MigBuster

Sales video - might be of interest https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=hox2aghTJTo

F-14A/B DEVELOPMENT UPDATE #2 Dear All, It's been another busy period for the team entire team at Leatherneck. Not only in terms of development and progressing on our current stable of projects – but also with unfolding personal events. Family deaths, day-job commitments and more have yielded a rather muted visible public presence. Progress has not been impaired in any way; and we're very excited to move into the latter half of 2015. A considerable amount of the teams' focus has been on projects other than the F-14, including the MiG-21bis. While that may sound disappointing; it must be noted that several technologies developed for one of our other aircraft can directly be drawn upon to shorten the development time of the F-14. Elements include e.g. HUD elements or Navigational implementations. We've also spent an additional chunk of time on refinement of our internal tools, in particular a Flight Modeling Visualizer. We will go into deeper depth on our other projects in an upcoming all- Leatherneck-encompassing newsletter, so for now; lets focus on the F-14. The Art team's primary focus has been on assuring proper integration with the F-14 codebase and DCS engine. This is a particularly boring aspect of art asset development; albeit very necessary so as to allow the programming team to boundlessly progress. Examples include defining clickable areas, animations and creating 2D bitmaps that will be drawn on various indicators and screens. We've almost completely finished this process and thus the main focus will again shift to traditional artistry. The biggest task ahead is texturing both the interior and exterior elements of the aircraft. We're currently evaluating a few new sculpting-based techniques that we hope will yield incredible fidelity and texture depth. Our working version of the aircraft is still currently based around a -B model exterior and -A model interior. However, work progresses on the -A exterior, starting with completion of the TF-30 engines and exhausts for the -A model tomcat. More notable adjustments of the shape and equipment to fall in line with an -A are forthcoming. Some of our sharp-eyed community members (you know who you are!) noticed various flaws in the initial renders we posted. Sincere gratitude for your sharp eyes, and we've already rolled in some of these corrections. Examples include widening the main engine intakes and canting the main gear. As with all of our development, we adhere to a very iterative process and you should always consider anything shown to be Work in Progress. Additionally, we've gone ahead and continued on sculpting our pilot and RIO models. We're certainly paying very close attention to ensure a high level of detailing and accuracy. We have plans for these models beyond the standard in-cockpit / external pilots you are currently used to; features that will hopefully significantly improve immersion. You should expect this particular model to look practically identical in-game, as most of the detail will be baked down into normal and diffuse maps. After completion of the Hydraulic and some Electrical systems, the programming team has shifted focus to the development of the TF-30 and F-110 engines. This particular task will require a significant amount of time to develop, as both engines have unique properties and a lot of interconnected dependencies that need to be recreated and tested. Thus, elements of the AICS, Fuel System, Pilot Controls must all be in place before all elements of our new engine simulation can be recreated. We are of course fully committed to ensuring that we model as many of the various characteristics and quirks of both engines. Some of these quirks have massive impact on how you fly and fight in the aircraft, thus we must be certain that we get it completely right. We hope that both reliance on documentation and SMEs will allow us to achieve this level of fidelity. Our FM simulation is highly dependent on all of the Engine and Flight Controls being completely in place, so as to ensure that all base parameters are correct before attempting to simulate the movement of the aircraft. Of course, it goes without saying that every facet of the F-14's flight envelope will be modeled to the fullest extent possible. Unlike what some of you fear, we are not limited in any way in what we can model or simulate, including more complex factors, such as variable geometry wing surfaces. Once the engine and flight controls are in place, the team will move on to creating all auxiliary control system functionality. This includes elements such as brakes, hooks, refueling probes, canopy jettison, and much more. The F-14 Product Page is about to go live and is undergoing final tweaks. It will contain a considerable amount of depth on various subjects, most of it however has already been covered in the forums. The F-14 page is part of a wider website update which includes a new News section that will host our more frequent, unscheduled updates. During and after our initial announcement, many of you had questions about various aspects of development and the planned module roadmap in general. I've tried to gather as many of these as possible, but feel free to write more below and I will add as many as I possibly can. Q: Which particular Airframe era will you be simulating? We're still ironing out some specifics here; but we're aiming for a mid-to late 80s' airframe for the -A, and mid 90s' for the -B. Thus, some features such as the glove vanes will be disabled, while some advancements and improvements in the aircraft will be included. Q: Are you sure about those Glove Vanes? A: We'll be, at the very least, adding a visual option. It is possible that we will simulate the aerodynamic impact of the glove vanes further down the line. Q: Will you be separating the -A and -B model Tomcats in the sim? A: Indeed! It is also possible that one model will be released some time before the other. Q: How much will it cost, and will both versions be sold together? A: Details to be disclosed at a later time; but do not expect any kind of exorbitant or non-standard pricing. Q: Where can I pre-order? A: There is currently no pre-order or pledge package available. It is likely that we'll be running a pre-order program at some point prior to release, however. Q: Will Air-to-Ground Capability be included? A: Yes; however the specific A2G and sensor capability that will be modeled is yet to be decided. You can note in the renders posted, that the BRU-32 bomb rack is mounted to the Phoenix pylons on the underside of the fuselage. Q: Which Chin Sensor Pod will the Aircraft utilize? A: TCS & ALQ-100 Antenna. The bullet fairing visual option will be included. Q: Will Carrier Operations be included at Release? A: We are networking together with our partners to ensure a complete package upon release, however the complex nature of the task at hand lends itself to a cautious approach in saying anything definitive. Q: Will Multiplayer Multi-Crew be available at Release? A: We hope to include this feature on release. We consider it an essential selling point of this module, and a personal dream of our own. Q: What do you mean by the AIM-54 being based on a 'CFD' Simulation? A: We will be using Computer Fluid Dynamics simulations to the fullest extent possible in order to ensure proper accuracy and fidelity of the AIM-54 Phoenix missile flight dynamics. While this particular missile is very difficult to sufficient documentation on; we are investing heavily into ensuring that our recreation of it is true to life. Q: Will Night Vision be available? A: Yes. Q: What is JESTER AI, exactly? A: It is a proprietary system that primarily simulates the RIO crew member. It will allow you to quickly and efficiently fly and fight in the F-14, while minimizing your workload. JESTER AI will be fully voiced and highly streamlined. The system will be designed to be moduler, and can thus be quickly adapted to other multi-seat aircraft in development. Q: Will Multi-Seat licensing be a thing? (RIO Only License, etc.) A: Possibly. We do like some of the ideas brought forward; but nothing definitive as of yet. It's more likely we'll stick to just a single license. Q: Will Iranian Tomcats be included? A: Yes! We have several Iranian liveries planned. We also plan to model the older MBU-5/P mask in use by the Iranian Air Force. Q: Will you include a HGU-55 helmet option? A: Not planned at this time. Q: That looks like it has way too many polygons! A: We learned our lesson with the rocky performance of the MiG-21 on release, and are taking care to keep performance at a significantly better level. Much of the detail you see is simply normal maps baked down from high-poly sculpts; thus, they already perform very well! Q: Which theatre will be included with the F-14? A: Very oceany. Very cold. The F-14 Campaign will take place in this theatre. Q: Why not GOOSE AI? A: Goose is dead, man. Q: Any possibility of an MP / COOP Campaign? A: Not planned at this time; however, we do intend to support the F-14 with significant after-market content, especially taking into consideration the Straights of Hormuz theatre. It can be noted that the SP campaign can likely be easily edited to allow for more players. Q: What should I do during my inevitable divorce? A: More Fleet BARCAP. Q: Will random failures and issues be modeled? A: Yes! We have a slew of unique and new features planned here that should introduce some RPG-esque elements into your gameplay experience, should you wish it. Q: Will JESTER AI be able to handle Piloting duties as well? A: Likely to some very limited extent. That is all for F-14 development at this point. During the next month you should expect to see some strong visual progress on both exterior and interior textures. We're very excited to move forward and to start seeing our vision come to life. Sincerely, Leatherneck Simulations __________________ /Nicholas Dackard

Different splash screen?

Wow - that's terrible RIP

Many thanks Dante - glad to see you are still chipping away at this project

Sounds familiar - but no idea how I resolved it years back unfortunately. Remember trying different drivers without much luck. What SF2 patch are you on? Where is the game installed? Have you tried changing in game sound and graphics settings? Have you set up an NVIDIA profile for any of the Games so you can try different things in there? Have you run dxdiag? Anyone on Win 8.1 can confirm whether DX9/10 is supported without having to update DX runtimes. Also does the stuttering occur straight away or after your Laptop starts to heat up?

About the Author Paco Chierici is a retired Naval Aviator. Paco accumulated 3,000 hours and nearly 400 traps flying the A-6 Intruder and F-14 Tomcat on active duty for ten years, and the F-5 as a Navy Adversary pilot for the subsequent ten years in the Navy Reserves. Paco is the Creator and Producer of the award winning Naval aviation adventure-documentary Speed and Angels. Paco flies for a major airline and is type rated in the Boeing 757/767 and the Airbus 330. After leaving military aviation, Paco discovered pistons and props and he now flies his family around in a Mooney and borrows friends Yak-50s for weekend warrior dogfighting. I was a reservist in this squadron and thus had the benefit of perspective, having already given up flying a magnificent flying machine, the F-14 Tomcat. I knew that every flight was a gift, every dogfight a treasure, every merge one step closer to the day when Peter Pan would have to leave and grow up. With just a few years remaining for me to fly the F-5, I realized that I wanted to preserve the moment for as long as possible, to distill it as I was experiencing it so that I could dip into it in the years of ordinary life and take a sip. I decided that I wanted tell the story of this world in a visual way. I enlisted a spectacular director, wrangled some cash from enterprising investors, and the result, three years later, was an award-winning documentary about the spirit and adventure of Naval Aviation, Speed and Angels. It is an unvarnished, full-throttle, pulse-pounding peek into the heart of flying fighters for the U.S. Navy told through the eyes of two young aviators. But the genesis of the film had always been the concentrated passion for air combat that we enjoyed flying F-5s in Fallon. The F-5 is a peculiar bird (VFC-13 currently flies F-5Ns, most of which were procured after 2006 from Switzerland). It is tiny for a fighter, especially one with two engines. It has no modern systems, unless you consider hydraulics to be modern. No Anti-Skid. No INS nor GPS. No HUD. Just a simple old-fashioned pulse radar and a basic gunsight. It has no defensive systems, no RWR nor expendable countermeasures, other than the fact that when pointed nose-on to an adversary it completely disappears, like a cloaking device being activated. There is no sophisticated technology required to enable the disappearing act, just the fact the pilot sits in a cramped little cockpit on the head of a needle with tiny, razor-thin wings behind him. And when that needle is nose on to a student pilot who has lost radar lock or situational awareness, that pilot’s skin will crawl and the hairs on the back of his neck will bristle, because he knows the very next time he is sure of where the bandit is will likely be when he hears the dreaded, “Trigger down, tracking, tracking…” It is a plane perfectly suited to the role of adversary; fast, simple, nimble, eminently beatable by a competently flown front-line fighter; but capable of pouncing on an error and creating a learning point in the form of a simulated kill. If you lose to the F-5, you have something to learn, and that’s the way it should be. It’s often mentioned that the F-5 is used as an adversary because it is a perfect simulator for the Mig-21, and it’s true: the V-n diagrams superimposed show almost identical maneuvering performance characteristics. That is a great serendipity, but in truth, it would have been a perfect adversary platform regardless. VFC-13 models its presentations to what is known as the ‘percentage threat’, the most likely global scenario for our fighters to face in combat. Think North Korea. Lots and lots of small, fast, simple enemy fighters swarming the technologically superior but numerically challenged Navy forces. Topgun, which is across the street on NAS Fallon at the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, specializes in teaching the skills needed to defeat the more modern threat aircraft. To this end, Topgun flies the F-16 and F/A-18. Fantastic, superior platforms that can superbly simulate MiG-29s and Su-27s. Instead, VFC-13, known as The Saints, specializes in the Stalinist principle of ‘Quantity has a Quality all its Own’. North Korea operates over 400 Third Generation fighters and only 35 Mig-29s. Before any U.S. Navy pilots would get to test themselves against those Fulcrums, they would have to cut a swath through a cloud of Mig-21 and 23s. As a reservist who flew no more than 120 hours per year, .8 at a time, the F-5 was a dream. It is inexpensive to operate, therefore plentiful, and painfully simple, thus always mission ready. We flew as much as we could stand, often against each other to maintain tactical proficiency and to sharpen the dogfighting skills which we held in such high regard. One of the most dramatic differences between fleet pilots and VFC-13 pilots is the amount of time devoted to BFM, both in the air and in the briefing room. Coming from the F-14 community, I felt I had a pretty good grasp of BFM fundamentals; but, a Bandit pilot lives and breathes air combat. There are none of the distractions that a fleet pilot must deal with, like air-to-ground, CAS, LATT, SES and much more. It is pure air-to-air, with an emphasis on close-in maneuvering. New adversary pilots, many with 1,500 hours or more, are greeted with a demanding syllabus in graduate-level air combat that takes at least a year to complete, despite having fewer than 20 graded hops. The meticulousness, precision and professionalism required to represent the squadron as a fully qualified Bandit means that there will be many a re-fly. Often one particularly onerous event can be re-flown a number of times before the aspiring Bandit meets the standards required to move to the next sortie. It’s a humbling and sometimes frustrating year. But coming out the other side is a finely honed, meat-eating BFM machine–a Shaolin monk of aerial hand-to-hand combat, broken down and rebuilt without the distractions of advanced radars and electronic crutches When you are one of the Saints, you use all of your senses to build situational awareness, you use the earth and the sun as your allies, you use the simple tools at your disposal to maximum effect. And when you have completed your task, you have sacrificed yourself for the good of your student, imparting as much of your wisdom as possible through lessons of quiet victory. When it comes to aerial presentations, the Saints give their students two basic types: long range BVR scenarios with multiple groups of bandits that challenge the Fighter’s ability to effectively target and maneuver as a team, and BFM. BFM is the fighter pilot’s staple, the skills required to maneuver against and destroy a bandit in the visual arena. It is a skill that has been kicked to the curb by aircraft designers and war planners since the conclusion of WW II, yet grudgingly refuses to die in the real world of aerial warfare. There are a variety of reasons why a modern fighter, bristling with data links, AESA radar, active missiles and JHMCS will find itself pulling max G and dumping flares against an actual enemy fighter across the turn circle. Sophisticated jamming systems are relatively inexpensive and surprisingly capable, ROE frequently demand the Blue Fighter must put itself inside the ranges of IR missiles to confirm the identity of a bogey, and most likely, in the era of Self-Escort strikers, there is a very real chance that they will have to fight their way out of country with a limited Air-to-Air load because their hardpoints were laden with ordnance designed to move dirt and pulverize concrete. In any event, despite the belief to the contrary, it is highly likely that a Blue Fighter will find itself turning in the visual arena in any future conflict. An F-5 against an F/A-18 is not a fair fight. The Hornet has a spectacular radar with extremely capable ACM modes. At “Fight’s On,” a pilot has just to flick on his VACQ, select AMRAAM, put lift-vector on and pull until he gets a SHOOT cue. “Kill…Knock it off.” The Super Hornet (Boeing F/A-18E/F)has an even more capable ACM suite when the JHMCS is paired with the amazing AIM-9X. The ability to slew the AIM-9’s seeker head to the pilot’s line of sight at ridiculous off-boresight angles is an inescapably lethal combination. By comparison, the F-5 has no radar missile. The Saints use only an IR seeker head and a restrictive envelope from the 1970s limited to a few degrees off boresight. And the dreaded guns. There is no known countermeasure that can distract 30mm rounds. To build a fighter plane without a gun is as foolhardy as sending an infantry soldier into battle without a knife. The only time he will miss it is when he desperately needs it. The Navy version of the Vietnam-era F-4 didn’t have a gun, and it was sorely lacking. Ignoring the wisdom that “past is prologue,” the Navy variant of the F-35 again will not have an internal gun. In any event, because of this advantage in armament and capability, the majority of engagements end quickly with a decisive victory for the Hornet, especially after the first or second engagement once the rust and jitters have been shaken off. But with a few real-world limitations put on a Hornet to limit his first-shot kill ability, the fight becomes far more balanced. Scenarios in which the fighter is placed in a defensive perch, or is limited to an off-target weapons load, force the Hornet pilot to consider follow-on engaged maneuvering. The longer an F/A-18 is tied up in a dogfight with an F-5, the higher the chances that he will lose sight or commit a BFM error, and when either of those occur, the advantage tilts rapidly in favor of the Bandit. The real-world corollary is the off target strike-fighter, momentarily blind to the Air-to-Air picture after the drop, caught unawares by a Mig-21. Suddenly defensive, turning for his life and scrambling to take advantage of his superior platform, with every second that he delays in splashing the MiG, or bugging out, his risks increase exponentially. There was a huge amount of satisfaction derived from providing the students with valuable, challenging, realistic training. But as fun as the engagements themselves were, they were always tainted. Either the Blue fighter was sufficiently skilled that the engagements were clinical and perfunctory, or the students made enough errors to lose, and that wasn’t the goal. The supreme pleasure was in fighting in-house. An in-house BFM sortie between two seasoned pilots would consist of a short brief, a quick candy bar and a walk from the Ready Room 20 to 30 minutes before takeoff. Once airborne off of Runway 31, it was a quick right 90 degree turn, a push into combat spread and a climb. Two or three minutes later, after crossing over high terrain into Dixie Valley, there would be a G-warm, “Vipers ninety left…resume…Viper One FENCEd.” A quick TAC left and a short climb up to 16K’ and it was time for Fight’s On. With two skilled pilots the engagements would last two, three, sometimes four minutes if taken all the way to a kill, an eternity for a dogfight in the jet age. But the dance is nuanced at this level, even more so with the limitations of the basic weapons systems. In fact, during the in-house events, most of the best pilots would limit themselves to what we referred to as a knife fight, guns kills only. There is no arguing the victor when one plane is saddled behind the other with his pipper on the cockpit. I flew hundreds, if not thousands of these engagements in the years I spent in Fallon, and I remember them all fondly. Even the ones where I was stuck looking over my shoulder like a PEZ dispenser, which happened more often than I would have liked. Most in-house hops consisted of three, or rarely four, intense high-aspect abeam or butterfly starts. Once BINGO was reached and the bandits FENCEd out, it was a quick RTB for the 600 knot carrier break, the most intense, action-packed .7 you could ever put into your log book. I was fortunate enough to fly with some truly amazing aviators. And now, long after the fact, I still have detailed memories of some of the fights as if they happened just hours ago. I can still see Bat Masterson’s jet gaining 10 to 15 degrees on me with each merge, and feel the wonder and frustration of flying the machine as best I could, yet realizing that in a matter of two or three more merges I was going to be practicing my Last Ditch Guns-D. Bat, a small man with a large mustache, taught me one of my most enduring BFM lessons. In the debrief, I petitioned his expertise. “How the hell did you do that every engagement? I was fighting as hard as I could!” A man of few words, he answered simply, “When you’re fast, be fast. When you’re slow, be slow.” Believe it or not, that bit of wisdom taught me more about fighting the F-5 than the countless losses I had suffered through previously. I can close my eyes and picture chasing Kemo Percival through a very offensive Rolling Scissors, only to have him execute the most perfect Pirouette and pass me 180 out, neutralized, with my jaw hanging open. If this had happened just once, I would have chalked it up to an accident of aerodynamics. But time and again I watched as a rare offensive position was eliminated by this impossible escape. When flying by myself, I would practice over and over: 45-60 degrees nose high, 220-180 knots, full aileron deflection, full opposite rudder, stick first full aft then quickly to full forward. When Kemo did it, his plane rotated horizontally, swapping ends in a blink while still maintaining enough energy to continue flying and fighting. When I tried it, following his recipe to the letter, I ended up either mushing through a reversal of direction but completely without airspeed, or rolling sideways and pulling through a slow speed wingover. No help at all. And finally, I’ll never forget a late afternoon fight against Monty Montgomery in planes that were laden with external tanks. The positive was that we had 1,000 pounds of extra gas, which doubled our number of engagements. The negative was that the F-5 handled like a pig at high Alpha burdened by the effect of the 150 gallon tank. We fought six times with the blood red Sierra Mountains as a backdrop, each a decisive victory, three of which were Monty’s. They were, each and every one of them, amazing duels filled with feigns and deception, flying at the very edge of the envelope, cautious and cunning. But neither pilot was to be satisfied with a neutral Lufbery on the deck. Chances were taken and BFM errors made, and each time an opening was given the opponent was able to capitalize. This was one of the most pure and well flown hops I ever experienced. Two fairly matched pilots in like aircraft using every bit of experience and trickery at their disposal. The knowledge that it would take only one error to seal one’s fate, added to the challenge of flying at the maximum limits of performance with the additional load of an external tank, and the race to complete before sunset, added to the intensity. The F-5 was the enabler of this amazing flying club. It was a link between the pure era of fighting machines to the modern age of digital combat. The plane was essentially a jet-powered P-51 Mustang, and those days if you flew it well, you were really flying well. Cables linked the stick to the ailerons and elevator. Dancing on the pedals directly affected the movement of the rudders. When you flew it well you felt the plane speak to you through the whisper of the wind over the canopy and the Bernoullis nibbling at the wing. It was a plane with a reputation for biting the unwary, often with disastrous consequences. But if you respected it, and knew it well, and listened when it spoke, it was a plane that would reward the pilot by exceeding its expectations. I once matched an F-14D through a double-Immelman, though at the top I was desperately stirring the pot clawing for purchase. But the Tomcat driver was so unnerved that he was off his game for the rest of the fight. It was in this way that the F-5 actualized its mission. It was a pilot’s machine that rewarded its devotees, and it was a perfect foil for testing the overconfidence of Blue pilots in their advanced platforms. The F-5N carries forward that tradition today and for the foreseeable future with some significant enhancements. It sports RWR and chaff dispensers and it has the capability to carry a jamming pod. But the newer lot Rhino is no Classic Hornet or Tomcat. The ability of the F-5 to continue to provide a credible opposition in the face of AESA and AIM-9X is diminishing. The challenge in the future for VFC-13 will be to match the evolving ‘Percentage Threat’ in the world. Over 11,000 Mig-21s alone have been produced. There are three companies which specialize in upgrading the airframe to modern capabilities. A radar, HUD, data link, active-missiles, high off-boresight IR missiles and effective RWR can all be strapped into a Fishbed for a fraction of the cost of a new fighter and provide almost all of the capabilities. If the Saints hope to continue flying the F-5 and providing realistic training, efforts in this direction will have to be made. As for me, I will always be grateful for my years as a member of the Bandits. They were (and are) a badass bunch of dogfighting ninjas. It was an honor to walk with them and learn from them, and to share a drink and a laugh. Likewise, the F-5 will forever be under my skin, an integral part of the story of that time. It infected my dreams and dominated my imagination. I obsessed over perfecting it. Of absorbing from my peers how to cajole every last knot and degree-per-second. I will miss flying it, with them, every day, for as long as I live. from http://fightersweep.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=60&v=LMOzd89daiU https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=32&v=xaKkwChLE5c

Ode to an American Hero http://fightersweep.com/2179/ode-to-an-american-hero/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FighterSweep+%28Fighter+Sweep%29 I had the honor and privilege of meeting United States Air Force Colonel (Retired) Jack Wilhite on several occasions while attending various flying events in the Denver, Colorado area. Quick-witted with an easy smile and a keen intellect, he was a pleasure to be around. A humble man through and through, one who always showed an appreciation for those who picked up the torch for freedom long after he passed it off. I always called him “Colonel” or “sir,” and he always gave me a good-natured ribbing for it. I will miss that. I learned today that earlier this year, on 26 January, Colonel Wilhite passed away unexpectedly at the age of 86. He was still flying airplanes, especially his beloved two-seat MiG-17. He was a dedicated pilot and adventurer, a man who in more than 32 years of flying amassed more than forty thousand flight hours. Of all those hours, 5,000 were accrued in the cockpit of high-performance fighter aircraft. He flew many, many different types, but most noteworthy are the P-80, F-86, F-100, F-104, and F-5. He is actually one of the only pilots who ejected out of an F-100C Super Sabre and lived to tell the tale. Wilhite was born in the tiny community of Deep River, Iowa. He began his flying career in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. He served with distinction during that conflict, in Korea, and during the Vietnam War as well. He joined the Colorado Air National Guard and was hired as a United Airlines pilot in 1956. While serving in Vietnam he was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses, a total of thirteen Air Medals, a Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, and more than twenty other awards and decorations. He was president of the Colorado Aviation Historical Society and one of his favorite activities was educating and inspiring future pilots. The last time I saw Jack, he was giving a young man a tour of his MiG, smiling as he always did, and talking about the freedom that being a pilot afforded. Truly one of the greats, and always eager to pay it forward. Godspeed, Jack. Thank you for your service and inspiration.

Normally means they have been taken over by the enemy - what type of guns are firing at you?

http://www.f-16.net/f-16_users_article25.html http://www.f-16.net/f-16_users_article14.html

SF2NA gets round that by allowing off map bases - not sure on the implications of player flown a/c - would have to assume you start on the corner of the map.

Should do - because it sets that radar target as your current target - e.g you can now assign a wingman to attack it. I haven't used the easy HUD for years - all I see is a line of text at the bottom of the screen.

Which Allies? just NATO countries? You would need to research each individual country but probably something like AIM-9G AIM-9L AIM-9M-1 to 6 AIM-9P-1 to 5

What for all missiles in all conflicts? - not exactly simplistic. The damage done depends on the type of missile and where it actually hits (also the range) - so difficult to see what use this info is. there are tons for kill claims - but hits with no kills? you will need to do some digging...............

Another Rudimentary IFF can be achieved by locking up a target on radar and pressing whatever is mapped to "Current Radar Target"

X-47B has completed first contact with an aerial refueling hose. On Apr. 16, “Salty Dog 502″, one of the two Unmanned Carrier Air Vehicle demonstrator (UCAS-D) aircraft of the X-47B program performed autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) test, plugging the in-flight refueling (IFR) probe into the hose of aOmega Air tanker off the coast of Maryland. The AAR in set to be the last for the two X-47B stealth killer drone technology demonstrators (the other being “Salty Dog 501″): with the end of this testing phase the two unmanned aircraft will be retired and probably donated to a museum or stored at the “boneyard”, the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) at Davis Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. In fact the X-47B is “just” a technology demonstrator and, as such, it’s till quite different from the planned Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Launched Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS). In spite of calls to extend testing on the Northrop platforms, the costs to reconfigure the two X-47B in such a way to let them behave more like the Navy’s preferred option for UCLASS would be prohibitive. http://theaviationist.com/2015/04/16/salty-dog-502-aar-omega-air/

You saw the photo now see the video

About the Author Paco Chierici is a retired Naval Aviator. Paco accumulated 3,000 hours and nearly 400 traps flying the A-6 Intruder and F-14 Tomcat on active duty for ten years, and the F-5 as a Navy Adversary pilot for the subsequent ten years in the Navy Reserves. Paco is the Creator and Producer of the award winning Naval aviation adventure-documentary Speed and Angels. Paco flies for a major airline and is type rated in the Boeing 757/767 and the Airbus 330. After leaving military aviation, Paco discovered pistons and props and he now flies his family around in a Mooney and borrows friends Yak-50s for weekend warrior dogfighting I’ve been hearing and telling “There I was…” stories for my entire adult life. It started for me in flight school, listening to a grizzled old sim instructor tell me about the day he got a MiG kill without taking a shot. A Vietnamese MiG-21 had been vectored at him thinking his F-8 was actually an A-7. As the story goes, after the pass, instead of tangling with the jet known as “The MiG Master,” the Fishbed pilot established 2-circle flow and wisely ejected. Kill’s a kill. I’ve got a few of my own, but they’re mostly comical or nearly tragic. But I love hearing them. Last week I heard a great one: A couple years ago the Iranians issued a declaration stating that they would sink the next U.S. warship to enter the Persian Gulf. Further EU and U.S. sanctions against Iran related to their persistent nuclear program had begun to adversely affect the Iranian economy. The value of the Rial had fallen 40% in just a few months. Iranian naval exercises coincided with a rare gap in carrier presence in the Persian Gulf and the Iranian Army Chief stated that if a carrier returned to the gulf, Iran would in no uncertain terms “take action.” Suddenly, after a couple decades of carriers and destroyers splashing around in their bathtub, the Iranians had decided the time was right to claim the Gulf as their own. Well the Persian Gulf is on the regular beat for U.S. carriers for the foreseeable future, despite the brief lapse at that time. The USS Boat was to be the first to pop through the Strait of Hormuz since the edict and the ship was on a relatively high alert status crossing through the narrows. Everybody knew about the Silkworm missiles lining the Iranian coast just a couple miles away as the Boat cruised through the 20-mile wide strait. They all knew about the possibility of F-4s at Bandar Abbas and Bushehr, and the world’s last flying F-14A Tomcats based in Shiraz. A few uneventful hours after the passage, Wingnut had made his way to the flight deck to man the Alert on Cat 3. By this time, the ship was already 100 miles into the Gulf with not even a dust storm kicked up from the Iranian side. The tension level was easing slightly. As the feet of the pilot being relieved hit the deck, he told Wingnut, “Buddy, if you launch I will kick your ass.” Wingnut climbed up the ladder to the Rhino cockpit and snapped in his lap belts, leaving the shoulders off to provide a little freedom to move during the four-hour sit. He checked the systems and the alignment to make sure he was squared away and then, settling down for the long alert, slapped a desert camo hat on his head to provide the only shade from the harsh sun. Earbuds and tunes in place, he pulled out a book and tried to pretend that he was somewhere else. He’d gotten himself as settled and comfortable as he was going to be when the call came out over the flight deck 5MC: “Launch alert A, AAW package, side 207, initial vector 240, contact Strike on button 3!” The bored knots of sailors on the flight deck exploded into action and Wingnut scrambled to get his shit together while the Yellow Shirts, Ordies (Red Shirts) and Green Shirts sprinted in his direction. He started both engines while lowering the canopy and slapping his helmet on. A minute later he was taxing the last couple inches to drive the launch bar into the shuttle. Before he had a chance to catch a breath he was shot off, slapping the gear handle up and was desperately trying to snap in the ejection seat shoulder restraints he had forgotten during the mad scramble on the flight deck. At only five hundred feet and accelerating, the Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet in full blower on a southwesterly heading, Wingnut checked in with Strike on button 3. “Hot vector, on your nose. Fifteen miles, low. Flight of two out of Abu Musa.” That wasn’t the Iranian mainland at all. Abu Musa is a tiny mote of an island equidistant from Iran and UAE as the mouth of the Gulf begins to widen. There had never previously been a sense of a threat from there, despite the fact that U.S. warships routinely cruised between that island and the mainland conducting flight ops. But it did have a small airport. Wingnut pointed his plane and radar in that direction and immediately got a lock. Instantly his system began flashing a symbol he hadn’t seen since the simulators in training: HOSTILE. He was barely off the boat and 5 miles on his nose was a flight of two Su-25 Frogfoots in combat spread hot on the carrier just a couple hundred feet off the water. Wingnut reported the contact and a voice he recognized immediately as CAG commanded him to VID and check the wings for ordnance. Roger that. CAG came back with further instruction; if anything comes off those Frogfoots, splash ‘em. He took the nearest Su-25 close aboard and sure enough he could make out, clear as day, Archers and two massive anti-ship missiles. From the flight deck, the personnel that had just launched Wingnut gathered at the edge of the flight deck watching the action like it was an air show. It was close enough to the Boat that they could see the merge and everything that came after. They saw him max perform the jet in the vertical and come back around in trail, chasing the Su-25s from about a half mile astern. Fighting the sense of surreal in the cockpit, Wingnut first locked the AIM-9 seekerhead on the right hand Frogfoot. Once he got a tone lock he switched to AMRAAM and locked the left hand bandit with the radar. All this with the ship rapidly filling his windscreen. Master arm was up and his finger was poised on the trigger. Given the slightest provocation it would be as simple as squeeze, select FOX-2, squeeze. As he reported to CAG that he was in a position to splash two, the SPO-15 in the left Frogfoot must have been screaming at high warble. That plane broke left directly over the carrier salvoing out streams of flares. His wingman was right behind and as Wingnut converged he thought for a moment how sweet and awesome it would be to switch to guns and hose a Frogfoot down at 500′ just off the stern of the ship. The Frogfoots aborted and disappeared into Iran. When Wingnut trapped and shut down he said he felt like he was in a bad reenactment of the final scene in Topgun. The flight deck personnel had witnessed the entire evolution, and as his engines spooled down they crowded about him, slapping him on the back and asked him absurd questions like, “Sir, did you have ‘radar lock’?” It’s a great story and true. There is video. It’s also a little sobering to consider the implications had those SU-25 pilots been ordered to martyr themselves. In all likelihood, the Boat would have sustained some hits and good men and women would have died. It’s a tight CV Op Area in the gulf. We do our damnedest to avoid irritating the Iranians, but if they ever feel like taking a pot shot, the first one might do some damage. http://fightersweep.com//fightersweep.com/467/fa-18e-super-hornet-vs-two-iranian-su-25-frogfoots/#ixzz3XsGXABaz

Anything specifically or do we have to speculate?

What next Sharks with frikkin laser beams on their heads! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32334186 https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=10&v=AyguXoum3rk

Truly fantastic model - glad to see its still in progress.

For the very first time, a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress has moved from the boneyard back into the sky again. The veteran bomber took off from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona for the first time following its restoration on Friday, the 13th of February. Technicians at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, otherwise known as AMARG, pulled the BUFF from the massive storage yard beside Davis-Monthan during 2014 to replace a damaged aircraft in the active fleet which the Air Force deemed beyond economic repair. The newly restored Stratofortress, serial number 61-0007, had been in 1000-level storage at AMARG alongside twelve other B-52Hs, far away from the ragged, chopped up Stratofortress carcasses on the other side of the boneyard. Unlike other 1000-level aircraft, or inviolate storage where an airframe is made safe and preserved without losing any parts to salvage, these bombers are looked after in a far more detailed and careful fashion at AMARG. Each Stratofortress in this small group has its own plane captain at the base whose primary responsibility is to monitor its health regularly and quickly intercede when maintenance is necessary. This practice has clearly shown its worth, judging by the mere months it took to return the aircraft to flight following years of storage. Nicknamed “Ghost Rider”, ’007 last served with the 5th Bomb Wing from Minot AFB before going into storage in the mid-2000s. The AMARG team selected her for regeneration because, of the thirteen B-52Hs in storage, she was in the best condition and had the lowest airframe hours. In fact she is in such good shape that members of her maintenance team felt ‘Ghost Rider’ was better off than several active airframes currently serving. ‘Ghost Rider’ was present at AMARG in March, 2014 when WarbirdsNews paid the facility a visit, and we have included an image above to show what she looked like then. Technicians from the 309th alongside those from Tinker AFB (responsible for B-52 depot-level maintenance) swiftly returned the bomber back into flying trim. She departed Davis-Monthan yesterday for Barksdale AFB near Bossier City, Louisiana. Colonel Keith Schultz, CO of the 307th Operations Group, 307th Bomb Wing at Barksdale AFB commanded the flight. He has been flying BUFFs since 1980, and is the “last of the Tall-Tail” pilots still actively flying the Stratofortress; “Tall-Tail” being the nickname for early-model B-52s which had much taller tail fins than the G and H models. Schultz has more than 7,000 hours in B-52s. In an article HERE, Colonel Schultz said “After delivering eighteen B-52D and G models to the “Boneyard” over the years, it is about time I get to take one out.” While at Barksdale AFB, members of the 76th AMXG from Tinker AFB will remove modifications from the damaged B-52 that ’007 is replacing and transfer them to the freshly restored airframe. At the same time, local Barksdale maintenance teams will inspect the airframe and repair as necessary. Once these details are complete sometime in late 2015, ‘Ghost Rider’ will fly to Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for Program Depot Maintenance to bring her in line with the rest of the fleet. The fifty year old bomber is expected to return to front line service sometime in 2016. http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/fun-facts/return-ghost-rider.html