Thanks for all the input wsiwyg and others.

I must say, as a passenger I still prefer the airbus over the 747. The 747 has noisiest cabin in history and the seating arrangements are a little clumsy. I always manage to sleep a bit on the ‘bus. I must say I don’t think the A340 is that much different in terms turbulance tolerance. But the Boeing can cruise a little higher in the first half of the flight because it has bigger engines I guess.

Best wishes for Spirit’s landing on Sunday and Opportunity next month. I’ll be glued to the Internet for it. Good luck to everybody at NASA.

I think these missions, should they work, are going to reveal some reallys stunning science. And the pics will be amazing.

This stuff is as good as the moon mission surely?

New Russian SU’s better than Indian or Chinese versions…

MOSCOW (AP) – The Russian air force has begun fitting its Soviet-built
fighter jets with new engines, weapons and avionics as part of the nation’s
most ambitious weapons modernization effort since the 1991 collapse of the
Soviet Union, officials said Friday.
The first batch of five upgraded Su-27SM fighters flew Friday from the
aircraft plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Far East to the air force’s
Lipetsk combat training center in western Russia for evaluation and tests.
Russian television stations showed sleek twin-engined blue-and-grey
fighters landing at a snowy airfield and enthusiastic pilots hailing their
performance.
“They still smell of fresh paint. They are like factory-fresh cars,” a
smiling squadron leader, Yuri Gritsenko, told NTV television.
Maj.-Gen. Alexander Kharchevsky, the Lipetsk base chief, said that the
upgraded fighter “features the latest achievements in electronics, weapons
and navigation.”
While the original Su-27 was designed as a fighter, its upgraded version
can be used as a strike aircraft, Kharchevsky said in televised remarks.
Lt.-Gen. Alexander Zelin, the air force’s deputy chief, said that the
program to overhaul Russia’s fleet of Su-27s was set to be completed in 2005,
the Interfax-Military News Agency reported. Zelin wouldn’t say how many
fighters would be converted to the new standard.
Zelin said that the plane’s new version has better capabilities than the
Su-30MKK and Su-30MKI – the advanced versions of the Su-27 sold to China and
India in recent years.
“We can’t have aircraft in our inventory that would be worse than those
sold to foreign customers,” Zelin said.
The Su-27 entered the Soviet air force during the 1980s. The Russian air
force so far has lacked funds for modernizing them or any other Soviet-built
aircraft…
Russian pilots have complained bitterly that their aircraft were falling
apart while Russian aircraft builders were building new planes for China,
India and other foreign clients.
The increasing wear-and-tear on the Russian air force planes and lack of
pilots’ training blamed on kerosene shortages have contributed to the
increasing number of crashes of combat aircraft in recent years.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly promised to modernize military
arsenals, and next year is to see the most ambitious weapons modernization
program since the Soviet collapse. The government plans to spend 341.2
billion rubles (US$11.7 billion), or about 14 percent of the government’s
2004 budget, on modernizing fighters, upgrading strategic bombers, and buying
new helicopter gunships, missiles and other weapons.

I should also point out here that France has offered Rafales to Austria at a cost 15% more expensive than the Typhoon.

I dont feel embarressed at all

Well I don’t have proof at this point Phantom, I did read it somewhere. But if you show me a pic of Gripen carrying the afore mentioned class of weapons then I’ll submit to your superior knowledge. Take my word for it, the main hardpoints cant take more than 1500 lbs

Distiller, you should know God is liar. No one will be saved, most of us will die a painful death and no one above loves anybody.

Anyway my point is that the Gripen carries half as much fuel as the Typhoon. Thus it is reasonable to assume it has a simliar range spec. Your figure of 100km, as my learned collegue Mr Phantom has pointed out, is absurd.

Trust the Swedes to build a fighter that you can fly home and park in the garage:)