I don’t know about you guys, but in terms of politics and personality, Americans and French are pretty damn similar.. the only difference is the Americans tend to win wars.

*cough*
Guess you really showed the french how to handle Vietnam the proper way?
*cough cough*

Was that in “war-time” several thousand miles from home? Please do not stretch the comparisons too far!

I classified this as a sidenote. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the US carrier groups have far better equipment and gear to repair fighters than what SweAF has when they go abroad for a joint exercise. The latter was based in hardened aircraft shelters in northern Norway where the temperature was way below zero degrees Celsius – even inside these shelters. Try making some qualified repairs in that climate.

regards,
Castor

Mission Capable Rate – Operation Iraqi Freedom

EA-6B 80.4
F/A-18C 87.3
F/A-18E 89.7
F-14A 89.2

Wow, the F-18E has a mission capable rate 00.5% better than a 30 year old F-14A. :rolleyes:

As a sidenote, Jas-39 Gripen – which also uses a variant of the GE-F404 engine, achieves a mission capable rate of 98.0%. Last time this was shown was during Joint Winter operations in northern Norway. That would be somewhat near a benchmark for the newer F/A-18E Super Hornet, not those 89.2% of the Tomcat, which is a older generation fighter.

regards,
Castor

Why do they block this front rows during summer operations? Is it because the engines produce slightly more thrust during (cold) winter operations – and hence gets better acceleration making them able to deal with the heavier aircraft?

regards,
Castor

“The pilot’s control inputs – while appropriate for the sensed motion, investigators say – ended up 180° out of phase with g, and contributed to the oscillation’s severity.”

Which is why pilots should be blocked out of the system during such events.

About this Mig-15 vs. F-86 discussion; there were three things that troubled the F-86:
1. It couldn’t take nearly as much fire as the Mig-15 could. (Atleast according to Jevgenij Pepeljajev who noted 19 F-86 kills).
2. They were at some times – totally – outnumbered. Summer 1952 there were more than 300 Mig-15’s operating from the fields near Antung but only 89 F-86 (a).
3. The migs were at the start flown by really experienced russian aces. When these left the scene, the inexperienced chinese pilots were easy kills.

regards,
Castor

There’s previously been some talk about the swedish Visby corvettes, but let’s have a look at the demonstrator which served as the basis for the YS2000-project (which obviously became Visby) – Smyge! Having seen norwegian Skjold class being introduced about ten years later I would say that either it’s a copycat of Smyge, or simply two designs made to fulfil similar needs.

(And btw, doesn’t Smyge look a bit better than this Skjold thing? :diablo: )

Edit: Oops. Those pictures came in the wrong order; upper one = Skjold, lower one = Smyge.

GarryB proposing something russian. Why am I not surprised? 🙂