Last F-22 Rolled Off Line Today

I'm going to start studying Chinese.

 

Not to mention its naturally ability to repel small arms
fire due to the strategic placement of the engine.

 

And it can bring the pilot home with one engine, half a tail, and 2/3rds of the wing.

 

Pure sex

 

I dont know the whole story behind the super hornet, but didnt the navy get a replacement for the hornet just by taking an old design and making it better in a much shorter time frame?

In stead of the 22 couldn't the AF just have made super eagle/falcon?

 

Do you know how the systems are upgraded? The F-15 and F-16's where engeneered in the late 60's and early 70's. One of the reasons the F-22 won against the F-23 was the ability for upgrades. With the Ferrari to the Honda show analagy...I don't want to bring a Honda to a Honda show if I have to compete with someone who is trying to kill me with their Honda. We are not the only Country with 5th Gen Fighters. If we fail to recognize this we would be vulnerable to the countries who realize the importance who may want to use it against us. So the Practicality of national defense I guess is everyones right to critique.

 

The Eagle/Falcon have pretty much zip in the area of stealth capabilities beyond stealth flying techniques. The replacements are far too different to be able to sneak in the same way.
MAYBE the Falcon.. but certainly not the Eagle.
Remember... The Eagle was (over)designed to counter the Foxbat, which in turn was (under)designed to counter the proposed interceptor/attack variants of the A12/SR71 that were never built (that we know about, though I may or may not have seen a video of what may or may not have been an AMRAAM being launched from the forward bay of what may or may not have been an A12 ).

The Hornet was definitely a shady deal... the Super Hornet is indeed a completely different airframe and how the Navy got away with that, I'd like to know (and I'm glad they did).

 

Actually, the Super Bug was brought about as a replacement for the Fodcat (F-14). During the design phase, they addressed several issues with the Legacy F-18 A-D airframe (limited room for expansion/upgrades, thrust to weight, bring back, range, etc.) BUT...it has not been the be-all, end-all it was touted to be. The one bennie we got was that it was (fairly) cheap to design and produce (compared to the F-22 and F-35) since they were starting with an established design.

And no one I know in the Naval Strike community likes the -35...the whole single engine thing is a deal breaker for most of us.

 

I don't...fucking Turdcat has killed more US pilots than any opposing force since it was introduced to the Fleet.

 

I was under the impression the Navy was pretty satisfied with the SH. This is nothing new the F4 was purchased by all branches and suppose to be the do it all jet. It didnt work that way either. Atleast whatever they purcase in the future it will probaly be refueled by jets flown during the Kenneday administration, supporting bombers built during the Eisenhower administration.

 

While I agree completely... I think the F4, F14 and F/A18 spoiled the aviators.
Navy didn't seem to have a problem with a single engine in the A4, F8, F9F, A7, Sea Fury, etc...

 

How's that go... with friends like that, who needs enemies?

 

Navy had big problems with them. Look at the mishap rates for those A/C as compared to their twin engined brethren.

 

I'm sorry but single engine over water is just unacceptable. You can argue well its a modern design, look at the problems with the F-22 already. F-35 is covered in political bullshit. Make several planes that are really good at 1 thing, brings cost down, build in numbers, more mission capable. Building a multi-role plane just creates problems, its never worked.

 

OTOH, their record on twins is far from perfect too. The Cutlass was horrible.
Just the nature of "built by the lowest bidder"

 

Yah, we called it the "Ensign Eater" for a reason. Record on twins may not be perfekt, but it's a hell of a lot better than the one on singles.