Originally Posted by Rocky
VG is a very good solution when you want to combine large payload, short take off, low landing speed, and high speed capabilities.

I have problems to see any swing-wings which excel in the points you mentioned.

????
B-1 vs B-52
Tornado vs F-105
F-14 vs F-4 or F-18E
MiG-23 vs F-104
MiG-27 vs Jaguar

All aircraft that earned a swing wing did it because of field performance requirements.

VG gives the F-14 an excellent ability to loiter on station for a long time. It also reduces cruise speed, which increases range.

The A-10 can fly through hilly terrain under low ceilings and carry a big load better than any other aircraft. Add in the armor and the cannon, and its capabilities just become too unique to give up. If we couldn’t have A-10s, they would have to start building the A-1 Skyraider again.

Thats an interesting chart. But as most of you know, thats a clean F-15. A sweet thing about the F-22 is that its clean even when its combat loaded. The combat performance advantage of the F-22 is even better than it looks here. I’m preaching to the choir, I know…

In fact you pointed it right. Regardless of whether it is right or wrong, traditions are counter-acting to free will.

Imagine a boy raised up in a family with strong military tradition for several generations in the past. It is pretty obvious that he will most likely choose professional military service as his job.. Can you say it is a completely free decision of him? I highly doubt that..

Have you thought of the possibility that traditions are carried on because people LIKE them? Or that it may even be that we like to carry on a tradition just because it is a tradition? Or that we happily identify with our own cultural background? In either case, this a philisophical tangent.

An example: why do all Americans born in USA speak English? According to your argumentation it is because they have freely chosen it to be their language, but this is not true. You did not chose English because it is the most suitable/best/nicest language you know, you speak English because your parents taught you so. And they taught you so, because it is the language they really know best and because everyone else uses it so it fits your needs.

What?? We are not free because we have cultural traditions? I’m stopping now. Its too embarrasing to reply to arguments this silly.

I think your interpretation of freedom and liberty in Western countries is somewhat exaggerated.

Apart from wealth (which is not a factor of either freedom or liberty)

Wrong. Free markets are at least as important as any other freedom. What good would free speach be if the country is suffering from poverty and famine due to forced Stalinist economic policies, as has happened in North Korea? If you can’t buy paper, a free press is no good. If you are dead, all is lost. Much freedom comes from wealth.

, the only real difference between NK and USA I see is freedom of speech.

Look closer. Besides free markets, we choose our leaders, we have trial by jury, our homes can’t be searched without a warrent, cruel or unusual punishment is prohibited, we have freedom of religion, a right to bear arms (admittedly we are spotty on that one) and a government carefully designed to prevent tyranny. Most telling of all, people are climbing over fences to get into to the United States. In North Korea, they get shot trying to get out. Countless Cubans risk their lives or die trying to get to the US. The Soviet Union had to put up a wall across Germany to keep everyone from fleeing to the West.

if you seriously made an attempt for an uprising to undermine the authority of American administration, you would be treated exactly the same way as in Northern Korea, Iran or anywhere else – as a traitor. That makes all countries pretty similar – if you do your job, live your life and do not stick your nose into political matters, they will let you be, even in Northern Korea.

To make the long story short – the freedom you really have is freedom to do trashing and empty talking about politics openly. While that might sound great to those who do not have this exclusivity, in reality it helps you exactly as much as a survival blanket to a dead man – the chance to really change something in American politics according to your will is exactly as small as the chance of an average NoKo to do something about Kim Chong Il.

This is breathtakingly ridiculous. Opposition political parties flourish and peacefully overthrow the government on an almost regular basis in the US. The Democrats took Congress from the Republicans last year. Eight years ago the President was a Democrat. Eight years before that it was a Republican. Every four years there is a major attempt to overthrow the government, and the government doesn’t do a thing to stop it, unlike North Korea. What are you, ex KGB?????

The A-4 was not designed to have a long service life since America (and the USSR) were designing new aircraft every couple of years.

Perhaps, but they are still flying A-4s off of a Brazilian carrier 50 years later!

The studies on the various configurations that lead to the F-14A, started back in 1966 but, the configuration that was settled on and of which the contract was signed on was in 1969.

And it was in production just five years later. Those were the days…

The YF-22 had a complete re-design from July to mid-October of 1987. (Before the re-design, the YF-22 looked like a modified F-117)…

Adrian

The picture is of the YF-22 before the design change, it looks like a modified F-117.

Are you talking about the change from the YF-22 to the F-22A? Thats not a picture of the YF-22 that flew.