Today is the first day of the Third Republic. The United States have decided against America. Do I care? Not really. But it’s a pity.

“A Republic – if you can keep it …”

are you Russian these days?

the days of states and republics are over. It’s the rise of city states again.
large places like New York and its surrounding metro, Shanghai, Pearl River Corridor in China, etc have more relevancy and power over everything than the rest of the inland areas anywhere

I’m making perfect sense. I said that the UAE pulled out of MAKO in favour of a completely off the shelf purchase. That is entirely correct. The UAE short-listed only aircraft which were already flying & already had orders.

The question about when MAKO flew was to remind you that it didn’t.

well duh, neither of them flew.

but what you said earlier is:

But here we’re back to the start. If the UAE wants a partly developed supersonic LIFT, without combat avionics, what’s wrong with MAKO? More modern, more recent, designed for the purpose, further developed, & from a company without potential resource issues. If the UAE said to EADS “Take it off the shelf & dust it off, we’d like to revive it”, EADS would bite their hands off. EADS would probably now be happy to sell ’em rights to it, for the money to complete development.

to which you implied that its further developed but in what way?
and if UAE did go for the Novi Avion, it could mean that they want a greater hand in the way its developed versus something thats supposedly more developed.

I might say number one, but how can someone really judge that objectively? 🙂

I don’t know what those adjectives (?) mean, but I’d say that Norway has a reasonable tradition for diplomacy. National interests combined with a limited military capability might mean something in this context.

I think it can be done.

Norwegian Girls

Serbian Girls

Icelandic Girls

British Girls

I think its fair to say Norwegian girls are in the top 3

Then why abandon it in favour of buying off the shelf, i.e. no control at all?

Mako was planned to use off the shelf stuff too was it not?

That pic never gets old.

There is the Mi-26, and there are other helicopters. Totally different league.

yes indeed, surely the Mi-26 is in a different league..
but do some people need its large capabilities over a somewhat smaller but more efficient one? or is it cheaper to send two smaller cheaper ones than one big one?

Mi-26 is like the helicopter version of the An-22 c0ck. a large c0ck doesn’t necessarily mean its useful.. but its more important on how its used.. other wise everyone would want a large c0ck. but in hindsight, the smaller american ones seem more popular.

I wasn’t going to mention anything regarding my opinions as I wanted it to stay focused on people from other nations, but since you asked I’ll own up.

you’re a happy nice guy so you deserve a reply.
non-US people should care because for better or worse the US is the most powerful country in the world and the most influential.. so in effect the leader of not just the US.but the world is being chosen today in your land

The direction my country is in is not one I was hoping for when we were promised “Hope & Change” in 2008. Granted, I wasn’t a supporter of Obama in 2008, but I’m in the military so I was obliged to trust in him as my commander in chief, and I gave him the benefit of the doubt, hoping that somehow he could improve things. In my humble opinion he has simply made our situation worse in a variety of areas.

It wouldn’t have really mattered Obama or McCain won last time.. the US economy is in such terrible shape after years of unrestricted access to easy credit (other wise horrible lending policies). Even if that is solved it still has the upcoming issue of student debt (fueled by those private for profit universities) and the greying demographics (how to take care of all those old people who want benefits). Either person probably wouldn’t be able to really turn the US around. Furthermore the US has a tendency to want to spend money but not raise taxes. Money doesn’t grow on trees and the party that wants to increase taxes, hasn’t increased it yet.. and the party that wants to cut spending, hasn’t really cut much either.

As far as Romney goes, the main reason I like him is that he has a much better idea of how to fix things economically speaking than Obama does. Obama’s economic policies are absolutely killing small businesses among other things. Big government isn’t as popular here as it is in other parts of the world (Western Europe), and despite what the media here is trying to do, most Americans aren’t in favor of it. It isn’t what our country was founded on, and when it comes to things like the new healthcare plan, we don’t want it.

This is pure partisan talking. Like I said earlier.. the US Democrats and Republicans are more similar to each other than different. They follow the same general economic and foreign policy principles. There are slight variations between the two that set them apart (healthcare, gay/lesbians, approach to foreign policy) but in terms of the big picture they follow the same guiding principles. Healthcare, a good chunk of Americans voted for it.so don’t say “we”. You guys are obviously divided on it. You don’t represent a good chunk of the Americans.

Obviously I cannot speak for every American, but the media has become pretty left leaning over here, and the far left agenda is constantly being pushed on us.

and there’s your problem, you completely ignore the right agenda. The left and right wing media have been so busy painting the Democrats and Republicans as being different as day and night, but in reality they are not that different and most leaders will end up ruling from the center, not the extremes. Romney is as you say, a right leaning moderate. Obama disappoints those on the extreme left.

As for Romney & foreign, I’m deeply concerned based on what I read here as far as what people seem to think this guy is going to do. He is already being painted as a far rightwing nutjob that will attack any nation who dares blink at the U.S.A. That could not be farther from the truth, and being that I’m pretty familiar with the U.S. political system, I can tell you he is much more of a moderate compared to previous Republican presidents. Again, I think the smear campaign that the left-wing media has put out has a large part to do with a lot of incorrect assumptions about Romney.

thats most likely true, Romney and Obama will not differ too much on foreign policy but people want drama in campaigning so they’ll be too busy exaggerating their positions and the weakness of the opponent.

The sitation we are in on this side of the pond is getting graver by the day. We are experiencing a culture change in this country whereupon a large part of the country is now seemingly living in what we refer to as an “entitlement culture.” It is seemingly more and more popular to lean towards far left economic policies (namely redistribution of wealth)…at least the media here is putting out that rhetoric. If you identify with American conservative beliefs, you are painted as uncaring and bigotted. The most ironic thing I’ve found in recent years is that if you don’t agree with a liberal in this country, you are absolutely slammed and denigrated for your beliefs. It’s ironic to me because liberals (& Democrats in the political system) try to paint themselves as the party of acceptance…until you have the audacity to disagree with them.

If this post has confused anyone please ask and I’ll try to clarify. My limited understanding of U.K. and Western European politics leads me to believe that what we consider left-wing here in the USA would in some cases be considered right-wing on that side of the pond.

As I said perviously thanks for your comments.

doom and gloom.. you should go to other countries.. everyone thinks their country is going to the craphole. and honestly I think its probably true. Western Europe.. got their own problems.. East Asia..different sets of problems.

The only place where life is great is Norway.
#1 Human Development Index for several years
#1 Freedom of Press
#1 Democratic Index
#2 Safest country in Europe
#3 in per capita income PPP (higher than US)
#3 Quality of life index
#3 Best looking women in Europe
and the balls to thumb their noses to zwiley Russians and hobbish Germans

Singapore is pretty decent it ranks #1 for capitalism index and ranks behind Norway in many things and ahead of others. Both countries are highly capitalistic but with high government involvement. Also healthcare is provided.

Not trying rubbing salt, however this discussion on trying to revive some old project in my mind related to what Habibie (Indonesian 3rd President and founder of DI/Indonesian Aerospace) effort on trying reviving N-250 and N-2130 project.

Indonesian Government up until now did not want to provide money for that project anymore. In their mind even though N-250 already has 2 flying prototype and N-2130 is (according to Habibie claim) already finish development stage and entering prototype stages, they (Indonesian Gov’t) only want to provide financing for IAe on further production of CN-235 and license production of C-295.

Thus, Habibie now build his own company and try to find new Investor for reviving his 2 projects. fyi, N-250 is in ATR 72 class, while N-2130 in A-318 or Embraer 195 class. In paper, the market potential of an already flying ATR class aircraft is bigger than a supersonic LIFT. However Habibie will faced a tough sell overseas trying to attract foreign money. He already lobbying hard in the Gulf and Asia, but so far no money being promised for reviving his projects.

If getting foreign fund especially in this kind of Economic situation for something that already Flying and has big potential market, are very difficult, then figure on the difficulty on selling something that still in the Paper, need much, much more fund to developed, and only taking much smaller market potential will be. It’s close to impossible in getting foreign fund.

Just like N-250 and N-2130, Novi Avion chances to get fly if it’s own country (Indonesia in case of N-250/N-2130 and Serbia in case of Novi Avion), willing to take financial risk on developing them. Is simple as that.

the difference is Indonesia is a rising economic power that has nearly the same economic size as Turkey..another country trying to make its own light fighter.

Serbia is a stagnant power that is no longer as big as it was in 1980s. It has the brains but no resources. If brains count then Armenia would be making the world’s best fighters since most of Russia’s aviation talent are Armenian.

Surprise surprise JSR!

Firstly the picture shown is of an Mi-26 parked behind an AN-124, secondly whilst the cargo box is just wide enough it is not tall enough for the Mil and finally India has not purchased the AN-124.

LOL you busted JSR good!

Surely the Mi-26 is a separate class of helicopter from the Chinook.. but the question is.. does the Injuns need the capabilities of the Mi-26 or are they fine with the smaller capability of the Chinook?