column5

There are two problems when picking the cruise speed for an aircraft. The first is that the information in books and on the internet varys wildly. Google for "F-5E cruise speed" and you'll see what I mean. Most sites seem to list something they call "max cruise speed" which is even higher than 500 knots. The other problem is that for any given aicraft the most efficient cruise speed varies with weight, drag and altitude--a single figure won't work for all scenarios. Bottom line: pick a resonable figure that you are comfortable with and don't sweat it too much.

Due to our high-resolution Gold-HD modeling, if the maintenance guy gets drunk on the way home and his old lady bitches at him all night until he slaps the crap out of her and he doesn't get any sleep becasue she calls the cops, there is a % chance that he will misalign your discombobulator and your aircraft will burst into flames.

One answer is, as JediMaster says, it is lighter with a very good thrust to weight ratio. Another answer is that due to advanced aerodynamic designs, the F-16 and f-18 both make up for their "poor" paper performance with much better real-world perofrmance. You can't use the charts I made to prove that one aricraft is definitively better than another...well except in the case of the F-111B being a dog...but you can use them as a starting point for making more in-depth comparisons. I think that the MiG-21 is underrated because it has traditionally been flown by pilots who received poor instruction in poor tactics. I would hazard to guess that a Red Eagles pilot flying the 21 would have gotten much more out of the plane, and could have beaten an F-16 or F-18 despite their technological advantage. I also think that the way the AI handles the MiG-21 in the SF series reinforces the misconception about the 21 not being dangerous.

Years ago, the c5 site had a limited amound of transfer bandwidth so I wanted to optimize the downloads. I tested zip, rar, ace, 7z and some other compression methods and found 7z to be the best overall for the types of files that make up a typical SF download. Plus it is free and constantly updated.

A few things factor into that, but without doubt 600 knots at 2400 feet is a worst-case scenario for fuel efficieny. If you were to climb to, say, 15k feet and throttle back to 400 to 425 knots you would be much more efficient. I've got the max radius on the Tomcat set at 500 miles, but depending on where the carrier station is at the game might be forced to send you on longer missions just to reach the nearest target on the map. If you are using the afterburner a lot, though, you will run out of gas really quick. Edit: I double checked and I believe we have the correct internal fuel capacity set--7,347 kilos or 16,200 lbs.

Also, the endurance of various fighters varies widely. For example the EE Lightning was notoriously short-legged, and a 45-minute flight would be considered long. The Hornet has the same problem, and the Supa Hornet never really delivered on the promise of significantly better endurance. On the other hand, some aircraft like the F-8 had large internal fuel volume, leading to better endurance than some contemporaries. The F-14 combines huge internal fuel volume with turbofans for endurance that was considered good up to its retirement. Which particular aircraft are you havign problems with? Edit: One other thing. I notice in a lot of flight models (including some of my older ones) that the normal and max radius values are wey too high. These should reflect the aircraft's normal and max radius, which is half of the unrefuled range. Fixing these values will prevent the game from assigning targets too far away.

Looks great. I think we just forgot about it while working on everything else...

Much appreciated, sir.

Oooh nice!

Oh heck, looks like I didn't get the glove vanes painted on that F-14A_82. I copied the skin over from the F-14B and didn't add that layer.

Great shots!

Yeah, no Ugandan Air Force!

For your pleasure, baby!

Please to be enjoying our Tomcats: http://combatace.com/files/file/11076-f-14a-and-f-14b-tomcat-tmf/

View File Mirage Factory F-14A and F-14B Tomcat Grumman’s F-14 Tomcat could be described as the Marilyn Monroe of aircraft designs. Both were at once beautiful and flawed, with indelible public images and yet often misunderstood and misrepresented. Both also met untimely ends. For many, the aircraft will always be remembered as the star of the hit 1986 movie Top Gun, but the Tomcat was a real weapon on the front lines of the Cold War, personifying the technological prowess and advanced production methods that the Soviet Union could not match, and which eventually drove them to break their economy in the attempt to keep up. For me personally, it will always be associated with the three years my family lived in Virginia Beach, near NAS Oceana, in the early 1980s. I vividly remember all of the jets that used to fly over our house—Skyhawks, Intruders, Phantoms and especially Tomcats. With their twin tails and swing-wings they had to be the coolest things in the air, and in retrospect I believe they really were. --c5 This aircraft is dedicated to our departed friend and Cheif of Production, Oli. Please see the included PDF for information on the cockpit, including some known issues that will be addressed in a future update. Model: Flying Toaster, BPAo Skins and Flight Model: column5 Cockpit: Chris Avionics: MoonJumper Pilots: Diego Extra Hangar and Loading Screens: USAFMTL Testing: The Mirage Factory Please contact one of the above people at CombatAce if you would like to use this mod in a freeware project. This mod may not be used as part of any payware project. Submitter column5 Submitted 06/23/2010 Category F-14

Nothing good will come of this.

OK guys, this is the time to put up or shut up: The success of ThirdWire directly affects what we get in the future in terms of expansions and new games. I urge everyone who can afford to do so to go on over to the TW store today and buy something. Maybe there is a sim you don't have yet, or maybe you have a friend who is in need of a gift. TW has products ranging from a ridiculously low $9.99 to a...ridiculously low $19.99. https://store.thirdwire.com/store.htm I just grabbed something for myself. This is not a "whose wallet is bigger" thread though, so there is no need to post saying how much you spent. Thanks to everyone who supports ThirdWire. If we all chip in, maybe we can turn June into a good month for them.

The original TMF Tomcat was a good release 5-6 years ago, but it can't compete with the current state of the art from either ThirdWire or the community. The new version coming out very soon will remedy that. I'm torn because I don't want anyone to skip SF2T, but at the same time all of us in TMF want to make sure as many of the projects Oli worked as possible get released. With the exception of the multi-target tracking and flight model enhancements to better simulate VG, all of the improvements I can think of that would be desirable for a Tomcat sim involve the AI, which TK has stated will not be getting any major changes. It will be interesting to see what transpires as TK has always provided interesting tweaks and additions with each new release.

Great point! There were air strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in December 1983 in response to a SAM being fired at an F-14. Expanding on that event would be very logical. With regard to TK choosing a theater without much potential for strike missions, I was making an assumption--possibly a bad one--that the F-14 would not be the only player flyable aircraft in this new sim.

Here is what we know: "...next SF2 game is not Falklands." "...we're not doing any modern realistic sim..." "we're doing SF2 Tomcat game, but no, its not going to have detailed carrier or AI (at least not beyond what we currently have)" "We're working on another SF2 Expansion Pack for the summer" "third SF2 Expansion Pack for the fall" "SF2 Tomcat game for the Christmas" "games we're releasing this year (FE2, SF2 Tomcat, SF2 Expansion 1, WOI expansion, etc)" "Both SF2 Exp2 and Exp3 will be for SF2 Europe. Exp2 will cover campaigns set in the late 50s to early 60s, and Exp3 will cover campaigns set in the late 40s to early 50s" "FE2 Expansion will be next summer at the earliest" "we already have a whole new SF2 game planned after that as well" "there will be no F-14 sim using the first-gen engine"

No, I've been so bad what I really need is a good spanking from a dominatrix. Er, aviatrix. Uhm...maybe an aviatrix dominatrix.

I just wanted to provide an example, and since the only example I am capable of providing is a bad example...

Hey did you hear Obama's lame speech last night?