fugly

[unhappycamper]

On a side note, there's one hellova conversation going on about the F-35 and other expensive war toys at dodbuzz.com.

[alfredo]

1. There's going to be fewer piloted planes as Drones become the low cost option.

[unhappycamper]

3. I'm not sure $36 million dollar MQ-9 drones are a 'low cost' option.

Drones are also bumping into the problem of the number of people required to operate and fix them. I read last month that it takes somewhere between 235 ~ 300 people to operate a single Reaper or Predator drone.

[alfredo]

4. Compared to the $150 million F-22. That's not counting the infrastructure and personnel

it takes to keep it in the air. All that and there were questions about its mission.

[unhappycamper]

9. The F-22 is now listed at $418 million dollars - Time magazine had an article about the cost of

expensive systems.

And our F-22 fleet has been grounded since last May. All 186 of them.

[unhappycamper]

11. Here's a link to the time.com article:

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1912203_1913322,00.html


Like wikipedia, the costs for the F-35 and other weapons systems are still low.

[alfredo]

12. Can you say "white elephant"?

[WingDinger]

2. Im fairly certain, that bulge was an early attempt at hypercruise.

That is: going and staying supersonic, without the wasteful afterburner.

[alfredo]

5. Is that an STOL?

[WingDinger]

6. Actually the opposite. For increased torque, you would narrow the outcone etc.

That is designed to allow more air in, for high speeds.

[alfredo]

8. I was looking at the belly. It appears there are some seams that can be doors.

Here's another image of the plane.

[bvar22]

7. Even uglier is the price tag,

[font size=3]”Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."
---President Dwight Eisenhower

[/font]

The performance numbers are good,
but the performance limitation is now (and has been for a while) the human in the pilot's seat.

Who and What is this thing supposed to fight?
The High Performance Aircraft Arms Race had been over for a while.

[pipoman]

10. Off the subject..

was that pic taken at Flying Leatherneck Museum on MIRAMAR?