MigBuster

Hello everyone, We're almost there! We've almost reached the goal. That is amazing. I think the backing pace slowed down a bit because everyone feels that the base goal is pretty much there, but the very next stretch goal is so far it's virtually unreachable. We need smaller stretch goals, and we need to make them good. I've asked about this in the comments yesterday and received overwhelming support. The thing is, after the base 100K we are hitting the no-internal-funding zone. Features begin to cost what they really cost. We need to raise a lot more money for individual line items. 150K seems like a very reasonable stretch goal to add, but we can hardly do anything for the extra 50K. Definitely not a map and definitely not a whole new plane. The only thing we can try to squeeze in for the 50K is a cockpit for the 262, and that's only because we are already doing the AI version. So, the new stretch goals will be as follows: 100K: Base 150K: Flyable Me.262A-1 jet fighter 275K: Normandy map extended North to include Southern England (up to but without London) 425K: Flyable B-17 Moving the 262 up allows us to create an attractive stretch goal at the lowest cost possible of all. This pushes back the flyable B-17 by the same 50K, but I think it's worth it. Please help us get there! If you've already backed the project, please consider increasing your pledge. If we all put together, everyone who pledged $40 or higher gets the Me.262 for free in the initial release! And if you have not yet backed, please consider doing so. Even backing at the $1 level helps. That still gets us a little closer to our goals, and most importantly shows the overall level of support. This project is not just about the dollar amount, but about community support. The number of backers shown next to the project is extremely important! We're currently at 1,378 backers and $97,293. If we can get to 2,000 backers by the project's end, even if that means only adding a single dollar from these new backers, that is still going to be an amazing showing. Please remember that backing at even the $1 level allows you access to backer-only updates, polls, and discussions. We will be interacting with the community a lot in the months between the end of the KS campaign and the initial release. We are currently discussing our 3rd party content development options internally. A decision will be reached next week as to the exact extents, but some level of involvement is virtually guaranteed. We will almost certainly do a backer-only something, perhaps an SDK, perhaps some other tools. So backing at even the $1 level will allow you to either get directly involved in modding and expanding the game, or just to access the internal updates on the progress. Thank you everyone for your support and for your enthusiasm. Let's keep pushing forward! PS Some of you noticed that the P-51s in the previous update had no weight with the gear struts fully extended. Everyone responsible has been dealt with. Struts have been compressed. Apologies extended. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/508681281/dcs-wwii-europe-1944

Seems to be moving

For historians, wreckage from a World War II German bomber in the French Pyrenees is an exceptional find, but some local residents are less keen on digging up the past. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24159975

You are saying you cant add jets that you have added a cockpit to?

If all the other games work its a mod basically Cut out a few folders from the WW2 mod folders and run it - maybe start with the Aircraft folder

Nice - none of those decks need redoing

Analysts are unsure about what markets Textron AirLand is targeting with its new jet-powered Scorpion light tactical aircraft. Ostensibly, the new attack aircraft is aimed at the US Air Force, but analysts are doubtful about the service’s desire to operate such an aircraft. Perhaps a more pressing question is the USAF’s ability to afford a new programme given the impact of Congression-mandated sequestration budget cuts. “Beyond the issue of being able to afford another new programme, many of the missions suggested for such an aircraft might be better performed by RPAs [remotely piloted aircraft],” says Mark Gunzinger, a noted airpower analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “Possibly at less cost than a manned platform if you factor in the need to maintain pilot currency.” According to Textron AirLand, a joint venture between Textron and AirLand Enterprises, the Scorpion is being designed for irregular warfare, border patrol, maritime surveillance, emergency relief, counter narcotics and air defense operations and building partner nation capacity. The target market is the USAF’s Air National Guard component and foreign partner nations that cannot afford high-end combat aircraft like the Lockheed Martin F-35. “The target market that we have was kind of this hybrid of both ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] and light attack,” says Scott Donnelly, Textron’s chief executive officer. “This aircraft was designed because we saw a very, very large gap between very high performance aircraft and single-engined turboprops.” Donnelly says that acquiring the Scorpion would cost less than upgrading existing aircraft like the Fairchild Republic A-10 or Lockheed F-16. Additionally, sustainment costs for the new machine are expected to be much lower than either existing warplane. Oddly, while the Scorpion can be used as a trainer, Donnelly says this version of the aircraft is not aimed at the USAF’s nascent T-X jet trainer programme. It could, however, be modified to fit those requirements with a single engine and swept wings, he says. Historically, the USAF and most advanced air forces have shunned aircraft like the Scorpion for much higher performance machines, says Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at the Teal Group. It is doubtful that the USAF would have purchased this aircraft even at the height of the two Middle Eastern counter-insurgency wars. However, Aboulafia suspects that Textron must have specific foreign customers in mind already. “I’m not so sure anyone would be this committed to the programme if they didn’t have some kind of likely launch customer,” Aboulafia says. “I just don’t know who that could be.” Traditionally, the only solid market for an aircraft of this class has been the UAE. The Scorpion has a reconfigurable internal payload bay that would be able to carry a variety of weapons and sensors or fuel, but the aircraft will not have any dedicated built-in combat avionics such as radars or electro-optical cameras. Total capacity of the bay is 3,000lb (1362kg). The aircraft also carries 9,000lb of internal fuel. The aircraft is also being designed with six external hard-points that appear to carry a combined total of 6,200lb of weapons or fuel. At max gross take-off weight, the aircraft weights 21,250lbs and will have ferry range of 2,400nm (4440km). Donnelly says that the demonstrator aircraft that Textron is building will be powered by two Honeywell TFE731 geared turbofans, which provide a combined total of about 8,000lb (35.6kN) of thrust. The engines give the Scorpion a maximum speed of 450kt (833km/h). Textron is in the final stage of construction on its Scorpion demonstrator aircraft, Donnelly says. The aircraft is expected to make its first flight before the end of the year. If a customer can be found, the aircraft could enter production in 2015, Donnelly adds. Seems somehow familiar........................... http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/analysis-textrons-scorpion-will-struggle-to-find-a-niche-390725/

Many happy returns!

You going to the DCS site? It has a VISA sign after clicking on buy

Landing has always been pretty much visual in SF for me. The A-4 is probably the easiest to stick on deck IMO - to see the deck come in a bit higher. For night - crikey I'm not sure if even the new carriers have lights - I gave up bothering at night.

Depends how you look at it - they will only do the work if they can guarantee some funding - which is fair enough as far as I can see. There is no money in it - the market for this type of sim is so tiny that they know they will probably lose money regardless - they probably rely on commercial contracts for actual profit and use developments from that for spin offs like this. The tiny vocal minority who want to see this level of detail have to put up or shut up - that simple....................

Well that's lot of effort for that The A-10 doesn't look too bad - my main worry would be Win 98 - if there is one OS I would consign to Hell

Hand it in of course............................. Donations of more than $110,000 (£67,000) have poured in from across the US for a Boston homeless man who returned a lost bag with $42,000 in it. Glen James alerted police after he found the backpack containing cash and traveller's cheques last weekend, and the bag's owner was then tracked down. A complete stranger later started an online fund for Mr James after reading media reports about his honesty. The man, Ethan Whittington, now plans to meet Mr James to give him the money. Mr Whittington, who lives in Midlothian, Virginia, said he was so overwhelmed by Mr James' honesty that he decided to start the fund. "The fact that he's in the situation he is, being homeless, it blew my mind that he would do this,'' Mr Whittington was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. He said his idea of starting donations on a crowdfunding website for Mr James "caught on like wildfire ever since". "It's brought me a lot of hope. This isn't only about rewarding a great guy. I think it's a statement to everyone in America. "If we come together and work toward one thing and work together, then we can make it happen." Meanwhile, Mr James, a former Boston courthouse employee, said that he would not have kept "even a penny" of the money he had found in the backpack - even if he were desperate. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24170670

A four-megaton nuclear bomb was one switch away from exploding over the US in 1961, a newly declassified US document confirms. Two bombs were on board a B-52 plane that went into an uncontrolled spin over North Carolina - both bombs fell and one began the detonation process. The document was first published in the UK's Guardian newspaper. The US government has acknowledged the accident before, but never made public how close the bomb came to detonating. The document was obtained by journalist Eric Schlosser under the Freedom of Information Act. Schlosser told the BBC such an explosion would have "changed literally the course of history". The plane was on a routine flight when it began to break up over North Carolina on 23 January 1961. As it was breaking apart, a control inside the cockpit released the two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs over Goldsboro. One fell to the ground unarmed. But the second "assumed it was being deliberately released over an enemy target - and went through all its arming mechanisms save one, and very nearly detonated over North Carolina," Mr Schlosser told the BBC's Katty Kay. Only the failure of a single low-voltage switch prevented disaster, he said. The bomb was almost 260 times powerful than the bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The accident occurred during the height of the Cold War between US and Russia, just over a year before the Cuban missile crisis brought nuclear fears to the US's front door. There has been ongoing speculation ever since, including a 1961 book by former government scientist Dr Ralph Lapp. The newly declassified document was written eight years after the incident by US government scientist Parker Jones - who was responsible for mechanical safety of nuclear devices. In it, he comments on and corrects Lapp's narrative of the accident, including listing that three out of the four fail safe mechanisms failed, not five out of six as originally thought by Lapp. "One set off by the fall. Two rendered ineffective by aircraft breakup," Mr Jones writes. "It would have been bad news in spades." "One simple dynamo-technology low voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe." There has been no official comment to the newly declassified details. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24183879

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1dv28W9KFs

Dear all, Apologies for taking a bit to respond on this subject, but we first wanted come up with a means of compensation for those that purchased Mi-8MTV2 at full price. We recognize that the sale of this product was too soon after the initial sale and we want to make this right. As such, all those that purchased Mi-8MTV2 prior to the Autumn sale will be receiving a 70% coupon for any current or future DCS product. Thanks http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=1880239#post1880239 also posted http://combatace.com/topic/79774-another-dcs-sale/?do=findComment&comment=638121

Dear all, Apologies for taking a bit to respond on this subject, but we first wanted come up with a means of compensation for those that purchased Mi-8MTV2 at full price. We recognize that the sale of this product was too soon after the initial sale and we want to make this right. As such, all those that purchased Mi-8MTV2 prior to the Autumn sale will be receiving a 70% coupon for any current or future DCS product. Thanks http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=1880239#post1880239 Pretty good - the A-10A is the same price as a TW DLC which is amazing if you compare the FM, and 3D models

Short F-16 vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R65tJenpHgI&feature=player_embedded

DCS AUTUMN SALE From 20 to 29 September 2013, Eagle Dynamics will have a 60% off Autumn sale for the following DCS products: DCS: Mi-8MTV2 Magnificent Eight, Pre-Purchase Beta. $49.99 now $19.99 DCS: UH-1H Huey, Pre-Purchase Beta. $49.99 now $19.99 Lock On: Flaming Cliffs 3. $49.99 now $19.99 DCS: A-10C Warthog. $39.99 now $15.99 DCS: Black Shark 2. $39.99 now $15.99 DCS: P-51D Mustang. $39.99 now $15.99 DCS: Combined Arms. $29.99 now $11.99 DCS: Black Shark 2 Upgrade. $29.99 now $11.99 A-10A: DCS Flaming Cliffs. $14.99 now $5.99 Su-25: DCS Flaming Cliffs. $14.99 now $5.99 http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=114121

Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh on Tuesday sketched out a dramatic tale of a lone F-22 Raptor chasing off Iranian fighter jets over the Arabian Gulf. The confrontation is the first publicized engagement involving the Air Force's most modern fighter and military forces of Iran. "When the combatant commander wants air power there is only one number to call," said Welsh, praising Lt. Col. Kevin "Showtime" Sutterfield. "Showtime is an Air Force Reservist … he flies the F-22. He flies it really well," Welso said. In March, an Iranian F-4 flew within 16 miles of an MQ-1 Predator flying off the coast of Iran until a previously undisclosed aircraft escorted the Predator to safety. It turns out that aircraft was an F-22, the Air Force's fifth generation fighter. "Did you guys see the news clip not long ago about the Iranian F-4s that intercepted a remotely-piloted aircraft out over the Arabian Gulf, and then they were warned off?" Welsh then displayed a picture of Sutterfield before a large audience of his fellow service members at the Air Force Association's Air & Space Conference and Technology Exposition on Tuesday. "This is the guy that warned them off," he said. "He flew under their aircraft to check out their weapons load without them knowing that he was there, and then pulled up on their left wing and then called them and said ‘you really ought to go home.'" The successful performance of the F-22 comes after the Air Force was forced to repeatedly halt F-22 flights because F-22 pilots repeatedly reported blacking out from problems breathing. The problem has been a challenge for the Air Force but not one that prevented the service from deploying an F-22 squadron in April of last year to the United Arab Emirates' Al Dafra Air Base, an installation located about 200 miles from the Iranian coast. Air Force officials have not confirmed the exact location of the F-22s but have instead said they are located at a base in Southwest Asia -- a region that includes the UAE. Last year, Air Force spokesperson Lt. Col. John Dorrian stressed that the F-22s were simply taking part in a scheduled deployment and were "not a threat to Iran." Sutterfield's intercept of the Iranian jets was just one of many stories Welsh told of the courage, expertise and commitment Air Force personnel have shown over the last decade of conflict. "I'll never worry; not while these guys are on our team," Welsh said. "I'm excited about the future. We've got some things to figure out, and we will figure them out." http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/09/17/welsh-f22-flew-to-drones-rescue-off-iran-coast.html?comp=700001075741&rank=6

Great story that!

Yep will rave about this to the world it was truly the best film I have seen in years - if not ever (Even the GF loved it) - amazing story, even though the only thing I know about Niki Lauda was that I had a Niki Lauda Scalextric set when I was about 5!! Now I just have to wait 30 years till the next great film based on this rate

Well proof that true high end hardware will run it at full wack...............if you have the cash................although saying that your system could have been cheaper than Z09s modern Mac/PC :) Do you have text file examples to use?

hmm wonder what that was A-6/7? end of cold war budget perhaps? Its still a better policy than the UK - here we upgrade them then scrap them before even flying them. (See Nimrod MR4)