Both are nice, but neiterh one is something really new. So surely not pic of the year.

Why not? What else should you say after shooting someone 14:1?
(Good, the *wir haben den Amerikaner machtig in den Arsch getreten* can we leave out now…)

Never heard that in a real conversation.

OK, go to US pilots prior to any exercise and tell ’em how green they are 😉 Man, you are cruisin’ for a bruisin’.. 😉

Anytime. Just look at the high numer of LTs sent. And that is exactly the reason for such exercises. Sent in some cocky junior pilots and have them beaten by the enemy. Then have them work out how to beat the enemy. hThat is the way leaders are created.

“As Slovaks told me”.. “and German JG73 MiG-29 pilots from Laage”…
Typical, not a single name or source to track really. The names of pilots and officers are no military secret. All are carrying a name on the uniform. ‘flex297’ knows very well, why he gives not a single one.

http://www.fabulousfulcrums.de/

Here you can contact the pilots personally and ask about their opinions.

At least no German pilot would have made such statement in a serious conversation. Perhaps at an airshow with an F-16 driver within listening distance.
But perhaps the idea of an agressor force is hard to understand. Green pilots are sent in to try their basic fighter tactics against the MiG-29. They are expected to loose. Then they are to adjust their tactics to win against the MiG-29. That is the idea of such an exercise.

Not two highly experienced pilots fighting it out. As this would be a defacto waste of taxpapers money, as no one would learn anything from such a fight.

I´m thinking WVR combat. Regardless of Stealth or not Stealth. What I just laid down is the impression all pilots that have been flying in dogfights involving 2 HMS / modern IR missile equipped planes.

And we should not forget that the flight control software of the F-22 is still not finalized. So the full envelope has only been expanded to the limits set by the testing needs of the USAF. Nobody would risk a valuable plane (and the bad PR of another crash) for an uneeded envelope expansion at the moment.

Funnily EF is even more sluggish at the moment (in real service) and Rafale too. Both demos are boring compared to the Swiss F-18 or even the USN Superbug Demo.

It is a different approach in the first place, its roots going deep into early 80s.

Stealth ain’t necessarily a definitely sound concept, as well. It is an approach that might turn out well, or might not, as long as new target detection systems are being developed.

Look at the 70s where everyone was eager to build anything with swept wings. Russkies, Yanks, French, Euros, they all went crazy in seeing the swept angles as ultimate solution for all flight regimes. F-111, F-14, Su-24, MiG-23, Su-17, Mirage G-8, Tornado, B-1, Tu-22M, Tu-160, where are they all now?

However supermanouverability is imho a think of the past, when WVR combat was still most important. Today any such manouver will bleed of energy quickly, and will make any plane a sitting duck. With todays IR missiles you would want to be out of their enevope as quickly as possbile, considering that both pilots only need to turn their heads to fire the missiles.

Reducing the signature of your plane was always a viable concept.

Swing-wing was a sound concept. It became obsolescent with the introduction of FBW and improved conventional wing designs. The F-14 however shoed that it was up on top with the best of the rest till it was withdrawn from service.

great pics