[diamondgeezer]

Nice. Classic fighters of the 50's are clearly the way forward. For example, the RN's Sea Vixen:



And then of course there's the immortal Hawker Hunter:

[Turnsky]

See what red-bull does to ya?.. it really does give you wings... jet-propelled ones

[Splinter]

Lavi





the 2 on the sides

[Exarch]

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:









I always wanted to fly in it, and then the bastards take it out of service before I get a chance

[IceFire]

About the possible cancellation of the F/A-22...wouldn't that be a waste at this stage for two reasons:

1) Billions have already been spent and production models are in the works.

2) There is no viable replacement for the F-15C which is no longer the best fighter in the world.  I doubt the USAAF is comfortable with that thought....the Su-30MK export version of the Su-27 can compete with the Eagle and likely win (in a straight comparison - pilot makes ALL the difference of course but the best trained pilot a second best fighter isn't ideal).  The Gripen, the Typhoon, and Rafael  are all excellent fighters I know the USAAF doesn't like being considered second, third, or fourth best by having an older generation fighter...even if its avionics are the best in the industry and even if its simply a missile platform...capability of that missile platform is still extremely important.

[mikhael]

I don't see it happening, IceFire. The 15 is aging, and not gracefully and there's nothing waiting in the wings if they cancel the 22.

On the other hand, as has been pointed out in another thread, the military has shown a willingness to continue with the Apache, despite its problems, and cancel the Comanche, in favor of an as yet undetermined future rotor wing project. Admittedly, that's an Army decision, not Air Force, but there might be similar pressures at work within the Pentagon.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

That Lavi looks pretty cool.

Blinged-up F16.

[Flaser]

The Su-35 and later 37 started with such developments un the 27.

I wonder if they have other developments in store.

I think Boing has something in store about the supersonic jetliner - IIRC the lack of apropiate materials were the reason they canned their version.

Now with the new composites, they may try something.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

I was watching something this afternoon about US and Russian experiments in the 50s with nuclear-powered aircraft.
Both sides thought that the other had an operational aircraft, and the Russians, after spending years trying to find a way to balance weight, reactor shielding, thrust and god knows what else, eventually achieved an operational plane by not shielding the reactor at all. Nice.

Of the 5 crews, 3 men survived.

[Nico]

Originally posted by Petrarch of the VBB
That Lavi looks pretty cool.

Blinged-up F16.

That's exactly waht it is
The Isreali make their planes from already existing ones, the Lavi is from the F16, the C7 was from the MirageIII, etc.
I thought the Lavi was cancelled, tho...

[Petrarch of the VBB]

ph34r

[JarC]

[Splinter]

Originally posted by Nico


That's exactly waht it is
The Isreali make their planes from already existing ones, the Lavi is from the F16, the C7 was from the MirageIII, etc.
I thought the Lavi was cancelled, tho...

your right and wrong. the lavi was cancled only 3 prototypes were ever made.

one is still used every so often as a trainer. another sits in the air force museum in the south.

you were also right about the Isreali make of things from already existing ones because of strained budgets however. you were wrong about the Lavi... the lavi was made slightly before the F-16 in fact the story goes that the desigens were sent to the states for funding (not complete desgines) they were rejected however a short time later the F-16 was unvieled... uncannily simliar as petrarch already observed. (I aint saying nothing )  it still had technology that to this day has only recently been incorperated I hear in the F-22's the targeting system integrated and direct by the pilots eyes/eye.

[IceFire]

Originally posted by mikhael
I don't see it happening, IceFire. The 15 is aging, and not gracefully and there's nothing waiting in the wings if they cancel the 22.

On the other hand, as has been pointed out in another thread, the military has shown a willingness to continue with the Apache, despite its problems, and cancel the Comanche, in favor of an as yet undetermined future rotor wing project. Admittedly, that's an Army decision, not Air Force, but there might be similar pressures at work within the Pentagon.

Yeah this is something I was thinking about as well.

I guess the thing is that the Apache is still probably the best at what it does...and the Commanche was in some ways supposed to be above and beyond what was possible there and then some.

I'll betcha that the design for an Apache replacement will still bear some resemblance to the Commanche.  They wouldn't throw all of the R&D away...I couldn't see that happening.

Flaser: Yes the Su-27 was the basis for the Su-30, the Su-33, the 34, 35 and 37.  I probably missed some others as well.  Of course the base Su-27 airframe was designed after the F-15 by a fairly long shot and its quite a bit more advanced aerodynamically.  If the Su-37 goes ahead in any capacity it'll be more than an equal to the latest block upgrade to the F-15C and more in line with the abilities of the Eurofighter.

[Janos]

Originally posted by IceFire

Flaser: Yes the Su-27 was the basis for the Su-30, the Su-33, the 34, 35 and 37.  I probably missed some others as well.  Of course the base Su-27 airframe was designed after the F-15 by a fairly long shot and its quite a bit more advanced aerodynamically.  If the Su-37 goes ahead in any capacity it'll be more than an equal to the latest block upgrade to the F-15C and more in line with the abilities of the Eurofighter.

Which still does not matter, except in the air shows. US posesses the best long-range weaponry, targeting systems and with F/A-22, the best stealth. Russia is lagging behind, because their military economy is practically in ruins, they have only ~200 frontline combat aircrafts operational and most of their R&D is spent on upgrading the export Suhoi models. I WUV the Russian design, but their combat abilities are so far not up-to-date.

[Nico]

Originally posted by IceFire
I guess the thing is that the Apache is still probably the best at what it does..

yeah: being shot down

About the Typhoon: one should note it doesn't belong to the super agile fighter family, like the grippen or the F22. It's more a pack of cool gadgets. Let's not forget the whole project has been toned down a lot since the first stages ( When it changed from EFA -which was kick-ass- to EF2000, because of severe budget cuts, and Spain and Italy dragging behind. That's when France decided to quit the project and make the Rafale instead, btw )

Splinter:
The first F16 prototype flew in 1974, the first series plane flew in 1976. The Lavi project was initiated in 1980, the first prototype flew some 6 years later, in 1986, and the project was cancelled in 1987 ( I always have my warplane bible handy, that can help ), check your sources, you must have misread something

[Splinter]

Originally posted by Nico


yeah: being shot down

About the Typhoon: one should note it doesn't belong to the super agile fighter family, like the grippen or the F22. It's more a pack of cool gadgets. Let's not forget the whole project has been toned down a lot since the first stages ( When it changed from EFA -which was kick-ass- to EF2000, because of severe budget cuts, and Spain and Italy dragging behind. That's when France decided to quit the project and make the Rafale instead, btw )

Splinter:
The first F16 prototype flew in 1974, the first series plane flew in 1976. The Lavi project was initiated in 1980, the first prototype flew some 6 years later, in 1986, and the project was cancelled in 1987 ( I always have my warplane bible handy, that can help ), check your sources, you must have misread something

huh yeah musta gotten it all mixed around after a number of "broekn telephone" stories about it (second and third hand) however the plans were sent in for funding and rejected and somthing was unviled shortly thereafter that was alike in whole or in a part to it. i remmber that much at least. somwhere along  the way I guess I heard so many people say it looked like the F-16 that I jsut incorperated that into my head to be what was duplicated.

[Corsair]

*points at name*

I know it's not a jet but...need I say more?

Other than the Corsair...Tomcats own.

The Tu-26 Backfire is a nasty bomber. Damn good at what it does. Gets in and out at high speeds.

And A-10 Warthogs just destroy everything. Tanks don't stand a chance.

[Nuclear1]

The A-4. Oddly cool, not to mention that it sent one of the best Clancy books ever in motion (think: Sum of All Fears).



And it seems ya almost forgot the F117.

[YodaSean]

Originally posted by Thorn
Bah... The SR-71 is cool, but its unarmed Unless you consider cameras armaments...

They actually considered a "gravity bomb" sort of thing at one point.  The idea was basically that if you dropped a large metal weight from a plane going at mach 3, it would penetrate through just about anything , and probably cause a bit of a crater as well  (like a man-made meteorite, I suppose)