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Originally posted by just_a_pilot
Pugachev's cobra............LMAO yeah ok. The F-16 ( GENERAL DYNAMICS not Lockheed ). CG is so off it can't fly without computers. Fun manuever to watch. The F-16 can do it all day long. The Fighting Falcon can SUSTAIN a 9 G turn. Cobra LOL..... Remember the Mig29 was the response to the F-16 . No usefull reason to use this manuever *cobra* other than to thrill the crowd. The SU-37 can do a flip. So what?? It would get shot down by a Cessna Birddog before it finishes. Watch Sean Tucker do his stuff. You will see what a plane can do. Every Air Force can point out its hero pilots. The best of the best. The Sierra Hotel jock of the day. I do believe that the era of the close dog fight has come close to an end. BVR. Shoot first ask later. Shoot em before they even know you are there. BUT, Fighter Pilots to this day INSIST on a gun. Missile or no missile. Its the mentality it takes to do that job. I have a lot of dead friends, especially from the early F-16. Call it the Great Santini syndrom. Who's the best pilot ya ever saw??? Yer lookin at him.
The Space Shuttle...........Huge mistake NOW. Time to get rid of it. Rutan proved it can be done cheaply. The wing made it possible. Works like a shuttle cock in badmitton. Pure Genious. On May 13 2004 Space Ship One flew at Mach Mach 2.5 to 64.3 km. And you don't think an SR-71 can do Mach 4????? OMG FORGIVE ME, I JUST ABOUT PEED MY PANTS FROM LAUGHING.
The United States won the cold war with the B-2 bomber. End of story. It bankrupted the U.S.S.R. as they could no longer keep up the spending pace. It was litterally a dollar for ruble war. The Berlin Wall fell and it was over.
They WERE brilliant designers. Great a copying things. They manufactured their own B-29's from captured planes and designed an F-4 from a Revell model kit. We stole from them and they stole from us. They stole nuke design and we stole swing wing. Great trade huh???
Originally posted by Frosty
Mig-25? What's all this talk about Mig-25's? Mig-25 vs F-15, who do you take to win? Anyone have the exact number of Mig-25's being shot down? 0 F-15's have been shot down if I remember correctly.
Originally posted by Frosty
Mig-25? What's all this talk about Mig-25's? Mig-25 vs F-15, who do you take to win? Anyone have the exact number of Mig-25's being shot down? 0 F-15's have been shot down if I remember correctly.
Originally posted by devilwasp
Originally posted by Frosty
Mig-25? What's all this talk about Mig-25's? Mig-25 vs F-15, who do you take to win? Anyone have the exact number of Mig-25's being shot down? 0 F-15's have been shot down if I remember correctly.
yeah BUUUT has it been in A2A combat with a mig which is of same tech level and haveing a pilot of same training level?
Originally posted by Frosty
...Anyone have the exact number of Mig-25's being shot down?
Originally posted by Teh_Gerbil
The F-15 has also been rumoured to be based on a MiG-25 the Americans got, but before you dismiss this as silly because "The Americans don't steal, the Russian do" that really isnt true, the Americans have stole alot of tech, but I doubt this is one of those things. Different roles of the plains and all.
Originally posted by Frosty
Originally posted by Teh_Gerbil
The F-15 has also been rumoured to be based on a MiG-25 the Americans got, but before you dismiss this as silly because "The Americans don't steal, the Russian do" that really isnt true, the Americans have stole alot of tech, but I doubt this is one of those things. Different roles of the plains and all.
I believe the F-15 was introduced well before the Mig was stolen not by the US but by a syrian or Iraqi in 76.
Originally posted by just_a_pilot
... When I flew the MiG-25, its engines had a total lifetime of 250 hours.
65 x MiG-29 single-seat and 5 x dual-seat trainers with 48 x spare engines (sparing factor of 0.7/aircraft) were delivered between 1986 and 1990 at a total program cost of approximately $600 million that included initial spares and support. These aircraft were the first MiG-29's to ever leave the Soviet Union and were not up to the weapons system standard of those that went later to the Warsaw Pact allies. The aircraft were sent disassembled by sea, and re-assembled, and test flown in India. By 1990 three squadrons were operational. Two Flight Data Ground Processing Units were included to help pilots debrief their utilization of flight controls and systems. Expectations were that single-seat aircraft would fly 15 hours per month (180 hrs/yr) and dual-seat aircraft 20 hours per month (240 hrs/yr).
There were extensive problems encountered in operational and maintenance due to the large number of pre-mature failures of engines, components, and systems. Of the total of 189 engines in service, 139 engines (74%) failed pre-maturely and had been withdraw from service by July 1992, thus effectively shutting down operations. 62 of these engines had not even accomplished 50% of their 300 hours first overhaul point. Thus the desired serviceability showed a steadily decreasing trend.
Since the Indian Air Force received early model Fulcrum A's, some just after the 200th production article, there were quality control deficiencies that resulted in numerous pieces of FOD (foreign object damage) and tools being left behind after final construction inside of the aircraft. Remember that the Fulcrum skeleton is made first and then the skin is riveted over top, in the way aircraft were made in the fifties and sixties in the West. Nuts, bolts, tools, etc. all made their way to the engine bays and inlet ducts and when they were loosened up after accelerations they damaged engines and equipment.
On top of all this, it was discovered that the unique FOD doors on the MiG-29's inlets were not stopping material from getting into the engine ducts. Since the doors retracted "up" into the inlet, debris that was kicked up by the nose wheel lodged on or at the bottom of the door seal and then was ingested into the engine when the door opened during the nose gear lifted off the ground during takeoff.
The Indian Air Force procurement contract was concluded in September 1986, and the first engine was expected to go into overhaul in 1989. However, four engines prematurely came up for overhaul and no repair facility had been prepared. As time went on, 115 of the 122 engines (94%) prematurely failed and had to be re-cycled through engine depots in Russia at great cost. Backlogs were created and only 79 (65%) engines returned on schedule. Even when a regional Indian repair facility was completed in August 1994, the high failure rates continued and the majority of broken engines had to be sent back to Russian depots. Self-sufficiency was achieved in 1994, only after the operations tempo was significantly reduced on a permanent basis. In the process of refurbishing failed engines, the total technical life of most of the engine fleet was effectively reduced from 800 hours / 8 years to 400 hours / 4 years, at a minimum.
Originally posted by Hawker
I had the pleasure to see it fly in the mid-seventies. You could build that airframe today and pack a "glass cockpit" in it and it would still give our enemies fits.