I think the biggest mistake made by the Boeing camp was to cease the availability of the C/D model Hornet. If it had been retained in production alongside the Super Hornet I have no doubts that some orders that had gone to rivals like the F16 and Gripen might of gone Boeings way. If Boeing had wanted to make more space available for Super Hornet production then I’m sure they could of moved sub assembly production to other countries (Valmet in Finland springs to mind!).

Just look at the F16, its still receiving orders now despite its age, the continuous integration of newer avionics that has been seen with the Falcon could of been done with the Hornet.

I know its not really to do with the thread but here is a cool video from 1435 flight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI-U3-9UO0w

Sadly I doubt we are going to see as many of these cool videos now that the MOD has banned the release of this kind of video.

Shooting themselves in the foot! French air force recruitment has gone up over the last year because of the footage released on youtube of there operations with a suitably funky soundtrack!

P.S. I didn’t know that you needed an XBOX controller for air to air refueling:D !

RAF QRA(I) never stopped after the end of the cold war, though most intercepts are now airliners with comms problems post 9/11.

nice to see you again BIGVERN! I know QRA never stopped but Bears must be more exciting then a lost airliner for the boys in flight gear!

Anyway I have a great deal of respect for someone like you who experianced the very scary but maybe exciting period when the cold war hotted up again in the 80’s.

Frankly these recent probing flights by the Russians are win win for both sides! The Russians get the chance to show that they are still big boys and the RAF/USAF get some good practice at QRA.

The ROCN had no choice when it came to the systems fit of their LaFayette, they were delivered lacking much of the standard electronics fit forcing them to cobble together a mutant hybrid fit of French, American and local systems. Hence the rather odd choice of Chaparral among other things.

On the other hand even with the procurement scandal surrounding the frigate purchase beggers can’t be choosy and the deal did tie in with the real prize which was the Dassault Mirage 2000 which was delivered with a comprehensive systems and missile fit.

I get a feeling we are not going to see any official drawings or concepts prior to the official roll out.

I have a hunch that we are going to get a very flashy launch with lots of big wigs and officials.

I think there is a good chance that India could join the PAK-FA program but not China. Its clear to me that the Russian Sukhoi purchase was a stop gap measure by China and they are more interested in developing their own next generation fighter program.

Actually we have more idea of what the Chinese next generation fighter program will look like then PAK-FA. We do actually have some official images from China via Sinodefence.com and CCTV of potential next generation fighter models (J-12 and J-13) being tested in wind tunnels/computer modeling .

who can tell me has the Lafayette FFG armed the Lafayette?

I think the French initially used Crotale Naval whilst Taiwan uses Chaparral Naval (utter joke! might as well throw stones) and the Saudis use Aster 15.

I will just do a quick check as to where the class stands now.

Boyd’s basic thoughts (before he expanded his theory) are very close to what Erich Hartmann said about air-to-air combat. Wonder if Boyd knew Hartmann.

Yeah Eric Hartmann is one of several people who came to the same conclusions prior to Boyd. Not that it should take anything away from Boyds work! His work on E-M should be regarded as a seminal piece of the air combat jigsaw.

The AW149 will be built in Italy. The UK factory will be the primary build plant for future EH101’s and the forthcoming ‘super’ Lynx for the Uk. Just thought I’de let you know!
Dave

Strange…I’m sure when Augusta launched the AW149 the UK was the intended build location.