Originally posted by Robbo
I do worry when Rappens agrees with Arthur though.

He probably saw the thread Frankvw posted at the MM board, and wants to join ‘its minions’?

And a nice applause to Flood! Hurrah!

SYB-A is a Western designator, of the sort given out when a new type has been identified but before an ASCC codename was allocated. Just like TAG-D for the Be-40 or RAM-P for the Tu-160. I don’t know which airbase SYB refers to though: Syverski and Saki have both been mentioned but are IMHO very unlikely – my guess it would be one of the Novosibirsk airfields, which of course makes sense since that’s where Sukhoi has built of it’s sneakier stuff (like the S-37 and T-60). I’m not even sure if the S-37 is not SYB-A after all, or perhaps just even a mockup. It could well have been that a mockup of an FSW aircraft was spotted by a spysat flying over whatever SYB airbase is. If it’s declassified, i’m sure SOC would be able to dig something up.

I have never seen anything from Russia itself regarding an “FSW Su-9”, so i’m not so sure if that one actually existed.

As to the first question, what appeals to me in a Phantom…

– Overall shape. Those canted fins and wingtips, that incredibly long but low vertical tail, that ’embedded’ cockpit, the thick nose (except on the RF and E/F/G), too big to actually fit onto the fuselage, the wide intakes with the splitter plates, encapsulating the cockpit even more, the two jetpipes halfway the rear fuselage so they can scorch the rest of the fuselage further back. It just looks so… rude. Excellent!

– Combat record. Speaks for itself i guess, even more so because the Phantom was of a generation where flying still ment something since the battles it fought were generally a lot more even than the operationally viable but totally boring Air Mistresses being Dominant.

– Colours. Unlike some current aircraft which are getting large export successes but which only come in shades of grey (bar an occasional exception), Phantoms come in many tastes and colours. Some four or five USN/USMC schemes, a similar number of USAF paintjobs, German, British, desert, blue, ghost… add to that hi-viz squadron or wing markings and pretty frequent special markings, and it really is worth looking at.

– Smoke. Obviously.

Summarized, the Phantom has character. Unlike some others i could mention.

I know F-16s can fly, i’ve actually seen them do it. This is an F-16 pilot, him posing next to the aircraft gives a good indication how small the F-16 really is.

Thanks Frank. Even though collecting pics of crashed F-16s is REALLY easy to do, it is a new one for one of the biggest folders on my HD 😀

Thanks!

Get lost.

A pilot’s perspective from a Phantom? Well, the forward view is really cluttered on those machines so i don’t think it is really good.