On Sunday 03 December 2006 22:23, Jon S. Berndt wrote: > > Boy that Mig 29 sure is interesting. This weekend on the History > > Channel there has been a lot of US War Planes but this Mig 29 and its > > rear trust controllers and its hover ability is neat. > > Flashy, yes. Neat, yes. In a dogfight, that ability to hover would make it > an easy target. > > Jon
There's been a lot of debate about the usefulness of the super-maneuverability of the latest MiGs & SUs and the first reaction of many people is to make the same point. What is important to remember is that these are low-speed maneuvers and are only going to be used once both the range and speed have closed to the extent where the aircraft are in the classic dog-fighting regime. Also, the point of these demonstrations isn't to show that the ability to hover is useful in itself but that it shows that controlled flight can be achieved from nearly any attitude, that the regime of controlled flight is incredibly wide and that the weapons may be bought to bear from nearly any attitude. Funnily enough, the USAF decided, after the Korean war that their fighter aircraft wouldn't need to operate in the slow & close regime because of the longer range missiles they were developing, and started to produce aircraft that had no cannons. However, after the experiences in Vietnam they were re-instated again and were included in the designs of the F-14/15/16/18/22 and can be fitted to the F-35. LeeE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Flightgear-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-users
