iyaayas01 posted:

That, the wing sweep is manual (you sweep the wings by pulling a lever, and doing so at the wrong speed/AoA/other flight regime can send the aircraft into uncontrolled flight), and it is pretty easy to overspeed because once you hit a certain point (IIRC somewhere just below Mach 2, give or take) a friction lock engaged making it impossible to rapidly reduce the throttle. From the idiots thread:


So yeah, the MiG-23 is pretty difficult to fly. If you read Davies' book, not nearly as many Red Eagles were qualified in the Flogger compared to the MiG-21 or -17, and it quickly gained a reputation as an airplane that you had to be fully engaged with constantly and be several steps ahead of all the time, because if you didn't it would find a way to bite you. It was a hot rod with some serious speed and acceleration, but that came at a price. Have some Red Eagles/4477th TES pictures:

Godholio posted:

Look at their covers.

Christoff posted:

But I mean what were they thinking the first time? That they'd win?

Limp Wristed Limey posted:

Thats because they are idiots. I have seen people on the left weep about the injustice of Israel taking Palestinian land and then in the next sentence complain about how awful Thatcher was for fighting a poor helpless military junta that murdered 20,000 of their political opponents.

There was talk of US carriers helping if things got out of hand but again it was just talk and rumours. I would love to find out what the US would have done if the UK had been defeated. The Reagan administration was not happy with the conflict at all. They did provide a new version of the sidewinder though and they did provide satellite intelligence.
The Frence surprisingly provided assistence, they gave us a lot of information on the exocet.

Godholio posted:

Seconding. I was there for Atlantis' (and the STS program's) final launch, and there's seriously just awesome stuff EVERYWHERE. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Godholio posted:

Fun story: For some reason I was over at one of the fighter squadrons at Tyndall...I'm guessing I was getting my gear to get an F-15 ride. Anyway, a flight of TDY F-16s had just finished fighting an F-22 and the pilots were talking. Their squadron commander was on the mission, and was exceedingly proud of himself because he actually killed the Raptor. On the downside, it was after all four of them had already died BVR and the F-22 killed his wingman againin the merge...

Can-O-Raid posted:

Apparently not, so the F-35 should be a perfect replacement for it. That thing's gonna make the Osprey look like a Toyota.

Was it the F-35 or the F-22 that kept suffocating its pilots? I forget.

Crescendo posted:

facile jingoism

Booblord Zagats posted:

But how do they feel about Star Trek?

buttplug posted:

Bro you're a GS...That's all you loving guys do all day anyways: fill a chair and keep younger (more qualified) guys from progressing through the system.

And no I'm not trolling, I'm completely serious.

Neo Duckberg posted:

Hexyflexy posted:

A Handley Page Victor. I didn't realise any of these still existed, it's such an odd and beautiful design, with an utterly insanely massive tail considering the size of the rest of the plane. Shame its only job was a one way trip to a fiery inferno, but if you're gonna go, do it in style.

Duzzy Funlop posted:

Speaking of incredible aircraft sounds, I saw a B-52 take off once and it ranked easily in the top 3 loudest loving things I'd ever heard. Then I visited some buddies in Aldermaston, England 2 years back and during a trip to Newbury, we sat outside some cafe having beers when the world ended. Imagine several million wailing dogs being flayed alive before having a nuke go off in your ear canal several times over. Then a gigantic, menacing black triangle blotted out the sun for a few seconds and half a minute later, we were able to talk again.
Turns out there's some huge plant from the Atomic Weapons Establishment on a former RAF base there with an airfield next to it and a Vulcan bomber was going there to do nukey things or something, idk.

I've never thought a man-made machine, let alone an aircraft would be capable of making sounds like that.

Genocide Tendency posted:

I want someone important to give me a good loving explanation as to why the SR71 is retired.

And if the words budget or cost are involved I will hit them in the face with a brick because we still have programs like the F-35 Joint Smoking Fuckery and V-22 Marine Snuffer Osprey.

Two Finger posted:

I don't have anything useful to add except that the SR71 loving owns bones.
I read a book SR71 Revealed by a guy who flew it for years and every single thing about it is badass as all gently caress.

They were gonna call it the YF12 at first or something but that sounds way more gay

Chinatown posted:

The A-12 in San Diego is free to see (infront of the Air & Space Museum) and is dope as hell especially considering it first flew over 45 years ago.