[extropy-chat] planes

Mike Lorrey mlorrey at yahoo.com
Tue Dec 9 16:07:10 UTC 2003


--- Spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> > 
> > What ever happened to the F12?
> 
> Do you mean the Flying Dorito?  Cancelled by the Bottom Up review.
> The A12 Avenger II which was suppose to replace the A6, 
> was ultimately deemed as too expensive and was cut by then SecDef 
> Dick Cheney becoming the largest defense contract cancellation 
> in the history of the Department of Defense. 
> 
> http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/a-12.htm
> 

Nah, I meant the F-12, which was listed for years in Aviation Leak's
annual military inventory as being a Mach 2 VTOL fighter in
development.

The Flying Dorito, known in one part of Boston as the Calzone of Doom
and in another part as the Scone That Never Was (depending on your
ethnicity), was a fun plane to not work on. We worked really hard not
developing that plane, I'll tell ya, but I can't tell you what I did or
what contractor I worked for, or I'll have to give you the Nacho
Sleeper.

> 
> > That F22 can only do vectored thrust. It
> > can't take off vertically.
> 
> It can take of vertically, if you don't have ordinance
> or much fuel aboard.  {8-]
> 

Hey, that is an F-35. You're one engine short of an F-22...

> 
> > Besides, it was nowhere near as beautiful as
> > the F-23 (ducking....)
> 
> Surely Mike means NOT!  As soon as we saw the mockup
> of the x35, we knew we were going to win.  I bought a
> bunch of LM stock that day.  I lost most of my money,
> but thats a different story.  We figured no self-respecting
> AF officer would fly such a thing as the x35, nor any
> Naval Aviator would want to fly "Monica."
> 
> http://www.ebtx.com/oats/x32vsx35.htm

Of COURSE the Lockheed plane is scarier lookin than the Boeing lawn
dart, it's the freakin' Hunchback of San Jose. The Boeing plane looks
just right for the leading part in Of Mice and Men, "I'm gonna pet him
and hug him and name him George...." Odd, but in a giggle funny way....

However, that ISN'T the plane contest I'm talkin bout, you're pullin
one a them fancy Kaliforny bait and switch scams on me. The F-23 is
indeed a far more attractive aircraft than the F-22.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-23.htm

> 
> Of course, had the services chosen the x-35, then at least
> the army would no longer suffer the ignominy of having
> the ugliest plane, the A-10 Warthog.
> 
> http://members.aol.com/cbmjets/homepage/A10.html

Ugliness is an asset on the battlefield. Do you want enemy troops to
have wet dreams about your aircraft, or do you want them to have the
fear of death and destruction?

> 
> In any case, we are seeing perhaps the end of the line
> for fighter planes.  Humanity doesn't need them anymore.
> I don't suspect they will be much use in our last remaining
> great conflict: the massive culture war the west faces against
> the Taliban, the Al Qaida and their ilk.
> 

I suspect that the need for fighter planes will never end. Whatever is
the high terrain in warfare, that is where the knights will congregate.

=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
"Fascists are objectively pro-pacifist..."
                                       - Mike Lorrey
Do not label me, I am an ism of one...
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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