More seriously (millions suffering hunger deserves seriousness), many refugees into northern China reported that during the famin of the late 90s, people started eating grass and tree barks. There’s documentation of same kids visited by western journalists getting thinner and thinner every year until down to near the bones. The crops are slightly better in the last few years, but iirc, coastal regions got hit due to recent lower seafood yields. All in all, it’s one of the worst place to live if you’re a commoner.

certainly true! also, the north never was the best of places for agriculture as the soil was not suitable for crops and made worse by bad agricultural practices done by the average peasant so desperate to grow some kind of vegetation out of ground that’s as good as shiet.

Hamburger

No I am not, but if I was a ‘Ju”, would the subject of this thread would be viewed with even less tolerance?

Not by me my Canadian friend for I like Natalie Portman and Winona Ryder. Can’t speak for the other chaps in here.

Mr Saruman’s master,

If you do not mind me asking, is ye a Ju?

The Austrians don’t know their #@&%$s from their heads! Simple. Just take a look at the ignorant bunch that populates Austrian politics and that asylum called MoD, and you wouldn’t be suprised at all.

yo negra, don’t be dissin ma boy Joerg Haider, ya hear, now get the steppin homeboy

Long live the new queen

He was pressured into the marriage. He didn’t love Diana, he loved Camilla and probably always will. It was a shame that she’d had a bit of a past and in the late sixties/early seventies, a virgin was required to be the next queen.

oh dear, Charles should’ve chose his bride from Keypublishing where there is a large amount of eternal virgins for him to choose, not to mention any names but there’s a dragoon, a cat boy, and a kiwi

The answer is more on tradition that stems from WW2

During the great patriotic war, often Il-2’s were manned by multiple persons, often the person sitting behind the pilot were female pilots. Because these female pilots were young, often the male pilot manning the front would turn around to catch a glimpse.. this lead towards an appalling numbers of losses as pilots would find themselves flying into mountains or German airplanes. As a result they began restricting the field of visions pilots had as they should only look forward, and not behind towards their bosomed comrade. This practice went on to single seat aircraft as well.

Later during the JET age, the Soviets would often place the 2nd seat in a different bubble canopy ala MiG-25UB

or simply limit the view ala MiG-31M

I still believe in point defense fighters, but not in the traditional sense. A purely defensive airforce however is something i’ve had a few thoughts about.

Here is what i would do.
-1- Disperse the aircraft, for ZELL operations out of barns and from other camouflaged positions.
-2- Use them as a second defence zone after long-range SAMs. After having fired your S300s, you launch your PDI’s for them to arrive in the confusion created by the SAMs.
-3- Launch ’em in numbers. Saturation defense – overwhelm the bad guys sensors.
-4- Make the aircraft totally net-centric, with information given to them from bistatic radars, AWACS, whatever you can think of. Sensors aboard the aircraft itself should primarily be an IR sight (passive!) with a relatively small radar secondary. Radar pulses of one aircraft’s radar will also be able to be used by the other aircraft to give a sort of airborne bistatic radar picture. It will do nice to confuse the bad guy’s ESM as well.
-5- Slash attack methods, no dogfighting. Two, possibly four, AAMs per fighter. To be used in the Soviet way: two missiles (one IR, one radar) per target.
-6- Radar-homing targets to be either active, and/or SARH on radar signals other than that of the launching aircraft. A pencil-beam designation ray from your AESA-equipped AWACs will do nicely.
-7- A number of austere airstrips for the interceptors to land. Servicing equipment won’t be needed at the airstrip itself (a nice bit of concrete will do), the fighters will be worked on at the squadron ‘depot’ before being put on alert in the ZELL shelter.

The aircraft i would love to see in this role is an upgraded F-104 with a ZELL boost pack, IR dome and the necessary network systems. Of course the J79 will remain, not only because it sounds really cool but even more so because it will suit the slash-attack role perfectly. With only a short range necessary, the airframe can stay devoid of draggy and heavy fuel tanks so the interceptor will have all the energy it needs to keep fighting on it’s own terms. Other suitable airframes would be the Mirage III, Lightning or Su-15, although you really don’t need the latter’s range or endurance. Every second your PDI is in the air NOT slashing intruding aircraft in the PDI’s envelope, is a second in which your PDI is a target for the enemy – so range is something you have no need for.

Problems would be that the whole idea of saturation defence will need a large number of pilots and the large network environment needed to operate them effectively. On the other hand, the fighters themselves will be relatively cheap.

Wow what you just described sounds like the Saab Gripen, the only problem with this is that it’s price kind of prohibits the use of buying such aircraft in quantity 🙁