MigBuster

The Sea Harrier is an aircraft rapidly vanishing from armed service the world over. The Indian Navy purchased thirty of them back in the early 1980s, but only 11 remain. The decision to retire the type was based on India’s purchase of MiG-29Ks from Russia, which it will use to operate from the country’s aircraft carrier, the INS Viraat. That’s an interesting notion, as the Viraat itself is slated to be retired by the end of the year. https://fightersweep.com/4826/sea-harrier-retires-indian-navy/

Considering the pint glass stuck on the Harrier nose mod to make it look even uglier I wouldn't hold out any hopes for too many improvements in that department. God only knows the horrors that await it when we get it. On the upside there is nothing better out there..................apart from the F-35C of course.

Before this turns into the ugly British fighter thread..........of which the only exceptions are probably: Spitfire Typhoon (New) Hunter (if you are from the 50s) Sea Harrier (with bubble canopy) Folland Gnat (if you are from the 50s) Can you say Fugly.

If you want something done slowly, expensively and possibly very well, you go to the British. While Britain created the immortal Spitfire, Lancaster and Edgley Optica, it also created a wealth of dangerous, disgraceful and diabolical designs. These are just ten plucked from a shortlist of thirty. In defining ‘worst’- we’ve looked for one, or a combination, of the following: design flaws, conceptual mistakes, being extremely dangerous, being unpleasant to fly, or obsolete at the point of service entry (and the type must have entered service). Grab a cup of tea, and prepare for ire as you read about ten machines they wanted your dad, grandad or great granddad to fly to war. http://hushkit.net/2016/03/02/the-ten-worst-british-military-aircraft/

Nice! Shame about the pic which looks like a quick photoshop of an F-16AM.

F-15A didn't have the range, with the C you need CFTs which reduced its handling quite a bit anyway. Not so sure but suspect the F-15C radar automated most of what was done by the Tornado rear seater. F-16 was potentially a cheaper option until all the mods came...what do we think (1986 delivery): Block 30 airframe RR Spey engine (29,000 lbf rated) IFF built into radar Internal ECM fit but 2 AIM-7/9 less and a shorter reach radar.

The Harrier is being replaced by the far superior F-35B in the FAA and Marine Corp.

https://fightersweep.com/4761/bronco-back-fray-good/ It will be curious to see what happens with the Bronco. The aircraft flew 134 sorties–120 of them in combat, and amassed 477.3 flying hours, and achieved a 99% mission-capable rate. No matter how you look at it, that’s a very strong outing for 82 days worth of work. But what does it all mean? Are we looking at the viability of the Bronco itself? Or is this merely a look ahead for something like the A-29 or AT-6 to bridge a capability gap created by the absence of another platform?

Do you mean the DH Vampire? Totally unaware of the Beverly have to say and interesting we have ended up with pretty much a twin engine F-16.

Very good IMO........even the basic Su-25 is a good challenge.

Warning: Many old jets and mannequins were harmed during the making of this film

Could be monitor or Graphics driver related. Can you do a DXdiag?

No - that's all I'm saying

The English Electric Lightning was the most exciting jet fighter ever created. When it entered service, in 1959, it was the most formidable fighter in the world. For twenty nine years it thundered over British skies as a brutish deterrent to would-be attackers. Ian Black flew this over-powered monster for the Royal Air Force in the final years of the Cold War. Here he shares the secrets of flying and fighting in Britain’s final jet fighter................ http://hushkit.net/2015/11/18/flying-and-fighting-in-the-lightning/

March 17 2016 - Super Etendard Modernised Launch (Apparently)

http://www.oldguysandtheirairplanes.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYLiMYGBE2Q

Set max pre rendered frames = 1 for stutter removal.

http://www.ahrlac.com/military.html

Good work whoever did it If only Lucas could have done as well

Some highlights from the old Red Flag Imax film

And it don't look good..............

Nice one and about time.......things might look a bit different in SF world when you are up and running!

Mudspike have published a preview of CAP2 which it seems is the follow on to the early 90s sim CAP on the Commodore Amiga which was really good for the time. Ok, let’s do a quick experiment. We’ll need a measuring rule, a bucket and (optionally) a towel. I’m going to list some things from a new PC flight sim coming out in 2015 (yes you read that right, this is like ‘Bigfoot Found In Walmart’ breaking news) so let’s set up the experiment: Place the towel on the floor. Position the bucket beneath your lower lip. Here’s the features of this new flight sim: AV-8B Harrier II with 3D clickable cockpit using TrackIR and HOTAS support. Single Player emphasis, with Multiplayer Co-op available, including drop-in play. Dynamic Campaign engine. Flight and Naval Strategic fleet battles. Carrier Ops. Wingmen, Helos, Civilian traffic in shipping lanes. Realistic campaign map set in the Straits of Hormuz using 250,000 sq km satellite imagery and modern graphics. Dynamic Campaign engine. Yes, I just said it again. Ok, now let’s use the ruler and see how much drool just entered that bucket. I’m betting a good couple of inches, so feel free to use the towel now and go rehydrate. We haven’t had the chance to get our hands on this title as yet, but Sim155 reached out to Mudspike and we set up this short Q&A to see what’s up: Q1. What’s the balance between single and multiplayer content in CAP2? Is this primarily a Multiplayer game? I’d say it is 50-50. For single player there’s a collection of training missions, single missions then an open ended dynamic campaign. For multiplayer there’s quick start dogfight, fleet defense/attack and fleet vs fleet. In addition any player in a campaign can invite players to join in a mission and take the place of AI controlled wingmen. Q2. What’s a good comparative title for CAP2, it seems similar to Gaijin’s Apache Air Assault – is that a fair comparison in terms of sim fidelity and gameplay? Fun and action more than hardcore simulation? I’d say we lean more towards a simulation than AAS. CAP2 has a strategic element in campaign mode which I don’t think you’ll find in many titles. Q3. I’m old enough to have played Combat Air Patrol on the Amiga 500 (great game btw), what would be the main advances Ed and the team have been able to feature in CAP2 on today’s more powerful hardware? Glad you liked it! With CAP I developed a 3D engine in 68k assembler as we didn’t have GPU’s. With a CPU running just over 7Mhz you could see the impact of just a few extra polygons. Now we’re pushing millions of polygons per frame we can draw pretty much anything we want. Terrain in CAP was limited to a few blue water polygons, CAP2 has over 250,000sq km of geo accurate terrain. Shaders allow us to render complex atmospheric lighting, water, shadows and post process effects. Reference material is one of the biggest differences between developing CAP2 vs CAP. Back in the 90’s I wrote to the DoD asking for material on CVN-71 and actually received info & pictures a few weeks later. Today you’ve got a thousand images/movies/schematics available in seconds so things have changed massively. Thanks to Ed and the Sim155 team for taking the time to answer our questions. We can’t wait to find out more, especially on the dynamic campaign side. For those that loved the gameplay fun of Strike Fighters and IL-2, this looks like a really nice ‘fidelity middle ground’ with a mix of tactical fleets mixed in. Awesome. More here http://www.mudspike.com/combat-air-patrol-2-preview-interview/

It’s when you climb into the cockpit and begin your startup. That’s where it begins. That’s where those often talked about 8 million lines of binary code show what they’re all about. That’s when the integrated systems come online on the large, glass touch-screen. That’s when the cleverness presents itself. No more navigating across the cockpit, reaching for the radios or engine instruments, it’s all right there in front you. The jet comes alive. Yes, Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) pilot Ian ‘Gladys’ Knight is impressed by the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II. Is everything perfect? No. But they’re working on it. http://airheadsfly.com/2016/02/09/f-35-pilot-not-all-about-numbers/