Military Aircraft Thread
 

Figured we could start a thread dedicated to military aircraft since there seems to be a fair amount of interest on the subject. Be nice to keep all the discussions in 1 spot as well.

I'll start with some old but awesome photos I don't think have been posted here before. In '07 a film crew in the back of a C130 was filming a Eurofighter for a documentary and kept asking the pilot to come closer and closer for a better shot. The pilot got frustrated and asked if this was close enough :eek5x:

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/7838/78211685.jpg
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/1854/26199626.jpg
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/5718/31989873.jpg
http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/932/82717231.jpg

Original photos here: http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums...e-and-Personal

Other news:

PATUXENT RIVER, Md, November 9th, 2010 -- The first F-35C Lightning II carrier variant, the U.S. Navy's first stealth fighter, arrived at Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Md., on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 2:37 p.m. The aircraft, piloted by David "Doc" Nelson, departed NAS Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base at 11:31 a.m. (Eastern) and achieved successful air refuels at a maximum load of 19,800 pounds during the flight. At Patuxent River, the F-35C will conduct air-to-air refueling and performance testing.

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/9...ax20101109.jpg

Hi Res: http://files.air-attack.com/MIL/jsf/...x_20101109.jpg

Holy crap the eurofighter got close. You know its too close when you can see the eyes of the pilot :O

Sweet photos

thanks!

Americans are pretty open when it comes to evaluation of their new aircraft......


the chinese refused the J-10's exsistance until after two years or so it went into service.. pretty bs considering everyone saw the thing fly around... :facepalm:

Well it's hard to keep fighters secret these days since there are so many of them it would impossible to keep them out of the public eye and off the internet. But low-volume, top-secret aircraft definitely still exist. F117, U2, B2, SR71 were all in service for many years before the general public even knew they existed. And they only got to hear about them because they were becoming somewhat obsolete or had already been replaced by something else.

The SR71's supposed replacement, the Aurora, may or may not have been in service for the last 20 years. Noone knows what it looks like or what it's capable of. I've heard Mach 4-5 as high as Mach 10.

The SR71 just like in blackops:)

I watched a video that said the Aurora is difficult to locate when it's flying above you cause the moment you hear something that generates anything remotely the sound of a sonic boom. The Aurora is already miles away from your sight.

aurora -- supposedly the first hypersonic plane of its kind... read online it uses some kind of pulse emitting engine...... it causes basically mini explosions for it to create that kind of speed for that plane.. pretty nuts imo.


when the US was doing their new ATF program.. (YF22 vs YF23) it was pretty public actually... lots of media and press on the planes.

its a shame that the YF23 didnt win though... I liked the Black widow's design better. its more radical. the YF22 looked more traditional. (layout similar to the F15 Eagle)

http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpo...rs/yf23_05.jpg

I've heard everything from anti-gravity to liquid methane to the pulse emitting theory. Either way it's obviously remained beyond Top Secret for a reason, some unbelievable technology involved.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_o_no4M2xEP...man-736858.JPG


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_o_no4M2xEP...PHOTOGRAPH.jpg

wow @ the pic with the Tornado, Eurofighter and twin seat Flanker...


those Jaguars from India are flying damned low

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Im...i-Euro-005.jpg
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Im...i-Euro-018.jpg

very nice

I have a feeling this thread is going to be awesoooooome! :thumbsup:

Pro Athlete/Fighter Pilot, best jobs in the world for me :D

instead of fantasy football.. becomes fantasy fighter league... haha

SU37 is quite the dog fighter..

Fixed. All those fancy maneuvers won't help avoiding an AIM-120 fired from 200 miles away. ;)

thats why he said dogfighter,,,he is not talking about BVR, although im sure su-30 series can hold thr on, in bvr range

I know what he said.

what's the point in keeping the aurora top secret?
i don't really understand.

aren't the really fast planes like this one useless in a war? cause they can't carry large bombs because it'll compromise the aerodynamics of it?

and going six times the speed of sound isn't nearly enough to head into deep space.
The next closet galaxy (Andromeda Galaxy) is 2.5 million light-years away.
So provided that we can travel at the speed of light, which is impossible. It would still take us 2.5 million years to get there. (Well less but still a long ass time)
^ hah, i actually learned something from undergrad !

Mars etc.?

i'm no expert but generally technology that can be implemented in strictly test phases can be put forward into other areas

FBW for FTW

This is an awesome thread, will be following closely.

And maybe i'll update as i hand in my application to the A/F... Got a couple more weeks to hand it in.

Weird - I can't thank you for starting this thread!

Thanks anyway!

The Typhoon must be flying at a low airspeed in order to hold steady behind the C130... :eek: