planes

[Veef]

http://youtu.be/3KEZk8ai6Vw

cool videos go in this thread

[Oxymoron]

Interesting documentary.

[Veef]

that guy's accent is so awesome

the missiles on PILLONS

maybe that's how you're supposed to say pylon i dunno americans are weird with words

but i like how at the end he was like

it would be best if these planes were only used at air shows

d'aw peace

oh and the young pilot getting a cake for his first flight

and then his buddies throwing him up like a mosh pit

man the Russian air force is so happy

[Oxymoron]

Yeah, I like how the narration contrasted with the typical 'MURCA FUCK YEAH you can see sometime on american documentaries - there was still some amount of Russia yay! but it was nowhere as blatant IMHO.

And, is it me or did the narrator have a tendency to use the present-tense when the past-tense would have been more appropriate ? It was confusing sometime...


Fuselage

A Russian speaking English using a French word. *LeoDiCaprio : We need to go deeper...*


Anyway, that was an interesting outlook over the driving forces behind the development of the second, third and fourth generations of Russian fighters. As a noob on the subject I found it quite instructive.

[Veef]

yeah by contrast check out this one about the YF-23

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlFxStiMw_g

i appreciate the time taken to show the human side of the development

but man there's some chest thumping in there

[Oxymoron]

Oh man

Oh man

I'm not even two minute in that my tits already hurt from the chest-thumping.


Is it like that for its entirety ?

[Veef]

eh it tones down when they just get the engineers and test pilots talking

but still

[Oxymoron]

Yeah, it toned down. A little bit.

Interesting tale.



"When we received the call telling us we lost the competition, I was utterly crushed. I didn't want to accept the fact."

Drama Queen.

(honestly though, if I had spent almost all my waking hours working on a project for 8-10 years, possibly neglecting my family in the process, and all of this for some red-tape to come in the end and say "LOL, nope !" ... yeah, I think I too would a -bit- pissed-off...)

[Veef]

honestly it seems like such a waste of resources

like in the Russian video, their military seemed more chill with just having two planes

I remember back when the Navy had a plane for everything

then again the two American fighters are such a cut above everything it's no wonder they became so important

I never realized they were such a leap forward although in hindsight they're basically not needed in today's world and the 4 generation plus machines are perfectly adequate

like McDonnell Douglas has this plan to just stealthify F-15s

calling it Silent Eagle

[Oxymoron]

A thing that always peeved me about America is how (needlessly) wasteful they are with their spending in complex engineering projects.

I mean... NASA, the STS, the F-35/JSF, the LCS... For fuck's sake people ! If the Soviets can do it with slide rulers and elbow grease why the fuck do you have to pour hundreds of millions on thousands of sub-contractors to do the same thing ?!


CAPITALISM : When Inefficiency & Incompetence Become The Measure Of Success

[Veef]

yeah it's weird

i mean sub-contractors have a purpose like they said in the video. you have to spread out the information so these high tech fighters don't get their important bits leaked because all it takes is one defecting pilot (like the MiG-25 guy) or a downed airplane and you're fucked for a while

like I know a fellow toy nerd who works on F-35 shit but he doesn't know the whole picture

kinda like how Christian Bale's Batman somehow avoided suspicion by making 5000 little bat ears for his shitty mask

[uraniun235]

A thing that always peeved me about America is how (needlessly) wasteful they are with their spending in complex engineering projects.

I mean... NASA, the STS, the F-35/JSF, the LCS... For fuck's sake people ! If the Soviets can do it with slide rulers and elbow grease why the fuck do you have to pour hundreds of millions on thousands of sub-contractors to do the same thing ?!


CAPITALISM : When Inefficiency & Incompetence Become The Measure Of Success

i think it's slightly more complex than that, STS and F-35 represented cutting-edge aerospace R&D efforts (which cost a lot of money, and even moreso as time goes on) as well as this idea that if you could combine a bunch of roles into one, the program as a whole can be more efficient.

unfortunately when you do that, the machine becomes a hell of a lot more expensive to build, maintain, and replace.


but the other half is that yes there is an enormous amount of corruption both in terms of companies trying to leech as much money off the government as possible, and congressmen trying to siphon as many projects to their constituencies as possible

[Veef]

what is the point of a VTOL airplane if it doesn't have arms and legs, honestly

[uraniun235]

as for NASA, they haven't always looked towards maximum-cost missions. back in the 90s under Dan Golden (sp?) and president Clinton, the agency pulled off a lot of robot missions that could be done relatively inexpensively. (they also helped prop up the Russian economy)

that said, NASA is ultimately under the government's control, so if the government's policy is "fly STS until the wings fall off of every one", that's what they have to do. if the government says "prepare a manned lunar expedition", that's what they have to do. if the government says "design a spacecraft and launch system that utilizes most/all of the contractors that worked on STS, so that the voters that benefit from those contracts will re-elect us"... that's what they have to do. no legion of engineers, no matter how brilliant or dedicated, can change that.


so really the issue is with the US government.

[Veef]

does that mean we need liberal arts to engineer society when slide rules fail us

[Oxymoron]

so really the issue is with the US government.

Yeah, I'd more or less come to the same conclusion myself.


Still, with such an irresponsible way of doing things you start to wonder how America can still be the 1st economic power on the planet.

...

Oh, wait, I remember : they became it by being the least fucked up country after two world wars, then they ruined their last serious rival in a costly arm race, and are now looking to do the same with their next rivals.

Remember, boys : what good are weapons if you never get to use them ?

[Oxymoron]

does that mean we need liberal arts to engineer society when slide rules fail us

Well, I don't say it was ancient aliens could be true...

(we need a smiley of this guy => [here] )

[Veef]

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lznzp ... o1_400.jpg

what about this

[Veef]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZcpg70Ewbw

I wonder why they wanted it to land on that goofy trapeze setup

[Veef]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mhPjJJ-QWE

the Yak-38 is the little VTOL that could

i think it's neat seeing a plane just leap off the ground or carrier deck

totally magic

[zhaktronz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZcpg70Ewbw

I wonder why they wanted it to land on that goofy trapeze setup

On a ship that trapeze thing would be gyro stabilised to stay in position when the shop is pitching and rocking

[uraniun235]

so really the issue is with the US government.

Yeah, I'd more or less come to the same conclusion myself.


Still, with such an irresponsible way of doing things you start to wonder how America can still be the 1st economic power on the planet.

...

Oh, wait, I remember : they became it by being the least fucked up country after two world wars, then they ruined their last serious rival in a costly arm race, and are now looking to do the same with their next rivals.

Remember, boys : what good are weapons if you never get to use them ?

Don't forget the enormous head-start given by the gigantic wealth of land and natural resources readily expanded into in the North American continent. Even without the world wars, the US would have been a huge economy.

[Veef]

well the people living here already clearly weren't using any of that stuff to do god's work