TR1, don’t underestimate Marine can-openers 😀

besides, Hotdog, if that tank rolling had destroyed the other one a few minutes before (or even seconds), don’t you thing, the other one would still be on fire or at least smoking?

the destroyed one has probably been there for some time before the “alive one” came by

Once the crack started to form, the SDD program would continue to monitor the crack in order to assess it’s source and potential damage in totality. Only after the tests were completed could the SDD program determine the best permanent fix to put in place. Once a fix was designed, they would then have to test that fix in order to decide its impact on the rest of the aircraft. This is why there was no quick fix.

the fix still has to be tested anyway..

btw, its rather impressive the way you twist things permanently.. an article says: “this is the problem and this is the way it affected the program”, you come and say “that article says how it does NOT affect the program”

they tell you they found a crack they had to fix and airframes are out of the particular testing they should have performed, you come an say “it was done on purpose”

in french it is called “mauvaise foi”…

maybe he could use “Aurora” in his novel?

officially, it doesn’t exist, but, on the othe hand, neither does the Groom Lake Air Base…

it would be a spy aircraft, capable of doing Mach6, so, take off in Washington and you’ll be able to land in Los Angeles less than an hour later… now, how to get a higly classified spy aircraft into his story… well, that’s another problem…

After arguing for ages that the Rafale radar was of adequate size, now Rafale fanboys want a bigger array !

is it adequate? yes, there’s no need for a bigger one. however, in aviation there’s a saying that you never have too much fuel in an aircraft, unless you’re on fire. For the radar, one may say a similar thing to “a radar antenna is never too big.”

some people say that they should have tilted the antenna for stealth. personnaly, I’d rather say that the biggest benefit of tilting it would allow for an increased surface on it.

As for integration, why would the integration costs be restrictive? They produce almost all the weapons already used on the Rafale, adding Taurus to the list wouldn’t be anything but beneficial for them

so? you can tilt the antenna so you get a longer “vertical” and get a bigger surface as well in that direction

for as long as you can:

– feed enough electricity
– cool it down properly

it could be a nice additional benefit… but in the end, you’d have a different aircraft… one that would make you wonder why the shrinked it in the first place instead of keeping the size of the rafale A from the beginning

we agree on one thing, it doesn’t mean anything, but 26° AoA @ 210kts indicated probably won’t be much of a problem to reaccelerate…. not much drag at such speeds anyway and for that particular moment, it’s inside gripen’s turn, so, even if slow, not in a bad position (I’d rather be in the mirage at that point instead of the gripen, if you ask me).

what’s the gripen’s speed? we don’t know, which way is it going? slightly climbing? level? dropping like a stone? we don’t know either (more or less to the right, for sure, but that’s about it)

the only thing that can’t be denied is that the gripen, if it was real combat, would probably see some shells from too close for comfort

thinking of it.. if they reenlarge the front sector, they may stuff a bigger radar in the nose too? 😀