Click here to download this file

File Name: Third Wire WoI F-16A Netz Template File Submitter: BUFF File Submitted: 19 Mar 2008 File Category: Skin Templates / Decal Sets File Version: No Information Website: No Information Skin templates are layered textures useful for painting your own custom skin of our aircraft. These are all saved in Adobe Photoshop PSD format, so you'll need a paint program that can read PSD format to use these. Click here to download this file

aforementioned Triplehead with an HD3870/ 8800GT will do that better than with X1900CF though. Afaik Crossfire X1900s won't support 3 monitors (or if it does when did they change it?, I know that HD38xx supports more than 1 monitor in CF)?

By Dominic Gates 03-03-2008 Seattle Times aerospace reporter Boeing was comprehensively beaten on almost every aspect of the competition for the $40 billion Air Force tanker contract awarded Friday, according to a report published Monday by a defense analyst with close Pentagon connections. If so, Boeing may have only the slimmest chance of reversing the victory of Northrop Grumman and Airbus parent company EADS. Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute, issued a memo Monday that discussed the outcome based on "weekend conversations with government officials intimately familiar" with the Air Force decision. On the five specific criteria used to decide the winner, Thompson wrote, "Northrop Grumman's victory was not a close outcome. ... The Northrop-EADS offering was deemed much better in virtually all regards." Responding to the firestorm criticism about the award, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, undersecretary of defense for acquisition John Young, issued a statement Monday saying a team of independent civilian and military analysts appointed by him would vouch that the Air Force "conducted a very open, fair and detailed competition process." Those two assessments suggest Boeing's hope of a reversal of the award may now rest on largely political grounds — opposition to the outsourcing of U.S. jobs on a government defense contract. The Air Force had scheduled its first formal briefing to Boeing for March 12, a couple of days before Congress' Easter recess. But a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers from Washington state and Kansas — including Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both Democrats from Washington; and Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, both Kansas Republicans, called Monday on Defense Secretary Robert Gates to debrief Boeing this week on the decision. Both Democratic presidential contenders, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, criticized the award Monday. Thompson, who last week used his government contacts to call the surprise outcome of the tanker contest an hour before the official announcement, said in an interview Monday that Air Force officials "were very convinced early on that there were problems with the Boeing proposal." According to his conversations with officials, said Thompson, "Northrop offered a superior proposal in every measure and Boeing simply did not do a competent job of presenting its case." The Northrop proposal, which put forward the much bigger A330 against the 767, even swung the Air Force around from its original thinking. "The Air Force started out believing that the larger aircraft was a liability," Thompson said. "Northrop did such a superior job of analysis that they convinced a reluctant Air Force to treat the larger aircraft as an asset." His memo listed the five key criteria as capability, risk, past performance, cost and "integrated fleet aerial refueling assessment," a score from a computer model that measures performance in various war scenarios. "Boeing didn't manage to beat Northrop in a single measure of merit," Thompson wrote. The two proposals were assessed as equal on the perceived risk that the contractor would not perform as required. By every other measure, Northrop won. On past performance, the big delays to the Japanese and Italian 767 tanker programs weighed heavily against Boeing, Thompson said. And Thompson, who was considered by EADS to favor Boeing in the competition, added this damning endnote to his memo: "The reviewers concluded that if they funded the Northrop Grumman proposal they could have 49 superior tankers operating by 2013, whereas if they funded the Boeing proposal, they would have only 19 considerably less capable planes in that year." Scott Hamilton, an Issaquah-based analyst who has long considered the Northrop-EADS proposal superior, described that bottom line as "astounding." Hamilton criticized Boeing's public-relations campaign during the contest for focusing on aspects such as the creation of U.S. jobs and government subsidies to EADS, rather than the merits of the two planes. "Boeing doesn't seem to have a leg to stand on for a successful protest," said Hamilton. "I think that [local] anger really ought to be directed at Boeing for putting together such a poor proposal." Although the Northrop-EADS tanker will be assembled in Mobile, Ala., the major A330 airframe sections will still be built in Europe and shipped across the Atlantic. Boeing declined to comment Monday as it awaits its debriefing from the Pentagon. But reaction to the political elements of the contest continued to build Monday. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Monday he hadn't made up his mind on the outcome of the contract award. McCain, the likely Republican nominee for president, helped scuttle a previous 2001 deal that gave the contract to Boeing. "Having investigated the tanker lease scandal a few years ago, I have always insisted that the Air Force buy major weapons through fair and open competition," McCain told The Associated Press. "I will be interested to learn how the Air Force came to its contract award decision here and whether it fairly applied its own rules in arriving at that decision." Obama, of Illinois, expressed disappointment Sunday that Chicago-based Boeing lost out. Obama said it was hard for him to believe "that having an American company that has been a traditional source of aeronautical excellence would not have done this job." Clinton, D-N.Y., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she was "deeply concerned about the Bush administration's decision to outsource the production of refueling tankers for the American military." While details of the decision are not fully clear, Clinton said, "it is troubling that the Bush administration would award the second-largest Pentagon contract in our nation's history to a team that includes a European firm that our government is simultaneously suing at the [World Trade Organization] for receiving illegal subsidies." Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com Material from The Associated Press was included in this story.

pretty sure that either will outperform X1900XTX CF

or just buy an HD3870 or 8800GT ...

the fact that aircraft are priced in US$ whilst their cost base is in Euros is causing Airbus lots of problems with exchange rate losses. You can bet that the EADS factory planned for Alabama for the KC-45 won't be just making those for very long, they'll try & get civil production going as well to take exchange rates out of the equation for some production.

http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/ai...cy100015261.php

simhq have reviews of both the original analogue & later DVI versions. You can always PM Tom there with questions about them. If I had the money/space for the extra monitors I would probably have it.

Daily Trust (Abuja) 14 February 2008 Posted to the web 14 February 2008 Benjamin Auta The first batch of Chinese made F-7 fighters purchased by the Nigeria Airforce is due to arrive the country early next year, Daily Trust learnt in Abuja yesterday. A source in the Nigeria Airforce (NAF), who spoke exclusively to Daily Trust, said that already, the Airforce and the manufacturers of the fighter aircraft in China are fine tuning the process of acquisition of the F-7s. Daily Trust also learnt that some Nigeria Airforce pilots will soon be sent to China for training on the F-7 fighter plane. The source did not reveal the number of fighter planes expected, as he said the Russian made Mig 21 jets which have been used by the NAF for decades are now being completely phased out, hence the need for the Chinese made jets. "We are expecting the first batch of F-7 fighter planes from China in the early quarters of 2009. We can not say how many they are going to be, but we expect them to be about ten in number," the source revealed. Similarly, the NAF is expected to receive one of its transporter planes (G-222) which is being refurbished in Italy, as pilots and crewmen of the plane are presently standing by to take its delivery from the Italian contractors. "The refurbishment of the G-222 is simultaneously going on in Italy and some at our hangar in Lagos State are expected to be completed in this first phase," he said. Earlier, one of the transporter planes in the fleet of the NAF, which was refurbished in Bordeaux, France, was received by the Minister of Defence in Abuja last year.

UK changes JSF configuration for ASRAAM By Robert Hewson 04 March 2008 The UK has made a significant change to its weapons fit plans for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The original UK intention was to clear four MBDA Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (ASRAAMs) for internal carriage but this has been revised to include two internal and two external weapons instead. The configuration change was agreed with the JSF Program Office in the United States late last year and was shown in public for the first time during the Singapore Airshow in February. The external ASRAAM fit will be common across all three JSF variants and could therefore attract interest from other international customers, who will otherwise be tied to Raytheon's AIM-9X Sidewinder. The new ASRAAM plan is a 'work swap' that does away with the requirement to clear the ASRAAM on the F-35's two internal air-to-ground weapon stations. The integration team now has the more straightforward task of providing underwing carriage on stations 1 and 11. The ASRAAM is a rail-launched missile and internal weapons must be carried on a trapeze that swings down clear of the F-35's weapon bay before they can be launched. It has always been a credo of the JSF programme that external weapons carriage fundamentally compromises the aircraft's very low observable (VLO) design. Speaking at the Singapore Airshow, George Stanridge, Lockheed Martin's vice president of F-35 Business Development, noted that, in general, "if you see something hanging on the aircraft it means you are not a VLO airplane". A new 'stealthy' pylon has been developed for the external ASRAAM and MBDA notes that the finless missile already has a tiny radar cross-section. Carrying the ASRAAM outside the weapons bay brings several advantages, primarily in allowing passive long-range - beyond-visual-range (BVR) - engagements cued by the missile's seeker or the F-35's infrared search and track sensor.

partly politics & partly economics - a modern system is so expensive that very few nations can afford to go it alone (hence Jaguar, Tornado, Eurofighter etc.). Rafale is supposedly likely to be the last all-French fighter.

I give you P.1154 ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Siddeley_P.1154

agreed, it's stiffer which I like. The X52 MFD can't display the same stuff that the X52 Pro MFD can.

I would disagree except in the vfm stakes. The Pro is mechanically better but you are paying for the MFD when very few games currently can output to it - of course if the games that you play can use it then ignore that statement

indeed but A380 is in production & in service - the 787 hasn't even done engine test runs afaik let alone done a test flight.

we do have a game controllers forum here however you will get all sorts of opinions on the pros/cons of CH Pro, Saitek & TM HOTAS. Where you are & your budget come into it too.

Boeings production credibility isn't looking too good right now though - apart from the problems with the Italian/Japanese 767 tankers it looks like the 787 has slipped another 6 months or so.

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

Special Operators Head West http://www.afa.org/magazine/march2008/0308west.pdf The Raptor chronicles; F-22 questions; The F-15 mystery; Bomber prep .... http://www.afa.org/magazine/march2008/0308watch.pdf Beyond the F-22 Problem http://www.afa.org/magazine/march2008/0308edit.pdf Integrated Total Force http://www.afa.org/magazine/march2008/0308integrated.pdf

never realised before that the Indian AF Mig29 was Baaz & the Israeli F-15 of course is Baz.

Published: Wednesday, March 5, 2008 SOUTH BURLINGTON – The Vermont Air National Guard begins it’s conversion to the next generation F-16 today with the arrival of a newer version F-16 that is being transferred to the Vermont Air National Guard from Great Falls, Montana, Air Guard officials said. Colonel Douglas Fick, the 158th Fighter Wing’s Commander, will pilot the F-16 from Montana and is expected to arrive at the Vermont Air Guard base in South Burlington late this afternoon. This aircraft will begin the transfer of the more sophisticated Block 30 F-16 that will eventually replace the Block 25 F-16 that the Vermont Air Guard currently flies, said Air Guard officials. The Block 30 F-16 is produced in the mid 1980s and is approximately 5 years newer than the Vermont Air Guard’s existing fleet of jets. The new F-16 is powered by a General Electric manufactured Engine with of 30,000 pounds of thrust. The Block 25 F-16 is powered by a Pratt and Whitney engine with 25,000 lbs of thrust.