Posted on 05/31/2004 5:34:13 PM PDT by VaBthang4
I'm not trying to make you mad. Sometimes my presentation of facts leaves much to be desired. I was trying to say that the F-22 can't do what Rutan's civilian SpaceShipOne can do in two specific areas. It can't go as high as Rutan (sub-orbital 212,000 feet already this year) and it can't go as fast (Mach 6).
Anyone?
I'm not knockin the plane, gentlemen.
Anyway, I gotta go. Carry on.
Allow your humble infantry brother to add his admittedly uneducated and sure-to-be-ridiculed comment... GET MORE WARTHOGS!
Okay, okay, somebody had to say it!
Did I already mention my opinion was both uneducated and sure to be ridiculed? :)
"What has happened is that everyone in the world now realizes that something more advanced than the F-18 isn't needed. The F-22 is overkill for replacing the F-15, F-16, and eventually the F-18 (and the F-35 isn't even worth talking about)."
There is so much of you post that begs to be commented on. I will say that yo probably got something right. In this context, "the F-35 isn't worth talking about". Beyond that one point, you're lost. Why is it that only you thinks that the Russians, Chinese, Indians, and the French is just rolling over and peeing on themselves at the mere thought about facing US air power. We are the best, clearly, but no one is just giving up. And only you thinks that the battle is going into space by the end of the month.
C'mon. Look at the life of any modern weapon system. You build it and then fit it to whatever roll it needs to fit as the budget demands. The F-117 is a nice exception, but that's about it. And as nice as the F-18 is, or the F-15, F-16 or even the F-14 are, they are almost out-dated by the modern Russian airframes. Let's leap ahead in technology again...as is the American birthright, and make them all play catch up for a few decades to come. We need to build the F-22. We owe it to our pilots to give them the best the world can conceive of. Right now, that honor is going to the Typhoon II. And that fact that the french have better tech than we do should not sit well with anyone.
Space? Sure, someday. We'll all be in Rutan's spaceforce, oK? But let's live in the moment, and live in the next a few decades to come and buy the F-22. (I wish is would have been the F-23, as I might still have the dream job I loved, but that's life.)
No ridicule from this former 0331.
A-10s stacked to heaven is my kinda concept.
.
Praise GOD that...
President BUSH has promised...
during a BUSH Presidency,
as our own best self-protection...
against future Terrorist Attacks here at home...
FREEDOM's Return to:
Communist Vietnam
Communist North Korea
Communist Cuba
..as well as...
FREEDOM's Arrival to:
The entire Middle East..!!!
For this is THE Issue of Election Year 2004.
.."Will Americans vote for their own self-protection or their own self-destruction in Time of War..?"
BUSH stands ready to act prudently on our behalf.
Will we let him or deny him..?
.
OMG... I think I have to change my shorts. Be right back.
>>You must work for Boeing.
He might, but that wouldn't matter much since both F-22 and F-35 are Lockheed Martin aircraft.
The more you buy, the less the unit cost. Its sounds expensive because you're dividing the cost of 23 years worth of R&D over 250 aircraft. To make it worthwhile, you need to buy a lot more. Frankly, its just plain dumb to develop only buy a handful of aircraft when you have a 25+ year acquisition cycle.
BTW--I came into the AF in 1985. At that time, they were doing dem val on the FA-22 (then it was called the Advanced Tactical Fighter). I will likely retire next year and they STILL haven't fielded the plane--think about that.
Why?
Airframes don't change the human body. Pilots can only take so many G's.
What do you think that the Russians did to their airframes to give them such an advantage?
Specifically?
Frankly, they have no advantage. They aren't more advanced, and they don't merit spending $26 Billion on 23 F-22's.
Also, you do realize that Rutan has *already* gone sub-orbital this year, yes?!
That's a civilian doing what the F-22 can't, by the way.
Tell me again, specifically, why we should pay to do less than what civilians can manage?
>>Other planes are already obsolete. What can stand up to the F-15, F-16, F-14, and F-117...much less to the F-18?
No current plane can, one on one, but if we have to fight China over Taiwan, within a few hundred miles of their shores, it won't be one on one. Each F-22 can shoot down two Sukhois at least, none of our other planes can.
I meant that he's incredibly against the planes, which makes me wonder if he works/worked for the company that lost out to them.
No problem.
>>GET MORE WARTHOGS!<<
Here, here!
>>But the F-22 can't do what Rutan's civilian SpaceShipOne can do. It can't go as high as Rutan and it can't go as fast. Rutan's machine carries up to 3 people and costs only $10 million. The F-22 can't touch that, even though we're spending more than a Billion Dollars per Raptor right now.
What are you smoking? The F-22 can't make toast either. In fact, to my knowledge, no current US fighter aircraft can, so I guess we might as well just give up on them. SpaceShipOne is designed for a completely different purpose than a fighter aircraft, it has no attack or defense capabilities of any kind, nor could they easily be added.
Coolbeans, thanks.
BTW: Maximum Ceiling for the F117? Is that knowable outside of a security clearance?
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