Quite a long press conference from Australia, on CNN this morning.
Detailing the next phase of the search operation.

MH370 likely on autopilot with unresponsive crew in flight’s final stage

They are moving toward the theories we discussed earlier.

Australian authorities suggested that Flight 370’s crew may have been in an “unresponsive” state, possibly caused by a lack of oxygen.
That scenario “appeared to best fit the available evidence for the final period of MH370’s flight,” the report said, citing previous air accidents in which crews had been rendered unresponsive by a lack of oxygen, also known as hypoxia.
But it cautioned that the assumption was “made for the purposes of defining a search area and there is no suggestion that the investigation authority will make similar assumptions.”

One remark:

The cockpit and cabin are not hermetically sealed. That means that there was a contamination from one of the volumes to the other. The way that contamination spread is the route toward an explanation of the incident. Whatever that contamination was (loss of pressure, fumes, Li battery gases, criminal act…).

Last but not least, it’s now reasonable to think that some or a few of the passengers might have survived until the very last second of the aircraft. I hope that everybody interested by solving this enigma for the only sake of public transportation safety will keep that hypothesis in mind.

Sources:
[URL=”Australian authorities suggested that Flight 370’s crew may have been in an “unresponsive” state, possibly caused by a lack of oxygen.
That scenario “appeared to best fit the available evidence for the final period of MH370’s flight,” the report said, citing previous air accidents in which crews had been rendered unresponsive by a lack of oxygen, also known as hypoxia.
But it cautioned that the assumption was “made for the purposes of defining a search area and there is no suggestion that the investigation authority will make similar assumptions.””]CNN.com[/URL]

+1

Wing Loading and Internet = Troll

I dream of a day when this will be clear once for all.

I wish I cared enough to make an F-16.net account to laugh at them.

But seriously, not a good week for 5th gens. China better have those fire extinguishers ready.

yes. Enough to make your paranoia index surges.

If you take a look at statistics of all air-to-air engagements to date, you will see that vast majority of kills were within visual range regardless of weapon used.[…]

The majority of A2A kills were WVR simply because in 99% of cases in your sample there was no other means to kill. I might have misunderstood you but what your wrote equates saying that you’d need to be behind a propeller and wear a white scarf to score a kill 😉

[ATTACH=CONFIG]229464[/ATTACH]NO White scraf (and no prop)!

You can only compare BVR and WVR when both were achievable (tech, RoE, weather…). Otherwise you can’t make any conclusion.

It’s all about interpretation. One could say the F-35 and F-22 demonstrate his conclusions.

+1

It’s always bad to focus on the error of any individual, especially when marketing and public exposure makes them turn their arguments into a posture.

Great men are wrong and right. All of them. No exceptions.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani criticized oil-rich Sunni Gulf states that he said were funding “terrorists” – a reference to the likes of Saudi Arabia and Qatar which have backed Sunni rebels against Syria’s Iranian-backed leader, Bashar al-Assad.

Maliki has accused both Saudi Arabia and Qatar of directly supporting the group

A French government official said, indicating the jet may have its first export contract. […] The topic will be discussed when Qatar ruler Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani visits France next week, as negotiations continue. The Qatari Ministry of Defense and Dassault Aviation had no comment… […]

I’ll just put all this here like this as a simple draft. Feel free to comment as needed

Sources:
reuters.com

http://www.slate.com/

Bloomberg.com

I think the solution will be a ejector version of Brimstone because it’s also needed for the F-35B to allow for internal carriage. It also seems like the simplest solution.

Yes. Obviously. The “How to do” in my conclusions were harshly put together. And irrelevant for most.

Anyhow a stealthy cheap pod for the 21st century version of the rugged rocket launcher.

Currently 18 Brimstone using each of the 3 inner wing pylons but a common launcher is being explored for Brimstone II and SPEAR 3, so we may see an ejector launched Brimstone carried in quad racks, which would also suit F-35B internal carriage.

http://www.adsadvance.co.uk/bae-systems-awarded-brimstone-2-onto-typhoon-study-contract.html

The missiles are 50kg each and the triple rail launcher is 90kg, so all-up weight for a triple mount is 240kg (530lb), making it roughly equivalent in weight to a single Paveway IV.

I was also thinking that a 2,000lb JDAM/LJDAM(-ER) would go nicely on the inner wing pylon being roughly similar in length to an EPW II and narrower.

I don’t understand what they don’t design a commune launcher like a stealthy pod for the Brimstone. All said that it will stay a commercial success for long and adapted to platform with RCS reduction shape and increased Dyn perf req. for the carrier.

Something where the studies for the StormShadow family of missile could be reused to lower the cost.

– A rotary launcher (that does not have to be cylindrical)
– with a gravity released system at the back
– a forward single launch tube for ex. with rotating eyelid (see the T50 canon)
– Conformal mounted low cost sensor as an option to help widening the nbr of platform

Eventually, it could even state the standard in dimensions or could be reusable for other missile.