[CaptainGyro]

With the Holidays upon us I would like to share a personal experience with my friends about drinking and driving. As you may know some of us have been known to have brushes with the authorities from time to time on the way home after a "choir practice" with friends.

Well two days ago I was out for an evening with friends and had several cocktails followed by some rather nice red wine. Feeling jolly, I still had the sense to know that I might be slightly over the limit. That's when I did something that I've never done before - I took a cab home.

Sure enough on the way home there was a police road block, but since it was a cab they waved it through. I arrived home safely without incident. This was a real surprise as I had never driven a cab before, I have no idea where I got it, and now that it's in my garage I don't know what to do with it.

 

[Charlie Petty]

Wait for a dark and stormy night. Wipe it down thoroughly and then drive it carefully to the airport and park it in the cab line. I'll give you a ride home…

 

[CaptainGyro]

Roger that.

Hey, I'll do you one better. Since we're at the airport, let's find a jet...

 

[Charlie Petty]

Only if I can have the right seat… but they are awful hard to hide

 

[Diamondback]

And even harder to move safely once back on the ground. LOL

 

[SpecialEd]

:rotflmao:

 

[Diamondback]

Let's put it this way... I used to do a lot of flight-simming in college--hardcore, high-end sims--trying out various concepts that a retired fighter-pilot prof and I had hatched, and... well, knocking down MiG-29s with a suitably modified B-52* wasn't the hard part, that distinction fell to just getting the big beast TO and FROM the runway on the ground. LOL

*Full disclosure: when my prof was DO of the 318th FIS, they were asked to provide F-106s as OPFOR for SAC Bomb Comp, and his team bagged six BUFFs AND a rare RAF Avro Vulcan score--we were working up concepts to augment the BUFF's self-defense capability and also to turn it into a full-spectrum (AAA, SAM and fighter alike) air-defense killer.

 

[TommyGunn]

... we were working up concepts to augment the BUFF's self-defense capability and also to turn it into a full-spectrum (AAA, SAM and fighter alike) air-defense killer.

A big hulking B-52 ... a fighter, an "air defense killer?" Wow.
My father used to marvel at how large the F-4 and the F-15s of Cold War fame were compared to the P-51 Mustangs his generation grew up with.

This puts a whole new perspective on things.:mrgreen:

 

[t-star]

Only if I can have the right seat… but they are awful hard to hide

not really- you just park between 2 LARGER ones- although the tail midships does look a little funny

 

[Diamondback]

A big hulking B-52 ... a fighter, an "air defense killer?" Wow.
My father used to marvel at how large the F-4 and the F-15s of Cold War fame were compared to the P-51 Mustangs his generation grew up with.

This puts a whole new perspective on things.:mrgreen:

The trick is, you don't try to Turn and Burn--you load up long-range weaponry, then detect and hit 'em outside their own weapons range.

It'd be damn expensive to do--if the Pentagon pus-sucking crapsacks are too cheap to pay for MUCH more fuel-efficient engines they darn sure won't pay for anything to improve aircraft and aircrew defense capability, and about the biggest "original" pieces left in our concept (which started with Dale Brown's "Old Dog" and built on it, basically the 'Dog on anabolic steroids) were the crew seats. LOL

 

[WaltGraham]

The trick is, you don't try to Turn and Burn--you load up long-range weaponry, then detect and hit 'em outside their own weapons range.

Yep, the vast majority of the time it's all about who gets the first lick in...

 

[TommyGunn]

The trick is, you don't try to Turn and Burn--you load up long-range weaponry, then detect and hit 'em outside their own weapons range.

It'd be damn expensive to do--if the Pentagon pus-sucking crapsacks are too cheap to pay for MUCH more fuel-efficient engines they darn sure won't pay for anything to improve aircraft and aircrew defense capability, and about the biggest "original" pieces left in our concept (which started with Dale Brown's "Old Dog" and built on it, basically the 'Dog on anabolic steroids) were the crew seats. LOL

I think about the epitome of that concept was the F-14 Tomcat with its Phoenix missile system. It was a pretty good system once the missiles learned how not to shoot down the plane that launched them.

 

[Skeptic49]

The "stand off" concept has been around a long time.
Bell YFM-1 Airacuda - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Magic Invisible F-22 has a problem, it cannot carry enough weapons without losing stealth. There was some analysis done on using the B-1 as a carrier for weapons and controlling them with the F-22, I saw some simulations on the Military Channel.

The Navy uses the E-2 to control Standard SAMs from the fleet to engage long range targets. Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

RIM-66 Standard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Geoff
Who notes the UK figured to replace Air Defense with ground lauched missiles, but the best way to deploy missiles is to put them on a platform that moves around at 450 knots...

 

[stand watie]

Charlie Petty et. al.,

NOT too hard to hide.
(In my wasted youth as a LEO, we ran a scam in New Orleans to catch thieves and one of the thieves offered us an airliner for 200K.)

Turns out that the plane had been stolen 10 months before and Continental Airlines didn't know it was GONE.

yours, satx

 

[Diamondback]

I think about the epitome of that concept was the F-14 Tomcat with its Phoenix missile system. It was a pretty good system once the missiles learned how not to shoot down the plane that launched them.

@TG: Actually, the Tomcat could and DID take Eagles in mock dogfights--one of the pilots got a gun-cam photo of his pipper trained RIGHT on the Eagle driver's helmet.

Some of that may have been lack of a more positive separation system... the Phoenix's other weakness was no terminal-guidance--a half-ton missile going Mach 5 it's just plain STUPID to cheap out and leave that out, because with TG if you get a solid hit, even if the warhead fails to cook off just the kinetic energy of impact alone is enough to ruin the other guy's day.

And don't even wind me up about the Boeing Corporate Welfare commonly known as the Hornet/Stuporhornet... back in those days, with Tomcat 21s we used to knock Stupidbugs down an entire squadron at a time in the sim. Hell, I bagged 2 or 3 once with a freaking A-6 INTRUDER (slightly modified, this was an A-6F prototype with a little extra A-A capability added beyond the baseline F), and STILL out-bombed the Hornet jock simming on the machine next to me--we traded seats and "planes," and the A-6 still won that matchup.

Perhaps I'm a little arrogant, and I'm the first to admit that simulations are an imperfect representation of reality, especially once you start amending empirical data with theoretical like putting a Dual Rail Adapter on the outboard pylons of a seven-station A-6 variant, but... surely if *I* could do it with high-end commercial sims as a freaking COLLEGE STUDENT the wonks and weenies at the Pentagon could have crunched the same data with MUCH better gear. CaptG, let me stipulate for the record I'm not trying to confuse computer simulation with butt-in-seat-at-10K-feet... a pilot's license is on my Bucket List and I've been reading every flight-training manual I can lay hands on, but it may not be possible between my dreadful nearsightedness, a constant requirement of polarized optics due to light-sensitive eyes and an autism-spectrum condition which that sensitivity ties in with.

 

[TommyGunn]

@TG: Actually, the Tomcat could and DID take Eagles in mock dogfights--one of the pilots got a gun-cam photo of his pipper trained RIGHT on the Eagle driver's helmet.

Some of that may have been lack of a more positive separation system... the Phoenix's other weakness was no terminal-guidance--a half-ton missile going Mach 5 it's just plain STUPID to cheap out and leave that out, because with TG if you get a solid hit, even if the warhead fails to cook off just the kinetic energy of impact alone is enough to ruin the other guy's day.

And don't even wind me up about the Boeing Corporate Welfare commonly known as the Hornet/Stuporhornet... back in those days, with Tomcat 21s we used to knock Stupidbugs down an entire squadron at a time in the sim. Hell, I bagged 2 or 3 once with a freaking A-6 INTRUDER (slightly modified, this was an A-6F prototype with a little extra A-A capability added beyond the baseline F), and STILL out-bombed the Hornet jock simming on the machine next to me--we traded seats and "planes," and the A-6 still won that matchup.

Perhaps I'm a little arrogant, and I'm the first to admit that simulations are an imperfect representation of reality, especially once you start amending empirical data with theoretical like putting a Dual Rail Adapter on the outboard pylons of a seven-station A-6 variant, but... surely if *I* could do it with high-end commercial sims as a freaking COLLEGE STUDENT the wonks and weenies at the Pentagon could have crunched the same data with MUCH better gear. CaptG, let me stipulate for the record I'm not trying to confuse computer simulation with butt-in-seat-at-10K-feet... a pilot's license is on my Bucket List and I've been reading every flight-training manual I can lay hands on, but it may not be possible between my dreadful nearsightedness, a constant requirement of polarized optics due to light-sensitive eyes and an autism-spectrum condition which that sensitivity ties in with.

Never said or believed the F-14 Tomcat couldn't dogfight.
(Just ask Harmon Rabb :bolt: ) The Navy's TOPGUN school pulled off wonders after the Vietnam experience taught the service that dogfighting was not an antiquated air to air tactic.
Some F-14s also had a TVSU system ("TeleVision Sighting Unit") which could zoom in on an enemy aircraft and was supposedly very helpful in acquiring targets. I recall reading articles where Eagle pilots who'd gone up against so equiped Tomcats cursing out the TVSU system.

I'm surprised at your derogatory remarks about the Hornet. While I know the "Superhornet" was an answer to the problem that the regular F-18 wasn't all its design specs originally called for I did think it a reasonably decent fighter.
However, just not quite up there with the Tomcat.

 

[WaltGraham]

I burned a lot of hours in my youth with F-15, Strike Eagle, A-10, Tank Killer and Falcon 6.0.

Play tested Harpoon Classic and M1A1 Abrams for Interactive Magic back in the day.

One of the few times I've ever been startled during a video game was during a night attack on a CP.

I transited a low ridge and found myself eyeballing a platoon of T-80's where I didn't expect to encounter any. Range was less than a hundred meters and their turrets were already moving.

I got one of them...

 

[phantom4570]

How did this thread morph from "Take a cab"?

 

[shep854]

How did this thread morph from "Take a cab"?

It's GUN HUB, that's how! And we boys want to talk about toys!

Back to BUFFs...back in the day of cannon and unguided rockets, B-52s and B-36s eek: ) routinely outmaneuvered interceptors at very high altitudes by virtue of those huge wings and gobs of engines!
----
RE Eagles; before the pilots really learned the birds, Marine F-4 jocks who knew their planes' every characteristic and quirk would run the F-15s ragged. That didn't last too long, of course...

 

[Diamondback]

@TG: Not chewing you out, just saying the Tomcat outfights it and the Intruder bombs more efficiently. Legacy Hornet is great as a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none, and the Super would fit well into the same role--the problem is there will always be a need for specialized assets, which the turdsuckers in the E-Ring Puzzle Palace seem to lose sight of at every possible opportunity.

@Phantom: Blame Gyro and CP, posts 3 and 4...