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Love it!

Or in this case, Dave and Sparky. "I'm queen of the world!!!" --Dave

If the Sidewinder article on Wikipedia is correct, the Air Force adoped the AIM-9 (calling it the GAR-8) when it adopted the F-4. The USAFs first Phantoms were F-4Bs, but they kept the Sidewinder for the F-4C and did not switch to the AIM-4 until the F-4D. Looks like the USAF borrowed two F-4Bs from the Navy in January 1962, so they probably took delivery of AIM-9s a little after that.

I could be wrong...it does raise an interesting question...when did the USAF first adopt the AIM-9 for one of its aircraft? I know the F-100 did eventually carry them, but from what date?

One reason could be that the AIM-9 was a Navy missile and at the time the F-86H was in development it would have been politically incorrect for the USAF to adopt it.

One of the things I always wanted was the ability to spawn flights in and out at the edge of the map rather than requiring an airbase for them to originate form. That feature would be nice for this scenario.

"Light" sims don't need cockpits, anyway.

With regard to marketing...I'm not sure how much he really needs to do. It seems like his sims are almost viral now. What I mean is, when I look at the visitor statistics for my website, I get about 2500 hits a month and a large number of them come from people linking to me from forum posts that are many years old. There seem to be a whole lot of people searching for Strike Fighters material at any given time, so he has a lot of people who are going to find out about a new product very quickly without him having to relly do any serious marketing. Just an observation and my conclusion may be completely wrong.

TKs birds are looking good, though. I've always like the way DanW does his panel lines and rivets.

That only supports my point: if he would rather remove an important aircraft than model its key system then we can't assume that the key systems of the F-14 will be modeled.

It was groundbreaking nine years ago. Less so now. How many times do you want to fly the same mission against the same Comm Building? <-- That was a joke for the old-timers.

This is where your argument runs into a problem, in my opinion. TK has consistently overlooked real-life features that would, as you say, be "required to sim the RL situation" in past games. Off the top of my head, the DIANE feature of the original flyable A-6 in WoV comes to mind. That would seem to be as important to the A-6 doing its real-life job as the AWG-9 features are to the F-14. He also steadfastly refuses to remove the gun pods from the Navy F-4 default loadouts despite the fact that they were practically never carried. On a larger scale, the 60% scale maps effectively eliminate fuel from ever being a concern in a mission, thus removing one of a pilot's biggest real-life worries. My point is that just because something appears to be essential to simulate real-life does not mean TK will include it.

Flaming, yes, but also the greatest rock vocalist to ever live, for what thats worth. ;)

Fat bottomed girls make the rockin' world go 'round.

Numerous sources state that with the B and D it was very easy to exceed the maxumum gear-down speed after a full afterburner launch, adding another reason why it was not often used.

Without knowing all of the facts of this case, it may be. I never give our government the benefit of the doubt, though. ;)

The article is suggestive of that without actually giving any facts.

According to the article: Unspecified physiological and psychological problems... Sounds similar to the justifications used by the child's namesake and his cronies to eliminate those with characteristics they considered undesirable.

While I think naming your kid after a genocidal maniac (either a right-wing or left-wing maniac) is absurd, the thing that actually scares me is that so many people are willing to let bureaucrats involve themselves in such decisions in defiance of our freedom.

Looks like you are. Its too bad that handguns are out of the question for you because going to a nice indoor range is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. My dad and I had been going pretty regularly...maybe this holiday weekend would be a good opportunity to start again...

Happy birthday!

Yes, this is my "other" car show in addition to Top Gear and Chasing Classic Cars.

Many prisons in Mexico are effectively run by the inmates. There was an interesting documentary on NatGeo about it a while back.

Yeah I watch pretty much religiously. I like the American version OK but the UK team does a much better job making their adventures look spontaneous and the hosts have better chemistry. I also like James May's wine trips with Oz Clark and the show he did about the moon missions.

But then I'd have nothing to hunt!