[Herra Tohtori]

Depends.

Fly-by-wire planes have stick, mechanically controlled planes have a yoke. But there's the "wheel yoke" thing, too. With rotation and depth controlling ailerons and elevators (respectively)... I don't know what to call that other than "controls".

[Dysko]

Some time ago I read an article about that. I'll try to summarise what I remember.
The stick is more easy to use and more practical than a yoke, so it's used mainly on fighters and helicopters (even if now it is being used also on other type of planes, for example the A380 has a stick).
On the other hand, the yoke makes flight more accurate, so it's used mainly on civilian planes, especially general aviation ones (but also in this case, you can find sticks on some GA planes).

When I was little I read something about a Viper(I don't remember the G. name,only its translation)a piloted rocket launched like a V1 armed with small rockets.The fighter had to launch its rockets on American bombers,then it was useless and went down,losing most of its parts.Then the Germans would have re-used the other parts...

The German name is Bachem Ba-349 Natter, if it's what I think.

[KappaWing]

At an airshow in Michigan I saw a B-2 flyby nice and close three times.... and god was it sexy!!! On one of the passes i recorded it. its at the very end of my airshow video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1587620637588007941&q=kappawing&hl=en

BTW who recognizes the music at the very beginning? 

[Dysko]

I had already seen your video when you published the link here some time ago... Cool! 

Last year I made some videos at Italy's biggest air show, but they are quite bad, since I made them with the digital photocamera, not with a decent camera. There were many display team from all Europe... Red Arrows, Patrulla Aguila, Patrouille de France... You can name them! In particular, the Red Arrows were fantastic! They made some impressing crossing... Obviously there were many other planes. The Typhoon was amazing, but what impressed me was the C-27. Seeing such a large plane making loopings and tonneauxs...

[Herra Tohtori]

BTW who recognizes the music at the very beginning? 

I do.

Babylon 5: Into the Fire Promo CD, ending of "Battle Themes 4".

[Dave2040]

Su-47


YF 23

[Getter Robo G]

RL picks: For looks only, the F-14, and the old Valkyrie (didn't that evolve into the Concode?).

Fantasy picks: VF-1A, Getter1 plane mode, and that new thingy "Yukikaze".

[spartan_0214]

B2-Spirit



F117 Stealth Fighter



and the literally Bulletproof A-10 Thunderbolt II  "Warthog"

[Mobius]

OV-10 Bronco

Ah... I always liked twin tail aircraft. Just look at a P-38... that's beautiful!
If here in Italy flying licenses weren't so ****ing expensive, and if it weren't already out of production, I'd buy a Cessna 337 Skymaster.

Cessna,Pipers(my father calls them paperotti )are used by millionaires and break the balls of whoever works in a Airport.

[Polpolion]

Suhiko (sp) Su-47 and A-10 thunderbolt.

I also used to like the Mirage 2000c or whatever it was.

[Dysko]

Cessna and Pipers are used by millionaires and break the balls of whoever works in a Airport

This is part of the Italian hatred toward general aviation. The problem is that here there aren't enough small airports, so GA planes must use the bigger ones.
And the fact that GA planes are only for millionaires is another Italian general thought, since here only rich people own a plane, but only for the high taxes and for the very expensive licenses (now the costs are so high that many pilots prefer to register their airplane and make the license abroad).
The airplane itself costs like a SUV or an high class car like a Mercedes (170'000 $ circa for a Cessna 172), and much less than supercars like Ferrari.

[Mobius]

But they break my father's balls!!!
there are people who need to travel because of their job/particular family situations and they find those millionaires who obstacle them with their requests!

[Unknown Target]

Depends.

Fly-by-wire planes have stick, mechanically controlled planes have a yoke. But there's the "wheel yoke" thing, too. With rotation and depth controlling ailerons and elevators (respectively)... I don't know what to call that other than "controls".

That's not true. The plane I'm flying in for my flight training is a Diamond Da-20 (fun little aircraft, I suggest you try it if you get the chance), and it's a mechanically (control rods) operated aircraft with a stick.



Fun little sperm with wings

[Herra Tohtori]

Ah, okay. Language barrier for the win.


In my mind, a "stick" was more like a joystick used in some recent fly-by-wire air planes , while I figured a "yoke" was that bigger thing protruding from the floor of the cockpit.

After reading your message, I found out about the difference, and indeed "yoke" refers to that controller type that has a "wheel" controlling ailerons and "depth" controlling the elevator, and "stick" is a common term for both fly-by-wire joysticks and mechanical "sticks".


So, the difference between a yoke and a stick is now cleared in my mind. That said, I would definitely prefer a stick over yoke any time.

[Mobius]

I would use another airplane for training,like an F-22....

[Dysko]

I would use another airplane for training,like an F-22....

I'd prefer an F-23, which is aestetichally MUCH better than the F-22. If only the guys at USAF chose the F-23 instead of the F-22...

[Herra Tohtori]

I think both of them are rather fugly, really. I don't like how they look like low-poly models made of rectangles.

IMHO B-2 is the coolest stealth plane currently (known to be) in action, based on pure aesthetical values. Flying wings FTW.

[Dysko]

I think that EVERY stealth plane is ugly. Just look at the F-35 or, even worse, the X-32/F-32! (Well, they are more "low observability" than "stealth", but...) Obviously, there are some exception: the B-2, the F-117 and the SR-71 (even if it's not properly stealth).

[Herra Tohtori]

Well, in my view the F-117 has the same chunky "low-poly" effect as the F-22, but to even larger extent. It's not particularly pretty plane to my eyes.

And SR-71 didn't NEED to be stealthy, it was built to outrun any missiles or ammunition of the time. But yes, it was/is awesome looking plane. And there's something inspiring in a concept of a plane that leaks gasoline like a brocken bucket on runway, but heats up enough in flight that the hull plating expanses and the outer plating becames practically seamless...

Concorde is/was also a very beautiful plane, but alas, it had to linger and disappear.

[Admiral Nelson]

Well, this week we get to see all sorts of planes up close and personal:

http://fleetweek.us/fleetweek

I'm a big enough plane junky to have replaced my Canon 350D with a 400D just for Thursday!

A couple photos from last year: