Gepard

Its difficult to compare fighters which were made for different roles. One plane that fits perfectly in one role may have been an desater under different conditions. As example: The Mustang was the perfect long range escort fighter, but was not really fit for the rough conditions of the eastern front and it was also not able to operate from carriers and for night combat it was nearly useless. So i may give my own ranking: The best frontline dogfighter: Yak-3 The best escort fighter: P-51H Mustang The best Navy Fighter: F4U-4 Corsair The best day interceptor: Meteor

To say, that the AIM-9L was the first all aspect IR guided missile is popular, but not 100% correct. (Its perhaps 95% correct.) In reality is was not able for a direct nose shot. There was a cone of perhaps 5° in which the Lima was unable to lock on. I must look into my archive to find an east german graphic about this subject, which was really close to reality, how i found out in the early 90th when i discussed this topic with west german F-4 pilot. In 1982 the AIM-9L was used in Lebanon War. Only in the first battles the Israelis used the AIM-9L in head on shots, because the most shots missed the target. Shots from a slighty sideward moved position already hit the target. But there was a big problem with Friend or Foe discrimination, so that they used the Lima in tail on dogfights in the most cases. Up today, i have not yet seen a HUD screen movie of a AIM-9L head on target shot and kill. Perhaps someone of you has a link to such a video.

Yep, but because someone though a molotow cocktail on it or made a fire under it. No normal car burns out because of loading the batteries. Its not the first time, that Tesla cars lit up. Two or 3 years ago they had a fire series with 3 buring cars in one week. Not because someone had messed up something while tuning the car, but because the cars had production failures. Lithium Ione batteries are strong, but potential fire dangerous. Boing had the same problem with the Dreamliner batteries. Show me the conventional car that burned out two days after delivery! Show me a new built car that burned out caused by technical failures only two days after handing over to the new owner! Not pictures of old cars, not pictures of cars which were victims by arson. Do you know the latest Tesla commercial? I like it!!

A two days old Tesla S after supercharging in Norway on January 3rd 2016. Have fun with Tesla! Enjoy it!

I dont worry about BMW. I had the chance to drive one BMW i3 for a day. This car is produced not very far from my home. 20 km or so. I agree with all, that the driving of a electric engined car is nice. Its silent. The acceleration is outstanding etc. etc. But the range is to short. The time of reloading is to long. And not only with BMW. The newest Tesla ads speek of a range of 345 km with one fully loaded battery. That means your action radius is around 150 km from your home. This is to short. And in cold weather the range is even shorter, because a battery is working worse close 0° Celsius than at 30° Celsius. The capacity is down to 50 or 60%. Its pure physics. Then you need electrical energy to heat the car, you need light and there are other electrical consumers like bord computer, navi, radio etc etc. This reduce the range even more. And with the speaker you mentioned, i think it is a good idea. Not because i love the sound of an powerfull engine, not as 70th comfort zone you call it, but as safety feature for other road users. The noise of the car is a warning for pedestrians or guys who go by bycicle, or animals. E-cars are dangerouse, because they are to silent. Its a big problem. Not if they drive fast. At 80 km/h and more the sound of the tires is significant and enough for warning, but not below that speed. And in towns (we have here a 50 km/h speed limit) they are so silent, that there is no, or a very little acustical warning for other road users. Make a selftest. If you are not aware, that a e-car is coming, it can end very very bad. One false, careless step and you ends as a hood ornament.

Nice gif. Really. I love it. I hope your enthusiasm for the Tesla will not end like the girl in the gif. Wait till you have your Tesla in 3, 4 years. Drive it for some years and then you will remember my words, when the range you can drive with one full loaded battery becomes shorter and shorter. You mentioned Hybrid cars. A colleague of me drives a Prius for some years. He had a fuel consumtion of 6.5 liters/100 km. My Peugeot 2008 i drive between 5.1 and 5.5 liters/100/km (depends on weather, temperature etc). The Peugeot (no hybrid, no Diesel car, ordinary petrol engine using pertrol of E10 quality) is more then 10% better in fuel economy than the highly praised Prius. You praise the Tesla for outstanding acceleration. I will say no words against it. Without gear box you push the button and the car starts like a rocket. Its impressive. Truely. But what is the speed limit on your streets? 60 miles/hour? ~100 km/h? Come to Germany and see what freedom of the streets means. No speed limit! Some foreigners become a little bit pale in face when they sit the first time in a car which is swimming in a 150km/h traffic on an Autobahn. As american you has an other point of view on cars, then me as european or especially german. For me is quality important, reliability, fuel efficency. Americans like power and glamour. Quality reliability and fuel efficency are in the USA of less importance. Tesla build cars following the american way. Maybe, that it will have success in the USA. But in Europe the Tesla will fail, like american muscle cars or street cruisers, Hummers or Trucks.

You call my statements drivel and yourself give away only Teslas glamour advertisements? LOL The future will show who is right. Teslas dead end devolpment or the fuel cell technology. In 10 years we may talk again.

Of course Top Gear was entertainment. This was the reason for the success of this show. But in case of batteries they are right. Its worth nothing. First: The fact, that supercharging harms a batterie is not solved, and i think you cant solve it technically. The lifetime of a battery is long if you load it completly and then must you use it till it is completly "empty". Then you must load it completly and the game starts again. But a completly empty battery in a car means, that you surely would end somewhere in the Pampa. So you are forced to reload a battery before it is completly empty and this is harming the lifetime of the battery. (You may make a self experiment with the accu of your smartphone.) And with supercharging you reduce the lifetime much faster. Then you will never reach the 8 years Tesla is offering. Replacement is expensive. Very expensive. Second: If all or the most cars would be electrical driven and the power source would be batteries then the electrical power networks of a nation would be overwhelmed very fast. This networks are not made for such ammounts of energy. They would become instable and break down. And by the way, how folks can reload their batteries when they have only a parkspace on the street? Should they throw a powerline out of their flat window? Or should the cities install loading station at every parkingplace? Who should pay for it? Third: The resourcess for high tech batteries are not available everywhere. They would be transported around the whole world and this is neigther cost effective nor good for the nature. And after use this batteries are hazardous waste. Forth: Battery driven cars are dangerous for rescuers (Firefighters, medical service) at car accidents. Fifth: Electrical cars are dangerouse because they are to silent. There is no or less acustical warning for people and animals. An incrase of accident rate will come. The 5th point is easy to overcome, but the other 4 are a real problem. If the electrical car is really the future, then the fuel cell is the best energy medium. It would need no big change in infrastructure. The petrol stations would get a new storagesystem, side by side with the systems for petrol, LPG gas or what ever is already in use. No big deal. Battery driven cars need a major rebuild of the whole infrastructure.

You know, that superchargers ruins a battery very fast? The lifetime of a batteryblock is only 3 to 5 years. With continous use of superchargers you come down to 1 or 2 years. And a new battery pack for a car costs 10.000 Euro or more. In 2011 the british automotive TV show Top Gear had an interesting episode: http://www.topgear.com/videos/jeremy-clarkson/electric-cars-day-trip-part-12-series-17-episode-6

Batteries are rubbish! Loading time is much to long. When it becomes cold the capacity of batteries is decreasing significantly. May be that it works in California pretty well, but surely not in North and Central European winter. If electrical powerd cars, then the only way is the "fuel cell". Fluid hydrogen.

It is not as fictional as you may think. There are some indications, that France delivered the Mirage 5 to Israel after a while and that the famous story of the Mossad action, where they had stolen the blueprints of the Mirage5, so that the Israeli Aircraft Industry was able to build the Nesher, was only a red herring. Some years ago was an eye witness report of an american technician in the very reliable german Aircraft Magazin "Fliegerrevue", where he told the story, that the Mirage 5 were disassembled in major parts, when he arrived with a C-141 at a french airfield. The aircraft were loaden into the cargoplane and flown to Israel. There israeli and french technicians reassembled the planes which were named Nesher in israeli service. The indications, that the story is true shall be that argentinian Daggers (the Nesher was sold to Argentinia after phasing out of IAF) have parts with nameplates with the writing "Made in France". If the Israelis would have built this planes as Nesher by their own, some say, they would never write "Made in France" on it, but "Made in Israel". I will try to find th original article.

Jeanba, i agree with you, that RT is a doubtfull source and that all what they say must be rechecked and confirmed. You say, thet RT makes propaganda. True. I agree with you completly. But the other sides makes it too. In this very case of the deal between Croatia and the Ukraine it seems to be, that there went something wrong. It is not a good behaviour to cheat a business partner. It was not good, when Russia sold Algeria old MiG-29 as new ones. and it is not good if the Ukrainians hide, that they took used spareparts from all over the world to"improve" the croatian MiG's. it seems to be, that some guys in the CIS states are still in "soviet mode" in their behavior with costumers. I could tell you stories, what crap our "allies" sold us in the old days! Starting with HE granades without explosives over brand new vehicles, that had to go to our repair facilities to become operational and war test of our Mi-24 which were on a routine overhaul in the USSR and so on, and so on and so on. It was their way of making profit. And for me it seems to be, that they do it up today with other costumers.

My most impressive helicopter flying experience was not from cockpit, but from freight cabin of a Mi-24W. It was in early 1989. Some days ago i had become a member of the tactical SAR group of my helicopter squadron. I know this sounds great and important, but we were only 4 guys and we just started to train the job. During one of this lessons we had the chance to visite a soviet "partner unit", the so called "Regiment nebenan". It was a combat helicopter unit near Erfurt. We drove with a W-50 truck to their base and had the chance to take a look at the Mi-24W they had there. The pilots (ljotschiks) were very self confident and very proud on their "crocodile" helicopter. They showed us everything, inclusively fuel aerosol bombs, Shtoorm ATGM etc., we could climb into the cockpits, switch all buttons. It was cool, really cool! And at the end of this visit tour they invited us to a ride in a Mi-24W. Stupid as we were we accepted the offer. Helicopter flying as passengers was not unusual for us, and flying at tree top level was a nice fun. So what could go wrong?! Everything!! What we had forgotten was, that the ljotschiks came fresh from Afghanistan. and they flew the Crocodile in Afghanistan style. If our pilots flew in tree top altitude they flew straight away in 30 meters or less. The soviets flew it different. The highest point of their helicopter (the tail fin) was in tree top level, when they flew. The nose of the Mi-24 nearly scratched the soil and this with 250, 300 km/h! When a tree came the crocodile jumped over it and sank down to the previous flown level. Again and again. It was like roller coaster. The craziest roller coaster ever!! The first dozen jumps over the trees were fun, the others not really funny and by the end i pulled my steel helmet of my head and spat all what i had in my stomach into my helmet. Not funny! Really not funny! Helicopter pilots are crazy! Russian Mi-24 pilots are maniacs!!

No smoke without fire, i would say. In Croatia, the police is investigating. And it seems to be, that the Ukrainians have cheaten the Croatians. The croatian newspaper JutarnijList had this article on 21.March 2016: http://www.jutarnji.hr/ekskluzivno--najveci-skandal-u-povijesti-hrvatske-vojske-nasi-mig-ovi-su-lazni--vojna-policija-zbog-velike-prevare-pokrenula-detaljnu-istragu-/1545837/ Translation via Google Translator: "The planes were bought and refurbished in Ukraine. We learn that it is suspected that it is in business paid a bribe! Military police carried out a major investigation into the overhaul MiG 21 purchased and refurbished in Ukraine. Jutarnji list has learned exclusively that so far in the investigation identified a number of irregularities and there is serious concern that in the business paid a bribe! Twelve repaired MiG-Croatian Air Force was submitted in July 2015. Eight months later, the Air Force has only three fighter jets and five repaired aircraft were withdrawn from use! According to the investigation, the military police criminal investigators so far have found that the planes that Croatia has bought from Ukraine "typed" serial numbers and that they do not correspond to the documentation plane is not the numbers referred to in the contract of the outage, and that parts built aircraft not appropriate supporting documentation planes. The investigation showed that the planes purchased from Ukraine older than what the documents. Apparently four to five years. It may be asked, is it just these seven aircraft were sent to Ukraine for repairs and returned back. Even the serious suspicion that the entire documentation spoofed, and overhaul of the aircraft was not done! The investigation, according to our information, launched after continuous failures only reconditioned aircraft."

Dont know, from where you got the fairy tale, that russian planes nearly shot down israeli planes. Not from RT. There you can read, that between Israel and the Russians in Syria are no problems at all. This statement is coverd by other medias. Of course RT is a questionable source and often not really reliable. But not all what they tell us is wrong. I think RT is quote following article in croatia media: https://www.total-croatia-news.com/politics/3015-military-police-conducting-a-detailed-investigation-croatian-migs-could-be-fake

The sound of a weapon not only based on the calibre, but on rate of fire too. For instance the 12,7mm DSHK Machine gun sounds completly different from the 12,7 mm Machine Gun JakB.

RT is not a really reliable source. But sometimes the only source, because our western medias have a certain way to hide some kind of news. Croatia is not the richest country in Europe. And i think it is the right way to fly the MiG-21 as long as possible. Its cheap in comparsion with other fighters. The ground structure of the bases, the maintainace system is made around the plane. They have skilled pilots and technicians for the MiG. A step toward the F-16 would not end with buying the plane. There the pilots and groundcrews must be trained. The question of spareparts etc etc etc. Instead to rely on Ukraine or Romania, Croatia should have choosen Israel as partner for MiG-21 improvement. Or it should ask Italy for help. The Italians had helped China with introduction of Grifo radars in J-7 fighters. If they could manage it with the chinese MiG-21 copy, they would also be able to do it with the original plane.

While testing a campaign i saw squadrons with only one plane left.

Eigentlich bin ich froh, dass am letzten Sonntag in drei Bundesländern gewählt wurde. Hätte nur Sachsen Anhalt gewählt, dann hätten die Küchenpsychologen der Medien sicher wieder die große Keule geschwungen und der Welt erklärt, dass die dummen Ossis so stark AfD wählen, weil sie alle in der Kinderkrippe zwangsweise auf Töpfchen gesetzt wurden. Oder ähnlicher Schwachsinn, wie man ihn immer wieder zu hören bekommt. Da aber in den westlichen Ländern ebenfalls stark AfD gewählt wurde muß die ursache wohl ein klein wenig woanders zu suchen sein. Und nun beginnt wieder das große Totschweigen. Wobei das Totschweigen nun etwas geschickter gemacht wird. Probleme werden nur noch in den lokalen Medien angesprochen, in die überregionalen Medien kommt so gut wie nichts mehr. Nur ein Beispiel. Am Mittwoch gab der Bürgermeister der sächsischen Kleinstadt Eilenburg ein Interview zum Thema Flüchtlinge. Darin waren Sätze zu lesen wie: "Bis jetzt ist die Situation noch haltbar. Doch es droht die Kontrolle verloren zu gehen und das ist nicht zu dulden." oder "Das Problem wird brachial vom Bund auf Länder, Landkreise durchgedrückt. Ich sehe den sozialen Frieden in Gefahr, wenn ohne die Leute mitzunehmen, die Verteilung durchgesetzt wird und letztlich daraus sogar noch Geschäftsmodelle (Anmerkung, er meint: Vermietung von Wohnungen oberhalb des lokalen Mietpreises) entstehen. 90 Prozent derer, die hier sind, werden schließlich im Hartz IV System landen. Integration kann so nicht gelingen." oder "Die Entscheidung, allen zu signalisieren, kommt her, war grundfalsch. Die verfehlte Bundespolitik hat zu dieser Situation geführt." Auf die Frage, was er in dieser Situation jetzt noch tun kann antwortete der Bürgermeister von Eilenburg: "Ich weiß es nicht mehr!" So erschienen auf Seite 34 im Lokalteil der Leipziger Volkszeitung am 16.März 2016. Im überregionalen Teil der LVZ war von diesem Interview, das nach meiner Ansicht ein Hilferuf ist, nichts zu finden. Und in Funk und Fernsehen natürlich ebenfalls nicht. In Eilenburg zeigen sich erste Ansätze zu einer Ghettoisierung von Asylbewerbern und einer beginnenden Parallelgesellschaft, die sich einen Scheiß um hier gültige Lebensweisen schert. Die Stimmung unter den Einheimischen ist schlecht. Hätte auch Sachsen am letzten Wochenende gewählt, die AfD Ergebinsse von Sachsen Anhalt wäre sicher übertroffen worden. Ich hoffe, dass nichts schlimmeres passiert. Die letzte Revolution hat mir schon nicht wirklich gefallen. Ich will keine weitere erleben.

In the IL-76, where i was passenger in my military time, we had not such a cool stewardes! Unfortunalty. The vodka we had really needed. There was a tin hanging under a leaking pipe. And when we asked the crew, the answer came: "No problem folks, after landing we will fill the oil in the tanks again!" Na sdarowje!

The best for beginners is to take an already existing campaign. Then you must look for a player unit. This unit you can rename in campaign_data and campaign.ini and give it the plane which you want. The rest is trial and error.

Its like "ISIS captured M1 Abrams from Iraqi Army." ... ehm ... ups... already happend in past.

Its not as little as you may think. Its the biggest single engined bi-plane. Its really impressive if you stand in front of an "Anna"

My last WIP "What if history" project. Its made for "Ostseeausgang (Baltic Entrance)" terrain. Blue side: Republic of Germany (maybee later scandinavian volunteer force) planes: Saab 29TA Tysk-Tunnan, Saab-29TE Tysk-Tunnan, Saab-29TF Tysk Tunnan Red side: Panslavik Republic Poland (maybee later volunteers of slavic nations) planes: Lim-2(MiG-15bis), Lim-5(MiG-17F), Lim-5P(MiG-17PF),Lim-5M(MiG-17F Fighterbomber), MiG-19S, IL-28 Status: intensive testing of campaign and updating of the terrain